There are plenty of studies of gossip as a social phenomenon, and there are computer science models of gossiping that allow for information distribution in system. There are even gossip learning systems that compete with or constitute alternatives to federated learning models. But here is a question I have not found any serious discussion about… Continue reading Gossiping about AI (Man / Machine XII)
Category: The man / machine series
Digital legal persons? Fragments (Man / Machine XI and Identity / Privacy III)
The following are notes ahead of a panel discussion this afternoon, where we will discuss the need for a legal structure for digital persons in the wake of the general discussion of artificial intelligence. The idea of a digital assistant seems to suggest a world in which we will see new legal actors. These actors will buy,… Continue reading Digital legal persons? Fragments (Man / Machine XI and Identity / Privacy III)
The free will to make slightly worse choices ( Man / Machine XI)
In his chapter on intelectronics, his word for what most closely resembles artificial intelligence, Stanislaw Lem suggests an insidious way in which the machine could take over. It would not be, he says, because it wants to terrorize us, but more likely because it will try to be helpful. Lem develops the idea of the… Continue reading The free will to make slightly worse choices ( Man / Machine XI)
Stanislaw Lem, Herbert Simon and artificial intelligence as broad social technology project (Man / Machine X)
Why do we develop artificial intelligence? Is it merely because of an almost faustian curiosity? Is it because of an innate megalomania that suggests that we could, if we want to, become gods? The debate today is ripe with examples of risks and dangers, but the argument for the development of this technology is curiously… Continue reading Stanislaw Lem, Herbert Simon and artificial intelligence as broad social technology project (Man / Machine X)
Artificial selves and artificial moods (Man / Machine IX)
Philosopher Galen Strawson challenges the idea that we have a cohesive, narrative self that lives in a structurally robust setting, and suggests that for many, the self will be episodic at best and that there is no real experience of self at all. The discussion of the self - from a stream of moments to… Continue reading Artificial selves and artificial moods (Man / Machine IX)
My dying machine (Man / Machine VIII)
Our view of death is probably key to exploring our view of the relationship between man and machine. Is death a defect, a disease to be cured or is it a key component in our consciousness and a key feature in nature’s design of intelligence? It is in one sense a hopeless question, since we… Continue reading My dying machine (Man / Machine VIII)
Consciousness as – mistake? (Man / Machine VII)
In the remarkable work A Conspiracy against Humanity, horror writer Thomas Ligotti argues that consciousness is a curse that captures mankind in eternal horror. This world, and our consciousness of it, is an unequivocal evil, and the only possible set of responses to this state of affairs is to snuff it out. Ligotti’s writings underpin… Continue reading Consciousness as – mistake? (Man / Machine VII)
Simone Weil’s principles for automation (Man / Machine VI)
Philosopher and writer Simone Weil laid out a few principles on automation in her fascinating and often difficult book Need for Roots. Her view as positive, and she noted that among workers in factories the happiest ones seemed to be the ones that worked with machines. She had strict views on the design of these… Continue reading Simone Weil’s principles for automation (Man / Machine VI)
Justice, markets, dance – on computational and biological time (Man / Machine V)
Are there social institutions that work better if they are biologically bounded? What would this even mean? Here is what I am thinking about: what if, say, a market is a great way of discovering knowledge, coordinating prices and solving complex problems - but only if it consists solely of human beings and is conducted… Continue reading Justice, markets, dance – on computational and biological time (Man / Machine V)
A note on the ethics of entropy (Man / Machine IV)
In a comment on Luciano Floridi’s The Ethics of Information Martin Falment Fultot writes (Philosophy and Computers Spring 2016 Vol 15 no 2): “Another difficulty for Floridi’s theory of information as constituting the fundamental value comes from the sheer existence of the unilateral arrow of thermodynamic processes. The second law of thermodynamics implies that when… Continue reading A note on the ethics of entropy (Man / Machine IV)