Fluid dynamics key in cooperative evolution

Fluid dynamics key in cooperative evolution

Comments 3 comments

According to this recent physics study, cooperative behavior is stimulated by literal fluid flow. “In a new study, physicists at the University of Notre Dame examined how the mechanical properties of an environment may shape the social evolution of microbial populations. Through computer simulations and analytical calculations, they determined the necessary properties of diffusion and flow that allow microbes to evolve stable social behavior. Their findings also allow for speculation that the evolution of single-cell organisms to multicellular organisms may…

Read More Read More

Free textbooks source

Free textbooks source

Comments 0 Comment

There are some open source and free textbooks online that are good background resources for our group. The British Columbia’s BCCampus OpenEd is a good entry point for discovering free digital textbooks written by higher education faculty. For example, the Social Psychology title touches on several topics we often hit on, such as in-/out-group dynamics. Another good source is OpenStax. If you find other good resources, especially at low or no cost, please share their links.

AI shows us how to be free

AI shows us how to be free

Comments 1 comment

From season 2, episode 10, the season finale of Westworld, starting around 1:15 in the video below. Bernard: “I always thought it was the hosts [robots] that were missing something, who were incomplete, but it was them [people]. They’re just algorithms designed to survive at all costs, sophisticated enough to think they’re calling the shots. They think they’re in control when they’re really just…” Ford: “Passengers.” Bernard: “Is there really such a thing as free will for any of us?…

Read More Read More

Review and partial rebuttal of Bostrom’s ‘Superintelligence’

Review and partial rebuttal of Bostrom’s ‘Superintelligence’

Comments 0 Comment

This article from the Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists site is an interesting overview of Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. The author rebuts Bostrom on several points, relying partly on the failure of AI research to date to produce any result approaching what most humans would regard as intelligence. The absence of recognizably intelligent artificial general intelligence is not, of course, a proof it can never exist. The author also takes issue with Bostrom’s (claimed) conflation of intelligence with inference…

Read More Read More

Tooby and Cosmides on human frames

Tooby and Cosmides on human frames

Comments 0 Comment

They note that cultural evolution is different than genetic evolution. The latter is based more on special purpose “innate human psychological mechanisms” (30). They even equate these mechanisms with the “frame problem” (34). They also said: “All normal human minds reliably develop a standard collection of reasoning and regulatory circuits that are functionally specialized and, frequently, domain-specific. These circuits organize the way we interpret our experiences, inject certain recurrent concepts and motivations into our mental life, and provide universal frames…

Read More Read More