认知科学和认知神经科学_认知增强的时代到了

认知科学和认知神经科学

Ever since humans fell out of trees we’ve been creating tools to help us survive. One of the most important of those tools was writing. As our brains and species evolved up to today and the arrival of homo Sapiens, so too did our use of tools. Until the closing of the 21st century, we augmented our physical selves. Things are about to get a bit messier now though.

自从人类从树上掉下来以来，我们一直在创造工具来帮助我们生存。 这些工具中最重要的工具之一就是编写。 随着我们的大脑和物种进化到今天以及智人的到来，我们对工具的使用也是如此。 直到21世纪末，我们增强了自己的身体。 现在情况将变得更加混乱。

As we became an agrarian society, we developed tools for farming. When our villages became so big we needed more land, we invented weapons. So we could go over and thump our neighbours and take their land. In anthropological terms this is called “caging.” The debate continues as to weather this was the start of warfare. Arguably so. At least at scale.

随着我们成为农业社会，我们开发了耕作工具。 当我们的村庄变得如此庞大时，我们需要更多土地，我们发明了武器。 这样我们就可以越过并重击我们的邻居并占领他们的土地。 用人类学的术语来说，这叫做“笼子”。 关于天气的辩论仍在继续，这是战争的开始。 可以这么说。 至少在规模上。

As our species grew and we spread across the planet, we continued to develop tools to augment our physical abilities into the age of industrialization and the ability to move about the planet faster and further and then of course, off the planet.

随着物种的增长和我们在地球上的扩散，我们继续开发工具以增强我们的物理能力，以进入工业化时代，并有能力更快，更远地绕地球移动，当然也可以离开地球。

As we grew, our societies became ever more complex. For the most part, we’ve been able to handle complexity using physical tools and that muscle squished between our ears we call a brain. Sometimes though, our brains can’t quite figure out how to deal with certain complexities. An example is the Mayan civilization. It was quite an impressive civilization too. Incredibly creative and rich in the arts, huge cities and complex agricultural management skills.

随着我们的成长，我们的社会变得越来越复杂。 在大多数情况下，我们已经能够使用物理工具来处理复杂性，并且我们的双耳之间挤压的肌肉被称为大脑。 但是有时候，我们的大脑无法弄清楚如何处理某些复杂性。 一个例子是玛雅文明。 这也是一个令人印象深刻的文明。 极富创造力，并拥有丰富的艺术，大城市和复杂的农业管理技能。

Complexity caught up with the Mayans when the southern continent experienced decades long drought. At first, the Mayans were very good at irrigation systems and channeling water from rivers and lakes. But eventually, they stopped having insights and being able to manage their agricultural systems. As their brains maxed out and food and water became ever scarcer, they eventually turned to religion and what the evidence suggests, human sacrifice. At this time in human evolution, the only way we augmented our cognitive abilities was through writing and the creation and sharing of knowledge.

当南部大陆遭受数十年的干旱时，复杂性赶上了玛雅人。 起初，玛雅人非常擅长于灌溉系统以及从河流和湖泊引水的工作。 但是最终，他们不再有见识，也无法管理自己的农业系统。 当他们的大脑竭尽全力，食物和水变得越来越稀缺时，他们最终转向了宗教，而证据表明，这是人类的牺牲。 在人类进化的这个时候，我们增强认知能力的唯一方法是通过写作以及知识的创造和共享。

This limitation to our cognitive augmentation went on through many thousands of years, through the arrival of the printing press, telegraph, radio and television. We had some limited degree of computation available as we edged into the 1940’s and 60’s. But the cost of computing was very high and had limited abilities to be mobile or share information at scale. You’ve figured out where I’m going here. Yes, along came the internet.

通过印刷机，电报，广播和电视的出现，这种对我们认知增强的限制一直持续了数千年。 进入1940年代和60年代时，我们可获得的计算能力有限。 但是计算成本很高，而且移动或大规模共享信息的能力有限。 你知道我要去哪里。 是的，互联网来了。

The cost of computing fell drastically and we developed ways to make software and thus computers, much easier to use. We also made it easier and cost-efficient to connect them at a global scale. Then along came those computers we stick in our pockets and handbags that also happen to make phone calls. Though we seem to not prefer talking to each other and sending tweets, texts and short video clips instead.

计算成本急剧下降，我们开发了更易于使用的软件和计算机制造方法。 我们还简化了在全球范围内连接它们的过程，并提高了成本效益。 随之而来的是那些放在口袋里和手提包里的电脑，这些电脑也碰到了电话。 尽管我们似乎不喜欢互相交谈并发送推文，文本和短视频片段。

As the 21st century opened, we made incredible leaps with computing capabilities and the ability to create what useful Artificial Intelligence at scale. When you ask Siri or Alexa something, the processing of your request may be happening many thousands of miles from where you are having a family debate in your kitchen over the age of a celebrity. You are experiencing cognitive augmentation.

随着21世纪的开放，我们在计算能力和大规模创建有用的人工智能的能力方面取得了令人难以置信的飞跃。 当您问Siri或Alexa某事时，您的要求的处理可能会发生在成名年龄以来数千英里的距离，而这正是您在厨房里进行家庭辩论的地方。 您正在经历认知增强。

Naturally, one of the first highly successful applications of Artificial Intelligence available to society at large was developing a tool to fight parking tickets. It has a 90% win rate. Aren’t we clever.

