Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

Monthly Archive June 2022

laboratory-mouse-in-the-experiment-test-stockpack-adobe-stock
Laboratory mouse in the experiment test.
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post
Author
News
Date
June 8, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience
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Researchers: Our Brains Use Data Compression To Get Things Right

A recent experiment with mice showed data compression at work when the mice were making decisions about how to get a reward
News
June 8, 2022
5
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience

We are used to thinking of data compression in connection with computers but a recent study with mice shows that brains compress data too. The researchers ask us to imagine a dilemma from anearly video game: If you were a kid in the 80s, or are a fan of retro video games, then you must know Frogger. The game can be quite a challenge. To win, you must first survive a stream of heavy traffic, only to then narrowly escape oblivion by zig-zagging across speeding wooden logs. How does the brain know what to focus on within all this mess? Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, “The brain applies data compression for decision-making” at Eurekalert (June 6, 2022) Driving in snarled, Read More ›

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Abstract virtual microscheme illustration on flag of China and blurry cityscape background. Big data and database concept. Multiexposure
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post
Author
News
Date
June 7, 2022
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Business and Finance, China
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Is China’s Crackdown on Big Tech Easing Up?

Depends on who you talk to. It could be wishful thinking on the part of investors
News
June 7, 2022
6
Business and Finance, China

. As a China news site SupChina told the story mid-last year, Beijing practically nuked the Chinese Big Tech industries: Since the suspension of Ant Group’s IPO in November, Beijing has embarked on an unprecedented clampdown of its technology sector. The casualties include some of China’s leading tech companies, such as Tencent (internet conglomerate), Meituan (food delivery), Pinduoduo (ecommerce), Didi (ride-hailing app), Full Truck Alliance (freight logistics app), Kanzhun (recruitment), online private tutoring companies like New Oriental Education and TAL Education, and a crackdown on cryptocurrencies. Chang Che and Jeremy Goldkorn, “China’s ‘Big Tech crackdown’: A guide” at SupChina (August 2, 2021) SupChina offered a variety of explanations for the sudden lunge at Big Tech, which started in November 2020, from ideological purification through internal Party warfare. Summing up: What the tech crackdown tells us Read More ›

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Change Chance
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post
Author
Eric Holloway
Date
June 7, 2022
Categorized
Biology, Probability, Programming
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The Salem Hypothesis: Why Engineers View the Universe as Designed

Not because we're terrorists or black-and-white thinkers, as claimed. A simple computer program shows the limits of creating information by chance
Eric Holloway
June 7, 2022
8
Biology, Probability, Programming

In the fun-filled world of internet debate between creationists and evolutionists, we encounter the Salem Hypothesis: Creationists tend to be engineers. Many explanations have been offered for this phenomenon (apparently named after Talk Origins contributor Bruce Salem): engineers are closet terrorists creationists are trying to protect their fragile beliefs a desire to exert authority engineers like simple black and white answers There’s a reason internet forums are not known for flattering character analysis! Anyhow, the true reason for the Salem Hypothesis is summed up in this graph. Read on to find out why. Engineers are more likely to be creationists because they are familiar with what it takes to design complex things for specific tasks. Which is exactly what we Read More ›

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Casino BlackJack
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post
Author
News
Date
June 7, 2022
Categorized
Mathematics
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Casinos: How Nerds Gamble and Win, Using the Law of Large Numbers

The American Physical Society created Las Vegas’s worst week in history and Don Johnson cleaned out Atlantic City. How?
News
June 7, 2022
14
Mathematics

In last week’s podcast, “The house always wins in the long run” (June 2, 2022), Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed mathematician, computer scientist, and engineer Salvador Cordova on the world of gamblers and how they try to improve their odds by physically manipulating dice (dice sliding ) and cards (false shuffling). Meanwhile, the house is relying on the Law of Large Numbers, which — being a mathematical law — wins out in the end. Sure, the Law may always win — but perhaps anyone can play it. Where we left the matter last time, in the first portion of this episode, Cordova talked about how “advantage players” try to make it work. In this second segment of Read More ›

hotel-stockpack-adobe-stock
hotel
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post
Author
News
Date
June 6, 2022
Categorized
Mathematics, Philosophy
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Math Fun: Hilbert’s Hotel Manager Copes With Infinity With Poise!

