Today, I prompted ChatGPT with a custom search algorithm. My goal was to find rare, obscure texts on Artificial Intelligence from the 1980s. Books invisible to traditional search. GPT returned three publications, however one book caught my attention far more than the rest. It’s name: Micro Man: Computers and the Evolution of Consciousness (1982), by the seemingly obscure author Gordon Pask. I unexpectedly found his life story to be both fascinating and deeply compelling. This book explored the relationship between human beings and computing machines and uncannily predicted what that relationship would look like in the future. Who was Gordon Pask? Gordon Pask (1928–1996) was a British polymath, inventor, and important figure in the field of Cybernetics. Cybernetics - was a discipline that focused on how systems (a person or robot) use information about what’s happening right now to achieve a goal. Cybernetics eventually became Artificial Intelligence. Pask was often described as a mad scientist, due to his eccentric writing and teaching style. He was rarely seen without his signature double-breasted velvet jacket, bow tie, and a dramatic cape. Nonetheless, the man was a fantastic visionary, far ahead of his time. In Micro Man, Pask writes various predictions that describe the future relationship between humans and computers, he believed this association would evolve into one of dependence. It’s safe to say he was correct, human life is now very dependent on technology. Pask also built several incredibly advanced machines throughout his life, one was SAKI (1956): The Self-Adaptive Keyboard Instructor. This was essentially an adaptive teaching machine. It measured a student’s performance and automatically adjusted the difficulty, focusing on the specific keys the student struggled with the most. One of Gordon’s most important developments was Conversation Theory (1970). Pask believed that intelligence isn’t just something inside a brain or a machine, it actually emerges through conversation. In other words, learning through interaction. His belief: A system (human or machine) is intelligent if it can engage in a dialogue, refine its responses, and build shared memory over time. This is the essence of how LLMs interact with us. Unfortunately, it seems Gordon Pask has become forgotten amongst computer science literature. This might’ve resulted from the Cybernetics field rebranding into modern Artificial Intelligence, causing the original discipline, and its members, to fade into obscurity. Pask’s hidden existence adds a captivating element to his story, while suggesting that many intellects, and a far larger body of their work, are currently inaccessible through conventional search algorithms. Nonetheless, Pask’s combination of powerful intellect and creative vision were critical in furthering the field of artificial intelligence. ChatGPT and Gemini owe their existence to some of the theories made by pioneers in the Cybernetic space. In Retrospect Looking back, it’s fascinating to think that, at one point in time, Pask was sitting at his desk writing Micro Man… Detailing his predictions of future machine systems… Not only would these predictions eventually come true… But the very
systems he described would one day become the medium through which his ideas would reach future generations… submitted by /u/bcampos99
Originally posted by u/bcampos99 on r/ArtificialInteligence
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