This Man Is Death

 

Look at this man. This man is death. Each cell of his body stinks and each carbon molecule -that hold this assortment of life form, is seeking to escape for better purpose.  

Unless the system that nurtures man like him is called out the world is not going to be OK. He must be dealt. People like him played havoc over the last few decades as they amass wealth and influenced the worst kind of people and narrations into important positions. Their role, specifically in last few years, must be securitized and be held responsible.  

Also, to be noted is that herd churning systems have made people vulnerable to these charlatans all across the world. They easily fall for conspiracy theories, they refuse to use their critical thinking faculties, the ego driven framework -that provides them all fantastical answers, incapacitate them to uniqueness of life nor it exposes them to existential insecurities that essentially awakens senses with primal need to connect to surrounding, to know, to understand. The glitter mirage of safe world arrogance provided by the market capitalism and the nostalgic securities and fantasies that religion presents have made the situation worse. 

British Labour leadership is racist

Diane Abbott has done nothing wrong, and a leader of her stature -who spent decades of exemplary service must be celebrated. Let us repeat this in no uncertain term: Religion is not race. Black is a race. You cannot be born into a religion. It’s an option. You can change your religion or better still not believe in the juvenile construct. It’s a choice. Being black is not a choice. It’s your skin color. Prejudices and discrimination associated with your skin color -that is also associated with horrendous history of slavery, is racism. Nobody should be allowed to tamper with this definition, not the least by white men (that too nurtured in monarchy christian system). There are also vicious religions (caste cannibals-hindus, monster mullah-islam) spreading in west, these supremacists want control of semantics, and work it into victim. They want to trap the herd in their demonic control. Religiophilia of the west is increasingly becoming threat to people across the world -the egalitarian humanist traditions.

There is rise in ‘antisemitism’ in west specifically by white christian supremacist, and ofcourse many regions where islam is prominent (there is no “Islamic world”, this is another of lazy western media trope -mysticism/otherness, that has severe ramification). That shouldn’t be reason to be bludgeoned into narration set by few, and that too reflecting realities of last century. As religion is not a race. JEW IS NOT A RACE. This is unacceptable. It is untenable. Ofcourse jews faced horribly under Nazis, genocide of millions of jews is well documented. It’s a painful chapter in human history. Nazis spread the idea of jews being a race, so as to isolate them, degrade them. The idea that was being pushed by nazis was that ‘they are born superior', and this can only work if jews were 'born degraded’. It’s a text book case of bracketing people to demean and isolate. Implicit in this idea is that if somebody is ‘born degraded’ -meaning they cannot be civilized or taught, so the option left is to eliminate. These are lessons on genocide. The first step is to fix religion as race, something that is immutable. It’s a vicious attempt to consolidate prejudices (as Abbott correctly pointed, what religion experiences is prejudice) and biases into something undisputable. Where people are made insignificant, their choice and freedom negotiated for bigger narration by few. So, if someone is born black, and an attempt is made to classify someone born black as ‘degraded’ then it is an assault on soul of humanity.  

Antisemitism has the context of narration of last century. Some devious people want to keep it trapped in time to extract narration that suits them. There are big money and influential people working to control. It must therefore be asserted that there is nothing wrong in being anti-judaism (nor anti-hindu or anti-islam, or anti any other religion or cult), indeed it is an extension of much cherished religiophobia that asserts liberty. Faith cannot be classified as race. Every sane person must resist this attempt. There is a need for new semantics to define the reality of the world we live in that has no semblance with narrations of past. If this is not done then semantics of the past has the power to bring back the narrations of the past. History rides on narrations, and can come alive as protagonists morph into past to repeat. Be very wary.   

