"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome."
-Isaac Asimov
Thoughts from the Epicureans:
Suppose we do not survive our deaths. We as individuals have become extinct.
No prolongation of life can reduce the amount of time spent dead.
Some see an infinite lifespan being no better than a finite one, and some would see it as worse (I'm not quite sure how to process this but I'll try).
Obviously we will not be around to experience being dead and therefore cannot be unhappy, harmed, nor can we yearn for life and the the opportunities we are being deprived of after death.
The question is, "Can anything be bad for someone without being positively unpleasant?"
Is there any reasonable basis for caring more about the possibilities we will miss after death rather than the ones we have already missed before birth?
If death really is our exiting existence in its entirety when would we suffer this?
"There is nothing frightening about an eternal dreamless sleep. Surely it is better than eternal torment in Hell and eternal boredom in Heaven."
-Isaac Asimov
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
If Then Do Emotions
(1) Why do humans have emotions? What evolutionary advantage did/does it give us, if any?
"We are all ruled in what we do by impulses; and these impulses are so organized that our actions in general serve for our self preservation and that of the race. Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual's instinct for self preservation. At the same time, as social beings, we are moved in the relations with our fellow beings by such feelings as sympathy, pride, hate, need for power, pity and so on."
-Albert Einstein, 1950
The origin and advantages of human emotion –biologically, neurologically and evolutionary- is an undeniably longer and more complex explanation than the simplified interpretation I can give here, however, I will do my best to sum up with a few of the more amusing examples I could find by people who know more than I do.
Our emotions give us the ability to think in a certain way, while ignoring facts that might otherwise prevent us from executing a task.
Minsky makes some keen observations on love/infatuation:
"Hear our friend Charles attempt to describe his latest infatuation.
"I've just fallen in love with a wonderful person. I scarcely can think about anything else. My sweetheart is unbelievably perfect — of indescribable beauty, flawless character, and incredible intelligence. There is nothing i would not do for her."
On the surface such statements seem positive; they're all composed of superlatives. But note that there's something strange about this: most of those phrases of positive praise use syllables like "un," "less," and "in" — which show that they really are negative statements describing the person who's saying them!
Wonderful. Indescribable.
— (I can't figure out what attracts me to her.)
I scarcely can think of anything else.
— (Most of my mind has stopped working.)
Unbelievably perfect. Incredible.
— (No sensible person believes such things.)
She has a flawless character.
— (I've abandoned my critical faculties.)
There is nothing i would not do for her.
— (I've forsaken most of my usual goals.)"
Minsky's observations explain how emotions shape Ways to think by either adding or taking away mental critics. Without certain critics being shut off finding a mate would become even more of a challenge than it already is.
Also of note is how this emotional state coincides with the way popular locations for courtship include low lighting and alcohol.
Minsky is aware of, but doesn't mention norepinephrine, the hormone that produces the excitement that comes during the first states of love, because in doing so he would have to leave the structural understanding and begin a new chapter to explain the biological origins of emotion.
Humans developed emotions in order to distinguish situations and prepare ways to react to or think about what mood is demanded by or would best fit those situations.
Is this a predator? Is this a mate? Will watching Faux News make me angry?
When anger and fear shut off the critics that recognize another person as “human” we get results like the one seen in the Critical Mass video.
The amygdala perform primary roles in the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events such as these, which leads us into the debate on whether or not robots will develop this type of response.
(2) Is it not possible/probable that robotic lifeforms will also develop emotions as their complexity develops? In other words, could not emotion be a inexorable byproduct of--or necessary component of-- abstract reasoning and creativity?
I’ve already taken up enough of your time, so I will try to keep this short.
Robots/AI do not have hormones, amygdala, limbic systems and other hardware the brain uses to process emotions. Instead a series of programs and sensors are used to interpret the world logically.
How would you explain to a robot what "cool" is?
Machines have a predisposition to logic but not necessarily common sense, and because I don’t believe in the ‘ghost in the machine’ I would have to assume that if emotions were to develop in Robots/AI it would be through complex programming, which isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
I would agree that emotions have a hand in creativity and imagination.
For instance, say someone was working late on a term paper and begins to fall asleep. This person might imagine a scenario where the class would have to be repeated due to the failing mark of an unfinished paper. The abstract thinking will stir emotion which will help keep this person awake.
A robot would recognize the low power level and simply plug into the wall.
Unique results in creativity and imagination don't necessarily come from emotion as much as they come from, to put it plainly, insanity:
Taking objects, ideas, scenarios, stories, and reconfiguring them, mashing them together, inverting them, and so on.
This behaviour is part chaos and random and part order, and also can presumably be replicated through complex programming.
"We are all ruled in what we do by impulses; and these impulses are so organized that our actions in general serve for our self preservation and that of the race. Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual's instinct for self preservation. At the same time, as social beings, we are moved in the relations with our fellow beings by such feelings as sympathy, pride, hate, need for power, pity and so on."
