[FRIAM] Future of humans and artificial intelligence

[Grant Holland]

Nick,

In science, these three terms are generally interchangeable. Their 
common usage is that they all describe activities, or "events", that are 
"subject to chance". Such activities, events or processes that are 
described by these terms are governed by the laws of probability. They 
all describe activities, events, or "happenings" whose repetitions do 
not always produce the same outcomes even when given the same inputs 
every time (initial conditions). In other words, uncertainty is involved.

However, like most words, these enjoy other usage, meanings, as well. 
For example "random" is sometimes used to mean "disorganized" or 
"lacking in specific pattern". This is a very different meaning than 
"activities that don't always produce the same outcome given the same 
inputs". Consider what a math formula for each of these tow meanings 
wold consist of. One of them would be based on probabilities; but the 
other would involve stationary relationships.

On 8/8/17 5:31 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:
>
> Grant,
>
> I think I know the answer to this question, but want to make sure:
>
> What is the difference beween calling a process “stochastic”, 
> “indeterminate”, or “random”?
>
> Nick
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
>
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
>
> Clark University
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ 
> <http://home.earthlink.net/%7Enickthompson/naturaldesigns/>
>
> *From:*Friam [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] *On Behalf Of *Grant 
> Holland
> *Sent:* Tuesday, August 08, 2017 6:51 PM
> *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group 
> <friam at redfish.com>; glen ☣<gepropella at gmail.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Future of humans and artificial intelligence
>
> Thanks for throwing in on this one, Glen. Your thoughts are 
> ever-insightful. And ever-entertaining!
>
> For example, I did not know that von Neumann put forth a set theory.
>
> On the other hand... evolution /is/ stochastic. (You actually did not 
> disagree with me on that. You only said that the reason I was right 
> was another one.) A good book on the stochasticity of evolution is 
> "Chance and Necessity" by Jacques Monod. (I just finished rereading it 
> for the second time. And that proved quite fruitful.)
>
> G.
>
> On 8/8/17 12:44 PM, glen ☣ wrote:
>
>     I'm not sure how Asimov intended them.  But the three laws is a trope that clearly shows the inadequacy of deontological ethics.  Rules are fine as far as they go.  But they don't go very far.  We can see this even in the foundations of mathematics, the unification of physics, and polyphenism/robustness in biology.  Von Neumann (Burks) said it best when he said: "But in the complicated parts of formal logic it is always one order of magnitude harder to tell what an object can do than to produce the object."  Or, if you don't like that, you can see the same perspective in his iterative construction of sets as an alternative to the classical conception.
>
>     The point being that reality, traditionally, has shown more expressiveness than any of our rule sets.
>
>     There are ways to handle the mismatch in expressivity between reality versus our rule sets.  Stochasticity is the measure of the extent to which a rule set matches a set of patterns.  But Grant's right to qualify that with evolution, not because of the way evolution is stochastic, but because evolution requires a unit to regularly (or sporadically) sync with its environment.
>
>     An AI (or a rule-obsessed human) that sprouts fully formed from Zeus' head will *always* fail.  It's guaranteed to fail because syncing with the environment isn't *built in*.  The sync isn't part of the AI's onto- or phylo-geny.
>
>
>
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