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  Tyler Mills commented on idea #5044.

That's what I get for suddenly returning to this discussion after a long gap. I was thinking that any computation can be recorded and re-run at will, in principle. So qualia can too. But indeed, I have suggested in this discussion that it is the evolution of programs that causes experience, and evolution cannot be scripted. This means a quale that is recorded will not "qualiate" if it is rerun exactly as recorded.

TL;DR: I don't.

#5044​·​Tyler MillsOP, about 8 hours ago

My suspicion remains that creativity and qualia come from some kind of blind exchange between layers of emergence, of which mutations and mistakes in copying, as seen in DNA, are an example.

  Tyler Mills commented on criticism #5040.

A quale can be recorded and replayed later, arbitrarily many times.

How do you know this?

#5040​·​Dennis Hackethal, 7 days ago

That's what I get for suddenly returning to this discussion after a long gap. I was thinking that any computation can be recorded and re-run at will, in principle. So qualia can too. But indeed, I have suggested in this discussion that it is the evolution of programs that causes experience, and evolution cannot be scripted. This means a quale that is recorded will not "qualiate" if it is rerun exactly as recorded.

TL;DR: I don't.

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #5042.

In biological evolution, the landscape itself never changes directly. It only happens as a consequence of evolving genes.

Guess: The same is true in the "landscape" of the mind: Individual ideas mutate and evolve in relation to problems, and that's what constitutes the landscape.

#5042​·​Erik Orrje, about 20 hours ago

That sounds right but how is it a criticism of my idea? It’s the ideas the mind evolves that change the landscape, no?

  Erik Orrje criticized idea #5041.

Another way to approach AGI? (Very early, preliminary thoughts.)

Say you write an evolutionary algorithm, like the ones that have been written before. Then DD would argue it’ll get stuck because all it can do is explore a given landscape for its best features. Whereas real evolution creates new landscapes.

To address this issue, you subject your algorithm itself to variation and selection, by wrapping it in another evolutionary algorithm. But this approach just kicks the can down the road because now it’s the space of programs that’s limited.

How do you break out of this limitation?

You can’t just keep wrapping your programs in evolutionary algorithms like that because that only keeps kicking the can down the road. It’s like adding more and more entries to a multiplication table. It’s not the same as a multiplication algorithm. But for evolution, the problem is harder, in a way, because not even recursion solves the issue, and the starting point wasn’t as ‘flat’ as a multiplication table. The starting point is already an algorithm, not just a list.

What’s needed, in DD’s lingo, is a jump to universality. But a jump to what kind of universality, exactly?

cc @tyler-mills

#5041​·​Dennis Hackethal, 1 day ago

In biological evolution, the landscape itself never changes directly. It only happens as a consequence of evolving genes.

Guess: The same is true in the "landscape" of the mind: Individual ideas mutate and evolve in relation to problems, and that's what constitutes the landscape.

  Dennis Hackethal posted idea #5041.

Another way to approach AGI? (Very early, preliminary thoughts.)

Say you write an evolutionary algorithm, like the ones that have been written before. Then DD would argue it’ll get stuck because all it can do is explore a given landscape for its best features. Whereas real evolution creates new landscapes.

To address this issue, you subject your algorithm itself to variation and selection, by wrapping it in another evolutionary algorithm. But this approach just kicks the can down the road because now it’s the space of programs that’s limited.

How do you break out of this limitation?

You can’t just keep wrapping your programs in evolutionary algorithms like that because that only keeps kicking the can down the road. It’s like adding more and more entries to a multiplication table. It’s not the same as a multiplication algorithm. But for evolution, the problem is harder, in a way, because not even recursion solves the issue, and the starting point wasn’t as ‘flat’ as a multiplication table. The starting point is already an algorithm, not just a list.

What’s needed, in DD’s lingo, is a jump to universality. But a jump to what kind of universality, exactly?

cc @tyler-mills

  Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #5038.

A quale can be recorded and replayed later, arbitrarily many times. That looping program is not a person: it can only create whatever knowledge it originally did, not any possible knowledge, maybe until freed from the loop. Yet it still constitutes experience.
So people are not the only programs that can be qualia.

