Thanks Mike! > socializing is usually good though, in moderation, at least in terms of > expanding your network.
Depends on your priorities, this post was about focus on abstractions. I'd question the value of networks in AGI. Google does a decent job of finding / promoting relevant content, as long as your know your keywords. Try something as general as cognition+algorithm, what do you see? If you post a coherent write-up, anyone on the wavelength is likely to find it, networks be damned. If there isn't anyone anywhere, tough shit, your network will only distract you. > some extreme loners like Nietzsche on the other hand could make great use of > their hours alone, Needless to say, "non-extreme" people are, at best, quite useless in AGI. > however the problem then is getting too out of touch with reality. Well, there are two ways to interpret this: a) You're worried about making a living. This is a largely atavistic concern, it's pretty hard to starve to death in a modern society. A night-shift security job is plenty sufficient. b) Your model of reality is wrong. That can be a problem if you're confabulating something concrete, where there is a gazillion of possibilities & only one is "real". But on higher levels of generalization, reality check is a judgment call anyway. In AGI, you are generalizing from everything you know, & filter-out almost all of it. Additional / updated knowledge won't make nearly as much difference as refining your past learning experience, into universals applicable across all of it. The problem here is not getting things right | real, it's removing redundancies & non-universals. All that is about inductive phase of work, when you get to deductive phase the criterion changes from "reality" to consistency. BTW, everyone, I am posting relevant replies as comments on my blog, let me know if you mind. -------------------------------------------------- From: "Mike Archbold" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, March 11, 2013 9:49 PM To: "AGI" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [agi] Attention to abstractions > very well thought, Boris. I agree with your thoughts about the Web. > It strikes me as the most useful utility but horrible time suck ever > invented. smart phones are even worse... I don't have one but have > tinkered around with others phones to know what is at least going on! > the answer is it just brings a time wasting to you > around-the-clock.... socializing is usually good though, in > moderation, at least in terms of expanding your network. some extreme > loners like Nietzsche on the other hand could make great use of their > hours alone, however the problem then is getting too out of touch with > reality. > > Mike Archbold (I get weird sentence structure with voice recognition) > > On 3/6/13, Boris Kazachenko <[email protected]> wrote: >> A (not so) new conclusion on my intro (http://www.cognitivealgorithm.info): >> >> . I am deeply convinced that main challenge we face in formalizing GI is our >> specie-wide ADHD. >> Our cognitive psychology, lagging a light year behind our technology, is >> addicted to mental crutches of authority, examples, & experimentation, while >> theoretical integrity is neglected & abused. >> >> It's pretty obvious that AGI is by far the most important problem now. Yet, >> not one out of 7B people pays it his full attention. A handful of people >> claim to do so, but they all find excuses to fluff & tinker, at the expense >> of building coherent theory. To me, it's a stark proof that a dressed-up ape >> desperately needs therapy. I've experimented with various methods to focus >> on my meta-theory, with subjective success. For those who like the results >> (above), I posted suggestions on my other blog: >> >> >> Cultivating focus on extreme generalizations. >> >> >> Sustaining top-down attention is critical for anything complex, especially a >> theoretical breakthrough. Such ability is scarce because we evolved to focus >> on here & now survival, while far & future was back-of-the-mind luxury. >> Modern society is drastically more secure, but our attention spans lag far >> behind. Almost anyone can become a world-changing genius, if he spends 10 >> years fully focused on important problem. at the cost of so-called "life": >> unthinkable for ADHD- addled hunter-gatherers we still are. >> >> Attention span as discussed here is not simply a duration of focus on a >> given subject. Rather, it's a relative strength of higher cortical areas, >> which represent generalized experience, in selecting subjects for focused >> attention. For me, selection & basic understanding of my top priority came >> early & easy. But actually maintaining effective focus on important stuff in >> spite of ubiquitous distractions was far more difficult. Over the years, I >> majorly improved my concentration thanks to these observations: >> >> >> Practice, externalizing thoughts, & avoiding distractions: >> >> >> Practice forms increasingly redundant representations, differentiated by >> their context to explore alternative scenarios. Such redundancy is key to >> maintaining subconsciously searching threads, even when your consciousness >> is distracted. It also fills up memory & starves unrelated subjects out of >> resources. This is very important: irrelevant memories keep competing for >> our attention until well forgotten. But we need a conducive environment to >> facilitate this virtuous cycle of practicing. >> >> The most basic working environment is a notepad or a computer screen, so we >> need to fill them