Could You Merge with AI? Reflections on the Singularity and Radical Brain Enhancement
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Neural Lace" Company
5 Neuroscience Experts Weigh in on Elon Musk's Mysterious "Neural Lace" Company By Eliza Strickland (/author/strickland-eliza) Posted 12 Apr 2017 | 21:15 GMT Elon Musk has a reputation as the world’s greatest doer. He can propose crazy ambitious technological projects—like reusable rockets for Mars exploration and hyperloop tunnels for transcontinental rapid transit—and people just assume he’ll pull it off. So his latest venture, a new company called Neuralink that will reportedly build brain implants both for medical use and to give healthy people superpowers, has gotten the public excited about a coming era of consumerfriendly neurotech. Even neuroscientists who work in the field, who know full well how difficult it is to build working brain gear that passes muster with medical regulators, feel a sense of potential. “Elon Musk is a person who’s going to take risks and inject a lot of money, so it will be exciting to see what he gets up to,” says Thomas Oxley, a neural engineer who has been developing a medical brain implant since 2010 (he hopes to start its first clinical trial in 2018). Neuralink is still mysterious. An article in The Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/articles/elonmusklaunches neuralinktoconnectbrainswithcomputers1490642652) announced the company’s formation and first hires, while also spouting vague verbiage about “cranial computers” that would Image: iStockphoto serve as “a layer of artificial intelligence inside the brain.” So IEEE Spectrum asked the experts about what’s feasible in this field, and what Musk might be planning. -
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. -
Superhuman Enhancements Via Implants: Beyond the Human Mind
philosophies Article Superhuman Enhancements via Implants: Beyond the Human Mind Kevin Warwick Office of the Vice Chancellor, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK; [email protected] Received: 16 June 2020; Accepted: 7 August 2020; Published: 10 August 2020 Abstract: In this article, a practical look is taken at some of the possible enhancements for humans through the use of implants, particularly into the brain or nervous system. Some cognitive enhancements may not turn out to be practically useful, whereas others may turn out to be mere steps on the way to the construction of superhumans. The emphasis here is the focus on enhancements that take such recipients beyond the human norm rather than any implantations employed merely for therapy. This is divided into what we know has already been tried and tested and what remains at this time as more speculative. Five examples from the author’s own experimentation are described. Each case is looked at in detail, from the inside, to give a unique personal experience. The premise is that humans are essentially their brains and that bodies serve as interfaces between brains and the environment. The possibility of building an Interplanetary Creature, having an intelligence and possibly a consciousness of its own, is also considered. Keywords: human–machine interaction; implants; upgrading humans; superhumans; brain–computer interface 1. Introduction The future life of superhumans with fantastic abilities has been extensively investigated in philosophy, literature and film. Despite this, the concept of human enhancement can often be merely directed towards the individual, particularly someone who is deemed to have a disability, the idea being that the enhancement brings that individual back to some sort of human norm. -
Copyrighted Material
Index affordances 241–2 apps 11, 27–33, 244–5 afterlife 194, 227, 261 Ariely, Dan 28 Agar, Nicholas 15, 162, 313 Aristotle 154, 255 Age of Spiritual Machines, The 47, 54 Arkin, Ronald 64 AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) Armstrong, Stuart 12, 311 61–86, 98–9, 245, 266–7, Arp, Hans/Jean 240–2, 246 298, 311 artificial realities, see virtual reality AGI Nanny 84, 311 Asimov, Isaac 45, 268, 274 aging 61, 207, 222, 225, 259, 315 avatars 73, 76, 201, 244–5, 248–9 AI (artificial intelligence) 3, 9, 12, 22, 30, 35–6, 38–44, 46–58, 72, 91, Banks, Iain M. 235 95, 99, 102, 114–15, 119, 146–7, Barabási, Albert-László 311 150, 153, 157, 198, 284, 305, Barrat, James 22 311, 315 Berger, T.W. 92 non-determinism problem 95–7 Bernal,J.D.264–5 predictions of 46–58, 311 biological naturalism 124–5, 128, 312 altruism 8 biological theories of consciousness 14, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud 40–1 104–5, 121–6, 194, 312 Andreadis, Athena 223 Blackford, Russell 16–21, 318 androids 44, 131, 194, 197, 235, 244, Blade Runner 21 265, 268–70, 272–5, 315 Block, Ned 117, 265 animal experimentationCOPYRIGHTED 24, 279–81, Blue Brain MATERIAL Project 2, 180, 194, 196 286–8, 292 Bodington, James 16, 316 animal rights 281–2, 285–8, 316 body, attitudes to 4–5, 222–9, 314–15 Anissimov, Michael 12, 311 “Body by Design” 244, 246 Intelligence Unbound: The Future of Uploaded and Machine Minds, First Edition. Edited by Russell Blackford and Damien Broderick. -
