Here's an example of an approach to "awareness", by replacing Turing's sequential process paradigm with a space-like *multi*-process paradigm:
"Awareness Lies Outside Turing's Box <http://www.rootsofunity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/NotInTheBox_2018.pdf> " *Abstract. * The idea of computation as formulated by Alan Turing in the 1920's dominates the contemporary discussion of the mechanism(s) underlying awareness. Unfortunately, the very semantics of computation, as standardly defned, seem namely to *exclude* awareness. Furthermore, this paradigm's descriptions of Nature in general are - for all their utility - conceptually barren in their fundamental sequentiality. We therefore replace Turing's automata-based semantic model with a multi-dimensional vector algebra, namely W.K. Cliford's *geometric algebra*. In our novel *automata-free* re-framing, it is obvious that Turing's semantics is inherently *time-like*, and that geometric algebra's *space-like* semantics provide a fertile foundation for the phenomenon of awareness. The new computational model of distributed systems has the global mathematical form U(1) × SU(2) × SU(3) × SO(4), ie. the Standard Model of physics augmented with 3+1d. *1. Introduction * The advent of computers has given us the opportunity to study *processes *to unprecedented and - as I will show - unexpected depths. Alan Turing, who invented an eponymous abstract universal computer, showed that its *sequential *computations (ie. *processes*) possess great power, but also tantalizing limitations. As an example of the latter, he proved that multiple "Turing machines", working together in parallel, even non-deterministically, have the same ultimate computational power as a single machine working alone! This result - sequence is sufficient - has profound and far-reaching implications: it enshrines a functional point-of-view, it blesses strong reductionism, it is fundamentally classical (Isaac & Albert) in its reach, and it has stubbornly resisted attempts to convincingly describe the *multi*-process systems that comprise Physics, Biology, and the study of Mind. Rather, the resulting models seem always to be imitative, often strained, and conceptually thin. The "artificial intelligence" model offered by so-called neural nets, powered by Bayesian statistics, is an excellent example: all the hype (and money) cannot disguise how far it strays from the the real thing - it needs *tens of thousands* of examples to learn a non-trivial category, it is unable to construct non-trivial causal sequences ("planning"), and it clearly does not understand *anything* that it says or does. Worst of all, it offers no apparent explanation of, or path to, the property of self-awareness. In other words, we get Zombies ... the lights are on but there's no one there. Thus have matters stood for some time, despite decades of effort. The present claim is that the way out of this impasse is to replace the straitjacket of sequential processes with the power of multi-dimensional vector algebra. In particular, choose the *geometric algebra* 𝓖 invented by W.K. Clifford in 1860, but [unusually] operating over the arithmetic of ℤ3 = {0, 1, −1}, that is, the usual base 3 = {0, 1, 2} shifted one slot to the left, whence 1 + 1 = −1 and zero = Void, whence the underlying logic is that of exclusive-or,* xor* : same *vs*. different. The result is a general, *automata-free semantics* of all possible computations... On Sun, Aug 16, 2020 at 8:45 AM James Bowery <[email protected]> wrote: > John, how would one go about reformulating Algorithmic Information Theory > based on the insights offered by this paper? > > For instance, the one and only open parameter in AIT is the choice of > "Universal" Turing Machine. Does their perspective finally resolve this > and if so how? > > On Sat, Aug 15, 2020 at 10:57 PM John Rose <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> You could look at it as horizontal layers of vertical strata. Text >> processing layer would be several layers up from the consciousness layer. >> >> Prediction is time asymmetric. >> *Artificial General Intelligence List <https://agi.topicbox.com/latest>* >> / AGI / see discussions <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi> + >> participants <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/members> + delivery >> options <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription> Permalink >> <https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/Td2287eb2b142cb0b-M4b7be3ee5b6b706a5c1ab679> >> ------------------------------------------ Artificial General Intelligence List: AGI Permalink: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/Td2287eb2b142cb0b-M72f7454feec3c9a8b12d1fe3 Delivery options: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription
