On: Surviving the Cosmos
Episode: 22
Date: December 2015
Key Subjects:
- Professor in Physics, author of “The Fabric of Reality”, “The Beginning of Inifinty”.
- Knowledge:
- A kind of information.
- It says something that is true and useful about the world.
- The generic thing for converting some matter into some other matter. (see also “Why Information Grows“)
- Not necessarily tied to any specific individual (generalized).
- Can exist independently (until falsified).
- Science:
- Not: empiricism, every theory needs to be testable in the real world (falsified or verified).
- But: which theory provides the best explanation.
- Faith in science relies on faith in the strength of the error correction mechanism – to what degree are experts challenged.
- Power of explanation:
- Anything which isn’t precluded by the laws of nature is achievable given the right knowledge.
- Because if something were not achievable, given complete knowledge, then that itself would be a regularity in nature which could be explained in terms of the laws of nature.
- So, either something is precluded by the laws of nature or it is achievable with knowledge.
- Restrictions in practice: the actual laws of nature and limits in a person’s knowledge.
- Reach of explanation:
- Parochialism: knowledge expansion is limited – a human/chicken/plant evolved to occupy a specific cognitive niche (and not more).
- Incorrect: anything that can be explained – either in practice or in principle – can be explained (by us).
- Universality of computation: given the right program, we can perform any kind of transformation on information, including creating knowledge (if we know how).
- Only limitations are memory capacity and speed [which gets you back to parochialism?].
- The importance of error correcting systems in cultures:
- Knowledge is conjectural and subject to improvement.
- Protecting the means of improving knowledge is more important than any particular piece of knowledge.
- In closed cultures, there is no room for institutionalized criticism.
- Institutions that, in contrast, suppress the growth of (moral) knowledge are immoral.
- Morality:
- Morality is about the problem of what to do next.
- A coherent set of ideas.
- Morality, like knowledge, evolves by error correction.
- Adapts to cultural environment.
- Morality is about the problem of what to do next.
- Benign view on AI:
- Badly summarized: its morality and behavior would at least initially be similar to ours.
- If anything bad may happen related to the invention of an AI, they are exactly the same things that we have to watch out for even if AI doesn’t happen.
- The “normal” error correcting mechanisms of human culture would apply.
- Good and bad outcomes are both plausible.
Key Takeaways:
- Knowledge: something that is true and useful about the world.
- Science: which theory provides the best explanation.
- Faith in science relies on faith in the strength of the error correction mechanism – to what degree are experts challenged.
- Morality is about the problem of what to do next; like science, it evolves by error correction.
Worth Listening:
8/10