Coalcrashsinksminegiant
For personal non-commercial use only. Do not edit or alter. Reproductions not permitted. To reprint or license content, please contact our reprints and licensing department at +1 800-843-0008 or www.djreprints.com Jeffrey Herbst A Fare Change Facebook’s Algorithm For Business Fliers Is a News Editor THE MIDDLE SEAT | D1 OPINION | A15 ASSOCIATED PRESS ***** THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2016 ~ VOL. CCLXVII NO. 87 WSJ.com HHHH $3.00 DJIA 17908.28 À 187.03 1.1% NASDAQ 4947.42 À 1.55% STOXX 600 343.06 À 2.5% 10-YR. TREAS. À 6/32 , yield 1.760% OIL $41.76 g $0.41 GOLD $1,246.80 g $12.60 EURO $1.1274 YEN 109.32 What’s Migrants Trying to Leave Greece Meet Resistance at Border Big Bank’s News Earnings Business&Finance Stoke Optimism .P. Morgan posted bet- Jter-than-expected re- sults, delivering a reassur- BY EMILY GLAZER ing report on its business AND PETER RUDEGEAIR and the U.S. economy. A1 The Dow climbed 187.03 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. de- points to 17908.28, its high- livered a reassuring report on est level since November, as the state of U.S. consumers J.P. Morgan’s earnings ignited and corporations Wednesday, gains in financial shares. C1 raising hopes that strength in the economy will help banks Citigroup was the only offset weakness in their Wall bank whose “living will” plan Street trading businesses. wasn’t rejected by either the Shares of the New York Fed or the FDIC, while Wells bank, which reported better- Fargo drew a rebuke. -
Maybe Not--But You Can Have Fun Trying
12/29/2010 Can You Live Forever? Maybe Not--But… Permanent Address: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=e-zimmer-can-you-live-forever Can You Live Forever? Maybe Not--But You Can Have Fun Trying In this chapter from his new e-book, journalist Carl Zimmer tries to reconcile the visions of techno-immortalists with the exigencies imposed by real-world biology By Carl Zimmer | Wednesday, December 22, 2010 | 14 comments Editor's Note: Carl Zimmer, author of this month's article, "100 Trillion Connections," has just brought out a much-acclaimed e-book, Brain Cuttings: 15 Journeys Through the Mind (Scott & Nix), that compiles a series of his writings on neuroscience. In this chapter, adapted from an article that was first published in Playboy, Zimmer takes the reader on a tour of the 2009 Singularity Summit in New York City. His ability to contrast the fantastical predictions of speakers at the conference with the sometimes more skeptical assessments from other scientists makes his account a fascinating read. Let's say you transfer your mind into a computer—not all at once but gradually, having electrodes inserted into your brain and then wirelessly outsourcing your faculties. Someone reroutes your vision through cameras. Someone stores your memories on a net of microprocessors. Step by step your metamorphosis continues until at last the transfer is complete. As engineers get to work boosting the performance of your electronic mind so you can now think as a god, a nurse heaves your fleshy brain into a bag of medical waste. As you —for now let's just call it "you"—start a new chapter of existence exclusively within a machine, an existence that will last as long as there are server farms and hard-disk space and the solar power to run them, are "you" still actually you? This question was being considered carefully and thoroughly by a 43-year-old man standing on a giant stage backed by high black curtains. -
William Gibson's Neuromancer and Its Relevanceto Culture And
“KALAM” International Journal of Faculty of Arts and Culture, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Its Relevanceto Culture and Technology Noeline Shirome .G South Eastern University of Sri Lanka Abstract We live in a time where technology is in a rapid growth. These advancements have made various changes in the cultural sphere. Computers have drastically started to influence the lifestyle of people through various systems of information technology. Thus, within a fragment of time anyone can access to any sort of resources on the planet. This advancement is in way shrinking the division of mind and machine as most people depend vastly on the outside sources of intelligence through technological devices. The concept of mind uploading, trans-humans, cyber space, virtual reality, and etc. have interested the cyberpunk writers and influenced them to project these ideas in their literary texts. Thus the present paper explores the relationship between William Gibson’s cyberpunk science fiction Neuromancer and its relevance to culture and technology. It first focuses on the novel Neuromancer, and then goes onto its cultural and technological relevance with present time, and discusses the close connection between reality and cyberpunk literature. Key words Cyberpunk, cyber space, mind uploading, mindclones, mindfile, William Gibson Introduction in the novel named Henry Dorsett Case is a The link between computer technology and hacker who eventually gets into the digitalised literature play an important role in society, as system and logs into the Matrix where the literary texts reflects the contemporary copy of his consciousness exists forever. The situation. In this context, cyberpunk science similar idea of this mind uploading is now an fictions play an important role in exploring emerging concept in the twenty-first century. -
CYBORGIZATION and VIRTUAL WORLDS: Portals to Altered Reality
Sample file CYBORGIZATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDS: A character’s body is the means by which she perceives Portals to Altered Reality and interacts with her environment. When a character ex- tends her body by grafting robotic components onto it – or Volume 02 in the replaces some of its key components with biosynthetic sub- Posthuman Cyberware Sourcebook series stitutes – it inevitably alters the way in which she experi- ences the world. Written and edited by: Matthew E. Gladden The nature of a character’s forays into virtual reality is just one part of her life that’s transformed by the process of Special thanks to cyborgization. After all, it’s easy to know when you enter All those who offered feedback regarding the research and ma- a virtual environment if the tools you’re using are a VR terials that eventually found their way into this volume, as well headset and haptic feedback gloves. If the virtual experi- as those whose work as game designers, gamers, scholars, and ence is too much for you, you can always just rip off the authors provided inspiration for this project, including: headset: the digital illusions instantly vanish, and you know that you’re back in the ‘real’ world. But what if the Magdalena Szczepocka Sven Dwulecki VR gear that you’re employing consists of cranial neural Bartosz Kłoda-Staniecko Mateusz Zimnoch implants that directly stimulate your brain to create artifi- Paweł Gąska Nicole Cunningham cial sensory experiences? Or what if you’re toting dual-pur- Krzysztof Maj Ted Snider pose artificial eyes and robotic prosthetic limbs that can ei- Ksenia Olkusz Ken Spencer ther supply you with authentic sense data from the external Michał Kłosiński Nathan Fouts environment or switch into iso mode, cut off all the sensa- tions from the real world, and pipe fabricated sense data into your brain? What signs could you look for to help you Copyright © 2017 Matthew E. -
Brain Uploading-Related Group Mind Scenarios
MIRI MACHINE INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH INSTITUTE Coalescing Minds: Brain Uploading-Related Group Mind Scenarios Kaj Sotala University of Helsinki, MIRI Research Associate Harri Valpola Aalto University Abstract We present a hypothetical process of mind coalescence, where artificial connections are created between two or more brains. This might simply allow for an improved formof communication. At the other extreme, it might merge the minds into one in a process that can be thought of as a reverse split-brain operation. We propose that one way mind coalescence might happen is via an exocortex, a prosthetic extension of the biological brain which integrates with the brain as seamlessly as parts of the biological brain in- tegrate with each other. An exocortex may also prove to be the easiest route for mind uploading, as a person’s personality gradually moves away from the aging biological brain and onto the exocortex. Memories might also be copied and shared even without minds being permanently merged. Over time, the borders of personal identity may become loose or even unnecessary. Sotala, Kaj, and Harri Valpola. 2012. “Coalescing Minds: Brain Uploading-Related Group Mind Scenarios.” International Journal of Machine Consciousness 4 (1): 293–312. doi:10.1142/S1793843012400173. This version contains minor changes. Kaj Sotala, Harri Valpola 1. Introduction Mind uploads, or “uploads” for short (also known as brain uploads, whole brain emu- lations, emulations or ems) are hypothetical human minds that have been moved into a digital format and run as software programs on computers. One recent roadmap chart- ing the technological requirements for creating uploads suggests that they may be fea- sible by mid-century (Sandberg and Bostrom 2008). -
Everybody and Nobody: Visions of Individualism and Collectivity in the Age of AI
