EDGE 2015 Question: "2015 : What Do You Think About Machines That Think? "

"Dahlia" by Katinka Matson | www.katinkamatson.com

"Deliciously creative, the variety astonishes. Intellectual skyrockets of stunning brilliance. Nobody in the world is doing what Edge is doing...the greatest virtual research university in the world. —Denis Dutton, Founding Editor, Arts & Letters Daily

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Dedicated to the memory of Frank Schirrmacher (1959-2014).
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In recent years, the 1980s-era philosophical discussions about artificial intelligence (AI)—whether computers can "really" think, refer, be conscious, and so on—have led to new conversations about how we should deal with the forms that many argue actually are implemented. These "AIs", if they achieve "Superintelligence" (Nick Bostrom), could pose "existential risks" that lead to "Our Final Hour" (Martin Rees). And Stephen Hawking recently made international headlines when he noted "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."

THE EDGE QUESTION—2015

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT MACHINES THAT THINK? But wait! Should we also ask what machines that think, or, "AIs", might be thinking about? Do they want, do they expect civil rights? Do they have feelings? What kind of government (for us) would an AI choose? What kind of society would they want to structure for themselves? Or is "their" society "our" society? Will we, and the AIs, include each other within our respective circles of empathy?

Numerous Edgies have been at the forefront of the science behind the various flavors of AI, either in their research or writings. AI was front and center in conversations between charter members Pamela McCorduck (Machines Who Think) and Isaac Asimov (Machines That Think) at our initial meetings in 1980. And the conversation has continued unabated, as is evident in the recent Edge feature "The Myth of AI", a conversation with Jaron Lanier, that evoked rich and provocative commentaries.

Is AI becoming increasingly real? Are we now in a new era of the "AIs"? To consider this issue, it's time to grow up. Enough already with the science fiction and the movies, Star Maker, Blade Runner, 2001, Her, The Matrix, "The Borg". Also, 80 years after Turing's invention of his Universal Machine, it's time to honor Turing, and other AI pioneers, by giving them a well-deserved rest. We know the history. (See George Dyson's 2004 Edge feature "Turing's Cathedral".) So, once again, this time with rigor, the Edge Question—2105:

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT MACHINES THAT THINK?

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What Do Animals Want?

ORIGINAL: EDGE

A Conversation with Marian Stamp Dawkins [10.31.12] 

Whatever anybody says, I feel that the hard problem of consciousness is still very hard, and to try and rest your ethical case on proving something that has baffled people for years seems to me to be not good for animals. Much, much better to say let's go for something tangible, something we can measure. Are the animals healthy, do they have what they want? Then if you can show that, then that's a much, much better basis for making your decisions.

MARIAN STAMP DAWKINS is professor of animal behaviour at the University of Oxford, where she heads the Animal Behaviour Research Group. She is the author of Why Animals Matter.

Marian Stamp Dawkin's Edge Bio Page

Video [35 minutes]

The Reality Club: Nicholas Humphrey

WHAT DO ANIMALS WANT? (Transcipt)

The questions I'm asking myself are really about how much we really know about animal consciousness. A lot of people think we do, or think that we don't need scientific evidence. It really began to worry me that people were basing their arguments on something that we really can't know about at all. One of the questions I asked myself was: how much do we really know? And is what we know the best basis for arguing for animal welfare? I've been thinking hard about that, and I came to the conclusion that the hard problem of consciousness is actually very hard. It's still there, and we kid ourselves if we think we've solved it.

How old can we get?

ORIGINAL: ScienceDump

Links to learn more:

All music by Jake Chudnow: http://soundcloud.com/jakechudnow

General info on aging: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senescence

Oldest People Ever:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_verified_oldest_people

Oldest People who are STILL ALIVE:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_living_supercentenarians

Article on age and the first person to be 150 (in the future): http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/has-the-elixir-of-youth-come-of-age...

Moratlity Rates by age: http://www.data360.org/graph_group.aspx?Graph_Group_Id=347

Biological Immortality (Hydra, for example): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_immortality

Survival Curves for different types of organisms:  http://www.stmary.ws/highschool/science/APBIO/Populations/survivorship_curves...

Methuselah Tree: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/methuselah/expl_grove.html

Pando: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_%28tree%29

Intense, new things are remembered as happening more slowly: http://www.livescience.com/2117-time-slow-emergencies.html

Scientific paper about emotions and memory: http://www.springerlink.com/content/mmt8722571771083/fulltext.pdf

"Flashbulb Memories": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashbulb_memory

NPR program on how long our lives "feel": http://www.wbur.org/npr/122322542/why-does-time-fly-by-as-you-get-older

Slashdot's comments section on NPR's topic is good: http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/02/03/0034214/why-time-flies-by-as-you-g...

Graph of year-by-year as percentage of total life: http://jdueck.net/article/160/this-is-your-life