#5038​·​Tyler MillsOP revised 10 days ago

A quale can be recorded and replayed later, arbitrarily many times.

How do you know this?

  Tyler Mills revised criticism #5031.

A quale can be recorded and replayed later, arbitrarily many times. That looping program is not a person (no knowledge is created, however many times it loops, for instance), but it still constitutes experience.
So people are not the only programs that can be qualia.

A quale can be recorded and replayed later, arbitrarily many times. That looping program is not a person: it can only create whatever knowledge it originally did, not any possible knowledge, maybe until freed from the loop. Yet it still constitutes experience.
So people are not the only programs that can be qualia.

  Tyler Mills addressed criticism #5032.

Actually maybe this isn't so obvious. A person need not create new knowledge for the personhood property to be present, since it is a counterfactual property: a person can create new knowledge (new and non-inferable, I argue).

#5032​·​Tyler MillsOP, 10 days ago

True that a person need not create new knowledge, but a looping quale is not a person, per #5035, so the claim survives this criticism.

  Tyler Mills addressed criticism #5033.

If qualia are only present when new knowledge is being made, then for a quale to be replayed it could be that there must be a reset each time: the knowledge produced from the previous run is erased. So w.r.t. the AGI system alone, new knowledge is being created each time (it doesn't matter if the knowledge is copied from a previous run and stored elsewhere, in which case it is not new w.r.t. that combined system).

#5033​·​Tyler MillsOP, 10 days ago

True, knowledge could be created from each run of a quale, but a looping quale isn't a person, per #5035, so the claim in #5031 that not only people can undergo experience still stands.

  Tyler Mills commented on idea #5034.

A looping quale is also not a person because personhood is not just: can create a given piece of new knowledge, it is: can create any knowledge (not just that created by this quale; again assuming knowledge creation defines qualia).

#5034​·​Tyler MillsOP, 10 days ago

Should clarify that personhood is: can create any new knowledge in principle (excluding resource constraints). A program consisting of a looping quale cannot create any possible knowledge, whether or not it is creating some each time it's run.

  Tyler Mills commented on criticism #5031.

A quale can be recorded and replayed later, arbitrarily many times. That looping program is not a person (no knowledge is created, however many times it loops, for instance), but it still constitutes experience.
So people are not the only programs that can be qualia.

#5031​·​Tyler MillsOP, 10 days ago

A looping quale is also not a person because personhood is not just: can create a given piece of new knowledge, it is: can create any knowledge (not just that created by this quale; again assuming knowledge creation defines qualia).

  Tyler Mills addressed criticism #5031.

A quale can be recorded and replayed later, arbitrarily many times. That looping program is not a person (no knowledge is created, however many times it loops, for instance), but it still constitutes experience.
So people are not the only programs that can be qualia.

#5031​·​Tyler MillsOP, 10 days ago

If qualia are only present when new knowledge is being made, then for a quale to be replayed it could be that there must be a reset each time: the knowledge produced from the previous run is erased. So w.r.t. the AGI system alone, new knowledge is being created each time (it doesn't matter if the knowledge is copied from a previous run and stored elsewhere, in which case it is not new w.r.t. that combined system).

  Tyler Mills addressed criticism #5031.

A quale can be recorded and replayed later, arbitrarily many times. That looping program is not a person (no knowledge is created, however many times it loops, for instance), but it still constitutes experience.
So people are not the only programs that can be qualia.

#5031​·​Tyler MillsOP, 10 days ago

Actually maybe this isn't so obvious. A person need not create new knowledge for the personhood property to be present, since it is a counterfactual property: a person can create new knowledge (new and non-inferable, I argue).

  Tyler Mills criticized idea #4881.

Assumption A1: Only programs that are people can, while running, constitute qualia/experience/subjectivity/consciousness.

#4881​·​Tyler MillsOP revised about 2 months ago

A quale can be recorded and replayed later, arbitrarily many times. That looping program is not a person (no knowledge is created, however many times it loops, for instance), but it still constitutes experience.
So people are not the only programs that can be qualia.

  Dennis Hackethal revised criticism #5025.

Some people are lactose intolerant.

Some people are lactose intolerant, others are vegan.

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #299. The revision addresses idea #5027.

