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Re63-NOTES.pdf
(The below text version of the notes is for search purposes and convenience. See the PDF version for proper formatting such as bold, italics, etc., and graphics where applicable. Copyright: 2022 Retraice, Inc.)
Re63: Seventeen Reasons to Learn AI
retraice.com
A reminder for when motivation is lacking.
Air date: Sunday, 27th Nov. 2022, 11:00 PM Eastern/US.
Human action
Learning AI sometimes requires high motivation. The economist Ludwig von Mises gives three prerequisites for human action:^1 1. Uneasiness (with the present); 2. An image (of a desirable future); 3. The belief (expectation) that action has the power to yield the image. AI is becoming more necessary to achieve desirable futures, because enough humans have been picking low-hanging fruit for enough time that most of the fruit is now high-hanging, where we can't reach without AI.
The following are some causes for uneasiness in all of us, young and old.
Life
1. The practical: livelihood, money, wealth, destitution.^2
2. The proximal: what observations by individuals happen to reveal the importance of AI. In the case of Retraice it was the need for AI to work seriously on our hypotheses about what's going on out there, and then noticing the computer control game and the differences between outsiders and players.
3. The principled: whatever larger purpose or value one perceives in life. In the case of the author, a `local enclave'^3 of good stuff like humans, farms, cities and engineering against a universe that's generally trying to be crap.^4
Biology
Things fall apart.^5
4. You might reverse aging, turning back time to get second chances.^6 (Though, is death adaptive in terms of evolution and reproduction?).
5. You might repair injuries.^7
6. You might save your own life.^8
7. We need it to stabilize and repair the planet.
Fear
8. FOMO: fear of missing out.
9. Young people always use cutting edge tech (and old people usually don't), so your world is going to be perpetually shaped by young people who know AI.^9
10. FUD: fear, uncertainty, doubt.
11. Criminals always use cutting edge tech. There's arguably more pressure on them to do so, or at least less inhibition in them. Note that criminals and bad guys are not perfectly overlapping groups.
12. The bad guys are learning it, and they'll be able to use it to prevent you from learning it. Consider China.^10
13. You or your loved ones may be enslaved by those who learn it. Perhaps a good definition of power is `the relative capacity to protect loved ones'.
14. Collapse into technological tyrannical, even at the hands of benevolent overlords.
15. Whatever we cause to happen by AI is probably going to happen to you, in your lifetime. You're not going to understand what's happening to you, what's being done to you.^11
Love
16. If you've ever been in love, you want more.
17. If you've never been in love, you want some.
AI makes more of just about anything possible--if not love itself, than the many things that make love more likely. Though the same is true of bad things. "In nature, necessity and desire are always linked."^12
_
References
Ben-Naim, A. (2008). A Farewell To Entropy: Statistical Thermodynamics Based On Information. World Scientific. ISBN: 978-9812707079. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9789812707079 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9789812707079 https://lccn.loc.gov/
Brockman, J. (Ed.) (2019). Possible Minds: Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at AI. Penguin. ISBN: 978-0525557999. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0525557999 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0525557999 https://lccn.loc.gov/2018032888
Gawande, A. (2014). Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. Metropolitan Books. ISBN: 978-0805095159. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780805095159 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780805095159 https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchArg=9780805095159
Knowles, E. (Ed.) (1999). The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Oxford University Press, 5th ed. ISBN: 0198601735. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=0198601735 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+0198601735 https://lccn.loc.gov/99012096
Koch, C. G. (2007). The Science of Success. Wiley. ISBN: 978-0470139882. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780470139882 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780470139882 https://lccn.loc.gov/2007295977
Retraice (2022/10/16). Re20: The Deadline Problem. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re20 Retrieved 17th Oct. 2022.
Retraice (2022/11/03). Re39: News -- Space, Technology, Death. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re39 Retrieved 6th Nov. 2022.
Retraice (2022/11/05). Re41: News -- Betterment, Intelligence, Darkness. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re41 Retrieved 8th Nov. 2022.
Retraice (2022/11/06). Re42: News -- Wealth, Wildcards, Computers. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re42 Retrieved 8th Nov. 2022.
Retraice (2022/11/13). Re49: China is Not F-ing Around. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re49 Retrieved 15th Nov. 2022.