What, exactly, happens when a would-be guest shows up at a fully booked hotel — with infinite rooms?
News
June 6, 2022
5
Mathematics, Philosophy

Hilbert’s Hotel is a thought experiment that the great mathematician David Hilbert (1862–1943) developed to help us see the “counterintuitiveness of infinity.” He asks us to imagine a hotel which is “full” — except that because it is infinite, it can always create one more room. Mathematician Marianne Freiberger explains: Suppose that your hotel has infinitely many rooms, numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. All rooms are occupied, when a new guest arrives and asks to be put up. What do you do? It’s easy. Ask the guest in room 1 to move to room 2, the guest in room 2 to move into room 3, the guest in room 3 to move into room 4, and so on. If there Read More ›

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Twitter, man, business.
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post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 6, 2022
Categorized
Censorship, Social Media
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Will Musk’s Twitter Bid — Win or Lose — Damage Twitter’s Power?

Stirring the pot, Musk recently slammed current media’s marked disinterest in who teen sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s prominent clients were …
Denyse O'Leary
June 6, 2022
7
Censorship, Social Media

Just in: “Musk threatens to walk away from Twitter deal:” DETROIT (AP) — Elon Musk is threatening to walk away from his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter, accusing the company of refusing to give him information about its spam bot and fake accounts. Lawyers for the Tesla and SpaceX CEO made the threat in a letter to Twitter dated Monday, and Twitter disclosed it in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The letter says Musk has repeatedly asked for the information since May 9, about a month after his offer to buy the company, so he could evaluate how many of the company’s 229 million accounts are fake. Tom Krisher and Matt O’Brien , “Musk threatens Read More ›

near-death-experience-ascend-up-towards-the-light-in-the-dark-tunnel-stockpack-adobe-stock
Near death experience ascend up towards the light in the dark tunnel
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post
Author
News
Date
June 5, 2022
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Religion, Spirituality
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Agnostic Psychiatrist Says Near-Death Experiences Are Real

For example, he cites cases for Big Think where the clinically dead experiencer encounters a deceased individual who was not known to have died at the time
News
June 5, 2022
5
Philosophy of Mind, Religion, Spirituality

Psychiatrist and neurobehavioral scientist Bruce Greyson, author of After (2021) — a science-based look at near-death experiences — offers short videos unpacking the topic via Big Think: Are near-death experiences real? (7:15 min) BRUCE GREYSON: When I first started looking into near-death experiences back in the late-1970s, I assumed that there would be some physiological explanation for that. What I found over the decades was that the various simple explanations we could think of like lack of oxygen, drugs given to the people and so forth, don’t pan out- the data do not support them. And furthermore, the phenomena of NDEs, of near-death experiences, seem to defy a simple, materialistic explanation. When we first started presenting this material in medical Read More ›

group-of-burning-candles-against-blue-background-close-up-stockpack-adobe-stock
Group of burning candles against blue background, close up
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post
Author
News
Date
June 5, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience, Spirituality
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Neuroscientist: Spirituality Helps Health Directly and Indirectly

Andrew Newberg has spent thirty years studying the effects of spirituality using the techniques of neuroscience
News
June 5, 2022
4
Neuroscience, Spirituality

