tag > Ideas
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- Generative systems (Computation) are interesting.
- ReGenerative systems (Flora & Fauna) are critical for survival. -
Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.” I say, “I do not think, that is why I exist.” —Taisen Deshimaru
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In the field of observation chance prefers the prepared mind
- Louis Pasteur -
"Asshollery of a very refined form"
This is the start of an infrequent series of posts entitled "Asshollery of a very refined form" (thanks to @vakibs for the name). It is a very special award for very special behaviour. The first post is dedicated to Google who thoroughly deserved it.
Google Internal "Selfish ledger" video leaked, describing its vision for planetary scale "Behavioural Sequencing" and Social Engineering.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/17/17344250/google-x-selfish-ledger-video-data-privacyOK Google: Where I reside (Berlin), the vision you are outlining in this video (and its logical conclusions) are historically well known: It is called Eugenics - that ultimate leads to Genocide. In your case, all in the name of some super intelligence that - as the video points out multiple time - might emerge sometime soon and might be better at organising human affairs. This is a totally tone deaf, arrogant, totalitarian and deeply anti-democratic vision, built on-top of a very distorted view of humanity, society & culture. The Video is 8.30m long and not even once is the word "privacy" uttered. This video not only outlines an extremely dangerous agenda, but as well is Asshollery of a very refined form.
Google Removes 'Don't Be Evil' Clause From Its Code of Conduct:
https://gizmodo.com/google-removes-nearly-all-mentions-of-dont-be-evil-from-1826153393
OK Google: Congrats for having the dignity of finally removing this, after just weeks ago announcing you want to collaborate with the Department of Defence to build the AI for its drone killing programme (they are probably collaborating for many years silently). Well done, very post-modern of you and truly Asshollery of a very refined form.
This brings this episode of "Asshollery of a very refined form" to a conclusion. Until next time!
Image from Darpa's "Total Information Awareness" programme in the 1990s, a precursor to Google. -
Principles of De-Augmentation
For all this talk about "Augmentation" and "Assistive" technologies, I'm missing a serious discourse on "De-Augmentation". Where do we start?
What are the principles of De-Augmentation?
Suggestion by Vakibs:
We should start with attention. In Yoga, de-augmenting human attention is known as Pratyāhāra. It is a beautiful computational notion, realized in the Sanskrit linguistics of Pānini.
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"If it's not paradoxical, it's not true" - Shunryū Suzuki
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"Introducing Computational Creativity" - a brilliant overview presentation by Tony Veale:
https://www.slideshare.net/kimveale/introducing-computational-creativity
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Role of the audience in creative arts is underestimated. When an artist performs, they've audience in front/back of their mind. Who do ANNs think about when performing?
Good question posed by Harsh Hemani. #ML #Generative #Creativity #Ideas
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algorithmthink: cursing the algorithm, while simultaneously thinking that a new algorithm will solve your problems. - coined by inconvergent
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"Inside the Brotherhood of the Ad Blockers": https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-05-10/inside-the-brotherhood-of-pi-hole-ad-blockers Article on "Pi-hole", the open source software, running on a $35 Raspberry Pi which blocks ads across an entire network. "an existential crisis for the $200 billion advertising industry"
Ad-Blocking is only the very first generation of what could be called "Reality Tunnel Management" (RTM) Applications. It will become a very large industry, propelled by the rise of Augmented Reality and Generative Media. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_tunnel
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"The basis of all authority is the supremacy of fact over thought. Yet this contrast of fact and thought can be conceived fallaciously. For thought is a factor in the fact of experience. Thus the immediate fact is what it is, partially by reason of the thought involved in it" - The Function of Reason, by Alfred North Whitehead
https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Whitehead/Whitehead_1929/1929_01.html
https://www.amazon.com/Function-Reason-Alfred-North-Whitehead/dp/0807015733 -
Prediction: Coming soon to Google & Amazon Assistance: "Emotional Care": The AI constantly checks the emotional state of the people in the room (couples/families) & gives vocal warnings if the mood goes "bad". People will love it. I find this vision deeply troubling.
