PyJamas Pillow Talk

#14 Alyssa Adams- Emergence, artificial intelligence and what it means to be human

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My guest today is Alyssa Adams. She has a PhD in Physics from Arizona State University and a Bachelors in Physics from East Tennessee State University. She is currently a CIBM Postdoctoral Trainee at University of Wisconsin-Madison and has worked as a data scientist and lab director at VEDA Data Solutions. Please enjoy the show. 

Show Notes
  • [1:11] What is the craziest political idea that Alyssa holds?
  • [2:37] Designing a government from scratch in the 21st century
  • [3:40] How should we view ethics if it is just a construct by humans?
  • [7:40] What are some experiences that Alyssa value more than her peers?
  • [10:40] What are the phases in evolution that capture Alyssa’s imagination?
  • [13:05] Are the underlying rules of life simple or complex?
  • [15:31] Are we moving in the right direction in the theory of everything?
  • [19:42] Is our current modelling of neutrons in deep neural networks optimal?
  • [24:09] How did Alyssa’s polymathic view of the world come about?
  • [28:00] What advice will Alyssa give to her younger self re: making friends?
  • [32:06] Why the pronoun ‘they/them’ for Alyssa?
  • [34:13] Labels in society
  • [37:41] Cultivating a sense of happiness and managing depression
  • [48:31] Thoughts on current scientific and religious explanation of how the universe came about 
  • [56:08] Filling the gaps that may have been left behind by religion
  • [1:00:15] Is Alyssa afraid of death? What makes a good life?
  • [1:04:03] Measures of intelligence and creating truly intelligent machines
  • [1:06:56] Ethics in creating sentient and intelligent robots
  • [1:08:54] What does it mean to be human?
  • [1:13:28] What is emergence?
  • [1:15:45] State of artificial intelligence
  • [1:18:00] Does biology provide the best framework for evolution or will humans come up with something better?
  • [1:21:27] What is public data? Management of public data and future of private data
  • [1:29:00] Are we living in a simulation?
    • Mentions

    Open-endedness: The last grand challenge you’ve never heard of – O’Reilly

    Connect

    If you like to find out more about me, please find me on my personal website at www.pohjie.com, or connect with me on Twitter (@pohjie_pj).

    Outro

    Thank you for listening to this episode. If you like this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with 1-3 friends. I started this podcast with the intention of having awesome conversations with interesting people, and having your support means a lot. Thank you.

    Music credits
    • Shades of Spring by Kevin MacLeod
  • Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4342-shades-of-spring
  • License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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    PyJamas Pillow TalkBy PJ (Poh Jie)
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