In the meanwhile, british intellectuals and civic minded people must protest against the treatment met to Diane Abbott, a Jamaican immigrant, a black woman from a region from where racist colonizers captured people as slaves and unleashed atrocities. Diane Abbott has done remarkably well despite tremendous odds that only a black woman can understand. What she said is much nuanced hence needs to be debated, and must be understood in the context. Diane Abbott doesn’t deserve this. Keir Starmer’s racism must called out, and he should be shunted out. White man’s virtue signaling is well past the expiry date. The world is least interested in carrying white man’s burden, least his narration. Keir Starmer is the worst binary that is being posited as option in polarized british politics. He is thoroughly disliked, and lacks charisma, compassion or intelligence. ‘Leaders’ like him is one the main reasons why buffooneries of Tories get credibility. He is purging the party off its effective leadership. White entitled male like Starmer (nurtured by feudal christian system in the luxury and pomp garnered from slavery and colonial loot, the least that is expected is that they maintain democratic institutions -atleast for redemption sake, the hypocrisy of trying to guide people across the world on democracy and human rights) shouldn’t be allowed to get away with racism, and no amount of virtue signaling should clear this fellow. He must be called out and dealt severely.  

            

Uracil in asteroid

 

The discovery of uracil by Japanese space agency’s Hayabusa2 mission from Ryugu (a near earth asteroid found within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter) last month was a significant advancement in understanding origin of life on earth. The technical complexity and dexterity displayed in this feat included precision separation of the spacecraft’s collision equipment, called a small carry-on impactor (SCI), and firing the bullet so that it accurately struck Ryugu’s surface, to the probe’s maneuvering in retreat to a position behind the asteroid to avoid getting hit by flying shards from the blast, collection of samples ejected by the blast which were then brought back to Earth for analysis. It’s an amazing achievement. The reason why am I writing this now is in the context to ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’ as described by SpaceX team when it apparently, and very evidently, exploded -in full view of millions of viewers, a spectacle that was also a compelling metaphor for people involved. Social media went hysterical over this description, and I too brought in my worst side of sarcasm. Someone responded that ‘this is how science progresses, by failures and learning…”, another fellow called me ‘evil’ so on. Well to start with this is not science -in its fundamental research or intention or abstract values, but just an application. It’s a market display of applied technology. Also, the spectacle was arranged by a narcist billionaire to showcase his grand plans. The fellow is essentially Trump of tech world, an unchecked incrementalised flaw of self-referenced reverential system controlled and manipulated by few. A mechanistic and reductive evaluation of humanity, product of incomplete education. An pubescent market mind in juvenile excited brain trapped in middle aged body. He has displayed enough reasons for us to be extremely wary, and be alarmed by the influence in narration. Indeed, he is a necessary pause in evaluating hedonistic system created narcistic agendas of fragile egos that lack nuance or awareness, that lack necessary existential humbleness when dealing with awe inspiring forces and brilliance of nature. The loud, the crude, the crass, afflicted with pointers of market spectacle can garner attention, hence money, but will fall well short in the scale of complexity of infinite and subtlety of moment. Matter of research is about meticulous attention and care, and essential awareness of context and complex links. A true researcher will be always in awe.

Discovering uracil in an asteroid is evidence that strengthens theory of extraterrestrial origin of life. It’s an amazing find and culmination of meticulous research by scientists. Basic school science will tell you that RNA has three letters i.e. nucleotides same as DNA (not going into the detail) except Thymine. RNA has Uracil. Flow of genetic information happens from DNA to RNA (through transcription) to protein (through translation), and this is the central dogma of molecular biology. Every three letters of RNA when read together equals one amino acid, so a sequence of nucleotides from gene is equal to sequence of amino acid in protein. In 1980s Tom Cech, US based scientist, discovered self-splicing ribozymes, a breakthrough discovery because the existence of self-splicing ribozymes suggested that life on earth arose from molecules of RNA that could both encode genetic information and replicate that information in primitive cells. RNA achieves this spectacular feat of both as a repository of genetic instructions and chemically reactive molecule capable of changing shape and biological behavior as it can fold up into three-dimensional structure, unlike DNA which is double helix.  

AI’s riveting narration

 

The way AI is progressing is quite interesting, and ofcourse kept me riveted for last few years. It’s not really about AI; whatever concerns humanity concerns me and I am quite habituated to get into depth of things. It’s something I always find exciting. Having wide range of knowledge without any concern for created boundaries helps to probe. So, no knowledge is waste. Childhood spent in reading encyclopedia for random knowledge stimulation is how I got into this frame I guess, and ofcourse keenly observing insects/ants for hours is another matter that creates network in impressionable brain. So, all the cynical view on AI -specifically in context to LLM models/GPT, apart, these progresses are noteworthy in many ways. Ofcourse one should be beware of hype, also be aware that this science fiction hype of extrapolating reality has steady enthusiastic milieu of racism and violent narcissism pegged in virtual games.   

