Computers are excellent at manipulating data.
They are reasonable at processing and displaying information, depending on format. Number are good. Text is ok. Sound and images are harder. Scent and touch are primitive.
Computers are limited at applying deduction and induction to a web of knowledge to produce more knowledge, but do it very well if the terms and limits are strictly defined such as when playing games like chess. The is the process anologous to thinking and intelligence.
Getting a computer to display anything resembling common sense is very difficult. We don't know how to get them to asorb, interpret and learn from experience in a flexible manner. Expert systems are generally limited in domain and the type of new thing they can learn.
Teaching a computer to learn to be wise (as opposed to regurgitating someone else's wisdom), especially in the sense of understanding and thinking about their own purpose in life, is something that not much work has been done on.
There's a lot of different opinions about whether a human equivalent computer based intelligence is possible, and what would happen if one were created. One theory says that a smart computer could design a next generation computer even smarter than itself and because the 'design - build - design' cycle in computing can be very short, such computers would very quickly grow beyond human control unless prevented. Debate goes on about whether humans could successfully restrict such a computer to an 'AI Jail' and if they could determine whether a computer that is smarter than them if lying or if it really is friendly towards them.
However, a core idea in that area is that intelligence helps improve intelligence. An intelligent being (whether human or computer) is more likely to be able to work out how to improve their own intelligence (or that of the next generation) than a less intelligent being would be.
My question is: Does the same apply to wisdom?
Do you think that a wise person is likely to be better at helping others gain wisdom than a fool? Or is the ability to aid others gain wisdom more controlled by some other factor (such as intelligence or ability at teaching) once a certain threshhold of wisdom is passed?
To put it another way; given a hypothetical computer being with a measure of both artifical intelligence and artificial wisdom, do you think such a being would be able to improve the wisdom of its next generation as much as it improved its intelligence, or would the intelligence outstrip the ability to control what is done with the power?
Douglas
[]
[]