In Mejias’ chapter on “Computers as Socializing Tools” he sites the critique of social computing, a field focused on the modeling of social behavior, that in some way it simplifies human behavior by “dumbing it down” to a level which a computer can understand it. The creation of artificial intelligence or games like the Sims demonstrate attempts to recreate human life in the digital realm. These attempts so far have fallen short in recreating a 100 percent realistic picture. Therefore, the question remains can computerized algorithms, however complex, ever truly model how we behave? The answer depends who you ask. Critiques such as those mentioned by Mejias might challenge the plausibility. However, some physicists may argue otherwise. Theoretically, if a unified theory of physics such as string theory were ever to be proven, any concept of free will would be nullified. This would mean our brains operate no differently than computers, collecting stimuli and working through algorithms to arrive at an appropriate action. If this is truly the case, then there is no reason computers could not accurately model human behavior. The only obstacle to this goal would be understanding the complex algorithms of the human mind, which is certainly a daunting task.
Anonymous
I am not fully sure in what direction your opinion lies but it seems that you believe in the plausibility of using algorithms to model human behavior but are not fully sold on the idea. It is a stance that I can sympathize with. However, I believe that it is possible even if free will is a criteria. There are many decisions that we as a human race make today that could easily, and when I say easily I mean by someone who is smarter and more resourceful than I am, be boiled down to complex algorithms. My view of human behavior may be somewhat bleak, but much of our behavior is dictated selfishly. To my limited knowledge of such things, it seems that theoretically an algorithm could be written that studies human decisions and then is able to make human-like calculations. Google has recently released a study in which their DeepMind program has developed a computer that can play Atari games at higher proficiencies than a human player. Doesn’t seem too shocking, but when you factor in that the computer had absolutely no “knowledge” about bats, balls, lasers, etc that humans need to know about in order to play the games. In my opinion, this new breakthrough in deep learning shows that we are not too far away from the day when computers can model human behavior as well as a human can model it.