{"id":5023,"date":"2016-04-05T14:32:04","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T18:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5023"},"modified":"2016-08-24T23:35:05","modified_gmt":"2016-08-25T03:35:05","slug":"flash-forward-podcast-ep-10-rude-bot-rises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5023","title":{"rendered":"Flash Forward Podcast Ep 10: Rude Bot Rises"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"WGh2w4oKOZ\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flashforwardpod.com\/2016\/04\/05\/episode-10-rude-bot-rises\/\">Rude Bot Rises<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Rude Bot Rises&#8221; &#8212; Flash Forward\" src=\"https:\/\/www.flashforwardpod.com\/2016\/04\/05\/episode-10-rude-bot-rises\/embed\/#?secret=0VwMEhMElA#?secret=WGh2w4oKOZ\" data-secret=\"WGh2w4oKOZ\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>So. The Flash Forward Podcast is one of the best around. Every week, host Rose Eveleth takes on another potential future, from the near and imminent to the distant and <i><b>highly <\/b><\/i>implausible. It\u2019s been featured on a bunch of Best Podcast lists and Rose even did a segment for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/money\/2016\/02\/26\/468302309\/episode-686-if-elected-president\">NPR\u2019s Planet Money team about the 2016 US Presidential Election<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>All of this is by way of saying I was honoured and a little flabbergasted (I love that word) when Rose asked me to speak with her for her episode about Machine Consciousness:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Okay, you asked for it, and I finally did it. Today\u2019s episode is about conscious artificial intelligence. Which is a HUGE topic! So we only took a small bite out of all the things we could possibly talk about.<\/p>\n<p>We started with some definitions. Because not everybody even defines artificial intelligence the same way, and there are a ton of different definitions of consciousness. In fact, one of the people we talked to for the episode, <a href=\"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/\">Damien Williams<\/a>, doesn\u2019t even like the term artificial intelligence. He says it\u2019s demeaning to the possible future consciousnesses that we might be inventing.<\/p>\n<p>But before we talk about consciousnesses, I wanted to start the episode with a story about a very not-conscious robot. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/%7Eisbell\/\">Charles Isbell<\/a>, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech, first walks us through a few definitions of artificial intelligence. But then he tells us the story of cobot, a chatbot he helped invent in the 1990\u2019s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You&#8217;ll have to click though and read or listen for the rest from Rose, <a href=\"https:\/\/subterraneanpress.com\/magazine\/fall_2010\/fiction_the_lifecycle_of_software_objects_by_ted_chiang\">Ted Chiang<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/%7Eisbell\/\">Charles Isbell<\/a>, and me. If you subscribe to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/roseveleth\">Rose&#8217;s Patreon<\/a>, you can even get a transcript of the whole show.<\/p>\n<p><span data-ft=\"{&quot;tn&quot;:&quot;K&quot;}\"><span class=\"UFICommentBody\">No spoilers, but I <em><strong>will<\/strong><\/em> say that I wasn&#8217;t necessarily intending to go Dark with the idea of machine minds securing energy sources. More like asking, &#8220;What advances in, say, solar power transmission would be precipitated by machine minds?&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ft=\"{&quot;tn&quot;:&quot;K&quot;}\"><span class=\"UFICommentBody\">But the darker option\u00a0<em><strong>is<\/strong><\/em> there. And especially so if we do that thing the AGI in the opening sketch says it fears.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>But again, you&#8217;ll have to go there to get what I mean.<\/p>\n<p>And, as always, if you want to help support what we do around here, you can subscribe to the AFWTA Patreon just by clicking this button right here:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=145784&amp;redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fafutureworththinkingabout.com\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com\/widget-images\/become-patron-widget-medium%402x.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"102\" height=\"20\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a>Until Next Time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rude Bot Rises So. The Flash Forward Podcast is one of the best around. Every week, host Rose Eveleth takes on another potential future, from the near and imminent to the distant and highly implausible. It\u2019s been featured on a bunch of Best Podcast lists and Rose even did a segment for NPR\u2019s Planet Money [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,967,73,85,86,1078,190,278,1076,492,493,496,944,584,628,1080,1077,1079,859],"class_list":["post-5023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a-future-worth-thinking-about","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-autonomous-created-intelligence","tag-autonomous-generated-intelligence","tag-charles-isbell","tag-consciousness","tag-ethics","tag-flash-forward-podcast","tag-machine-consciousness","tag-machine-ethics","tag-machine-minds","tag-my-voice","tag-nonhuman-personhood","tag-philosophy-of-mind","tag-podcasts","tag-rose-eveleth","tag-ted-chiang","tag-towards-a-better-descriptor-than-robots"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5WByP-1j1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5070,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5070","url_meta":{"origin":5023,"position":0},"title":"On