24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Tangled Bank of the Primeval Cell
In our present state of ignorance, we have a choice between two contrasting images to represent our view of the possible structure of a creature newly emerged at the first threshold of life. One image is the replicator model of Eigen, a molecular structure tightly linked and centrally controlled, replicating itself with considerable precision, achieving ho-meostasis by strict adherence to a rigid pattern. The other image is the "tangled bank" of Darwin, an image which Darwin put at the end of...Folksonomies: tangled bank
Folksonomies: tangled bank
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notes16 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Reflection is Destructive
So long as scientists and philosophers remain a caste, even the problem of morality, that is, of behaviour, will remain for them one of cognition and not of activity, a subject for study and not for practical application, something that just happens rather than something that must be done and, furthermore, done not by individuals but collectively. So long as scholars are not prepared to become a Commission for the elaboration of a plan of common action (and without this mankind cannot act a... 1 notes
notes23 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Intelligence Arises out of a Need to Maximize Entropy
The researchers developed a software engine, called Entropica, and gave it models of a number of situations in which it could demonstrate behaviors that greatly resemble intelligence. They patterned many of these exercises after classic animal intelligence tests.
[...]
"It actually self-determines what its own objective is," said Wissner-Gross. "This [artificial intelligence] does not require the explicit specification of a goal, unlike essentially any other [artificial intelligence]."
...
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1 The more entropy, the more possibilities. Intelligence therefore seeks to maximize "future histories" in order to keep the number of possibilities maximized.
19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
How Do We Nourish the Revolution?
Every thing tells us that we are approaching the era of one of the grand revolutions of
the human race. What can better enlighten us to what we may expect, what can be a
surer guide to us, amidst its commotions, than the picture of the revolutions that have
preceded and prepared the way for it? The present state of knowledge assures us that
it will be happy. But is it not upon condition that we know how to assist it with all our strength? And, that the happiness it promises may be less dearly... 1 notes
notesWe are in a society that is experiencing accelerating happiness, accelerating technology, and social progress. The progress is inevitable, but we must understand it in order to encourage it and recognize the pitfalls it may experience.
12 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Laplace's Demon
We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain an...Folksonomies: prediction chaos theory
Folksonomies: prediction chaos theory
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notesIf an intellect could know all the positions and motions of the Universe at one point could predict the future.
27 AUG 2012 by ideonexus
Newton's Definitions
Def. I.
The Quantity of Matter is the measure of the same, arising from its density and bulk conjunctly.
THUS AIR of a double density, in a double space, is quadruple in quantity; in a triple space, sextuple in quantity. The same thing is to be understood of snow, and fine dust or powders, that are condensed by compression or liquefaction; and of all bodies that are by any causes whatever differently condensed. I have no regard in this place to a medium, if any such there is, that freely pe...Hints of conservation of mass and velocity.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Shelley's Declaration of Rights
DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.
G OVERNMENT has no rights; it is a delegation from several individuals for the purpose of securing their own. It is therefore just, only so far as it exists by their consent, useful only so far as it operates to their well-being.
2 IF these individuals think that the form of government which they, or their forefathers constituted is ill adapted to produce their happiness, they have a right to change it.3 Government is devised for the security of rights. The righ... 1 notes
notesA revolutionary pamphlet on liberty.
17 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Death is Nothing to Us
Equally vain is the suggestion that the spirit is immortal because it is shielded by life-preserving powers: or because it is unassailed by forces hostile to its survival; or because such forces, if they threaten, are somehow repelled before we are conscious of the threat. <Common sense makes it obvious that this cannot be the case:> apart from the spirit's participation in the ailments of the body, it has maladies enough of its own. [80] The prospect of the future torments it with f... 1 notes
notesA state of non-being, we won't care about it because we won't be there to care.
