Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

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AI Writer Chat GPT Computer

Do AI Developers Really Not Know What They’re Making?

A speech-and-language AI researcher counterclaims the doomsdayers

A new article by AI researcher Arlie Coles at American Mind aims to “demystify” artificial intelligence, particularly the claim that AI creators have no idea what they’re creating. Coles says that we understand AI much better than the doomsdayers let on. Part of the reason for AI’s cloudy nature is due to its mathematical complexity, which Coles finds understandable. But that’s no reason not to try and understand what AI is and gauge its benefits and capacities in an accurate light. She writes, We do know what we’re building and how it works, and it’s not too late for us to speak forthrightly about AI so that the general public, not just those with math or computer science Ph.D.s, can Read More ›

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Conceptual image to be used as background. Facade of buildings, representing architecture or offices of the business world.

Neuroscientist vows post-wager: We’ll nail consciousness yet!

Anil Seth, proponent of the “hallucination” theory of consciousness, vows that researchers will find that consciousness spot or circuit in the brain
Curiously, Seth used to criticize those who see consciousness as a “mystery” but he describes it that way himself when discussing the famous wager. Read More ›
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.Smart cars with automatic sensor driving on metropolis with wireless connection

Is Automated & Shared Vehicle Tech a Benefit to Humanity?

Mistele thinks these kinds of vehicles will be cost-effective and safer all around.
Much more convenient and cost-effective, safer, and will lead to more effective land use by being able to do away with parking garages, street parking, etc. Read More ›
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Bitcoin golden coin on computer circuit board

Is an Information-Based Currency Possible?

Two philosophers talk about the potential of digital, decentralized forms of money and exchange

In today’s featured video, enjoy an older but essential interview on the topic of alternative forms of money like cryptocurrency. Philosopher Jay Richards interviews mathematician, entrepreneur, and philosopher Dr. Bill Dembski about his unique thought experiment regarding how one could create a decentralized, DIY, information-based currency. Richards also explores with Dembski the concepts of natural and artificial intelligence. We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues that range from economics, Big Tech, and artificial intelligence. Notable speakers include 2022 Kyoto Prize winner Carver Mead, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Institute Read More ›

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Cloud data computing and neural network, cross-media marketing mesh representing connections,  monitor screen in perspective

You Control the Algorithm

Watch Dr. Phil Parker discuss how he and his team have developed revolutionary new search engine technology

For today’s featured video from a past COSM conference, watch Dr. Phil Parker, INSEAD Chair Professor of Management Science and Founder of Botipedia, discuss how his team has unlocked the power of algorithm-based content creation to create the revolutionary new search engine technology of Botipedia/Totosearch, which promises to be a dramatic improvement over Wikipedia and Google. We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues that range from economics, Big Tech, and artificial intelligence. Notable speakers include 2022 Kyoto Prize winner Carver Mead, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Institute and author Read More ›

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Modern creative artwork, design. Contemporary art collage of young man playing drums isolated over colorful background. Concept of music lifestyle, jazz, rock, rock n roll, creativity, imagination

Inside the Mind of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Drummer

Delving into the thrilling, demanding world of professional drumming and the mind-body communication it requires
Real drumming means non-stop, real-time, dynamic decisions and actions using complex information deployed via physical sticks and targets. Read More ›
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Armageddon. Nuclear bomb or asteroid impact creates a nuke mushroom

Science as Insight vs. Science as Power

What are the core purposes of science and math? Evaluating the idea of "knowledge as power" in the computer age
With the advent of advanced computing and artificial intelligence, the role of humans in mathematics is getting vague. Read More ›
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Titanic at Belfast. Date: 1912

The Titanic: A Sobering Tale About the Fragility of Technological “Progress”

The hopes of the Enlightenment were tragically short lived
Much like the Titanic, and a bit like the Titan, so much was expected at the glorious launch of the experiment in human reasoning. Read More ›
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Prison. Prison wall with barbed wire. Law and justice

Martin Luther King Jr. on the Failures of Communism

The great advocate for justice saw, as George Gilder does, why materialism fails us
The materialistic ideology of a totalitarian state, established at the expense of human freedom and dignity, took hold in multiple countries worldwide following WW II. Read More ›
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Milky way in Utah over the Green River from Swasey's Beach.

Westworld: Episode 6 Review

Maeve and the audience get some answers
In short, because the writers aren’t exactly sure how to explain the evolution of robot sentience, the viewers get mixed messages. Read More ›
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Group of asian creative team programing designers participate in all phases of the UX design.

Using Data Like a Drunk Uses a Lamppost

Startup companies can be tempted to use statistics for support instead of real illumination
Karl Pearson, the great English mathematician and statistician, wrote, “Statistics is the grammar of science.” But it can be used to mislead, too. Read More ›
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Vienna, Austria. 2019/10/23.