-Albert Einstein, 1950
The origin and advantages of human emotion –biologically, neurologically and evolutionary- is an undeniably longer and more complex explanation than the simplified interpretation I can give here, however, I will do my best to sum up with a few of the more amusing examples I could find by people who know more than I do.
Our emotions give us the ability to think in a certain way, while ignoring facts that might otherwise prevent us from executing a task.
Minsky makes some keen observations on love/infatuation:
"Hear our friend Charles attempt to describe his latest infatuation.
"I've just fallen in love with a wonderful person. I scarcely can think about anything else. My sweetheart is unbelievably perfect — of indescribable beauty, flawless character, and incredible intelligence. There is nothing i would not do for her."
On the surface such statements seem positive; they're all composed of superlatives. But note that there's something strange about this: most of those phrases of positive praise use syllables like "un," "less," and "in" — which show that they really are negative statements describing the person who's saying them!
Wonderful. Indescribable.
— (I can't figure out what attracts me to her.)
I scarcely can think of anything else.
— (Most of my mind has stopped working.)
Unbelievably perfect. Incredible.
— (No sensible person believes such things.)
She has a flawless character.
— (I've abandoned my critical faculties.)
There is nothing i would not do for her.
— (I've forsaken most of my usual goals.)"
Minsky's observations explain how emotions shape Ways to think by either adding or taking away mental critics. Without certain critics being shut off finding a mate would become even more of a challenge than it already is.
Also of note is how this emotional state coincides with the way popular locations for courtship include low lighting and alcohol.
Minsky is aware of, but doesn't mention norepinephrine, the hormone that produces the excitement that comes during the first states of love, because in doing so he would have to leave the structural understanding and begin a new chapter to explain the biological origins of emotion.
Humans developed emotions in order to distinguish situations and prepare ways to react to or think about what mood is demanded by or would best fit those situations.
Is this a predator? Is this a mate? Will watching Faux News make me angry?
When anger and fear shut off the critics that recognize another person as “human” we get results like the one seen in the Critical Mass video.
The amygdala perform primary roles in the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events such as these, which leads us into the debate on whether or not robots will develop this type of response.
(2) Is it not possible/probable that robotic lifeforms will also develop emotions as their complexity develops? In other words, could not emotion be a inexorable byproduct of--or necessary component of-- abstract reasoning and creativity?
I’ve already taken up enough of your time, so I will try to keep this short.
Robots/AI do not have hormones, amygdala, limbic systems and other hardware the brain uses to process emotions. Instead a series of programs and sensors are used to interpret the world logically.
How would you explain to a robot what "cool" is?
Machines have a predisposition to logic but not necessarily common sense, and because I don’t believe in the ‘ghost in the machine’ I would have to assume that if emotions were to develop in Robots/AI it would be through complex programming, which isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
I would agree that emotions have a hand in creativity and imagination.
For instance, say someone was working late on a term paper and begins to fall asleep. This person might imagine a scenario where the class would have to be repeated due to the failing mark of an unfinished paper. The abstract thinking will stir emotion which will help keep this person awake.
A robot would recognize the low power level and simply plug into the wall.
Unique results in creativity and imagination don't necessarily come from emotion as much as they come from, to put it plainly, insanity:
Taking objects, ideas, scenarios, stories, and reconfiguring them, mashing them together, inverting them, and so on.
This behaviour is part chaos and random and part order, and also can presumably be replicated through complex programming.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Locked In My Mind
"How 'bout the power to kill a yak from 200 yards away...
with mind bullets! That's telekinesis, Kyle."
-Tenacious D
Ever since I first read about presbycusis, testing myself with The Mosquito Tone Audibility Test on my birthday has become something of a tradition.
I'm not exactly worried about getting older as much as I'm worried about my mind and body decomposing while I'm still using them. An inevitable fact I like to ignore by setting these benchmarks.
The day these frequencies no longer register, I will be forced to admit to myself that I have begun to breakdown into simpler constituents.
And apparently this decline is certain become inescapable in another way at age 40, when the myelin -your brain's bandwidth according to Dr. George Bartzokis- begins to unravel and is no longer repaired as often as is should (or could) be, thus bringing us forward into the years of a mental dial-up connection.
Meanwhile, as much as I like to capriciously complain about personal decay, there are other people with real problems that overcome them in the most technologically fascinating and inspirational ways.
Neuroscientist Scott Mackler discovered, at the age of 40, he had ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease.
This did not stop him.
Despite being trapped in his body, he is able to continue to communicate and work via telekinesis (via computers). Personally, I imagine using the absolute deficiency in controlling any of my body's appendages whatsoever as an excuse to never have to work again, however this man is bloody determined.
There's a 60 minutes video here that covers just how amazing his situation has turned out.
On a sci-fi note, we're one step closer to robot bodies or uploading our consciousness into computers.
with mind bullets! That's telekinesis, Kyle."