Neuroscientist Andrew Newberg, co-author with Daniel A. Monti, M.D., of Brain Weaver: Creating the Fabric for a Healthy Mind through Integrative Medicine (Kales Press, 2021), reflected recently on what studies on the mental health benefits of spirituality can teach us. Some of the benefits of spirituality are due to the lifestyle changes it promotes: For example, going to church or other social events that are part of a religious tradition can be beneficial because social support, in and of itself, is beneficial to our mental health. The more people that we have in our social support network, the better we are at coping with various life stressors including problems with jobs, relationships, or health. Most religions also teach people to Read More ›

zen-tower-horizontal-left-stockpack-adobe-stock
Zen tower horizontal left
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post
Author
News
Date
June 5, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Natural Intelligence
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Science: Mindfulness Makes a Measurable Difference — a Small One

Many mindfulness practitioners don’t take it seriously enough to change their lifestyle so as to gain the available benefit
News
June 5, 2022
4
Medicine and Health, Natural Intelligence

Researcher Kevin Dickinson reminds us that there is science behind mindfulness meditation but that crazes are crazes — and the nearly $9 billion dollar market for mindfulness wares is no substitute for serious, regular practice. Here’s what he found that the science tells us: A systematic review and meta-analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at 47 randomized clinical trials with active controls (totaling 3,515 participants). It found moderate evidence of mindfulness easing anxiety, depression, and pain; low evidence for assuaged stress; insufficient evidence of reduced substance abuse and poor eating habits; and no evidence that mindfulness was better than other treatment options. Similar results can be found across the scientific literature. Another meta-analysis found slightly larger but still moderate Read More ›

champagne-pool-zone-thermale-wai-o-tapu-en-nouvelle-zelande-stockpack-adobe-stock
Champagne Pool zone thermale Wai-O-Tapu en Nouvelle-Zélande
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post
Author
News
Date
June 4, 2022
Categorized
Biology
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Earth’s Weirdest Life Forms Show That ET Life Is Possible

Whether it’s living in boiling water, breathing sulfur, or eating radiation, we’ve found life forms that do just that right here on Earth
News
June 4, 2022
4
Biology

Astrobiologists debate whether extraterrestrial life would be a lot like life on Earth or quite different. There may be a middle position… A number of life forms on Earth are just so weird that they demonstrate that life can come into existence — and stay in existence — in a variety of ways we never thought possible: ● A giant undersea meadow recently turned out to be one single plant – the world’s largest. Posidonia australis, a seagrass, kept all the genes from both parents so it reproduces by sprouting rhizomes, not by mating. Futurism (June 2, 2022) ● It’s not clear what The Blob at the Paris Zoo even is, in scientific terms. It has 720 sexes, no limbs, Read More ›

sci-fi-scene-showing-the-giant-monster-invading-night-city-digital-art-style-illustration-painting-stockpack-adobe-stock
sci-fi scene showing the giant monster invading night city, digital art style, illustration painting
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News
Date
June 4, 2022
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Researcher: Only 4 in 1000s of ET Groups Are Likely Malicious

Historically, sci-fi has preferred aliens to be overlords or villains. But a researcher asks us to look at the history of conflict on our own planet…
News
June 4, 2022
6

In a recent paper at Physics ArXiv, Alberto Caballero, a PhD student in conflict resolution at the University of Vigo in Spain, has calculated that there are, perhaps, four civilizations in our galaxy that are both intelligent and evil. A natural response has been “only four? Not counting us?” The estimate got quite a bit of media attention. To arrive at it, Caballero began by reviewing the history of conflicts on Earth: To reach his estimation, Caballero first counted the number of countries that invaded other countries between 1915 and 2022. He found that a total of 51 of the world’s 195 nations had launched some sort of invasion during that period. (The U.S. sat at the top of the Read More ›

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spaceships battle
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post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
June 4, 2022
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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Serenity Review Part 2: Great Scenes Dogged by Bad Plot Choices

We meet fresh villains and finally learn River’s secret: She knows the origin of the malevolent Reavers and it is not neat or pretty
Gary Varner
June 4, 2022
16
Arts & Culture

Last time, I began my (now) three-part review of the film Serenity (2005) with a defense of creator and director Joss Whedon’s character development choices. I have issues with some of his plot choices, however, so let me pick up where the first review left off. In order to get more information on River, Wash suggests speaking with a galactic hacker known as Mr. Universe. Mr. Universe tells them that the Alliance had indeed used a subliminal signal to activate River’s programming. He also points out that River mentions the word “ Miranda”. At the same time, Simon checks on River and, as he speaks with her, she tells him that “Miranda” is a memory, but it isn’t hers. In Read More ›

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Crinkle Cut Psychedelic Pulse
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post
Author
News
Date
June 3, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience
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Optical Illusions: What Causes Them? Try Some Out!

