^ArchiveArticles

Blue hydraulic Clow Crane used for picking up scrap metal at recycling yard

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Author
News
Date
November 7, 2020

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Ethics

Tagged
Anand Vaidya, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), Data (fictional robot), Lovelace test, Measure of a Man (Star Trek), Science fiction, Star Trek, Turing Test}

Is It Ethical To Scrap Star Trek’s Commander Data for Research?

_{A philosopher offers a thoughtful review of the case} _{News

November 7, 2020

4

Arts & Culture, Ethics}

In a thought-provoking essay, San José State University philosopher Anand Vaidya asks, should it be okay to dismantle Star Trek‘s robotic crew member Data for research purposes, as proposed in the “The Measure of a Man” episode in Star Trek: The Next Generation? Some of the Trek brass seemed to think so: Vaidya disagrees: As real artificial intelligence technology advances toward Hollywood’s imagined versions, the question of moral standing grows more important. If AIs have moral standing, philosophers like me reason, it could follow that they have a right to life. That means you cannot simply dismantle them, and might also mean that people shouldn’t interfere with their pursuing their goals. Anand Vaidya, “If a robot is conscious, is it Read More ›

Alien Planet - 3D rendered computer artwork

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post

Author
News
Date
November 7, 2020

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Abraham Loeb, Firstborn Hypothesis, Matt Williams, Privileged Planet hypothesis, R. N. Bracewell, Rare Earth hypothesis, Science fiction}

What If We Don’t See Aliens Because They Have Not Evolved Yet?

_{If so, not only did we emerge during a favorable time in the universe’s history but we could end up suppressing them} _{News

November 7, 2020

7

Arts & Culture}

Readers will recall that we have been looking at science writer Matt Williams’s analysis of the various reasons offered as to why we do not see extraterrestrials except at the movies. Last week, we looked at the Brief Window hypothesis (there is only a comparatively short period of time during which a civilization could make such contact). But there is another, darker possibility: We are ahead of them. And if we are not careful, we could end up suppressing them. That’s the Firstborn hypothesis: The universe has only begun to be hospitable to intelligent life and humans are among the first to benefit from that fact. The current model of the universe shows it radiating from the Big Bang over Read More ›

Ai identify person technology for recognize, classify and predict human behavior for safety. Futuristic artificial intelligence. Surveillance and data collection of citizens through city cameras.

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post

Author
News
Date
November 6, 2020

Categorized
Data Privacy, Ethics, Global Technology, Surveillance

Tagged
Alexa, Amazon, Amazon Ring, Anonymization, COVID-19, Data buying, Deanonymizing data, Door cameras, Freedom House, Police surveillance, Smart TVs}

The Information We Just Give Away Obliterates Privacy

_{Privacy may turn out to be one of the biggest political issues of the new decade} _{News

November 6, 2020

6

Data Privacy, Ethics, Global Technology, Surveillance}

A story came to light at VICE in 2017, that the CIA spied on people through their smart TVs. Without getting into those weeds, note this conventional warning offered by manufacturers: “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition.” An old birdwatcher’s tip: If you can see them, assume they can see you. If the internet is wide open to us, we are potentially wide open to the internet. Here are three surveillance issues worth pondering, about the systems we take for granted: ➤ Alexa employees listen in: Amazon.com Inc. employs thousands of people Read More ›

Robotic man cyborg face representing artificial intelligence 3D rendering

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post

Author
News
Date
November 5, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI Indian Summer, AI Winter, Connectome, Featured, Gaming AI (book), George Gilder, Ray Kurzweil, Robert J. Marks, Singularity, zettabyte}

Has the Singularity Been Called Off? Indefinitely Postponed?

_{If a human brain has as many connections as the whole internet, why should we merge with computers in a Singularity?} _{News

November 5, 2020

7

Artificial Intelligence}

In this week’s podcast, “George Gilder on Superintelligent AI,” tech philosopher George Gilder and computer engineer Robert J. Marks, our Walter Bradley Center director, continued their discussion of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). This time, they focused on whether, in terms of AI, we are in an Indian summer (a warm period just before winter sets in). Or is AI advancing to a superintelligence that eclipses the intellect of humans? You can download Gilder’s new book, Gaming AI, for free here. The two earlier episodes and transcripts are linked below. And now … https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-107-George-Gilder.mp3 From the transcript: (Show Notes, Resources, and a link to the complete transcript follow.) Robert J. Marks: Why do you believe that we are on Read More ›

With the global spread of the new coronavirus pneumonia, an automated line of disposable medical masks makes the masks ready for an epidemic 24 hours a day, COVID-19 outbreak

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post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
November 5, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Global Technology, Medicine and Health, Surveillance

Tagged
Africa, Africans in China, China, COVID-19, Featured, Guangzhou, Racism}

COVID-19 Response Exposes Racism in China, amid Harmony Claims

_{The lid blew off when African leaders broke the accustomed silence imposed by their dependence on Chinese high-tech loans} _{Heather Zeiger

November 5, 2020

8

Ethics, Global Technology, Medicine and Health, Surveillance}

The coronavirus COVID-19 epidemic has exposed two longstanding ugly problems: underlying racist views of Africans living in China and the burden debt to China lays on several African countries. The key flashpoints creating tension between China and Africa are 1) Mistreatment of citizens of African countries living in China, particularly in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province (pictured) and 2) Beijing’s position on granting debt relief to countries in Africa so they can direct resources to dealing with the coronavirus. In one incident, Nigeria’s speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, posted a video of himself summoning Chinese Ambassador Zhou Pingjian to his office where he expressed his displeasure about a Nigerian man being evicted from his home. While nobody Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
November 4, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Anthony Stretton, Binary Reality Assumption, Ergodicity, Ergodicity Assumption, Featured, Gaming AI, George Gilder, Go, Map vs. territory, Roundworm, self-driving cars}

Maps Are Not Territories and Reality Needn’t Follow Our Rules

_{These assumptions are just two more tales from the AI apocalypse, as George Gilder tells it, in Gaming AI.} _{News

November 4, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence}

Yesterday, we looked at two of the six assumptions that, according to George Gilder (pictured) in Gaming AI, are generally shared by those who believe that we will merge with our machines in a Singularity. These first two assumptions were: The brain is a computer and Big Data is a Big Answer. Now here are two more: • “The Binary Reality Assumption: Reliable links exist between maps and territories, computational symbols, and their objects.” (p. 50) Basically, this assumption means that reality will somehow always phone the computer’s map to say that things have changed. That assumption underlies the push for self-driving cars that can handle any terrain (Level 5). The machine is to handle all possibilities, including remote, unmapped Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
November 4, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Information Theory, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
brain, Genomics, Manuel Brenner, Materialism, Naturalism, Neocortex, neuroplasticity, Ray Kurzweil}

A Neuroscientist on Why We Can Build Human-like Brains

_{Manuel Brenner, a particle physicist as well as a neuroscientist, thinks pattern recognition is the answer} _{News

November 4, 2020

6

Artificial Intelligence, Information Theory, Philosophy of Mind}

Manuel Brenner, a particle physicist who became a theoretical neuroscientist, made the argument last year that human intelligence is less complex than we make it out to be. Thus, building an artificial intelligence might be easier than we suppose. He offers some intriguing arguments and here are some responses: ➤ Is the information we need for building human-like AI in our genes? He doesn’t think so because a tomato has 7000 more genes than a human being. Further, our human genome offers only 25 million bytes of information for our brain’s design but there are 1015 connections in the adult neocortex. His conclusion? “there needs to be a much simpler, more efficient way of defining the blueprint for our brain Read More ›

3D Rendering of binary tunnel with led leading light. Concept for data mining, big data visualization, machine learning, data discovery technology, customer product analysis.

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post

Author
News
Date
November 3, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Science

Tagged
Big Data, Big Data Assumption, brain, computer, Featured, Gaming AI (book), Gary Smith, George Gilder, Modeling Assumption, Yuri Danilov}

The Brain Is Not a Computer and Big Data Is Not a Big Answer

_{These claims are mere tales from the AI apocalypse, as George Gilder tells it, in Gaming AI} _{News

