Generative Models, Structural Similarity, and Mental Representation
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Mind-Crafting: Anticipatory Critique of Transhumanist Mind-Uploading in German High Modernist Novels Nathan Jensen Bates a Disse
Mind-Crafting: Anticipatory Critique of Transhumanist Mind-Uploading in German High Modernist Novels Nathan Jensen Bates A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2018 Reading Committee: Richard Block, Chair Sabine Wilke Ellwood Wiggins Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Germanics ©Copyright 2018 Nathan Jensen Bates University of Washington Abstract Mind-Crafting: Anticipatory Critique of Transhumanist Mind-Uploading in German High Modernist Novels Nathan Jensen Bates Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Richard Block Germanics This dissertation explores the question of how German modernist novels anticipate and critique the transhumanist theory of mind-uploading in an attempt to avert binary thinking. German modernist novels simulate the mind and expose the indistinct limits of that simulation. Simulation is understood in this study as defined by Jean Baudrillard in Simulacra and Simulation. The novels discussed in this work include Thomas Mann’s Der Zauberberg; Hermann Broch’s Die Schlafwandler; Alfred Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz: Die Geschichte von Franz Biberkopf; and, in the conclusion, Irmgard Keun’s Das Kunstseidene Mädchen is offered as a field of future inquiry. These primary sources disclose at least three aspects of the mind that are resistant to discrete articulation; that is, the uploading or extraction of the mind into a foreign context. A fourth is proposed, but only provisionally, in the conclusion of this work. The aspects resistant to uploading are defined and discussed as situatedness, plurality, and adaptability to ambiguity. Each of these aspects relates to one of the three steps of mind- uploading summarized in Nick Bostrom’s treatment of the subject. -
Sustainable Development, Technological Singularity and Ethics
European Research Studies Journal Volume XXI, Issue 4, 2018 pp. 714- 725 Sustainable Development, Technological Singularity and Ethics Vyacheslav Mantatov1, Vitaly Tutubalin2 Abstract: The development of modern convergent technologies opens the prospect of a new technological order. Its image as a “technological singularity”, i.e. such “transhuman” stage of scientific and technical progress, on which the superintelligence will be practically implemented, seems to be quite realistic. The determination of the basic philosophical coordinates of this future reality in the movement along the path of sustainable development of mankind is the most important task of modern science. The article is devoted to the study of the basic ontological, epistemological and moral aspects in the reception of the coming technological singularity. The method of this study is integrating dialectical and system approach. The authors come to the conclusion: the technological singularity in the form of a “computronium” (superintelligence) opens up broad prospects for the sustainable development of mankind in the cosmic dimension. This superintelligence will become an ally of man in the process of cosmic evolution. Keywords: Technological Singularity, Superintelligence, Convergent Technologies, Cosmocentrism, Human and Universe JEL code: Q01, Q56. 1East Siberia State University of Technology and Management, Ulan-Ude, Russia [email protected] 2East Siberia State University of Technology and Management, Ulan-Ude, Russia, [email protected] V. Mantatov, V. Tutubalin 715 1. Introduction Intelligence organizes the world by organizing itself. J. Piaget Technological singularity is defined as a certain moment or stage in the development of mankind, when scientific and technological progress will become so fast and complex that it will be unpredictable. -
Transhumanism Between Human Enhancement and Technological Innovation*
Transhumanism Between Human Enhancement and Technological Innovation* Ion Iuga Abstract: Transhumanism introduces from its very beginning a paradigm shift about concepts like human nature, progress and human future. An overview of its ideology reveals a strong belief in the idea of human enhancement through technologically means. The theory of technological singularity, which is more or less a radicalisation of the transhumanist discourse, foresees a radical evolutionary change through artificial intelligence. The boundaries between intelligent machines and human beings will be blurred. The consequence is the upcoming of a post-biological and posthuman future when intelligent technology becomes autonomous and constantly self-improving. Considering these predictions, I will investigate here the way in which the idea of human enhancement modifies our understanding of technological innovation. I will argue that such change goes in at least two directions. On the one hand, innovation is seen as something that will inevitably lead towards intelligent machines and human enhancement. On the other hand, there is a direction such as “Singularity University,” where innovation is called to pragmatically solving human challenges. Yet there is a unifying spirit which holds together the two directions and I think it is the same transhumanist idea. Keywords: transhumanism, technological innovation, human enhancement, singularity Each of your smartphones is more powerful than the fastest supercomputer in the world of 20 years ago. (Kathryn Myronuk) If you understand the potential of these exponential technologies to transform everything from energy to education, you have different perspective on how we can solve the grand challenges of humanity. (Ray Kurzweil) We seek to connect a humanitarian community of forward-thinking people in a global movement toward an abundant future (Singularity University, Impact report 2014). -
