University of California at Berkeley Living Digital Beings Edward A. Lee Keynote, ICT.OPEN, Hilversum, The Netherlands, March 20, 2019 UC Berkeley
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UniversityofCaliforniaatBerkeley
LivingDigitalBeings
EdwardA.Lee
Keynote,ICT.OPEN,Hilversum,TheNetherlands,March20,2019
UC Berkeley
HypeandFear
IsAIanexistentialthreattohumanity?
2
ThreeQuestionsAboutAIs
1. Arewegoingtolosecontrolofthem?2. Aretheyalive?3. Aretheygoingtomatchandexceedus?
3
ChangingtheQuestion
Canweteachcomputerstoprogram? −MaartenvanSteen,March19,2019
Cancomputersteachhumanstoprogram?
−EdwardLee,March20,2019
4
ComputersTeachingHumanstoProgram
EclipseJupyterGithubStackOverflowGoogle…
5
EggsandChickens
6
RichardDawkins“Achickenisanegg'swayofmakinganotheregg.”
Isahumanacomputer’swayofmakinganothercomputer?
DigitalCreationism:TheHypothesisthatTechnologyisTop-DownIntelligentDesign
Evolutionaryprocessesarecapableofmuchmorecomplexandsophisticateddesignthantop-downintelligentdesign.
7
Vasa
AnAlternativetoDigitalCreationism:SymbioticCoevolution
“AreweplayingGod,creatinganewlifeforminourownimage,orarewebeingplayedbyaDarwinianevolutionofasymbioticnewspecies?”“Arehumansthepurveyorsofthe‘noisychannel’ofmutation,facilitatingsexbetweensoftwarebeingsbyrecombiningandmutatingprogramsintonewones?”
8
CoevolutionofDigitalBeingsandHumans
9 [PhotoByJamesMorrisonCCBY-SA2.0] 1997 2012
HumansinControlofAI?
Arewegoingtolosecontrolofthem?No.Weneverwereincontrol,sowecan’tlosecontrol.
10
ThreeQuestions
1. Arewegoingtolosecontrolofthem?2. Aretheyalive?3. Aretheygoingtomatchandexceedus?
11
TheTechnium
12
KevinKelly,talksaboutthe“technium”asthe7thkingdomoflife.
2010
IsItAlive?
13 ViewoftheInternet[TheOpteProject,viaWikimediaCommonsCCBY2.5]
WikipediaServers[VictorGrigas/WikimediaFoundationCCBY-SA3.0]
Whatdoesitmeantobealive?
Wikipediaisarguablya“livingdigitalbeing”(LDB,or“eldebee”).Ithasalloftheseproperties.
14 [AfterChrisPackard,CCBY-SA4.0]
Arewebeinginvadedbyorcoalescingwithanalienlifeform?
15
TheHumanSideofThisCoevolution
• x
16
Itishumancultureandcognition(“memes”per
Dawkins)thatarecoevolving,not(yet)
biology.
IntellectualProsthetics
Reproduction?Heredity?Mutation?
17
SterileWorkersandaQueenBee
18
[PhotobyMaxPixel,releasedtopublic
domain-CC0]
Symbiosis
19
“Ifcomputersandsoftwareformorganisms,thentheydependonusfortheirprocreation.Weprovidethehusbandryandserveasmidwives.Inexchange,wedependonthemtomanageoursystemsoffinance,commerce,andtransportation.Butmoreinterestingly,themachinesmakethehumansmoreeffectiveattheveryhusbandrythatspreadsthesoftwarespecies.….thesoftwaresurvivesandevolvesonlyifthecompanysurvivesandevolves,andviceversa.”
WillWeBecomeCyborgs?
20
Wearealreadyintegratingtechnologyintoourbiology.
ByUnknownMaster,Italian(1570s)WebGalleryofArt,PublicDomain
ObligateEndosymbiosis
21 LynnMargulis(1938-2011)[PhotobyJpedreira,CCBY-SA2.5] Di
agramCCBY
-SA3.0,
https://common
s.wikim
edia.org/w
/inde
x.ph
p?curid
=475
082
So,AreTheyAlive?
Thisdependsonwhatyoumeanby“alive,”butthereisnodoubttheysharemanyfeatureswithbiologicalbeings.Andmoreimportantly,theirrelationshipwithusismuchlikeabiologicalsymbiosis.
22
ThreeQuestions
1. Arewegoingtolosecontrolofthem?2. Aretheyalive?3. Aretheygoingtomatchandexceedus?
Computersalreadyexceedusinmanydimensions.Sotheinterestingquestionis:willtheymatchus?
23
AreWeDigital?
24 HAL,thecomputerinStanleyKubrick’s1968movie,2001:ASpaceOdyssey
FreeingtheMindFromMatter
• Arewealone?• Teleportation?• Thesingularity?• Uploading?
25
TeleportationandUploading
Whathappensto“I”?• Isthereconstructionthesame“I”?– Howcanwetell?
• Whatiftheoriginalisnotdestroyed?– Two“I”s?
• Whatifabackupcopyislaterinstantiated?– Two“I”sofdifferentages?
26
TheSenseofSelfPerThreePhilosophers
Whathappensto“I”?• DerekParfit:– Thenotionof“I”makesnosense.
• DanielDennett:– “I”isafiction,anillusion,asocialconstruction.
• DouglasHoftstadter– “I”canbeintwoplacesatonce.
27
ASimplerAnswer:“I”IsNotDigital
28 ClaudeShannon
Shannonshowedin1948anoisychannelcan,inprinciple,perfectlyconveyafinitenumberofbits(the“channelcapacity”).Theconverseisevenmoreimportant:Anoisychannelcannotconveymorethanafinitenumberofbits.
OrMaybeEverythingisDigital?
29
Variantsofthe“DigitalPhysics”hypothesis:1. Thenumberofpossiblestatesofaphysicalsystemisfinite.2. Physicalprocessesaredigitalandalgorithmic.3. EveryphysicalprocessisaTuringcomputation.4. Thephysicalworldisacomputer.5. Thephysicalworldisasimulation.Thesethesesarenotfalsifiable,andthereforenotscientificaccordingtothephilosophyofKarlPopper.
JohnArchibaldWheeler“Itfrombit”
DataismisaReligion
30
YuvalNoahHarari
[PhotoByDanielNaber–CCBY-SA4.0]
The“UniversalMachine”Fallacy
31
Turingmachines:• Algorithmic• Digital• Terminating
AlanTuring MachinedesignedbyMikeDavey[PhotobyGabrielF,CCBY-SA3.0]
NoUniversalMachineHasYetBeenInvented
32
KurtGödel
Ifoneiseverinvented,itwillnotbe,atitsessence,adiscrete,algorithmic,terminatingprocess.
TheDNAFallacy
33
Everyhumanalivetodayistheendpointofcontinuous,unbroken,biologicalprocessdatingbackaboutfourbillionyears.
ByZephyris-Ownwork,CCBY-SA3.0
IfCognitionisnotaDigital,AlgorithmicProcess,then…
34
“Yourmindisentirelyyourown.”
ThreeQuestions
1. Arewegoingtolosecontrolofthem?No.2. Aretheyalive?Maybe.3. Aretheygoingtomatchandexceedus?
Theyalreadyexceedus,buttheywillnevermatchus.
35
LivingDigitalBeings
EdwardAshfordLee MITPress,2020MITPress,2017
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