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Connectivity of Language Areas Unique in the Human Brain

Summary: Researchers shed new light on how the human brain evolved to be language-ready. Compared to the brains of chimps, the patterns of connections of language areas in the human brain expanded more than was previously thought.

Source: Radboud University.

Neuroscientists have gained new insight into how our brain evolved into a language-ready brain. Compared to chimpanzee brains, the pattern of connections of language areas in our brain has expanded more than previously thought.

Mind and Machine: The Future of Thinking

Creative thought is surely among our most precious and mysterious capabilities. But can powerful computers rival the human brain? As thinking, remembering and innovating become increasingly interwoven with technological advances, what are we capable of? What do we lose? Join Luciano Floridi, John Donoghue, Gary Small and Rosalind Picard for a thought-provoking program about thinking.

This program is part of The Big Idea Series, made possible with support from the John Templeton Foundation.

The World Science Festival gathers great minds in science and the arts to produce live and digital content that allows a broad general audience to engage with scientific discoveries. Our mission is to cultivate a general public informed by science, inspired by its wonder, convinced of its value, and prepared to engage with its implications for the future.

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Original Program Date: June 4, 2010
MODERATOR: John Hockenberry.
PARTICIPANTS: Luciano Floridi, Gary Small, Rosalind Picard, John Donoghue.

John Hockenberry Introduction 00:00

Yann LeCun’s vision for creating autonomous machines

In the midst of the heated debate about AI sentience, conscious machines and artificial general intelligence, Yann LeCun, Chief AI Scientist at Meta, published a blueprint for creating “autonomous machine intelligence.”

LeCun has compiled his ideas in a paper that draws inspiration from progress in machine learning, robotics, neuroscience and cognitive science. He lays out a roadmap for creating AI that can model and understand the world, reason and plan to do tasks on different timescales.

While the paper is not a scholarly document, it provides a very interesting framework for thinking about the different pieces needed to replicate animal and human intelligence. It also shows how the mindset of LeCun, an award-winning pioneer of deep learning, has changed and why he thinks current approaches to AI will not get us to human-level AI.

Brainwashing & Mind Control

The CCP


Use my link http://www.audible.com/isaac or text “ISAAC” to 500–500 to get a free book including a copy of George Orwell’s “1984” and a 30-day free trial of Audible.
We often worry about the possibility of a civilization developing methods of brainwashing to indoctrinate its population and turning into a totalitarian dictatorship. We will examine both existing and possible future methods and technologies for mind control, such as neuro-hacking and genetic programming, as well as the possible defenses against such brainwashing or conditioning and implications it has for civilization.

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Listen or Download the audio of this episode from Soundcloud: Episode’s Audio-only version:

Consciousness and Identity

A look at how emerging concepts in science & technology could disrupt our most our understandings of identity, consciousness, and free will. This is the 5th episode of the Existential Crisis series which looks at concepts like Transhumanism, Life Extension, the Simulation Hypothesis, the Doomsday Argument, and the Anthropic Principle.

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Listen or Download the audio of this episode from Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/isaac-arthur-148927746/ec05-consciousness-and-identity.

Cover Art by Jakub Grygier:
https://www.artstation.com/artist/jakub_grygier

Boltzmann Brains & the Anthropic Principle

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We continue our discussion of the Boltzmann Brain — a hypothetical randomly assembled mind rather than an evolved one — by looking at the Anthropic Principle and the Fine-Tuned Universe Theory, alternative ways of viewing the probability of our existence than the classic Copernican Principle.
Make sure to catch Part 1 of the discussion at Up an Atom:

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Credits:
Boltzmann Brains, Part 2: The Anthropic Principle.
Episode 195b, Season 5 E30b.

Written by:

‘Cognitive Immobility’ — When You’re Mentally Trapped in a Place From Your Past

Summary: Cognitive immobility is a form of mental entrapment that leads to conscious or unconscious efforts to recreate past instances in familiar locations.

Source: The Conversation.

If you have moved from one country to another, you may have left something behind – be it a relationship, a home, a feeling of safety or a sense of belonging. Because of this, you will continually reconstruct mental simulations of scenes, smells, sounds and sights from those places – sometimes causing stressful feelings and anxiety.

How your brain’s executive function works — and how to improve it | Sabine Doebel

You use your brain’s executive function every day — it’s how you do things like pay attention, plan ahead and control impulses. Can you improve it to change for the better? With highlights from her research on child development, cognitive scientist Sabine Doebel explores the factors that affect executive function — and how you can use it to break bad habits and achieve your goals.

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Lithocholic Acid: A Gut Bacterial Metabolite That Extends Lifespan

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Papers referenced in the video:
Metagenomic and metabolomic remodeling in nonagenarians and centenarians and its association with genetic and socioeconomic factors.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-022-00193-0

Methionine Restriction Extends Lifespan in Progeroid Mice and Alters Lipid and Bile Acid Metabolism.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30157432/

Lifespan extension and delayed immune and collagen aging in mutant mice with defects in growth hormone production.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11371619/

Alterations in xenobiotic metabolism in the long-lived Little mice.

Joscha Bach, Synthetic Intelligence

DigitalFUTURES DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM

AI, NEUROSCIENCE + ARCHITECTURE

Joscha Bach, Synthetic Intelligence.

13 February 2022, 10.00 am EST; 4.00 pm CET; 11.00 pm China.

Joscha Bach is an AI researcher and one of the world’s leading authorities on neuroscience and AI. A popular figure within debates about AI, he is the author of the book, Synthetic Intelligence, has given a TED talk and has been interviewed by Lex Fridman. Bach is interested primarily in the question of whether AI can offer us insights into the workings of the human mind. He joins us for our series on the new theory of intelligence emerging at the intersection of AI, neuroscience and architecture.

Live-stream link: https://youtube.com/digitalfuturesworld/live