One argument is that we should not need to take into account how humans come to be intelligent, nor try to emulate them, as heavier than air flight does not emulate birds. That is only partially true as there were multiple influences on the Wright brothers from bird flight. Certainly today the appearance of heavier than air flight is very different from that of birds or insects, though the continued study of the flight of those creatures continues to inform airplane design. This is why over the last twenty years or so jet aircraft have sprouted winglets at the ends of primary wings.
Airplanes can fly us faster and further than something that more resembled birds would. On the other hand our airplanes have not solved the problem of personal flight. We can no more fly up from the ground and perch in a tall tree than we could before the Wright brothers. And we are not able to take off and land wherever we want without large and extremely noisy machines. A little more bird would not be all bad.
I accept the point that to build a human level intelligence it may well not need to be much at all like humans in how it achieves that. However, for now at least, it is the only model we have and there is most likely a lot to learn still from studying how it is that people are intelligent. Furthermore, as we will see below, having a lot of commonality between humans and intelligent agents will let them be much more understandable partners.
This is the compromise that I am willing to make. I am willing to believe that we do not need to do everything like humans do, but I am also convinced that we can learn a lot from humans and human intelligence.
That essay is second in a series of four. Here's the others:
[FoR&AI] Steps Toward Super Intelligence I, How We Got Here
[FoR&AI] Steps Toward Super Intelligence III, Hard Things Today
[FoR&AI] Steps Toward Super Intelligence IV, Things to Work on Now
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