-Tenacious D
Ever since I first read about presbycusis, testing myself with The Mosquito Tone Audibility Test on my birthday has become something of a tradition.
I'm not exactly worried about getting older as much as I'm worried about my mind and body decomposing while I'm still using them. An inevitable fact I like to ignore by setting these benchmarks.
The day these frequencies no longer register, I will be forced to admit to myself that I have begun to breakdown into simpler constituents.
And apparently this decline is certain become inescapable in another way at age 40, when the myelin -your brain's bandwidth according to Dr. George Bartzokis- begins to unravel and is no longer repaired as often as is should (or could) be, thus bringing us forward into the years of a mental dial-up connection.
Meanwhile, as much as I like to capriciously complain about personal decay, there are other people with real problems that overcome them in the most technologically fascinating and inspirational ways.
Neuroscientist Scott Mackler discovered, at the age of 40, he had ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease.
This did not stop him.
Despite being trapped in his body, he is able to continue to communicate and work via telekinesis (via computers). Personally, I imagine using the absolute deficiency in controlling any of my body's appendages whatsoever as an excuse to never have to work again, however this man is bloody determined.
There's a 60 minutes video here that covers just how amazing his situation has turned out.
On a sci-fi note, we're one step closer to robot bodies or uploading our consciousness into computers.
Points Lost for Humanity
A Man wants to marry an anime character
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Man_wants_to_marry_cartoon_character&in_article_id=380269&in_page_id=2
Proposition 8 set passed in California
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gaymarriage5-2008nov05,0,1545381.story
Young woman stoned to death by 50 men
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7708169.stm
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.ht
Proposition 8 set passed in California
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/l
Young woman stoned to death by 50 men
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/77081
Future Forecasts of the Future
"Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!"
-George Bernard Shaw
And now, here are the top ten futurist forecasts for 2009 and beyond:
http://www.wfs.org/Sept-Oct08/Nov-Dec%20FUTURIST/topTen.htm
The most frightening and dubiously obvious forecast was made by Gene Stephens in "Cybercrime in the Year 2025," where he writes, "Everything you say and do will be recorded by 2030."
Are we already seeing the beginning stages of this in social networking sites and items like digital dog tags?
There seems to be a fine line between safety and invasion of privacy.
Perhaps in the future, with "Access to electricity reaching 83% and Urbanization hitting 60% of the world by 2030," people can dispense with the literal witch hunts.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/3407882/Child-witches-of-Nigeria-seek-refuge.html
-George Bernard Shaw
And now, here are the top ten futurist forecasts for 2009 and beyond:
http://www.wfs.org/Sept-Oct08/Nov-Dec%2
The most frightening and dubiously obvious forecast was made by Gene Stephens in "Cybercrime in the Year 2025," where he writes, "Everything you say and do will be recorded by 2030."
Are we already seeing the beginning stages of this in social networking sites and items like digital dog tags?
There seems to be a fine line between safety and invasion of privacy.
Perhaps in the future, with "Access to electricity reaching 83% and Urbanization hitting 60% of the world by 2030," people can dispense with the literal witch hunts.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne
Monday, November 10, 2008
Positive Distractions
I’m frightfully good at procrastinating, and after reading an article on ‘how distractions can facilitate creative problem solving’ I feel as though I ought to employ the technique more often.
http://www.physorg.com/news142012820.html
Sometimes I use absurdly cosmic events to procrastinate or simply be lazy. Most times it happens when I’m faced with everyday chores or simple maintenance.
For instance, when it has reached approx. 2am – I’m still editing but at this point falling asleep in front of the computer– and it is clearly time to retire, I use the inevitable destruction of the Earth by the Sun (http://arxiv.org/abs/0801.4031) as an excuse to skip brushing my teeth until the morning.
Then I wake up the next day and ask myself, “Why should I continue this project if the entire galaxy will inevitably be sucked into the giant black hole at its center?”
So then I find other things to do, like go out to buy an envelope and…
“...have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know. The moral of the story is, is we're here on Earth to fart around.”
-Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
There is of course an obvious danger in too much of this sort of thinking.
http://www.physorg.com/news142012820.ht
Sometimes I use absurdly cosmic events to procrastinate or simply be lazy. Most times it happens when I’m faced with everyday chores or simple maintenance.
For instance, when it has reached approx. 2am – I’m still editing but at this point falling asleep in front of the computer– and it is clearly time to retire, I use the inevitable destruction of the Earth by the Sun (http://arxiv.org/abs/0801.4031) as an excuse to skip brushing my teeth until the morning.
Then I wake up the next day and ask myself, “Why should I continue this project if the entire galaxy will inevitably be sucked into the giant black hole at its center?”
So then I find other things to do, like go out to buy an envelope and…
“...have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know. The moral of the story is, is we're here on Earth to fart around.”
-Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
There is of course an obvious danger in too much of this sort of thinking.
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