Human life vs Animal life

[Human No More]

Originally Posted by Banefull

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There's no need to be patronising. I know what a computer is and how it works. I've designed chips too. I've done a whole course on intelligent systems and AI.

Let us theoretically entertain the notion that a computer could be conscious. Such a being would only be an observer. A computer has no control over its output. It is predetermined. If you have these inputs you will get a certain output.

Not true - look at the majority of algorithms - the output is not determined, not known, and based on the input. With some types, it varies from execution to execution with the same input. There are systems, today, that exist and are IN USE, that employ genetic algorithms. These are self-modifying and improve based on the quality of their results. That's essentially the biological process animals follow.

I know what a logic gate is! I know every single kind including flip-flops and latches and how to create another gate type using only NAND or NOR gates. I do not see what relevance it has, AT ALL. Can you face the fact that someone here DOES know as much about this, if not more, than you? I also know what neurons are and how they work, and the structure of the nervous system.

Computers, in a nutshell, are basically just long chains of these logic gates etched onto a silicon chip. One could trace the long line starting with a set of inputs and reach an exact set of outputs. We merely study neural networks so that we can better optimize our chip designs and cut out unnecessary steps in the process. In that last diagram I posted, that circuit had a maximum 4-gate delay. The less logic gates that a signal has to pass through, the faster my processor can be (each gate has a delay in changing voltage). There are also other applications for optimizing individual component delay also.

Which doesn't change the fact that in just about any architecture, multiple passes through the ALU are required for a single instruction other than simple mathematical or logical operations.The speed isn't what is relevant here, the relevance is the fact that self-modifying code is possible, exists, and has exponentially increased in complexity and capability.
As I said in my earlier post, which you conveniently ignored, I am not talking about the kind of system that exists today which simply contain a very large database of scenarios and predetermined responses.

Aurora - you mostly have a point, but you are wrong that all extinctions are due to humans. Do you know what? Species went extinct long before humans existed. They will long after. Neither is it about rules. It's about survival. Yes, humans are massively overpopulated, but that does not mean they are responsible for every single thing that happens. Neither do they consciously make decisions about other species, it is (99%of the time) an unintended effect. Yes, that doesn't justify anything, but you can not say that the human desire to be warm, safe, comfortable, happy and not eaten by predators is wrong while you are sitting in a house, talking over the internet. Stop being naive.