^ArchiveArticles

Golden Ring and Mountains Digital Art 3D Render

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
March 15, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Arts & Culture, Cinema, J.R.R. Tolkien, LOTR, New Line Cinema, Peter Jackson, Rings of Power (Amazon film series 2022-), Screen Rant, The Lord of the Rings, Warner Bros}

Don’t Turn The Lord of the Rings into Star Wars

_{When you have something as good as the world of Middle Earth, it becomes ever easier to injure the original vision and trade quality for commercial success} _{Peter Biles

March 15, 2023

5

Arts & Culture}

Amazon’s The Rings of Power, which is based on the appendices in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, was an ambitious and expensive project that arguably provided little more than a surface-level and underdeveloped interpretation of Middle Earth and its characters. The show, while entertaining and with its strengths, exemplified a flaw many fans feared: commercializing Tolkien inevitably leads to compromise. Even Peter Jackson’s highly praised rendition of the fantasy epic has its critics, including Tolkien’s son and heir of the family estate, Christopher. The show was visually stunning but had some storytelling issues. For one, we don’t ever get a sense of Middle Earth’s size. Characters pop in and out of different places as if it’s a five-minute Read More ›

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post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
March 15, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Apocalypticism, Arts & Culture, Bait and Switch, Culture, Gary Varner, Nick Offerman, Science fiction, The Last of Us, TV shows}

The Last of Us, Episode 3 (Part 2)

_{Why were we subjected to this episode if it wasn’t going to contribute to the narrative?} _{Gary Varner

March 15, 2023

6

Arts & Culture}

Last time, we discussed how episode three started out relatively strong then unexpectedly shifted to another story altogether. It’s important to note that we are not watching a ten-minute flashback or some b-plot involving a couple of supporting characters. Almost all of the episode is devoted to Bill and Frank, and frankly, their story goes nowhere. As I mentioned before, the subject of this random entry into the series is Bill and Frank’s romantic relationship, and given the fact that this little deviation from the source material contributes nothing to the plot as a whole, it is strongly suspected that the only reason the writers chose to tell this story was to gain the admiration of critics who share their Read More ›

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post

Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
March 15, 2023

Categorized
Business and Finance

Tagged
Banking, Bonds, Income, Interest rates, Investment, Principal, Silicon Valley, SVB}

Aren’t US Treasury Bonds Supposed to be Safe?

_{How can you lose money selling treasury bonds?} _{Jonathan Bartlett

March 15, 2023

3

Business and Finance}

For context, read Bartlett’s two previous articles on the fall of SVB and interest rates. Some people are confused as to how you can lose money selling treasury bonds, since they are supposed to be “safe” assets (the government is not expected to default on its loans, and, if it does, the economy probably has bigger problems). Economist Bob Murphy put together a great explainer thread on Twitter, which I will largely follow here. Let’s say that there is an asset that always yields a 1% return every year on however much you have invested, but you never get the principal back except by selling it to someone else. Let us call this asset ABC, and let us say that it is Read More ›

Cute 3D Snapchat Ghost Cartoon Character

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Author
News
Date
March 14, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, chatbots, ChatGPT, OpenAI, Snapchat, social media, teenagers}

You Too, Snapchat? Another AI Bot Hits the Scene

_{"My AI" is eerily human, like the Bing bot, and just as inappropriate} _{News

March 14, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence}

Snapchat introduced a new feature in its app: an AI chatbot “friend” called “My AI.” (Just what lonesome teens need.) We’ve already seen the rogue behavior of Bing’s chatbot, which, in conversation with a New York Times tech journalist, dubbed itself “Sydney” and started beseeching its human counterpart to leave his wife and fall in love with it. Romantic, right? Not so much. The journalist left the experience with the creepy sense that AI had just crossed a sensitive boundary, and that tech companies need to get better at controlling the unpredictable beast they’ve unleashed. “My AI” Gives Shady Advice to Kids Just a couple of weeks later and here we are with AI making inroads into an app used Read More ›

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post

Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
March 14, 2023

Categorized
Business and Finance

Tagged
Banking, capitalism, economy, Finance, Interest rates, Invesment, Investors, Silicon Valley}

Why Did the Tech Bubble Correspond with Low Interest Rates?

