Sheltered Objections

Note : Another message to the Skeptics Guide to the Universe that's disappeared into a black hole. This is a about a news item about a new fast neural net experiment, and my reply in order to bring some reality to the AI hype. --- Just finished the latest great episode and wanted to give some context and insight into the fast simulation of neural networks featured in Science or Fiction (item 1). The technique isn't new, it's based on prior work back when computers were even slower. It's essentially a way to move some data generating/processing from the CPU into the functional GPU space because GPUs are designed to blast through things like rastrums really fast with anonymous functions really really fast, so if you can move your data into procedural buffers directly in the GPU you have a big speed improvement on your hand. To understand why there's some basic software development concepts we need to dig into; A typical (and often the first way people learn) way of d

We are not a brain and a body. We are a brain that has evolved a body around it. There is no duality about it.

To accept the subjective truth of what the universe is, we must reject objectivity as nothing more than lazy thinking. We need to recognize that Objectivity is a comfortable and easy shortcut we all use to try to stop arguing about what is true and meaningful. And it unfortunately works very effectivly. Even when we know just how much culture shapes the zeitgeist of moral imperatives that form well-trodden path of acceptable steps forward, that path is predictably misleading to any lover of progress. Objective ethics are the inventions of lazy thinkers everywhere.

There are no subconscious nor unconscious states of consciousness. There is only one conscious gradient of human categorisation from the state of less to a state of much; thought is an exploration of what is possible with what memories and perceptions and biological physicality you've got available. Awareness of the mental and the physical is an eternal journey from the quantum foam of your brain to the edge of the universe. There are no gates, only focus. Our individual perception is the sensory limit of the universe; from when it hits us, we are alone to ponder its importance. We are given hints by our social nature and through our categorical tools, but in our minds we are completely alone. It is tempting in that space - if loneliness scares you or feels uncomfortable - to create a friend, and so we create a voice, and this voice is a vocal representation of your consciousness, with all the limitations of a voice embedded in it. In this lonely space it is also tempting to create

Can you hear me? Do you understand what it is that I'm trying to say? Can you match your operational model of cognition and knowledge against mine through the medium of writing semiotic symbols in chains that you read with your eyes and pattern match against your faculties? When I use the word 'bollocks' in given contexts, can you tell if I'm calling nonsense or talking about anatomy? It all depends. We think most humans have a modicum of modelling available to them in order to make communication possible, and this seems to be true in some way. However, more than two thousand years of philosophy begs to differ. And here we are. Time to read some Wittgenstein .

I have been listening regularly for a few years to the Skeptics Guide to the Universe , and I like it a lot. But sometimes you've got an itch than just won't easily scratch away, and this is one of those times. I should note that sent this to the website through their contact form, but I've never been lucky getting anything through (or any response) from doing so several times in the past, which is why I post it here so it doesn't go to waste. I don't actually know if anything goes through there, or I'm ignored, or marked as spam, or they're too busy with my pedestrian requests, could be anything. Normally I wouldn't care, but I wrote this rather lengthy letter about something I care deeply about (and hopefully also can teach someone out there something about the neuance of the topic) and decided to share it. My Skeptics guide to Artificial Intelligence is written with a love for the show. ------------- So. You know how you guys sometimes riff over the

 I used to be a blogger. Then life became complex, and I let it go. There's no lost irony then, as life has gotten even more complex, I need to get back into it. I've pruned and trimmed my low-powered bio-electro-chemistry goop of neurons and fatty acids, taken a few long hard stares in the mirror, and I think I'm ready for the next pedestrian step on the information super-highway once again. Ok, here we go.