Could humans outpace even the fastest supercomputers? Scientists have extended the limits of quantum physics calculations while blurring the boundaries between man and machine.
Genuine machine consciousness has not yet been created. However, computers can often outmatch humans. For example, Google's algorithm AlphaGo recently beat a professional player in the game Go, which is a huge achievement that demonstrates the speed of development in machines.
"It may sound dramatic, but we are currently in a race with technology-and steadily being overtaken in many areas," said Jacob Sherson, one of the researchers involved in the new study. "Features that used to be uniquely human are fully captured by contemporary algorithms. Our results are here to demonstrate that there is still a difference between the abilities of a man and a machine."
When it comes to the interface between quantum physics and computer games, humans still have an advantage. Our skill in approaching problems heuristically and solving them intuitively help us outcompete computers.
In this latest study, the researchers mapped out how the human brain is able to make decisions based on intuition and accumulated experience. To do this, they used the online game "Quantum Moves."
"The map we created gives us insight into the strategies formed by the human brain," Sherson said. "We behave intuitively when we need to solve an unknown problem, whereas for a computer this is incomprehensible. A computer churns through enormous amounts of information, but we can choose not to do this by basing our decisions on experience or intuition. It is these intuitive insights that we discovered by analyzing the Quantum Moves player solutions."
The laws of quantum physics dictate an upper speed limit for data manipulation, which, in turn, sets the ultimate limit to the processing power of quantum computers, which is known as the Quantum Speed Limit. Until now, though, a computer algorithm has been used to identify this limit. In this latest study, the researchers found that human input can yield better solutions than the algorithm.
"The players solve a very complex problem by creating simple strategies," Sherson said. "Where a computer goes through all available options, players automatically search for a solution that intuitively feels right. Through our analysis we found that there are common features in the players' solutions, providing a glimpse into the shared intuition of humanity. If we can teach computers to recognize these good solutions, calculations will be much faster. In a sense we are downloading our common intuition to the computer."
The findings are published in the April 14 issue of the journal Nature.
