Month: August 2018

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Mind Matters
Date
August 31, 2018

Categorized
Business and Finance, Machine Learning

Tagged
book reviews, George Gilder, Life after Google (book), Technocracy}

Imagining Life after Google

_{Reviewers of George Gilder's new book weigh in} _{Mind Matters
August 31, 2018

6

Business and Finance, Machine Learning}

If we have simply taken the big software, hardware, and social media companies who dominate our lives for granted, the reactions from the business world to Life after Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy should give us a lot to think about.

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 31, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Social Factors

Tagged
Conjuring the Universe (book), cosmology, Peter Atkins, Philosophy of Mind}

Could AI Understand the Universe?

_{World-renowned chemist thinks it might understand what we can’t, including consciousness} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 31, 2018

3

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Social Factors}

Atkins is arguing that the fact that we do not understand what consciousness is, far from being a barrier to creating artificial consciousness, offers the hope that, once we do create them, artificially conscious entities will understand consciousness but we won’t. The proposition sounds a bit confused, no? Read More ›

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Robert J. Marks
Date
August 30, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Social Factors

Tagged
2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL 9000}

Could HAL 9000 Ever Be Built?

_{I say yes. Some reflections on the 50th Year Anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey} _{Robert J. Marks
August 30, 2018

8

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Social Factors}

At one point on the trip from Earth to Jupiter, HAL becomes suspicious that the crew might be sabotaging the mission. HAL then purposely tries to kill all the crew. The most logical explanation for this act is a coding error. HAL was programmed to operate on the basis that the mission took priority over human life.

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 30, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Work

Tagged
Dystopia, Jay Richards, Noah Smith, Prediction Machines (book), Robogeddon, Robots, The Human Advantage}

Robogeddon!! Pause.

_{Wait. This just in: AI is NOT killing all our jobs} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 30, 2018

5

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Work}

Jay Richards, author of The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Machines,sees it as more of a retooling than a meltdown. But retooling does mean change, work, cost, and risk. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 29, 2018

Categorized
Ethics, Social Factors

Tagged
Angela Nagle, Ireland, Silicon Valley, social media, Technocracy}

Silicon Valley as a Colonial Power

_{Irish writer asks us to look more carefully at claims about “liberation”} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 29, 2018

4

Ethics, Social Factors}

The social media companies will force us to define ourselves over against the specifications of our would-be programmers. And say what you want about the conflict, it will never be dull. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 28, 2018

Categorized
Social Factors

Tagged
Advertising, Amazon, Facebook, Google, social media, Technocracy}

Giant Google’s Vulnerable Spot

_{Social media are free because we are both the content and the market} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 28, 2018

4

Social Factors}

Recently, we looked at philosopher of technology George Gilder’s Life after Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy. But what form would that decline take? A look at the advertising picture offers one clue. Read More ›

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Robert Verrill, OP
Date
August 27, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Daniel Dennett, Game of Life}

Can a Game Prove That Computers Could Really Think?

_{Philosopher Daniel Dennett thinks so. Let's apply Occam's Razor and see} _{Robert Verrill, OP
August 27, 2018

7

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

While I agree with Dennett that Occam’s Razor shouldn’t be used overzealously, we shouldn’t be too reluctant to use it either. The reason why Dennett rejects Occam’s Razor in the Game of Life is that if he didn’t, then nothing in the Game of Life would be capable of possessing cognitive states. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 25, 2018

Categorized
Machine Learning, Social Factors

Tagged
criminal justice, ethics, Social Factors}

Ethics for an Information Society

_{Because machines can’t learn to solve their own ethical problems} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 25, 2018

2

Machine Learning, Social Factors}

AI (machine learning) was probably faster and cheaper but the whole point of the system was supposed to be justice which, whatever the explanation, proved too difficult to calculate… Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 25, 2018

Categorized
Machine Learning, Social Factors

Tagged
fake news, mass manipulation}

AI Tools for Mass Manipulation?

_{Machine learning can unleash a perfect storm of malice, experts warn} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 25, 2018

3

Machine Learning, Social Factors}

In 2017, a group of 26 AI researchers got together at Oxford and created a report which offers a number of examples of malicious technologies of the near future. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 24, 2018

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
brain, brain size}

Do Big Brains Matter to Human Intelligence?

_{We don’t know. Brain research readily dissolves into confusion at that point} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 24, 2018

2

Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

We also know very little about the human brain. Take this controversy about why the large human brain evolved...

