On 15/4/23 5:42 pm, Antony Barry wrote:
In 1961 I was 20 years old and an honours student in physics at Sydney
University assigned to what was then called the "Thermonuclear Physics
Laboratory" in the School of Physics. It was quickly renamed the "Plasma
Physics Laboratory", presumably when the difficulty of the task became
evident and it was clear that thermonuclear power was a long way away. I
did a Masters Degree there. Around 1977 I went to a conference on plasma
and laser physics at Flinders University and one of my former
colleagues (by then Professor of Physics at Flinders) gave a paper and it
was again clear that thermonuclear power was not imminent.
It is now 62 years since I was that student and I am 82. I've seen quite a
few things happen but I don't expect to see thermonuclear power in my
lifetime and I suspect it will never be economic anyway.
Any insights you can offer into the limiting factor(s)?
I gather the principle is fine, but the environment in which it can
become exploitable is infeasible at appropriate scale - maybe because
everything, but everything, in the vicinity would vaporise?
(Unlike those under (45?), I did 4 years of High School physics in Qld,
and effectively a repeat-year in Physics I at UNSW ... But IANAP!!).
I'm beginning to think I might see AGI though. I'm having a lot of fun with
Chat-GPT and
Bing Chat and the AI field seems to be moving at breakneck speed.
I hadn't got around to promoting my recent paper, and that's a perfect
invitation, thanks Tony!
_________________
The short(ish) argument of my 'Re-Conception of AI' paper:
AI is harmful, because we mis-conceived what we're trying to do.
We don't need yet more, humanlike 'artificial' intelligence.
We need to make our devices so that they operate differently from us,
and exhibit *complementary artefact intelligence*. Combining their
smarts with our own cleverness then delivers *augmented intelligence*.
But we want more than just thinking. We want decisions, and we want
action. And we want those actions to be helpful, not harmful.
We build artefacts with actuators, which do things in the real world.
We need to design those actuators to complement our human abilities to
act in the world. That way, robots will remain useful devices, not
become competitors looking for ways to dominate us.
By combining *complementary artefact capabilities* with human
capabilities, we achieve *augmented capabilities*, under human control.
By switching our mindset away from the dysfunctional AI notion, we'll
stop producing technologies with enormous potential to harm society and
the economy, and instead deliver the responsible innovation we need.
Stop devising Decision and Action Systems
Instead Design
Complementary Intelligence & Capability for Decision & Action Support
___________________________________________
Clarke R. (2023) 'The Re-Conception of AI: Beyond Artificial, and
Beyond Intelligence' IEEE Trans. Techno. & Soc. 4, 1 (March 2023)
24-33, PrePrint at https://rogerclarke.com/EC/AITS.html
2/3rds of the paper is background, familiar to many people.
The guts of it is here: https://rogerclarke.com/EC/AITS.html#RAI
The Re-Conception of AI:
Beyond Artificial, and Beyond Intelligence
Abstract
The original conception of artificial intelligence (old-AI) was as a
simulation of human intelligence. That has proven to be an ill-judged
quest. It has led too many researchers repetitively down too many blind
alleys, and embodies many threats to individuals, societies and
economies. To increase value and reduce harm, it is necessary to
re-conceptualise the field.
A review is undertaken of old-AI’s flavours, operational definitions and
important exemplars. The heart of the problem is argued to be an
inappropriate focus on achieving substitution for human intelligence,
either by replicating it in silicon or by inventing something
functionally equivalent to it. Humankind instead needs its artefacts to
deliver intellectual value different from human intelligence.
By devising complementary artefact intelligence (CAI), and combining it
with human intelligence, the mission becomes the delivery of augmented
intelligence (new-AI). These alternative conceptions can serve the needs
of the human race far better than either human or artefact intelligence
can alone.
The proposed re-conception goes a step further. Inferencing and
decision-making lay the foundations for action. Old-AI has tended to
compartmentalise discussion, with robotics considered as though it were
a parallel or at best overlapping field of endeavour. Combining the
intellectual with the physical leads to broader conceptions of far
greater value: complementary artefact capability (CAC) and augmented
capability (AC). These enable the re-orientation of research to avoid
dead-ends and misdirected designs, and deliver techniques that serve
real-world needs and amplify humankind’s capacity for responsible
innovation.
IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society 4, 1 (March 2023)
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=10086685&punumber=8566059
Special Issue overview on pp.17-19 of the (substantive) Editorial at:
https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.virtual.anu.edu.au/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10086944
___________________________________________
On Fri, Apr 14, 2023 at 8:55 PM Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
wrote:
China’s Artificial Sun Breaks Its Own Record To Maintain ‘Highly Confined,
Extremely Hot’ Plasma For 403 Seconds
By Sakshi Tiwari April 14, 2023
https://eurasiantimes.com/chinas-artificial-sun-breaks-its-own-record-to-maintain/
China’s “artificial sun” broke records as it generated extremely hot
plasma for seven minutes on the night of April 12.
The artificial sun project is based on nuclear fusion, giving China an
unlimited energy source without generating residual waste.
Nuclear fusion is based on the idea that energy can be released by forcing
atomic nuclei together rather than separating them, as in the fission
reactions that powers the existing nuclear power plants.
In a breakthrough, the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak
(EAST) in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei produced and maintained plasma
for 403 seconds, beating its own previous record of 101 seconds set in
2017, CGTN reported.
The report noted that the quantum leap was achieved after more than
120,000 runs. The recent achievement represents another significant step
towards developing highly effective, reasonably priced thermonuclear fusion
reactors.
Moreover, it is expected to serve as a crucial experimental foundation for
the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor’s operation and
China’s independent development and operation of fusion reactors.
The ultimate objective of EAST, based at the Institute of Plasma Physics
under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) in Hefei, is to produce
nuclear fusion similar to that of the Sun using materials abundant in the
sea to offer a continual stream of clean energy.
In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, ASIPP director Song Yuntao stated
that the main significance of this breakthrough lies in the high
confinement mode. He claimed that high confinement plasma operation
significantly boosted particle temperature and density, laying the
groundwork for future fusion power plants to generate more electricity
cheaply and efficiently.
According to Yuntao, the effort established a strong foundation for
enhancing the technological and financial viability of fusion reactors.
In January 2022, the country set another record when it superheated a loop
of plasma to temperatures five times hotter than the sun for more than 17
minutes. At the time, the EAST nuclear fusion reactor sustained a
temperature of 158 million degrees Fahrenheit (70 million degrees Celsius)
for 1,056 seconds.
In January this year, the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese
Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced that a breakthrough demonstration of a
new plasma operation scenario called Super I-Mode was made on the
Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST).
By using magnetic fields to heat a plasma-charged gas made up of
free-moving electrons and hydrogen ions to a temperature of 70 million
degrees Celsius, the record-breaking run was able to hold high energy both
at the plasma edge and further inside the plasma.
The “artificial sun” uses raw elements virtually limitless on Earth,
unlike fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas, which are in short
supply and have significant adverse environmental effects. Fusion energy is
regarded as the “ultimate energy” for the future of humanity because it is
safer and cleaner.
[img:] The tokamak, the most popular type of fusion reactor, operates by
heating plasma to a very high temperature (one of the four states of
matter, composed of positive ions and negatively charged free electrons),
then confining it inside a reactor chamber with strong magnetic fields.
[File:] Artificial-sun-china-temperature-record-1200x630.jpg - Wikimedia
Commons File Image: China’s Artificial Sun [/img]
While the scientists are working on it, how to handle plasma hot enough to
fuse has proven to be one of the major roadblocks. Since they are supposed
to function at considerably lower pressures than where fusion naturally
occurs inside the cores of stars, fusion reactors have to run at extremely
high temperatures – several times hotter than the sun.
The technically difficult element is finding a technique to confine the
plasma to prevent it from burning through the reactor walls (with lasers or
magnetic fields) without destroying the fusion process. Cooking the plasma
to temperatures higher than the sun is comparatively simple.
According to a Chinese state media report, one of the most promising
routes to controlled nuclear fusion is EAST, which started running in 2006.
It conducted more than 120,000 experiments to reach the latest milestone.
Since it began operating, the EAST has served as a free testing ground for
Chinese and foreign scientists to conduct fusion-related experiments and
research.
China is also a member of the world’s largest fusion reactor, dubbed the
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, which is currently under
development in France.
Aimed at building the world’s first fusion demonstration reactor, China
has completed the engineering design of the future China Fusion Engineering
Test Reactor (CFETR), which is seen as a next-generation artificial sun.
Once completed around 2035, CFETR will produce massive heat with a peak
power output of up to two gigawatts.
Contact the author at [email protected]
--
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Roger Clarke mailto:[email protected]
T: +61 2 6288 6916 http://www.xamax.com.au http://www.rogerclarke.com
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University
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