As we strip the hype, we find something immensely significant transformative happening (much of which is in AI’s narrow/discreet setting leading to halicin or protein folds so on which were discussed over the months in this blog). LLM is ofcourse limited in its potential for AGI to pose a threat, and was caricatured in my last blog as Andavar! (its Tamil reference for god or godlike). Though LLM is no AGI but it has come a long way for AI hence can accelerate programs towards AGI. LLM iterative learning has limitation as it built from very general dataset sourced from whole of internet, transforming that through neural network doesn’t really represent intelligence, it’s quite shallow and really at surface level. Significantly with its incremental iteration it cannot fathom breakthrough creativity, ideas or inventions. Quite clearly human like generalized intelligence needs a technological breakthrough of sorts, and ofcourse Turing test is quite a low benchmark for AGI. What is clear is that AI has much superior computational capacity than a normal human and can detect pattern that humans are incapable. The question here is the necessity to put such rigorous definition of AGI. Indeed some define AGI as complex systems maintaining its boundaries while seeking to transcend for new functions. This then is more realistic and less of science fiction hype. It is here that LLM models show intriguing ability of GI, and is able to make some leap beyond training data (ofcourse it also makes equally stupid extrapolations) that is not fully understood and makes the endeavor at an entirely different level of reckoning. There is a very limited level abstraction that creates theory of mind is being speculated.

Progress in AI is moving towards hybrid systems that brings neural network and evolutionary algorithms with logical systems wherein LLMs is translated into structured logical statements capable of abstraction (Ben Goertzel). So, unlike the present LLM, which fixated references from past, it can reason whether its thoughts and statements are consistent and logically coherent. In human brain’s cognitive architecture formation of concept and self-concept shows similar pattern. So, it is suggested self/agency or conscious would emerge from abstraction.   

Interesting though these potentials are the real impact of AI is seen in much prosaic relevant goals like raising the living standards of people and sustainable goals. This is what the book Human Compatible by Stuart Russell is discussing. With AI “there would be no need to employ armies of specialists in different disciplines….every one could have at their disposal an entire organization composed of software agents and physical robots capable of designing and building bridges, improving crop yield, cooking dinner, running elections, and doing whatever else need doing”. Education is set to be revolutionized. “With AI tutors, potential of each child no matter how poor can be realized”. In the area of health AI systems can “gradually banish all diseases”. Anyone could have “high powered lawyers, accountant… on call at anytime” so on. Potential of AI is immense, and is set to change the world in a significant way. For systemically discriminated society with nonexistent community values India has appalling education and health standards it is expected that AI creates a compassionate space that is accessible to all.                  

The Alignment Problem!!

 

Waiting for Andavar

 

