ᛕᎥᕼᗷᗴᖇᑎᗴ丅Ꭵᑕᔕ @Kihbernetics@qoto.org

>In this paper, we introduce generative agents - computational software agents that simulate believable human behavior.
Generative agents wake up, cook breakfast, and head to work; artists paint, while authors write; they form opinions, notice each other, and initiate conversations; they remember and reflect on days past as they plan the next day.

Except for the fact that all those activities should been in parentesis (they don't really "cook breakfast", "paint" or "write") an interesting study of #emergent #behavior based solely on #language.

Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2304.03442v1.pdf

>Behaviour science, evolutionary developmental #biology and the field of #machine #intelligence all seek to understand the scaling of biological #cognition: what enables individual cells to integrate their activities to result in the #emergence of a novel, higher-level intelligence with large-scale #goals and*competencies that belong to it and not to its parts*?

**The scaling of goals from cellular to anatomical #homeostasis: an #evolutionary #simulation, experiment and analysis**

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsfs.2022.0072

>"The American elite thought that Asians, when they became middle-class, would then be like them, and are disappointed when they are not."

https://www.noemamag.com/refreshing-western-liberalism/

This is actually not true. Asian #elite is very similar to the American or any other of the global world 1% elites.

All #elite regardless of its origin: #hereditary, #economic or #political has these two things in common:
1⃣ They want to preserve the elitist position for themselves and their families, and
2⃣ They really don't care about anything else.

Just discovered there is an interesting etymological link between the words #Stance and #System by which a ***system*** may be defined as "*having the same stance*" or "*standing together*"

***Stance***
>"comes from the Italian "*stanza*" which means stopping place (*like a room within the house*). Your stance is something that's not likely to change. You have stopped there, your decision is made. You're done."

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/stance

Origin:
>***stā-***, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to stand, set down, make or be firm," with derivatives meaning "place or thing that is standing."

e.g. Afghanistan - the place of the Afghani peoples, and in

>Greek ***histēmi*** "put, place, cause to stand; weigh,"

https://www.etymonline.com/word/stance

***System***

>Greek ***systema*** "organized whole, a whole compounded of parts," from stem of *synistanai* "to place together, organize, form in order," from syn- "together" (see syn-) + root of histanai "cause to stand," from PIE root *sta- "to stand, make or be firm."

https://www.etymonline.com/word/system

The #Rythm of #Life is in the #Recursion process where #Information is generated when:
>"our rhythmic #expectations are violated, (*and*) our brains behave in a different manner because of our inherent (*innate*) internal sense of rhythm."

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-extraordinary-ways-rhythm-shapes-our-lives/

#Learning is #Playing

>“If you’re not having a good time, you’re really not learning”
Really what kids need to learn, they told us, are the “***6 C’s***”: #collaboration, #communication, #content, #critical_thinking, #creative_innovation, and #confidence. Play and the arts, based on their research, build the 6 C’s

https://nautil.us/to-supercharge-learning-look-to-play-292946/

The main difference between "man-made" machines and other simple physical #structures (#products) and #autonomous, living #systems is in the way they are "produced".

Machines are #built from the #outside by an #allopoietic process similar to #sedimentation of placing layer upon layer of "things" and connecting them to "inform" a unified single structure.

Organisms, on the other side, are single unified and integrated entities from the moment of their inception, and all their "components" #grow from the #inside out in parallel and at the same time in a closed circular #autopoietic process.

Another one in a series of Noema articles promoting the return to ancient civilizations as a recipe for a brighter (more democratic?) future. If they were so great I wonder why they all fell for Western #liberalism. This one at least correctly identifies #civilization as means of #colonization.

> #Civilization began with the idea that the “*civilized*” had to confront the “*barbaric*.” ***Men of vision*** set out to find meaning in life beyond their own borders. They ranged from prophets and teachers who inspired those with wealth and power to spread their message to everyone. ***Their vision could help a powerful state shape a borderless worldview and define the values of a new civilization***.

https://www.noemamag.com/modernizing-ancient-civilizations-for-todays-planetary-challenges/

In this propaganda article "#civilization" is used as a synonym for #religion. Chinese ethnicity is not necessary as long as you

>"use the inherited resources, such as Confucian classics, to fashion your practices and thoughts" ...

To what end? Confront and "civilize" the barbaric liberals?

https://www.noemamag.com/a-non-liberal-foundation-for-robust-democracy

Identity #politics does not care about your personal #identity and #uniqueness.

>"#Identity_politics, which derives often from civilizational and cultural factors, remains opposed to #liberalism. Bruno (Maçães) says “States might have a territory and a people, but their center of gravity lies in the way of life embodied in the state."

https://www.noemamag.com/civilization-states-are-profoundly-illiberal

A rare short and clearheaded analysis of the **real** risks associated with the use of #AI tools in contrast and response to the general overwhelming "doomsday" hype such as that presented in the recent *6 months moratorium* letter.

https://aisnakeoil.substack.com/p/a-misleading-open-letter-about-sci

I wonder if those two are concerned at all with what happened with the last emperors and czars they are trying to emulate. 😀

https://www.noemamag.com/reviving-the-realm-of-czars-and-emperors/

>"As Chang proclaimed: “Globalization is almost dead. Free trade is almost dead. And a lot of people still wish they would come back, but I really don’t think they will be back for a while.” "

With the world becoming more and more of a "global village" where people, capital, and ideas move freely and instantaneously there is no turning back on #globalization.

People are just becoming more aware of the fact that it is not very clever to have all of your eggs put in one basket, particularly if that basket is far away from your immediate reach.

What is happening now is not #deglobalization, it is #diversification.

https://www.noemamag.com/the-cost-of-deglobalization/

I think Maturana may have "jumped the gun" here by succumbing to the cybernetic #control vs. #controlled type of thinking and using a gun (a mere passive #product or #structure) as a metaphor for an active, living #system.

In my mind, the notion of ***external control*** so pervasive in #cybernetics does not fit well with the notions of #autopoiesis and #constructivism.

Unlike a (living) system, the gun has no other #choice but to react to the trigger, except, as Maturana notes, in case of malfunction (which is not equivalent to choice).

If #AI by some chance gets in a position with the power to "wipe out" humanity, it will be not because of its superior intelligence but because of humanity itself.

The truth is that intelligence neither craves power nor it is a precondition to raise into a position of power. Quite the opposite.

Some wise words from John Dewey about the difference between #Intelligence and #Power written back in 1934.

https://newrepublic.com/article/100340/intelligence-and-power

Humberto #Maturana Romesin on ***structural determinism***
*Our Genome Does Not Determine Us*
Presentation made at the Remaining Human Forum
Vancouver, B.C., May 22, 2001
https://asc-cybernetics.org/2001/RH-Maturana.htm

1943 - The year when it all started:
#Cybernetics, #Computationalism, #ANN
From: *Brains, Machines, and Mathematics*
by: *Michael A. Arbib*

Didn't know Google can also do translations:
https://www.google.com/search?q=translate+cybernetics+greek

> Unlike the Cartesian argument that living beings are like man-made machines, Kant was the first author who defended the view that organisms are deeply different from machines because their parts and activities are non-separable, and the functions of these parts are not externally imposed, but rather intrinsically determined.

*Moreno & Mossio*
Biological Autonomy - A Philosophical and Theoretical Enquiry

They might **behave** (function) similarly to machines, but the real difference is how they are **produced** and maintained.

Control in #Cybernetics always has to come from the outside or is exerted, not internally onto the elements that make the system but onto something else outside of the "control" system.

Even such brilliant thinkers as #FJ_Varela, one of the "fathers" of #autopoiesis could not escape this profoundly ingrained "cybernetic" assumption:

>"#Autonomy means, literally, self-law. To see what this entails, it is easier to contrast it with its mirror image, #allonomy or **external law**. This is, of course, what we call #control. These two images, autonomy and control, do a continuous dance."

**Francisco J. Varela** - *Principles Of Biological Autonomy*

http://mechanism.ucsd.edu/teaching/f17/phil204A/readings/Varela%201979%20Principles%20of%20Biological%20Autonomy.part1.pdf