Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagCOSM

gold-bitcoin-cryptocurrency-coins-on-yellow-backgound-stockpack-adobe-stock
Gold bitcoin cryptocurrency coins on yellow backgound
Type
post
Author
News
Date
May 30, 2023
Categorized
Cryptocurrency
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John Tamny and the Future of Money

Forbes editor John Tamny discusses his views on crypto and traditional forms of money at COSM 2022
News
May 30, 2023
1
Cryptocurrency

The 2022 COSM conference saw a number of remarkable speakers, including winner of last year’s prestigious Kyoto Prize, Carver Mead, and Forbes editor John Tamny, who is featured in today’s highlighted video from the conference. Tamny sat down with philosopher Jay Richards to share his thoughts on the conference and his views on the future of money, especially regarding cryptocurrencies versus traditional forms. You can watch the conversation here, and can also access many other great talks and interviews on the Center’s main YouTube page.

finding a solution in the maze
Businessman in creative blue maze background.
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
April 5, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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AI is a Tool, Not a Solution for Everything

Life is complicated and our problems can't always be solved through an engineering approach
Peter Biles
April 5, 2023
4
Artificial Intelligence

AI is a tool. In the words of Robert J. Marks from an interview at last year’s COSM conference, it can’t be a “friend or foe,” because it’s not a living entity. It’s something that can be used (or abused). Such a neutral, balanced attitude toward AI is alien to many Big Tech moguls who are pitching AI as the solution to many of the world’s complicated problems. For them, on the flipside of the doomsday alarmists, AI will usher in a new epoch of human progress. They may be partially right about that, but according to this writer at Slate, their hype reflects a commitment to technological “solutionism,” the idea that tech, once adequately suited for the task, can Read More ›

COSM2022-Nov10-174A0069-bob-marks
Type
post
Author
News
Date
December 15, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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Non-Computable You: Bradley Center Celebrates Human Creativity in 2022

Humans are unique and will never be replaced by the machines they invent.
News
December 15, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence

Note: Mind Matters News is made possible by support from the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence, a project of the non-profit Discovery Institute. Here is a report of our activities for 2022. If you benefit from the work of Mind Matters News, could you donate to support our work in 2023? Humans are unique and will never be replaced by the machines they invent. That was the powerful takeaway from this year’s new book by Walter Bradley Center Director Robert J. Marks, Non-Computable You: What You Do that Artificial Intelligence Never Will. The release of Marks’ book was one of many ways that the Bradley Center advanced its mission in 2022 to defend human dignity and creativity Read More ›

COSM2022-Nov10-174A0251-eclectric-cars
Electric Cars at COSM 2022
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
November 14, 2022
Categorized
Global Technology
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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-stockpack-adobe-stock
Summer meadow blow balls landscape painting
Type
post
Author
Casey Luskin
Date
November 14, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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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 ›

COSM2022-Nov10-174A0052-ai-panel
Panel on AI at COSM 2022
Type
post
Author
Casey Luskin
Date
November 13, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Human exceptionalism
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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 ›

growing population
Crowd of people on the street. No recognizable faces
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
November 12, 2022
Categorized
Creativity, Economics
Tagged
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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 ›

COSM2022-Wed-174A9344-Peter-Thiel-George-Gilder
Type
post
Author
News
Date
November 11, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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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 ›

COSM2022-Wed-174A9297-Peter-Thiel
Peter Thiel via videoconference at COSM 2022
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post
Author
News
Date
November 10, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance
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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 ›

chinese-flag-and-big-brother-data-surveillance-stockpack-adobe-stock
Chinese flag and big brother data surveillance
Type
post
Author
News
Date
November 26, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy
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On What Terms Is Co-Operation Between the US and China Possible?

China analyst Miles Maochun Yu thinks that China’s new goal is to become the new global power first, then implement its ideology
News
November 26, 2021
9
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy

A panel at COSM 2021 aired a disagreement between philosopher of technology George Gilder and political analyst Newt Gingrich. Gingrich argued that China is the greatest threat to global freedom while Gilder felt that claims about forced labor, for example, are overstated and that we must co-operate with China for technological advances. In the background is China’s 24/7 surveillance of the entire population, the door-to-door identification of and crackdown on religious believers, as well as on civil rights activists. The situation in China has changed a great deal over the past half decade which marked the Uyghur internment camps and the premature takeover of Hong Kong. As Michael Schuman puts it: China today is in the grip of the most Read More ›

gold-bitcoin-on-dark-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
Gold bitcoin on dark background
Type
podcast
Author
George Gilder
Date
October 14, 2021
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COSM Speaker Peter Thiel: The Failures and “Self-Hatred” of Big Tech

George Gilder
October 14, 2021
1

Listen to maverick entrepreneur Peter Thiel’s talk from last year’s COSM conference. Thiel discusses his views of artificial intelligence, Big Tech’s monopoly, China, and the future of technology with legendary tech guru George Gilder. You can register now to hear Peter Thiel and George Gilder at this year’s COSM conference in November. Show Notes 00:50 | Introducing Peter Thiel 01:12 Read More ›

concept-of-future-technology-5g-network-wireless-systems-and-internet-of-things-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
concept of future technology 5G network wireless systems and internet of things
Type
post
Author
News
Date
July 10, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Global Technology
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Valley Insider Peter Thiel’s Comments Last Year Proved Prophetic

China’s recent takeover of Hong Kong and the campus Cancel Culture spotlight his warnings for our culture’s future in the age of 5G
News
July 10, 2020
7
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Global Technology

