20 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
The Tipping Point of Sentience
When Mike was installed in Luna, he was pure thinkum, a flexible logic--"High-Optional, Logical, Multi-Evaluating Supervisor, Mark IV, Mod. L"--a HOLMES FOUR. He computed ballistics for pilotless freighters and controlled their catapult. This kept him busy less than one percent of time and Luna Authority never believed in idle hands. They kept hooking hardware into him--decision-action boxes to let him boss other computers, bank on bank of additional memories, more banks of associational neur...Folksonomies: artificial intelligence consciousness
Folksonomies: artificial intelligence consciousness
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notes19 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
Whole Brain Emulation
We consider a strategy of straightforward duplication of the activity, and look at the numbers of some of the components. The human brain has up to one hundred billion (10^11) neurons and between one hundred trillion (10^14) and one quadrillion (10^15) synapses. But we have reached a point where for purposes of data acquisition these objects are now considered fairly large (e.g. 200 nm to 2,000 nm for synaptic spines and 4,000 nm to 100,000 nm for the neural soma), at least by the standards o...
1 From Randal A. Koene's "Uploading to Substrate-Independent Minds"
03 DEC 2014 by ideonexus
The Pretties
There was a certain kind of beauty, a prettiness that everyone could see. Big eyes and
full lips like a kid’s; smooth, clear skin; symmetrical features; and a thousand other
little clues. Somewhere in the backs of their minds, people were always looking for
these markers. No one could help seeing them, no matter how they were brought up. A
million years of evolution had made it part of the human brain.
The big eyes and lips said: I’m young and vulnerable, I can’t hurt you, and you want... 1 notes
notesA society that uses plastic surgery to turn everyone into a beautiful average as a means of reducing conflict.
07 NOV 2014 by ideonexus
Borganism in Nature
he most common example used is the hives of social insects, where all individuals work for the common good with little regard for themselves. Although it has been argued that hives lack collective minds (Nicholls 1982) it should be noted that all such species communicate with chemical signals, and at least in the case of ants chemical trails can be seen as collective cognitive maps distributed in the environment (Chiavlo & Millonas 1995). There may exist degrees of borganisation, and they are...Folksonomies: collectivism transhumanism
Folksonomies: collectivism transhumanism
29 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Artificial Languages
Here are six well-known constructed languaiages that can help you think and express yourself in novel ways.
Esperanto. Esperanto is the most widely spoken conlang on Earth, with an estimated 2 million speakers, putting it on par with Lithuanian, Icelandic, and Hebrew. 1 It was designed in 1887 by Dr. L.L. Zamenhof as a kind of neutral, universal second language that would allow native speakers of all languages to meet one another on even ground, with none having an intrinsic fluency advanta...Folksonomies: language linguistics
Folksonomies: language linguistics
1 notes
notesTools for thinking in different ways.
24 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
The Babbling Stage of Infancy
It is interesting and perhaps surprising to realize that most mammals lack a capacity for complex vocal learning of this sort. Current research suggests that aside from humans, only marine mammals (whales, dolphins, seals), bats, and elephants have it. Among primates, humans appear to be the only species that can hear new sounds in the environment and then reproduce them. Our ability to do this seems to depend on a babbling stage during infancy, a period of vocal playfulness as instinctual as... 1 notes
notesW. Tecumseh Fitch describes the link between infant vocalizations and the ability of humans to vocalize extensively. This links to Chomsky's speech-center of the human brain.
03 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
Homo sapiens' Adaptability is Our Greatest Adaptation
All tools are externalizations of originally integral
functions. But in developing each tool man also extends the limits
of its usefulness, since he can make bigger cups hold liquids too
hot or chemically destructive for his hands. Tools do not introduce
new principles but they greatly extend the range of conditions
under which the discovered control principle may be effectively
employed by man. There is nothing new in world technology's
growth. It is only the vast increase of its effective r... 1 notes
notesWe extend ourselves through our tools.
24 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
The Brain is Too Expensive for Survival Purposes
My interest is in the psychological adaptations that are uniquely
human, the 10 percent or so of the brain's capacities that are not shared with other apes. This is where we find puzzling abilities like creative intelligence and complex language that show these great individual differences, these ridiculously high heritabilities, and these absurd wastes of time, energy, and effort. To accept these abilities as legitimate biological adaptations worthy of study, evolutionary psychology must bro... 1 notes
notesIt makes more sense that our capability for complex thought, music, and socialization are adaptations to prove our genetic fitness to a potential mate.
24 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Complex Brains as an Advertisement for Genetic Fitness
The healthy brain theory suggests that our brains are different from those of other apes not because extrava- gantly large brains helped us to survive or to raise offspring, but because such brains are simply better advertisements of how good our genes are. The more complicated the brain, the easier it is to mess up. The human brain's great complexity makes it vulnerable to impairment through mutations, and its great size makes it physiologically costly. By producing behaviors such as languag... 1 notes
notesThe cognitive tricks performed by our complex brains may not have a survival benefit, but they do advertise the overall fitness of our genes.
28 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
Human Brain is "Conserved"
evolution conserves things that work. We have a conserved brain, with different ages for its different parts—in effect lizard at back and bottom, mammal in the middle, human at the front and top. Lizard brain to breathe and sleep, mammal brain to form packs, human brain to think it overFolksonomies: evolution
Folksonomies: evolution
It conserves the ancient parts that work, adding complexity onto those.