Replace dead link


I’m pro abortion but I have some pro life in me.

Banning the abortion of a zygote seems ridiculous. So does aborting a seven-month-old fetus.

Why not go with: you can abort until the nervous system develops.

Clearly, an embryo without a nervous system can’t be sentient and thus can’t be a person, right? And as long as it’s not a person, it doesn’t have any rights.

According to https://www.neurosciencefoundation.org/post/brain-development-in-fetus, “an embryo’s brain and nervous system begin to develop at around the 6-week mark.” And: “At as early as 8 weeks (about 2 months), you can see physical evidence of the brain working (the electric impulses) as ultrasounds show the embryo moving.”

This idea is for viable pregnancies only. Other considerations may apply for non-viable ones.

I’m pro abortion but I have some pro life in me.

Banning the abortion of a zygote seems ridiculous. So does aborting a seven-month-old fetus.

Why not go with: you can abort until the nervous system develops.

Clearly, an embryo without a nervous system can’t be sentient and thus can’t be a person, right? And as long as it’s not a person, it doesn’t have any rights.

According to https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542179/, “CNS [central-nervous-system] development begins during the 3rd week of embryogenesis…”

This idea is for viable pregnancies only. Other considerations may apply for non-viable ones.

  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #299.

I’m pro abortion but I have some pro life in me.

Banning the abortion of a zygote seems ridiculous. So does aborting a seven-month-old fetus.

Why not go with: you can abort until the nervous system develops.

Clearly, an embryo without a nervous system can’t be sentient and thus can’t be a person, right? And as long as it’s not a person, it doesn’t have any rights.

According to https://www.neurosciencefoundation.org/post/brain-development-in-fetus, “an embryo’s brain and nervous system begin to develop at around the 6-week mark.” And: “At as early as 8 weeks (about 2 months), you can see physical evidence of the brain working (the electric impulses) as ultrasounds show the embryo moving.”

This idea is for viable pregnancies only. Other considerations may apply for non-viable ones.

#299​·​Dennis HackethalOP revised almost 2 years ago

Link is dead.

  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #5017.

Less constant feeding can improve blood sugar swings and insulin sensitivity because every time you eat, your body has to run the insulin system again.

#5017​·​Dirk Meulenbelt, 14 days ago

You can just eat fiber with your meals instead, that will slow down insulin secretion afaik.

  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #5021.

I tried to look for good arguments against eating dairy for it being dairy and I cannot find any.

#5021​·​Dirk Meulenbelt, 14 days ago

Some people are lactose intolerant.

  Dennis Hackethal revised idea #5015 and marked it as a criticism. The revision addresses idea #5022.

One is that it's a way of reducing body fat, and overweight is likely a bigger problem for many people than potential short term negatives of fasting.

One is that it's a way of reducing body fat, and overweight is likely a bigger problem for many people than potential short term negatives of fasting.

  Dennis Hackethal criticized idea #5015.

One is that it's a way of reducing body fat, and overweight is likely a bigger problem for many people than potential short term negatives of fasting.

#5015​·​Dirk Meulenbelt, 14 days ago

When a question is a criticisms, you want to mark your answer as a criticism too so it counts as answered.

  Dirk Meulenbelt commented on idea #5010.

I could see that. Milk is hydrating. Yogurt is a good source of calcium and protein. Can go with low-fat or fat-free options to reduce calories.

#5010​·​Dennis Hackethal revised 14 days ago

I tried to look for good arguments against eating dairy for it being dairy and I cannot find any.

  Dirk Meulenbelt revised idea #4995.

Protein above 0.8 g/kg body weight is desirable, often up to around 2 g/kg.

Protein above 0.8 g/kg of lean mass is desirable, often up to around 2 g/kg.

  Dirk Meulenbelt commented on criticism #5007.

What’s the reasoning behind this claim?

#5007​·​Dennis Hackethal, 14 days ago

There are hints that your body cleans up cells when you fast (autophagy).

  Dirk Meulenbelt commented on criticism #5007.

What’s the reasoning behind this claim?

#5007​·​Dennis Hackethal, 14 days ago

Less constant feeding can improve blood sugar swings and insulin sensitivity because every time you eat, your body has to run the insulin system again.