[extropy-chat] Future Consciousness through AGI + Neural Macrosensing

Wed May 17 22:09:06 UTC 2006

Natasha Vita-More <natasha at natasha.cc> wrote:    Abstract:

The acquisition of wisdom has been recognized as one of the noblest goals of humanity. (Aristotle, Buddha)  People aspire to this state of sapience by relying upon religious, spiritual, and meditative practices separately, or combining them as models for defining moral codes and heightened awareness.  In today's era of blending technology with human biology, speculation and exploratory engineering are bringing about alternative methods for helping us understand ourselves and our desire to interconnect with others.  Is it possible to combine technologies to assist our brain in acquiring wisdom?

  >I'm not a genius but I would have to agree that I feel I have become wiser by 
  >educating myself via the accesible information of the internet and my past 
  >experiences.  

One approach is to couple two distinct emerging technologies, that of AGI (artificial general intelligence) and "neural macrosensing."  AGI is developing as a reaction to recent trends toward narrowly focused AI, and returning to artificial intelligence's original idea of building machines with human-level and even superhuman intelligence.  "Neural macrosensing," a term created by scientist Robert A. Freitas Jr., is the hypothetical "ability to detect individual neural cell electrical discharges non-invasively 
 [and] offers the possibility of indirect neural macrosensing of complex environmental stimuli by eavesdropping on the body's own regular sensory signal traffic."  This means that nanorobots would listen to, or eavesdrop on, the body's sensory organs.

  Based on this information:
  The ability to detect individual neural cell electrical discharges noninvasively in many different ways (Section 4.8.6), coupled with the abilities (A) to recognize and identify specific desired target nerve cells (Section 8.5.2, Chapter 25) and (B) to pool data gathered independently by spatially separated nanodevices in real time (Section 7.3), offers the possibility of indirect neural macrosensing of complex environmental stimuli by eavesdropping on the body's own regular sensory signal traffic.
  4.9.5 Neural Macrosensing 
  http://www.nanomedicine.com/NMI/4.9.5.htm

  >Just curious but shouldn't that be something that every human should be able to >do?
  >I was under the impression that when someone senses something they would stop
  >and try to understand what emotion they feel, what they hear, what they >taste, what they smell and how they feel?  
  >Wouldn't recognizing one's own personal senses be an important part of building
  >AI or AGI?
  >How does someone become wise if they don't understand their senses?

  These two different spheres of technology have yet to be explored as a means for bringing about a wiser, more humane humanity.  Both technologies are based on exploratory engineering, much like the imaginative inventions Leonardo da Vinci sketched out long before they could  be realized.  Yet, the coupling of AGI and neural macrosensing is based on tangible advances in their respective fields. 

  >I don't understand how both can be linked together. Understanding the senses and
  >being able to compute it, I believe, would take two distinct features.  Am I not
  >understanding properly?

  Engineers at Adaptive AI are building AGI for improving human intelligence, and in theory for exploring partial, physically integrated personal silicon "oracles."  

  >Just curious, why "oracle"?  
  >Doesn't that sound a little religious/spiritual/deity/divine, definetely under 
  >my impression , not a concurent word on the extropian list unless i'm not again
  >understanding properly.

  According to engineer Peter Voss of Adaptive AI, "Once we have human level AGI, we will essentially possess our own personal AGI to integrate with us and advise us." Voss claims that our new silicon partner would develop rationality, wisdom, and knowledge through a relatively loose integration with our brain. This non-invasive approach to augmenting the brain would at first appears as mundane as a black box, and later as streamlined as light-activated ion channels for remote control of neural activity. (Richard H. Kramer)  The oracle assistant would also be a new, emotional part of ourselves to bounce ideas off of; similar, but far more advanced than a Remembrance Agent (RA), designed by Bradley Rhodes at MIT Media Lab, computer that watches over a our shoulder and suggests information relevant to what we are  reading or writing.  

  Could you refer a link to the studies of Richard Kramer, I would like to learn 
  more about his ideas.  Thank you

  Thanks again Natasha.
  By the way, I hope you and Max continue with your goal to advance the
  Proactionary principles.  Although I am sad to hear that the Extropy Institute will
  be closing it's doors (even with my minimal experience), I am aware enough to know 
  that everybody has specific self goal orientations.  I wish you both the best and 
  again thank you for creating such an educational tool.

  Anna:)

   Natasha Vita-More   
   Cultural Strategist - Designer   
   President, Extropy Institute   
   Member, Association of Professional Futurists   
   Founder, Transhumanist Arts & Culture 

   If you draw a circle in the sand and study only what's inside the circle, then that is a closed-system perspective. If you study what is inside the circle and everything outside the circle, then that is an open system perspective. - Buckminster Fuller

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