Cybernetic Totalism

Interesting article on Wired (appeared back in 2000, I think) by Jaron Lanier titled 'One-Half of a Manifesto Why stupid software will save the future from neo-Darwinian machines.'

It's a somewhat long read that requires some patient plodding through, but it's all quite coherent in general and I tend to agree with his points. Lanier makes some convincing arguments against "Strong AI" and criticizes the "Cybernetic Totalists" for their rigid beliefs. He envisions the future as a dystopia where cybernetic totalists enforce an ideology which they would then claim to be the only right one (sound familiar?)

A key point he makes is that software (in general) isn't necessarily getting better, rather, reality has to stoop to the level of software to make the software look smarter. Another interesting point he makes is that evolution isn't the whole picture as evidenced in this paragraph:

The first two or three generations of artificial intelligence researchers took it as a given that blind evolution in itself couldn't be the whole of the story, and assumed that there were elements that distinguished human mentation from other earthly processes. For instance, humans were thought by many to build abstract representations of the world in their minds, while the process of evolution needn't do that. Furthermore, these representations seemed to possess extraordinary qualities like the fearsome and perpetually elusive "common sense." After decades of failed attempts to build similar abstractions in computers, the field of AI gave up, but without admitting it. Surrender was couched as merely a series of tactical retreats. AI these days is often conceived as more of a craft than a branch of science or engineering. A great many practitioners I've spoken with lately hope to see software evolve but seem to have sunk to an almost postmodern or cynical lack of concern with understanding how these gizmos might actually work

A book I've read that explores the same topic is "The Cult of Information: A Neo-Luddite Treatise on High-Tech, Artificial Intelligence, and the True Art of Thinking" by Theodore Roszak. The concept of reality stooping to the level of software is discussed in this book as well.

Can SETI Succeed?

Interesting debate on the chance of success in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The late Ernst Mayr of Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology argues that the Earth is probably the only technological civilization in our galaxy, while Carl Sagan defends the more optimistic view.

One of Mayr's interesting hypothesis in the article which doesn't bode too well for us:

... high intelligence is not at all favored by natural selection, contrary to what we would expect. In fact, all the other kinds of living organisms, ... read more millions of species, get along fine without high intelligence.

Hadron Collider

Here is some info on CERN's Hadron Collider. The scientists put the odds of the Collider destroying dear earth (by inadvertently creating a micro black hole) at 1 in 50 million. Wonder how they calculated those odds.

The Collider definitely looks hideous.

Wired Science's complete Hadron Collider coverage

Large Hadron Collider: Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios

It was turned on Sept 10th but I guess it broke down pretty quickly (nine days) supposedly "because one electrical connection out of 10,000 was badly soldered" (worst excuse ever). To restart next year, billions of dollars later.

Scientific Materialism

A distinction can be made between Science (in its "unadorned" form) and the philosophy of Scientific Materialism. Science is concerned with rigorous and detailed observations/experimentation which aim to understand the nature of the surrounding world. Hypotheses are made which can be debunked by empirical observations and/or reasoning and new hypotheses can be formed.

The typical steps in the Scientific Method are:

1. Identify the problem
2. Gather relevant information/make observations
3. Propose a solution (scientific hypothesis)
4. Test the hypothesis (via an experiment or by making further observations)
5. If the hypotheses fails, modify or abandon it.
6. Form (or cast doubt) on a scientific theory.
7. Communicate or publish to allow for independent verification.

Unfortunately, one of the key assumptions of Science is itself unproven. This is what one would call a metaphysical assumption (i.e. an assumption about the nature of reality which cannot be proven). So what is this key assumption in Science ? This is where Science (which is by itself a mode of inquiry, a technique) moves into the realm of philosophy known as Scientific Materialism.

There are several layers of philosophical assumptions around Science, the key of which is that the objects of scientific inquiry exist independently of an observer, i.e. an objective "external" reality exists whether it is being perceived by a subject or not. Another assumption is that everything that exists is physical in nature (or can be reduced to a complex interaction of physical processes). This also means that all physical events are caused by other physical events.

In other words, scientific materialism assumes that any mental phenomenon (i.e. non physical events, the obvious one being the fact that we are all conscious and experience subjective thoughts, feelings, desires, fears etc.) cannot affect physical reality, but rather are an epiphenomenon of the complexity of matter. The dictionary defines epiphenomenon as "a secondary mental phenomenon that is caused by and accompanies a physical phenomenon but has no causal influence itself".