_{Ultimately, our economy’s deeper problems aren’t so much a result of “money” as they are bad allocations of resources.} _{Jonathan Bartlett

March 14, 2023

4

Business and Finance}

For context, read Bartlett’s article explaining the fall of SVB here. I wanted to make a quick note about why tech bubbles tend to correspond with low interest rate environments. Interest rates essentially dictate how long someone can wait before they need to produce something of real value. In a 20% interest rate environment, it will be evident really quickly if you are failing to produce something of value. Since essentially 1/5 of your capital disappears each year, if you aren’t doing something that will generate real profits quickly, you are sunk. You can’t paper over problems with more borrowing because the cost of that borrowing is so high. Additionally, in such an environment, the payoffs for investment need to be large Read More ›

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Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
March 13, 2023

Categorized
Business and Finance

Tagged
Assets, Banking, Debt, Investors, Loan, Silicon Valley}

What’s Going on at Silicon Valley Bank?

_{The bank's failure is making a lot of people nervous about their money} _{Jonathan Bartlett

March 13, 2023

5

Business and Finance}

Many people awoke this morning to news of a bank that suddenly collapsed – Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB. While information is still developing, I thought I would provide some background information on what is known so far. SVB is the go-to bank for Silicon Valley startups. Over the last few years, the tech bubble has been growing and growing and growing, focused especially around Silicon Valley. That meant a lot of banking was happening, and it was happening with SVB. That is where the various companies put their deposits. How does a bank make money? By lending out deposits. In 2021, at the height of the tech bubble (and, not coincidentally, at a historically low-interest rate environment). The bank did what most banks do Read More ›

Wallpaper of cordyceps fungi, realistic detail photo macro, illustration, like the movie the last of us,

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post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
March 13, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
HBO, Pedro Pascal, Science fiction, The Last of Us}

The Last of Us, Episode 3 (Part I)

_{This episode serves as a bad omen when it comes to writers’ willingness to stick to the script} _{Gary Varner

March 13, 2023

6

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

In episode two, Tess sacrifices herself after being bitten, and in episode three, we find Joel and Ellie grieving over her death. This scene is another example of the actors overplaying the anger when the tone should be more somber. Joel is hesitant to talk to Ellie until Ellie insists that Tess’s death wasn’t her fault, and that Joel and Tess made their own choices. Now, there isn’t anything wrong with the scene necessarily, but in the first two episodes, it’s already apparent that the HBO adaptation is having a difficult time establishing the father-daughter dynamic between Ellie and Joel that the game is known for. This scene only adds to that problem. However, this might not be an issue Read More ›

Circle of paper people holding hands on pink surface. Community, brotherhood concept. Society and support.

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post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
March 13, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Consciousness, Human rights, Robert J. Marks, robotics}

Love Thy Robot as Thyself

_{Academics worry about AI feelings, call for AI rights} _{Richard W. Stevens

March 13, 2023

6

Artificial Intelligence}

Riffing on the popular fascination with AI (artificial intelligence) systems ChatGPT and Bing Chat, two authors in the Los Angeles Times recently declared: We are approaching an era of legitimate dispute about whether the most advanced AI systems have real desires and emotions and deserve substantial care and solicitude. The authors, Prof. Eric Schwitzgebel at UC Riverside, and Henry Shevlin, a senior researcher at the University of Cambridge, observed AI thinkers saying “large neural networks” might be “conscious,” the sophisticated chatbot LaMDA “might have real emotions,” and ordinary human users reportedly “falling in love” with chatbot Replika. Reportedly, “some leading theorists contend that we already have the core technological ingredients for conscious machines.” The authors argue that if or when Read More ›

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Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
March 10, 2023

Categorized
Biology}

Mice With No Mother?

_{Biotechnologists keep pushing the borders of what is possible in procreation} _{Wesley J. Smith

March 10, 2023

3

Biology}

Biotechnologists keep pushing the borders of what is possible in procreation. Mice pups have now been born with no mother and two fathers. It was done, apparently, by transforming skin cells from male mice into pluripotent stem cells and thence into egg cells with XX chromosomes. From the Guardian story: Male skin cells were reprogrammed into a stem cell-like state to create so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The Y-chromosome of these cells was then deleted and replaced by an X chromosome “borrowed” from another cell to produce iPS cells with two identical X chromosomes. “The trick of this, the biggest trick, is the duplication of the X chromosome,” said Hayashi. “We really tried to establish a system to duplicate the X chromosome.” Read More ›

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Author
Peter Biles
Date
March 10, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, art, Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, ChatGPT, Consciousness, Culture, Dall-E, Gary Smith, Midjourney, mind, OpenAI}

