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 be dangerous in the way many fear. To value something, an entity has to be able … Continue reading Let artificial intelligence evolve? Probably fruitless, possibly dangerous.
Tag: Mind
The power of symbolic thought
One of the things I've pondered a few times on this blog is our ability to recognize another intelligence, such as an extraterrestrial intelligence. On the face of it, this seems straightforward. Do they form societies, use technology, manipulate their environment, and overall show signs of intelligence? Except an alien intelligence may be so different from … Continue reading The power of symbolic thought
Are rocks conscious?
Consider a rock outside somewhere. It sits there, starting off in the morning in a certain state. The sun comes out and proceeds to warm it up. Its temperature climbs through the day until the sun sets, whereupon it cools through the night. The cycle starts again the next morning. The rock is going through … Continue reading Are rocks conscious?
SMBC: Do ethics actually exist?
This is just too close to some of our recent discussions for me not to call attention to it. As usual, Weiner knocks it out of the park. (Click through for hovertext and red button caption.) via: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Panpsychism and definitions of “consciousness”
Disagreeable Me asked me to look at this interesting TED talk by Professor Mark Bishop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUNHyPFvUWc 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 quick summation: The human mind, and hence consciousness, is a computational system. Since animal … Continue reading Panpsychism and definitions of “consciousness”
Michael Graziano: What hard problem?
Michael Graziano has an article at The Atlantic explaining why consciousness is not mysterious. It's a fairly short read (about 3 minutes). I recommend anyone interested in this stuff read it in full. (I tweeted a link to it last night, but then decided it warranted discussion here.) The TL;DR is that the hard problem of … Continue reading Michael Graziano: What hard problem?
Gödel’s incompleteness theorems don’t rule out artificial intelligence
I've posted a number of times about artificial intelligence, mind uploading, and various related topics. There are a number of things that can come up in the resulting discussions, one of them being Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorems. The typical line of arguments goes something like this: Gödel implies that there are solutions that no algorithmic system can accomplish but that humans … Continue reading Gödel’s incompleteness theorems don’t rule out artificial intelligence
Books on neuroscience
Related to the last post, someone asked me where I got the information on the brain that I discussed there. After answering, it occurred to me that other people might be interested. First, let me say that the examples I gave in that post about brain module functionality were not speculative. They are well established … Continue reading Books on neuroscience
Discovering the architecture of the mind
I've written numerous times here that I tend to think that AGI (artificial general intelligence) and mind uploading are both ultimately possible. (Possibly centuries in the future, but possible.) I've also noted that we'll have to have a working understanding of the mind, how it works, how it is structured, before we can do either, … Continue reading Discovering the architecture of the mind
David Eagleman: Can a computer simulate a brain?
The other day, I highlighted the article by neuroscientist Kenneth Miller on the possibility of mind uploading. Miller saw it as possible, but thought it might be thousands or maybe even millions of years before we could do it. Here's a take by another neuroscientist, David Eagleman, being a bit more optimistic, and discussing the … Continue reading David Eagleman: Can a computer simulate a brain?
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