Are old people wise??? or are wise people just old???

Originally written: 5/22/07



I was traveling with my parents last weekend, on the way to a cousins house (B-day party/BBQ). It was me in the back seat, both of them in the front. Ordinarily I would be listening to 2 Pac on my i-pod, in a music filled world of my own. But for no apparent reason I was not. While on minute 45 of the hour, and a half wait to reach the destination I suddenly hear the conversation between my parents seem to come to a pause. Remembering a forum that I was previously reading, I decided to ask them the same question, that had so many "Internet deep thinkers" choosing sides, and battling to prove which side was correct. I asked them "If you were to create a robot (with AI) would you punish it, if it were to make a mistake". Now, don't think that they immediately understood the question. It took several attempts of clarification, and repeating myself in order to get this conversation started. Now to understand their responses, you must first understand in which era they both grew up in. During their prime years, Computers were as big as refrigerators. Calculators, and simple OS programs were just starting out. Now, it took me about 15 minutes to explain to these two what Artificial Intelligence was. Because Instead of answering the real question I posed to them which was basically should you punish something that you created in your own image. They were answering if computers can think for themselves or not. So, in order to get them to understand the question I had to more-or-less prove to them that AI actually exists. So, thinking quick on my toes, I gave them a small example of how AI works with the things they use daily. I gave the example of how a car uses a very fundamental form of AI. For instance, the way a car adjusts the air/ fuel ratio. the CPU in every car has sensors, and these sensors tell the CPU if the engine is running rich, or lean based on the kind of gas that's being used, and the temperature of the engine bay. If the person is cheap, the gas will be lean, and so the CPU must make a decision on how much air to add based on certain factors. Now, after I pretty much prove that machines can actually make certain choices, I bring the question back up. Whether its right to punish the robot for its mistakes. I could see that they had a hard time believing that computers have gotten so advanced that they could actually make choices. I could also see that they were so stuck in the belief that all computers do not get smarter than "computer chess". I could see that this was a problem for them because they started trailing off in the conversation, telling these really long anecdotes to prove their point, and making fake laughs about the question, trying to avoid the acknowledgment of new concrete information into their minds. So, finally after a long interlude of question dodging I finally got them to change the answer to the question. At this point I was not even worried about their answer..... I was more worried about their stubbornness to receive new information. So it got me thinking. Does wisdom really come with age?? Because it seems that when you are older you are more set in your ways. ex. "Can't teach an old dog new tricks". Is that because the dog is close minded, and does not want to learn new facts? So, it seems that I will eventually have to make a choice in life........well maybe choice is not the correct word. Because this "choice" seems more forced on me rather than me actually picking the better road. Will I one day have to decide between being young, and open minded, or being old, closed minded, and wise. Both have advantages, and disadvantages. But I keep wondering........ will I become as narrow minded as my parents????