Observing and Communing

_{What human art and literature do that AI can't} _{Peter Biles

March 10, 2023

5

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

AI image generators like Midjourney or DALL-E are generally adept at capturing the accuracy of the human form. The concerns over copyright, job infringement, and general degradation of the visual arts via such AI are ongoing concerns for many artists and practitioners. However, a new New Yorker article by Kyle Chayka identifies a noticeable flaw in AI artwork: human hands. Missing the Big Picture Chayka begins by recalling an art class where he was asked to draw his own hand. It’s an assignment for beginners, and as behooves a novice, tempts the artist to focus more on the specific contours of the hand instead of the overall structure and form. The forest gets lost in the trees, so to speak. Read More ›

Brain psychology mind soul and hope concept art, 3d illustration, surreal artwork, imagination painting, conceptual idea

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post

Author
News
Date
March 9, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Blake Lemoine and LaMDA, Consciousness, Google, LaMDA, Michael Egnor, Robert J. Marks, Science fiction}

Blake Lemoine and Robert J. Marks on the Mind Matters Podcast

_{Marks and Lemoine discuss sentience in AI and the question of the soul} _{News

March 9, 2023

1

Artificial Intelligence}

Robert J. Marks, director of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence, sat down with former Google employee Blake Lemoine, who made headlines last year when he claimed AI can be “sentient.” The claim also led to his departure from Google. The two had a fascinating conversation, to say the least. In today’s episode, they discuss whether AI can indeed become sentient, the non-computability of certain human traits, and the question of the soul. Marks and Lemoine couldn’t differ more on these fundamental points. Whereas Lemoine thinks AI can be sentient, Marks firmly rejects such a notion. In addition, Lemoine’s materialistic worldview controls his understanding of the brain, while Marks defends the existence of the immaterial mind. While Read More ›

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Author
Nathan Jacobson
Date
March 9, 2023

Categorized
Virtual Reality

Tagged
Androids, robotics, Sophia the Robot}

The Composite

_{Seductive Optics and Skeuomorphic Intelligence, Part IV.} _{Nathan Jacobson

March 9, 2023

6

Virtual Reality}

This is the last in a series. Read Part I, Part II – “Moving PIxels“, and Part III -“Talking Boxes“. The greatest aspiration of artificial intelligence Frankensteins is stitching together all the sundry parts into a moving, talking, seeing, and interacting android. Today, this composite of technologies is most famously embodied in Sophia. This android from Hanson Robotics is an international “celebrity”, appearing on late night shows and on the exhibit floors of tech conferences. With how many things are we on the brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquiries. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein On its marketing page, Sophia’s marketing department puts the following words in its mouth, as though it has a sense of self Read More ›

Conceptual art, concept of problem mind psychology freedom and solution, surreal painting, jigsaw puzzle on human head.

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post

Author
Michael Egnor
Date
March 8, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Catholicism, Consciousness, Darwin, Evolution, free will, Materialism, Matter, Michael Egnor, mind, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, reason}

Kenneth Miller on Consciousness and Evolution

_{Despite Miller's claims, neither human reason nor free will evolved because neither are generated by material processes} _{Michael Egnor

March 8, 2023

8

Philosophy of Mind}

Kenneth Miller is a biologist at Brown University who has been very active in his written and vocal support for Darwin’s theory of evolution. He’s neither a materialist nor an atheist – he is a Catholic, and in being one of the rare Darwinists who doesn’t subscribe wholeheartedly to the materialist/atheist paradigm, he allows himself to be used as a token theist by the Darwinists. It helps his career, no doubt, but doesn’t advance the truth. Not an admirable place to be. Miller’s New Book and What it Misses In his 2018 book The Human Instinct: How We Evolved To Have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will, Miller manages a feat uncommon even for Darwinists – even the title of the Read More ›

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post

Author
Nathan Jacobson
Date
March 8, 2023

Categorized
Virtual Reality

Tagged
Alexa, Audrey, Cortana, Natural Language Processing, Siri, skeuomorphism, speech recognition software, speech synthesis, voice assistants}

Talking Boxes

_{Seductive Optics and Skeuomorphic Intelligence, Part III.} _{Nathan Jacobson

March 8, 2023

4

Virtual Reality}

There will be synthesized versions of gravelly voices, deep baritones, fast talkers, low talkers, high talkers, yada, yada, yada. Amazon has added functions to enable Alexa to whisper, emphasize a word, or mimic local slang. But as our talking boxes run their routines, they understand nothing. Read More ›

Mature woman having scones with orange jam

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
March 7, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Experience, non-algorithmic, Non-Computable You (book), qualia, Robert J. Marks, Salvo}

