Substrate-independent minds

[smcder]

Came across this one today and was reminded of some of my earlier comments about can it be done

There's a wire "gimmick" - it's similar to what's used in levitation tricks, so it looks like a lamp-stand and can be quickly inserted then the weight of the man on the basket holds it in place ... it reminds me a bit of my Zombie Ball - actually just got it back from my parent's attic - it's a very simple, effective illusion:

Zombie ball - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

... of course, he might also have pre-filled his basket with cobras! ;-)

Merry Christmas!


Zombie ball - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[smcder]

Getting ready to see how the first three chapters of this one go ...

Anyone else have any Singularity/TxH recommendations in fiction?

 

[mike]

There's a wire "gimmick" - it's similar to what's used in levitation tricks, so it looks like a lamp-stand and can be quickly inserted then the weight of the man on the basket holds it in place ... it reminds me a bit of my Zombie Ball - actually just got it back from my parent's attic - it's a very simple, effective illusion:

Zombie ball - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

... of course, he might also have pre-filled his basket with cobras! ;-)

Merry Christmas!


Zombie ball - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was more concerned with the proverb than the scenery

 

[mike]

Getting ready to see how the first three chapters of this one go ...

Anyone else have any Singularity/TxH recommendations in fiction?

Ian Douglas's (aka william keith jnr) Star Carrier series

The first book in the epic saga of humankind's war of transcendence
There is a milestone in the evolution of every sentient race, a Tech Singularity Event, when the species achieves transcendence through its technological advances. Now the creatures known as humans are near this momentous turning point.
But an armed threat is approaching from deepest space, determined to prevent humankind from crossing over that boundary—by total annihilation if necessary.
To the Sh'daar, the driving technologies of transcendent change are anathema and must be obliterated from the universe—along with those who would employ them. As their great warships destroy everything in their path en route to the Sol system, the human Confederation government falls into dangerous disarray. There is but one hope, and it rests with a rogue Navy Admiral, commander of the kilometer-long star carrier America, as he leads his courageous fighters deep into enemy space towards humankind's greatest conflict—and quite possibly its last


Its interesting because the Sh'daar are the left behinds, when their own collective of species went transbiological.

Great book examining the possible applications of these technologies, both from a human and ET perspective.

I love his use of the word Xenosophontologist in the story.

He uses it here too

Chapter Three
To say that Dahnak was excited would have been gross understatement. He'd been studying humans and their culture for nearly fifty revolutions of their world about their sun, now, but never, never in his entire career as research xenosophontologist had he had an opportunity like this one! To actually get a chance to live among the primitives, studying their ways, getting to know them on a one-to-one basis. It was the research opportunity of two lifetimes and a download, at least!

Diplomatic Act by Peter Jurasik & William H. Keith Jr. - Chapter 3 - Baen Books

 

[Soupie]

Getting ready to see how the first three chapters of this one go ...

Anyone else have any Singularity/TxH recommendations in fiction?

I've read that book; some good moments, many tedious moments.

 

[smcder]

I was more concerned with the proverb than the scenery

Both are important ... of course trickery has been used in every revolution ...

the discussion here is more nuanced though - it's

Out of all the things we can do - what should we do ... ?

That to me means to stop and think a bit, not just let the technology, the apparent next step, lead us by the nose - but instead to humanize the technology - not allow the technology to de-humanize us.

That's the vision I'm looking for in Transhumanism that I haven't found yet - it's war fare and conquest but we have that ...

I don't side with barbaric left behinds but I also don't assume if there are left behinds they will be barbaric ... That seems a common trope.

Technology could be invisible ... Planets could be space faring vessels ... Humanity could be better not just smarter and shinier.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[smcder]

I'll try to post a short fiction piece or outline in the next few weeks to show what I'm envisioning - might make more sense ...

In the TxH fiction I've seen it's a kind of space opera mentality - a linear advance of the genre instead of exploring who we are the way say Heinlein did ... A bit adolescent male ... So, are there female voices in the genre? I'll have to check that out ... I'm just getting familiar with the literature.

When we say the technology will sell itself - is that a good thing? Maybe - but Since we've been so heavily conditioned for so long, will we "want" wisely?

