Since the birth of computer science, researchers have secretly thought of themselves as brain-builders. After all, our thoughts are made from billions of little electrical impulses fired by neurons. Why can’t computers be made to think in similar ways to us, using the electrical impulses in their electronic circuits? Why can’t we make intelligent computers that can perform tasks that require intelligence? We could have learning, predicting, walking, talking, seeing, speaking computers. We might also have computers that can diagnose our illnesses, drive our cars, or explore distant planets for us. But how do you make intelligence? Through logic and reasoning? Or through lessons learned in life? How do intelligent minds think about their environments and themselves? Could we ever create a conscious artificial brain? . . . Cheerful music plays in the background. The grainy colour film shows a tall, slightly gaunt American man wearing a dark suit. As he speaks, he holds up something in his right hand. ‘This is Theseus.’ The film switches to a close-up of a little white mouse in a maze, moving forwards, flicking right, left, and forwards again. ‘Theseus is an electrically controlled mouse. He has the ability to solve a certain class of problems by trial and error, and then remember the solution. In other words, he can learn from experience.’ Once again, the work of Claude Shannon was attracting the attention of the public and academics alike. When he demonstrated his amazing machine at the Eighth Cybernetics Conference it created nothing but fascination and admiration from the other scientists. Perhaps to sound a little more serious, he usually called the mouse a ‘finger’ at the scientific conference. ‘You see the finger now exploring the maze, hunting for the goal,’ says Shannon, as he demonstrates the device live at the conference. ‘When it reaches the centre of a square the machine makes a new decision as to the direction to try. If the finger hits a partition, the motors reverse, taking the finger back to the center of the square, where a new direction is chosen.
APPLYING E-LEARNING SYSTEMS FOR BIG DATA EDUCATION
