(U N) R E A L I T Y-B L O G
Sources: Zizek’s Ontology by Johnston
Transgressing the Boundary by Sokal
What the Sokal Affair Does and Does Not Prove by Sokal
The Phenomenology of Spirit by Hegel
Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit by Kojeve
2001: A Space Odyssey
I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Ellison
Lectures on The Philosophy of History by Hegel
The Sublime Object of Ideology by Zizek
The Other Side of Psychoanalysis by Lacan
The Desire of Psychoanalysis by Tupinambá
If you were able to create an immortal version of yourself, would you? Until this decade, that question was the stuff of science fiction, but now experts in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics suggest it will indeed be possible.
This cinematic documentary explores the latest technological advancements in AI, robotics, and biotech, and poses the question: what is the essence of the human mind, and can this be replicated? Or even more unsettling, could we one day meet cloned versions of ourselves – clones that are better, smarter, and immortal?
This film explores these questions with visionaries including Nick Bostrom, author of Superintelligence, Hiroshi Ishiguro, developer of his own uncannily realistic clone Geminoid; Douglas Rushkoff, author of Team Human; Ben Goertzel, founder of Singularity.net who coined the term Artificial General Intelligence; and Deepak Chopra, who is creating his own A.I. mind twin. These visionaries see humanity advancing toward a new age of post-biological life, a world of intelligence without bodies, immortal identity without the limitations of disease, death, and unfulfilled desire. As scientists at the forefront of technology show that a world where humans and machines merge isn’t so far away, we have to ask ourselves will AI be the best or the last thing we ever do?
Professor Hugo de Garis is an expert in robotics and artificial intelligence, a distinguished author, and now-retired researcher, best known for his work on developing artificial brains and advocating for the creation of “artilects” (artificial intellects) – machines capable of intellectual achievements rivaling or surpassing humans.
With more board configurations than there are atoms in the universe, the ancient Chinese game of Go has long been considered a grand challenge for artificial intelligence.
On March 9, 2016, the worlds of Go and artificial intelligence collided in South Korea for an extraordinary best-of-five-game competition, coined The DeepMind Challenge Match. Hundreds of millions of people around the world watched as a legendary Go master took on an unproven AI challenger for the first time in history.
Directed by Greg Kohs and with an original score by Academy Award nominee Hauschka, AlphaGo had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. It has since gone on to win countless awards and near universal praise for a story that chronicles a journey from the halls of Oxford, through the backstreets of Bordeaux, past the coding terminals of DeepMind in London, and ultimately, to the seven-day tournament in Seoul. As the drama unfolds, more questions emerge: What can artificial intelligence reveal about a 3000-year-old game? What can it teach us about humanity?
Artist Tully Arnot’s latest work, EPIPHYTES, is a multi-sensory virtual reality experience exploring plant communication, posthumanism and alternate forms of perception. To create EPIPHYTES, Arnot partnered with evolutionary biologist Monica Gagliano, who pioneered the brand-new research field of plant bioacoustics, for the first time experimentally demonstrating that plants emit their own ‘voices’ and detect and respond to the sounds of their environments. Her work has extended the concept of cognition (including perception, learning processes, memory) in plants. The pair spoke about Arnot’s practice and why he chose VR as a medium to express his ideas, and discussed the importance of slowing down, ‘listening’ to, and looking more closely at the communication lines and biological relationships that exist in the plant kingdom as a means of altering the way we perceive our world.
Would you want to live forever? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and author, inventor, and futurist Ray Kurzweil discuss immortality, longevity escape velocity, the singularity, and the future of technology. What will life be like in 10 years?
Could we upload our brain to the cloud? We explore the merger of humans with machines and how we are already doing it. Could nanobots someday flow through our bloodstreams? Learn about the exponential growth of computation and what future computing power will look like.
When will computers pass the Turing test? Learn why the singularity is nearer and how to think exponentially about the world. Are things getting worse? We go through why things might not be as bad as they seem. What are the consequences of having a longer lifetime? Will we deplete resources?
Will there be a class divide between people able to access longer lifespans? What sort of jobs would people have in the future? Explore what artificial intelligence has in store for us. What happens if AI achieves consciousness? We discuss the definition of intelligence and whether there will be a day when there is nothing left for humans to do. Will we ever see this advancement ending?
Mo Gawdat is Chief Business Officer at Google [X]. He is the author of, among other things, the book Spooky smart and launched his own podcast Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat (https://www.mogawdat.com/podcast) in 2020, which is known worldwide.
What does artificial intelligence have to tell us about the central Buddhist teaching of non-self? We’ll delve into some of the recent advances in AI, focusing in particular on the chat programs ChatGPT (GPT-3 — recorded before the release of GPT-4) and LaMDA. Then we’ll turn to the Buddhist notion of non-self. Finally we’ll look at what one of these artificially intelligent programs had to say about the relationship between Buddhist non-self and AI.
DISCLAIMER: This video is not medical, financial, or legal advice. This is just my personal story and research findings. Always consult a licensed professional.
I work to better myself and the rest of humanity.
For decades, biologists have read and edited DNA, the code of life. Revolutionary developments are giving scientists the power to write it. Instead of tinkering with existing life forms, synthetic biologists may be on the verge of writing the DNA of a living organism from scratch. In the next decade, according to some, we may even see the first synthetic human genome. Join a distinguished group of synthetic biologists, geneticists and bioengineers who are edging closer to breathing life into matter.