Peter Thiel, who spoke by interactive video to the COSM conference last October, is probably the most remarkable of the Silicon Valley insiders. A fuller version of his discussions with tech philosopher George Gilder has just been released. What makes Thiel (think PayPal, Facebook, Palantir, Airbnb, Lyft, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX) unique is that he so much contradicts the Valley stereotype and is certainly not afraid to tell the Valley its faults. In fact, he moved down to Los Angeles in 2018, fed up with the Valley as a one-party state. He suggested in 2019 that Google be investigated for treason for refusing to work with the Pentagon but helping the Chinese military. Most of the time, though, Thiel prefers Read More ›

richards-fuetsch-cosm-2019
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post
Author
News
Date
July 3, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Surveillance
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AT&T CTO Says, Yes, You Can Live Without Your Smart Phone

News
July 3, 2020
2
Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Surveillance

At COSM 2019, Jay Richards interviewed AT&T CTO Andre Fuetsch (the guy who says your smart phone will disappear). Is that true? And how will we live? From the interview: Andre Fuetsch: We are now on the brink of being able to connect many, many more things than we’ve ever seen before. And just by the fact of being able to connect more things … look at the more traditional wireless networks that we’ve had in the preceding generations. It frankly was just about connecting phones, right? “Some were sort of dumb phones, some were more feature phones. Some are now obviously more smartphones. And these were really more of kind of a one to one relationship with people. 5G, Read More ›

eeg-test-lab.jpg
EEG Test on an Elderly Man at Hospital Laboratory
Type
post
Author
News
Date
June 19, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Can We Really Cheat Death by Downloading Our Brains?

Through the ages, we have thought of unique ways to avoid death. Could the internet and artificial intelligence help?
News
June 19, 2020
5
Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Last October, Jay Richards, author of The Human Advantage, caught up with Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks, a Baylor University computer engineering prof, at COSM 2019 to ask, what are our cheat-death chances? They were responding to futurist Ray Kurzweil’s heady claims made at the conference that we will merge with computers by 2045 and live on as AI. Richards and Marks reflected on Kurzweil’s claims and the thoughts of the panel responding to them. Here’s a partial transcript: Jay Richards: He’s (Kurzweil, below right) very much a sort of, I’d say, a techno-optimist. And in fact, he sort of thinks we’re going to get brain scans and upload ourselves, whereas the panel… Though I know there was a Read More ›

COSM-3887
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 31, 2019
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning
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Is Ray Kurzweil’s Singularity Now Nearer — or Impossible?

In response to Kurzweil’s talk at the COSM Technology Summit, panelists noted that AI achievements are revolutionary in size but limited by their nature in scope
Denyse O'Leary
October 31, 2019
4
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning

George Montañez, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Harvey Mudd College, took issue with Kurzweil’s claim that AlphaGoZero needed no instructions to beat humans at the game of Go: “For a system like this to work, a human must define the incentive structure, also encoding the assumptions.” The sheer power of a computing system does not cause it to do anything at all.

Read More ›
COSM-Ray-Kurzweil-screens
Ray Kurzweil presenting via teleconference at COSM 2019
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 30, 2019
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind
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Tech pioneer Ray Kurzweil: We Will Merge with Computers by 2045

For computers, “Even the very best human is just another notch to pass,” he told the COSM Technology Summit
Denyse O'Leary
October 30, 2019
5
Philosophy of Mind

Advocates point to the success of Kurzweil’s past predictions as evidence that his Singularity is indeed Near, as his 2005 book predicts or Nearer, as his forthcoming one (June 2020) does. But questions bubbled to the surface.

Read More ›
COSM-3527
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 25, 2019
Categorized
Business and Finance, Global Technology
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Wall Street Journal columnist to Big Tech: You are doomed

Companies like Google and Facebook aren’t monsters, says Andy Kessler, but each nourishes the seeds of its own destruction
Denyse O'Leary
October 25, 2019
4
Business and Finance, Global Technology

Kessler told his audience at the COSM National Technology Summit that Big Tech companies are so vulnerable that, for legal reasons, the United States is the only safe place for their headquarters.

Read More ›
COSM-4138
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 25, 2019
Categorized
Global Technology
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Have Millennials broken up with America’s car culture?

They are less likely to have licenses; they prefer ride-sharing, says auto data analyst
Denyse O'Leary
October 25, 2019
3
Global Technology

“People envision a future delivering mobility as a service,” Bryan Mistele of INRIX told the COSM Technology Summit, contrasting the Millennials’ approach with that of earlier generations who tended, at the same age, to see driving as a form of freedom.

Read More ›
COSM-3296
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 24, 2019
Categorized
Data Privacy, Global Technology
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Your smartphone will disappear, says AT&T CTO

New 5G computing will introduce an era of ever smarter wearable devices, according to Andre Fuetsch
Denyse O'Leary
October 24, 2019
4
Data Privacy, Global Technology

Fuetsch asks us to think of 3G (2001) and 4G (2010) internet as the difference between a junior high school rock band and a high school rock band: “The high school band is a lot louder and a lot faster.” And 5G? “It is a 40-piece orchestra. A wide spectrum of abilities but tight structure and control.”

Read More ›
COSM-3188
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 24, 2019
Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy
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Chair of Forbes Media Says Money Is About Trust

Experts forecast the future of money in general at COSM
Denyse O'Leary
October 24, 2019
4
Business and Finance, Data Privacy

Facebook wants to start minting its own money. Amazon is said to be thinking about it. Bitcoin has many enthusiasts. But what determines the value of money in a digital age?

Read More ›