with a well designed write-up of the subject matter. The >> brain, quite obviously, has plenty of memory for a few pages of text, scarce >> resource here is attention. Writing down thoughts simply turns them into a >> sensory feedback, which attracts attention much better than internalized >> abstractions. Also helps a motor feedback, such as vocalizing, writing by >> hand, semi-random editing/ re-arranging text or code. >> >> Even more critical is concise & cohesive (thus memorable) terminology, >> abbreviations, & symbols, - small enough to keep reverberating within one's >> working memory. To build a coherent mental model, one should be using/ >> designing a dedicated pseudo-language, with subject-specific syntax & >> semantics. Just as important is a macro-structure: comprehensive write-up >> with regular & contextually integral paragraphs & parts. Basically, one >> should always try go for quality vs. quantity, continuously refining, >> consolidating, & extending old articles or programs, rather than piling-up >> new loosely related ones. >> >> Of course, we're social animals, & our most important "environment" is the >> people we deal with. >> Hence the urge to bounce our ideas & decisions off others: it forces us to >> focus on the implications. Your listener's attention (if credible) >> stimulates yours, even if he doesn't really contribute anything. One >> solution is a socially-imposed institutional environment, as in a good >> university or a company. >> But that requires societal consumer competence, which is sorely lacking in >> relatively generalized fields. >> >> Absent relevant stimulation (be honest about "relevant"), one must block the >> irrelevant one, AKA life. Real-life socializing is almost always >> meaningless, at least compared to impersonal reading & writing. But people >> are so desperate to belong that they will settle for the least irrelevant >> group they can join, even obviously detrimental to their stated purpose. >> Suppressing this urge is a must for any significant progress. However >> miserable social isolation feels at first, avoiding distractions is an >> effective way to ultimately focus: broadly stimulated brain always does >> something, so attention is a zero-sum game. Anyway, social stimulation can >> be largely replaced by "pseudo-social" one: writing or talking to oneself. >> >> Beside socializing, the worst attention hog now is the web, & my solution is >> rationing. Unless there is something urgent or work-related (unlikely), I >> only connect for ~2 hours once a day. Sticking to it was a challenge, I have >> to use "Freedom"(& highly recommend it) to keep myself honest. This sounds >> trivial, but staying off-line made a huge difference to my concentration. >> And I am not even talking about cell phones, - never considered catching >> that plague. >> Also helps using a specific desk, computer, & times of the day only for >> work, down to locking oneself in. Such cognitive behavioral therapy is also >> useful with insomnia & other self-control problems. >> >> But even more insidious, at least for a generalist like me, are internal >> distractions: wandering thoughts. Just recently, I came up with a low-tech >> solution: thought conditioning. Positive conditioning of relevant thoughts >> seems impractical because the delay is too long, but the negative one is >> very simple & old-fashioned: catch yourself thinking about some obvious >> distractions, & slap your face hard. Eventually, these subjects become >> subconsciously unpleasant, & you will stop thinking about them. Even the >> habit of specifically monitoring thoughts for distractions already helps to >> terminate them. >> >> A less direct form of thought conditioning is via neurofeedback, article. I >> currently use, with moderate success, very simple feedback: every day, I >> write down the number of hours spent effectively focused on work, >> translating total number of hours spent into top 10% out of recent working >> hours. >> More advanced neurofeedback may become possible in relatively near future by >> visualizing subject-associated cortical activity via transcranial imaging, >> such as EEG, fMRI, or infrared spectroscopy. >> >> Ideally, we should be able to directly stimulate or condition cortical areas >> that represent the subject we want to focus on, via transcranial direct >> current, magnetic fields, ultrasound, or even implants. >> Big-picture intellectual integrity should be improved by stimulating left >> dorsolateral prefrontal cortex: the last to myelinate during development & >> containing most general concepts, thus executive function. >> >> BCI-assisted control over the focus of one's attention will be the most >> profound revolution yet, - it will change what we want out of life. But, >> waiting for the technology might leave you hopelessly behind those who >> cultivate their attention the old-fashioned way. >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------- >> AGI >> Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now >> RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/11943661-d9279dae >> Modify Your Subscription: >> https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; >> Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com >> > > > ------------------------------------------- > AGI > Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now > RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/18407320-d9907b69 > Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com > ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
