^ArchiveArticles

Evil robot, glowing lights, shiny metalic parts

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post

Author
News
Date
November 19, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Common sense and AI, Computers and irrationality, Featured, Non-Computable You (book), Robert J. Marks, Wesley J. Smith, Winograd Schema (and common sense)}

So, Can a Computer Really Be Irrational?

_{Computer prof Robert J. Marks tells Wesley J. Smith: No, and here’s why … from his experience} _{News

November 19, 2022

4

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

In a recent episode at Mind Matters News podcasting, “Can a computer be a person?” (November 10, 2022), Robert J. Marks and Wesley J. Smith discussed that in connection with Marks’s new book, Non-Computable You: https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Mind-Matters-212-Robert-Marks.mp3 Some excerpts: Wesley J. Smith: Let me ask the question in a different way. Can an AI ever be irrational? Robert J. Marks: Yes. Irrational in the sense of being irrational from the point of an observer. A classic example, and this happened a number of years ago, was that the Soviets during the Cold War developed a high technology to decide whether the US was being attacked by… I’m sorry, whether the Soviet Union was being attacked by the United States. And so Read More ›

Tree with no leaves shapes like human brain as illustration

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 18, 2022

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Abstractions, Eva Jablonka, Evolution theories of consciousness, Minimal consciousness in animals, Ralph Lewis, Simona Ginsburg}

Evolution of Human Consciousness SOLVED! — Yet Again, It Seems…

_{What does the term “evolution” contribute to the discussion of the origin of human consciousness?} _{News

November 18, 2022

4

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

At Psychology Today, we read a bold and simple claim about the evolution of consciousness: “A type of information processing called unlimited associative learning (UAL) may be necessary and sufficient for very basic sentience.” The article by University of Toronto psychiatrist Ralph Lewis begins on a very self-assured note: Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. The gradualism of evolution has explained and dissolved life’s mysteries—life’s seemingly irreducible complexity and the illusion that living things possess some sort of mysterious vitalizing essence. So, too, evolution is likely to be key to demystifying the seemingly inexplicable, ethereal nature of consciousness. Ralph Lewis, “Learning May Be the Key to the Evolution of Consciousness” at Psychology Today (November 3, Read More ›

Bitcoin cryptocurrency, virtual money concept

^{Type
post

Author
Gary Smith
Date
November 16, 2022

Categorized
Economics

Tagged
Bitcoin as a bubble, Bubbles in finance, Declaration of Bitcoin’s Independence, Featured, FTX crypto exchange, FUD as acronym, Greater Fool theory and bitcoin, HODL as acronym, Paul Krugman}

Has the Bitcoin Supply of Greater Fools Finally Been Exhausted?

_{It’s a bubble fueled by babble} _{Gary Smith

November 16, 2022

6

Economics}

The Declaration of Bitcoin’s Independence, endorsed by numerous celebrities, states that, We hold these truths to be self-evident. We have been cyclically betrayed, lied to, stolen from, extorted from, taxed, monopolized, spied on, inspected, assessed, authorized, registered, deceived, and reformed. We have been economically disarmed, disabled, held hostage, impoverished, enervated, exhausted, and enslaved. And then there was bitcoin. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are, in reality, not useful alternatives to cash, checking accounts, debit cards, credit cards, and the other components of the financial system that powers the economies of developed countries. Blockchain technology is slow, expensive, and environmentally unfriendly. In 2021, Cambridge University researchers estimated that bitcoin blockchains consume as much electricity as the entire country of Argentina, with only Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 16, 2022

Categorized
Cryptocurrency

Tagged
Bloccelerate, Cryptocurrency and user experience, Featured, Gregory Meredith, Interwork, John Devadoss, Rchain Cooperative, Sam Yilmaz, William Dembski, Wyatt Robinson}

Could Crypto Be a Safe National Currency?

