^ArchiveArticles

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 6, 2018

Categorized
Data Privacy, Machine Learning

Tagged
Canada, Data Security, government-policy, Justin Trudeau, Surveillance}

Canada demands intimate banking data from a half million citizens

_{The goal of the program, recently uncovered by media, is to develop a “new institutional personal information bank” for government use.} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 6, 2018

4

Data Privacy, Machine Learning}

A Canadian TV station recently provided a dramatic insight into how far Western governments are prepared to go, using advanced data gathering techniques, to surveil the lives of citizens: Statistics Canada is asking banks across the country for financial transaction data and personal information of 500,000 Canadians without their knowledge. Global News has learned. Documents obtained by Global News show the national statistical agency plans to collect “individual-level financial transactions data” and sensitive information, like social insurance numbers (SIN), from Canadian financial institutions to develop a “new institutional personal information bank.” Andrew Russell and David Akin, “EXCLUSIVE: Stats Canada requesting banking information of 500,000 Canadians without their knowledge” at Global News Further investigation showed that the government agency has already Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Eric Holloway
Date
November 5, 2018

Categorized
Machine Learning, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
halting oracle, halting problem, Jonathan Bartlett}

Human intelligence as a halting oracle

_{Jonathan Bartlett proposes to model the human mind as a halting oracle} _{Eric Holloway

November 5, 2018

4

Machine Learning, Natural Intelligence}

A common objection to Bartlett’s idea is that humans cannot be halting oracles because we embed any unsolvable math problem as the halting condition for a loop and a human cannot tell us whether the loop will halt or not. This objection misses the fact that there is a range of oracles between plain Turing machines and a complete halting oracle. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
November 5, 2018

Categorized
Machine Learning, Philosophy of Mind, Religion, Social Factors

Tagged
computer models, religion, science media, violence}

Did AI show that we are “a peaceful species” triggered by religion?

_{No, but this episode shows how science media sometimes help mislead the public} _{Jonathan Bartlett

November 5, 2018

6

Machine Learning, Philosophy of Mind, Religion, Social Factors}

Unfortunately, most of the public knows about science only through science media professionals. And it is apparent that science media professionals often know little to nothing of what they are talking about.

^{Type
post

Author
Mind Matters
Date
November 2, 2018

Categorized
Ethics, Machine Learning, Social Factors

Tagged
censorship, China, Freedom, Freedom House, internet, James O'Malley, Surveillance}

A chilling snippet from mass surveillance in China

_{China is helping other countries restrict their citizens’ internet, while shunning the U.S.} _{Mind Matters

November 2, 2018

4

Ethics, Machine Learning, Social Factors}

Overall, governments worldwide are restricting the freedom of the internet, especially around election times, and the big social media companies are conspicuous by their silence. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 2, 2018

Categorized
Data Privacy, Machine Learning

Tagged
Blockchain, Brendan Eich, George Gilder, Life after Google (book), Privacy, Ralph Benko}

Life after Google: More private and more profitable?

_{Reviewing Gilder’s Life after Google, Ralph Benko asks, If our attention is worth billions, shouldn’t we market it?} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 2, 2018

4

Data Privacy, Machine Learning}

In a more open market, the user’s time and attention would no longer be a free service of nature. One expects incentives to follow naturally from more competition for the user’s attention.

^{Type
post

Author
Mind Matters
Date
November 2, 2018

Categorized
Business and Finance

Tagged
cryptocurrencies, Facebook}

Facebook is said to be exploring minting its own cryptocurrency

_{If Facebook wants to mint private currency, can it still be the judge of morals and manners among users?} _{Mind Matters

November 2, 2018

3

Business and Finance}

A software engineer and tech blogger sees ideas sprout up all over, including both the absurd and the brilliant, as traditional companies try to incorporate cryptocurrencies into their business model.

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Egnor
Date
October 31, 2018

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Aristotle, causation, Featured, Hamlet}

Hamlet: Did his perplexing neurotransmitters cause the tragedy?

