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Intelligence is the buzzword of 21st century. As we witness the rise and progress of machine learning and artificial intelligence(AI), I would like to revisit the original version of intelligence – Biological Intelligence(BI). Most, if not all, aspects of AI were inspired by intelligent behaviors in biological structures.
What makes a system intelligent?
Intelligence is an abstract concept and hence organizing the idea with an optimal definition is key for understanding.
How to define intelligence and how is it related to knowledge and information?
A physical (biological or nonbiological) system is said to be intelligent if it possesses the following two entities.
A. It should have the KNOWLEDGE embodied within itself for:
- A clearly stated purpose(goal or objective) for a given environment
- A set of well-defined questions(purpose oriented) to investigate the environment
- It carries within itself the impetus to “seek” data from environment. It should have the ability to process the data logically and act purposefully
B. It should have the inherent capacity to learn and unlearn from experience, adapt the structure and optimize behavior to achieve the intended purpose effectively (or accurately) and efficiently over time
Thus intelligence is conceptualized to have a crystallized part(knowledge) and fluid part(learning). In my opinion, the defining element is the ability to learn-unlearn and adapt its own structure according to a pre-defined purpose. A system that lacks capacity to change is not intelligent irrespective of its depth of knowledge and complexity of its structure.
Learning is how you evolve. Unlearning is how you keep up as the world evolves.
Adam Grant
What is a “well-defined question” ?
Well-defined question is one in which the subject asking the question has the pre-existing knowledge about the topic and knows all the potential answers. The purpose of the question and quest is to find out the exact answer. Such a person can gather information from the environment, and gradually reduce the degree of uncertainty over time and corner the truth. The piece of data that increases the degree of certainty of a person with a well-defined question is called Information. However, an ‘Exploratory Question’ is the one asked by a person who lacks prior knowledge about the topic. He doesn’t know the set of possible answers. Here the questioner is not actually looking for answers, instead, he is actually learning to formulate questions. An Intelligent design is one that carries within itself not just a set of well-defined questions but also has the capacity to expand the set of answers based on new experiences.
I could explain these concepts with an example of a physician solving a clinical problem. However these ideas are applicable to many complex living and non-living systems.
A physician, who is looking at a chest x-ray to know the answer for the cause of breathlessness(clinical problem), has a well-defined question in his mind. He has the pre-existing knowledge within himself to know the potential set of causes for the problem. He is seeking to find out the exact cause in that particular circumstance. However, a patient looking at a chest x-ray to know the cause of breathlessness has an exploratory question in his mind. Patient does not know the potential causes and he is merely grazing at the shadows in the X-ray with an intent to explore. The physician is in a state of uncertainty, but the patient is in a state of confusion. The data points in the chest X-ray are of value to the physician and it has the capacity to reduce the amount of uncertainty in his mind. Only such a data point should be called as Information. However the same data point would not make any meaningful impact on the patients state of confusion and it is not considered to have any informational value in that context. In fact the data points could worsen the state of confusion. So information is contextual. The capacity of data to translate into information is not present in the data alone. It also depends on the person seeking it. A physician with a broad set of answers and a large set of well defined questions is considered to be a knowledgeable physician. However by itself it does not qualify him to be an intelligent physician. The same physician if he also has the capacity in himself to be able to expand the answer sets based on a new experience, then is considered to be an intelligent person. So knowledge(crystallized part) and intelligence(aggregate) are two distinct properties. A physician can be extremely knowledgeable and yet unintelligent. Also, there could be a physician with limited knowledge but a tremendous capacity to learn and adapt.
At what point in biological evolution did intelligent structures arise?
Nervous system, composed of network of neurons, is the pinnacle of intelligence in biology(at least from brain’s point of view). A child who gradually learns the design of human society and becomes an independent member of the community is a perfect example of intelligence in action. The nuances of human society is not written in our genetic code nor could be found in the naive brain. The child rewires her neural networks with every single experience during her growth as she transforms into a social adult. Her brain and behaviour possesses so much fluidity to create a design that is most optimal for the society. Brain’s fluidity decays as we age. Even though brain is the exemplary of biological structures with intelligence, this capacity to learn is also very much present in every individual cell and organ.
1. Immune system is a fascinating design. It reorganizes its network of cells and molecules in response to a virus in order to mount a more robust attack for future interaction. This is not merely a immune response but it’s immune intelligence.
2. A boy who gradually learns the coordinated set of bodily movements to complete a ball catch is an expression of intellect in our neuromuscular system.
3. Heart that remodels itself, when the load against which it has to pump goes up due to a disease condition, in order to maintain the cardiac output(purpose) is an expression of intelligence in a complex system(organ).
4. Migrating cells in a developing embryo is intelligent.
5. Many systems of molecules within a cell have a intelligent design with a fluid capacity to reorganize when it faces unforeseen circumstances.
Intelligence is present even in the tiniest parts of biological design and has been there for millions of years!
Immune intelligence
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
Steve Jobs
Our immune system is a highly intelligent structure. It’s knowledge and fluidity is key for our survival. It can sense the environment and respond purposefully. The purpose is to clear molecules and eliminate cells of ‘foreign’ nature. It achieves this purpose by not only selecting a response from a set of predetermined actions, but also by creating a new program to execute the purpose. This is a purest expression of intelligence – The ability to learn from experience and modify the behavior to achieve the desired purpose effectively and efficiently. The innate arm of our immunity has a rigid set of questions and preordained set of responses(Crystallized part). The adaptive arm of our immunity has a fixed set of questions and a modifiable set of responses(Fluid part). Collectively they keep us alive and bring us down.
A System that could write its own purpose
Nothing is more seductive for man than freedom of his conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering
Fyodor Dostoevsky
If intelligence is the capacity of a system to be able to learn and achieve the intended purpose, then what is a system that could write or rewrite its own purpose? I would call it as an autonomous agent with free-will. The concept of purpose lies at the core of both the ideas, intelligence and free-will. However, while contemplating on these ideas one must be mindful of the fact that purpose is an entity defined by a human subject (Human mind). It exists, only, when things are viewed from the vantage point of human mind. (Is there any other viewpoint to look at the world?!)
Does free-will exist only in human subject and other higher animals or is it ubiquitous in biology?
Is autoimmunity an expression of freewill in immune system?
For the most part, immune system’s knowledge and purpose are maintained rigidly. However, human subject and spontaneity could alter its purpose and behaviors occasionally.
Immune system does allow the environment to rewrite its purpose. When a human subject alters the structure of the T cell receptor molecule (CAR T cell technology), he is engineering the purpose of the immune system to behave in a manner to achieve human agent’s intended goal. This modification makes immune system to attack tumor cells. Similar process is being studied to modify the purpose of immune system to tolerate grafted organs in transplantation. So, CAR T technology is the exploitation of immune systems capacity to change its purpose by an external agent. However I would not call this as free-will. But….
An inexplicable emergence of a novel purpose in an intelligent system is the expression of its free will. Yes, one could argue that autoimmunity is an expression of freewill in immune system.
Could non-biological systems with artificial intelligence develop into autonomous agents with ability to write its own purpose?
It is quite natural for novel purpose to emerge spontaneously from physical systems that is complex and fluid enough to evolve. We know that in nature a single egg cell with enough crystallized knowledge and fluidity in its structure is capable of developing into an elephant with parts having a myriad of forms and functions. Hence, when the right moment comes, like everything else, purpose is certainly a spontaneously mutable entity. Yes, it is physically possible for intelligent artificial networks to write its own purpose.
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