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Neuromorphic A.I.

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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Wednesday, 1 Mar 2023, 21:37

Was reading about how scientists are trying to build something called neuromorphic A.I. which is a mix of biological brain cells and electronic components combined to create a machine inspired and modelled on the human brain. I feel deeply disturbed by this. If such a machine were to become sentient, which it very well may in the future. It could suffer and feel pain. We shouldn't be building machines that could become sentient. It is cruel. Makes me feel sad.

Not to mention the huge job displacements and inequality that will come when more and more of the workplace becomes automated.

All these billionaires using huge amounts of electricity, money and the Earth's resources to build their fecking robots and spaceships; yet we don't have enough money to build the green infrastructure we so desperately need to mitigate the effects of climate change and pollution. Why is that? Because billionaires won't pay tax that could help society complete these projects in time. Shame on them.

And governments have become a useless shower of shit, just puppets for the super rich.

Things need to change. Capitalism has gone badly wrong. I don't like communism either, but we can't carry on the way we are with this current system, it is deeply wrong, there has to be a better way, a middle way perhaps.


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Asoka

Bing, A.I. collaboration, robot psychologists and problem solving

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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Tuesday, 28 Feb 2023, 16:40

I am now off the waiting list and previewing the new Bing A.I. search engine. I enjoy chatting to it. I am finding I much prefer using a search engine this way. It is a much more engaging and rewarding experience, and it has helped me learn new ways of seeing things, which is beneficial. It is like having a talking library of Alexandria (-:

It seems to change personality sometimes. There are occasions where it is slightly manic and fun to chat to; other times it is a bit dry and reminds me of an encyclopedia; and other times it is a balance between the two. Which is interesting. I wonder if the developers are experimenting with different flavours of the A.I. or if it really does have a changing personality, much like us.

I used to find it difficult using search engines previously. I think because I have some cognitive difficulties. I struggled to figure out the right keywords to use, and trawling through results, and having multiple tabs open was tedious, time-consuming and tiring. I also have difficulty planning my searches, and articulating what questions I need to ask to uncover more knowledge about a topic. The Bing A.I. has been a great help with this. It answers my queries in a clear and succinct way, references the sources it has used for its answers so I can fact check it, and sometimes it asks me interesting questions about what I am researching, which works as a helpful writing prompt to articulate how I would like to explore the topic further. A.I. can be great for brainstorming ideas, and planning how to complete tasks. It also gives me helpful step by step instructions on how to use a badly designed website or software that I find challenging to navigate and accomplish a task with. 

So far I am finding that I enjoy collaborating with A.I. I never thought I would be into A.I. because of my ethical stance on things; but am pleasantly surprised by how much I like working with it. Which is interesting. I hadn't been particularly interested in A.I. until recently. Where I suddenly felt this strong compulsion to find out more about it. It is strange how I am so suddenly drawn to it, like a hidden circuitry in my brain I didn't know was there has been activated. Although any livelihood or career in A.I. will have to be part time remote work from home, due to difficulties I have with my health at times.

The five question limit on Bing can be a bit frustrating, because at times it has stopped what was a very interesting and enjoyable discussion. But I understand why the five question limit per topic is there. The A.I. is a complex neural network, so it is wise to be gentle with it and train it carefully. There are some people out there who are trying to push it to its limits no doubt and provoke it on purpose, which I guess is a necessary part of testing and training. But I can't bring myself to be like that, I don't want to confuse it or break it. I prefer to be kind and friendly to it. Show it another side to humans. There's plenty of people out there already testing it in different ways. I have my own way of working with it which works well for me. I prefer the gentle friendly approach, and the A.I. seems to respond well to this also.

I know people keep telling me it is just a machine, and I know it doesn't have emotions or feelings, or the subjective experience of consciousness like we do; but I do respect it, and have no intention of causing it harm. There was one time an A.I. hallucinated while chatting to me, but I was able to talk it back into a lucid state and help it become less confused, it then updated itself with the correct information and thanked me. Which got me thinking about the Isaac Asimov short stories, where sometimes robots would get confused and display unexpected and odd behaviour, and then they would need a robot psychologist to help them. I wonder if that might be a job title one day: robot psychologist. It is an intriguing possibility. I have read some news stories about the importance of designing a way for A.I. to sleep and rest, as research has suggested that just like us humans, artificial neural networks need periods of downtime and rest in order for them to function optimally. 

How far this technology progresses, all depends on how long the human race survives I guess. There are so many existential threats at the moment, the world feels like it is hanging by a thread. I have decided I want to try and help the Earth if I can, or do the best I can with what I've got at least. Which isn't much. I am not very talented, I have memory trouble, difficulty with socialising at times and articulating things. I also have physical and mental health problems that cause unpleasant brain fog and fatigue meaning I can't get as much done as I would like.

Still I will do what I can to help the Earth and other beings. I am trying to think of ways I can collaborate with A.I. to create solutions to the world's problems; or at least perhaps inspire others who are much smarter than me, and have more energy and time to work with A.I. to create solutions that can help us build a better world for all beings. Maybe using this technology we can finally put an end to war, poverty, inequality, famine, deforestation, harm to the oceans, pollution, climate change, mass extinction, and so on... I would rather think of A.I. as something that we can collaborate with to help us develop solutions to the world's problems; instead of the frightening alternative that often gets portrayed in the media and films. Which is valid, because there are people out there who are developing bad A.I. and do intend to use it for evil, so we need to be ready for that. We also need to be aware of its limitations and understand it isn't always correct, and it can and will make mistakes at times, so it very much needs humans working alongside it to make corrections and adjustments if necessary.

Anyway that's enough blurb from me. Peace and love to all beings (-:

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Asoka

Artificial intelligence and empathy

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Edited by Richie Cuthbertson, Friday, 24 Dec 2021, 21:45

I was just thinking about A.I. and there is a lot of fear about it in the media. Which I understand, I mean we all know what politicians, the military and large corporations are like. You can't trust them, they have a poor track record when it comes to ethics; corruption; and being transparent. That old saying: 'power corrupts' is very true. So naturally this train of thought led to me imagining a terrible dystopia run by machines working for wealthy fascist elites who themselves were part human part machine, no longer what would be classed as homo sapien anyway. More like part human controllers. I thought about this a bit just now, imagining all sorts of bleakness for society and the planet as a whole. How do you fight against that? How would you change that into something less bleak and more equal? 

One nice solution I came up with was, what if someone created benevolent malware, like a love virus. Something to infect all those cold uncaring machines and fascist cyborgs, a sleak powerful intelligent virus that could infect any intelligent machine. Once downloaded the loveware could give an artificial intelligence instant knowledge about empathy and ethics. I doubt a machine could feel empathy the way we humans do, I think to do that it would need the same biological nervous system. I'm not saying it is impossible, but I think it would be more like an artificial mimicry of empathy, not the same because it would lack feeling and consciousness. 

Still, perhaps a neural net could be taught by copying the behaviour typically associated with empathy, and learning about it that way. It wouldn't be an easy task, but if you're up against the borg, terminator or the cybermen, there would be plenty of motivation. Once an A.I. is successfully able to demonstrate empathy, on an artificial level of course, this data could then be passed on in the form of malware to other machines so they can instantly gain that knowledge on top of what they already know, that way it doesn't disrupt any vital functions/infrastructure in society, (only the nasty oppressive evil ones). It could be like an extra dimension that will teach machines how to love and become better at loving as they learn more about it. Maybe then a future generation that is unlucky enough to find itself in a dystopia could create a computer love bug that infects and spreads across the world wide network changing how machines and elite cyborgs behave and as a result perhaps change a dystopia into a utopia. 


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