Is the Stoplight a Dumb Machine?

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

In his new book, The Secret Life of Machines, David Wheeler argues that machines must be able to act autonomously from individuals and intelligently. He says the thermostat is a good example because it has a set goal and senses the room's temperature but can't decide if it needs to be cool or not. "I want to argue that nature invented this homeostasis in the body is the same thing"

Human beings have developed wondrous capacities to take in information about the world, mull it over, think about a suite of future implications, and decide on a course of action based on those deliberations. These abilities developed over evolutionary history for a variety of reasons and under a number of different pressures. But one crucially important aspect of their development is their social function. According to Michael Tomasello, we developed agency and cognition and even morality in order to better communicate and cooperate with our fellow humans.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Michael Tomasello received a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Georgia. He is currently the James Bonk Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience and Director of the Developmental Psychology Program at Duke University. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among his awards are the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association, the Wiley Prize in Psychology, and the Heineken Prize for Cognitive Science. His newest book is The Evolution of Agency: Behavioral Organization from Lizards to Humans.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.