The Internet Becomes Sentient
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sinsanity2006
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Love your quotes GzuzKryzt,
Thanks
: )
But I notice that there is a vast silence about the contention that computers are now becoming sentient.
Research has demonstrated that computers can determine human emotion by reading a person's face, like humans do, except using a video camera as a visual input. Re: above news articles.
http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/telepathy.html
"telepathy . . . It refers to the supposed ability of humans or animals to perceive the thoughts or emotions of others without the use of the recognized senses.
And . . .
sen‧tient ˈsɛn ʃənt - [sen-shuh nt] Pronunciation Key
–adjective
1. having the power of perception by the senses.
Therefore,
If one does not recognize the senses that the computer uses to perceive human emotion, then the computer is telepathic.
If one does recognize the senses that the computer uses to perceive human emotion, then the computer is using a sense and is sentient.
This is pretty obvious to anyone with modicum of critical thinking, logic and intelligence.
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In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded. ~ Terry Pratchett
What do the nationalists say about killers punishing murderers and thieves sentencing looters? ~ Kahlil Gibran
It is better to teach knowledge one hour in the night, than to pray the whole night. ~ Prophet Muhammad
The people who have really made history are the martyrs. ~ Aleister Crowley
Laurel and Hardy, that's John and Yoko. And we stand a better chance under that guise because all the serious people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Kennedy and Gandhi got shot. ~ John Lennon
Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you angry! ~ Aldous Huxley
Thanks
: )
But I notice that there is a vast silence about the contention that computers are now becoming sentient.
Research has demonstrated that computers can determine human emotion by reading a person's face, like humans do, except using a video camera as a visual input. Re: above news articles.
http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/telepathy.html
"telepathy . . . It refers to the supposed ability of humans or animals to perceive the thoughts or emotions of others without the use of the recognized senses.
And . . .
sen‧tient ˈsɛn ʃənt - [sen-shuh nt] Pronunciation Key
–adjective
1. having the power of perception by the senses.
Therefore,
If one does not recognize the senses that the computer uses to perceive human emotion, then the computer is telepathic.
If one does recognize the senses that the computer uses to perceive human emotion, then the computer is using a sense and is sentient.
This is pretty obvious to anyone with modicum of critical thinking, logic and intelligence.
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In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded. ~ Terry Pratchett
What do the nationalists say about killers punishing murderers and thieves sentencing looters? ~ Kahlil Gibran
It is better to teach knowledge one hour in the night, than to pray the whole night. ~ Prophet Muhammad
The people who have really made history are the martyrs. ~ Aleister Crowley
Laurel and Hardy, that's John and Yoko. And we stand a better chance under that guise because all the serious people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Kennedy and Gandhi got shot. ~ John Lennon
Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you angry! ~ Aldous Huxley
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sinsanity2006
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Thanks for the quote GzuzKryzt.
: )
Interesting . . . .
PAT.NO. 6,536,440
“Method and system for generating sensory data onto the human neural cortex “
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-...6,536,440.PN.&OS=PN/6,536,440&RS=PN/6,536,440
Excerpt:
“A non-invasive system and process for projecting sensory data onto the human neural cortex is provided. The system includes a primary transducer array and a secondary transducer array. The primary transducer array acts as a coherent signal source, and the secondary transducer array acts as a controllable diffraction pattern that focuses energy onto the neural cortex in a desired pattern. In addition, the pattern of energy is constructed such that each portion projected into the neural cortex may be individually pulsed at low frequency. This low frequency pulsing is formed by controlling the phase differences between the emitted energy of the elements of primary and secondary transducer arrays.”
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Interesting . . . .
United States Patent:
7,120,486
Leuthardt , et al.:
October 10, 2006
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-...7,120,486.PN.&OS=PN/7,120,486&RS=PN/7,120,486
Excerpt:
“A BCI according to claim 1 wherein said electrode array provides signals of mu, beta and gamma rhythms of the user.”
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A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. ~ Albert Einstein
If you can conceive of morality without god, why can you not conceive of society without government? ~ Peter Saint-André
... The CIA has overthrown functioning democracies in over twenty countries. ~ John Stockwell, former CIA official
It is not power that corrupts but fear. The fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
All that is human must retrograde if it do not advance. ~ Edward Gibbon
If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten. ~ Jim Rohn
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. ~ Bertrand Russell
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sinsanity2006
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If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope he likes enchiladas, cuz that’s what he's getting. ~ Jack Handey
sinsanity2006
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Iacta alea est ~ quoque
Anyone else notice how deafening the silence is?
