Combining Human Cognition With Computer Intelligence May Solve World’s Problems

Creating the perfect Artificial Intelligence may be the current goal of major companies and research teams, but scientists from the Human Computation Institute and Cornell University think otherwise. Their conclusion is that combining human cognition with computer intelligence may solve world’s problems in a much more effective manner.

By using crowdsourcing, a previously lengthy task cold be narrowed down to just a couple of years. The idea behind using people as veritable computation machines that help the main AI program in deciding the most effective method of resolving a task has been tackled for a couple of years up to this point.

For instance, in the medical side of technology, Alzheimer diagnostics have improved exponentially, creating detection processes that would otherwise take decades to discover. This stems from the fact that us humans have an increased efficiency when it comes to coming up with abstract ideas and concepts, basically thinking outside the box, when on the other hand, computers can analyze data at a much faster rate than us.

By combining these two elements, problems like deciding if the long term effects of funds given preceding a natural disaster could lead to an increase in the system’s corruption get more easily solved. Climate change and global warming are also being discussed upon by using this human computation technique because of its debatable effects on the environment.

Simply put, this type of problem solving can be based on the idea that two heads are better than one. By having a plethora of options coming from a large number of people that get sifted through one main computer program, the problem’s solution can now take into account more than one point of view in regards to both its short term and long term effects.

This can be described as a type of hive mind that has already been present on social media networks in the form of popular videos, trends and internet memes. What is considered by the majority to be funny or interesting gets distributed, while the other sides get dismissed. Without having every individual coming up with a different idea, basically giving out a type of order so that a cost-to-benefit ratio becomes beneficial, problems get solved much faster than normal.

Because we are now living in the age of human interconnectivity through social media, programs like conservation efforts can alter themselves in accordance with human input. By sharing and building upon each other’s ideas, these programs become more and more effective each week, a task that would usually take years if only a limited group of people would have been involved.

This concept of combining human and computer intelligence is one side of the alleged viable evolution paths for mankind. These paths are evolution through genetic alteration, effectively making us immune to diseases and other similar natural factors, evolution through cybernetic means, creating a sort of hybrid between computer and human, and full cyberization, that involves shedding our human shell and becoming full robots. Even though these paths might seem in the realm of science fiction, they might one day become reality due to our constant advance in technology.

Although the idea that combining human cognition with computer intelligence may solve world’s problems is still in its early stages of life, it still marks itself as the first step towards achieving a viable problem-solving system that could tackle problems that might otherwise seem impossible.

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