Illusions can be literal, physiological, or cognitive, depending on which aspect of your brain is the object of a con job on your vision
News
June 3, 2022
3
Neuroscience

Abigail Howell, a biomedical student at ArizonaState University, explains that there are three different types of optical illusion, in which the brain incorrectly interprets what the eyes are seeing: Literal optical illusions are often produced by putting together a collection of multiple images. Each individual image may be easy to see, but the images together may look very different than the originals. This is accomplished through what is known as the “filling-in phenomena.” When the eye sends visual information to the brain, the brain chooses what parts to focus on. Depending on the focus, different layers of the image may be seen. Abigail Howell, “Ask a biologist: What causes optical illusions?” at ArizonaState University She offers as an example of Read More ›

multi-casino-games-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
Multi Casino Games Concept
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post
Author
News
Date
June 3, 2022
Categorized
Information Theory
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Gambling: WHY the House Always Wins in the Long Run…

The casinos are not cheating. They rely on the Law of Large Numbers, part of the mathematical structure underlying our universe
News
June 3, 2022
12
Information Theory

In this week’s podcast, “The house always wins in the long run” (June 2, 2022), Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviews mathematician, computer scientist, and engineer Salvador Cordova on a subject on which he has strong views: gambling. Marks tells us, “I teach a graduate course on probability and stochastic processes. There I teach the stupidity of casino gambling. In statistics, there’s a theorem called the Law of Large Numbers. It teaches that you can’t win in the long run at casino games. Period. The law of large numbers is a mathematical truth. It’s a law as serious as the law of gravity. It’s why casinos always get rich and the gambler always gets poor. There is a Read More ›

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leafcutter ants
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post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 3, 2022
Categorized
Natural Intelligence
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The Hive Mind: Leafcutter Ants Behave Like Farmhands But…

But they are actually following a colony algorithm rather than making individual decisions
Denyse O'Leary
June 3, 2022
6
Natural Intelligence

Eric Cassell, author of Animal Algorithms: Evolution and the Mysterious Origin of Ingenious Instincts (2021), tells us that his favorite type of ant (p. 97) is the leafcutter (Attini). Its complex fungus farming provides insight into the “hive mind,” in which a natural version of a computer algorithm enables highly complex decision-making. There are 39 known species of leafcutters in the American tropics, easily recognized as the long trails (up to 30 metres) of ants, all carrying pieces of leaves they have stripped from trees. They bring them into underground nests featuring perhaps a thousand chambers housing millions of ants. There they chew up the leaves and cultivate the fungus that feeds their larvae and themselves (along with plant sap). Read More ›

data-stockpack-adobe-stock
Data.
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post
Author
News
Date
June 2, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Environment, Physics, Science
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World’s Fastest Computer Breaks Into the Exascale

How fast? “If each person on Earth completed one calculation per second, it would take more than 4 years to do what an exascale computer can do in 1 second.”
News
June 2, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence, Environment, Physics, Science

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee announced earlier this week that its Frontier Supercomputer, having broken the exascale barrier, is the world’s fastest. It can do more than a quintillion calculations per second: The Frontier supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory earned the top ranking today as the world’s fastest on the 59th TOP500 list, with 1.1 exaflops of performance. The system is the first to achieve an unprecedented level of computing performance known as exascale, a threshold of a quintillion calculations per second. Frontier features a theoretical peak performance of 2 exaflops, or two quintillion calculations per second, making it ten times more powerful than ORNL’s Summit system. News, “Frontier supercomputer Read More ›

brain-network-of-astrocytes-glial-cells-that-support-neurons-stockpack-adobe-stock
Brain: network of astrocytes (glial cells that support neurons).
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post
Author
News
Date
June 2, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience
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The Zombie Genes That Survive Our Deaths