Space, Witches, Mars, Magick, and The Future","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"September 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, Artsy.net's Izabella Scott wrote this piece about how and why the aesthetic of witchcraft is making a comeback in the art world, which is pretty pleasantly timed as not only are we all eagerly awaiting Kim Boekbinder's NOISEWITCH, but I also just sat down with Rose Eveleth for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"algorithmic systems\"","block_context":{"text":"algorithmic systems","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=algorithmic-systems"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5316,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5316","url_meta":{"origin":5023,"position":1},"title":"My Appearance on The Machine Ethics Podcast&#8217;s A.I. Retreat Episode","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"October 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"As you already know, we went to the second Juvet A.I. Retreat, back in September. If you want to hear several of us talk about what we got up to at the then you're in luck because here are several conversations conducted by Ben Byford of the Machine Ethics Podcast.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"algorithmic bias\"","block_context":{"text":"algorithmic bias","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=algorithmic-bias"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/ownE2zxTN2U\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4859,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=4859","url_meta":{"origin":5023,"position":2},"title":"My First Appearance on Mindful Cyborgs","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"April 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I sat down with Klint Finley of\u00a0Mindful Cyborgs to talk about many, many things: \u2026pop culture portrayals of human enhancement and artificial intelligence and why we need to craft more nuanced narratives to explore these topics\u2026 Tune in next week to hear Damien talk about how AI and transhumanism intersects\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"A Future Worth Thinking About\"","block_context":{"text":"A Future Worth Thinking About","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=a-future-worth-thinking-about"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1185,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=1185","url_meta":{"origin":5023,"position":3},"title":"Hey everyone. As you should\u2026","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"February 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey everyone. As you should be aware, by now, there's the new WordPress blog for text posts: http:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.wordpress.com So I'll be spending the next few days transferring older text posts from here, to there. Woooooo. Tell your friends. ;)","rel":"","context":"In \"A Future Worth Thinking About\"","block_context":{"text":"A Future Worth Thinking About","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=a-future-worth-thinking-about"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4966,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=4966","url_meta":{"origin":5023,"position":4},"title":"BBC: &#8220;Tech giants pledge $1bn for &#8216;altruistic AI&#8217; venture, OpenAI&#8221;","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"December 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This headline comes from a piece over at the BBC that opens as follows: Prominent tech executives have pledged $1bn (\u00a3659m) for OpenAI, a non-profit venture that aims to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to benefit humanity. The venture's backers include Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Paypal co-founder Peter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"A Future Worth Thinking About\"","block_context":{"text":"A Future Worth Thinking About","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=a-future-worth-thinking-about"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5030,"url":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?p=5030","url_meta":{"origin":5023,"position":5},"title":"On the European Union&#8217;s &#8220;Electronic Personhood&#8221; Proposal","author":"Damien P. Williams","date":"June 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In case you were unaware, last Tuesday, June 21, Reuters put out an article about an EU draft plan regarding the designation of so-called robots and artificial intelligences as \"Electronic Persons.\" Some of you'd think I'd be all about this. You'd be wrong. The way the Reuters article frames it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"A Future Worth Thinking About\"","block_context":{"text":"A Future Worth Thinking About","link":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/?tag=a-future-worth-thinking-about"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5023"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5025,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023\/revisions\/5025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afutureworththinkingabout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}