Here, we see a sped up time-lapsed snapshot succession view of the design and construction of a fibreglass vs a wooden yacht: Here is another: Now, let’s scale down to a canoe: We thus see illustrated how . . . design is intelligently directed configuration which makes advantageous, and ideally skilled and artistic, use of Read More…
Computing, AI, Cybernetics and Mechatronics
Is the mind just a program run by the brain?
Michael Egnor: No. The mind is the opposite of computation. Mental states are always intentional and computation, by its nature, is never intentional.
An example of interwoven protein code (HT, Wiki!)
Here, in human mitochondrial DNA — note the BLUE code start and the RED code stop; all HT to Wiki publishing against known ideological interest: Complex interwoven code is of course doubly functionally specific, so it is exponentially harder to account for, other than by exceedingly sophisticated and creative intelligently directed configuration. Indeed, when I Read More…
Is Mathematics falling under the sway of a computerised, AI-driven celebrity-authority culture?
Two recent remarks in VICE (a telling label, BTW) raise some significant concerns. First, Kevin Buzzard — no, this is not Babylon Bee [itself a sign when it is harder and harder to tell reality from satire] — Sept 26th: Number Theorist Fears All Published Math Is Wrong “I think there is a non-zero chance Read More…
The Code 1202 glitch during the LM descent to the Moon
Why did the LM’s “mini” computer throw a restart glitch during the descent? Eyles — who wrote the code — tells the story: We are here discussing the LM’s mini computer, which used IC’s to effect an unprecedented small size (and “only” 70 lbs, in a box Eyles describes as 1 ft x 2 ft Read More…
Logic & First Principles, 21: Insightful intelligence vs. computationalism
One of the challenges of our day is the commonplace reduction of intelligent, insightful action to computation on a substrate. That’s not just Sci Fi, it is a challenge in the academy and on the street — especially as AI grabs more and more headlines. A good stimulus for thought is John Searle as he Read More…
BBC on the “evolution” of robots (missing the “by design” part)
BBC has done a mini-series on the “evolution” of robots, even speaking of invasive species. The silence on the “by design” part is conspicuous, especially as they use a biologist (male) and an engineer (female) as their key personalities: The blindness to the obvious is glaring, inadvertently showing the blinding power of a dominant, flawed Read More…
Exploring a million digits of pi — a vid
The millionth digit of pi is 1 and other phenomena:
Does information theory support design in nature?
Eric Holloway argues at Mind Matters that design theorist William Dembski makes a convincing case, using accepted information theory principles relevant to computer science: When I first began to look into intelligent design (ID) theory while I was considering becoming an atheist, I was struck by Bill Dembski’s claim that ID could be demonstrated mathematically Read More…
Will increasingly sophisticated computer simulations “end” theoretical physics as we know it?
Hossenfelder: Perhaps one day, rather than doing calculations, we will just use observations of simplified systems to make predictions.
How do memristors work? [Onward implications for Strong AI.]
Memristors are in effect tunable resistors; where a resistive state can be programmed [and changed, so far a very finite number of times]. This means they can store and process information, especially by carrying out weighted-product summations and vector-based matrix array product summations. Such are very powerful physically instantiated mathematical operations. For example, here is Read More…
Why look at AI-linked themes — what is the relevance to ID as a scientific enterprise?
One of the key ideas and driving assumptions of modern evolutionary materialistic scientism is that mind can be explained on brain without residue. In an extreme form, we can see it in Crick’s the Astonishing Hypothesis (1994): . . . that “You”, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of Read More…
Robo-Doctor? In China, it seems Robot Xiao-Yi has passed the written medical licensing exams
Robo-Doc will see you? Maybe, but not just now. This item popped up from the usual suspect tabloid paper sites while searching on AI and memristors. I have tracked down a couple of more reputable sources so, here goes from China Daily (which is also on the spot): >>A robot has passed the written test Read More…
More on memristors in action — including, crossbar networks and solving linear equation arrays
Memristors [= memory + resistors] are a promising memory-based information storage technology that can work as non-volatile memory and in neural networks. They were suggested c. 1971 by Leon Chua, and since HP created a TiO2-based multilayer architecture device exhibiting memristor capabilites in 2007, they have been a focus for research, given their potential. Here, Read More…
The Edge, a science thinksite, asks “The Last Question”
as in “your last question, the question for which you will be remembered.” Some interesting answers (in the form of questions) emerge: Can we program a computer to find a 10,000-bit string that encodes more actionable wisdom than any human has ever expressed? – Scott Aronson Are complex biological neural systems fundamentally unpredictable? – Anthony Read More…