_{At COSM a panel of experts debated the future of crypto} _{News

November 16, 2022

5

Cryptocurrency}

A panel moderated by blockchain expert Sam Yilmaz COO of Bloccelerate last week at COSM debated whether cryptocurrency could be a national currency. It’s a risk but then many current currencies are. From Wyatt Robinson — Principal Corporate Counsel, Microsoft: The whole premise behind blockchain as I understand it from my view as a former financial services attorney, is really to promote efficiency free up capital allow more money to be out there for end users to have in their pockets. And so when we think about what should we put on chain, what activities should be going on chain at the end of the day, think about the stakeholders, the users who are involved in that transaction or are Read More ›

3d illustration of black retro alarm clock with arrow and golden megaphone on yellow color background

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 16, 2022

Categorized
Philosophy, Science

Tagged
Cameron English, Frank Mitloehner, Jerry Coyne, Nature Magazine on COVID, Virtue (Woke virtue)}

What Happens When Science Mags Go Woke?

_{When fashion mags go woke, no one cares. Some girls want to wear rags on their heads, well… But science mags?} _{Denyse O'Leary

November 16, 2022

3

Philosophy, Science}

Let’s look at some of the things that are happening: Darwinian evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne puts the matter concisely when he says, The old saying goes that “all science is political”, a saying that is true only if you stretch the meaning of either “science” or “political”. I’m baffled, for instance, to understand how my work on the genetics of hybrid sterility in Drosophila is political. But don’t worry: the ideologues will find a way to make it so. “You’re doing your work in the milieu of a culture,” they’ll babble, “and decisions about what to fund and publish are explicitly political.” Blah blah blah. Jerry Coyne, “Scientific American goes defensive; tries to pretend that every social justice screed is Read More ›

Engineer's gloved hand is holding the CPU chip on the background of the motherboard. High-tech hardware microelectronics

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post

Author
Casey Luskin
Date
November 15, 2022

Categorized
Chemistry

Tagged
Chris Harrison, Featured, Graphene, John Van Leuewen, Nanocars, Nanodrills, Shlomo Nedvetzki}

Big Innovations Can Depend on Really Little Things

_{Stuff that is far too small to see can change the world} _{Casey Luskin

November 15, 2022

4

Chemistry}

The opening panel on Thursday morning at COSM 2022 was “The New Nanocosm.” — the world of really small things like molecules. The first panelist to speak was Chris Harrison, CEO of CTEC (“Clean Thermodynamic Energy Conversion”) Energy, a British company which seeks to convert industrial waste into energy. Its basic premise is that there is “an incredible amount of excess heat that was coming off engines and going into the atmosphere,” and this heat could be converted into usable work. The company takes waste materials — Harrison cited municipal solid waste, medical waste, chemical waste, hazardous waste — and uses it to generate electricity. The remaining waste can also be re-purposed. The conversion process yields a “fine ash” which Read More ›

Working Data Center Full of Rack Servers and Supercomputers, Modern Telecommunications, Artificial Intelligence, Supercomputer Technology Concept.3d rendering,conceptual image.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 14, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Allison Whitten}

So artificial intelligence has its limits?

_{Science writer Allison Whitten explains.} _{News

November 14, 2022

1

Artificial Intelligence}

Thus it turns out. Science writer Allison Whitten explains: Artificial intelligence algorithms cannot keep growing at their current pace. Algorithms like deep neural networks — which are loosely inspired by the brain, with multiple layers of artificial neurons linked to each other via numerical values called weights — get bigger every year. But these days, hardware improvements are no longer keeping pace with the enormous amount of memory and processing capacity required to run these massive algorithms. Soon, the size of AI algorithms may hit a wall. Allison Whitten, “New Chip Expands the Possibilities for AI” at Quanta (November 10, 2022) Funny that never happens with humans. Humans never hit a wall in that way. Whether it’s Albert Einstein or Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
November 14, 2022

Categorized
Global Technology

Tagged
China, Climate change, COSM, economy, Electric vehicles, Global economy, Lithium, petroleum, smart cars}

Are Electric Cars Really the Future?

