Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

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MRI Image Of Head Showing Brain
Type
post
Michael Egnor
Date
September 26, 2018
Categorized
Machine Learning, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
8
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
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
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 ›
steve-johnson-628975-unsplash
Type
post
Eric Holloway
Date
September 19, 2018
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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Artificial intelligence is impossible

Meaningful information vs artificial intelligence
Eric Holloway
September 19, 2018
4
Artificial Intelligence
Because the law of independence conservation states that no combination of randomness and determinism can create mutual information, then likewise no Turing machine nor artificial intelligence can create mutual information. Thus, the goal of artificial intelligence researchers to reproduce human intelligence with a computer program is impossible to achieve. Read More ›
nastya-kvokka-749545-unsplash
Type
post
Mind Matters
Date
September 17, 2018
Categorized
Machine Learning, Work
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Is the future of jobs over?

Should people be paid to let machines do the work?
Mind Matters
September 17, 2018
7
Machine Learning, Work
Recently, there have been short-term limited experiments with a Universal Basic Income but it’s hard to evaluate a transformative social policy with such limited and cherry-picked data. And, says Richards, paying people not to work would simply slow their move into the job markets of the digital age. Read More ›
Text Terms and Conditions typed on retro typewriter
Type
post
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 15, 2018
Categorized
Ethics, Machine Learning, Social Factors
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The true cost of “free” social media

It’s free but… are we? George Gilder points a way forward.
Denyse O'Leary
September 15, 2018
5
Ethics, Machine Learning, Social Factors
He thinks that expected massive increases in computing power will enable blockchain technologies that allow users to safely bypass the global data monopoly that Google and similar firms represent. Read More ›
nonsap-visuals-345600-unsplash
Type
post
Mind Matters
Date
September 14, 2018
Categorized
Ethics, Machine Learning, Social Factors
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Senior Google scientist quits over Google’s censorship in China

He believes it “contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights”
Mind Matters
September 14, 2018
4
Ethics, Machine Learning, Social Factors

Some believe that any censorship system that a human being can develop can somehow be got around by another human being. China may provide a way of testing that.  

Read More ›
Personal Bitcoin Wallet with euro coins
Type
post
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
September 13, 2018
Categorized
Business and Finance, Ethics, Machine Learning
Tagged
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How Bitcoin Works: The social value of trust

Jonathan Bartlett
September 13, 2018
8
Business and Finance, Ethics, Machine Learning

The idea of employing such a game to guarantee validity in a trustless environment is nothing short of groundbreaking. It is an amazing accomplishment, and I am impressed by it more each time I think about it. However, it does have some drawbacks, which, I think, will ultimately lead to its demise.

Read More ›