Autonomy
Although the first computers were defined as machines capable of automatically processing information, we did not limit ourselves to asking them certain, sometimes highly complex, tasks. We also entrusted them with the very ambitious mission of simulating the very thought processes of humans, our ability to reason, our intelligence. This became a special field within computer technology, Artificial Intelligence (…)
“Thinking, is calculating”. In the first conception of artificial intelligence, the results were only partially satisfactory.
Then, instead of simulating intelligence with logical-mathematical processes, we began to try to discover how the human brain acquired this intelligence over the course of its ontogenesis and how the body contributed to the emergence and development of a different way of thinking. (…)
The autonomy of a system can only be relative. Even humans are only partially autonomous to the extent that we are subject to different pressures: physical environment, genetic inheritance, social constraints, etc. Moreover, many of our functions, particularly our vital functions, are (fortunately) regulated by powerful involuntary and unconscious automatisms, as well as many of our mental processes and behaviours. Man is a highly evolved natural composite of automatism and autonomy. Thus, it is possible to program virtual beings or beings assembled out of concrete materials, most often anthropomorphic, with cognitive abilities that approach those of humans: a multimodal perception of the world, learning through trial and error, recognizing artificial or natural shapes (such as faces), the development of an associative memory, decision-making followed by action, intentionality, inventiveness, the creation of new information, the simulation of emotions and empathy, and social behaviour.
Edmond Couchot
