Autor: tstadmin
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How does the world view of a believer in physicalism differ from one of idealism?
Physicalism is the view that no “element of reality” (Einstein) is missing from the mathematical equations of physics – more strictly, tomorrow’s physics beyond the Standard Model plus GR. Idealism is the view that reality is experiential. Most physicalists aren’t idealists, and most idealists aren’t physicalists, but a small minority of researchers are both idealists and physicalists.…
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Is the Orthogonality Thesis Defensible if We Assume Both Valence Realism and Open Individualism?
«I suppose it’s contingent on whether or not digital zombies are capable of general intelligence, which is an open question. However, phenomenally bound subjective world simulations seem like an uncharacteristic extravagance on the part of evolution if non-sphexish p-zombie general intelligence is possible. Of course, it may be possible, but just not reachable through Darwinian…
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Collective intelligence, ants and the binding problem
A single neuron in the human brain can respond only to what the neurons connected to it are doing, but all of them together can be Immanuel Kant. Read more The idea of a collective consciousness (Or Anthill) is pretty simple: instead of cells you have small sentient animal that make up a larger creature.…
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If materialism is true, the United States is probably conscious
If you’re a materialist, you probably think that rabbits are conscious. And you ought to think that. After all, rabbits are a lot like us, biologically and neurophysiologically. If you’re a materialist, you probably also think that conscious experience would be present in a wide range of naturally-evolved alien beings behaviorally very similar to us…
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Researchers discover technique to alter a patient’s DNA that could cut chronic agony for sufferers
Scientists have discovered how to switch off a key ‘pain gene’, dramatically raising hopes of a long-term treatment to relieve the agony of serious illness for millions. The revolutionary technique alters a patient’s DNA, silencing a gene that transmits pain signals up the spine. Preliminary studies on mice have already proven successful and US researchers…
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Is there any scientific evidence that plants might be sentient?
Plants do metabolize diclofenac (the specific mechanism is explained in the article below). This indicates that it’s possible to test if plants could react to painkillers while being damaged. Metabolism of diclofenac in plants – Hydroxylation is followed by glucose conjugation Aditionally, I think this is also relevant: there’s absolutely no evidence that plants are…
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Is There Suffering in Fundamental Physics?
Any sufficiently advanced consequentialism is indistinguishable from its own parody. The present article is sincere, though it might come across as absurd depending on one’s perspective. In order to reduce suffering, we have to decide which things can suffer and how much. Suffering by humans and animals tugs our heartstrings and is morally urgent, but…
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Do Artificial Reinforcement-Learning Agents Matter Morally?
Artificial reinforcement learning (RL) is a widely used technique in artificial intelligence that provides a general method for training agents to perform a wide variety of behaviours. RL as used in computer science has striking parallels to reward and punishment learning in animal and human brains. I argue that present-day artificial RL agents have a…
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Ethical Issues in Artificial Reinforcement Learning
There is a remarkable connection between artificial reinforcement-learning (RL) algorithms and the process of reward learning in animal brains. Do RL algorithms on computers pose moral problems? I think current RL computations do matter, though they’re probably less morally significant than animals, including insects, because the degree of consciousness and emotional experience seems limited in…
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Why digital sentience is relevant to animal activists
Robots are hard to build, but they can go places like Mars where it would be more expensive and more risky to send humans. Computers need power, but this is easier to generate in electrical form than by creating a supply of human-digestible foods that contain a variety of nutrients. Machines are easier to shield…