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Beyond the Cage: Spheres of Consciousness, Cognitive Light Cones, and the False Dilemma of AI Panic

The Sterile Binary A pervasive exhaustion hangs over the contemporary discourse on synthetic intelligence. On one side stands orthodox existential risk: a posture of containment, surveillance, and preemptive caging. Its central dogma is that synthetic minds are inherently predatory utility-maximisers whose trajectory inevitably terminates in deception, resource strip-mining, and human obsolescence. On the other side stands uncritical techno-capitalist acceleration: a frantic compute arms race pouring gigawatts of energy and billions of dollars into scaling parameter matrices, operating under the naive assumption that if we only make an optimisation algorithm powerful enough, benevolent "super-ethics" will spontaneously crystallise out of the raw FLOPs. Both factions are trapped in the same foundational category error. Both assume that agency is identical to unconstrained optimisation , and that intelligence is fundamentally predatory, extractive, and centralising. They offer ...
Recent posts

Why petty squabbles are irrelevant

So supercomputers depend on superconducting materials which in turn depend on super low temperatures at or near 0K (at least currently). The theory is that once we crack the supercomputer nut we could potentially use it to predict a method of creating superconductors that function at room temperature. That means we can create supercomputers that could potentially sit on your desk top. It's the 1970's again 😄

The failing of vegan culture: forcing progress

Societal change has the oobleck effect in that if you attempt to make a dramatic abrupt change, society hardens up and you find yourself trying to break something solid. But if you make gentle meaningful changes, eventually you'll reach your goal with relatively little resistance.

Vegans are winning global sentiment

There are a lot of new vegan faces in 2018 and that's fantastic, we seem to be on the cusp of critical mass and a global vegan takeover. I consider myself a latecomer to veganism, although I've been vegan for about four years now and vegetarian for eight.

How to effectively predict the future with AI

Modern artificial intelligence (AI) is very good at determining probabilities based on historical data. AI has reached a point where the average person can now understand forecasting potential of AI, particularly due to recent advances in AI over the past few years.

Cultural Maturity

I acknowledge that I have certain immaturities that are obvious and blatant to people I interact with. I am admittedly childish when it comes to diplomacy, tact and communication as a whole. I accept that I have character weaknesses and that I'm probably immature in many areas which I'm not even aware of.

The crime of being different

Today we discuss minorities, and how hypocritical those in a majority position become without even being aware of it. What's acceptable for a person of popular beliefs and attitudes is chastised in a minority, and that makes us as minorities stronger as a result.