International Journal of Communication 10(2016), Forum 5669–5683 1932–8036/2016FRM0002 Everybody and Nobody: Visions of Individualism and Collectivity in the Age of AI ARAM SINNREICH (provocateur) American University, USA JESSA LINGEL University of Pennsylvania, USA GIDEON LICHFIELD Quartz, USA ADAM RICHARD ROTTINGHAUS University of Tampa, USA LONNY J AVI BROOKS California State University, East Bay, USA In Homer’s The Odyssey (one of humanity’s earliest surviving works of speculative fiction), the story’s hero, Odysseus, pulls off one of literature’s great escapes. Trapped in a cave by the giant, man- eating cyclops Polyphemus, the wily Greek lulls the monster to sleep with divinely powerful wine, then pokes out his only eye with a flaming wooden stake. Right before Polyphemus passes out, Odysseus prepares an insult to go along with the injury: when the Cyclops asks his name, he responds by claiming it’s “Nobody.” Thus, when the blinded Polyphemus seeks help from his fellow monsters and retribution from his divine father, the sea god Poseidon, all the poor creature can tell them is that “Nobody’s killing me” and “Nobody made me suffer” (Fagles, 1996). The plan works, and Odysseus escapes with his remaining men to their ship, as the blind cyclops, relying on his ears instead of his eyes, heaves boulders in their direction. This is when the hero commits his greatest error: Despite his men’s entreaties, he begins to taunt the cyclops, reveling in his victory by revealing his true identity: Cyclops— if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so—say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca! (Fagles, 1996, p. -
A Multi-Channel, Impedance-Matching, Wireless, Passive Recorder for Medical Applications (2019 Version)
A Multi-Channel, Impedance-Matching, Wireless, Passive Recorder for Medical Applications (2019 Version) Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Wei-Chuan Chen, B.Eng. Graduate Program in Electrical and Computer Engineering The Ohio State University 2019 Dissertation Committee: Asimina Kiourti, Co-Advisor John L. Volakis, Co-Advisor Liang Guo Daniel Rivers © Copyright by Wei-Chuan Chen 2019 Abstract This dissertation presents a new technology for batteryless and wireless neu- rorecording system which can be applied clinically. Two clinical issues of this type of neural implant are the 1) multichannel operation and 2) high impedance and DC voltage offset from the brain electrode impedance. To resolve these two problems, one wireless multichannel system and one brain electrode interface impedance-matching system are proposed respectively. To achieve multichannel operation, one photo- activated multiplexer is employed in the implant circuit. The interrogator additionally sends an infrared control signal for channel selection. Experimental results show that the proposed neuropotential recorder exhibits 20 µVpp sensitivity at all eight channels. The system is also in compliance with the strictest Federal Communications Com- mission standards for patient safety. Notably, the proposed approach is scalable to a much higher number of channels. On the other hand, to mitigate the high impedance and DC voltage offset of the brain-electrode interface, one self-biasing PNP Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) is adopted in the brain circuits. This self-biasing PNP BJT increases the overall system's impedance and maintains the system sensitivity while the high impedance is present. -
Humanity's Capability of Transcendence Through Artificial
California State University, Monterey Bay Digital Commons @ CSUMB Capstone Projects and Master's Theses Spring 5-2016 Humanity’s Capability of Transcendence through Artificial Intelligence Zena McCartney California State University, Monterey Bay Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/caps_thes Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation McCartney, Zena, "Humanity’s Capability of Transcendence through Artificial Intelligence" (2016). Capstone Projects and Master's Theses. 529. https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/caps_thes/529 This Capstone Project is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ CSUMB. It has been accepted for inclusion in Capstone Projects and Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ CSUMB. Unless otherwise indicated, this project was conducted as practicum not subject to IRB review but conducted in keeping with applicable regulatory guidance for training purposes. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Humanity’s Capability of Transcendence through Artificial Intelligence What does it mean to be a human in a technological society? Source: Cazy89. Artificial Intelligence. Cruz, Alejandro. Flickr Commons. WikiMedia Project. Web. 28 December 2008. Digital Image. Senior Capstone Practical and Professional Ethics Research Essay David Reichard Division of Humanities and Communication Spring 2016 0 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................2