How Will We Know When a Computer Becomes Conscious?
The June 2011 issue of Scientific American featured an article by Christof Koch and Giulio Tononi which put forth a test to determine whether a machine had become sentient – i.e., had reached a state...
View ArticleIs God an Alien Mathematician?
Hugo de Garis argues that our universe may have been created by an “artilect” – an artificial intellect. It’s an extension of the concept of a technological singularity: that our technology will soon...
View Article“So I decided to simulate a universe”– XKCD
More cartoons like this at XKCD.com … Continue reading →
View ArticleChristof Koch: Could the Internet Learn to Feel?
In a new interview by Steve Paulson, neuroscientist Christof Koch, a self-described “romantic reductionist,” discusses the science of consciousness, including the notion that all matter is, to varying...
View ArticleHuw Price and the Existential Risk of Artificial Intelligence
Huw Price is the Bertrand Russell professor of philosophy at Cambridge University. In January 2013, the New York Times published an opinion piece he’d written, “Cambridge, Cabs and Copenhagen: My Route...
View ArticleLet’s Digitize Our Minds and Live Forever! Or… Maybe Not.
“Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.” – Susan Ertz “The only thing wrong with immortality is that it tends to go on forever.” – Herb...
View ArticleWill Virtual Afterlives Transform Humanity?
I have previously written (here) of my skepticism about the idea of replicating conscious human minds in computers. My skepticism remains intact, but setting that aside for the moment, I find the ideas...
View ArticleDavid Deutsch: Still No Progress on Artificial General Intelligence
In 2012, physicist David Deutsch published an Aeon Magazine article titled Creative Blocks, exploring why, despite six decades of work on artificial intelligence, we are still nowhere close to creating...
View ArticleWhere Intelligence Comes From: The Theory of Practopoiesis
Neurophysiologist Danko Nikolić has proposed a theory of how life organizes itself, including the organization of a mind. He calls this “practopoiesis” – a general theory of what it takes to be...
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