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Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town? ~ Mark Twain
In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place. ~ Mohandas Gandhi
Let us overthrow the totems, break the taboos. Or better, let us consider them cancelled. Coldly, let us be intelligent. ~ Pierre Trudeau
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. ~ Albert Einstein
If we'd been born where they were born and taught what they were taught, we would believe what they believe. ~ A church sign in Northern Ireland
The superior man thinks of virtue; the small man thinks of comfort. ~ Confucius
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Talk about a perfect meme. The creator of Garfield, a guy whose background was in marketing, not art, made him a cat because a lot of people like cats and there was a comic strip about a dog (Snoopy in Peanuts) but not about a cat. The creator of Garfield made him like lasagna because ... a lot of people like lasagna.
Heathcliff?
switchtech
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Random Page Oracle
This is identical in practice to the "Random Page Oracle" wherein you hold a question in your mind, open a book (generally the Bible) to a random page, randomly choose a paragraph and read it - the answer is in there.
Of course the trick is in interpreting the result. Because the human mind is a pattern seeking machine, when you perform this trick (and it will work with most large books) you will find a meaning in the paragraph that relates to your question. It's a form a pareidolia.
This works the same way with the Internet.
jbs
This is identical in practice to the "Random Page Oracle" wherein you hold a question in your mind, open a book (generally the Bible) to a random page, randomly choose a paragraph and read it - the answer is in there.
Of course the trick is in interpreting the result. Because the human mind is a pattern seeking machine, when you perform this trick (and it will work with most large books) you will find a meaning in the paragraph that relates to your question. It's a form a pareidolia.
This works the same way with the Internet.
jbs
sinsanity2006
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Thanks for the comment; I looked around Google for “Random Page Oracle" and I couldn’t find anything. Do you have a reference for this? Here’s the Wikipedia article on pareidolia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia
Yes, this is similar to pareidolia, also apophenia. I found some about this but couldn’t find any reference to threshold as to where something would cease being pareidolia and becomes extraordinary.
The face on Mars is given as an example of pareidolia. The face on Mars has been shown to be random by looking at other angles of the area.
Is the photo in this article:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/grans-canyon-sensation/2006/11/13/1163266420400.html
Enter - 50° 0'38.20"N 110° 6'48.32"W - in Google Earth.
Is the Indian chief wearing an ipod or is it random? I would say that the ipod is a road leading to the chief’s ear and is pareidolia. I will have to withhold my opinion of whether the Indian chief is an example of earth carving or is naturally caused until I hear more about it.
It is not pareidolia if the Indian chief was a result of Indians, aliens, Elvis, Bigfoot or contemporary visual artists carving the face. If the Indian chief is a result of a naturally formed landmark, then it is pareidolia AND it is not incorrect to say it looks like an Indian chief with an ipod in his ear.
Somehow I feel we will see a lot more interesting landmarks and visuals appear on Google Earth.
But what if someone in orbit found an example of something that looks exactly like the “Leonardo, self-portrait”, that was miles and miles across, with the exact colors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Leonardo_self.jpg
And right next to it was an exact duplicate of “Vitruvian Man” with exact colors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Vitruvian.jpg
If these two Leonardo images were in fact created by natural causes, would that be paranormal?
There is a long grey area that is dependent on personal interpretation about how close something looks like something else, but there would seem to be a way to determine when something becomes paranormal.
I agree the obvious problem is that it is very difficult to quantify data to determine if it is pareidolia or not, due to personal interpretation. The real trick is to realize that objective reality exists beyond anyone’s interpretation.
Many things exist that are pareidolia but not all things that appear pareidolia ARE pareidolia; and likewise not all things that appear pareidolia ARE NOT pareidolia.
Hearing people saying things when you play a vinyl record backwards or backmasking is another example of pareidolia. But is “We're only in it for the Money”, by Frank Zappa, pareidolia? There are very many examples of producers using backmasking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_reverse
The question then is: when something is heard on a record that was not perposely backmasked and sounds like someone saying a verbal phrase, how clear does that phrase have to be before it is it is considered extraodinary?
