Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

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Brain activity
Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
October 3, 2018
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Social Factors
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Knowledge is power, sort of…

If that’s ALL knowledge is, the resulting science is bound to be limited, says Michael Egnor
Mind Matters
October 3, 2018
2
Philosophy of Mind, Social Factors
If you are trying to predict the course of a cannonball, Newtonian mechanics are adequate. If you are trying to understand the mind of the guy who fired the cannon, you need to look much deeper. Read More ›
liam-burnett-blue-619833-unsplash
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 2, 2018
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning
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Deep Learning won’t solve AI

AlphaGo pioneer: We need “another dozen or half-a-dozen breakthroughs”
Denyse O'Leary
October 2, 2018
2
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning
Hassabis: "AlphaGo doesn't understand language but we would like them to build up to this symbolic level of reasoning — maths, language, and logic. Read More ›
markus-spiske-803817-unsplash
Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
October 1, 2018
Categorized
Ethics, Machine Learning, Social Factors
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Are sex robots a cure for loneliness?

Maybe, in a culture where people see themselves as machines
Mind Matters
October 1, 2018
3
Ethics, Machine Learning, Social Factors
Nancy Pearcey, who is the author of Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality, reminds us that the most popular metaphor for the universe today is a vast machine. Read More ›
denisse-leon-544612-unsplash
Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
October 1, 2018
Categorized
Machine Learning, Social Factors
Tagged
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Can a stuffed toy turn into a robot?

Maybe to amuse a sick child? With the right skin, yes.
Mind Matters
October 1, 2018
2
Machine Learning, Social Factors
Robotic skins were developed at Yale for possible uses in space flight or search-and-rescue. But animating ordinary bendable objects is surely a fun way to introduce the idea. Read More ›
arthur-osipyan-455426-unsplash
Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
September 30, 2018
Categorized
Machine Learning, Social Factors
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George Gilder talks tech at World News Daily

In a three-part interview the tech philosopher explains why he thinks Google is doomed
Mind Matters
September 30, 2018
4
Machine Learning, Social Factors
“The Google dream is a supermind in the sky that knows everything,” Gilder told WND. “My dream is to distribute information as human minds are distributed.” Read More ›
Woman with digital headset sensor connected to her ear, reading brain impulses
Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
September 29, 2018
Categorized
Data Privacy, Ethics
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Google is collecting data on schoolkids

Some say it’s okay because the firm supplies a lot of free software and hardware to schools
Mind Matters
September 29, 2018
4
Data Privacy, Ethics
Many parents may not be content to let matters rest there; they might prefer to pay taxes for school equipment and have less surveillance in our lives overall. Read More ›
nguy-n-minh-chi-n-571263-unsplash
Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
September 27, 2018
Categorized
Education
Tagged
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Children are watching much less TV

But what we learned from children’s TV is coming back to haunt us
Mind Matters
September 27, 2018
6
Education
Maxwell King: Sesame Street's pacing "was set to be as fast as the times, with some emulation of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and the television serial Batman." Read More ›
robin-worrall-749755-unsplash
Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
September 27, 2018
Categorized
Social Factors
Tagged
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Will AI triumph?

Will that phone end up smarter than your kid?
Mind Matters
September 27, 2018
2
Social Factors
If so, it might not happen in quite the way we are told to fear. U.S. kids spend more than two hours a day looking at screens "perform worse on memory, language and thinking tests than kids who spend less time in front of a device. Read More ›
MRI Image Of Head Showing Brain
Type
post
Author
Michael Egnor
Date
September 26, 2018
Categorized
Machine Learning, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
Tagged
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Do either machines—or brains—really learn?

A further response to Jeffrey Shallit: Actually, brains don’t learn either. Only minds learn.
Michael Egnor
September 26, 2018
4
Machine Learning, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
Learning is an ability of human beings, considered as a whole, to acquire new knowledge, not an ability of human organs considered individually. Read More ›
samuel-castro-71639-unsplash
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 25, 2018
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience, Social Factors
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Inner peace: Is there software for that?