Scalable is not intelligence nor computation consciousness

 We really are not much impressed by Large Language Models (LLMs) -popularly ChatBots, the latest version in fast accruing scene: ChatGPT4. Although I do identify with language learning strategies through approximation, and yes GPT4 is far better than me when it comes to grammar skills and sentence construction, but at the end of the day it is just scalable approximation working in the context to get meaning. It is a stochastic parrot. It is quite easy to contextualize information to create knowledge. So, it is possible to achieve self-knowledge, determination of self in context. Consciousness is an entirely different matter. It’s an array of triggers and possibilities that come together in a matter of increased chance, which can only be traced in retrospect. Significant aspect of being a human is the ability to reflect, reflect on what is understood. Rather than being in constant loop of gathering for probabilistic knowing reflection is a solitude matter, choosing thoughts, connecting ideas, sensing reality in its unique diversity (and here body too plays an important role that AI lacks), valuing through experience, creating convictions, sophisticating through time. To focus is to choose, to choose what you care and value. An algorithm working on scalable pattern is incapable to understand what to value. It will move with the herd. It will solve problems to satisfy herd and keep them rivetted. It will replace template of mass entertainment and consumption. It is incapable to fathom uniqueness of individual. AI chatbots therefore are threat as it can manipulate, weaponize disinformation, assist in plagiarizing so on. The deep learning is misaligned through biases, prejudices and power dynamics. AI is set to exaggerate crass and awe us to fake. The concern raised by prescient minds at the cutting edge of AI ‘to pause AI experiments for six months’ is valid. Laws have not kept up with significant ethical challenges and possibility of social strife threatening to seriously undermine democratic institutions and individual liberty. Repeated dehumanizing degradations that is classified as jobs are being exposed, so is crude crass mindless entertainment driven consumption pattern. I see AI being a serious threat to herd churning systems like market and religion. The threat of herd getting excited through fake and disinformation is real and will keep humanity at its wits for a long time to come. Lacking faculty to discern they will fall for the manipulation. Lacking compassion and critical thinking sensibilities they will get violent. Education seems to be the only savior as it has the potential to retrieve humans from herd. Meditation, self-reflection, as also associating with thoughts that elevates us to human condition will help to understand context of life hence sharpen sensibilities and faculties to discern context. Any sensible person must have watched rewatched thought rethought Tarkovsky’s Solaris. Tarkovsky notes about the protagonist "For me it was important that he would be just like that. He should be a man of a rather limited spiritual range, average- just in order to be able to experience this spiritual battle, fear, not like an animal which is in pain and does not comprehend what is happening to it. What was important to me was precisely that human being unconsciously forces himself to be human, unconsciously and as far as his spiritual abilities would allow, he opposes the brutality, he opposes all that is inhuman while he remains human. And it turns out that despite him being -so it would seem- a thoroughly average guy, he stands at a high level spiritually. It is as if he convicted himself, he went right inside this problem and he saw himself in a mirror".

  AI will force us to reevaluate what is to be a human. Is it that what is keeping us occupied making us more human or is it reducing our humanity, human faculties and sensibilities? It is a much needed mirror that humanity is forced to look into, a pause to evaluate human civilization. It is quite clear that AI lacks significantly to become an AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), even a larger model of AI will fall short. It needs a technological breakthrough of sorts to reach human level AI i.e. AGI, while creating consciousness is much further from human grasp. Hence the concerns raised on “misaligned superintelligent AGI” cannot really be taken that seriously. Indeed, LLMs or low-level utilitarian chatbots are not what AI is all about, it may amuse some, but the astounding possibilities are in discreet setting -limited frame of reference. AI is bringing out aspect of reality that human beings are not able to even perceive let alone conceive whether discovering antibiotic Halicin -in the process glimpsing properties of molecules that we are not aware that AI found scalable, or AlphaZero showing possibilities that no human could think in last many centuries of playing chess or AlfaFold solving protein folding problem. These are example of AI’s true potential that is exploring and discovering patterns that is beyond human reason. It is creating a black box which human rationality have no access to. Scary though it is AI in discreet setting hold immense potential for the future but that shouldn’t be in any way confused with AGI. AGI, that is human like AI, is quite impossible with present technology and hardware mechanism of binary computers -that is deterministic with limited flexibility and adapting skills. The concern regarding ‘misaligned superintelligent AGI’ doesn’t really pass basic scrutiny. AGI needs a breakthrough technology, a conscious AI seems quite remote at this stage (some are even making post-singularity predictions!!). There is a exponential increase in computation capability and complexity in recent times that is ofcourse getting us closer to reality but consciousness is not a physical process which can be described by computation. Computation is based on discreet elements, specific actions, contexts, rules, and is confined despite ever increasing computation possibilities. While consciousness is part of a continuum. It is symphony at the edge of chaos. The murmuration of starlings and school of fish evading predator are vibrant conscious continuum. There is an understanding that connects, an ambiguous perception that resolves as conscious then exhibits, blends and vanish, in eternal iterative loops as it were.

