Artificial Intelligence is a very relevant technology of major potential impact in industry and society. This talk will highlight some of the major issues to serve as a baseline for discussion with future Industrial Engineers from UPM ETSII.
Nagel attempts at provocation with its fiery title -Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False- with the intention of getting criticisms to raise interest in his position. However he fails at making clear what this position is. The book argues that the materialist version of evolutionary biology is unable to account for the existence of mind in three essential aspects: consciousness, reason and value. Both in terms of actual realization and historical evolutionary becoming.
His unclear stance orbits around a kind of pre-scientific panpsychism, where mind is a basic aspect of nature, and a kind of non-mystical teleology guides the route from the soup of atoms up to contemporary human mind.
While repetitive and basically empty, it is worth reading to see the main themes of the mysterian philosophy of mind community in relation to natural explanations of mental phenomena.
Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False
Thomas Nagel
Oxford University Press
130 pages
2012
Value for time: 5
Main value: Phil of Mind perspective; quick reading
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 26 December 2017 )
It has always been models
Sunday, 30 July 2017
There is a relatively recent boom on model-based X. Model-based development, model-based design, model-based systems engineering, ...
In all the domains of engineering, it looks like we have just discovered the use of models to support our work. But this is, obviously, false. It has always been models. All around. All the time.
I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.
I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.
I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.”
Poem from “Richard Brautigan's All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace.”
Last Updated ( Saturday, 08 July 2017 )
John Markoff - Machines of Loving Grace
Friday, 07 July 2017
Far from the cybernetic meadow that Richard Brautigan saw in his poem All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace the intelligent machines that can merge with us are not yet here. In his book, Markoff -a technical journalist- tried to address the convergence of natural and artificial intelligence (hence the subtitle "The quest for common ground between humans and robots"). However, he failed. The book, while interesting reading, is a mere compilation of AI people's personal histories. The technical content is minimal and the distillation f the "common ground" is totally missing.
However it is worth reading to see the ambient and economics of the AI community since its origins to the present day of Google's PageRank and Apple's Siri.
Machines of Loving Grace. The quest for common ground between humans and robots
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