On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 7:57 AM Colin Hales <[email protected]> wrote:
> ...I'd like to do something different this time. We're part of the 'old > guard' and it's up to us to demonstrate how an intellectual discussion can > be fruitfully conducted to advance the topic in question. So I'd like to > run an experiment. I'd like us to 'steel-man' each other. This is where: > > 1) I do my best to express your perspective to you. > 2) You do your best to express my perspective back to me. > > This is the way for differences to be understood in a manner that can be > fruitfully discussed. For what this means, see this video at exactly > 1:57:15 to 1:58:30. It is an answer to a query from the audience at the end > of sam harris's first 'book club'. > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_5N0N-61Tg > > I think it would be very instructive. Would like like to try? > I think that's a great idea Colin. I think I could do that for most everyone regularly corresponding here: Colin Hales: Cognition is analogue, not digital. The answer is in the physical electromagenetic field effects between elements in the brain. Steve Richfield: The answer is in the detail of neuron behaviour. Peter Voss: "Integrated" symbolism. Symbolism is OK. The answer is we need to build a representation for the meaning of an entire situation. Matt Mahoney: Problem solved. Current neural nets work. We just need to build them bigger. Ben Goertzel: Graphs will do anything. Anyone else wants one, let me know. Mostly variations on the "symbolism was OK, I too am 50% of the way there already", position. I hope that may be "steel-manned" in the sense of "restate the other person's position in a way they would accept". Though perhaps those are not fully "steel-manned". To fully steel-man you might need to leave out too much middle ground. A full steel-man might look more like this: Colin Hales: Obviously there are enormous differences between the brain and a von Neumann computer. We need to explore this NN people: Neural nets find meaningful patterns. Symbolic people: There is a symbolic element to cognition. But that's no good because everyone agrees and goes home! You need a little friction to gain traction and make progress. The idea might be somewhere between straw-man and steel-man. -Rob ------------------------------------------ Artificial General Intelligence List: AGI Permalink: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/T87761d322a3126b1-M69c11b96522f9ae7878c725f Delivery options: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription
