ID the Future Intelligent Design, Evolution, and Science Podcast
Author

Robert J. Marks

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AI Expert: Pilots in TOP GUN–MAVERICK are Obsolete; You are Not

Today’s ID the Future features a recent Michael Medved Show with artificial intelligent expert Robert J. Marks, author of the new book Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will. The occasion for the conversation is an article by Marks about the Tom Cruise movie Top Gun: Maverick. In the article, Marks argues that, strictly in terms of optimal military tactics, the job of the human fighter pilots in the movie would have been better filled by drones. But as sanguine as Marks is about the possibilities for AI in military and other applications, he is among the loudest voices insisting that the AI community tends to overhype AI capabilities. In his conversation with Michael Medved, and in greater depth in his new book, Marks argues that AI will never replace certain roles and capacities possessed only by human soldiers. And AI, he says, will never be conscious or truly creative. While AI’s best days are still ahead, says Marks, AI will always be limited to what can be performed by an algorithm, in contrast to non-computable you, who face no such limitation.

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Bob Marks on Why AI Won’t Destroy the World, or Save It

Today’s ID the Future dives into the controversial realm of artificial intelligence (AI). Will robots or other computers ever become so fast and powerful that they become conscious, creative, and free? Will they reach a point where they can create faster and better AI, which will create faster and better AI, and quickly leave humanity in the dust? To shed light on these and other questions swirling around the exciting field of AI, host Casey Luskin interviews computer engineering professor Robert J. Marks, head of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. In the course of the fast-paced interview, Marks touches on dystopian AI and the limits of computer algorithms (they can never do anything that is inherently non-computable, Marks argues), and discuss celebrity thinkers and entrepreneurs who’ve weighed in on the promises and perils of AI, such as Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Stephen Hawking. Marks calls on Nobel Laureate Roger Penrose to second one of Marks’s central arguments. The occasion for the conversation is Marks’s chapter in the recent Harvest House anthology, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Marks and Luskin also touch on Marks’s work assessing computer programs designed to try to demonstrate the efficacy of mindless evolutionary mechanisms to produce dramatic evolutionary innovations in the history of life. Marks is skeptical that these programs demonstrate any such thing, and indeed, argues that they tend to demonstrate just the opposite. He lays out the reasons for his skepticism in a new video course at DiscoveryU.org. Check it out.

No Free Lunches for Darwin–the AI Case Against Blind Evolution

Can artificial intelligence algorithms prove Darwinian evolution? Why won’t some scientists admit the information and intelligent design inherent in evolutionary computing? Do random processes disprove intelligent design? Professor of neurosurgery Michael Egnor hosts Robert J. Marks, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University, and Director of Discovery Institute’s Walter Bradley Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence. The two discuss evolutionary computing, the no free lunch theorem, Aristotle, and the contextual role of purpose in recognizing chance events.

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Walter Bradley on the Newly Expanded Mystery of Life’s Origin

On this episode of ID the Future, Robert J. Marks interviews Walter Bradley, co-author of the seminal 1984 ID book The Mystery of Life’s Origin, now being released in a revised and expanded edition with updates from multiple contributors discussing the progress (or lack of it) in origins science in the 35 years since the book’s original publication. In this first of two podcasts, Bradley discusses the history of the attempts to explain life’s origin naturalistically, and how the three authors of the 1984 book came together to shake up the world of origin-of-life science.

Photo by Tianyi Ma

Computer Engineer Bob Marks Discusses the Perils and Promise of AI

On this episode of ID the Future Dr. Robert J. Marks, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University and former President of the IEEE Neural Networks Council, argues that computer programs cannot be genuinely creative. Computer programs also won’t be able to experience consciousness, he says, never mind all the media hype on this point. Marks concedes that a computer code can surprise us, as when a program playing the game Go makes a surprising move.

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Don’t Raise the White Flag to Our AI Overlords Just Yet

On this episode of ID The Future, computer engineer Robert Marks, co-author of Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics, considers the apocalyptic danger portrayed in The Terminator movies and discussed in all seriousness by some prominent scientists and technologists — the threat of artificial intelligence one day taking over the world. Yes, computing power doubles every couple of years or so, but Dr. Marks insists that a qualitative gulf separates humans from computers, a difference that no amount of computing power can ever overcome. Listen in to learn what it is.

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The Dangers, Limits and Promise of Artificial Intelligence

On this episode of ID The Future, Robert Crowther explores the dangers and potential of artificial intelligence with Dr. Robert Marks, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University and co-author of Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics. Marks uses John Searle’s “Chinese Room” analogy to explain why computers do not have understanding and never will. At the same time, Marks predicts that continuing advances in technology will further augment our abilities.

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Math, Computers and Evolution, Pt. 2: Robert Marks on Why Darwinists Can’t Dodge the Modeling Problem

On this episode of ID the Future, CSC Director of Communications Rob Crowther talks with Robert Marks, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University, about Marks’s new book, Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics. Listen in as Marks discusses the importance of modeling in science, some problems besetting current evolution models, and why a common excuse does not get Neo-Darwinism off the hook.

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Math, Computers and Evolution: Robert Marks on Searches and Artificial Intelligence

On this episode of ID the Future, CSC Director of Communications Rob Crowther talks with Robert Marks, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University, about Marks’s new book, Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics. Listen in as Marks shares about how he and William Dembski originally connected and began researching the subject in 2007, how intelligent design can inform thinking on artificial intelligence, and what a “search for a search” in evolution means!
To purchase Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics by Winston Ewert, William Dembski and Robert Marks, visit Amazon.com.

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ID Inquiry: Robert Marks on Information

On this episode of ID the Future, hear the an episode of our ID The Future segment ID Inquiry, in which ID scientists and scholars answer your questions about intelligent design and evolution. Ask your question by sending an email to editor@evolutionnews.org, and tune in to this episode as Dr. Robert Marks discusses information and how it relates to intelligent design.

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