Ponderings of science, philosophy, history, society, and many other topics
This video does a pretty good job at outlining the idea and stark challenges with mind uploading. (Watching it isn't necessary to understand this post, unless you're completely unfamiliar with the idea. It's 14 minutes long, although the last few minutes are an advertisement.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b33NTAuF5E Kurzgesagt: Can You Upload Your Mind & Live Forever I'm … Continue reading Mind uploading and the philosophy of self
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 upgrades that improve its own intelligence. This will set off a process where the system … Continue reading Is the singularity right around the corner?
Kurt Anderson has an interesting article at Vanity Fair that looks at the debate among technologists about the singularity: Enthusiasts and Skeptics Debate Artificial Intelligence | Vanity Fair. Machines performing unimaginably complicated calculations unimaginably fast—that’s what computers have always done. Computers were called “electronic brains” from the beginning. But the great open question is whether a … Continue reading Enthusiasts and Skeptics Debate Artificial Intelligence
Click through for full sized version and yellow caption. via xkcd: AI-Box Experiment. I do keep saying that AIs won't want what we want.
Earlier today, John Zande clued me into an awesome science fiction novella by David Brin called 'Stones of Significance', which I highly recommend to anyone interested in AI, post-singularity fiction, and the nature of reality. By coincidence, the author, David Brin, tweeted this video earlier which, given the epic online fights that have happened recently, … Continue reading The Paraphrase Challenge: How to understand what your opponent is saying
Ramez Naam, author of Nexus and Crux (two books I enjoyed and recommend), has recently put together a few guest posts for Charlie Stross (another author I love). The posts are The Singularity Is Further Than It Appears and Why AIs Won't Ascend in the Blink of an Eye. They're both excellent posts, and I'd recommend reading … Continue reading Hertling says singularity closer than appears, and a brief comment
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
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