I look around now at consumer debt and what it's spent on and I'm not sure ... I can see people getting their prostheses repo-ed or consciousness put on hold until the bill is paid ( some Vonnegut like stories there !) so we don't want corporations driving the "progress " but who else is big enough now? Government/ millitary?

To say "you can't stop progress" or that we are going to do something just because we can to me feels like taking a passive stance and paradoxically a conservative and even cynical stance ( if you think where we are going aligns with what you want - and that's the heart of it) on where we are going when paradoxically I thought that was what TxH was all about ... To have more control over who we are and what we become ... ?




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[smcder]

The Essential Posthuman Science Fiction Reading List

Ahhh ... Here we go, I just had to look for them ...

Read any of these? They all look intriguing, especially some of the early ones

The Ship Who Sang looks interesting and Slan ... I've read More than Human ... Geek Love seems possible now ... Beggars in Spain IS now, I think ...

Nanotech Quartet
"In this mind-blowing series, humanity has been completely rewritten by nanotech viruses that emerge from sentient cities bent on recreating masterpieces of American literature."

Look to Windward, by Iain M. Banks

Part of Banks' Culture series, which deals with a galactic civilization of posthumans, aliens and their AI companions, Look to Windward contemplates the ultimate posthuman problem. What happens to a war machine that has decided to turn itself into the Mind that runs an Orbital, or human habitat. How does PTSD affect an AI who has returned to the homefront, and how do its struggles overlap with the humans around it?

And this ...

The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman

A futurist thought experiment, Weisman imagines what would happen to the planet if Homo sapiens disappeared tomorrow. Based on research and interviews, this work of narrative nonfiction reads like apocalyptic SF about the posthuman world.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[smcder]

IEET Cyborg Buddha Project

Could Transhumanism Make Buddhism Obsolete? | Tricycle

"Like other transhumanists, he makes the claim that science and technology may eventually enhance the human mind and body so that existential inevitabilities such as suffering, sickness, and death may become a thing of the past, whether through cybernetic implants, physical alterations, genetic manipulation, or advanced pharmacology. Because Buddhism is rooted in core teachings about the inherent nature of suffering and the inevitability of sickness and death, the assertions of the transhumanist movement present an interesting question: could transhumanism make Buddhism obsolete?"

...

"Upon examination of our evolution and history as a species it is safe to say that suffering has evolved with us, adapted to us, and is still just as much an inherent part of our existence as it was in the time of Shakyamuni Buddha."

EVERYTHING evolves ... and this point looks to be made by all the fiction writers above ... although a world without conflicts wouldn't have a plot ... and so wouldn't sell books.

But don't we sell ourselves the future based on the plot we want to read?

If You See a Cyborg in the Road, Kill the Buddha: Against Transcendental
Transhumanism



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[smcder]

"A stream in transhumanism argues that the aims of Buddhism and transhumanists are akin. It is the case that transhumanism contains religious tropes, and its parallels to Christianity are readily apparent. It does not share much, however, with Buddhism’s Zen tradition."


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[smcder]

I've read that book; some good moments, many tedious moments.

On the strength of that review and the weakness of the first three chapters ... I'm not gonna finish it ... especially with so many good books in the links above to look at.

 

[Soupie]

Scientists propose 'cortical modem' implant to give you Terminator vision - CNET

"Forget HoloLens, forget smart glasses and forget augmented reality -- scientists have proposed a "cortical modem" that plugs into your DNA and your visual cortex to cure sight loss and show a heads-up display in front of your very eyes.

The cortical modem concept is the brainchild of DARPA, the US Defense Research Projects Agency. Originally founded in 1958 in response to the launch of Sputnik, DARPA is the US military's research and development agency. It's perhaps best known outside of military circles for the development of ARPANET, an early packet switching network that formed a precursor to the Internet.

The cortical modem concept was presented by DARPA's Phillip Alvelda at a recent pow-wow in Silicon Valley, at which innovators, investors and other big brains were introduced to the agency's Biological Technologies Office (BTO), a blue-sky-thinking initiative announced last year.

During the event, transhumanist publication H+ reports that DARPA was described onstage as a "friendly, but somewhat crazy, rich uncle".

