Beyond Stored-Program Technology

Stored-purpose computers will be a step beyond stored-program.  But what does beyond stored-program mean?  Does it mean that the new generation of computers won't leverage or include the key technologies of stored-program architecture (i.e. processor, IO handling, memory, OS Kernel, Program Loading)?  The answer is no. While in the future, there may be an opportunity to redesign electronics to more directly support the processing needs of the General intelligence algorithm, but that won't occur for another decade.  But even then, there will still be many applications for simple stored programs.

An analogy:

An automobile is clearly beyond walking, yet it leverages basic concepts of walking that include: 1) path/road, 2) object in motion propelled by friction when in contact with path/road

An airplane is clearly beyond an automobile, yet it leverages core concepts of the automobile that include:  1) path/road, 2) wheels, 3) engine

An automobile is not just improved walking if it uses a road and friction.  Similarly, an airplane is not just an improved car if it uses wheels and an engine.  In both cases the technology was able to make entirely new routes for pursuing the goal of travel. 

The goal was to design a better computer, one that could anticipate needs and serve people better.  So we developed a way to program understanding … of purpose and goals.   Then to help a computer better anticipate what goals would lead a person to do, we developed logic for goal pursuit, goal route traversal and the ability to plan ahead.  Then to make that logic more general, so that a computer could support a person or company, we extended it to understand context and developed protocols for handling changes.  

Finally, so that the computer could actually help, when it knew help was needed, we taught it how to turn on the lights.

Examples

9:30 am ...  ten people enter a conference room … the agenda and documents related to the meeting are on the System … Can a computer know to copy the presentation to the HD display in advance?  Can it know to dim and restore the room lights, turn on and off the projector at the start and end of presentation? 

11:00 am … two people enter a hospital medical imaging suite … Need a computer be asked to identify a doctor and patient ... check the doctor's file and identify the scheduled procedure … check the patient's file and retrieve the parameters … display sensible options on the image system menu … display the scan results on the suite's HD display immediately after the procedure … store the results of the scan to the patient's record?

Man's Intelligence, Unique?

Man was considered intelligent because he alone used tools to build complex systems, like dams, yet a beaver was considered not intelligent, even though it was from him that man learned to build a dam.   Man was considered intelligent because he could build an apparatus for breathing underwater, yet a salamander's ability to have offspring that breath above or under water ... was not.  

To make such determinations seem less arbitrary, man's use of mechanical tools and his ability to create machine technology was defined as a key differentiator between him and other "non-intelligent" entities.  This was so even when animals were found able to achieve similar goals with more efficiency using non-mechanical technologies.  Even as man would sometimes seem the least intelligent creature in nature, standing alone in a forest vacated by animals minutes before it was ravaged by fire and smoke or swimming aimlessly in the Indian Ocean minutes before a Tsunami, wondering why all the fish have gone away, he has still held to a belief that dolphin sonar, bat radar, bird magneto-sensors, eel electro sensors, and fish hydro sensors are all "non-technologies" of "intelligence-free" "auto-responsive" "instinct-driven" animals while his ability to yield a knife proves his exclusive unique intelligence.  Man has held steadfastly to this belief even as it became increasingly evident that bio and mechanical technologies may be created12 and that advances in biotechnology may ultimately as important than mechanical technology in the long term success of our species. 

Subjective definitions continued even after the supposed ultimate proof of homo sapiens superiority, DNA complexity, was found non-existent.  The decoding of human and other animal genomes showed not that human DNA possessed more information or was more complex than other life forms on earth, but that the salamander's DNA held an order of magnitude more information, and that human DNA barely exceeded the complexity of a rice grass.