A few unrelated points:
Eclectic lists can be fun. Here are a few titles:
Glial cell are actually about 1:1. A few years ago a researcher wanted to cite something to back up the usual 9:1 figure, but after asking everybody for several months nobody knew where the figure came from. So, they did a study themselves and did a count and found it to be 1:1. I don't have the reference on me, it was a talk I went to about a year ago (I work at a neuroscience research institute).
I have asked a number of neuroscientists about the importance of glia and have always received the same answer: the evidence that they are functionally important is still "very weak". They might be wrong, but given that some of these guys could give hour long lectures on exactly why they think this, and know the few works that claim otherwise... I'm inclined to believe them.
This new finding may be correct, but the old dictum about "nullius in verba" still makes sense.
What frightens us most in a madman is his sane conversation.
--Anatole France
In fairness, Semmelweis didn't handle things very well. He drank heavily, and he engaged in personal attacks on doctors who disagreed with him. He self-destructed a fair bit. He wasn't ostracized until his various problems with interacting with people had already started. Before that, many people listened to what he had to say, and many just listened and then didn't change their mind. If he had handled things better, more people would likely have listened. Frankly, the sort of behavior he engaged in would today be the sort that would likely have triggered major crank warnings (it is important to note that not every such person is in fact a crank, but it does show how his behavior didn't help). But the common narrative of Semmelweis as this great martyr figure fighting against the establishment isn't really that accurate.
Respectfully, the idiosyncracy of Semmelweis's personality isn't directly the point. Semmelweis had established beyond doubt early in his career that hand-washing with chlorinated water before deliveries dramatically drove down the maternal mortality rate. This was a huge finding. Incredibly to most of us now, at one time childbirth was a leading cause of death. The gut prejudice of his peers prevailed, however, and it was to be another 60 years later that the introduction of sulfa drugs and antibiotics again began to drive down maternal mortality. The point relates to pluralistic ignorance and the role of social proof. Social proof roughly means that the greater number of persons who find an idea correct, the greater it will be correct. In situations of uncertainty , everyone looks at everyone else to see what they are doing. One answer to Alicorn's query at the end of her post is to bear in mind the phenomenon of social proof, and the tendency toward pluralistic ignorance. Therefore, look beyond what the plurality of people are doing or saying.
The compact terminology for the class of phenomena you are describing is "pluralistic ignorance," and in other contexts it presents a far vaster challenge that the Kitty Genovese case would indicate. Consider the 19th century physician Ignatz Semmelweis, who pioneered the practice of hand-washing as a means of reducing sepsis and therefore maternal mortality. He was ostracized by fellow practitioners and died in destitution.
Like Marcus Aurelius, Beethoven, Schopenhauer, or Nietzsche?
Leisure? Happiness? Aurelius, the emperor, was always on the move with his army trying to preserve his empire and worried about his conniving son, Commodus. Beethoven was a reclusive single man, who grew ill and deaf in later years. Schopenhauer was a self-absorbed and misogynistic single man (though he supposedly enjoyed walking his poodles). Nietzsche was a precocious and convalescent single man. Why not add Wittgenstein to the list? Selection bias?
Has anyone considered extending an invitation to Raymond Smullyan, as, say, a guest of honor to the summit (if not having done so already). Living in New York State, he recently published an amusing and short literary book (at age 89). There aren't many students of A. Church (recall that Turing was one of them) still with us. With Aubrey de Grey on the roster covering issues of longevity and more, an appearance by Ray Smullyan, provided he is willing and able, may raise the level of your conference not only intellectually, but also in terms of humor, humanity and perspective. I've heard he also does magic tricks. Thoughts?
If you already think the CI applies to humans, why would it be strange to hear that it also applies to an AI? If you don't think it applies to humans, then "not at all" could be "equal force", and that would also be un-strange.
Well spotted! But why is it NOT strange to hold that the CI applies to an AI? Isn't the raison d'etre of AI to operate on hypothetical imperatives?
View more: Next
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d){kind=logo}
= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
If there were a party of those who are not sure they are right, I'd belong to it.
--Albert Camus