ᛕᎥᕼᗷᗴᖇᑎᗴ丅Ꭵᑕᔕ @Kihbernetics@qoto.org

According to #HH_Pattee there are

“two meanings for #machine and two meanings for #failure”:

“By the machinery of nature we mean the failure-proof #laws that we assume underlie the predictable behavior of matter. When we find certain types of #natural events unpredictable we assume that our description or theory of these events are failures, but not the events themselves.”

On the other hand, while we assume that the #rules of arithmetic are not subject to failure, it is clear that a physical machine #designed to execute these rules may fail all too often.”

https://www.academia.edu/863887/The_role_of_instabilities_in_the_evolution_of_control_hierarchies

#LLMs, as their name suggests, are bound to the domain of #language, and are not able to #learn from other types of interaction, such as (physical) #sensation or show #emotion. They have no #agency except for answering user prompts to the best of their (large and static) #knowledge.

There is no point in debating if they have #intelligence or not until they are given the capability to ask #questions (generate their own prompts) that may mean they can show “#curiosity” about other aspects of the topic at hand that is clearly aimed to update their current knowledge, which may thereupon shed some light on their “#intentions”.

Also from Stanford & Google:

#AI Index Report 2023

https://aiindex.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/HAI_AI-Index-Report_2023.pdf

#Language and #Math are arbitrary mutually agreed constructs used for #communication.

Different constructs can be used to describe the same #reality.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-number-system-invented-by-inuit-schoolchildren-will-make-its-silicon-valley-debut/

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 andcompetencies 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