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R--e--a--l--i--t--y
(shmeality)

Dr. Saty Raghavachary, CS Dept, saty@usc.edu

The thermodynamic (entropy-related) arrow of time...

Everything gets old, dirty, faulty...

You get the idea.

Disorder [entropy] increases over time.

Natural phenomena

Phenomena in the world include fluid flow, fall due to gravity, oxidation, vibration, surface tension, electrical conduction and a LOT more.

Materials, in the form of structures, exhibit phenomena - it's how matter 'behaves'.

None of material behavior, involves computation.

Our brains are materials..........

Real bodies+brains deal with the real world in terms of phenomena, accumulate first-hand, interactive, continuous, 'experience'.

Brains don't compute [explicitly].

Experience is not computable!

Computation

Computation, numbers, written/read words, musical notation, math... is ALL a human invention! It's all symbol-based, and only carries SHARED meaning.

Cats don't compute. Elephants don't play chess [thanks, Rodney].

A von Neumann chip does explicitly compute - via explicit specification of quantitities.

Caching

ANY computation can be reversed!

Look up {fluid,particle,cloth,hair} simulation cache.

Eg. watch 0.00-0.30, 5:00-5:30, 8:30-8:50 of this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-VR3OEFDM0 [what you see is simulation being played backwards and forwards].

Reality vs computation

Reality cannot be reversed. Computation can.

Reality => not reversible.

Reversibility => not real.

Intelligence is NOT limited to symbolic computation

Symbolic computation certainly can produce intelligent behavior. But that is not all there is.

Ex: Rube Goldberg machines, Braitenberg vehicles.

Implications for AI/ML/LLMs...

So..... ALL of AI to date, which relies on explicit computation, isn't, can't, be 'real'!

LLMs cannot become conscious the way biological animals are.

Multimodal LLMs don't deal with the 'real' world.

Symbolic AI, or neuro AI (data-driven), or neuro-symbolic - NONE of them can lead to 'real' AI, ie. one that mimics biological intelligence.

Why? Because data/computation is being used to mimic/substitute for reality - using a baseless assumption (called the PSSH).

What to do?