_{Panelists at the 2022 COSM conference discuss the pros and cons of electric vehicles} _{Peter Biles

November 14, 2022

5

Global Technology}

On November 10th, the COSM conference hosted a special panel on electric vehicles (EVs for short). Brian Mistele, founder and CEO of Inrix, a leading provider of traffic information, car services, and transportation analytics, moderated the discussion. Aside from Mistele, the panel included Howard Hayden, professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut and editor of The Energy Advocate, Walter Myers, Principal Manager on Azure, Microsoft’s cloud-based platform, and Tony Posawatz, an automotive industry pioneer and chief executive of Fisker Automotive. They brought a range of perspectives on the pros and cons of EVs and where the auto industry is heading. Posawatz kicked off the panel by giving a brief overview of automobile history. He said, There was electric and folks Read More ›

Summer meadow blow balls landscape painting

^{Type
post

Author
Casey Luskin
Date
November 14, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Blake Lemoine and sentient computers, COSM, Featured, Federico Faggin and the nature of human beings, Maria Teresa Cometto, Vincent Van Gogh and the nature of art}

Could AI ever pass the Van Gogh test?

_{Van Gogh was crazy but he was talented and AI can be neither} _{Casey Luskin

November 14, 2022

6

Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

The Van Gogh Test for sheer creativity? Thursday night at COSM presented a live, in-person interview with Federico Faggin, the Italian physicist and computer engineer who co-won the prestigious Kyoto prize in 1997 for helping develop the Intel 4004 chip. Faggin was interviewed by technology reporter Maria Teresa Cometto, who asked him to regale the audience with tales about helping to design early microchips. Eventually Faggin recounted a time when he was “studying neuroscience and biology, trying to understand how the brain works,” and came upon a startling realization: And at one point I asked myself, “But wait a second, I mean these books, all this talk about electrical signals, biochemical signals, but when I taste some chocolate, I mean Read More ›

Wheat field. Ears of golden wheat closeup. Harvest concept

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 14, 2022

Categorized
Economics, Environment

Tagged
Featured, Josh Gilder, Paracelsus, Pesticides and health}

Pesticides Bad, organics good! But how do we know it’s true?

_{Thinking that pesticides are bad and organic is good is thinking is ingrained into our common wisdom. Few question it} _{News

November 14, 2022

4

Economics, Environment}

Josh Gilder, who worked with the State Department and was a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan (1911–2004 ), opened by quoting the 16th century Swiss alchemist Paracelsus, who reportedly said “The dose makes the poison.” For example, a very small amount of arsenic will have “no detectable physiological effect on you whatsoever,” whereas drinking too much water can kill you. (Recall the woman who tragically died in the “Hold your Wee for a Wii” contest.) The body produces electricity but “you get hit by a lightning bolt, you’re dead,” Gilder explained. These and innumerable other examples confirm the wisdom of Paracelsus.The relevance for us today, Gilder explained, is that many chemicals that are regulated or even banned — due to their Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Casey Luskin
Date
November 13, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Human exceptionalism

Tagged
Blake Lemoine at COSM 2022, COSM, COSM 2022, Featured, George Montanez at COSM 2022, LaMDA (claims for sentience), Robert J. Marks at COSM 2022, Three Laws of Robotics}

Experts at COSM Debate Whether Chatbot was Sentient

_{Turned out quite pleasant. Google fired him in 2022 - but what really happened there?} _{Casey Luskin

November 13, 2022

8

Artificial Intelligence, Human exceptionalism}

Last Thursday morning at COSM, a panel of experts debated whether truly sentient artificial intelligence (AI) could potentially exist — and even whether it already does. Robert J. Marks, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Baylor University, opened by criticizing the Turing test, as a measure of whether we’ve produced genuine AI. Developed by the famous English mathematician and World War II codebreaker Alan Turing, the test holds that if we can’t distinguish a machine’s conversational discourse from that of a real human, then it must exhibit humanlike intelligence. Marks maintains that this is the wrong test for detecting true AI. In his view, the Turing test fails because it “looks at a book and tries to judge Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Casey Luskin
Date
November 12, 2022

Categorized
Information Theory

Tagged
Featured, Georg Seelig, Matt Scholz, Synthetic biology}

Is Information the Future of Medicine and Biology?

