Alan Watts was overzealous in his basic income prediction – but he wasn't wrong

A guaranteed basic income is an old solution to a new problem of labor automation.

Image: Big Think
  • Economist Robert Theobald coined the team 'basic living guarantee' in the 1960s.
  • He believed that we were going to suffer problems because of an overabundance of resources.
  • Philosopher Alan Watts spoke about the possibility of an economic utopia through a universal basic income.
Keep reading Show less
technology economics basic income automation robots wealth alan watts

In VR, boys and girls learn differently

Study looks at who/what they prefer learning from

(Virtual Learning Lab)
  • In a study, 33 girls preferred to learn from a young VR researcher named Marie — 33 boys did better with lessons from a robot drone
  • It's expected that the future of learning is VR
  • Is it better to be guided by someone like you, or something else entirely?
Keep reading Show less
education teaching technology robots interface design future virtual reality

How to be a good parent to artificial intelligence

Human values evolve. So how will we raise virtuous A.I.s?

content.jwplatform.com
  • Until we can design a mind that's superhuman and flawless, we'll have to settle for instilling plain old human values into artificial intelligence. But how to do this in a world where values are constantly evolving?
  • Many of our life choices today would be considered immoral by people in the Middle Ages — or even the 1970s, says Ben Goertzel, whose family personally experienced the sad state of LGBTQ acceptance in Southern New Jersey 50 years ago.
  • Raising an A.I. is a lot like raising kids, says Goertzel. Kids don't learn best from a list of rules, but from lived experience – watching and imitating their parents. A.I.s and humans will have to play and learn side by side, and evolve together as values adapt toward an increasingly technological future.
Keep reading Show less
artificial intelligence morality future ai computers robots technology

Consciousness, panpsychism, and AGI: What is it like to be a hat?

What if consciousness isn't all about the brain?

content.jwplatform.com
  • Panpsychism is the idea that there is an element of consciousness in everything in the universe. The theory goes like this: You're conscious. Ben Goertzel is conscious. And his hat is conscious too. What if consciousness isn't about the brain at all, but it's as inherent to our universe as space-time?
  • "Now, panpsychism, to me, is not even that interesting, it's almost obvious — it's just the foundation, the beginning for thinking about consciousness... " says Goertzel. It's what comes after that excites him, like the emerging technology that will let us connect our minds to bricks, hats, earthworms, other humans, and super AGIs like Sophia, and perhaps glimpse at the fabric of consciousness.
  • Goertzel believes brain-brain interfacing and brain-computer interfacing will unfold in the coming decades, and it's by that means that we may finally crack the nut of consciousness to discover whether panpsychism makes any sense, and to learn why humans are so differently conscious than, for example, his hat.
Keep reading Show less
mind brain consciousness robots ai computers future human body science philosophy

"Hi-tech" Russian robot turns out to be a man in a suit

The Russian robot named "Boris", promoted as hi-tech by state tv, was revealed to be an actor.

  • A state-owned channel showed a report on a "robot" which turned out to be an actor in a suit.
  • The robot "Boris" was supposed to be good at math and dancing.
  • Russian journalists who raised questions ultimately found out the truth.
Keep reading Show less
russia politics computers foreign policy invention media technology Robots