ARCHITECTS of INTELLIGENCE for Xiaoxiao, Elaine, Colin, and Tristan ARCHITECTS of INTELLIGENCE
MARTIN FORD ARCHITECTS OF INTELLIGENCE For Xiaoxiao, Elaine, Colin, and Tristan ARCHITECTS OF INTELLIGENCE THE TRUTH ABOUT AI FROM THE PEOPLE BUILDING IT MARTIN FORD ARCHITECTS OF INTELLIGENCE Copyright © 2018 Packt Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews. Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book. Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information. Acquisition Editors: Ben Renow-Clarke Project Editor: Radhika Atitkar Content Development Editor: Alex Sorrentino Proofreader: Safis Editing Presentation Designer: Sandip Tadge Cover Designer: Clare Bowyer Production Editor: Amit Ramadas Marketing Manager: Rajveer Samra Editorial Director: Dominic Shakeshaft First published: November 2018 Production reference: 2201118 Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. Livery Place 35 Livery Street Birmingham B3 2PB, UK ISBN 978-1-78913-151-2 www.packt.com Contents Introduction ........................................................................ 1 A Brief Introduction to the Vocabulary of Artificial Intelligence .......10 How AI Systems Learn ........................................................11 Yoshua Bengio .....................................................................17 Stuart J. -
The Transhumanist Reader Is an Important, Provocative Compendium Critically Exploring the History, Philosophy, and Ethics of Transhumanism
TH “We are in the process of upgrading the human species, so we might as well do it E Classical and Contemporary with deliberation and foresight. A good first step is this book, which collects the smartest thinking available concerning the inevitable conflicts, challenges and opportunities arising as we re-invent ourselves. It’s a core text for anyone making TRA Essays on the Science, the future.” —Kevin Kelly, Senior Maverick for Wired Technology, and Philosophy “Transhumanism has moved from a fringe concern to a mainstream academic movement with real intellectual credibility. This is a great taster of some of the best N of the Human Future emerging work. In the last 10 years, transhumanism has spread not as a religion but as a creative rational endeavor.” SHU —Julian Savulescu, Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford “The Transhumanist Reader is an important, provocative compendium critically exploring the history, philosophy, and ethics of transhumanism. The contributors anticipate crucial biopolitical, ecological and planetary implications of a radically technologically enhanced population.” M —Edward Keller, Director, Center for Transformative Media, Parsons The New School for Design A “This important book contains essays by many of the top thinkers in the field of transhumanism. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in the future of humankind.” N —Sonia Arrison, Best-selling author of 100 Plus: How The Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything IS The rapid pace of emerging technologies is playing an increasingly important role in T overcoming fundamental human limitations. The Transhumanist Reader presents the first authoritative and comprehensive survey of the origins and current state of transhumanist Re thinking regarding technology’s impact on the future of humanity. -
Richard L. Gregory (March 7Th 2000) ADVENTURES of a MAVERICK in the Beginning--School and War My Father Was a Scientist--An
Richard L. Gregory (March 7th 2000) ADVENTURES OF A MAVERICK In the Beginning--School and war My father was a scientist--an astronomer--being the first director of the University of London Observatory. So I was brought up with optical instruments and also with the importance of making observations. My father measured the distances of the nearer stars for most of his life-- using parallax from camera-positions separated by the 186,000,000 miles diameter of the Earthís orbit around the Sun. These measurements are crucial for scaling the universe. Is it an accident that years later I tried to scale and explain distortions of visual space? At school I learned simple electronics in our Radio Club, as we built our own short wave receivers, and then more in the RAF at Number One Signal School at Cranwell. Cranwell had excellent teaching, and was highly civilised, with its drama and music societies. I should have been posted to the Gold Coast, but a telegram recalling me from Christmas leave did not arrive in time so I was posted to Training Command in Canada. This was a year flying around the Bay of Fundy and St Johns, sometimes testing radio communications and radar; then six months with the Fleet Air Arm at Kingston, Ontario, where I had my own boat and sailed among the Thousand Islands. During almost six years in the RAF I had time to read and think on physics and biology, and wrote a science column in a local RAF magazine. I also read C.G. Jung (developing a permanent allergy) and William James (who remains a hero.) No doubt I absorbed some useful concepts from the technologies of radio and radar. -
The Artist's Emergent Journey the Metaphysics of Henri Bergson, and Also Those by Eric Voegelin Against Gnosticism2
Vol 1 No 2 (Autumn 2020) Online: jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/nexj Visit our WebBlog: newexplorations.net The Artist’s Emergent Journey Clinton Ignatov—The McLuhan Institute—[email protected] To examine computers as a medium in the style of Marshall McLuhan, we must understand the origins of his own perceptions on the nature of media and his deep-seated religious impetus for their development. First we will uncover McLuhan’s reasoning in his description of the artist and the occult origins of his categories of hot and cool media. This will prepare us to recognize these categories when they are reformulated by cyberneticist Norbert Wiener and ethnographer Sherry Turkle. Then, as we consider the roles “black boxes” play in contemporary art and theory, many ways of bringing McLuhan’s insights on space perception and the role of the artist up to date for the work of defining and explaining cyberspace will be demonstrated. Through this work the paradoxical morality of McLuhan’s decision to not make moral value judgments will have been made clear. Introduction In order to bring Marshall McLuhan into the 21st century it is insufficient to retrieve his public persona. This particular character, performed in the ‘60s and ‘70s on the global theater’s world stage, was tailored to the audiences of its time. For our purposes today, we’ve no option but an audacious attempt to retrieve, as best we can, the whole man. To these ends, while examining the media of our time, we will strive to delicately reconstruct the human-scale McLuhan from what has been left in both his public and private written corpus. -
International Journal of Action Research Volume 5, Issue 1, 2009
International Journal of Action Research Volume 5, Issue 1, 2009 Editorial Werner Fricke, Øyvind Pålshaugen 5 Popular Education and Participatory Research: Facing Inequalities in Latin America Danilo R. Streck 13 Organizing – A Strategic Option for Trade Union Renewal? Klaus Dörre, Hajo Holst, Oliver Nachtwey 33 Phronesis as the Sense of the Event Ole Fogh Kirkeby 68 Opening to the World through the Lived Body: Relating Theory and Practice in Organisation Consulting Robert Farrands 114 Book review Olav Eikeland (2008): The Ways of Aristotle. Aristotelian phrónêsis, Aristotelian Philosophy of Dialogue, and Action Research reviewed by Ole Fogh Kirkeby 144 Phronesis as the Sense of the Event Ole Fogh Kirkeby In this article, the Greek concept of phronesis is analyzed on the basis of its philosophical roots, and the indispensability of its strong normative content is emphasized. This creates a distance to most of the recent under- standing of phronesis as prudence, and hence as practical wisdom with a pragmatic and strategic content. The strong dilemmas created by the nor- mative background of real phronesis present management and leadership as a choice in every situation. From this foundation, phronesis is inter- preted as primarily the sense of the event, and an alternative concept of the event is developed. The presentation of the event also demands a theory of the relation of mind and matter, and hence of the body in the event. This is achieved under inspiration from Stoic philosophy. With this in mind, the more serious approaches to practical wisdom: phronesis as determinant of meta-concepts of research; phronesis as a liberating organizational strategy of learning; phronesis as a strategy of knowledge management; phronesis as a narrative strategy; and phronesis as the capacity of the leader, are presented and analyzed. -
Scott Marratto CV
MARRATTO :: CURRICULUM VITAE (UPDATED 1 APRIL 20) SCOTT MARRATTO ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY CONTACT INFORMATION • Humanities Department Michigan Technological University 1400 Townsend Drive Houghton, MI 49931-1295 • Phone: (906) 487-2613 • Email: [email protected] • Web: mtu.edu/humanities/department/faculty-staff/faculty/marratto/ AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION AND COMPETENCE • AOS: 19th and 20th Century Continental Philosophy (especially Phenomenology), Social and Political Philosophy • AOC: Philosophy of Science and Technology, Ethics, Ancient Philosophy, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Mind ACADEMIC POSITIONS • Associate Professor of Philosophy, Humanities Department, Michigan Technological University, 2011-present • Director of Graduate Studies in Rhetoric, Theory and Culture, Humanities Department, Michigan Technological University, 2015-2018 • Senior Fellow, Foundation Year Programme, University of King’s College, Halifax, 2010- 2011 • Instructor, Contemporary Studies Programme, University of King’s College, Halifax, 2009-2011 • Teaching Fellow, Foundation Year Programme, University of King’s College, Halifax, 2007-2010 EDUCATION • University of Guelph, PhD, Philosophy (2010) • University of Guelph, MA, Philosophy (2005) • University of Toronto, Special/Non-degree, Philosophy (2001-2) • University of Western Ontario, BA, Sociology (2001) PUBLICATIONS Books 1 MARRATTO :: CURRICULUM VITAE (UPDATED 1 APRIL 20) • The Intercorporeal Self: Merleau-Ponty on Subjectivity. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press (2012). o Reviews: Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy, March (2013); Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, February (2013); Review of Metaphysics 67 (2013); Avant V (2014); Word and Text: A Journal of Literary Studies and Linguistics 3 (2013). • The End of Ethics in a Technological Society. Montreal, QC: McGill-Queens University Press (2008). (With Lawrence E. Schmidt.) Book Chapters • “Intercorporeality.” In 50 Concepts for a Critical Phenomenology, eds. -