_{University of Washington’s Georg Seelig wants to “design molecules” and “write genetic information”} _{Casey Luskin

November 12, 2022

5

Information Theory}

At a Thursday afternoon panel at COSM 2022, pioneers in biology had a chance to talk to the public about the code that is written into our genomes. First up was Georg Seelig, a Swiss synthetic biologist and researcher at the Paul Allen School of Computer Science at the University of Washington (UW). He described his bioengineering research as aiming to learn “to read and write the language of the genome,” which is a “sort of a code” written in a “language.” Popular wisdom might hold that we have fully deciphered this language — and Seelig acknowledges that “over the last few decades, we’ve really learned a lot about the syntax of this language.” But he explains there’s still much Read More ›

Crowd of people on the street. No recognizable faces

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
November 12, 2022

Categorized
Creativity, Economics

Tagged
COSM, superabundance}

Living in a Superabundant Age

_{Marian L. Tupy talks economics, falling birth rates, and human creativity at the COSM conference} _{Peter Biles

November 12, 2022

4

Creativity, Economics}

On November 10th, Marian L. Tupy, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, spoke at this year’s COSM technology summit on behalf of his new book Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet. Tupy co-wrote the book with Gale L. Pooley, a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute and associate professor of business management at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. Their book takes a contrarian view of economics, scarcity, and the idea that an excessive human population diminishes the world’s resources. As the book’s title suggests, Tupy and Pooley take the opposite view: the world’s resources increase with population growth. During the COSM session, Tupy said, The caveman had the same natural resources at Read More ›

Young couple with eyeglasses pose outdoors

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post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
November 12, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
Bortus (character in the Orville series), Featured, Moclans in Orville sci-fi series, Orville Season 3 Episode 5, Straw man arguments, Topa (character in the Orville series), Transgenderism (in Orville series Season 3)}

Orville Episode 5 Is an Allegory Done Right… Accidentally

_{Gary Varner

November 12, 2022

6

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

I’ll say this for Episode 5 of The Orville Season Three: Regardless of my personal opinions about the show’s message, structurally speaking, this was the most solid story so far. Previous episodes have been plagued by random scenes that don’t seem to correlate with each other and pretentious diatribes that would surely turn off a viewer who did not agree with the writer’s opinions to begin with. In this episode, I felt like I was dealing with a writer who, at least, knew what he or she was doing. And the amazing thing about this is that the higher quality in the writing raised the quality of the actors’ performances as well. Cast members who were stale and boring through Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 11, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI Superpowers (book), America versus America (book), COSM, Featured, Kai-Fu Lee, Peter Thiel, Wang Huning}

Peter Thiel’s Take on What Has Really Happened With AI

_{The trouble is, who is AI really benefiting?} _{News

November 11, 2022

4

Artificial Intelligence}

Peter Thiel is a classic in people you should know about but possibly don’t. He helped get PayPal and LinkedIn started and he tries to think about where new tech is taking us. He spoke at COSM 2022 on that topic and he mentions a book that should set us thinking: The high-level question I want to ask today is, basically, how should we think about AI? Should we think of it as intelligent, conscious, or merely evil? The book that I think is interesting is that of Wang Huning, who’s the number four guy in the entire communist government [of China]. He’s sort of the professor and theorist of Xi Jinping thought. And he wrote this book [about his Read More ›

Two hands holding a paper with human head and a puzzle piece. Finding a cure to heal the disease. Mental health concept, memory loss and dementia disease. Alzheimer's losing brain and memory function.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 11, 2022

Categorized
Neuroscience}

Why Is the Human Brain Different?

