Author Archives: SelfAwarePatterns

Recommendation: The Roboteer Trilogy

Posted on June 19, 2017

I’m sure anyone who’s paid attention to my science fiction novel recommendations has noticed that I love space opera.  But as much as I love the genre, I’m often aware of an issue many of its stories have.  In order … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Fiction | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Having productive internet conversations

Posted on June 12, 2017

Anyone who’s frequented this blog knows I love having discussions, and can pontificate all day on subjects I’m interested in.  I’ve actually been participating in online discussions, on and off, for decades. My earliest conversations were on dial up bulletin … Continue reading →

Posted in Society | Tagged , , , , | 50 Comments

The system components of pain

Posted on June 5, 2017

Peter Hankins at Conscious Entities has a post looking at the morality of consciousness, which is a commentary on piece at Nautilus by Jim Davies on the same topic.  I recommend reading both posts in their entirety, but the overall … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , , , , | 29 Comments

Predicting far future technologies

Posted on May 15, 2017

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. Niels Bohr If you’re a science fiction writer, one of the things you do is try to predict what future technologies will come along.  If you’re not writing hard science fiction, this … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Fiction | Tagged , , , , | 13 Comments

Why embodiment does not make mind copying impossible

Posted on May 1, 2017

A while back, I highlighted a TEDX talk by Anil Seth where he discussed that cognition is largely a prediction machine.  Apparently Seth more recently gave another talk at the full TED conference, which is receiving rave reviews.  Unfortunately, that talk … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , , , | 30 Comments

Recommendation: Dark Intelligence

Posted on April 17, 2017

I’ve been meaning to check out Neal Asher’s books for some time.  They keep coming up as recommendations on Amazon, Goodreads, and in various other venues, and they sound enticing, like the kind of fiction I’d enjoy.  Last week, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Fiction | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Steven Pinker: From neurons to consciousness

Posted on April 15, 2017

This lecture from Steven Pinker has been around for a while, but it seems to get at a question a few people have asked me recently: how does the information processing of neurons and synapses lead to conscious perception?  Pinker doesn’t answer this … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments