The Religion of the Technocrats is Failing, as is Their Technology

As I noted in my article about the demise of self-driving vehicles, the faith in artificial intelligence is crashing down to reality, as investors in the technology find out the hard way that computers just cannot do all the things that the techno-prophecies have claimed. This was exposed in a recently published Bloomberg article quite eloquently by publishing quotes from Anthony Levandowski, the engineer who created the model for self-driving vehicle research and was, for more than a decade, "the field’s biggest star." So strong was his belief in artificial intelligence, that he literally started a new religion worshiping it called "The Way of the Future" Church. But after several years of waiting for the AI messiah to arrive and start replacing humans, his faith was shattered. Fast forward now 5 years later where AI cannot even figure out how to make a left turn in normal traffic, and these AI believers are quickly abandoning the faith, and starting to understand the limitations of computers.

Is Artificial Intelligence Possible?

Over the past half-century, Artificial Intelligence has been all the rage among computer scientists, and among many other scientists and philosophers and the general public. Can machines think? Is it possible that a computer could have intentions and desires and understanding of its own? Many otherwise well-informed people have taken it for granted that machines are capable of thought, particularly if a substantial level of complexity is reached. Several philosophers and scientists have argued that AI is not possible -- machines will never be capable of thought. They are right to deny the possibility of AI. The arguments against AI are several.