Russell, S., & Norvig, P. (2020). Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. Pearson, 4th ed. ISBN: 978-0134610993. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0134610993 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0134610993 https://lccn.loc.gov/2019047498
Sawyer, W. W. (1955). Prelude to Mathematics. Dover Publications, 1982 revised ed. ISBN: 0486244016. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=0486244016 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+0486244016 https://lccn.loc.gov/82004567
Schneier, B. (2015). Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World. W. W. Norton. ISBN: 9780393244816. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780393244816 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780393244816 https://lccn.loc.gov/2014048365
Strittmatter, K. (2018). We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State. Custom House, revised, updated ed. ISBN: 978-0063027305. Published in Germany, 2018. This paperback edition 2021. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780063027305 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780063027305 https://lccn.loc.gov/2020288922
von Mises, L. (1949). Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2010 reprint ed. ISBN: 978-1610161459. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9781610161459 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9781610161459 https://lccn.loc.gov/50002445
Wiener, N. (1954). The Human Use Of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society. Da Capo, 2nd ed. ISBN: 978-0306803208. This 1954 ed. missing `The Voices of Rigidity' chapter of the original 1950 ed. See 1st ed.: https://archive.org/details/humanuseofhumanb00wien/page/n11/mode/2up. See also Brockman (2019) p. xviii. Searches for the 2nd ed.: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780306803208 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780306803208 https://lccn.loc.gov/87037102
Footnotes
^1 von Mises (1949) pp. 13-14. See also Koch (2007) p. 144.
^2 See Russell & Norvig (2020) p. 1 on the plenty of opportunities in AI.
^3 Wiener (1954) pp. 12, 26.
^4 On entropy and information, see Ben-Naim (2008) p. xvii.
^5 Gawande (2014) chpt. 2.
^6 Cf. Retraice (2022/11/03) on "making cells young again".
^7 See Retraice (2022/11/05) on "The Lego blocks of life" and Retraice (2022/11/06) on "protein folding".
^8 See Retraice (2022/10/16) on "the deadline problem".
^9 Planck: "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.". From his Scientific Autobiography (1949), quoted in Knowles (1999) p. 577.
^10 Retraice (2022/11/13), Horesh: "could soon find themselves entering a vise from which they never escape".
^11 This is already happening in the domain of computer control and, to a significant extent, AI itself: hacking, social media and search algorithms, big data profiling and market segmentation, etc. Most people are not aware of the arsenals of machines running software that are deployed by companies and governments to monitor and change their behavior. See Strittmatter (2018); Schneier (2015).
^12 Sawyer (1955) p. 12.
View all episodes
By Retraice, Inc.(The below text version of the notes is for search purposes and convenience. See the PDF version for proper formatting such as bold, italics, etc., and graphics where applicable. Copyright: 2022 Retraice, Inc.)
Re63: Seventeen Reasons to Learn AI
retraice.com
A reminder for when motivation is lacking.
Air date: Sunday, 27th Nov. 2022, 11:00 PM Eastern/US.
Human action
Learning AI sometimes requires high motivation. The economist Ludwig von Mises gives three prerequisites for human action:^1 1. Uneasiness (with the present); 2. An image (of a desirable future); 3. The belief (expectation) that action has the power to yield the image. AI is becoming more necessary to achieve desirable futures, because enough humans have been picking low-hanging fruit for enough time that most of the fruit is now high-hanging, where we can't reach without AI.
The following are some causes for uneasiness in all of us, young and old.
Life
1. The practical: livelihood, money, wealth, destitution.^2
2. The proximal: what observations by individuals happen to reveal the importance of AI. In the case of Retraice it was the need for AI to work seriously on our hypotheses about what's going on out there, and then noticing the computer control game and the differences between outsiders and players.
3. The principled: whatever larger purpose or value one perceives in life. In the case of the author, a `local enclave'^3 of good stuff like humans, farms, cities and engineering against a universe that's generally trying to be crap.^4
Biology
Things fall apart.^5
4. You might reverse aging, turning back time to get second chances.^6 (Though, is death adaptive in terms of evolution and reproduction?).
5. You might repair injuries.^7
6. You might save your own life.^8
7. We need it to stabilize and repair the planet.
Fear
8. FOMO: fear of missing out.
9. Young people always use cutting edge tech (and old people usually don't), so your world is going to be perpetually shaped by young people who know AI.^9
10. FUD: fear, uncertainty, doubt.
11. Criminals always use cutting edge tech. There's arguably more pressure on them to do so, or at least less inhibition in them. Note that criminals and bad guys are not perfectly overlapping groups.
12. The bad guys are learning it, and they'll be able to use it to prevent you from learning it. Consider China.^10
13. You or your loved ones may be enslaved by those who learn it. Perhaps a good definition of power is `the relative capacity to protect loved ones'.
14. Collapse into technological tyrannical, even at the hands of benevolent overlords.
15. Whatever we cause to happen by AI is probably going to happen to you, in your lifetime. You're not going to understand what's happening to you, what's being done to you.^11
Love
16. If you've ever been in love, you want more.
17. If you've never been in love, you want some.
AI makes more of just about anything possible--if not love itself, than the many things that make love more likely. Though the same is true of bad things. "In nature, necessity and desire are always linked."^12
_
References
Ben-Naim, A. (2008). A Farewell To Entropy: Statistical Thermodynamics Based On Information. World Scientific. ISBN: 978-9812707079. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9789812707079 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9789812707079 https://lccn.loc.gov/
Brockman, J. (Ed.) (2019). Possible Minds: Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at AI. Penguin. ISBN: 978-0525557999. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0525557999 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0525557999 https://lccn.loc.gov/2018032888
Gawande, A. (2014). Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. Metropolitan Books. ISBN: 978-0805095159. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780805095159 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780805095159 https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchArg=9780805095159
Knowles, E. (Ed.) (1999). The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Oxford University Press, 5th ed. ISBN: 0198601735. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=0198601735 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+0198601735 https://lccn.loc.gov/99012096
Koch, C. G. (2007). The Science of Success. Wiley. ISBN: 978-0470139882. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780470139882 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780470139882 https://lccn.loc.gov/2007295977
Retraice (2022/10/16). Re20: The Deadline Problem. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re20 Retrieved 17th Oct. 2022.
Retraice (2022/11/03). Re39: News -- Space, Technology, Death. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re39 Retrieved 6th Nov. 2022.
Retraice (2022/11/05). Re41: News -- Betterment, Intelligence, Darkness. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re41 Retrieved 8th Nov. 2022.
Retraice (2022/11/06). Re42: News -- Wealth, Wildcards, Computers. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re42 Retrieved 8th Nov. 2022.
Retraice (2022/11/13). Re49: China is Not F-ing Around. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re49 Retrieved 15th Nov. 2022.
Russell, S., & Norvig, P. (2020). Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. Pearson, 4th ed. ISBN: 978-0134610993. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0134610993 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0134610993 https://lccn.loc.gov/2019047498
Sawyer, W. W. (1955). Prelude to Mathematics. Dover Publications, 1982 revised ed. ISBN: 0486244016. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=0486244016 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+0486244016 https://lccn.loc.gov/82004567
Schneier, B. (2015). Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World. W. W. Norton. ISBN: 9780393244816. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780393244816 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780393244816 https://lccn.loc.gov/2014048365
Strittmatter, K. (2018). We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China's Surveillance State. Custom House, revised, updated ed. ISBN: 978-0063027305. Published in Germany, 2018. This paperback edition 2021. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780063027305 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780063027305 https://lccn.loc.gov/2020288922
von Mises, L. (1949). Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2010 reprint ed. ISBN: 978-1610161459. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9781610161459 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9781610161459 https://lccn.loc.gov/50002445
Wiener, N. (1954). The Human Use Of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society. Da Capo, 2nd ed. ISBN: 978-0306803208. This 1954 ed. missing `The Voices of Rigidity' chapter of the original 1950 ed. See 1st ed.: https://archive.org/details/humanuseofhumanb00wien/page/n11/mode/2up. See also Brockman (2019) p. xviii. Searches for the 2nd ed.: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9780306803208 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+9780306803208 https://lccn.loc.gov/87037102
Footnotes
^1 von Mises (1949) pp. 13-14. See also Koch (2007) p. 144.
^2 See Russell & Norvig (2020) p. 1 on the plenty of opportunities in AI.
^3 Wiener (1954) pp. 12, 26.
^4 On entropy and information, see Ben-Naim (2008) p. xvii.
^5 Gawande (2014) chpt. 2.
^6 Cf. Retraice (2022/11/03) on "making cells young again".
^7 See Retraice (2022/11/05) on "The Lego blocks of life" and Retraice (2022/11/06) on "protein folding".
^8 See Retraice (2022/10/16) on "the deadline problem".
^9 Planck: "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.". From his Scientific Autobiography (1949), quoted in Knowles (1999) p. 577.
^10 Retraice (2022/11/13), Horesh: "could soon find themselves entering a vise from which they never escape".
^11 This is already happening in the domain of computer control and, to a significant extent, AI itself: hacking, social media and search algorithms, big data profiling and market segmentation, etc. Most people are not aware of the arsenals of machines running software that are deployed by companies and governments to monitor and change their behavior. See Strittmatter (2018); Schneier (2015).
^12 Sawyer (1955) p. 12.