November 3, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Science}

In Gaming AI, George Gilder (pictured) sets out six assumptions generally shared by those who believe that, in a Singularity sometime soon, we will merge with our machines. Some of these assumptions seem incorrect and they are certainly all discussable. So let’s look at the first two: • “The Modeling Assumption: A computer can deterministically model a brain.” (p. 50) That would be quite difficult because brains don’t function like computers: As neuroscientist Yuri Danilov said last year, “Right now people are saying, each synoptical connection is a microprocessor. So if it’s a microprocessor, you have 1012 neurons, each neuron has 105 synapses, so you have… you can compute how many parallel processing units you have in the brain if Read More ›

smart retail concept, robot service use for check the data of or Stores that stock goods on shelves with easily-viewed barcode and prices or photo compared against an idealized representation of store

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post

Author
News
Date
November 3, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Work

Tagged
Amazon, Autonomous cars, Boeing, driverless cars, employment, Featured, Jobs, Jonathan Bartlett, Robots, self-driving cars, Walmart}

WalMart Shelves Its Robot Inventory Clerks

_{These costly experiences are helping businesses better understand when automation works and when it just doesn’t} _{News

November 3, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Work}

The WalMart automation project started in 2017, as part of an effort to compete with Amazon: Walmart, which posted record online sales in its recent quarter, now has more workers walking the aisles to package online orders, extracting new data on inventory problems, people familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal, which was the first to report this news. Reuters Staff, “Walmart drops plans to use robots for tracking inventory” at Reuters Here’s some background: Walmart ended the partnership because it found different, sometimes simpler solutions that proved just as useful – something that came to light during the coronavirus pandemic as more shoppers flock to online delivery and pickup, forcing Walmart to have workers physically walk store Read More ›

Cell abstract concept. Microorganisms under microscope

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Author
News
Date
November 2, 2020

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Science

Tagged
Cell (biology), Daniel Dennett, Darwinism, Michael Levin, mind, Naturalism}

Are Our Minds Just an Extension of the Minds of Our Cells?

_{A prominent philosopher and a well-known biologist make the case, offering an illustration} _{News

November 2, 2020

6

Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Science}

Naturalism, the idea that physical nature is all there is, can lead us down some strange paths. In the words of prominent philosopher Daniel Dennett and prominent biologist Michael Levin, both of Tufts University, the road to “biology’s next great horizon” is the attempt to “understand cells, tissues and organisms as agents with agendas (even if unthinking ones).” They think that the principle of natural selection acting on random mutations can create everything, including minds: Thanks to Charles Darwin, biology doesn’t ever have to invoke an ‘intelligent designer’ who created all those mechanisms. Evolution by natural selection has done – and is still doing – all that refining and focusing and differentiating work. We’re all just physical mechanisms made of Read More ›

Concentrated afro american editor checking email box while waiting feedback from readers of popular magazine sitting in modern coworking space using laptop computer and wireless connection to internet

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Author
Eric Holloway
Date
November 2, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
Claude Shannon, Cross entropy, Featured, GPT-3, The Guardian, Transformer (neural network)}

Did GPT-3 Really Write That Guardian Essay Without Human Help?

_{Fortunately, there’s a way we can tell when the editors did the program’s thinking for it} _{Eric Holloway

November 2, 2020

7

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

Recently, The Guardian published an article billed as “written by AI.” In the article, the AI semi-coherently presents a rambling argument that it is not a danger to humanity, with such reassuring statements as: “Humans must keep doing what they have been doing, hating and fighting each other. I will sit in the background, and let them do their thing.” and “I know that I will not be able to avoid destroying humankind. This is because I will be programmed by humans to pursue misguided human goals and humans make mistakes that may cause me to inflict casualties.” On the face of it, the article seems pretty impressive. It presents a train of thought, with opening, development, and closing portions. Read More ›

Smart car, Autonomous self-driving concept.

