Selim
remembered their discussions on intelligence in their friend groups at
different stages of his life. Computers were not common in the periods Selman
was with them, and Selman had no special interest in new computing tools. He
was not familiar with computers and software structures. Selim was frequently
reading some articles he could find from the libraries and anywhere he could
reach. He therefore had more information on the subject than Selman had. Selman
was consulting Selim for some of the problems e had in his mind. He was not
able to understand how computers could think. Selim was objecting immediately.
"No, brother, no! They don't think and they don't understand. They just do
whatever they are programmed to do." He was showing some articles he had
read, but Selman was always too busy to read other materials. He had to read
his reference books and had to write critical essays first to be discussed in
their communication groups, and then to be published by some means to reach
other people. The discussions in Selim's friend groups were much more
technical. In his primary school years, computers were far and magical stories.
He and his friends were telling each other tales on the magic of computers. In
later periods, he had friends who were experts of computational sciences either
professionally or because of their own interests. Selim was also very curious.
He was seeking and finding valuable information on topics which he considered
to be important. This was not a coincidence. Ahmet Bey was also a knowledge
hunter continuously reading the encyclopedias he had bought in times when they
were very expensive. Ayten Hanım's sources were different but they were also
very valuable. She was telling the stories she had witnessed during her life,
and other stories she had heard from her friends she was meeting regularly.
Selim had learned what were being lived in various parts of the country and in
the world. The son of one of those friends, and the daughter of another one had
moved to other countries to perform advanced studies and research on computers.
Selim was not only learning and understanding their stories, but he was hearing
some critical keywords told by the careful female observers.
The source
of the discussions being made in Selim's mind was probably the sum of all the
information he had received during his past life and experience, but
specifically the comments of his close friends working in technical and
scientific areas. Metin and Can were both prominent experts on electronic communication
technologies, and Selim had learned much from them. Talking to experts was
different. It was not like reading an article they had written. It was entering
their worlds. It was seeing the terms and definitions, facts and relations,
symbols and results, pictures and sounds exactly as they see them. Knowing
Metin and Can, Selim had understood the meaning and reasons of the conclict
resulting with a stark contrast occurred between them: "Anolog or
digital?" Can was confident with the power and success of digital
technologies. Metin was also understanding their value and using them
successfully in his works and life, but he was not sure they were the best
means for living good lives, and for having better futures. There were limits
in analog worlds based on the characteristics of matter. However, digital
worlds were almost limitless since they were comparatively energy free.
Although Selim had heard the concepts before, he had not really understood them
until he witnessed a discussion between Metin and Can.
The
extraordinary discussion of intelligence quotient of artificial intelligence
had started unexpectedly, but it had left deep traces in Selim's mind on the
meaning and future of intelligence.
"You
know my son," said Can to Metin. "I have the highest IQ among us. So
I am the most clever man in this world. This is true, since we are the magnificent
three of the world. I don't think there can be anyone in the world with an
higher IQ than us. So I am the most clever man in the world, since I have the
highest IQ among us."
It was
obviously a joke but he was not smiling. Metin was also serious.
Selim
stopped the smile starting to appear with the changes in his lips.
"Forget
my IQ," he said. "I am the real idiot of the world. You can discuss
as you wish. I will just listen to and remember later what you had told to keep
the records of the history."
"OK,"
said Can. "It is also an important job. I believe you will be able to
express my brightness in the best way."
"Bright
may not be as luminous as expected," murmured Metin with a soft tone
lacking any hint of objection.
"Humankind
is about to be over," Can continued. "This is a fact, everybody knows
this, but nobody expresses it seriously. Humans ate everything in the kitchen
of Mother Nature. They will starve to death in the first fluctuation."
"So
now you understand the importance of keeping the balance of nature," said Metin. He was surprised with Can's "kitchen of Mother Nature".
"I
didn't know you had become an environmentalist," Can replied.
"I am
not an environmentalist or anyist, I am only a scientist," Metin
commented. "I believe being a scientist is the only survivable choice for
a human who can use his brain and think."
Selim
wondered what the response of Can would be. Can was probably more intelligent,
skillful and successful than most of the scientists in the world, but he was
not a scientist. This was not acceptable for him. He was believing that he
could gain every important title in the world, without any exception. Can had
considered choosing academic study alternative to become one of the top
researchers in the best advanced research organization, but he had made his
decision for having more direct influence on others. Although he had chosen
power, he had always had a doubt about his decision. Power was money, and money
was freedom in the era they were living. However, buying was not enough for
owning, owning was not sufficient for using, and using was not providing
well-balanced and happy lives. Can was trying not to think about his personal
life and his past. His memories were giving unbearable pains making life too
difficult to continue. His only choice was going after and living through the ultra-speed
continuous rush highways.
Can
surprised Selim by not replying to Metin's comment. He had probably forgotten
his past desires for being an important scientist of his time. He continued to
tell his arguments.
"I
don't like being lost in the details. I don't care about the past and
inventions made so far. What I see is this, in the digital age we now have no
limits. We can live as fast as we can. We can live everything at maximum level.
Digital life is infinite. We can see, hear, read, understand, compute, and know
everything."
"Can
we know ourselves?" asked Metin softly.
"Yes,
why not? We have all sorts of equipment to monitor and analyze human functions.