_{The neuroscientist working from a mechanical perspective would study the material and efficient causes of Hamlet’s act of revenge.} _{Michael Egnor

October 31, 2018

6

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

It is essential to note that the Aristotelian neuroscientist, while delving into the complexities of Shakespeare’s remarkable psychological portrayal of this tortured man, can also study Hamlet’s murder of Claudius in just the same way that the mechanistic neuroscientist can. But he doesn’t lose the plot. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Mind Matters
Date
October 30, 2018

Categorized
Ethics

Tagged
Code of Conduct, Google, harassment, Richard Hipp, Silicon Valley, SQLite}

Peaceful code of conduct sparks rage in Silicon Valley

_{Hi tech firm’s code, based on ancient monks’ practice, deemed “just disgusting”} _{Mind Matters

October 30, 2018

6

Ethics}

Whether or not the Rule of St. Benedict is suited to a high tech workplace, the strategy of frightening or policing people out of bad behavior implies low expectations. One thing it means is, there will be many more news stories about harassment to come. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Mind Matters
Date
October 29, 2018

Categorized
Ethics

Tagged
ethics, Moral Machine, self-driving cars}

There is no universal moral machine

_{The “Moral Machine” project aimed at righteous self-driving cars revealed stark differences in global values} _{Mind Matters

October 29, 2018

4

Ethics}

Whatever the causes of cultural differences, Brendan Dixon thinks that the Moral Machine presents mere caricatures of moral problems anyway. “The program reduces everything to a question of who gets hurt. There are no shades of gray or degrees of hurt. It is, as is so often with computers, simply black or white, on or off. None of the details that make true moral decisions hard and interesting remain.”

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Egnor
Date
October 29, 2018

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Anil Seth, hylomorphism, Werner Heisenberg}

Yes, your brain is a machine—if you choose to see it that way

_{As a Nobel Prize physicist pointed out, our method of study determines what we learn} _{Michael Egnor

October 29, 2018

5

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Anil Seth, a Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, gave a TED talk recently (linked below) in which he asserted that “the combined activity of many billions of neurons—each one a tiny biological machine—is generating our conscious experience…” So, is your brain really a biological “machine”? Or is that just an analogy, like saying that a restaurant kitchen is a “hive” of activity? If so, how good is the analogy? Why do we select the analogy of a “machine” rather than a different one? It’s an important question, as we will see, because the questions we ask of nature constrain the answers we obtain. A machine is an artifact. It is a human-built assembly of Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 23, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Social Factors

Tagged
1984, Björn W. Schuller, George Orwell, novels, Ross GOodwin, Writing}

Could AI write novels?

_{George Orwell thought so, as long as no thinking was involved} _{Denyse O'Leary

October 23, 2018

4

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Social Factors}

Serious literature will always be written, to borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill, in “blood, toil, tears and sweat” because imaging the human condition accurately is part of its nature. And if the writer lives in an unfree society, serious literature will also be written in fear. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Mind Matters
Date
October 22, 2018

Categorized
Business and Finance, Machine Learning}

How Do Bitcoins Work Anyway?

_{And what's their future? A roundup for non-geeks} _{Mind Matters

October 22, 2018

6

Business and Finance, Machine Learning}

Everywhere these days one hears people foretelling the fortunes of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin—like so many fairies, good and bad, wishing around a cradle. Most people, including New Yorker staff writer Nick Paumgarten, have hoped to just avoid the scene, partly because few enthusiasts can even explain what the cryptocurrencies are or why they exist. But Paumgarten dove in and his recent long form article offers helpful explanations along with illuminating profiles of digital currency pioneers. First, why? Bitcoin and Ethereum enthusiasts want, in Paumgarten’s words, “a better, decentralized version of the World Wide Web—a Web 3.0—more in keeping with the Internet’s early utopian promise than with the invidious, monopolistic hellscape it has become. They want to seize back the tubes, and Read More ›