^TagFeatured

Bronzed person wearing virtual reality glasses

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
January 31, 2019

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Religion, Social Factors, Technocracy

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ET, Extraterrestrials, Featured, Mike Keas, religion, Singularity, The Singularity, Unbelievable (book)}

AI as an Emergent Religion

_{Science philosopher Mike Keas’s new book discusses how AI and ET are merging, to create a religion of futurist magic} _{News

January 31, 2019

4

Artificial Intelligence, Religion, Social Factors, Technocracy}

Many Singulatarians hold that their soon-to-be-realized technology will be indistinguishable by the rest of us from magic. Are they serious? Well, in 2005, Kurzweil said that the magical Harry Potter stories “are not unreasonable visions of our world as it will exist only a few decades from now.” when, due to AI, “the entire universe will become saturated with our intelligence.” Keas warns that this type of thing encourages people “to expect the experiential equivalent of occult phenomena.”

Artificial Intelligence Is Actually Superficial Intelligence

_{The confusing ways the word “intelligence” is used belie the differences between human intelligence and machine sophistication} _{Brendan Dixon

January 28, 2019

6

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Technocracy}

Words often have more meaning than we hear at first. Consider colors. We associate green with verdant, healthy life and red with prohibition and danger. But these inferences are not embedded in the basic meaning of “red” or “green.” They are cultural accretions we attach to words that enable the richness of language. That, by the way, is one reason why legal documents and technical papers are so difficult to read. The terms used are stripped clean of such baggage, requiring additional words to fill the gaps. The word “intelligent” is like that. Saying that a computer, or a program, is intelligent can lead us down a rabbit hole of extra meaning. An honest researcher merely means the computer has Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Winston Ewert
Date
January 25, 2019

Categorized
Social Factors, Work

Tagged
Automation, employment, Featured, Job Displacement, Luddites, Unemployment}

Remember the Luddites!

_{The Luddites became famous for breaking machinery during the Industrial Revolution. Were they entirely wrong?} _{Winston Ewert

January 25, 2019

7

Social Factors, Work}

People often think that the Luddites were merely anti-technology because they opposed automation during the Industrial Revolution (1760–1840). The story is more complex. As we face increasing automation today, we might want to see what we can learn from their history. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
January 24, 2019

Categorized
Machine Learning

Tagged
Featured, Machine Learning, Reinforcement learning, Supervised Learning, Unsupervised Learning}

Part 1: Navigating the Machine Learning Landscape

_{To choose the right type of machine learning model for your project, you need to answer a few specific questions} _{Jonathan Bartlett

January 24, 2019

6

Machine Learning}

Most machine learning systems fall into three main categories—supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning. The choice of system depends first on which category of machine learning best addresses your situation. Read More ›

Mission Control Center (MCC), Houston, Texas, during the Gemini 5 flight.

^{Type
post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
January 23, 2019

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Work

Tagged
employment, Engineering, Featured, Nerds, STEM fields, Technology, Work}

STEM EDUCATION 1. Pursuing Nerd Quality Over Nerd Quantity

_{Reducing math and science to practice is what engineers do. Scientists didn’t put a man on the moon. Engineers did.} _{Robert J. Marks

January 23, 2019

6

Artificial Intelligence, Work}

Overall, computer applications will impact our society and culture as much as electricity did. And we’re living smack in the middle of the transformation. Read More ›

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
January 21, 2019

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Anna Buckley, Daniel Dennett, David Bentley Hart, David Papineau, Featured, John Horgan, Michael Egnor, Thomas Nagel}

Has Science Shown That Consciousness Is Only an Illusion?

