Watson would be an actual AI if he were hooked up to a neural net of something like a sea slug, (which I remember reading had 200 neurons or so, easily emulated). Plug this in so that he experiences pleasure when he gets an answer right and pain when he gets an answer wrong and off he will go, a real honest to god AI.
I wondered what it would be like inside a mind of this sort, tried to visualize it. Here's what I saw: Everything is in its assigned drawer in there. Think of any fact and it is instantly there, exactly as requested, nothing more, nothing less. There would never be a moment when you half remember something, a moment when you've got a picture forming in your mind, but not clear enough to make out what you were trying to remember. Also, most likely never a picture appearing in your mind that suggests something you hadn't thought of. Metaphors would probably seem nonsensical to this mind. They make sense to us partly because our minds are filled with fragmentary pictures which immediately jump to other fragmentary pictures... while any picture which appeared in this mind would be exactly the image which it had intended to retrieve. It would make none of the arbitrary connections which are built into the very structure of our memories. Buddhists will be happy to know that Watson will still be bound to the wheel of suffering, however. I don't think any sort of self-directed mind can exist without pleasure and pain.
I wondered what it would be like inside a mind of this sort, tried to visualize it. Here's what I saw: Everything is in its assigned drawer in there. Think of any fact and it is instantly there, exactly as requested, nothing more, nothing less. There would never be a moment when you half remember something, a moment when you've got a picture forming in your mind, but not clear enough to make out what you were trying to remember. Also, most likely never a picture appearing in your mind that suggests something you hadn't thought of. Metaphors would probably seem nonsensical to this mind. They make sense to us partly because our minds are filled with fragmentary pictures which immediately jump to other fragmentary pictures... while any picture which appeared in this mind would be exactly the image which it had intended to retrieve. It would make none of the arbitrary connections which are built into the very structure of our memories. Buddhists will be happy to know that Watson will still be bound to the wheel of suffering, however. I don't think any sort of self-directed mind can exist without pleasure and pain.
