"Nobody to date has yet found a demarcation criterion according to which Darwin can be described as scientific." - Imre Lakatos (1973)
"Nobody to date has yet found a demarcation criterion according to which Darwin can be described as scientific." - Imre Lakatos (1973)
Computer scientists are questioning whether Alphabet’s DeepMind will ever make A.I. more human-like (CNBC) - I contributed a few comments to this piece, highlighted here. Received a few messages from peers asking "isn't this a bit too harsh?". Short Answer: No Sir, it isn't too harsh. Please don't take everything so serious - especially me, giant corporations, yourself, AI and God.
Not everyone is convinced, however. Samim Winiger, an AI researcher in Berlin, told CNBC that DeepMind’s “reward is enough” view is a “somewhat fringe philosophical position, misleadingly presented as hard science.”
He said the path to general AI is complex and that the scientific community is aware that there are countless challenges and known unknowns that “rightfully instill a sense of humility” in most researchers in the field and prevent them from making “grandiose, totalitarian statements” such as “RL is the final answer, all you need is reward.”
“In somewhat typical DeepMind fashion, they chose to make bold statements that grabs attention at all costs, over a more nuanced approach,” said Winiger. “This is more akin to politics than science.”
Winiger argues that we’re no closer to AGI today than we were several decades ago. “The only thing that has fundamentally changed since the 1950/60s, is that science-fiction is now a valid tool for giant corporations to confuse and mislead the public, journalists and shareholders,” he said.
“Cycling Horticulturalist” - Art by Nina Paley
"Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them." - David Hume
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“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.” ― George Carlin
Sillycon Valley "design culture" in a nutshell. Souldead late stage capitalism at its best.
"Coffee shops in SF always look like a mix between an Apple store & a hospital waiting room"
"El Salvador Seeks World Bank Help For Bitcoin Implementation" (reuters)
#Comment: If you ever had any questions who exactly is "Satoshi Nakamoto" and who drives/controls bitcoin & other cryptos - this headline leaves little doubt: The same greedy, lying, unimaginative, destructive old-boys networks - just in a fancy new dress. Boring.
You're hiking through the woods and see this door. Are you walking inside? Let me know.
Today is the 90th anniversary of Kurt Gödel's 1931 paper, which laid the foundations of theoretical computer science, identifying fundamental limitations of algorithmic theorem proving, computing, AI, logics, and math itself. - Text by Jürgen Schmidhuber
A Theory Of Change, by Ilya Prigogine - found via a talk by John Thackara
Linear time is a convenient illusion
Xi calls for unprecedented efforts to improve global environmental governance (xinhuanet)
"Chinese President Xi Jinping said Saturday that the international community should work together with unprecedented ambition and action to strive for a fair and reasonable system of global environmental governance featuring win-win cooperation and promote the sustainable development of humanity. [...] Xi stressed that Earth is humanity's shared home, and a sound ecosystem is essential for the prosperity of civilizations."