Gamers succeed where scientists fail: Molecular structure of retrovirus enzyme solved, doors open to new AIDS drug design
.... as in: crowdsourcing, even where the result is quite sophisticated, works. Of course, one needs experts to determine the value of the results, but the point of crowdsourcing is precisely that it has little to do with the content (with what the information does), only the form, how it works and works with other like elements.
A brilliant novel that explores this, in politics, computer technology, and neurolinguistics, is Dreams of Glass, alas the only novel published by the author. The heroine solves fiendishly difficult problems purely on the basis of form; content is not just beside the point, but hostile to the solution: makes for distractions. Intelligence, artificial or not, is all about form, in this vision. The thing is, that's probably so, but the content of form is infinite for the human mind (or as close to infinite as I can gather), meaning it generates formal categories ad hoc, depending on the intelligence required.
No comments:
Post a Comment