_{Using clever analogies, Philosopher Daniel Dennett argues that consciousness is all smoke and mirrors} _{Denyse O'Leary

January 21, 2019

8

Philosophy of Mind}

British philosopher Papineau recommends taking Dennett’s theories “with a pinch of salt.” American essayist David Bentley Hart is less charitable: “Daniel Dennett’s latest book marks five decades of majestic failure to explain consciousness” Read More ›

Market with hundreds of stalls from above

^{Type
post

Author
Winston Ewert
Date
January 18, 2019

Categorized
Technocracy, Work

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Central Planning, Featured, free market, Machine Learning, Universal Basic Income}

Will the Free Market Help or Hurt Us in an AI-Empowered World?

_{We may need new institutions, such as insurance against job obsolescence} _{Winston Ewert

January 18, 2019

6

Technocracy, Work}

If humans are free to experiment with new institutions, I believe we will find an excellent solution. However, there is a great danger that those who benefit from the status quo will use their influence to prevent the adoption of new institutions. Read More ›

A pile of photographic memories with a pancake photo

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
January 16, 2019

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Consciousness, David A. Oakley, Featured, Galen Strawson, hard problem of consciousness, Materialism, Max Tegmark, Memory, Paul Thagard, Perceptronium, Peter Halligan, Philosophy}

How Can Consciousness Be a Material Thing?

_{Maybe it can’t. But materialist philosophers face starkly limited choices in how to view consciousness} _{Denyse O'Leary

January 16, 2019

7

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

In analytical philosopher Galen Strawson’s opinion, our childhood memories of pancakes on Saturday, for example, are—and must be—"wholly physical." Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
January 14, 2019

Categorized
Data Privacy, Technocracy

Tagged
Ad personalization, Advertising, Anonymity, Big Data, Deanonymizing data, Featured, Privacy, Security}

Your Phone Knows Everything Now

_{And in a world where no data is anonymous, yours may be sold to the highest bidder} _{News

January 14, 2019

7

Data Privacy, Technocracy}

Your location can be a useful guide to your buying habits, whether or not you want to buy anything or think anyone has any business snooping on you to find out. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
January 14, 2019

Categorized
Ethics, Social Factors

Tagged
fake news, Featured, Information, journalism, Retraction, retractions, Social Factors, social media, studies, truth}

Research Showing That Fake News Easily Fools Us Collapses

_{A recent paper claiming that low-quality news (“fake news”) spreads as quickly on social media as accurate news has been retracted by its authors.} _{News

January 14, 2019

5

Ethics, Social Factors}

A team from the Shanghai Institute of Technology sought to study whether accuracy made any difference to whether a post goes viral on social media. They cited a concern about “the digital misinformation that threatens our democracy.” Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
George Montañez
Date
January 7, 2019

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Bayes' Theorem, bias, Featured, Longform, Machine Learning, Minorities, Prejudice, Racism, Social Factors, Technocracy}

AI: Think About Ethics Before Trouble Arises

_{A machine learning specialist reflects on Micah 6:8 as a guide to developing ethics for the rapidly growing profession} _{George Montañez

January 7, 2019

18

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

To love mercy sometimes means to give up efficiency. It could mean losing a few points of model accuracy by refusing to take into account features that invade privacy or are proxies for race, leading to discriminatory model behavior. But that’s OK. The merciful are willing to give up some of their rights and advantages so they can help others. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Eric Holloway
Date
January 4, 2019

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Technocracy

Tagged
AI Winter, Backpropagation, Brendan Dixon, constrained vision, Data processing, Data processing inequality, Featured, Ray Kurzweil, Singularity, The Singularity, the unconstrained vision}

Will artificial intelligence design artificial super-intelligence?

_{And then turn us all into super-geniuses, as some AI researchers hope? No, and here's why not} _{Eric Holloway

January 4, 2019

8

Artificial Intelligence, Technocracy}

Because Moore's law is an exponential law, the numbers multiply rapidly and we could hit the physical limit rather suddenly. Current indications are that Moore’s law’s speed has already slowed or even ceased to be a true description of the IT industry today. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
January 3, 2019

Categorized
Social Factors

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, ethics, Featured, Longform, Machine Learning, Racism, Social Factors}

Can an Algorithm Be Racist?

