Category: Uncategorized

LESS THAN A BLINK. “A given thought can be generated and acted on in less than 150 ms.” https://lnkd.in/dPVKn74 View in LinkedIn

NEAR COMMONALITY. “Protoplasm is the physical basis of life, the common substance shared by all forms of life — the substance in which all reactions of a living body have their origin.” (NB: Not true of viruses). https://lnkd.in/dVZVqWg View in LinkedIn

MACHINE CONSCIOUSNESS. “The main views expressed by the participants appear to be: human-level machine intelligence, whether due to a de novo AGI or biologically inspired/emulated systems, has a macroscopic probability to occurring mid-century. This development is more likely to occur from a large organisation than as a smaller project. The consequences might be potentially catastrophic, but there is great disagreement and uncertainty about this – radically positive outcomes are also possible.” https://lnkd.in/dZ99z7V View in LinkedIn

NATURE OF THOUGHT. “The human brain is composed of about 100 billion nerve cells (neurons) interconnected by trillions of connections, called synapses. On average, each connection transmits about one signal per second. Some specialized connections send up to 1,000 signals per second. “Somehow… that’s producing thought." https://lnkd.in/dufBtMc View in LinkedIn

NATURE OF MIND. “Baum argues that the structure and nature of thought, meaning, sensation, and consciousness therefore arise naturally from the evolution of programs that exploit the compact structure of the world.” https://lnkd.in/dBwDZAr View in LinkedIn

BAUM BACKGROUND. “Eric B. Baum has held positions at the University of California at Berkeley, Caltech, MIT, Princeton, and the NEC Research Institute. He is currently developing algorithms based on Machine Learning and Bayesian Reasoning to found a hedge fund.” https://lnkd.in/dBwDZAr View in LinkedIn

SEMANTICS BEHIND THE MIND. “The mind understands by exploiting semantics, or meaning, for the purposes of computation; constraints are built in so that although there are myriad possibilities, only a few make sense. Evolution discovered corresponding subroutines or shortcuts to speed up its processes and to construct creatures whose survival depends on making the right choice quickly.” https://lnkd.in/dBwDZAr View in LinkedIn

0 View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first of two weekends on the subject of protoplasm. Although its fine structure has been elucidated further, it still remains a rather mysterious substance, backed by a biological lore that is almost mystical, pure food for the Vitalists. It is hard not to have sympathy with Vitalists when contemplating this marvelous stuff, by whose fine structure proximate chemistry in vitro in buffered solutions with pure reagents would not occur. View in LinkedIn

SLIME MOLD PULSES. “Physarum polycephalum. “Contraction occurs when the fibrils are formed, and it ends when the fibrils dissociate.” https://lnkd.in/dNsAwef View in LinkedIn