Downloaded” to a Computer Than to Answer Questions About Emotions, Which Will Organize Their World
Between an Animal and a Machine MODERNITY IN QUESTION STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF IDEAS Edited by Małgorzata Kowalska VOLUME 10 Paweł Majewski Between an Animal and a Machine Stanisław Lem’s Technological Utopia Translation from Polish by Olga Kaczmarek Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. The Publication is founded by Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland as a part of the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Ministry cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. ISSN 2193-3421 E-ISBN 978-3-653-06830-6 (E-PDF) E-ISBN 978-3-631-71024-1 (EPUB) E-ISBN 978-3-631-71025-8 (MOBI) DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-06830-6 Open Access: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 unported license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ © Paweł Majewski, 2018 . Peter Lang – Berlin · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................ 9 Lemology Pure and Applied ............................................................................. 9 Part One Dialogues – Cybernetics as an Anthropology ........................................ -
Cg 2014 Alexander D. Morgan ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
c 2014 Alexander D. Morgan ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ON THE MATTER OF MEMORY: NEURAL COMPUTATION AND THE MECHANISMS OF INTENTIONAL AGENCY by ALEXANDER D. MORGAN A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Philosophy written under the direction of Frances Egan and Robert Matthews and approved by New Brunswick, New Jersey May 2014 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION On the Matter of Memory: Neural Computation and the Mechanisms of Intentional Agency by ALEXANDER D. MORGAN Dissertation Directors: Frances Egan & Robert Matthews Humans and other animals are intentional agents; they are capable of acting in ways that are caused and explained by their reasons. Reasons are widely held to be medi- ated by mental representations, but it is notoriously difficult to understand how the intentional content of mental representations could causally explain action. Thus there is a puzzle about how to `naturalize' intentional agency. The present work is motivated by the conviction that this puzzle will be solved by elucidating the neural mechanisms that mediate the cognitive capacities that are distinctive of intentional agency. Two main obstacles stand in the way of developing such a project, which are both manifestations of a widespread sentiment that, as Jerry Fodor once put it, \notions like computational state and representation aren't accessible in the language of neu- roscience". First, C. Randy Gallistel has argued extensively that the mechanisms posited by neuroscientists cannot function as representations in an engineering sense, since they allegedly cannot be manipulated by the computational operations required to generate structurally complex representations. -
Functional Integration and the Mind
Synthese (2007) 159:315–328 DOI 10.1007/s11229-007-9240-3 Functional integration and the mind Jakob Hohwy Published online: 26 September 2007 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007 Abstract Different cognitive functions recruit a number of different, often over- lapping, areas of the brain. Theories in cognitive and computational neuroscience are beginning to take this kind of functional integration into account. The contributions to this special issue consider what functional integration tells us about various aspects of the mind such as perception, language, volition, agency, and reward. Here, I consider how and why functional integration may matter for the mind; I discuss a general the- oretical framework, based on generative models, that may unify many of the debates surrounding functional integration and the mind; and I briefly introduce each of the contributions. Keywords Functional integration · Functional segregation · Interconnectivity · Phenomenology · fMRI · Generative models · Predictive coding 1 Introduction Across the diverse subdisciplines of the mind sciences, there is a growing awareness that, in order to properly understand the brain as the basis of the mind, our theorising and experimental work must to a higher degree incorporate the fact that activity in the brain, at the level of individual neurons, over neural populations, to cortical areas, is characterised by massive interconnectivity. In brain imaging science, this represents a move away from ‘blob-ology’, with a focus on local areas of activity, and towards functional integration, with a focus on the functional and dynamic causal relations between areas of activity. Similarly, in J. Hohwy (B) Department of Philosophy, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia e-mail: [email protected] 123 316 Synthese (2007) 159:315–328 theoretical neuroscience there is a renewed focus on the computational significance of the interaction between bottom-up and top-down neural signals.