The Immaterial, Alan Turing, and the Mystery of Life

Mathematician David Berlinski comments on his new book in new podcast
If scientists thought that life’s origin and nature would soon yield to scientific reductionism, they have been disappointed. Read More ›
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The Tower of Babel

“The Bigger the Toy, the Smarter You Ought to Be to Use It”

With great technological power comes great moral responsibility, said Peterson

The Canadian clinical psychologist and YouTube lecturer Jordan B. Peterson, who ascended to international fame upon the publication of his book 12 Rules for Life, has shared his thoughts on artificial intelligence, and has been speaking on the subject in his interviews with greater regularity. Here’s a short clip (ten minutes long) of Peterson lining out some of the ethical challenges with AI: “We’re primitive children on the ethical front with the tools of gods,” Peterson said, noting how in the last few decades, technological and scientific progress has far outpaced humanity’s ethical maturity. For Peterson, the more sophisticated and powerful the technology, the greater need there is for virtue, self-control, and good will in order to handle these tools Read More ›

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Cyborg head using artificial intelligence to create digital interface 3D rendering

Mission Impossible: Don’t Bother Me With Facts

The Tom Cruise action movie is built on faulty AI assumptions, but it's still entertaining

Ever watch a movie with a movie-talker? That’s someone who ruins a show by talking out loud over the audio. More than once, my wife has asked me, “What did he just say?” I usually have no idea because I didn’t understand either. But her question talks over the next few lines of the movie so the interval of me not hearing the audio is prolonged. I occasionally watch a movie with a good friend Lou, a former police officer. Lou’s a movie-talker, especially when we watch police movies. He’ll interrupt the movie with nit-picky comments like: “That’s not a real shotgun. A real shotgun would kick back, and the barrel would angle up after each shot. There was no Read More ›

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Business using smartphone,with wifi icon,business communication social network concept.

Will Wi-Fi 6 and LEOs Be the Real 5G?

Considering the future of mobile networks with George Gilder and Richard Vigilante

In today’s featured COSM video, Richard Vigilante and George Gilder moderate a panel exploring the future of mobile networks. Panelists include Gilad Garon, co-founder and CEO Of ASOCS, and Stephen Cohen, Chief Architect of Worldwide Enterprise Services at Microsoft. We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues that range from economics, Big Tech, and artificial intelligence. Notable speakers include 2022 Kyoto Prize winner Carver Mead, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Institute and author of Life After Capitalism: The Meaning of Wealth, the Future of the Economy, and the Time Theory of Read More ›

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Love emotion or empathy cerebral or brain activity in caudate nucleus. Interaction and connection between two people. Conceptual 3d illustration of interactive neurological stimulation or telepathy.

When You Sync With Someone, Your Brains Wave Together

Neuroscientists have found that co-operation results in brain wave synchrony

At Scientific American, Lydia Denworth brought up an interesting topic earlier this month: The way that brain waves synchronize between two people who are communicating successfully: Neurons in corresponding locations of the different brains fire at the same time, creating matching patterns, like dancers moving together. Auditory and visual areas respond to shape, sound and movement in similar ways, whereas higher-order brain areas seem to behave similarly during more challenging tasks such as making meaning out of something seen or heard. The experience of “being on the same wavelength” as another person is real, and it is visible in the activity of the brain.” – Lydia Denworth, “Brain Waves Synchronize when People Interact,” Scientific American, July 1, 2023 For example, Read More ›

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Launching Space Rocket From Laptop Screen. Generative AI

Creative Computers? Marks and Medved on The Rise of Artificial Intelligence

What can a computer do now and what will it be able to do in the future?

What can a computer do now and what will it be able to do in the future? A remarkable amount of confusion surrounds these questions. On a classic episode of “Great Minds” with Michael Medved, Dr. Robert Marks of Discovery Institute’s Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence casts some very helpful light on the limits of AI. Also consider purchasing Dr. Marks’s book Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will. We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences and other videos related to artificial intelligence and technology. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues Read More ›

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Frozen Section of Grocery Store

More Gale Pooley and More Population Growth

We're living in a time-price revolution

Countering the prevailing narrative of doom, economist Dr. Gale Pooley shows how the incredible power of learning curves has instead brought about an era of unprecedented abundance. Based on his research into time prices (the money price divided by one’s hourly income), Pooley demonstrates that virtually every commodity is substantially cheaper today than it was decades or centuries ago. We are truly in a time-price revolution. We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues that range from economics, Big Tech, and artificial intelligence. Notable speakers include 2022 Kyoto Prize winner Read More ›

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Defensive wall of the ancient holy Jerusalem

“The Chosen” Will Continue Despite Hollywood Strike

The show about the life of Jesus will get back to business

Despite the actors’ strike, which was announced last Thursday, “The Chosen” series applied for a waiver and was granted quick approval. The show, which details the historical account of Jesus Christ and his band of disciples in ancient Israel, will resume filming this week. The news comes amid massive pushback against Hollywood. Actors, producers, and stunt-performers are joining the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and critiquing the movie industry for unfair wages and for failing to duly reckon with the threat of artificial intelligence (AI). Many blockbuster TV franchises will shut down production, after already being majorly delayed from the initial WGA strike, which began in early May. The cast for “Oppenheimer” left the film’s London premiere early in apparent Read More ›

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Planet earth from space, zoom in to the middle east, Saudi Arabia, world skyline, globe

Why So Blue? Look at the Progress We’ve Made

Even though there are reasons to celebrate, the mainstream narrative hides them

We’ve cited the groundbreaking book Superabundance several times here at Mind Matters, mainly in connection to its co-author, Gale Pooley, a Senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth & Poverty, and a speaker at the 2021 COSM conference, the yearly technology summit that has attracted speakers like Carver Mead, Peter Thiel, and others. Pooley’s co-author, Marian Tupy, who lectured at COSM 2022 on the book, does work on human progress at the Cato Institute, and published a post showing the many ways humanity has benefitted over the last century. He stands opposed to the mainstream approximations of doom that declare our world’s swift-approaching expiration date, writing, The chance of a person dying in a natural catastrophe — earthquake, Read More ›