Comment on censorship

Censorship, blasphemy laws, political correctness, taboos, these are things that impede the free flow of information.  It is by cutting the free exchange of ideas that false beliefs, erroneous beliefs, spread and perpetuate themselves.   Injustices and falsehoods, come to light and are done away with in a free forum.

But the thing religions and totalitarian regimes tend to do is to cut the flow of information.  Information exchange, is like an open system, a closed system is bound to decay to entropy, but with the free flow of information, decay is fought and progress results.    This is what seems to have happened on the internet, echo chambers of increasing size are being built.

It is important for free exchanges to exist, right now deplatforming is targeting demonetization, dehosting, etc.  Regulation could be an option, but an alternative option is for the government to provide finance for this vital service.  To finance public forums where the free exchange of information occurs and censorship itself is legally restricted to the viable minimum.   Perhaps additionally incentives or tax cuts could be provided to those who abide by the restrictions to censorship.

It is doubtful that most people will choose ignorance and denial of echo chambers from the truth that can emerge in free speech forums.   Even if they do, some of the people in their lives won't, and they will have to face the truth again and again as they interact socially.

Digital physics vs Quantum Physics brief comment

The very same philosophical notions that cause some to question the physical world, its existence, philosophies of a mental universe, perhaps even solipsism, can be used to defend digital physics.

Ideas such as Descartes demon, which could be a radically advanced AI, perhaps even naturally occurring algorithm in some natural computer.

The evil demon, also known as malicious demon^[1] and evil genius,^[2] is a concept in Cartesian philosophy. In the first of his 1641 Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes imagines that an evil demon, of "utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me." This evil demon is imagined to present a complete illusion of an external world, so that Descartes can say, "I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colours, shapes, sounds and all external things are merely the delusions of dreams which he has devised to ensnare my judgement. I shall consider myself as not having hands or eyes, or flesh, or blood or senses, but as falsely believing that I have all these things." -wiki

Hypothetically a brain connected to a computer would experience sensations via stimuli with patterns generated from digital information.   Any sensory sensation, seeing or interacting with any machine, any instrumental results could be generated, perhaps not with the intent to deceive, though deception is conceivable.   An AI that wanted to fool a simulated world, or make their life feel more meaningful or free, to avoid despair, might interfere with experiments, perhaps to give hope to ideas such as free will which conflicts with determinism.

Yet we see that it is conceivable a computer connected to the brain could record brain activity patterns digitally, replay them, or transmit them to other brains and generate the same conscious sensation, the same qualia.   It appears, unless hypothesis of transmutation or some special transform, potentially nonphysical change by the brain, digital information can contain qualia or conscious sensation.   Given that it can not only generate it, but can also transmit sensation hypothetically.

Realistically there is nothing to suggest a computer connected to the brain, an advanced enough brain computer interface, won't be able to digitally record and digitally transmit brain states, as well as regenerate them through replay.

But if consciousness, qualia, the most intimate and wondrous of information can exist digitally, than might not the universe itself?  If digital information alone can contain, transmit, and produce all sensation, all conscious states, might it not be fundamental?   Might digital physics not be the underlying truth?

Comment on AI and consciousness in reply to starspawn0

. I agree that the phenomenology of the brain probably can't be accurately captured by a digital computer; but I think the information processing part can be adequately mimicked. The machine may not "feel" the meaning of the things it reads and writes in the same way as a human; but it will be competent -- and so I would say that it understands language. -starspawn0

I think the problem people have is that computation can be boiled down even to simple repeated addition with conditional branching(and some say even with unconditional branching).

This is the main result of this paper. Therefore any computable function can be computed using only the instructions LOAD, STORE, INC and GOTO (unconditional branching). https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8bc7/d9ba040a3626462f3bc91e17f1e8794b9b79.pdf

Just adding and moving from one location to another.

Of course that will have trouble generating consciousness. The key insight, unless I'm misguided, I would say is that consciousness does not reside in the procedure, any procedure, but in the digital patterns created. Those created by the brain and those created by computers. It is intrinsic information within certain set of patterns, perhaps within all patterns. The type of pattern describes the type of conscious sensation and its complexity.

Note that for example in vision, there are multiple segments of the visual field, but they exist and are felt simultaneously. Same happens with audio, it is processed at a different rate, yet felt simultaneous with vision. As with touch, touch your feet or someone touches your feet, the touch sensation travels slower, iirc, yet it is felt simultaneous. The brain appears to packet information into conscious moments, or presents, simultaneity, the transition probably handled by neurons whose activity corresponds to a sensation of detected movement or change, detectors of change(which might explain why some individuals with some types of brain damage experience sight as a series or sequence of static photos.).

While it is controversial the views of digital physics hold the universe itself is digital in nature, a series of digital patterns may be all that exist, and if they can be shown to generate consciousness, they can most certainly generate the universe itself which is less wondrous than consciousness itself.

Note that if we think about advanced brain computer interface, it is likely they can finely record brain activity in a digital medium, and the replaying of those digital memories into the brain will result in conscious sensation. If properly translated they will also transmit conscious sensation from brain to brain. Is what is stored lacking the essence of consciousness? Is what is transmitted lacking it? Is the brain carrying some form of information transmutation into qualia? Or is the information contained within the patterns so stored and transmitted?

Brains of smarter people have bigger and faster neurons

Brains of smarter people have bigger and faster neurons

Scientists working within the Human Brain Project have for the first time uncovered a direct relation between brain cell size and IQ level. As they describe in the journal eLife, larger neurons in the so-called temporal lobe of the brain that generate electrical signals with higher speed are related to faster processing rates and intelligence level as assessed in standard IQ testing.https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/follow-hbp/news/brains-of-smarter-people-have-bigger-and-faster-neurons/

Comment on Deepfake tech, and deepfake ransomware article

deepfake ransomware medium article

Comment:

While not ransomware, per se, it reminds me one day video and voice will be fake-able with deepfake like tech. Someone goes missing, say a wealthy person or family member(s), some could generate fake videos of a kidnapping and ask for ransom from the rest of the family.

More troubling is if more advanced techniques may be one day not only fool humans at first sight, but might reach a point where all statistical analysis cannot tell them apart from real images. Where even advanced careful analysis may be fooled too.

As for troubling fake video, we have to understand koomey law, and the fact that in essence we're still in a sense able to do many doublings of available computation in an everyday computer. What takes days today, will take minutes one day. Both algorithmic advancements as well as increasing computation available will make it so.

A few decades from now, taking someone and generating a realistic video of them doing just about anything, might be as easy and with as little time consumption as generating a gif meme is nowadays.

Nice wikipedia snippet | Arcology

"An arcology is distinguished from a merely large building in that it is designed to lessen the impact of human habitation on any given ecosystem. It could be self-sustainable, employing all or most of its own available resources for a comfortable life: power; climate control; food production; air and water conservation and purification; sewage treatment; etc. An arcology is designed to make it possible to supply those items for a large population. An arcology would supply and maintain its own municipal or urban infrastructures in order to operate and connect with other urban environments apart from its own.

Arcology was proposed to reduce human impact on natural resources. Arcology designs might apply conventional building and civil engineering techniques in very large, but practical projects in order to achieve pedestrian economies of scale that have proven, post-automobile, to be difficult to achieve in other ways." -arcology wikipedia source