Biologist: Some computer scientists imagine that all that is required for making an artificial intelligence is to cre...

talhamuh on June 27, 2020

Why B and not E

Im looking at a past discussion and it seems as if the reasoning behind B is the same for E. What am I missing here?

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Skylar on June 27, 2020

@talhamuh, happy to help!

The passage states scientists who claim "creating a computer program that encapsulates the information contained in the human genome" is "all that is required for making an artificial intelligence" are mistaken. This is attributed to the fact that "the operation of the human brain is governed by the interactions of proteins whose structures are encoded in the human genome." Therefore, there must be a disconnect between the interactions of proteins whose structures are encoded in the human genome and merely the information contained in the human genome. In other words, the interactions of the proteins must not be controlled fully by the information in the human genome.

(B) "The interactions of the proteins that govern the operation of the human brain are not determined by the information contained in the human genome."
This is correct because it identifies the disconnect we noted above. In order for encapsulating information contained in the human genome to be insufficient for making AI, the interactions of the proteins whose structures are encoded in the human genome must not be determined by information in the human genome. Negating (B) would make the argument in the passage fall apart.

(E) "It is much more difficult to write a program that encapsulates the interactions of proteins than to write a program that encapsulates the information contained in the human genome."
This is incorrect because the argument in the passage has nothing to do with how difficult writing the program is. Nor does it have to do with writing and comparing two separate programs. Instead, it is focused only on a program that encapsulates the information contained in the human genome and whether or not this one program can also encapsulate the interactions of proteins. Therefore, negating (E) would not affect the argument.

Does that make sense? Hope it helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions!