Microsoft Concept Graph
This is a thing I think about often which I always conclude is not currently possible in the way I wish it were.<p>While we can make a concept graph, what I often wonder is whether it&#x27;s really possible to make a computer <i>think</i> of a thing, truly have an <i>idea</i> of it in their &quot;head&quot; the way it is for a person.<p>When you think of an apple, you don&#x27;t just connect to a text description of it and a picture and a bunch of links to &quot;fruit&quot; and &quot;seed&quot; and &quot;food.&quot; You sort of see it and feel it and taste it and know its value. It&#x27;s rendered in senses, not in text.<p>I am not confident that it will be possible for a computer to understand something that way for a very long time. I think until we understand how that information is encoded in our own minds, getting a machine to truly understand it the same way will be elusive.<p>When I was recently considering this, the fundamental difference I came down to was this: a living thing <i>wants things</i>, <i>needs things.</i> So long as a computer does not have any desires, I just don&#x27;t see how it could ever understand the world the way we do. What would anything matter to you if you didn&#x27;t eat, drink, sleep, feel, get bored, get curious?<p>I think those aspects of a living thing drive our understanding of everything else. Without that, it&#x27;s all just text.<p>But of course I do understand perfectly that I am speaking of a longer timeline sort of project and that a Probase-like component is still a big part of it and can still independently move things forward quite a bit.