Tech billionaire funds neuroscience in a search for the secret of contentment
Denyse O'Leary
September 25, 2018
3
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience, Social Factors
His approach to neuroscience is very different from that of the Dalai Lama, who facilitates neuroscience research to better understand contemplation as a path to inner peace. Chen’s focus is more on developing virtual reality. Read More ›
ricardo-viana-105232-unsplash
Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
September 25, 2018
Categorized
Ethics
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Google Powering China’s Snoop Culture

They’ve suppressed the memo but can’t suppress the uproar around it
Mind Matters
September 25, 2018
4
Ethics
It may at first seem deeply ironic that a Silicon Valley ostensibly committed to liberal values would help to unleash this storm. But a political analyst carefully traces the growth in its enthusiasm for “smart government,” using the tools of information technology for social engineering. Read More ›
nik-shuliahin-585307-unsplash
Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
September 24, 2018
Categorized
Machine Learning, Natural Intelligence, Social Factors
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The Hills Go High Tech

An American community finding its way in the new digital economy
Mind Matters
September 24, 2018
4
Machine Learning, Natural Intelligence, Social Factors
At present, says Hochschild, Ankur Gopal and Interapt are sourcing as many new hillbillies as they can find: “For now, there is so much demand for I.T. workers — 10,000 estimated openings by 2020 in the Louisville metro area alone — that Mr. Gopal is reaching out to new groups. Read More ›
CCTV camera or surveillance operating with crowded people in bac
Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
September 23, 2018
Categorized
Ethics, Machine Learning, Social Factors
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Digital dictatorship?

China’s “social credit” system coming under scrutiny
Mind Matters
September 23, 2018
2
Ethics, Machine Learning, Social Factors
It is not clear that most Chinese people understand the implications yet but many in the industry do. As of September 16, over 1400 Google employees had signed a letter of protest against Google’s involvement in Chinese censorship.   Read More ›
andrew-wulf-303962-unsplash
Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
September 23, 2018
Categorized
Social Factors
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Does digitization threaten science?

It enables new abuses, according to a Cambridge nanoscientist
Mind Matters
September 23, 2018
3
Social Factors
The problem is not digitization as such, of course, but the mindset that it inadvertently encourages. Sometimes, for example, “citation rings” agree to cite each other’s papers so as to artificially inflate their rankings. Sometimes it graduates to “citation stacking” Read More ›
bonobos
Type
post
Author
Michael Egnor
Date
September 21, 2018
Categorized
Natural Intelligence
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Apes Can Be Generous

Are they just like humans then?
Michael Egnor
September 21, 2018
9
Natural Intelligence
If we are to genuinely understand machines, animals, and ourselves, we need to clearly understand that it is the immateriality of human intellect and will—our capacity to think and act abstractly— that makes us radically (i.e. ontologically) different from any animal or machine. Read More ›
stephane-yaich-644691-unsplash
Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
September 20, 2018
Categorized
Education, Social Media
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Maybe iGen really IS fragile

Did social media's troll frenzies trigger the campus war on ideas?
Mind Matters
September 20, 2018
6
Education, Social Media
Twenty-four-year-old fashion blogger Scarlett Dixon  posted a picture of herself having breakfast, “looking flawless on a freshly made bed flanked by heart-shaped helium balloons.” The orcs burst suddenly through the virtual gate. Read More ›
masaaki-komori-627104-unsplash
Type
post
Author
Mind Matters
Date
September 20, 2018
Categorized
Natural Intelligence
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Is the octopus a “second genesis of intelligence”?

Can its strange powers provide insights for robotics or the human mind?
Mind Matters
September 20, 2018
3
Natural Intelligence
What’s really interesting about these stories is that, while we are learning that there is much intelligence in the animal (and plant) world, including some that can be applied to robotics, very little sheds light on explicitly human intelligence. Read More ›