Will Artificial Intelligent systems be able to learn and distinguish between different emotions experienced by humans?

This question has troubled engineers, psychologists and mathematicians for ages and I hope that it will not continue to haunt their successors for generations to come.

Yet, despite this old-age knowledge gap in science, theoretical physicists find time to talk about the singularity and conclude hypothetical results – not concrete, raw evidence. While physicists meet at endless forums and conferences, the technological industry is advancing in the singularity race. It is not about which industry better, but the field that that has the most positive impact on society.

But how much of this concept of technological singularity is actually possible?

According to William Dembski (author of Intelligent Design), he argues that artificial intelligence cannot fully emulate human intelligence. Artificial intelligence is just complex computations...but what is human intelligence (is it computations or more than that)? In addition to this, experienced artificial intelligence scientists know that a computer cannot make a decision with incomplete information or a situation that requires it to choose the right frame of reference to solve a problem.

You confused? Not yet. Good.

William Dembski presents this scenario in support of his argument: A man goes into a bar and says,”I ‘d like a glass of water.” The bartender pulls out a gun and shouts,”Get out of here!” The man says “thank you” and leaves.(a)

This scenario could be explained this way: The man had hiccups that is why he asked for a glass of water. The bartender understood the problem and decides to frighten him with a gun causing the man’s hiccups to stop. Because the cure worked (no more hiccups), the man says thank you and leaves.(a)

Humans will understand this type of frame of reference of this situation, but a computer cannot make sense of it. Imagine the countless number of reference frames that might have the same effect.(a)

If you did not get it, here’s another example of frame of reference: The man is very thirsty that is why he needs a glass of water. The bartender is reminded of a bad thing that the thirsty man did. The bartender decides to chase him out of his bar by pulling out a gun. The thirsty man behaves in a sarcastic manner and says thank you and leaves the bar. A human being can understand this scenario, but a computer will not understand it.

Why would it not make sense to a computer? There are a lot of unknown factors, emotions involved and character differences exist in people. However, there are some AI systems that use “common sense ” to come to conclusions but computer scientists cannot fully explain this logic.

And in addition to this, since artificial intelligence is about computations – here is a challenge for mathematicians, psychologists and engineers: write an algorithm (function) to determine how someone is feeling (emotion) at a specific point in time.

Apart from William Dembski’s arguments, Raymond Kurzweil believes that humans will be able to merge human intelligence with non-biological intelligence – resulting in enhanced intelligence operation on the Internet and at the same time being able to achieve brain-to-brain communication through the Internet(b). Do you think it is possible?

I do not know but hopefully, by the end of this scientific research year, I will have formulated a standpoint.

Acknowledgements: (a),(b) Examples taken from Dr. David Passig,"Singularity - The accelerating pace of  change", Bar-llan University Isreal,'</www.passig.com/>', (a)-31,32 and (b)-29