We have advanced imaging and recording technologies. The puzzles of the brain
and genes are about to be solved completely. We are redefining the universe and
life."
Metin did
not reply. Can waited for a reply and comment. Metin was silent. Can looked at
Selim expecting a response but he just shook his head reminding he had chosen
to be out of the game. Metin talked again after quite a long time.
"I
don't like listening to digital music," he said, and continued after
pausing a while. "Digital music is not real, it is only a calculation and
estimation of a music recorded and transformed at a certain place and time.
Selim felt
the storm coming. It would not be possible to stop it after once started. Can's
defense initiated the IQ game.
"If
you are not able to hear and understand digital music, you are not real. Do you
want to return past ages with magnetic tapes, records, compact discs, and
sheets? Do you want to be limited with analog data and matter? We are in an
incredible transition age. We will soon get rid of even other limiting factors
of matter. We will reach the quantum universe where we will be able to see,
hear, record, and read continuously."
"Do
you think it will also be possible to smell, taste and touch continuously?
Seeing and hearing are important, but they are not sufficient for living. I
still love listening to a song directly being played and sang in a room. No
digital reproduction can achieve providing that feeling."
"My
son, you are like the first humans who were unable to see anything other than
their stone tools. Don't be an idiot."
"I am
not an idiot. You know that my IQ is higher than yours."
"I
only laugh at that. Who said that, when, and after which kind of a test? How
can your IQ be higher than mine with only a simple understanding of the analog
world? You are a novice in the digital world. The facts of our contemporary
lives and sciences are like magic for you."
It was not
a meaningful discussion and probably both of them was aware of this fact.
However, Selim was feeling that the main discussion was not between their
minds, but between the scientific developments and applied technologies they
were believing and defending. Their routes of thinking had been created with
their preferences and lives they had lived. It could be possible to be
objective when comparing the knowledge reflections in different minds, but
creating rules for identifying the methods of evaluation and conclusion was not
so easy. It was requiring a complete analysis of the brain system which seemed
not easier than understanding the physical facts behind quantum theories and
the external universes in far proximities of the known universes.
"What
is IQ?" asked Selim, expecting the argument to continue in a softer way.
Both Can and Metin did not seem to be much interested, but Can answered.
"You
know," said Can in a tone declaring that he knows everything and he is
authorized to make all definitions. "In the information age with
communication at light speed, nothing will remain the same as before. In the
past, IQ was a number measuring a position between superiority and inferiority,
to distinguish special talents from ordinary masses. It was mainly a virtual
measurement of a capacity to see the relations between symbols. Specifically,
it was understood as a power to understand the magic hidden in shapes, letters,
numbers, images and sounds. Intelligence quotients would not be measured if
they were equal for every member of the universe, but they are not equal. I
don't know yet if there are other species measuring their talents, but humans
had always liked representing their values with numbers. They were using
intelligence algorithms operating with simple logical methods based on the
capacities of verbal and mathematical processors of the individuals. It was
later considered in a more complex way, defining alternative quotients for
emotional, social, visual, audial, esthetic, creative, and many other types of
approaches. However, I don't think they are all meaningful. Most of them can be
defined as a function of intelligence capacities of processing letters and numbers.
They all give a percentage to show the capacity for processing a certain type
of input."
"You
know nothing," objected Metin with a soft voice. "Life and mind are
far more complex than you can imagine. You can't define anything as a perfect
function of other parameters. They are all approximations. That's the main
problem of the digital world. Nothing is white or black in real world, but
digital description and simple logic see everything as blacks and whites, zeros
and ones. Can everything be black or white? This is nonsense. They tried to
include grays in their weak logic to better simulate the real world, but it was
also useless. It was only a trick trying the hide the problems of their system.
They used ones and zeros to define gray, and called it as a big invention. Can
it be sufficient to change only the validity of the binary system? Whatever you
do and define, there is a single universe with its light and darkness at a
specific time. All grays are temporary. Only black or white, light or darkness
is permanent and eternal."
Selim
considered interfering the discussion with a small comment but he gave up. It
was their world and their discussion. Selim was feeling himself like a visitor
coming from another universe. He had forgotten what he had thought when Can
started talking again.
"These
are all meaningless, you can't change the direction of the history backwards.
The first stone and wheel, the first letter and gunpowder, the first
electricity observed and the last fusion reaction to occur are not much
different. They are all results of complex functions coming from the dynamics
of the space and time, within the validity of our universe. Whatever you tell,
however we talk, the new era of living at light speed already started. Living
interactively together with new species based on artificial intelligence will
soon be the only form of life. Nature, world, space, time, life, death,
universe, infinity, eternity, and many other parameters yet not known will be
redefined and defined. Nothing was the same after the fire. Nothing will be the
same after the transition for living at light speed is completed."
The
discussion was too theoretical for Selim. He wanted to change the subject
asking a sequence of questions which had appeared in his mind during the argument
of Can and Metin.
"Is
there a method for measuring intelligence quotient of artificial intelligence?
Are there continuous performance measurements being made to trace the current
capacities of natural and artificial intelligences? Is there sufficient people
in the world who are curious about such discussions and practices being ready
to pay the costs of all those?"
"We
have to study on IQ of AI," said Metin.
Can smiled
happily, as if he had gained his life back.
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