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 22, 2018

Categorized
Social Factors

Tagged
internet awareness education, parasocial relationships, Social Factors, Social Isolation, social media, Technocracy, Unintended Consequences, YouTube}

Hell Is a “Parasocial” Place

_{Where your "friends" may not even exist} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 22, 2018

4

Social Factors}

Consumer digital hells can be dreadful indeed but they are mostly of our own making. The companies that profit from them are not forcing us to live in them. That said, students should be taught in school that the internet’s virtual world features a great deal of fakery, including fake friends. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 20, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning

Tagged
Alison Darcy, Olivia Solon, pseudo-AI, Ramona Pringle, Robots, Wizard of Oz, Woebot}

Sometimes the ‘Bots Turn Out To Be Humans

_{That “lifelike” effect was easier to come by than some might think} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 20, 2018

3

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning}

Companies sometimes pretend to be using AI or machine learning when they are actually using human employees for various reasons. One reason is that they have promised potential investors more high tech than they can deliver. Sometimes, as we learned recently at The Guardian, it gets a bit sticky... Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 20, 2018

Categorized
Machine Learning, Social Factors

Tagged
China, facial recognition systems, Karl D. Stephan, Ryan Khurana, Surveillance, Technocracy, Zimbabwe}

Will AI Liberate or Enslave Developing Countries?

_{Perhaps that depends on who gets there first with the technology} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 20, 2018

3

Machine Learning, Social Factors}

Karl D. Stephan: Zimbabwe, an African country well-known for its human-rights abuses, has received advanced Chinese AI technology from a startup company in exchange for letting the firm have access to the country’s facial-recognition database. So China is helping the government of Zimbabwe to keep tabs on its citizens as well. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 18, 2018

Categorized
Social Factors

Tagged
Google Glass, Human Interface, Privacy, Wetware}

So what happened to Google Glass?

_{We are told that the “wetware” (humans) got in the way} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 18, 2018

2

Social Factors}

It bears repeating: A technology is adopted when it solves problems as identified by users rather than problems as identified by developers. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 17, 2018

Categorized
Social Factors

Tagged
children, Robots, trust}

Do children trust robots too much?

_{Maybe, but more study is needed, say researchers} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 17, 2018

3

Social Factors}

Children could easily give in to peer pressure from other children to give an incorrect answer in place of a correct one. How much difference it makes that the pressure is supplied by a robot would surely depend on how the child is taught to see robots. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 17, 2018

Categorized
Business and Finance

Tagged
bitcoin, Ethereum, Maria Bustillos, money}

Why Do We Think Money Is Real?

_{It is actually a constantly shifting network of agreements to trust others} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 17, 2018

3

Business and Finance}

It is actually a constantly shifting network of agreements to trust others. Maria Bustillos, editor of Ethereum’s culturemag, Popula, asks us to think about just what money is before we make up our minds about Bitcoin.

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Robert J. Marks
Date
August 16, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
Douglas T.Ross, expert systems, film, human uniqueness, hype, Natural Intelligence, screenwriting}

Screenwriters’ Jobs Are Not Threatened by AI

_{Unless the public starts preferring mishmash to creativity} _{Robert J. Marks
August 16, 2018

7

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

An AI-generated film is not an altogether new idea. Rule-based expert systems were used to write short plays over a half century ago, in the early 1960's. Then, as now, don’t expect creativity. That is not what AI does.

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Eric Holloway
Date
August 15, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Basener's Ceiling, Gödel's Theorem}

Could One Single Machine Invent Everything?

_{The king’s perpetual innovation machine was all ready to roll but then a skeptic butted in} _{Eric Holloway
August 15, 2018

8

Artificial Intelligence}

Computers can never originate, they only regurgitate. Humans, on the other hand, can come up with original ideas, i.e. they write the programs in the first place. So, my proof shows that the human mind cannot be a computer program. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 14, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Social Factors

Tagged
Big Tech, George Gilder, Google, Life after Google (book), Silicon Valley, Technocracy}

George Gilder: Life after Google Will Be Okay

_{People will take ownership of their own data, cutting out the giant “middle man”} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 14, 2018

5

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Social Factors}

In his new book, he calls the successor era he envisions the “cryptocosm,” referring to the private encryption of data, represented by technologies such as blockchain.

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Jonathan Bartlett
Date
August 13, 2018

Categorized
Machine Learning, Social Factors

Tagged
ETFs, Exchange Traded Funds, Information Theory, stock market}

Who Creates Information in a Market?

_{Do exchange-traded funds (ETFs)' algorithms make personally gathering information obsolete?} _{Jonathan Bartlett
August 13, 2018

6

Machine Learning, Social Factors}

Algorithmic strategies can only be as good as the information that goes into them. Ignoring how the information is created causes us to misunderstand the dynamics of value creation. Algorithms can leverage information, they can’t create it.