Scientific Materialism thus contends that matter and energy are the only true reality while downgrading the subjective experience to the dustbin of the universe. Scientific Materialism would thus appear to be extremely bottom-up in its approach in that it investigates elementary components and tries to explain high-level features (such as consciousness) COMPLETELY in terms of these elementary particles. This bottom-up approach also seems to be at odds with the concepts in Gestalt psychology where the brain is considered to have self-organizing tendencies and where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

A very important problem that reductionist science has is dealing with the concept of Qualia and the 'Hard Problem of Consciousness'. The most familiar example concerning Qualia has to do with the 'Bat Argument' in Thomas Nagel's paper "What is it Like to Be a Bat?". From Wikipedia, here is a concise description of the problem:

Nagel argues that consciousness has an essentially subjective character, a what-it-is-like aspect. He states that "an organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is to be that organism — something it is like for the organism. Nagel also suggests that the subjective aspect of the mind may not ever be sufficiently accounted for by the objective methods of reductionistic science. He claims that "if we acknowledge that a physical theory of mind must account for the subjective character of experience, we must admit that no presently available conception gives us a clue how this could be done." Furthermore, he states that "it seems unlikely that any physical theory of mind can be contemplated until more thought has been given to the general problem of subjective and objective."

So, in other words, we must be prepared to face the very real possibility that science cannot solve the ultimate and only problem that really matters. Even if various components of our conscious experience such as vision, sound, emotion, creativity etc. are mapped to corresponding neuronal firings, computation algorithms etc. there would still be something left over that cannot be explained solely via purely physical mechanisms.

Scientific Materialism by paying such scant attention to the subjective experience has certainly resulted in material and technological conquest of the world. Although this has bought a lot of us many comforts and alleviated the suffering caused by physical disease, materialism tends to impose a materialistic lifestyle on people. It has also failed quite badly in improving human lives on the subjective front via happiness, peace and compassion. It also fails to provide satisfying answers to fundamental existential questions by reducing us to the state of mechanical beings driven by purely physical process in pursuit of illusory material gains.

It find it extremely intriguing that many Eastern philosophies make very different assumptions from Scientific Materialism. The subjective experience takes center stage in a world of Mind and Form. Mind and Form are not considered different. Form is Mind and Mind is Form (thereby avoiding the problems with dualism)


References:
Scientific Thinking and the Scientific Method
The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness by B. Alan Wallace
A Course in Consciousness
Taped Lectures by John R. Searle on "The Philosophy of Mind"
Qualia and The Bat Argument

Alien Hand Syndrome

Alien Hand Syndrome (AHS) is a rare neurological disorder, but the symptoms are bizarre. This disorder is usually caused by some kind of brain injury or by surgery that results in separation of the two brain hemispheres. Patients with AHS experience reduced awareness of their actions, more specifically, they lose voluntary control over one hand. The results are both comical and bizarrely unsettling. The patient is completely unaware of what one hand is doing until they "see" it or someone points it out. Alien hands can perform complex acts such as undoing buttons, removing clothing, and yes, alien hands can masturbate :-). In an often-cited example, a lady with the condition was given a cup of tea and immediately commented that it was too hot to drink, so she would let it cool first. As soon as she stated that intention, however, her alien hand grabbed the cup of tea in an effort to drink it, and she had to restrain it with her other hand (possibly spilling the tea).



AHS (or some form of it) is widely referenced in pop culture, the most famous one being Dr. Stranglove. We have the spooky image of the ex-Nazi Dr. Strangelove trying to strangle himself (or give the Hitler salute), while his other hand tries to stop the Alien Hand from doing its thing.

Patients of AHS can fool themselves into believing that their actions are intentional. There is a weird disconnect between the intention and the actual actions. Alien Hand Syndrome raises fascinating questions about the nature of free will and separation of intention from actions.

More on Alien Hand Syndrome at wikipedia

Utility Fog

I first read about foglets in Transmetropolitan, an edgy science fiction comic book series written by written by Warren Ellis. Foglets are tiny (human cell sized) robots with substantial computing power with 12 extending arms theorized by Dr. John Storrs Hall (regarded as one of the most significant thinkers in the field of molecular nanotechnology) . Hall then describes a Utility Fog as a space filled with billions of foglets linked together to share information and energy forming a continuous network. But it doesn't stop there. A Utility fog can reconfigure itself into widely varying shapes and can even make itself invisible. The foglets link their "arms" together to form the shape of pretty much anything. The foglets would be able to exert any force and communicate with each other to create any desired visual and auditory environment.

The original application was as a replacement for seat belts (in the event of a collision, it would appear that the air around the body would appear to have frozen solid). But, the number of other applications are limitless. Hall envisions a scenario of copying one's mind from the natural substrate of the brain into the Utility Fog (called "uploading"). In this way, whole communities could be uploaded into the Fog.A Utility Fog has all the flexibility of a virtual environment, but it actually exists in the physical world.

When ? According to this article @ Speculist, Utility Fog is not the next big thing. It's more like the big thing that comes after four or five other big things.

References:

Utility Fog: The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of
By J. Storrs Hall

What I want to be when I grow up, is a cloud
By J. Storrs Hall

The Age of Spiritual Machines
by Ray Kurzweil

The Transformers are coming

Utility Blog