Science, Technology & the Future | Joscha Bach - Agency in an Age of Machines @scfu | Uploaded June 2022 | Updated October 2024, 9 minutes ago.
Synopsis: The arrival of homo sapiens on Earth amounted to a singularity for its ecosystems, a transition that dramatically changed the distribution and interaction of living species within a relatively short amount of time. Such transitions are not unprecedented during the evolution of life, but machine intelligence represents a new phenomenon: for the first time, there are agents on earth that are not part of the biosphere. Instead of competing for a niche in the ecosystems of living systems, AI might compete with life itself.
How can we understand agency in the context of the cooperation and competition between AI, humans and other organisms?
0:00 Introduction
1:14 Presentation starts
1:48 Spirits & western confusion about consciousness
5:48 Genesis: an updated version of the origin story (6 stages)
13:30 The history of studying agency
15:07 Today's models & AI systems
18:35 Cybernetics: modeling in the service of control
22:09 Computation vs. cybernetics
24:29 How do neurons compute minds?
26:45 Neural circuits in artificial neural networks
28:17 Is the circuit metaphor wrong? Self organization in biological neurons & Neural Darwinism
32:22 Conscious seed theory (technological design vs. organic growth)
38:31 Hierarchy & design constraints of causal systems, groups, state governments & agents
43:55 The society of mind, self regulation & the consciousness prior
48:53 Attention as an agent & role of consciousness
51:19 Society of minds: human intellect & civilization intellect
53:44 Stages of intelligent agency (societal agency, Maslow's hierarchy, "sacredness")
57:57 Principles for emergent higher level agency (7 virtues)
1:02:20 The alignment problem
1:07:26 Q&A
This talk was part of the ‘Stepping Into the Future‘ conference.
scifuture.org/agency-in-age-of-machines-joscha-bach
Bio: Joscha Bach, Ph.D. is an AI researcher who worked and published about cognitive architectures, mental representation, emotion, social modeling, and multi-agent systems. He earned his Ph.D. in cognitive science from the University of Osnabrück, Germany, and has built computational models of motivated decision making, perception, categorization, and concept-formation. He is especially interested in the philosophy of AI and in the augmentation of the human mind.
Joscha has taught computer science, AI, and cognitive science at the Humboldt-University of Berlin and the Institute for Cognitive Science at Osnabrück.
His book “Principles of Synthetic Intelligence – PSI: An Architecture of Motivated Cognition” (Oxford University Press) is available on amazon.
amazon.com/Principles-Synthetic-Intelligence-PSI-Architectures/dp/0195370678
Many thanks for tuning in!
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Please fill out this form: docs.google.com/forms/d/1mr9PIfq2ZYlQsXRIn5BcLH2onbiSI7g79mOH_AFCdIk
Consider supporting SciFuture by:
a) Subscribing to the SciFuture YouTube channel: youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=TheRationalFuture
b) Donating
- Bitcoin: 1BxusYmpynJsH4i8681aBuw9ZTxbKoUi22
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c) Sharing the media SciFuture creates
Kind regards,
Adam Ford
- Science, Technology & the Future - #SciFuture - scifuture.org
Synopsis: The arrival of homo sapiens on Earth amounted to a singularity for its ecosystems, a transition that dramatically changed the distribution and interaction of living species within a relatively short amount of time. Such transitions are not unprecedented during the evolution of life, but machine intelligence represents a new phenomenon: for the first time, there are agents on earth that are not part of the biosphere. Instead of competing for a niche in the ecosystems of living systems, AI might compete with life itself.
How can we understand agency in the context of the cooperation and competition between AI, humans and other organisms?
0:00 Introduction
1:14 Presentation starts
1:48 Spirits & western confusion about consciousness
5:48 Genesis: an updated version of the origin story (6 stages)
13:30 The history of studying agency
15:07 Today's models & AI systems
18:35 Cybernetics: modeling in the service of control
22:09 Computation vs. cybernetics
24:29 How do neurons compute minds?
26:45 Neural circuits in artificial neural networks
28:17 Is the circuit metaphor wrong? Self organization in biological neurons & Neural Darwinism
32:22 Conscious seed theory (technological design vs. organic growth)
38:31 Hierarchy & design constraints of causal systems, groups, state governments & agents
43:55 The society of mind, self regulation & the consciousness prior
48:53 Attention as an agent & role of consciousness
51:19 Society of minds: human intellect & civilization intellect
53:44 Stages of intelligent agency (societal agency, Maslow's hierarchy, "sacredness")
57:57 Principles for emergent higher level agency (7 virtues)
1:02:20 The alignment problem
1:07:26 Q&A
This talk was part of the ‘Stepping Into the Future‘ conference.
scifuture.org/agency-in-age-of-machines-joscha-bach
Bio: Joscha Bach, Ph.D. is an AI researcher who worked and published about cognitive architectures, mental representation, emotion, social modeling, and multi-agent systems. He earned his Ph.D. in cognitive science from the University of Osnabrück, Germany, and has built computational models of motivated decision making, perception, categorization, and concept-formation. He is especially interested in the philosophy of AI and in the augmentation of the human mind.
Joscha has taught computer science, AI, and cognitive science at the Humboldt-University of Berlin and the Institute for Cognitive Science at Osnabrück.
His book “Principles of Synthetic Intelligence – PSI: An Architecture of Motivated Cognition” (Oxford University Press) is available on amazon.
amazon.com/Principles-Synthetic-Intelligence-PSI-Architectures/dp/0195370678
Many thanks for tuning in!
Have any ideas about people to interview? Want to be notified about future events? Any comments about the STF series?
Please fill out this form: docs.google.com/forms/d/1mr9PIfq2ZYlQsXRIn5BcLH2onbiSI7g79mOH_AFCdIk
Consider supporting SciFuture by:
a) Subscribing to the SciFuture YouTube channel: youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=TheRationalFuture
b) Donating
- Bitcoin: 1BxusYmpynJsH4i8681aBuw9ZTxbKoUi22
- Ethereum: 0xd46a6e88c4fe179d04464caf42626d0c9cab1c6b
- Patreon: patreon.com/scifuture
c) Sharing the media SciFuture creates
Kind regards,
Adam Ford
- Science, Technology & the Future - #SciFuture - scifuture.org
