I feel I have a “trying to keep up, or at least keep-my-head-above-water consciousness. Really enjoy your comics. Thanks a lot!
Today I read a news reporter’s week long “experience-experiment” that shows how limited AI really is. I found it eye-opening, and now feel more at ease cause I think, like many things in human life, AI only has the power that we give it.
It's becoming clear that with all the brain and consciousness theories out there, the proof will be in the pudding. By this I mean, can any particular theory be used to create a human adult level conscious machine. My bet is on the late Gerald Edelman's Extended Theory of Neuronal Group Selection. The lead group in robotics based on this theory is the Neurorobotics Lab at UC at Irvine. Dr. Edelman distinguished between primary consciousness, which came first in evolution, and that humans share with other conscious animals, and higher order consciousness, which came to only humans with the acquisition of language. A machine with only primary consciousness will probably have to come first.
What I find special about the TNGS is the Darwin series of automata created at the Neurosciences Institute by Dr. Edelman and his colleagues in the 1990's and 2000's. These machines perform in the real world, not in a restricted simulated world, and display convincing physical behavior indicative of higher psychological functions necessary for consciousness, such as perceptual categorization, memory, and learning. They are based on realistic models of the parts of the biological brain that the theory claims subserve these functions. The extended TNGS allows for the emergence of consciousness based only on further evolutionary development of the brain areas responsible for these functions, in a parsimonious way. No other research I've encountered is anywhere near as convincing.
I post because on almost every video and article about the brain and consciousness that I encounter, the attitude seems to be that we still know next to nothing about how the brain and consciousness work; that there's lots of data but no unifying theory. I believe the extended TNGS is that theory. My motivation is to keep that theory in front of the public. And obviously, I consider it the route to a truly conscious machine, primary and higher-order.
My advice to people who want to create a conscious machine is to seriously ground themselves in the extended TNGS and the Darwin automata first, and proceed from there, by applying to Jeff Krichmar's lab at UC Irvine, possibly. Dr. Edelman's roadmap to a conscious machine is at https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.10461, and here is a video of Jeff Krichmar talking about some of the Darwin automata, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Uh9phc1Ow
Long live the TRUE AI -- Authentic Intelligence!
I like that AI!
SO BRILLIANT!!!! Thank you👏👏👏👏
Dear Grant's consciousness,
Thank you for sharing your explorations!
Love
Myq's consciousness
Reading comics, the best way to merge consciousnesses with another 😁
Love it! Another merging emerging:
Comics + Consciousness = Comnicsciousnesss!
I hate when I’m running, hit a brick wall and get crunchy, concussion consciousness. It’s like cereal…snap, crackle and pop, without the sugar hit.
yep, that happens to me when I trip over a tree root on my trail runs. so far just sore wrists and bruised ego, though...
“I think where I am not, therefore I am where I do not think.” - Lacan
This is magic.
I feel I have a “trying to keep up, or at least keep-my-head-above-water consciousness. Really enjoy your comics. Thanks a lot!
Today I read a news reporter’s week long “experience-experiment” that shows how limited AI really is. I found it eye-opening, and now feel more at ease cause I think, like many things in human life, AI only has the power that we give it.
The news link, fyi:
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2026/0303/artificial-intelligence-daily-tasks
Keep doing it the organic way. Your followers enjoy it a lot!
Beautiful! Just keep on drawing your art in your imperfect, inefficient, human way. We all need that.
Thank you!
It's becoming clear that with all the brain and consciousness theories out there, the proof will be in the pudding. By this I mean, can any particular theory be used to create a human adult level conscious machine. My bet is on the late Gerald Edelman's Extended Theory of Neuronal Group Selection. The lead group in robotics based on this theory is the Neurorobotics Lab at UC at Irvine. Dr. Edelman distinguished between primary consciousness, which came first in evolution, and that humans share with other conscious animals, and higher order consciousness, which came to only humans with the acquisition of language. A machine with only primary consciousness will probably have to come first.
What I find special about the TNGS is the Darwin series of automata created at the Neurosciences Institute by Dr. Edelman and his colleagues in the 1990's and 2000's. These machines perform in the real world, not in a restricted simulated world, and display convincing physical behavior indicative of higher psychological functions necessary for consciousness, such as perceptual categorization, memory, and learning. They are based on realistic models of the parts of the biological brain that the theory claims subserve these functions. The extended TNGS allows for the emergence of consciousness based only on further evolutionary development of the brain areas responsible for these functions, in a parsimonious way. No other research I've encountered is anywhere near as convincing.
I post because on almost every video and article about the brain and consciousness that I encounter, the attitude seems to be that we still know next to nothing about how the brain and consciousness work; that there's lots of data but no unifying theory. I believe the extended TNGS is that theory. My motivation is to keep that theory in front of the public. And obviously, I consider it the route to a truly conscious machine, primary and higher-order.
My advice to people who want to create a conscious machine is to seriously ground themselves in the extended TNGS and the Darwin automata first, and proceed from there, by applying to Jeff Krichmar's lab at UC Irvine, possibly. Dr. Edelman's roadmap to a conscious machine is at https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.10461, and here is a video of Jeff Krichmar talking about some of the Darwin automata, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Uh9phc1Ow
What tech/program do you use for your art?
I enjoyed this one… on so many levels.
pen, paper, and markers - then I scan and color in accursed Adobe Photoshop :)
I wholeheartedly agree. (Love the art. Looks perfect to me!)
Thanks Beth!
Thank you for continuing to make your comics in your imperfect and delightful human way. With the rise of ai, we need this even more!
Thanks for being you and sharing your gifts.
How to explore Consciousness?
That is the burning question Grant…….
Keep your observations coming please-always happy to read them.
This is very good.
Thank you, Bob!