Simulated Intelligence:
Machines Don’t Think—Brains Don’t Compute
A Talk by Terence W. Deacon
Prof. Terrence W. Deacon University of California, Berkeley, USA Terrence W. Deacon has held faculty positions at Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, Boston University, and the University of California, Berkeley, where he is Distinguished Professor emeritus of Anthropology and Cognitive and Brain Sciences. His laboratory research has focused on comparative and developmental neuroanatomy to study the mechanisms that determine brain structure and evolution. He has published over 100 scientific articles and two books: The Symbolic Species: The Coevolution of Language and the Brain (1997) and Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter (2011). He is currently working on a new book tentatively titled Falling Up: How Inverse Darwinism Catalyzes Evolution.
"Simulated Intelligence: Machines Don’t Think—Brains Don’t Compute" “Artificial Intelligence” is actually Simulated Intelligence. Computer simulations of air flow over an airplane wing can produce incredibly precise predictions of the real-world consequences of different wing designs. Yet there is no air, no wing, no friction, no pressure, etc., intrinsic to the simulation. Similarly, for generative LLMs; there is no meaning, no significance, no purpose intrinsic to these simulations. We create simulations because they are usually better at making appropriate predictions than are persons. But there is no flight and no thought taking place in these respective simulations. Intelligence involves simulation, but indirectly, via simulating the physicality of simulating.
"Simulated Intelligence: Machines Don’t Think—Brains Don’t Compute" “Artificial Intelligence” is actually Simulated Intelligence. Computer simulations of air flow over an airplane wing can produce incredibly precise predictions of the real-world consequences of different wing designs. Yet there is no air, no wing, no friction, no pressure, etc., intrinsic to the simulation. Similarly, for generative LLMs; there is no meaning, no significance, no purpose intrinsic to these simulations. We create simulations because they are usually better at making appropriate predictions than are persons. But there is no flight and no thought taking place in these respective simulations. Intelligence involves simulation, but indirectly, via simulating the physicality of simulating.