Author: Mind Matters

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Mind Matters
Date
November 8, 2019

Categorized
Global Technology, Social Media

Tagged
Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Freedom of expression, India, internet}

India’s Social Media Content Removal Order Is a Nail in the Coffin of the Internet As We Know it

_{The High Court of Delhi ordered Facebook, Google, and Twitter to remove content globally if it is considered defamatory locally} _{Mind Matters
November 8, 2019

5

Global Technology, Social Media}

In reaching its decision, the Indian court relied on a string of recent decisions from around the world. For example, it drew from the Canadian approach in Equustek, where the Supreme Court of Canada ordered Google to remove content globally.

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Mind Matters
Date
December 4, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Technocracy

Tagged
AI Apocalypse, Dystopian, Michael Brooks, Stephen Hawking}

Stephen Hawking and the AI Apocalypse

_{Can doomsday headlines, chasing fame, stand in for deep knowledge of a subject?} _{Mind Matters
December 4, 2018

4

Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Technocracy}

One thing a celebrity pundit can usually count on is an audience of media professionals who haven’t considered the problems carefully either and don’t want to. It is much easier and more profitable to market Doomsday than Levin’s Law. As always, the fact that laws governing the universe will eventually triumph is true but not news. Read More ›

Workers at Hino Motors Manufacturing Indonesia, Indonesia

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Mind Matters
Date
November 27, 2018

Categorized
Work

Tagged
Amazon, employment, Jobs, Karl Marx, Strike, Tim Gordon, Unemployment, Work}

Is AI Creating the Conditions for Marxist Revolution?

_{An analyst looks at the conditions then and now} _{Mind Matters
November 27, 2018

4

Work}

Last summer, we noted Karl Marx’s eerie AI prediction; he felt that capitalism would fall when machines replaced human labor. While today’s market economy doesn’t seem in a hurry to fulfill either prediction, some see artificial intelligence as enabling a comeback of his theories. Read More ›

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Mind Matters
Date
November 26, 2018

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Social Factors

Tagged
Consciousness, Hard Problem (play), Terry Teachout, Tom Stoppard}

Tom Stoppard’s New Play Tackles Consciousness Itself

_{Consciousness is a hard problem for science, principally because no one quite understands what makes us the subjects of our experiences.} _{Mind Matters
November 26, 2018

3

Philosophy of Mind, Social Factors}

According to one critic, the problem that has preoccupied Stoppard throughout his career is “Are the materialists right, or is there more to man than mere flesh?” Read More ›

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Mind Matters
Date
November 26, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Social Factors

Tagged
Health Care, Medicine}

Too Big to Fail Safe?

_{If artificial intelligence makes disastrous decisions from very complex calculations, will we still understand what went wrong?} _{Mind Matters
November 26, 2018

2

Artificial Intelligence, Social Factors}

A neuroscientist offers an example of the kind of thing that can go wrong, while the AI system is still small and focused enough to be easily understood: Read More ›

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Mind Matters
Date
November 26, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Social Media

Tagged
Advertising, François Chollet, Marketing, Opinion, social media}

AI Social Media Could Totally Manipulate You

_{Deep learning specialist: And the scary thing is, the AI needed is not especially advanced} _{Mind Matters
November 26, 2018

4

Artificial Intelligence, Social Media}

Readers familiar with The Two Towers will recall that that’s precisely what Worm-Tongue did to Theoden King: The king heard nothing but what was conveyed to him from his would-be overlord by Worm-tongue, until someone separated him, rather forcibly, from his "social medium."

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Mind Matters
Date
November 26, 2018

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Social Factors

Tagged
Complex Specified Information, Specified Complexity}

How the KGB Found CIA Agents

_{An illustration of complex, specified information (CSI) in the world of foreign intelligence agencies} _{Mind Matters
November 26, 2018

4

Natural Intelligence, Social Factors}

The concept, which has been controversial with respect to the universe as a whole, can be conveniently illustrated on a smaller scale in the events of our time. Consider the case of the phantom Soviet moles. Read More ›

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Mind Matters
Date
November 21, 2018

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Work

Tagged
Advertising, Advertising agency, Jay Richards, Job Displacement, Social Factors}

The Death of the Ad Agency Was Widely Publicized

_{But, like so many industries, advertising turned out to be weathering the digital storm after all} _{Mind Matters
November 21, 2018

6

Arts & Culture, Work}

A recent surge in jobs could be temporary. But it’s beginning to look as though the iconic ad culture is adjusting to the digital age. There's a film in that too. Probably a lot of them.

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Mind Matters
Date
November 21, 2018

Categorized
Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Animal Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, octopus, Reptiles}

Yes, Even Lizards Can Be Smart

_{If you catch them at the right time. But can we give machines what the lizard has by nature?} _{Mind Matters
November 21, 2018

5

Natural Intelligence}

What is it that we want machines to be and do under our guidance that these—often seemingly strange—life forms are and do spontaneously? The life forms do those things to stay alive. Does it matter then that machines are not alive? Read More ›

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Mind Matters
Date
November 20, 2018

Categorized
Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Animal Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Birds, Crows, Natural Intelligence}

Crows Can Be as Smart as Apes

_{But they have quite different brains. The intelligence doesn't seem to reside in the details of the mechanism} _{Mind Matters
November 20, 2018

4

Natural Intelligence}

Studying animals' intelligence has taught us many things. But in some ways, it has deepened the mystery of intelligence. Read More ›

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Mind Matters
Date
November 19, 2018

Categorized
Social Factors

Tagged
Amazon, employment, Jobs, Work}

Is the Future of Work Relentlessly Urban?

_{Amazon’s new combined New York and Washington headquarters may provide an unintended test} _{Mind Matters
November 19, 2018

4

Social Factors}

The idea of two different locations would likely be unworkable apart from the internet. But some wonder if Amazon has grasped all the implications of the internet. Read More ›

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Mind Matters
Date
November 19, 2018

Categorized
Ethics, Machine Learning, Religion

Tagged
China, Christianity, Facial Recognition, Muslims}

Facial Recognition Aids Persecution of Chinese Christians, Muslims

_{Western companies still seek business ties with an increasingly authoritarian regime} _{Mind Matters
November 19, 2018

4

Ethics, Machine Learning, Religion}

The crackdown on religion is said to stem from Xi Jinping, who became President in 2012. After he got term limits removed in March 2018, some have begun to privately call him “Emperor Xi.”

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Mind Matters
Date
November 18, 2018

Categorized
Social Factors

Tagged
democracy, Google, Technocracy}

Google.com or Google.gov?

_{A political analyst argues that Google is beginning to mesh with governments whose values are compatible with its own.} _{Mind Matters
November 18, 2018

4

Social Factors}

Readers who follow the growing controversies over the free flow of information will find much to reflect on in Adams’s long-form discussion of how Google shapes the search for information in the pursuit of its social goals. Read More ›

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Mind Matters
Date
November 16, 2018

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
_longform, Physicalism, Placebo effect, Ted Kaptchuk}

Yes, the Placebo Effect Is Real, Not a Trick

_{But the fact that the mind acts on the body troubles materialists. Such facts, they say, require revision} _{Mind Matters
November 16, 2018

12

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

The fact that you may start to get better if you believe you are receiving treatment is one of the best-attested facts in medicine. Despite that, far from being accepted, this "placebo effect" is seen in many quarters as, at best, a “pesky thing” and at worst, a “trick,” if not a “fraud.” Perhaps that is due to a drive to reduce medical science to the purely physical. Read More ›

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Mind Matters
Date
November 15, 2018

Categorized
Machine Learning

Tagged
Future of Life Institute, Machine Learning, programming, Victoria Krakovna}

AI, it turns out, can solve any problem

_{As long as we are not too persnickety about what we consider a solution} _{Mind Matters
November 15, 2018

2

Machine Learning}

The machine that knows what we mean instead of what we say is still in the concept stage. Meanwhile, Deep Mind researcher Victoria Krakovna keeps a running list of ways that generate "a solution that literally satisfies the stated objective but fails to solve the problem according to the human designer’s intent.” Read More ›

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Mind Matters
Date
November 15, 2018

Categorized
Social Factors

Tagged
anime, hologram, marriage}

The virtual bride

_{The answer to relationship problems: Your new spouse is a hologram. So far, only in Japan} _{Mind Matters
November 15, 2018

2

Social Factors}

While the marriage does not, at present, have legal standing, Gatebox, the company that produces the hologram, has issued more than 3,700 certificates for such "cross-dimension" marriages. Read More ›

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Mind Matters
Date
November 14, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Social Factors

Tagged
China, media, news media, robotics, Turing Machine, Turing Test}

If a Robot Read the News, Would You Notice a Difference?

_{The Chinese government thinks not. Is this the way of the future?} _{Mind Matters
November 14, 2018

4

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Social Factors}

The robotic news readers of China serve a quite different purpose from the independent news outlets and commentators of the West; the robots help disseminate controlled information rather than finding and developing information. Read More ›

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Mind Matters
Date
November 13, 2018

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Bernardo Kastrup, Conscious Mind (book), David Chalmers, Jonathan Schooler, Panpsychism, Tam Hunt}

Panpsychism: You Are Conscious but So Is Your Coffee Mug

_{Materialists have a solution to the problem of consciousness, and it may startle you} _{Mind Matters
November 13, 2018

6

Philosophy of Mind}

To understand why Scientific American would take panpsychism or the "multiple personality disorder" universe seriously, one needs to begin by grasping how very hard the problem of consciousness is for materialists (naturalists). Put simply, it is easier for many today to stomach the idea that an electron is conscious than the idea that consciousness is not a material entity. Read More ›

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Mind Matters
Date
November 12, 2018

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Apocalypticism, Consciousness, Cyborgs, Human Nature, Mars, Martin Rees, On the Future (book), Philosophy of Mind}

Noted Astronomer Envisions Cyborgs on Mars

_{Sir Martin Rees thinks of this “post-human evolution” as going beyond Darwin to “secular intelligent design.”} _{Mind Matters
November 12, 2018

4

Philosophy of Mind}

AI apocalypse is certainly in the air. Elon Musk, Henry Kissinger, and the late Stephen Hawking have all predicted an AI doomsday. Industry professionals’ doubt and disparagement don’t seem to register with the media in the same way. Read More ›

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Mind Matters
Date
November 10, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
computer, human brain, life form, neuron}

Brains are not billions of little computers

_{Despite the hype. Also, life forms are not machines and neurons are not neural networks} _{Mind Matters
November 10, 2018

5

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

Life forms exist in a dance with their environment (homeostasis) that requires constant adjustment, an adjustment generated by the inner drive to continue in existence. How does the drive come to be there? The analogy between life forms and machines like computers is not particularly convincing, on close examination. Read More ›