Poor impulse control (with apologies to Neil Stephenson)

Poor impulse control (with apologies to Neil Stephenson)
Ok, I have been asked about this photo. At Beth Schnitzer's urging here is the story. In a place long ago and faraway (Boulder Colorado, 1973) Diane and I were heading home for Christmas. A friend was driving his Mercedes to St.Louis. On the way we shortly hit a sheet ice storm. It was treacherous cubed. I did not trust anyone else to drive under those circumstances (especially the car's owner).so when we got to St. Louis (after many hours) I was so "wired" I couldn't imagine what I must look like. So 25 cents in the photo booth (that is what it cost don't laugh) produced this memorable little item. That is the damn story. I really did look like that

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Sapolsky and Coming soon to a mind near you.........NIEM

News
Went to see Robert Sapolsky at California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.
He is always good to keep up on.
For a more arcane route he came from studying baboons to neurology.
He is speaking much about the definitional difference between man and other animals.
Essentially his conclusion (my words) not much. What is, is in degree not kind.
There remains a group who limit it to the content of the "mind".
Which brings to "mind' one of my favorite seventeenth century quotes from John Locke "beasts abstract not" a quote as attractive for its elegance as its content.

Look soon for my new blog NIEM (Neural Information Ethical & Moral).
I think this idea will be the most important I have had, Not necessarrily the most fun or entertaining.

Niem appetizer.


What is NIEM? an acronym (of course).       Neural Information Ethical  & Moral.
There has always been an information ethics. often implied but not always. When we speak to each other in even the most informal terms  there is an implied factor of trust. We basically agree on definitions of words for instance.
But in the sense of NIEM I am talking about a greater more holistic idea. We are in an age where there are extreme, even terminal, challenges to the individual’s ability to consume and act on information.
Firstly it is important to realize that an ethic does not need to be attainable. They most often are not. Who is truly an All Good Man.? yet many of us strive to be good. We are not purely just but strive for justice. It is clear to us what the direction of our ethics is.
 It will become the same with NIEM.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Neuro Belief Systems intro

The human mind, as we have stated earlier, is the most powerful conscious force we know. It is the only thing that changes things in context, and with a greater purpose.  It took us, good or bad, to where we are today.   While you may not be convinced in this brief passage I expect you will be both troubled and inspired before the full story unfolds.  
Great and inquisitive minds have spent untold hours and huge amounts of energy (human and mechanical) trying to unravel why humans believe and what they believe. Until recently these efforts, though valuable, were often musings and exercises. Now they are developing purpose, import and evidence. As time goes on we will need to use our brain to make the most important decisions that have ever been made.   Even as I write we are meeting some of the challenges and challengers. Cloning? We have cloned animals and we will, at some point, be able to clone humans. Should we? Where does my freedom end and yours begin? Can I, given the ability, create a copy of myself with no consciousness? An organ farm, growing perfect replicas of my now tired organs, ready to harvest at the peak of their youth? Why not? Who has the power to decide and why? Would this cloned livestock be a human? Would it have human rights? If it cannot think and talk, if it has no personality but a future supercomputer does, which has a right? If, as it may now seem eventually possible, we can live forever, should we? Can we decide for all the others yet to come that our existence is more important than theirs? Some day we may copy our consciousness to a computer, if we were inside that computer and then realized that, in fact, we could think, just as we do now, if we reside on some Metadrive and look out and saw, in fact see just as we do now, if our “computer self” felt in every way as we do now would that be us? Then, if it is us how would we react to the original, with the same memories up to the transfer but burdened by a decaying, resource devouring body? Would it be wrong to see that the original human form has needs far beyond a mere resident memory on the meta drive. A body that is creating ecological havoc and consuming enormous resources. Resources that could keep alive other more diverse animals. Will the time come that only one of these consciousnesses is appropriate for the sake of our planet? Questions for some very large coffee tables indeed.  Questions that no doubt will be answered, one way or another.  But how, and by whom? Will these eternal deciders be operating with the same cognitive equipment and beliefs as the decision makers of today? In a society that cannot make effective, rapid decisions about bus schedules, is there a way to make decisions that cannot be wrong.
Until now we could allow cognitive noise. Our belief systems create a sort of milieu and havoc in the decision making process. From this we get what is often called “the political reality.” Which, may, in fact have been our only reasonable choice. But can we allow belief systems based on largely psychological and neurological factors to make decisions for everyone that will ever exist, and in fact decide if any others will exist at all. An even more troubling question, are you willing to let someone else’s' beliefs dictate these choices. Beliefs that are above or separate from conversation. Beliefs based on rationalizations such as "I just know its right" or "It’s the right idea”, or “I can't tell you how I know, I just know". There may be some willing to gamble the eternal fate of humanity on such mythological whimsy, it would, on the other hand be odd if they turned out to be the asteroid to the human dinosaur.  [Although, in this case, there may never be another student to marvel over the fact.]

Imagine.



 For more see attached word or txt file titled "Belief one"

Neurozealous part one

Testing the system.