Programming fear into computers.
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When humans and other life forms encounter unknown, unplanned and uncertain input, we first react with fear. We recoil then respond by a set of standard responses.
For each person or life form, it’s a bit different but there are general overall patterns.
Aristotle invented the excluded middle as one possible response. That is, not responding. Ignoring. Invalid. Throw it away. Continue as if nothing has happened.
This sounds like it would be great to be purely rational like that and it can be an admirable trait.
Yet, what happens when the fear is overwhelming?
Shut down? Reboot? Or, could there be other alternatives?
Many unknowns are predicted ahead of time. Scenarios. They’re not actually unknowns but unpleasants. Programmers and engineers put in fail safe mechanisms, attempting to anticipate as many scenarios as possible if they are seeking a robust system that can function under less than ideal conditions. Your computer measures how hot the CPU is so you don’t have to for example.
But what of the truly unknowns?
Well, what do *you* do? You have a set of standard responses, some which are common for many in the general, but for you it’s unique because you are the only one experiencing your own fear (unless somebody else sympathizes with you then they can share but even then it’s theirs and not yours).
But you also have non-standard responses possible.
This is where you begin to reason out of fear and pull ideas from everywhere to find a solution to reduce the discomfort of fear so you can digest it better.
Is there a way to program fear into computers that can be robust and handle any situation, even those unknowns that aren’t programmed in? [which makes them knowns anyway and not unknowns]
Does anybody know of work done in programming fear into computers? [beyond the three laws of robotics]