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Category: neuroscience – Page 800

“What foundational values need to be in place for an ethical utilitronium shockwave?”

What foundational values need to be in place for an ethical utilitronium shockwave?
We discuss:
- (following on from a previous video) more on Nozick’s experience machines (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxBvNbuYud0).
- given that in each age there has been different conceptions of utopia, what would utopia be for a post-human superintelligence?
- classical utilitarian vs negative utilitarian approaches to the long term good of life in the universe.
- whether a perfect decision theory would be equal to negative utilitarianism.
- how much attention should we give to preferences in improving well-being beyond eliminating suffering?
- if one does believe in the objectivity of value should we be concerned about being damned in a local maximum of well-being?
- what is God’s utility function?

https://youtu.be/0uKNVVVdqrI #ethics #utilitarianism #futurology

Filmed inside the Melbourne Museum in Victoria, Australia.

David Pearce is interested in the use of biotechnology to abolish suffering throughout the living world: http://abolitionist.com

Continue reading “David Pearce — Foundational Values for the Future — What is God’s Utility Function?” | >

Abstract: We know that creatures like us have two separate systems for processing information, the genome and the brain. We know that the genome is digital, and we can accurately transcribe our genomes onto digital machines. We cannot transcribe our brains, and the processing of information in our brains is still a great mystery. I will be talking about real brains and real people, asking a question that will have practical consequences when we are able to answer it. I am not able to answer it now. All I can do is to examine the evidence and explain why I consider it probable that the answer will be that brains are analog.

Prof Freeman Dyson | “Are Brains Analogue or Digital?” | 19th May 2014 — Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Statutory Public Lecture of the School of Theoretical Physics, in association with the UCD School of Physics.

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What if god was literally real. Let’s just posit that instance. What if a type 7 civilization existed. What if the realm of impossibility of dream existed. I think if a realm of impossibility existed it have literal physics. This book talks about this real instance of possible impossibility. What if water into wine literally happened it would have a literal physics. In the realm of science of the impossible there could have a literal scientific proof that a chimp with god like powers did exist that essentially maybe it prove of a being that has impossible abilities. Some even posit that god is an alien perhaps. That the universe is a sandbox for us to live much like a video game is. That the vast expansion of this bubble universe with its realm of physics that has near endless possibilities stands to reason of a creator that has made those to be. That it is not just farming we do on earth but rather something different that even in a grain of sand there is infinite possibilities because essentially it was manufactured by a god like being that physically existed. This could rewrite the history books even proving that god does exist as an actual being of immense abundance and power. M theory would solve the questions we all hold dear that the secrets of the universe may be hidden in m theory.

Setting aside the pervasive material bias of science and lifting the obscuring fog of religious sectarianism reveals a surprisingly clear unity of science and religion. The explanations of transcendent phenomena given by saints, sages, and near-death experiencers—miracles, immortality, heaven, God, and transcendent awareness—are fully congruent with scientific discoveries in the fields of relativity, quantum physics, medicine, M-theory, neuroscience, and quantum biology.

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Our brain has 86 billion neurons connected by 3 million kilometers of nerve fibers and The Human Brain Project is mapping it all. One of the key applications is neuromorphic computing — computers inspired by brain architecture that may one day be able to learn as we do.

#BloombergGiantLeap #Science #Technology

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A fascinating new study from scientists at UC Berkeley has homed in on exactly which phase of sleep seems to best keep anxiety levels in check. The research both affirms a causal association between sleep and anxiety, and suggests sleep deprivation lowers activity in the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that helps regulate our emotions.

For well over a century scientists have observed a correlation between sleep disruption and mood disorders such as anxiety and depression. Only in the last few years have clear neural mechanisms been discovered helping us understand exactly what our brains are doing when we are asleep, and how physiologically disruptive sleep deprivation can be.

A new study from UC Berkeley has focused more specifically on how sleep can modulate a person’s anxiety levels. Using a number of experimental measures, including polysomnography and functional MRI, the research first found that just one night of sleep deprivation resulted in 50 percent of the study subjects reporting anxiety levels the next day equal to those detected in subjects with clinically diagnosed anxiety disorders.

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