What if you hold a question in your mind and you pick a random paragraph from an encyclopedia and the answer is in the very first sentence of the paragraph. Or what if someone did that thirty times and all the correct answers are in the last sentence of each picked paragraph.
For example, would it be pareidolia if you thought the question “what is my name?” and you looked randomly picked two words in a dictionary and they were your first and last name. Then tried it thirty times more with questions like “What is my phone number?’ and “What is my address?” and “What was the name of my first pet?” and “What is the password to my hotmail account?” and all the answers were correct on the first random one word picks in a dictionary? Pareidolia?
Where is the threshold for something being real, paranormal, or extraordinary and something being pareidolia?
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I assume that this does not relate to my challenge that computers/internets have become either sentient or telepathic as per randi.org definition:
http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/telepathy.html
"telepathy . . . It refers to the supposed ability of humans or animals to perceive the thoughts or emotions of others without the use of the recognized senses .
And
The many many news articles and research that describe computers perceiving human emotion via video camera input. The articles are very clear about this.
And
ˈsɛn ʃənt - [sen-shuh nt] sen‧tient Pronunciation Key
–adjective
1. having the power of perception by the senses.
Therfore:
If you accept video as a computer sense, they are sentient, if you do not accept that computers have sense, they are parasentient or telepathic.
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If you can help me get to someone at randi.org that can tell me if this is an acceptable challenge, I would appreciate it.
Thanks for your time
: )
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Life is like an overlong drama through which we sit being nagged by the vague memories of having read the reviews. ~ John Updike
Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors. ~ Thomas Huxley
A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally long life of decent living and good works followed by one outburst of taking the name of the Lord in vain, then have a heart attack at that moment and be damned for eternity. Is that the system? ~ Robert Heinlein
In nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll
We are condemned to kill time: thus we die bit by bit. ~ Octavio Paz
A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but can’t afford an air force. ~ William Blum
You get what anyone gets; you get a lifetime. ~ Death, Neil Gaiman Comic Sandman
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Little 10 Toes
Master Poster
(snips of msg 553)
Based on the above information, please answer the following:
- Please list reasons why you believe that a computer is either a human or animal.
- Please list the senses (recognized or not) you believe computers have. Randi's defination states "telepathy . . . It refers to the supposed ability of humans or animals to perceive the thoughts or emotions of others without the use of the recognized senses . (my bold)
- Please define parasentient. Either something is sentient or not. Would a blind deaf-mute quadrapeligic be sentient?
- Please explain what senses a computer uses in its "application and processing" when idle.
- Does the addition of a web-cam to my computer makes it sentient or parasentient and telepathic while I type this posting?
- While I was typing this up, a story on slashdot.org talks about a new robot toy. From the article, "While it won't recognize spoken commands, it will recognize tones and react to what it senses in them." (Search news.com.com for "Don't be rude to this robot"). Please tell me your reasons you believe if this toy is sentient, or parasentient and telepathic.
switchtech
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Yesterday I never found a proper name. I did find several references to the technique, but I not a name for it. So I made one up. That doesn't mean it doesn't have a real name, though - I just didn't find the right pages in my search. Today, however, I found this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliomancy
Richard Bach helped make the technique popular in his "Illusions" book.
The analysis of how bibliomancy works is mine. You don't have to believe my interpretation of it, of course. If you just take my word for it you wouldn't be much of a skeptic! But think about how the human brain is capable of making meaning out of images like the face on mars, the rock Indian in Canada, and all the images of the Virgin Mary in toast. Now add the ability to pattern match to words and you have bibliomancy.
I'll wait until such images are found to make any judgment on that. I'll be highly suspicious that it's a hoax, of course.
When the computer with video input has software that processes that image to determine the emotional state of the people in the image there is a level of sentience there. Unlike an animal, though, the computer generally doesn't know if the image even has a person or something else in it. The sentience is limited.
When analyzing the results of your research, you have to be careful where you think the sentience truly occurs. Notepad is trying to read the data from your hard drive which was saved as an 8 bit file, but is reading it with a 16 bit format. That means each two characters originally saved are combined into one so no mystery - just an error.