AI and “Qualia,” the Ability to Experience

_{Robert J. Marks writes on AI's limits in new article at Salvo} _{Peter Biles

March 7, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence}

Robert J. Marks wrote an article for the Spring Issue of Salvo Magazine on AI, covering his ideas on its “non-computability” in the areas of love, empathy, and creativity. The Quality of Qualia I was particularly intrigued by Marks’s thoughts on qualia, a term used to describe the multifaceted realm of sensory experience. We often report on AI’s inability to be creative here at Mind Matters, but what about experiencing the world through touch, smell, and sight? Qualia is related to the mystery of consciousness, another non-computable feature of human life, and according to Marks, is far out of the purview of AI capabilities. Marks writes about the experience of biting into an orange as an example: If the experience Read More ›

Male mannequin covered with slices of a mirror on a black background

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post

Author
Nathan Jacobson
Date
March 7, 2023

Categorized
Virtual Reality

Tagged
computer animation, digital art, gaming (and AI characters), personification, programming, seductive optics}

Moving Pixels

_{Seductive Optics and Skeuomorphic Intelligence, Part II.} _{Nathan Jacobson

March 7, 2023

5

Virtual Reality}

Whatever emotions we bring to the movie or to the game ourselves, our digital allies and enemies breathe no breaths, make no sacrifices, feel no lonely deaths. Living, dying, or respawning, they are as dead as a dead pixel. Read More ›

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post

Author
Gary Smith
Date
March 6, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, chatbots, ChatGPT, Communication, Consciousness, education, Gary Smith, Gen-Z, LLMs, Students, Writing}

Learning to Communicate

_{Why writing skills are so important, especially in today's artificial world} _{Gary Smith

March 6, 2023

6

Artificial Intelligence}

Educators have been shaken by fears that students will use ChatGTP and other large language models (LLMs) to answer questions and write essays. LLMs are indeed astonishing good at finding facts and generating coherent essays — although the alleged facts are sometimes false and the essays are sometimes tedious BS supported by fake references. I am more optimistic than most. I am hopeful that LLMs will be a catalyst for a widespread discussion of our educational goals. What might students learn in schools that will be useful long after they graduate? There are many worthy goals, but critical thinking and communication skills should be high on any list. I’ve written elsewhere about how critical thinking abilities are important for students Read More ›

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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
March 6, 2023

Categorized
Free will

Tagged
Aristotle, brain, causation, free will, Materialism, Matter, mind, Sean Carroll}

Sean Carroll: “How Could an Immaterial Mind Affect the Body?”

_{The well known physicist thinks free will is nonsense. But has he investigated the classical understanding of causation?} _{Michael Egnor

March 6, 2023

5

Free will}

Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist at Johns Hopkins University who takes an atheist and materialist philosophical perspective on nature and on science. I have disagreed with him often — I’m in no position to judge his scientific acumen, but his philosophical acumen leaves a lot to be desired. An example of this is a question he asks in a recent documentary about free will (which I haven’t watched yet). In the trailer for the movie, Carroll asks, How in the world does the immaterial mind affect the physical body? Carroll’s denial of libertarian free will is based on this question, and of course, he believes that the immaterial mind does not exist and, if it did exist, could not Read More ›

mannequin body parts piled up in a carton box outdoor

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post

Author
Nathan Jacobson
Date
March 6, 2023

Categorized
Virtual Reality

Tagged
appearances, Digital Assistants, hyperrealism, Portraiture, seductive optics, skeuomorphism, Sophia the Robot, Voice recognition software}

Seductive Optics and Skeuomorphic Intelligence

_{Appearance and reality in art and artificial intelligence} _{Nathan Jacobson

March 6, 2023

6

Virtual Reality}

Things are not always as they seem. Artificial intelligence is like that. Art may be visually indistinguishable from a man or woman, passing the art equivalent of a Turing Test, we know they're not in the least the same kind of thing as what they portray. Paint does not suffer. Stone does not breathe. Read More ›

Man and girl in post apocalyptic city. The last of us style. Generative AI.

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post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
March 4, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
Apocalypticism, Fantasy, Gary Varner, HBO Max, Sci-fi, Science fiction, The Last of Us, TV shows}

The Last of Us Review: Episode 2

_{A rather slow episode despite the sonar zombies} _{Gary Varner

March 4, 2023

6

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

Last time, we looked at the first episode of The Last of Us and talked about how it was well written, but if you are aware of the controversy surrounding this game and its sequel, then you know bad things are on the horizon. Once we reach episode two, the writing quality drops a little but not much. It’s still pretty good, at least, when it’s consistent with the source material. Ellie wakes up to find Joel and Tess staring at her with a loaded gun. Her guardians are having a hard time believing that she is not infected with the virus despite the fact that her wound has healed. There is a brief debate about whether or not to Read More ›