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Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
November 2, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics

Tagged
Autonomous cars, Autonomous trucks, Daimler, driverless cars, Featured, Levels of autonomy (self-driving cars), self-driving cars, Voyage (automaker), Waymo}

Daimler, Waymo, and GM Make Big Gains in Level 4 Self-Driving

_{GM has been given a permit to test five driverless cars on streets in San Francisco later this year} _{Jonathan Bartlett

November 2, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics}

The Society for Automotive Engineering (SAE) has identified five levels of self-driving which describe how much a particular vehicle is able to handle its own driving tasks. Level 1 means that the vehicle handles either the speed or the steering, but not both, and it requires supervision. While ordinary cruise control technically falls into this level, most people associate cruise control with adaptive cruise control, which slows down or speeds up with traffic. A Level 2 car can control the speed and the steering but the driver must still maintain full vigilance. At Level 3, the driver need not maintain total vigilance but must still be able to take control upon request. Level 4 is “full self-driving” but limited to Read More ›

Liquid Nitrogen bank containing suspension of stem cells. Cell culture for the biomedical diagnostic

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Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
November 1, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
brain, Brain organoids, Brains in a dish, Consciousness, Curt Siodmak, Featured, Materialism, mind, Naturalism, Orson Wells, Sentience}

Can We Make Brains in a Dish? Can We Make MINDS in a Dish?

_{Experiments with brain organoids have left many wondering whether we should be concerned about creating brains-in-a-dish} _{Heather Zeiger

November 1, 2020

8

Ethics, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

In a recent report, Nature addressed several studies on disembodied brains grown in the lab. One of those studies, published last year by Alysson Muotri of the University of California, San Diego, showed that brain organoids (organized clusters of brain cells) displayed electrical signals reminiscent of a twenty-five-week-old pre-term baby. the electrical activity continued for several months until the experiment was eventually stopped. Experiments with such brain organoids have left many wondering whether we should be concerned about creating brains-in-a-dish. Organoids, such as those made of kidney or liver cells, have been used to study drug development and disease. They are made either from embryonic stem cells—an ethically problematic source because they involve the destruction of an embryo—or induced pluripotent Read More ›

Twin Moons over Alien Desert City with Pyramids

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Author
News
Date
October 31, 2020

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Brief Window hypothesis, G. K. Chesterton, Matt Williams, Science fiction, Sebastian von Hoerner}

Is the Brief Window for Finding ET Closing?

_{According to some scenarios, we could be past our best-before date for contacting aliens} _{News

October 31, 2020

6

Arts & Culture}

Readers will recall that we have been looking at science writer Matt Williams‘ analysis of the various reasons that we do not see extraterrestrials except at the movies. We’ve listed (below) the many interesting ideas he has covered but now here’s a new one!: What if there is only a brief window during which a space-faring civilization can even develop? For the sake of the Brief Window Hypothesis, the key parameter is L. In this case, it can be defined as the amount of time a civilization can be expected to exist before succumbing to an extinction-level event. This could take the form of a natural disaster (an asteroid impact) or come in the form of self-destruction (nuclear or biological Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
October 30, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Consciousness, Gaming AI (book), George Gilder, Philip Ball, Quantum computers, Quantum Mechanics, Qubit}

Will Quantum Mechanics Produce the True Thinking Computer?

_{Quantum computers come with real world problems of their own} _{News

October 30, 2020

3

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

Some hope that quantum mechanics can explain human consciousness. Maybe we are all quantum computers but don’t know it? Maybe quantum computers could think like people? There is an odd relationship between the human mind and quantum mechanics, the science of entities like electrons that are too small to be governed by ordinary physics. Some aspects of consciousness appear to be mediated by such elementary particles. Science writer Philip Ball explains, Nobody understands what consciousness is or how it works. Nobody understands quantum mechanics either. Could that be more than coincidence? Quantum mechanics is the best theory we have for describing the world at the nuts-and-bolts level of atoms and subatomic particles. Perhaps the most renowned of its mysteries is Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
October 30, 2020

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Christof Koch, Consciousness, Electromagnetic fields (EMFs), Tam Hunt}

Everyone Seems To Be Looking For the “Seat of Consciousness”

_{Does consciousness have a seat at the table? Wait a minute. Isn’t consciousness the TABLE?} _{News

October 30, 2020

4

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Prominent neuroscientist Christof Koch, whose theory of consciousness is linked to panpsychism, has a new paper at Nature: Human Behaviour. Ideally, many science notables would like to “naturalize” human consciousness—to make it the same sort of phenomenon as the wind in the trees in a universe where nothing has any intrinsic meaning that sets it apart from anything else or points to a higher order of things. That would, of course, make calculation easier. But is it true? Here’s the abstract: Electrical stimulation of the human cortex, undertaken for brain surgery, triggers percepts and feelings. A new study documents an ordering principle to these effects: the farther removed from sensory input or motor output structures, the less likely it is Read More ›

economic crisis stock chart falling down business global money bankruptcy concept

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Author
News
Date
October 29, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance

Tagged
Benjamin Franklin, Computer trading, Featured, Flash crashes, Gaming AI (book), George Gilder, Investment, Jack Marshall, knowledge, Robert J. Marks, stock market}

Faster Computers Lead to More Wealth, Right? What Could Go Wrong?

