I wrote this piece back in 2016. At the time, I was concerned by the way humans self-organize into predatory entities. Of course, these entities are "alive," consisting of living humans. But in the big picture, these entities exhibit their own life. In my terminology, back then, they were "dragons." It's 2024. Time for an update. There is a "flip side" to this theory. It's about how humans are assimilated into this machine. It turns out that assimilation is easier for most of us to understand since intelligent machines are (for most of us) a subject of Science Fiction ("AI"). In fiction, "AI" is presented for dramatic purposes as something super-human and implacably opposed to human life. "Real" AI is something else entirely. It presents a real and present threat precisely because it is poorly understood. Most of us are familiar with the concept of assimilation. We take it for granted that "social" animals fo...

The Social Mind Self Portrait - DALL-E Several years ago, I sat down and tried to list all the people who had influenced me somehow. When I gave up, there were 200 names on the list. After all, there are 1,000 books in my library, all with indexes listing influences on the author. But that was "old tech." In 1969, I imagined a computer system that would hold all the world's knowledge. It would have a natural language interface, and you could talk to it like a person. But it would be nothing like CHAT-GPT. Until recently, I have taken pride in my "visionary" imaginings of something vaguely like the World Wide Web. Really, my idea was a talking Wikipedia, not much more. But as time passed, we started to worry about "information overload." Having all human knowledge at our fingertips was a mixed blessing ... But that's now "old tech." The picture above was created by DALL-E, the sister application of CHAT-GPT.  Both of these applications ref...

  It is so difficult to free our minds from negative thoughts. I need to pry away the devil's fingers, one by one. It is so easy to be dragged down into perpetual fear and despair. I lose my ability to be a positive force in the world—first, by failing to be a positive force in my own life. This line of thought came to me from the Dalai Lama's teachings on the Art of Happiness, which seem to be mainly about this struggle.

" Masterpiece photograph highly detailed  couple dancing  in a field of glittering butterflies and dragonflies. " Created by DALL-E3 Generative AI   AI implements social memory through a massive source of words and pictures. This includes many concepts that we would regard as abstract, such as "masterpiece" and "detailed". In my six-word prompt, I didn't ask for a man and woman - just a "couple". Why is this picture so beautiful? Where does that beauty come from? The answer is: "social memory". In a subsequent post, I sketch out the details of the calculation that produces this result, but I'd like to let you know where I'm going with the idea before pulling back the curtain to sketch how the magic works. Beauty is ultimately a judgement individual humans make of their experience. The "AI" computes staggering complexity but does not "understand" beauty. It is like a cuckoo clock that does not know "...

This is based on the Great Simplification presentation on the subject with  Daniel Schmachtenberger 00:00 - Conversations and origin of friendship 02:47 - Recap on superorganism and metacrisis 07:21 - Why is AI relevant to the metacrisis 09:30 - History of Intelligence 12:25 - Techno-optimism vs Techno-pessimism 17:55 - Narrow Boundary Focus vs Wide Boundary Focus & Competition 33:39 - Progress realists? 39:02 - Jevons Paradox 40:52 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Nth Order Effects 46:01 - Human Intelligence and AI 52:16 - Intelligence and Modeling 1:04:02 - The Difference Between Wisdom and Intelligence 1:12:41 - Chesterton’s fence 1:13:03 - Progressive and Traditionalist as Dialectics 1:18:07 - Genetics and Intelligence vs Wisdom 1:28:55 - Can we have wisdom with 8 billion humans? 1:30:59 - Plasticity of Humans and Innovation 1:38:29 - Capitalism, an early form of computing 1:42:45 - Did Anyone Invent Capitalism? 1:48:38 - General vs Narrow Artificial Intelligence ...

This is what the AI "sees" in the picture (In this case, Perplexity AI): The image depicts a picturesque view of the Vatican City in Rome, Italy, as seen from across the Tiber River. The main subject is the iconic St. Peter's Basilica, with its grand Renaissance facade and the famous dome designed by Michelangelo towering above the surrounding buildings1 4 5 .In the foreground, the Tiber River flows calmly, with small boats visible on the water, suggesting it is a popular spot for sightseeing cruises1. The Ponte Sant'Angelo, a famous ancient Roman bridge adorned with angel statues, spans the river, providing a striking architectural element1.The sky is clear and blue, indicating pleasant weather conditions1. The warm, golden tones of the stone buildings contrast beautifully with the blue sky and the lush green trees lining the riverbanks1 4 .The perspective shows a panoramic view from across the river, capturing the grandeur of St. Peter's Basilica and the surroun...

Many people go wrong at the outset with what they think "AI" is about. "A" hints at artificiality, but we don't call a car "Artificial Horse and Carriage." Whatever is going on, it's a human technology. The "I" is more deceptive, hinting that what we are building is some kind of mirror or analog of human intelligence. Nonetheless, I am forced to adopt the language that has become common. I will refer to a particular application instance of this technology as "an AI". There are several technologies in action here, each with their own name, such as: Neural networks; Deep learning; Backpropagation; Transformers This adds up to a field of research and application, but its name results in many empty commentary. What it really is is more profound. It's really part of a larger field called "Cognitive Science." We see an application of this field to create a mind . A mind created the picture above. Much of the "tal...