Tag Archives: AI

Is it time to retire the term “artificial intelligence”?

Posted on January 24, 2019 by

Eric Siegel at Big Think, in a new “Dr. Data Show” on the site, explains Why A.I. is a big fat lie: 1) Unlike AI, machine learning’s totally legit. I gotta say, it wins the Awesomest Technology Ever award, forging advancements … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , | 48 Comments

The dangers of artificial companionship

Posted on January 20, 2019 by

Lux Alpstraum at Undark argues against “Our Irrational Fear of Sexbots”: When most people envision a world where human partners are abandoned in favor of robots, the robots they picture tend to be reasonably good approximations of flesh-and-blood humans. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Is the singularity right around the corner?

Posted on January 6, 2019 by

You’ve probably heard the narrative before.  At some point, we will invent an artificial intelligence that is more intelligent than we are.  The superhuman intelligence will then have the capability to either build an improved version of itself, or engineer … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , , , | 54 Comments

Could a neuroscientist understand a microprocessor? Is that a relevant question?

Posted on December 27, 2017 by

A while back, Julia Galef on Rationally Speaking interviewed Eric Jonas, one of the authors of a study that attempted to use neuroscience techniques on a simple computer processor. The field of neuroscience has been collecting more and more data, … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , | 45 Comments

Adding imagination to AI

Posted on July 31, 2017 by

As we’ve discussed in recent posts on consciousness, I think imagination has a crucial role to play in animal consciousness.  It’s part of a hierarchy I currently use to keep the broad aspects of cognition straight in my mind. Reflexes, … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments

Recommendation: Dark Intelligence

Posted on April 17, 2017 by

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 , , , | 9 Comments

Why fears of an AI apocalypse are misguided

Posted on March 22, 2017 by

In this Big Think video, Steven Pinker makes a point I’ve made before, that fear of artificial intelligence comes with a deep misunderstanding about the relationship between intelligence and motivation.  Human minds come with survival instincts, programmatic goals hammered out … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , , , | 61 Comments

SMBC: Do humans have feelings?

Posted on May 28, 2016 by

Apropos to the previous post, albeit from a different angle. Hovertext: “This comic was posted in order to increase my social status, acquire wealth, and thus improve the reproductive fitness of my offspring.” Click through for full sized version and … Continue reading →

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Let artificial intelligence evolve? Probably fruitless, possibly dangerous.

Posted on April 21, 2016 by

Michael Chorost has an article at Slate about artificial intelligence and any dangers it might present.  I find myself in complete agreement with the early portions of his piece, as he explains why an AI (artificial intelligence) would be unlikely to … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , , , | 22 Comments

Panpsychism and definitions of “consciousness”

Posted on February 4, 2016 by

Disagreeable Me asked me to look at this interesting TED talk by Professor Mark Bishop. The entire talk is well worth the time (20 minutes) for anyone interested in consciousness and the computational theory of mind, but here’s my very … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , , , | 116 Comments