_{News

November 11, 2022

2

Neuroscience}

Well, here’s one way. The human body is typically symmetrical. We have two kidneys and two nostrils. But that’s not what happens with the human brain, as researchers from the Max Planck Institute report: But this so-called lateralization, the tendency for brain regions to process certain functions more in the left or right hemisphere, varies from person to person. And not only in the minority whose brains are specialized mirror-inverted compared to the majority. Even people with classically arranged brains differ in how pronounced their asymmetry is. Earlier studies had shown that this, in turn, can also affect the functions themselves. For example, a lack of left asymmetry of certain language areas is observed in dyslexia. Insufficient brain lateralization also Read More ›

futuristic earth map technology abstract background

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 10, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Politics

Tagged
Computer-run world, Eric J. Larson, Featured, Hedgehog Review, Myth of Artificial Intelligence (book)}

So After Big Tech’s Play Worlds Are Played Out… Where Are We?

_{Computer technician Erik J. Larson asks, What have we learned that will help us?} _{News

November 10, 2022

2

Artificial Intelligence, Politics}

Computer scientist and entrepreneur Erik J. Larson, author of The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do (2021), asks us to look at life in the aftermath of the big new world that computers are supposed to create: But the “bureau of statistics” mindset is now a problem. It dominates thinking everywhere, not just in technology businesses aiming for sticky ads and more captive users. Nearly every institution one can point to today, from government to science, media, medicine, insurance, and many others, embraces a centralized, data-capture model requiring massive computing resources and actively downplaying human ingenuity in favor of number crunching and prediction. More troubling perhaps, is the way this has shaped the zeitgeist. Read More ›

Peter Thiel via videoconference at COSM 2022

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 10, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance

Tagged
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), Computer science vs physics, Computer sim universe, COSM, Featured, Multiverse (Peter Thiel's view), Peter Thiel, Peter Thiel on multiverse, Physics and universe as computer sim, Universe as computer sim}

Peter Thiel: The Multiverse Is a “Gateway Drug”

_{It’s a gateway drug to other crazy ideas, like the belief we live in a simulation} _{News

November 10, 2022

5

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance}

BELLEVUE, WA — Speaking to tech leaders and investors at COSM 2022 in the Seattle area, entrepreneur Peter Thiel provocatively asked “why do so many people in Silicon Valley believe in the simulation hypothesis that the entire universe, the cosmos, is just a computer simulation? Why do they believe something as crazy as this?” Actually, noted Thiel, the belief that our world is a simulation has now faded somewhat: I think probably the peak belief in the simulation hypothesis was maybe something like a decade ago, maybe circa 2012 to 2015, and it has probably faded some. We’ll still have Gen Z people say that things are a glitch in the simulation or there’s still some sort of passive reference Read More ›

Empty highway surrounded by clouds heading to the light

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 10, 2022

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Near-death experiences (Sam Parnia), Sam Parnia, Wesley J. Smith on NDEs}

Life after death receives boost from new research study

_{The world of Science! certainly isn’t turning out as some have hoped} _{News

November 10, 2022

3

Philosophy of Mind}

In recent decades, it has become possible to revive people in various stages of death who, at one time, would have died, leaving no testimony. The news from AWARE II won’t please total materialists at all: The study authors conclude that although studies to date have not been able to absolutely prove the reality or meaning of patients’ experiences and claims of awareness in relation to death, it has been impossible to disclaim them either. They say recalled experience surrounding death now merits further genuine empirical investigation without prejudice. NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Langone Health, “Lucid Dying: Patients Recall Death Experiences During CPR” at Cision PR Newswire (November 6, 2022) Why not assume that those people were Read More ›