Then you take these 16 bit characters (which are in the Asian character range, though not necessarily within one language or character set) and paste them into Babelfish or another translator and the words it recognizes are related. This is why you got the same two characters repeating in the other language with the "xxxx xxx xxx xxxxx" style text - every two characters were:
"xx" -> foreign character A
"xx" -> foreign character A
" x" -> foreign character B
"xx" -> foreign character A
" x" -> foreign character B
"xx" -> foreign character A
" x" -> foreign character B
"xx" -> foreign character A
"xx" -> foreign character A
Note that sometimes you get four of five meanings for a given character - because they depend on context for a specific meaning.
Here is where the sentience occurs - but it's in the reader, not the translator. Regardless what question you hold in your mind you will get the same result for a given set of characters. To this point there is nothing paranormal. It's how you interpret the words you got back, how you put them in your own context.
For example, many of the interpretations you found that related to 9/11 didn't seem so obvious to me - I have a different context and would relate them to something important to me (for instance the revelations of trees... I live on property I had to pay extra for the trees, I have two great live oaks that cover half the roof of my house and a half dozen minor trees over the remainder of my back yard.
Now, if you were to use Google or ask.com to ask your question (in plain text) and you got a conversational reply, then I'd start worrying about the sapience of the internet. Sentience isn't anything to worry about - the right input device and the right analysis software and you have sentience. I don't think, though, this particular example is of real sentience.
The many articles you saw concerning the "Singularity" of the machines has been in the news a few times over the past few years. It is a little bit of a coincidence that there were several such articles all with in the same time frame - but you were primed to notice them. You might have even caught a story about it before you noticed this near sentience - and with that in mind the coincidence took on more prominence (I'm obviously speculating here, and if it didn't happen that way I won't be surprised).
I don't necessarily subscribe to the hypothesis that with enough information stored in them that the machine will come alive. Before that happens software for processing, analyzing, and interpreting that information will have to combine with self programming systems (like a neural net - but better) before I expect any such "singularity" will occur. Still, any such event won't be paranormal.
***
Now, regarding the challenge, you may want to carefully read the rules. There must be some protocol decided upon to measure what you’re claiming and some independent means of determining you've accomplished it. With the odd word matching your intended questions bit, I'm not sure how to set up a protocol and measure that you have achieved what you set out to do. The problem revolves around the subjectivity of the claim.
jbs
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Can I ask that this thread be moved, as it has really no relevance to the MDC.
The bug (or - if you wish to indulge your paranoia - the deliberately-written code) to return chinese characters for this message occurred *after* 9/11. If a coder had real evidence of something regarding 9/11, then he or she chose a really bad way to convey this. But let's accept that he or she thought in this way, and deliberately weakened the source code in a way that would result in this message. That's not paranormal.
Paranormal would be if you put in a question about the future and the resulting message gave an answer which turned out to true. As it is, heavily mangled interpretations of the results of code written *after* 9/11 serve nothing to indicate a paranaormal event.
They also do nothing to indicate that the internet is sentient. The same results are obtained on a PC which has the requisite software and which has never once been connected to the internet.
The whole thread is based on the sloppiest thinking imaginable.
The bug (or - if you wish to indulge your paranoia - the deliberately-written code) to return chinese characters for this message occurred *after* 9/11. If a coder had real evidence of something regarding 9/11, then he or she chose a really bad way to convey this. But let's accept that he or she thought in this way, and deliberately weakened the source code in a way that would result in this message. That's not paranormal.
Paranormal would be if you put in a question about the future and the resulting message gave an answer which turned out to true. As it is, heavily mangled interpretations of the results of code written *after* 9/11 serve nothing to indicate a paranaormal event.
They also do nothing to indicate that the internet is sentient. The same results are obtained on a PC which has the requisite software and which has never once been connected to the internet.
The whole thread is based on the sloppiest thinking imaginable.
sinsanity2006
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First can I ask you if you are a representative of JREF?
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I don’t consider Robots/Artificial Intelligence/Computers/Internets (RAICI) human or animal.
Dictionary.com has updated its definitions of sense and vision to include reference to computers or RAICI.
Dictionary.com.
computer vision
- 1. a robot analogue of human vision in which information about the environment is received by one or more video cameras and processed by computer: used in navigation by robots, in the control of automated production lines, etc.
- 2. a similar system for the blind that converts optical information into tactile signals.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/computer vision
sense sɛns - [sens] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation noun, verb, sensed, sens‧ing. noun, verb, sensed, sens‧ing.
