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Martine Rothblatt will give a talk in Teleplace on September 18, 2010, at 10am PST (1pm EST, 6pm UK, 7pm CET).
Reconstructing Minds from Software Mindfiles
Martine Rothblatt - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martine_Rothblatt
Abstract: I do think, however, there is a (natural) tendency to way overestimate the importance of copying our brain structure to copying our minds. I think our minds will be uploadable in good enough shape to satisfy most everyone by reconstructing them from information stored in software mindfiles such as diaries, videos, personality inventories, saved google voice conversations, chats, and chatbot conversations. The reconstruction process will be iteratively achieved with AI software designed for this purpose, dubbed mindware.
For members of the ASIM community, Martine Rothblatt's talk promises to introduce a refreshing alternate stance. So far, the majority of the technical approaches presented and discussed at carboncopies associated events have assumed a requirement for rigorous replication of many of the underlying structures and biophysical functions of the biological brain substrate. Given the technology agnostic mission of carboncopies, its emphasis on clarifying fundamentals of the objectives involved and a big-picture perspective on the many disciplines and technologies that may help us achieve those objectives, the concept of mindfiles is a valuable contribution to efforts at substrate-independent (or substrate movable) minds.
During the recent ASIM-2010 conference, a portion of the discussion was specifically allocated to concepts such as mindware. This was discussed using the term "me-programs" as a general descriptor for any functional representation that could produce the emergent functions of mind that are common to the "average" human mind. Of course, there was some debate as to whether such commonalities could even be extracted and represented sensibly. Mathematically, the idea that a general representation of data can be extracted and may be useful when we want to express the differences between individual data sets is sound. We can talk about averages and standard deviations, or we can consider decomposition into a lower-dimensional set of bases by finding eigenvalues and principal components of the data set. But what does this mean for ASIM in practical terms? What are the advantages, and what are the potential pitfalls of such approaches? In particular, how do mindfiles fit into this category of approaches? Can we say something about the particular constraints on a transfer of this sort? From an engineering perspective, can procedures of this sort be considered closed-loop approaches, perhaps even iteratively optimizing for a transfer?
For a short introduction to Dr. Martine Rothblatt's extensive and impressive biography, please see the description on Giulio Prisco's blog. Even more briefly, Dr. Rothblatt has been a pioneering entrepreneur, author and leading influence in the field of satellite communications and related international treaties. Since the 1990s, Dr. Rothblatt has focused her attention on the life sciences.
Martine Rothblatt founded the transhumanist Terasem Movement. The Terasem Movement emphasizes and promotes joy, diversity, and the prospect of technological immortality via personal cyberconsciousness and geoethical nanotechnology. The former is instantiated through the CyBeRev (cybernetic beingness revival) project, which seeks to preserve sufficient information about an individual, so that future technology may enable satisfactory recovery for a personal survival by avoiding "information theoretic death". This is addressed in detail on Martine Rothblatt's blog Mindfiles, Mindware and Mindclones.
Seating is arranged by Giulio Prisco. To register for access to this Teleplace event, please contact giulio@gmail.com (if you don't already have an account).
Link to article with full-length videos of the event: http://telexlr8.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/martine-rothblatt-on-reconstructing-minds-from-software-mindfiles-teleplace-september-18/
Article announcing the talk: http://telexlr8.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/martine-rothblatt-on-reconstructing-minds-from-software-mindfiles-teleplace-september-18-10am-pst/
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