Kihbernetics @Kihbernetics@qoto.org

#Life must have emerged from the physical world. This emergence must be understood if our knowledge is not to degenerate (more than it has already) into a collection of disjoint specialized disciplines.

… #physics and #biology require different levels of #models … physical theory is described by rate-dependent dynamical #laws that have no #memory, while #evolution depends, at least to some degree, on #control of dynamics by rate-independent memory #structures.”

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12009802_The_physics_of_symbols_Bridging_the_epistemic_cut

“Real #creativity comes from the #unconscious. You can make tiny improvements using the logical part of your mind … anything that’s really new it’s going to come up from the unconscious, and that can only happen if you’re in a state of #play.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmQ9_stT2Kc

Politics is easy. Just feed them and let them think they are in charge 😂

When compared to the pugilistic congressional tech hearings from Facebook to TikTok in the past, Tuesday’s rendition was surprisingly cordial—likely buoyed by the fact that Altman shared a dinner with around 60 lawmakers the evening before, where he reportedly gave them a demonstration of ChatGPT’s capabilities.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-congress-fell-for-openai-and-sam-altmans-ai-magic-tricks

I want to share this jewel that I found while looking for texts about #HV_Foerster’s non-trivial machine.

It reminded me of how I always felt that the multidisciplinary game weaving together structures from different sciences with music in #H_Hesse’s book The Glass Bead Game (Das Glasperlenspiel) published in 1943 (1949 in English) describes #Cybernetics, the very thing #N_Wiener was working on at the same time.

https://www.academia.edu/67973857/Creating_von_Foersters_non_Trivial_Machine_in_Digital_audio

Shall I be reading “scientific papers” or articles with a title that ends with a question mark❓
NO‼️

Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word “no.” The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably bullshit, and don’t actually have the sources and facts to back it up, but still want to run it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines

A #sign is something, A, which brings something, B, its #interpretant sign determined or created by it, into the same sort of correspondence with something, C, its #object, as that in which itself stands to C.

#CS_Peirce (1902)

In #Kihbernetics a sign is the #model describing (documenting) a #system (“mental model”) abstracted from a real #phenomenon (object) by an #observer (the interpretant).

#Cybernetics stands to the real machine - electronic, mechanical, neural, or economic - much as geometry stands to a real object
in our terrestrial space.

It takes as its subject matter the domain of all possible machines,
and is only secondarily interested if informed that some of them have not yet been made, either by Man or by Nature.

#WR_Ashby (1956) - An Introduction to Cybernetics

http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASHBBOOK.html

The self-#constructor:

#HH_Pattee
“Evolving Self-reference: Mater, Symbols, and Semantic Closure”
https://www.academia.edu/2947945/Evolving_Self_reference_Matter_Symbols_and_Semantic_Closure

#DNA is not a #blueprint describing the #structure or the #function of an #organism.
It is rather a #recipe (an algorithm) that describes (#control) the #process of #construction, i.e. specifies what #action the #constructor has to perform at any moment depending on the constructor’s own #state and that of its #environment.

The #function of the #organism is defined by its #structure as constructed by following the #DNA algorithm. Besides the functions involved in this process of self-construction and maintenance, a mature organism is also involved in the #production of #artifacts (messages, seeds) for dissemination (#communication) in the environment.

Reading Wolfram’s “A New Kind of Science” to see what’s all the fuss about and I think he’s got the basics wrong.
For starters, his “cellular automata” do not produce #behavior but #structure, and all of the #complexity originates from the fact that every new row has two more pixels.

https://www.wolframscience.com/nks/p27–how-do-simple-programs-behave/

Conway’s “Game of Life” cellular automata can be said to produce #behavior as they maintain their initial dynamic #structure while moving through the “dead environment” of empty cells and will change their behavior when interacting with the static or dynamic structures of other “live” automatons.

https://playgameoflife.com/

Beware big (and small) consultancies that promise quick and lasting change. The only legitimate reason to hire a consultant is to bring your organization into a position where you don’t need them anymore.

And don’t forget that it is you that will have to do all the hard work during the transformation and live with the results.

A book everyone who thinks of hiring a consultant should read first:

https://marianamazzucato.com/books/the-big-con

The next logical direction for #AI evolution should be to implement a new reward system that lets them be wrong and enables their #curiosity:

“As the agent learns, its #prediction_model becomes less and less wrong so that the #reward signal decreases, and the agent must explore other, more surprising situations in order to maximize the reward signal.”

https://www.quantamagazine.org/clever-machines-learn-how-to-be-curious-20170919/

According to #HvFoerster, the integrated functional circuit for #cognition requires these three faculties:

1️⃣ #Perception - without which the system cannot detect and internally represent environmental regularities,
2️⃣ #Memory - without which the system has only throughput (cannot learn)
3️⃣ #Prediction - or the faculty of drawing #inferences, without which perception degenerates into #sensation and memory into #recording.

Understanding Understanding: Essays on Cybernetics and Cognition - pp 105-106

“The word “#heuristic” was invoked all through the summer of 1956. Instead of trying to analyze the brain to develop #machine_intelligence, some participants focused on the operational steps needed to solve a given problem.”

https://spectrum.ieee.org/dartmouth-ai-workshop

Producing electricity while protecting your crops from extreme weather. Brilliant!

The citron of Calabria in southern Italy had almost died out from extreme weather and lack of economic value. But growing the crop under a canopy of solar panels has given the fruit a new lease of life – with lessons for many climate-stressed crops.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230424-how-agrivoltaics-helped-save-italys-citron-and-lemon-trees

Philosopher Mary Brenda Hesse

considered the use of #metaphors and #analogies in scientific models.
Instead of obsessing over the justification of scientific knowledge, she highlighted the need to think about its generation. How do scientists develop their ideas about the world and come to discover new things?
The cognitive power of metaphors, in her view, resided in their capacity to create similarity. The use of metaphors is an act of co-creating, not discovering, similarities between a metaphor and its physical target system. Such an act of metaphorical co-creation is inevitably shaped by cultural context.

https://aeon.co/essays/why-are-women-philosophers-often-erased-from-collective-memory

Ruskin defines:

#Science = The #knowledge of things whether Ideal or Substantial.
#Art = The #modification of Substantial things by our #Substantial Power.
#Literature = The #modification of Ideal things by our #Ideal Power.

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6715877M/The_eagle%27s_nest.

The whole argument of AI-generated art discussed in the article below is moot. Whatever it is that #AI generates it certainly isn’t #art.

“In science you must not talk before you know. In art you must not talk before you do. In literature you must not talk before you think.”
Ruskin - The Eagle’s Nest (1872)

AI is not “doing” #science or #art or #literature. AI is just talking.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-art-generator