News
June 2, 2022
4
Neuroscience

Death is an event that is more like a process. Some brain cells even become more active after we die. Neuroscientist Jeffrey A. Loeb explains: “Most studies assume that everything in the brain stops when the heart stops beating, but this is not so,” says the study’s corresponding author Jeffrey Loeb, the John S. Garvin Professor and head of neurology and rehabilitation at the UIC’s College of Medicine. Robby Berman, “‘Zombie’ genes in the brain get to work after you die” at Big Think (March 26, 2021) He and colleagues discovered gene expression in tissue from brain surgery that did not jive with the expressions observed in living humans, whether or not those humans had any neurological disorders. Because he Read More ›

brain-thinking-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
brain, thinking concept
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post
Author
News
Date
June 2, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Researchers: Humans Process Information Differently From Monkeys

In a paper at Nature Neuroscience, researchers reported on human vs. macaque brains on input/output systems and synergy between regions
News
June 2, 2022
6
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

In the ongoing research puzzle as to exactly why humans are significantly smarter than other animals, researchers writing in Nature Neuroscience have adopted an information theory approach, describing the human brain as a “distributed information-processing system.” They found that we process information differently from other primates. Our brain regions for sensory and motor functions use a simple input/output system with high reliability due to high redundancy (repetition). Our eyes duplicate most of each other’s information but that helps ensure that our view of the scene is correct. However, there is a very different way of processing information — synergistic processing — which integrates signals from across a variety of brain networks. This approach is better adapted, the researchers say, to Read More ›

Green wavy parrot is sitting on a white cage. The parrot looks out of the cage.
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post
Author
News
Date
June 1, 2022
Categorized
Addiction, Medicine and Health
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How “Stretch” Finally Kicked the Medical Opioid Habit

It wasn’t easy but it was the high cost of staying alive while managing his chronic medical disorder
News
June 1, 2022
11
Addiction, Medicine and Health

In a recent podcast, “A first-hand account of kicking Fentanyl addiction: reversing Hebb’s law” (May 12, 2022), Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed a man who got addicted to Fentanyl as a medical drug. Some opioid addictions begin in the hospital. In the previous portion of this episode, “Stretch” told Robert J. Marks how he became addicted while seeking relief from pain stemming from operations — because “neurons that fire together wire together ( Hebb’s Law )”. Then, when he sensed that drugs were ruling his life without really dealing with the pain, he set out on the road to recovery — and was surprised to find anesthetists and nurses in the recovery group with him. Now, in Read More ›

funny-boy-and-beagle-dog-are-watching-laptop-on-sofa-in-room-stockpack-adobe-stock
funny boy and beagle dog are watching laptop on sofa in room
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post
Author
News
Date
June 1, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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AI expert: Stop Distinguishing Between AI, Human and Animal Minds

Aaron Sloman’s approach to minds sounds a bit like panpsychism — which is increasingly accepted in science — but there are differences
News
June 1, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Philip Ball, author of The Book of Minds: How to understand ourselves and other beings, from animals to AI to aliens (University of Chicago Press, 2022), profiles University of Birmingham computer scientist Aaron Sloman, whose 1984 paper, “The structure of the space of possible minds” sought to account for human, animal, and AI minds as “behaving systems.” Along the way, Sloman came to a significant conclusion: “We must abandon the idea that there is one major boundary between things with and without minds,” he wrote. “Instead, informed by the variety of types of computational mechanisms already explored, we must acknowledge that there are many discontinuities, or divisions within the space of possible systems: the space is not a continuum, nor Read More ›