100-2 Mid-term Examination Answers (English)

1. What are the three scientific revolutions of the 20th century ?

Quantum Revolution
Computer (or IT, Information Technology) Revolution
Bio-molecular Revolution

 

2. What is Moore's Law ? What drives Moore's Law ?

Number of transistors can be build on the same area of semiconductor chip doubles every 18 months.

The ability of mankind to make transistors smaller and smaller.(Visions book : page 29)

 

3. What does the so-called "ubiquitous computing" mean ? Does "Cloud Computing" count as one(ubiquitous computing)? Why?

Computer chips become so cheap that they are installed everywhere for all different kind of purpose. (Visions book: page 24, and TV)

Yes, cloud computing is a kind of ubiqitous computing. Service using higher capacity computing power, through the network, is hide behind the "cloud", making computing facility invisible.

(If there is any student answer "No", please leave the marking to me and I will mark that answer myself. to see if he or she gave a convincing reasoning to the answer given.)

 

4. What are the "three phases of computing" ?

phase 1 : many people use one computer
phase 2 : one person uses one "personal" computer
phase 3 : one person uses many computers

 

5. How to build emotion into a machine ?

Build "focuser" for the machine to direct all (or most) recourses onto something. This can be triggered by external stimulation. (Visions book: page 91)

 

6. Dalai Lama met with scientists at the New York Academy of Sciences to explore the link between science and religion. He was asked if he was familiar with work on artificial intelligence. When he said he was, he was asked if an artificial intelligence being was a reincarnated being. What did Dalai Lama replied ? What does this (what the Dalai Lama replied) has to do with the famous concept "Turing Test"?

(Visions book : page 96)

The idea of Turing Test is to set up two rooms, one has computer, one has human. People outside the room can only communicate to them with text-typing device. If people outside can not distiguish which room has computer, the computer "pass" the Turing Test and is regarded to have higher form of intelligence.

Dalai requeested the hypothetical AI life form to be brought to him in order to decide whether it is a re-incarnative being, this is similar to the idea of Turing Test.

 

7. What is Narrow AI?

An intelligence machine or device doing some specific tasks that usually better than human do. (For example, assemble car parts, fly aircraft, make complicated financial decisions readily.)

 

8. Briefly described the history of Internet.

Internet originated from a military application ARPA Net in U.S. It was designed to prevent communication between two cites being cut out during war time. With a network between notes (cities), information could be "route" (take alternative course) to destination even though the shortest link between two sites is broken. This architecture later was used in world wide communication and later become Internet.

 

9. The Japanese robot Asimo has very capable function in which way?

Walks with two legs like human.

 

10. In Visions-- Episode One, what is the so called Superbot?

Blocks of robot parts that can communicate with each other, and can assemmble together in different form to complete specific task, For example forming a ring, or snake, or two-leg bug.