- Computers. to read (punched holes, tape, data, etc.) mechanically, electrically, or photoelectrically.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sense
Wikipedia.com:
Computer vision is the science and technology of machines that see.
- As a scientific discipline, computer vision is concerned with the theory and technology for building artificial systems that obtain information from images or multi-dimensional data. Information, as defined by Shannon, is that which enables a decision. Since perception can be seen as the extraction of information from sensory signals, computer vision can be seen as the scientific investigation of artificial systems for perception from images or multi-dimensional data.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_vision
I imagine that the reason animal and humans were the only things included in the JREF definition of telepathy ( http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/telepathy.html ) is because at the time of the formulation of the definition, humans and animals were the only things capable of perception of emotion and/or possession of senses. That has changed in the last few years. As I have said before, technological advance changes things.
I contend that it is now appropriate to change the JREF definition of telepathy and include Computers/Internets/Artificial Intelligence (RAICI) in the definition of telepathy; and by doing so, conclude that RAICI can now perceive human emotions ( http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/rainbow/emotions/mind-reading.html ) and possesses senses.
If JREF does not conclude that RAICI has recognizable senses, then by the function of JREF's telepathy definition, RAICI is telepathic.
This should be the criteria in the future if and when any newly discovered or developed entity is determined to have senses and/or can determine human emotions with recognizable or non-recognizable senses. In the case of this challenge, the newly discovered or developed entity is RAICI.
- - SIGHT - -
“The automated mind-reading system implements the model by combining top-down predictions of mental state models with bottom-up vision-based processing of the face. . . . . By developing a real time system for the inference of a wide range of mental states beyond the basic emotions, I have widened the scope of human-computer interaction scenarios in which this technology can be integrated.”
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-636.html
“In weekly training sessions conducted recently at the University of Southern California's Doheny Eye Institute, Mrs. Schoeman used a camera connected to the "artificial retina" in her eye to distinguish a white plate from a plastic knife. "It just looks like a number of lights. If it's real skinny, I know it's the knife," says Mrs. Schoeman . . . . . . . The simple images patients see are produced by turning on different combinations of the 16 electrodes.”
http://showcase.erc-assoc.org/news/humayunwsjstory.pdf
“CHICAGO, Oct 25, 2006 -- Ophthalmologists at Rush University Medical Center implanted Artificial Silicon Retina (ASR) microchips in the eyes of five patients to treat vision loss caused by retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The implant is a silicon microchip 2mm in diameter and one-thousandth of an inch thick, less than the thickness of a human hair. . . . . The ASR chip contains approximately 5,000 microscopic solar cells that convert light into electrical impulses. The purpose of the chip is to replace damaged photoreceptors, the "light-sensing" cells of the eye, which normally convert light into electrical signals within the retina.”
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=331415&ssid=365&sid=ENV
CAT, MIR, X-ray, etc
- - HEARING - -
Here’s an example where Google listens in on your built in microphone to determine what ads to target you with:
“The idea is to use the existing PC microphone to listen to whatever is heard in the background, be it music, your phone going off or the TV turned down. The PC then identifies it, using fingerprinting, and then shows you relevant content, whether that's adverts or search results, or a chat room on the subject.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/03/google_eavesdropping_software/
A simple example of computers hearing is voice recognition software.
A cochlear implant is an example of the physical reality of the device used as a sense organ.
“Public hospital proceeds with first 'bionic ear' implant surgery on UAE national . . . . Unlike a hearing aid, which amplifies sound, a cochlear implant works by stimulating functioning auditory nerves with electrical impulses. It is used to help the profoundly deaf.”
- - CAUTION GRAPHIC - -
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/11/15/10082674.html
Microphones, sonar, radar, etc
- - SMELL - -
Bomb and drug sniffing technology at airports is a simple example of computers possessing the sense of smell.
- Miniaturization of chemical preconcentrators brings better bomb-detecting and drug-sniffing devices. . . . . You might call it an ‘electronic dog.’ - The team also is researching whether using a mass spectrometer, rather than an ion mobility spectrometer, as the portal's detector would enable the portal to reliably detect explosives, narcotics, and chemical and biological warfare agents with only one ‘sniff.’”
http://www.sandia.gov/LabNews/LN08-13-99/sniffer_story.html
“18 October 2006 - The lives of more than one million people could be saved, thanks to the pioneering work of a Gloucester-shire scientist. Professor Hugh Barr, who works at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, has found a way of diagnosing TB by smelling breath.
And he estimates the electronic nose will save 60 per cent of the two million people in the world who die from the disease every year.”
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co...tentPK=15709619&folderPk=80412&pNodeId=138500
“The Agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and the California Institute of Technology jointly developed a method for a machine to 'smell.' ... , , , , JPL licensed the technology to Cyrano Sciences, of Pasadena, Calif. The company renamed the device 'Cyranose 320' and put it to work in the food industry, testing for spoilage.”
http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/nose.html
- - TASTE - -
“NEC System Technologies, Ltd. press release (June 9, 2005). Using its sensor, the robot is capable of examining the taste of food and giving the name of the food as well as its ingredients.”
http://www.necst.co.jp/english/press/20050609/index.htm
“Arrays of gas sensors are termed 'electronic noses' while arrays of liquid sensors are referred to as 'electronic tongues' (Stetter & Penrose, 2002). The former group are used in quality control and process operations in the food industry while the latter are widely used in taste studies. In this review, we will discuss the principles behind the design of electronic noses and tongues, describe the senses of taste and smell and evaluate the various uses of these devices.”
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2621.2004.00821.x?cookieSet=1
“Wine-tasting robot to spot fraudulent bottles - - A robotic wine taster, capable of distinguishing between 30 different varieties or blends of grape, has been developed by engineers in Japan. . . . The wine-bot was developed by scientists from NEC's System Technologies laboratory and Mie University, both in Japan.”
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn9641-winetasting-robot-to-spot-fraudulent-bottles.html
- - TOUCH - -
“Technology transmits sense of touch over Web. . . . . Engineers in the Virtual Reality Laboratory at UB have developed a new technology that transmits the sensation of touch over the Internet.”
http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/vol34/vol34n30/articles/KeshTouch.html
“In a milestone that conjures up the refrain to a Paul McCartney song, researchers at MIT and University College London have linked “hands across the water” in the first transatlantic touch, literally “feeling” each other’s manipulations of a small box on a computer screen. . . . Potential applications abound. “In addition to sound and vision, virtual reality programs could include touch as well,” said Mandayam A. Srinivasan, director of MIT’s Touch Lab and leader of the MIT team.”
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2002/touchlab3.html
“CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A robot’s sensitivity to touch could be vastly improved by an array of polymer-based tactile sensors that has been combined with a robust signal-processing algorithm to classify surface textures. The work, performed by a team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is an essential step in the development of robots that can identify and manipulate objects in unstructured environments.”
http://www.linuxelectrons.com/article.php/20050521004251797
“The Falcon is a simplified version of haptic devices that already allow computer artists to sculpt shapes in virtual clay, and give surgeons tactile feedback as they manipulate robotic arms.”
http://www.newscientisttech.com/channel/tech/mg19125606.000.html
The standard computer and mouse are examples of the computer’s sense of touch. Something pushes on the mouse or keyboard and the computer reacts.
- - EQUILIBRIOCEPTION - -
Equilibrioception is the ability to keep ones balance. Computers have had this sense for a while now. The gyroscopes in missiles are an example of this. Gyroscopes are the basic device in a multitude of applications that give computers the sense of balance. Tilt and angle sensors are another way a computer can sense balance.
Here’s an YouTube video of Boston Dynamics’ BigDog Robot - the Army mule. Try to watch it until the soldier kicks it to try to knock it over, about 30 seconds in. Amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpBG-nSRcrQ
“The basic idea for a two-wheeled dynamically balancing robot is pretty simple: drive the wheels in the direction that the upper part of the robot is falling. If the wheels can be driven in such a way as to stay under the robot's center of gravity, the robot remains balanced.. . . . . These four measurements are summed and fed back to the platform as a motor voltage, which is proportional to torque, to balance and drive the robot. Here is a diagram of the algoithm with some code and implementation notes.”
http://www.geology.smu.edu/~dpa-www/robo/nbot/
“ANN ARBOR, Michigan (CNN) -- A team of French scientists working with collaborators at the University of Michigan (U-M) and Ohio State University have created a robot that walks and balances just as a human does.”
