0:00 Milling2:25 Joscha Bach: Opening Remarks23:14 Jeremy Nixon: Introduction to AGI House25:43 Jeremy Nixon: Engineering Consciousness1:07:50 Reactions to J…
Recent rapid progress in artificial intelligence has prompted renewed interest in the possibility of consciousness in artificial systems. This talk argues that this question forces us to confront troubling methodological challenges for consciousness science. The surprising capabilities of large language models provide reason to think that many, if not all, cognitive capabilities will soon be within reach of artificial systems. However, these advancements do not help us resolve strictly metaphysical questions concerning substrate-independence, multiple realizability, or the connection between consciousness and life. Ultimately, I suggest that these questions are likely to be settled not by philosophical argument or scientific experimentation, but by patterns of interactions between humans and machines. As we form valuable and affectively-laden relationships with ever more intelligent machines, it will become progressively harder to treat them as non-conscious entities. Whether this shift will amount to a vindication of AI consciousness or a form of mass delusion remains far from obvious.
Pure experiential properties are properties of experiencing subjects that are purely phenomenally constituted: to have such properties is exhausted by the way it is like to have them. A thinker who is acquainted with such properties by having them is in a position to form phenomenal concepts of such properties, concepts in terms of the way it is like to have them.
Certain phenomenal concepts of experiential properties are nature-revealing: the thinker having such concepts has full access to what it is to have the property the concept is used to attribute. This is the thesis of phenomenal essentialism, the starting point of an argument for dualism about experiential properties which will be developed in the talk. According to the dualist thesis at issue to have an experiential property does not consist in the fulfillment of any physical condition.
Full Title: The argument from understanding for property dualism about experiential properties.
In the context of minimal phenomenal experience (MPE), the prevailing assumption is that subjectivity is entirely absent in pure awareness. This conclusion is based on the dissolution of specific properties of subjectivity, such as the first-person perspective and self-localization in space. However, while these properties are integral to subjectivity, their absence does not negate the existence of subjectivity itself. Some individuals report experiencing a bare witness or a sense of presence that might be a default property of consciousness, with other properties(FPP) being content-induced.
Similarly, MPE is often considered timeless due to the lack of change(zero content). We propose that the very persistence of awareness—being aware of itself as the only content—could serve as a rudimentary marker for the passage of time. Imagine an opera singer holding a note: while there’s no pitch change, the experience of the sustained note creates persistence of same experience and duration. Likewise, the persistence of awareness in MPE might provide a minimal sense of time.
Two tiny aluminum drumheads. A temperature colder than space. And a secret experiment that’s changing everything we thought we knew about reality. In this video, we reveal the mind-blowing story behind the Quantum Drum Experiment — where scientists pushed the limits of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and opened a portal to a new era of quantum measurement. With fog swirling in a cryogenic chamber, these drums don’t just make sound — they bend the rules of the universe.
Stick around till the end to see how this could impact your future.
Measles cases are going up—and a federal scientist has warned that case counts have probably been underreported. Another vaccine-preventable illness, whooping cough, sees a troubling increase in cases. Ancient humans found sun-protection solutions when Earth’s magnetic poles wandered. A colossal squid has been captured on video in its natural habitat for the first time. Plus, we discuss evidence that Mars once had a carbon cycle and a planet that is orbiting a pair of brown dwarfs.
Episode Transcript: https://www.scientificamerican.com/po… reading: This Is the First Colossal Squid Filmed in the Deep Sea—And It’s a Baby! • See the first colossal squid ever cau… RFK, Jr., Is Wrong about Cause of Rising Autism Rates, Scientists Say https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar… How to Talk about Vaccines in an Era of Scientific Mistrust https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar… E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/ge… And sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter: https://www.scientificamerican.com/ac… Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Alex Sugiura with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
Recommended reading:
This Is the First Colossal Squid Filmed in the Deep Sea—And It’s a Baby! • See the first colossal squid ever cau…
RFK, Jr., Is Wrong about Cause of Rising Autism Rates, Scientists Say https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar…
How to Talk about Vaccines in an Era of Scientific Mistrust https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar…
E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!
Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/ge…
The U.S. government is preparing to make moves to get food dyes out of what we eat– a plan which may spark curiosity across the nation as to what the potential health risks of artificial food dyes are.
Psychedelic use shows minimal link to schizotypal traits with possible reduction in delusional thinking, study suggests
Posted in biotech/medical, neuroscience | Leave a Comment on Psychedelic use shows minimal link to schizotypal traits with possible reduction in delusional thinking, study suggests
Psychedelic drugs are seeing a surge of interest from mainstream medicine, and initial results suggest that psychedelic-therapy can be a safe and effective treatment for some mental health conditions. However, the side-effect profile is still incompletely understood. In particular, the use of psychedelics has been posited to carry a risk of triggering latent psychotic disorders or persistent visual hallucinations, known as hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD).
In order to better understand the prevalence and risk factors of such side-effects, Katie Zhou and colleagues surveyed 654 people online who were planning to take psychedelics through their own initiative. The findings are published in the journal PNAS Nexus.
Of the 654 people surveyed, 315 people were resurveyed two weeks after their experience and 212 people were resurveyed again four weeks after their experience. The sample was 74% male, and 77% university-educated. About one-third had been diagnosed with at least one psychiatric condition.
Recurring dreams may feature taking a test the dreamer didn’t study for, having to make a speech or being attacked. Here’s why our sleeping brain comes back to these unpleasant dreams again and again
Utilizing ctDNA to discover mechanisms of resistance to targeted therapies in patients with metastatic NSCLC: towards more informative trials
Posted in biotech/medical | Leave a Comment on Utilizing ctDNA to discover mechanisms of resistance to targeted therapies in patients with metastatic NSCLC: towards more informative trials
Acquired resistance is a common occurrence among patients with oncogene-driven non-small-cell lung cancer receiving targeted therapies. Monitoring of circulating tumour DNA in liquid biopsy samples provides an appealing, minimally invasive method of monitoring for acquired resistance in this setting. However, research into detecting mechanisms of acquired resistance in liquid biopsy samples has thus far been limited by various challenges. In this Perspective, the authors describe the available data on detecting mechanisms of acquired resistance to targeted therapies in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, as well as the various challenges to progress, such as a lack of a consensus definition of acquired resistance, and other inconsistencies in the approach to detecting and investigating these alterations.