The upcoming movie, Transcendence, looks like it will be interesting, but the trailer includes common assumptions about the singularity that I'm not sure are justified. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY-cc1MLAI4 To be sure, the assumptions are held by a lot of singularity believers. Below I offer some reasons why these assumptions shouldn't be taken as self evident. Assumption 1: … Continue reading Singularity assumptions that should be questioned
Tag: Artificial intelligence
BBC – Future – Technology – Artificial intelligence: The machines with alien minds
Why should our biological manner of thinking determine our approach to silicone-based circuits and electronic logic? Our machine creations are more profoundly divided from us than anything else in nature. They do not need to think like us to serve us, work with us, or even understand us – as our own relationships with nature … Continue reading BBC – Future – Technology – Artificial intelligence: The machines with alien minds
Reinstalling Eden : Nature : Nature Publishing Group
Eve, I call her. She awakes, wondering where she is and how she got there. She admires the beauty of the island. She cracks a coconut, drinks its juice and tastes its flesh. Her cognitive skills, her range of emotions, the richness of her sensory experiences, all rival my own. She thinks about where she … Continue reading Reinstalling Eden : Nature : Nature Publishing Group
BBC – Future – Technology – Is it OK to torture or murder a robot?
In the discussion on my post on computer consciousness from the other day, my friend amanimal just provided the following link: BBC - Future - Technology - Is it OK to torture or murder a robot?. I think this powerfully corroborates my thesis in that post, but it also illustrates that I might have been … Continue reading BBC – Future – Technology – Is it OK to torture or murder a robot?
More on computer consciousness
After discussion on my post the other day on consciousness being in the eye beholder, I realized that I probably should expand a bit on my hypothesis about what we would intuitively consider to be a conscious being. We, as minds, are aware. We have awareness from our senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. From the … Continue reading More on computer consciousness
Consciousness is in the eye of the beholder
Alan Turing was a pioneer in the field of computer science. One of the things he is famous for is the Turing test. At its core, this is a test about whether or not a machine, a computer, can convince a human that the machine is another human. The details of the specific test that … Continue reading Consciousness is in the eye of the beholder
Why an AI revolt is unlikely
From time to time, articles or blog posts appear expressing anxiety about what will happen when we finally achieve artificial intelligence. The thinking goes that such a mind would quickly be able to design and build a better version of itself and in no time we'd be facing an overwhelmingly superior intelligence which may or … Continue reading Why an AI revolt is unlikely
Ancillary Justice: an excellent read
I just finished reading Ann Leckie's new novel, Ancillary Justice, after reading about it on John Scalzi's site. I found it one of the most absorbing books I've read in a while. If you enjoy space opera science fiction, with AIs, strange societies, and generally mind bending ideas, then you owe it to yourself to … Continue reading Ancillary Justice: an excellent read
SelfAwarePatterns 