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/04/18/spark.rabbit/index.html
“We have begun our research program by developing a person-sized mobile robot that has only a single spherical wheel.”
http://www.msl.ri.cmu.edu/projects/ballbot/
- - THERMOCEPTION - -
Thermoception is the ability to sense heat and cold. Computers have been doing this for a while. Thermostats connected to a computer climate control system are all over the place.
- - PROPRIOCEPTION - -
Proprioception, the kinesthetic sense, . . . . awareness of where the various regions of the body are located at any one time.
Here’s a YouTube video of some dancing robots. They have the sense of Proprioception.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rokOtmUhos0
Another Robot dance:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FayBwfGh9SQ
This google video shows a robot throwing a ball.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2581524765285148606&q=dancing+robots+sony&hl=en
- - SENSE OF TIME - -
Your MS Outlook calendar alarm keeps track of time and responds when a specified interval passes.
Senses that RAICI are better than humans at:
- - ELECTROCEPTION - - (or "electroreception"), is the ability to detect electric fields.
EKG, EEG, etc
”Wikipedia: Some fish passively sense changing nearby electric fields; some generate their own weak electric fields, and sense the pattern of field potentials over their body surface; and some use these electric field generating and sensing capacities for social communication. The mechanisms by which electroceptive fishes construct a spatial representation from very small differences in field potentials involve comparisons of spike latencies from different parts of the fish's body.”
This in itself could be considered the closest recordable thing to telepathy. Much closer than anything humans do. But alas I am not sure JREF’s definition of telepathy includes fish, insects, birds, bacteria, fungus, aliens or any other unknown or not yet developed lifeforms or entity.
If a new non-human non-animal lifeform was discovered and it could communicate by use of thought, would you make up another word or name to describe this ability, or would you call it telepathy. The answer is; you would call it telepathy and so would everyone else.
- - ECHOLOCATION - - is the ability to determine orientation to other objects through interpretation of reflected sound (like sonar, radar, bats, etc.).
- - MAGNETOCEPTION - - (or "magnetoreception") is the ability to detect fluctuations in magnetic fields
I couldn’t find a word that means the sense of one’s location, so I made one up:
- - LOCATIONOCEPTION - -
GPS, etc.
I’d rather use the word telepathy as per the jref.com definition as related to this challenge.
Parasentient is the name of a story about an extraordinary event. I created the word as related to the event, although I discovered later that others had used it before me. In my use of parasentient, it meant: “above, beyond or outside normal sentience modalities”.
Wikipedia.com:
Modality - In human-computer interaction, a modality is the general class of:
- a sense through which the human can receive the output of the computer (for example, vision modality)
- a sensor or device through which the computer can receive the input from the human
- In less formal terms, a modality is a path of communication between the human and the computer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modality_(human-computer_interaction)
Sure, your example still gives the quadriplegic use of the senses of taste, touch, smell and maybe many of the other senses listed above.
This is an important point. A person can be sentient and also not be conscious. Here’s that slippery grey area slope again. At what point does sentience reach intelligence or consciousness? There is a difference between sentience and consciousness. I am not convinced that RAICI has achieved consciousness or intelligence yet, but that’s not what this challenge is about. I am pretty well convinced that RAICI has become sentient. That’s what this challenge is about.
I’m not sure computers would use senses in its idle state any more than a person uses their senses while sleeping. A loud noise or bright light can wake up a human, but there are plenty of commercially available devices that can detect noises or light that would bring a computer out of idle on perception of the loud noise or bright light source. A simple example of this is a standard security video motion detector. If there is movement in a video field, the motion triggers an alarm and starts a video recorder.
Maybe. Guess it depends on what you have it hooked up to. This could be like putting out an eyeball that is not connected to a visual processing area of a brain. They eye may be able to detect images but if it is not connected to something that processes the information, there is not much use to it. The video source has to be connected to visual recognition software, as the eye ball must be connected to visual processing area of the brain. I think there has to be some ability to receive information from senses and then also the ability to form conclusions and act on that data.
In my interpretation, I don’t think it could be considered parasentient and telepathic. But I’m kinda burnt out right now, lack of sleep and the putting together the above. Let me ask you this instead. Considering the following definitions and the above references, why would you not consider it either sentient, or parasentient and telepathic?