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Thoughts on Sanity in Times of Automated Insanity
The following is a collection of loosely connected thoughts on the role of sanity in times of automated insanity. Its purpose is mainly a note to self for future writing. Feedback welcome.
Part One
One of the great tragedies of our cultures embracing the story that machines soon will eclipse humanity is that humans started to experience themselves mainly as things ~ as objects instead of subjects ~ as meaningless collections of matter trapped inside a random, dead universe.
This view of life and the self is passive, static and egotistical. It relates to the world in terms of "having objects" instead of the process of participation. Modern man 'has' everything - gadgets, jobs, entertainment, technology - yet 'is' nothing.
People that believe machines will be 'better' than them in every possible way and replace them in the foreseeable future, gradually lose all sense of hope, faith and courage ~ ending up living mummified existences, constantly on the defence and living in deep fear.
To conclude this section, I'll like to invite you to meditate on the following question: "What does it mean to be human?" To have hope & interest, to feel love & tenderness, to 'be' verses to 'have', to transcend the ego & simplistic narratives of the imminent takeover by machines.
Part Two
"The possibility that we can build robots who are like men belongs, if anywhere, to the future. But the present already shows us men who act like robots. When a majority of men are like robots, then there will be no problem building robots who are like men" ~ Erich Fromm (1968)
For 5k+ years, the intense human need for certainty was guaranteed by the concept of God. With the dawn of science, we had to learn to deal with (un)certainty rationally & develop critical thinking. Today, we run the risk of again losing such skills, by replacing "God" with "A.I"
The defining characteristic of the extreme end of the A.I spectrum (singularity), is Necrophilia ~ an attraction to death, decay and a indifference towards life. They want to control life cause they are deeply afraid of it. Its symbol is the Russian roulette or killer robots.
When AlphaGo leaves the game board & enters the real battlefield. As described by Fromm:
"The blind and irrational reliance on computer decision becomes dangerous in foreign policy as well as strategic planning when done by opponents, each of whom works with his own data-processing system. He anticipates the opponent's moves, plans his own, and constructs scenarios for the X possibilities of moves on both sides. He can construct his game in many ways: that of his side winning, a stalemate, or both losing. But as Harvey Wheeler has pointed out, if either "wins" it is the end of both. While the purpose of the game is to achieve a statement, the rules of the game make a stalemate unlikely. Both players, by their methods and their need for certainty, give up the way which has been that of precomputer diplomacy and strategy: the dialogue - with its possibility of give and take, open or veiled withdrawal, compromise, or even surrender when that is the only rational decision. With the present method, the dialogue, with all its possibilities for avoiding catastrophe, is ruled out. The action of the leaders is fanatical because it is pursued even to the point of self-destruction, although in a psychological sense they are not fanatics, because their actions are based on an emotion-free belief in the rationality (calculability) of the computer methods."
"Our age has found a substitute for God: the impersonal calculation. This new god has turned into an idol to whom all men may be sacrificed. A new concept of the sacred & unquestionable is arising: calculability, probability, factuality" ~ Erich Fromm - The Revolution of Hope, Toward a Humanized Technology (1968)
Part Three
"The function of Reason is to promote the art of life" - Whitehead
To be continued...
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Towards "Experience Theory"
The "bit" is a basic unit of information.
What should a basic unit of "experience" be called?Information theory studies the quantification, storage & communication of information. With its invention, Claude Shannon paved the way for a communication & computation revolution.
Can there be an equivalent theory for Experience? What would it be?
Want: A robust & comprehensive 'Experience Theory'.
Where do we start?Experience Theory would make such observations much easier to unpack:
Samim’s Law of Diminished Experience: The quantity of photos one takes is inversely correlated with the quality of the present moment experience.
Related links:
- Qualia: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qualia/
- Integrated information theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_information_theory
- And for reference: Experience: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExperienceDiscussion Thread:
https://twitter.com/samim/status/993742477763883008
