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Saints & Simulators 18: #Gaia

June 20, 2019 by Chris Sunami Leave a Comment

The reason, perhaps, that Bostrom’s demonstration of the probability of God’s existence has received so little attention and notice (especially as compared to the stir and commotion caused by his demonstration of the probability that we live in a simulation, and despite the fact that both conclusions are entailed by the exact same line of argument) is because readers have failed to note the connection between Bostrom’s simulator and God.

Saints & Simulators 16: #ScaryAI (Roko’s Basilisk)

May 30, 2019 by Chris Sunami 1 Comment

The thing about the Basilisk that makes it so scary is its combination of vast power with certain both human and mechanical weaknesses. It is designed by human beings to be the greatest and most benevolent force in the universe, but all we can gift it is our best guess at an ultimate rational moral standard, utilitarianism, the greatest good for the greatest number. And as a machine, it administrates this implacably, and entirely without mercy. Roko’s Basilisk is scary because it is simultaneously our parent and our child.

Saints & Simulators 9: #ChaosAndEmergence

March 21, 2019 by Chris Sunami Leave a Comment

The paired opposite to reductionism is called emergentism, and in recent years it has begun to gain an increasing number of advocates. In summary, it means that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Unexpected behaviors and properties can emerge, even from simple well-understood parts, at high enough levels of organization… Some of the ways emergentists have proposed creating artificial intelligence include building or simulating artificial neural nets, or using quantum computers, which take advantage of wave-particle duality and superimposition to perform fuzzy logic. Others reject the entire idea of shortcuts to emulating human intelligence, in favor of simply duplicating the entire fine structure of the human brain in virtual form –something not possible today, but perhaps in the future.

Saints & Simulators 8: #ArtificiallyIntelligent

March 14, 2019 by Chris Sunami 2 Comments

At root, Bostrom’s argument hinges around a single controversial question. Is it possible to truly create or simulate a person? Is there any point, with any level of technology, no matter how advanced, that this becomes possible?

Saints & Simulators 7: #GoingBayesian

March 7, 2019 by Chris Sunami Leave a Comment

We left off last week with the question of how much weight we should give to Nick Bostrom’s argument that we are not only possibly simulated, but likely to be so. This argument, or at least our representation of it, rests on two key claims: first, that our descendants will be able to create people just like ourselves; and second, that they will create a lot of them. The argument is compelling only in the case that both are true.

Bonus: (sub)Text #3: Spielberg’s “AI: Artificial Intelligence”: What Is It to Be Human? (Part One)

September 2, 2018 by Wes Alwan 2 Comments

Wes discusses the film with philosophy professor David Kyle Johnson. What is there to fear in artificial intelligence? How does this shed light on what it means to be fully human?

Note: Part two will NOT be appearing on this feed. Become a PEL Citizen to get the full discussion. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to learn how.

(sub)Text #3: Spielberg’s “AI: Artificial Intelligence”: What Is It to Be Human? (Citizens Only)

September 2, 2018 by Wes Alwan 5 Comments

Wes discusses the Steven Spielberg film with philosophy professor David Kyle Johnson. What is there to fear in artificial intelligence? How does this shed light on what it means to be fully human?

How Moral Is the Moral Machine?

August 31, 2016 by Ana Sandoiu 2 Comments

Researchers at MIT are pooling our moral intuitions, and we need to talk about it.

The ‘Deus’ in ‘Ex Machina’

May 27, 2015 by Wes Alwan 3 Comments

What does the film Ex Machina have to do the deus ex machina as plot device?

Historical File 12-1

March 21, 2015 by John Ludders 5 Comments

“The Second Renaissance” is a must watch for Sci-fi and philosophy nerds alike. It’s the perfect gateway drug for discussions of human intelligence, ego, historic recurrence, phenomenology, and a dozen other philosophical topics that are not hurt by their inclusion in a robot war.

The Creation of a Superintelligence and the End of Inquiry

January 23, 2015 by Billie Pritchett 9 Comments

To construct a superintelligence, we would have to understand human intelligence at a deep level. It’s doubtful we’ll ever be able to do this.

Episode 108: Dangers of A.I. with Guest Nick Bostrom

January 6, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 48 Comments

On Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, and Strategies (2014) with the author. What can we predict about, and how can we control in advance, the motivations of the entity likely to result from eventual advances in machine learning? Also with guest Luke Muehlhauser.

Episode 108: Dangers of A.I. with Guest Nick Bostrom (Citizen Edition)

January 6, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

On Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, and Strategies (2014) with the author. What can we predict about, and how can we control in advance, the motivations of the entity likely to result from eventual advances in machine learning? Also with guest Luke Muehlhauser. Learn more.

End song: “Volcano,” by Mark Linsenmayer, recorded in 1992 and released on the album Spanish Armada: Songs of Love and Related Neuroses.

Topic for #108: Dangers of A.I. with Guest Nick Bostrom

December 25, 2014 by Mark Linsenmayer 26 Comments

We interviewed Nick Bostrom on his book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. How can philosophers stop robots from killing us all?

A Lagging, Nagging Take on Her

September 5, 2014 by Jay Jeffers 6 Comments

Jay Jeffers just can’t shake his first impression of “Her,” a story set against the backdrop of artificial intelligence.

Dreyfus on Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Artificial Intelligence

December 19, 2011 by Brad Younger 8 Comments

[Brad is a frequent contributor to our Facebook page, so we invited him to post on the blog – welcome him!] I found this to be an interesting video which relates to both the Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty episodes. In the video, Hubert Dreyfus discusses Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and the philosophical implications for artificial intelligence. Dreyfus has long been a critic of Continue Reading …

From Technologist to Humanist: Google’s “In-House” Philosopher

July 24, 2011 by Tom McDonald 5 Comments

I had been thinking about the PEL debate on the value of higher education, and came across this compelling story by Damon Horowitz. Did you know that Google has an “in-house philosopher”? Horowitz shares his personal story of self-transformation in this article for the Chronicle of Higher Education. With a background in software engineering, he had developed a career in Continue Reading …

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About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don’t have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we’re talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion

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