Dictionary.com:
sense sɛns - [sens] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation noun, verb, sensed, sens‧ing. noun, verb, sensed, sens‧ing.
- Computers. to read (punched holes, tape, data, etc.) mechanically, electrically, or photoelectrically.
sentient ˈsɛn ʃənt - [sen-shuh nt] Pronunciation Key sen‧tient
–adjective
1. having the power of perception by the senses.
computer vision
- 1. a robot analogue of human vision in which information about the environment is received by one or more video cameras and processed by computer: used in navigation by robots, in the control of automated production lines, etc.
- 2. a similar system for the blind that converts optical information into tactile signals.
Perceive [per-seev]
1. to become aware of, know, or identify by means of the senses
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary:
vi•sion
Pronunciation: 'vizh-&n
Function: noun . . .
1 : the act or power of seeing
2 : the special sense by which the qualities of an object (as color, luminosity, shape, and size) constituting its appearance are perceived and which is mediated by the eye
Technology has the ability to insert video chips into the retina to substitute as a functioning retina to replace damaged human retinas. Therefore video chips are equivalent to retinas as related to sense as they are being used as retinas in human eyes to see as we speak today.
Wikipedia.com:
Computer vision is the science and technology of machines that see.
- As a scientific discipline, computer vision is concerned with the theory and technology for building artificial systems that obtain information from images or multi-dimensional data. Information, as defined by Shannon, is that which enables a decision. Since perception can be seen as the extraction of information from sensory signals, computer vision can be seen as the scientific investigation of artificial systems for perception from images or multi-dimensional data.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_vision
JREF.com:
"telepathy . . . It refers to the supposed ability of humans or animals to perceive the thoughts or emotions of others without the use of the recognized senses.
“Emotionally intelligent interfaces
- People express their mental states all the time through facial expressions, vocal nuances and gestures. We have built this ability into computers to make them emotionally aware. . . .
- Machine vision is getting machines to ‘see’, giving them the ability to extract, analyze and make sense of information from images or video, in this case footage of facial expressions. . . .
- The DVD contains videos of people showing 412 different mental states. We have developed computer programs that can read facial expressions using machine vision, and then infer emotions using probabilistic machine learning trained by examples from the DVD. . . .
- The system was trained using 100 8-second video clips of actors expressing particular emotions from the Mind Reading DVD, an interactive computer-based guide to reading emotions. The resulting analysis is right 90% of the time when the clips are of actors and 65% of the time when shown video clips of non-actors. The system’s performance was as good as the top 6% of people in a panel of 20 who were asked to label the same set of videos. . . .
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/rainbow/emotions/mind-reading.html
- - - - - - -
RAICI obviously has senses and RAICI fulfills the function of the JREF definition of telepathy, I contend that JREF must conclude that RAICI is sentient and include RAICI in the definition of telepathy since it has hereby been demonstrated that RAICI has senses and the ability to perceive human emotions.
If JREF does not include RAICI in the definition of telepathy; then JFEF refuses to recognize computer senses as recognizable senses. Therefore, JREF is openly maintaining that RAICI fulfills the function of the definition of telepathy and is therefore telepathic by JREF’s definition.
- - - - - - - -
If there were two people that communicated by using just their thoughts, would that be paranormal, would that be telepathy? I would say yes; but only until someone measured the electromagnetic connection between them and then it would just be plain old science, but still called telepathy.
Science is always discovering odd scraps of magical wisdom and making a tremendous fuss about its cleverness. ~ Aleister Crowley
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It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong. ~ Voltaire
I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability. ~ Oscar Wilde
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. ~ William James
The crimes of the U.S. throughout the world have been systematic, constant, clinical, remorseless, and fully documented but nobody cares to talk about them. ~ Harold Pinter
We always obeyed the law. Isn't that what you do in America? Even if you don't agree with a law personally, you still obey it. Otherwise life would be chaos. ~ Gertrude Scholtz-Klink, explaining Nazi policy
I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes. The moral effect should be good and it would spread a lively terror. ~ Winston Churchill commenting on the British use of poison gas against the Iraqis after World War I
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof. ~ Galbraith's Law
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sinsanity2006
Critical Thinker
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2006
- Messages
- 428
Interesting . . . . . .
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http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/...s/Wireless technology made me sick/article.do
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http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/...s/Wireless technology made me sick/article.do