Which people is most like the Na vi?

[Banefull]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Genetic algorithms (a form of machine intelligence capable of improving on previous results) have existed (in theory, if not in implementation) for decades and are biologically inspired (not used as an analogy). The same goes for a neural network - biological inspiration is becoming a lot more common for advanced technology due to the way it combines relative simplicity with being highly adapted. I don't think anyone (with a significant understanding of either or both) ever honestly considered a telephone exchange similar to a neural network - they used it as an analogy to explain the latter, certainly, but analogies do vary in quality, as well as by time. The truth is that the animal neural network and microprocessors are each best at almost the exact opposite operations (pattern recognition vs binary arithmetic and logical operators), and inspiration from biological systems is often used in developing systems that can have similar potential capabilities.

Out of curiosity then, do you think that humans have free will? Or are we merely slaves to the pattern input we receive our senses?

A computer is slave to its input. You can trace the series of processes that lead up to the output. Even a program that modifies itself from runtime to runtime is still subject to its initial input in the original program.

I have never been fully convinced that logic is the final frontier in all things. That doesn't mean that I don't think its wrong or correct but rather it might be missing a few things that out there that lie outside its domain or scope. I myself have always wondered why we as beings exist seemingly in control of a body and not just some mass of complex organic cells that act out and simulate everything in our lives based upon automatic pattern recognition from senses and preprogrammed genetic responses and tendencies. This "knowledge" or "ability" that indigenous people could very well exist.