That crazy, rich -- or crazy rich -- uncle foresees the device providing a heads-up display or augmented reality projection appearing in your natural vision with no helmet or smart glasses or anything at all in front of your eyes. Like the Terminator. Or Robocop. Or something less shoot-y."​

Ex Machina: A shot in the arm for smart sci-fi | NeuroBanter

"Everything about this movie is good. Compelling acting (with only three speaking parts), exquisite photography and set design, immaculate special effects, a subtle score and, above all, a hugely imaginative screenplay combine under Garland’s precise direction to deliver a cinematic experience that grabs you and never lets go.

The best science fiction often tackles the oldest questions. At the heart of Ex Machina is one of our toughest intellectual knots, that of artificial consciousness. Is it possible to build a machine that is not only intelligent but also sentient: that has consciousness, not only of the world but also of its own self? ...

What matters is not whether Ava is a machine. It is not even whether Ava, even though a machine, can be conscious. What matters is whether Ava makes a conscious person feel that Ava is conscious. The brilliance of Ex Machina is that it reveals the Turing test for what it really is: a test of the human, not of the machine. And Garland is not necessarily on our side."
​

Finally, here is a lengthy but excellent overview by neuroscientist Christof Koch of current knowledge regarding the relationship between the brain and consciousness and a description of IIT, including why it disallows virtual/simulated consciousness. (Koch talks very fast. Lots of info to cover in only 75 minutes.)

 

[stonehart]

just leave this here

 

[mike]

Pentagon's DARPA Develops Implantable Hard Drives for Our Brains / Sputnik International

 

[stonehart]

Pentagon's DARPA Develops Implantable Hard Drives for Our Brains / Sputnik International

Now that is interesting.

 

[mike]

Patents for technology to read people’s minds hugely increasing - News - Gadgets and Tech - The Independent#



The volume and diversity of the patents shows that we are at the beginning of “the pervasive neurotechnology age”, the company’s CEO Alvaro Fernandez said.

"Neurotech has gone well beyond medicine, with non-medical corporations, often under the radar, developing neurotechnologies to enhance work and life," said Fernandez.

 

[mike]

 

[mike]

The New A.I. Brain Has Arrived – And It’s Analog, Not Digital


Australian scientists have for the first time developed an electronic long-term memory cell that mimics the work of a human brain. Researchers say the discovery is a step towards creating a bionic brain.

The device which is 10,000 times thinner than a human hair is a “vital step towards creating a bionic brain,” the scientists said.

“This is the closest we have come to creating a brain-like system with memory that learns and stores analog information and is quick at retrieving this stored information,” said project leader and co-leader of the RMIT Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group, Dr Sharath Sriram.

The lead author of the study Dr Hussein Nili, said that the device is major step in recreating the human brain.

“This new discovery is significant as it allows the multi-state cell to store and process information in the very same way that the brain does,” he said.

 

[Wade]

• Scientists at The Rensselaer AI and Reasoning Lab (Rair) in New York conducted an experiment on three Nao robots
• Told the bots two of them had been given 'dumbing pills' to silence them
• When asked which had been given the pills, they all tried to respond, but one spoke and recognised its own voice to solve the problem
• Scientists claim this shows the robot demonstrated self awareness

Humanoid robot shows a glimmer of self-awareness during scientific experiment | Daily Mail Online

 

[Randall]

Artificial means manmade in my interpretation. I was referring to AC rather than AI. AI is a little more troublesome because "intelligence" is a human concept about various mental capacities that, it is assumed, can be measured. AC is not so troublesome because consciousness is not a human concept... it is something that exists in whatever form one wishes to define and then recognise in creatures. To creat artificial intelligence is to realise something that is a human concept, whereas to create artificial consciousness is to realise something that is not a human concept but rather is something, not fake, not of value or judged to be of value or otherwise, but which exists as a natural feature of the world.

I don't think that it's a supportable view that consciousness, "exists in whatever form one wishes to define and then recognise ..." I think it has a very specific meaning intimately tied to the ability to recognize one's own existence as separate from other beings and things. Intelligence on the other hand is quite objective and not limited to humans. For example, it's the ability to solve objective problems. Check this one out: