Meditations of the Machine

Yesterday, the New York Times published an interesting piece on the artificial intelligence ethics conference organized by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. The meeting was held in February at the Asilomar Conference Grounds on Monterey Bay in California.

The group of scientists addressed the ethical implications of creating autonomous intelligent robots. (The article cites several examples that already exist, from predator drones to computer viruses. It links to another NYT article from June 2009 on the development of robots that can find power sources and recharge themselves.)

The interesting thing about this article is how it shows once-skeptical scientists coming to the conclusion that the public needs to be aware of the increasingly important role AI will play in our lives and to reckon with the possibility of a coming Singularity. (The author also notes that some futurists’ writings on the Singularity have become nigh religious, as if it were the Rapture.)

The article links to an overview on the “AAAI Presidential Panel on Long-Term AI Futures.” Be sure to check out the AI Topics page at AAAI’s Web site as well.

Filed by webmaster at 11:55 am under Future of Human Consciousness, Robots
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I have long been interested in linguistics, philosophy of mind, and spirituality, but in the past few years I have become particularly intrigued by how they pertain to the pursuit of artificial intelligence.

Another of my long-time interests is alchemy. The study of what it means to be human and the attempt to build machines more like us ultimately come together in the hypothesis that spirit is an epiphenomenon of matter.

I am starting this blog as a way to organize and store research for two of my writing projects. The first, tentatively titled The Meditations of the Machine, is a fictional critique of Descartes’s mind-body problem. The second is a nonfiction book on the future of human consciousness in the age of AI, which will provide an overview of literature on philosophy of mind, AI, and robotics, and then attempt to fill the gaps that other authors have left between mind and spirit, carbon and silicon.

Despite its title, Ray Kurzweil’s Age of Spiritual Machines never discusses the notion of a robo sapiens soul as overtly as one would like. I hope to cast some more light on the matter on this blog and in my two projects.

Filed by webmaster at 9:03 pm under Future of Human Consciousness
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