Ray Kurzweil recently predicted that we’d be able to reverse engineer the human brain by 2020. He makes an argument that a brain simulator would need about a million lines of code:
Here’s how that math works, Kurzweil explains: The design of the brain is in the genome. The human genome has three billion base [...]
...full articleMy buddy Scotto wrote a play titled “When I come to my senses, I’m alive!” which will be performed at Annex Theater on April 23 – May 22. I read an early draft of the script and am quite excited to see it performed.
I don’t want to give too much away, but from watching the [...]
The Blue Brain Project describes itself as:
The Blue Brain Project is the first comprehensive attempt to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, in order to understand brain function and dysfunction through detailed simulations.
Others have described it as “a step toward the superbrain” or even ”the most interesting project in human history.”
I agree that this project is extremely important. [...]
I just got a new MacBook Pro of my very own which is undoubtedly the fastest computer I’ve ever owned. I hear a lot of people saying things like “I don’t think I’ll ever get another desktop computer again.” But to me there is one very good reason to own and use a desktop computer: Desktop computers can provide greater bandwidth connections between your brain and the net than laptop computers can. I’ll explain what this means. We’re quickly approaching a world where we’re always connected to the net in some manner or another. As we all know, the bandwidth…
...full articleThere’s been a lot of fuss lately about Nick Bostrom’s ideas that we live in a simulation as a result of an article in the New York Times. Here I’ll provide some analysis of Bostrom’s bold claim, including a proposed mechanism to explain my grandfather’s assertion that mathematical simplicity and beauty were indicators of underlying truth. I’ll also explore the implications of this possibility to our daily lives, and show why this is another reason to follow Transhuman Morality. Simplified Simulation or Complete, Accurate Model? The simulations Bostrom describes would not be precise to the subatomic level, but rather use…
...full articleThe nice folks at Ignite posted videos for the rest of our talks from the second Ignite night, including my presentation on Why only Geeks and Hippies can save the world. Watching it, I see that it’s a lot rougher than I remember. The text as I intended to deliver it is available here, which might be a bit more coherent. Anyway, here’s the video: Enjoy!
...full articleIn this essay, I’m going to explore the question “If the human brain is Turing complete, what does that imply about the existence of free will?” And moreover, what does that mean about the ability to upload our consciousness into computers? First, a little computer science background. Turing completeness is the idea that a computing system has the same capabilities as a universal Turing machine. This theoretical machine moves along a long tape which has various symbols on it that the machine can read and write. The machine itself is always in one internal state, but will change to different…
...full article[Here is the full text of what I practiced for my talk at Ignite Seattle last night. I didn't manage to cram it all into the 5 minute presentation, largely because the audience was reacting a bit too loudly in places. IMHO that's a good thing. You can download my slides (slightly updated from the presentation). Video coming soon -- check back.] I’m here to talk about a system of morality that’s based on the upcoming end of society as we know it. I’ll explain why only geeks and hippies can save the world. I’m serious — I’m talking about…
...full articleI consider myself a transhumanist. I spend probably too much time thinking about very long-terrm trends of humanity. Some of the trends I see seem obvious to the point of being irrefutable, while others I’m sure are controversial. Nevertheless, I’ll lay out a few of the basic tenants of transhumanism, and begin to explain why they lead to the very deep and personal implications they have for me. Computers are getting faster and more powerful. As they do so, they’re helping humans be smarter. Maybe not invidual humans, as some studies have shown that things like e-mail and powerpoint can…
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Leo is a professional geek who looks forward to the robots taking over. For more current, less coherent thoughts, follow him on twitter