_{No, the machine has no opinion. It processes vast tracts of data. And, as a result, the troubling hidden roots of some data are exposed} _{Denyse O'Leary

January 3, 2019

8

Social Factors}

It’s tempting to assume that a villain lurks behind such a scene when the exact opposite is the problem: A system dominated by machines is all calculations, not thoughts, intentions, or choices. If the input is wrong, so is the output. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
December 31, 2018

Categorized
Social Factors, Work

Tagged
economics, Featured, George Gilder, Information Theory, Knowledge and Power (book), Peter Thiel, Plato's Library, wealth, Zero to One (book)}

How Can Information Theory Help the Economy Grow?

_{New information is the true source of new wealth; everyone wins when we learn how to produce it more efficiently} _{Jonathan Bartlett

December 31, 2018

6

Social Factors, Work}

What gives humans the ability to increase in prosperity, according to Eric Holloway, is our ability to “read” from Plato’s Library of new ideas, thus providing an ever-growing supply of side information that powers the economy. Read More ›

Abstract Looking Into a Kaleidoscope Background Geometric Shapes

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Egnor
Date
December 31, 2018

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Aristotle, Featured, Immanuel Kant, intentionality, John Locke, Longform, Neuroscience, Noumenal, Peter Carruthers, Phenomenal, phenomenology, Philosophy of Mind, qualia, Thomas Aquinas}

In One Sense, Consciousness IS an Illusion…

_{We have no knowledge of the processes of our consciousness, only of the objects of its attention, whether they are physical, emotional, or abstract} _{Michael Egnor

December 31, 2018

8

Philosophy of Mind}

When we think, we think about reality, not about the neurological processes by which we connect to reality. It is by keeping this understanding clearly in mind that we escape the solipsism that bedevils modern neuroscience. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Eric Holloway
Date
December 27, 2018

Categorized
Machine Learning

Tagged
Featured, Information, Kolmogorov information, meaning, Order, Randomness, Shannon information}

How Can We Measure Meaningful Information?

_{Neither randomness nor order alone creates meaning. So how can we identify communications?} _{Eric Holloway

December 27, 2018

4

Machine Learning}

Dropping a handful of toothpicks on the table seems to produce a different sort of pattern than spelling out a word with toothpicks. Surprisingly, this intuitive distinction is harder to make in math and the sciences. Algorithmic specified complexity (ASC) enables us to distinguish them. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
December 20, 2018

Categorized
Ethics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Animal Intelligence, Animal rights, Featured, intelligence, Plant rights, Plants, Todd May, Uhlrich Kutschera, Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT)}

Is Salad Murder?

_{A Darwinian biologist wrestles with the significance of plant intelligence} _{News

December 20, 2018

4

Ethics, Philosophy of Mind}

If plants can sense things and communicate with each other, even though they lack a mind or brain, should they have rights? In an age of sometimes violent animal rights activism, that’s not an idle question. Plant physiologist Ulrich Kutschera, author of Physiology of Plants. Sensible Vegetation in Action (January 2019, German), talked about it in a recent interview: This is a serious issue which is related to plant intelligence. In April 2009, the Swiss Parliament discussed the topic of “plant ethics” and proposed to attribute to plants a kind of “Würde”, which can be translated as “dignity” (3). As a consequence, some radical plant ethics-activists have distributed T-shirts and other propaganda material with the slogan “Salad is murder”. Despite Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
December 17, 2018

Categorized
Machine Learning, Work

Tagged
Automation, Automation failure, Automation planning, Business Intelligence, Elon Musk, Featured, Longform, Machine Learning}

Be Choosy About What You Automate!

_{Having automated many processes, I can assure you that that is the First Rule of Automation} _{Jonathan Bartlett

December 17, 2018

9

Machine Learning, Work}

The worst trap that people who are pursuing automation fall into is the desire to automate everything. That’s usually a road to disaster. Automation is supposed to save time and money, but it can wind up costing you both if you don't carefully consider what you automate. Read More ›