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Put Your Thinking Caps On!

Started by Solitary, July 20, 2015, 01:07:56 PM

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Solitary

Can computers be self aware? In the study, three Nao robots were subjected to an updated version of the classic puzzle known as “the king’s wise men.”

The original version of the puzzle goes like this: A king calls the three wisest men in the country and puts either a white or a black hat on their heads. They can all see each other’s hats, but not their own, and they’re not allowed to talk to each other. At least one of them is wearing a blue hat. Whoever is smart enough to work out the color of the hat they’re wearing becomes the king’s new advisor.

In the updated version of the puzzle, the researchers programmed the robots to think that two of them had been given a “dumbing pill” -- one that would prevent them from speaking. In reality, those robots were muted by pressing a button on top of their heads, while the third one had a placebo button.

When the researchers asked the robots which pill they had received, only one of them -- the one that had not been muted -- stood up and said “I don’t know.”

However, a moment later, when its program realized that it had heard its own voice, the robot waved its hand and said: “I know now. I was able to prove that I was not given a dumbing pill.”

According to the researchers, the ability to recognize the sound of its own voice and logically conclude that it had not received a dumbing pill -- because it could speak -- showed that it had the ability to link this realization back to the original question and come up with the right answer, pointing toward a mathematically verifiable awareness of the self.


Suppose that you are one of the wise men. Looking at the other wise men,
you see they are both wearing white hats. Since there were only two white hats,
you would immediately know that your own hat must be black.

2) Now suppose that you see the other wise men, and one is wearing a white hat and the
other is wearing a black hat. If your own hat was white, then the man you can
see wearing the black hat would be himself seeing two white hats and would - by
the logic above - have immediately declared his hat color. If he doesn't do
this, it can only be because your hat isn't white, therefore it must be
black.

3) In this particular puzzle, you see the other wise men and both
are wearing black hats. You can't work anything out from this. However, if your
own hat was white, then two other wise men would be seeing a black and a white
hat, and the wiser one would have declared his hat color by the rule above.

Thus, if none of them has done so, they must also be seeing two black hats and
thus your hat must be black. "This is also the reason why a lot of
intellectuals wear black hats."  What color is your hat?







There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.