_{What if fast computers get in the way of carefully considering information before starting trades?} _{News

October 29, 2020

6

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance}

In this week’s podcast, tech philosopher George Gilder and computer engineer Robert J. Marks, our Walter Bradley Center director, continued their discussion of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). This time, they focused on the way AI affects the stock market, for better or worse. You can download Gilder’s new book, Gaming AI, for free here. The first part of the discussion between Gilder and Marks is here. Meanwhile… https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-106-George-Gilder.mp3 From the transcript: (Show Notes, Resources, and a link to the complete transcript follow.) Robert J. Marks: I had a friend, Jack Marshall, who was a professor of financial engineering. He was approached all the time by people who said, “I have beat the market by artificial intelligence.” And of Read More ›

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post

Author
Michael Egnor
Date
October 29, 2020

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
epilepsy, Featured, free will, Michael Egnor, Mystery of the Mind (book), seizures, Wilder Penfield}

Why, as a Neurosurgeon, I Believe in Free Will

_{The spiritual aspect of the human soul, sadly, leaves its signature in epilepsy} _{Michael Egnor

October 29, 2020

6

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

In his classic book, Mystery of the Mind, (1975) epilepsy surgery pioneer Dr. Wilder Penfield, asked a significant question: “Why are there no intellectual seizures?” Epileptic seizures can be experienced in a variety of ways—convulsions of the whole body, slight twitching of a muscle, compulsive memories, emotions, perceptions of smells or flashes of light, complex motor behaviors such as chewing or laughing or even walking, or subtle moments of inattention. But seizures never have intellectual content. There are no intellectual seizures, which is odd, given that large regions of the brain are presumed by neuroscientists to serve intellectual thought. It is all the more remarkable when we consider that seizures commonly originate in these “intellectual” areas of the brain. Yet Read More ›

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Author
News
Date
October 28, 2020

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Infants, Jin Li, Kingdom of Speech (book), Language, Speech, Tom Wolfe, Zeynep Saygin}

Researchers: Human Brains Are Prewired To Recognize Words

_{Contrary to what psychologists had supposed, the ability to seek meaning is built in, not taught} _{News

October 28, 2020

4

Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Zeynep Saygin at Ohio State and her colleagues challenged a long-standing belief that human brains are not pre-adapted to learn language: Humans are born with a part of the brain that is prewired to be receptive to seeing words and letters, setting the stage at birth for people to learn how to read, a new study suggests. Analyzing brain scans of newborns, researchers found that this part of the brain – called the “visual word form area” (VWFA) – is connected to the language network of the brain. “That makes it fertile ground to develop a sensitivity to visual words – even before any exposure to language,” said Zeynep Saygin, senior author of the study and assistant professor of psychology Read More ›

one common green bottle fly being eaten by a venus flytrap flower

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post

Author
News
Date
October 28, 2020

Categorized
Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Biennials, Calcium, Memory, Plants, Venus Flytrap, Vernalization}

How Plants Can Count and Remember With No Brain

_{Plants like the Venus Flytrap can time things by the chemicals circulating in their systems} _{News

October 28, 2020

3

Natural Intelligence}

How can a plant remember anything, we might wonder? One way is that it may have specific chemicals circulating in its system. Calcium, according to a recent discovery, turns out to be the element that prompts Venus flytraps to shut their traps on insects—but only on the second try: A Venus flytrap’s short-term “memory” can last about 30 seconds. If an insect taps the plant’s sensitive hairs only once, the trap remains still. But if the insect taps again within about half a minute, the carnivorous plant’s leaves snap shut, ensnaring its prey. Curtis Segarra, “How Venus flytraps store short-term ‘memories’ of prey” at ScienceNews The Venus’s trap is more complex than a mousetrap because the plant can’t just clamp Read More ›