18 – A Popperian Evaluation Of Neuralink’s Presentation

Artificial Creativity

Play

Applying some of Karl Popper's and David Deutsch's ideas to analyze and evaluate Elon Musk's recent Neuralink presentation and the Q&A afterward. Throwing some of my own ideas into the mix as well. Errors mine.

If you enjoyed this episode, follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dchackethal

References
- The original presentation and Q&A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVvmgjBL74w
- The neo-Darwinian theory of the mind (written article): https://blog.dennishackethal.com/posts/the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind
- The neo-Darwinian theory of the mind (read out loud): https://blog.dennishackethal.com/podcasts/artificial-creativity/episodes/16-the-neo-darwinian-theory-of-the-mind
- David Deutsch’s interview on CBC radio: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/the-new-human-1.4696724/oxford-physicist-predicts-ai-will-be-human-in-all-but-name-1.4696754
- David Deutsch’s second interview with Sam Harris: https://samharris.org/podcasts/finding-our-way-in-the-cosmos/
- Article about fluid buildup replacing much of man’s brain: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12301-man-with-tiny-brain-shocks-doctors/
- David Deutsch, “The Beginning of Infinity,” chapters 5 (levels of emergence and abstractions), 12 (bad philosophy), 13 (Balinksi’s and Young’s no-go theorem regarding “deriving” the will of the group from the will of each individual)
- Karl Popper, “Objective Knowledge,” appendix “The Bucket and the Searchlight”
- Karl Popper, “Alle Menschen sind Philosophen,” Kapitel “Zweites Präludium: Die Zukunft ist offen” (the conversation with Konrad Lorenz)
- Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience ("Our Goal" section): https://redwood.berkeley.edu/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepathy

Additional source
- Twitter thread by Dennis containing tweets made live during the event: https://twitter.com/dchackethal/status/1299500744287031296

Correction: at 15:00, I say that memories are always based on self-replicating ideas that have high longevity. That's not true. A memory could be a self-replicating idea with low longevity but high fecundity and high copying fidelity.

Correction: I attributed the fact that there can be no consistent "will of the people" to Balinski & Young. That was a mistake. That's Arrow's theorem, discovered by Kenneth Arrow. Balinski & Young's theorem states that there can be no apportionment rules that meets quota without also causing a population paradox (cf. Deutsch, "The Beginning of Infinity," ch. 13).