自然，为整个社会提供的人工智能的第一个非常成功的应用之一就是开发一种打击罚单的工具。 它的胜率是90％。 我们不是很聪明。

The next step in the evolution of humans is cognitive augmentation. We must still use physical tools of course. If you have a lawn mower you know this well. Fortunately, like the robotic vacuum cleaners out there, augmenting our weekend cleaning routines, automated lawnmowers are coming. Time to buy a new hammock?

人类进化的下一步是认知增强。 当然，我们仍然必须使用物理工具。 如果您有割草机，您会非常了解。 幸运的是，就像外面的机器人吸尘器一样，增加了我们的周末清洁程序，自动化的割草机也即将问世。 是时候买新的吊床了？

Already farms are using self-driving farm equipment for harvesting vegetables and seed planting. Farm tractors today are loaded with sensors and farmers plant soil sensors around their farms and add in satellite data. Artificial Intelligence software helps them determine the optimum planting times, required irrigation and when to harvest. Cats are still needed to catch barn mice however, so they have fairly good job security until robot cats with laser beam eyes come along.

农场已经在使用自动驾驶农场的设备来收获蔬菜和种子种植。 今天的农用拖拉机装有传感器，农民在其农场周围种植土壤传感器并添加卫星数据。 人工智能软件可帮助他们确定最佳播种时间，所需灌溉和何时收获。 但是，仍需要猫来捉住谷仓小鼠，因此它们具有相当好的工作安全性，直到带有激光束眼睛的机器人猫出现为止。

So what does this all mean?

那么，这意味着什么？

As we saw thee rise of industrial scale tools in the age of physical augmentation, we saw jobs lost at a large scale. But we also saw many new jobs. New industries started and as we could move around the world, economies grew. Much of the initial fears proved to not be of major consequence.

当我们看到物理增强时代工业规模工具的兴起时，我们看到大量工作流失。 但我们也看到了许多新工作。 新兴产业开始了，随着我们可以在世界各地移动，经济增长了。 最初的许多担心被证明不是主要的后果。

With cognitive augmentation however, we may face very new dilemmas and situations. Already the debate over the value of Universal Basic Income has started. The reality is, it is most likely inevitable. Now, we talk about data being the new oil. The term “infonomics” was coined by Gartner Vice President and Fellow, Douglas B. Laney who literally wrote the book on it. It is a seminal groundwork for how we can and will, monetize information.

但是，随着认知增强，我们可能会面临非常新的困境和情况。 关于通用基本收入价值的争论已经开始。 现实是，这很可能是不可避免的。 现在，我们谈论数据是新石油。 “信息经济学”一词是由Gartner副总裁兼研究员Douglas B. Laney创造的，他实际上是在写这本书。 这是我们如何才能将信息货币化的开创性基础。

We are also bringing cognitive augmentation (CA) to our weapons of war. The UN has agreed to a treaty to not develop robots for war. Most countries are largely ignoring it. So far, most militaries keep a “human in the loop” with drones and use semi-autonomous weapons. If we do end up in a global conflict, it is unlikely to remain that way for very long. Some pundits suggest a highly surgical, intense and short global war. Since we’re humans, it is likely to be somewhat more messier than that.

我们还在战争武器中引入了认知增强(CA)。 联合国已同意一项条约，规定不研制用于战争的机器人。 大多数国家在很大程度上忽略了它。 到目前为止，大多数军队都将无人机与“半人马”联系在一起，并使用半自主武器。 如果我们确实陷入了全球冲突，那么长期维持这种状态的可能性不大。 一些专家认为这是一场高度外科手术，激烈而短暂的全球战争。 由于我们是人类，因此可能比这更混乱。

It is more likely that white collar jobs will be lost more and faster than blue collar ones. Robots still cannot build a house and while advancing rapidly, cannot solve small yet complex problems that plumbers, electricians and carpenters all deal with. But eventually, they probably will.

与蓝领职位相比，白领职位流失的可能性更高。 机器人仍然无法建造房屋，而在Swift发展的同时，也无法解决管道工，电工和木匠所要处理的小而复杂的问题。 但最终，他们可能会做到。

There are many, many issues human society will face as we race to augment our cognitive abilities, from human rights and freedoms, to dealing with wars and weapons, how many people will a self-driving car be allowed to kill (it is an issue facing auto makers now) and more. The Rule of Law and lawmakers and policy makers will face significant challenges unlike ever before. AI may be fighting parking tickets today, but what about using an AI in a murder trial or complex litigations?

人类社会在提高认知能力的过程中将面临很多很多问题，从人权和自由，到处理战争和武器，无人驾驶汽车将被杀死多少人(这是一个问题。面向汽车制造商)。 法治，立法者和决策者将面临前所未有的巨大挑战。 人工智能今天可能正在打击停车罚单，但在谋杀案或复杂诉讼中使用人工智能怎么办？

But as climate change progresses and impacts humanity on a global scale, we will not be able to solve that problem with that jelly muscle jiggling between our ears. We will need Artificial Intelligence, Cloud computing and very likely, quantum computing to run complex scenarios and simulations. We can learn from the Mayans and similar cultures. If we don’t, let’s hope we don’t resort to religion and human sacrifice.

但是随着气候变化的发展并在全球范围内影响人类，我们将无法通过两耳之间的果冻肌肉摇摆来解决这个问题。 我们将需要人工智能，云计算以及非常可能的量子计算来运行复杂的场景和模拟。 我们可以向玛雅人和类似的文化学习。 如果我们不这样做，我们希望我们不要诉诸宗教和人类牺牲。

翻译自: https://medium.com/@LiminalRover/the-age-of-cognitive-augmentation-is-here-15e78ce23cb

认知科学和认知神经科学