Unlike binary based AI which is essentially accumulative growth, indeed pathbreaking, the shift from binary computers to quantum technology is a paradigm shift. This transition is ‘extraordinary science’ (Thomas Kuhn), revolutionary like Copernican, Newtonian, Einsteinian etc. Breakthrough ideas and technology creates revolutionary transition, that necessitates abandoning of existing paradigms. This is how nature too works, more than Darwinian natural selections it is mutations that have played significant role in evolution. It's syncing of life with emergent, of survival understanding as chance in chaos. Even at geological scale Cuvier’s theory of cataclysmic events -world altering catastrophes, as cause of mass extinction plays more importance than Lyell’s gradual uniformitarian vanishing of species. Homo sapiens, indeed mammals, got a chance at life through asteroid strike wiping out dominant reptiles -dinosaurs, sixty-six million years ago. And now humans are the cause of cataclysmic events unfolding. Sorry for the digression but the center point of argument here is ‘misalignment of AGI’ is quite impossible since the technology involved in AGI is break from past. Large generative algorithm created AI will ofcourse carry misalignment that is embedded in the society. Most countries across the world, indeed EU, are working on regulation of AI ethics.

Knowledge is about probability and contingency. It’s probable because of the available data and critical faculties of sense contingent to the situation. The reason why Karl Popper is a compelling and relevant philosopher. Current understandings are evolving and is in eternal iterating loop with reality each individual faces. This is the journey of each individual for his or her truth, and in the sense contribution to collective truth of humanity. It is impossible to know reality perfectly. It is always an approximation that keeps updating with more inputs and insights. Generative algorithm, machine learning based on deep neural network, is also working on increasing probability. Bayes theorem is a mathematical equation to probe the probability and increase the chance. It’s the backbone of machine learning. It’s an iterative learning to keep increasing the probability and getting approximation closer to reality as the prior is updated with inputs from each event. Now this can only work if we are open minded since certainty makes learning impossible. Every moment in life is an experience that contributes to diversity of experience hence our approximation of our reality that is unique and cherished as expression of life. Life is probing into deeper conscious and possibilities. Even though quantum breakthrough will help access reality at molecular level hence push scientific breakthroughs but conscious AI is still way ahead since quantum too is working on computing. Even basic quantum is based on Schrodinger’s equation which means it is still computable i.e. deterministic. It’s the breakdown of quantum is where the possibility of conscious, the collapse of wave function (measurement as consciousness), reducing of quantum state. This is the building block of proto conscious which will provide the building block of conscious according to Roger Penrose. He argues on conscious as non computable hence non algorithmic and speaks about Orchestrated Objective Reduction -a philosophy of mind wherein consciousness originates at quantum level inside neuron rather than product of connection between the neurons or synapses. So, negating the idea of conscious sourced from computation at synapses hence brain output -neurological data, as input from consciousness.     

Computation is based on mathematics and logic herein. But much of math is constructed on unprovable true. It is based on axioms -undeniable statement assumed to be true. Theorems and proofs are constructed from axioms using rules of inference and logical deduction. There are therefore true statements that are impossible to prove. Hence logical systems will have unprovable trues. This is self-referential paradox. This is the famous Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem. “The revelation of the causal power of meaning in a rule bound but meaning free universe” (Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter) “…Twisted loop of selfhood trapped in inanimate bulb called brain”. Infinite in finite. Hofstadter, unlike Penrose -biology based consciousness, argues that focus from material component to abstract patterns allows the quasi magical leap from inanimate to animate, from nonsemantic to semantic, from meaningless to meaningful, to take place. This abstract pattern is 'strange loop' -that Godel brings out through his theorem, Escher through his drawing and Bach through music. Whether it is biological based (quantum tangled neurons) or non biological (strange loops -complex set of stimuli drastically reduced into a concept) one is not sure nor competent to comment. But what is clear is all logical construction is based on reliability of proof procedure. This reliability is based on not provable by the rules that is given, the meaning impervious. Rules have to be trusted for the logical outcome. This understanding of why the rules gives you truth enables you to transcend the truth. This understanding is outside the rule or computable framework, hence is indication of conscious. It is where the system stands back and think about its own thought process. What is the reason to think in such a way? What is that what I am thinking? This self-referential paradox is self-reflection, hence awareness and understanding, hence consciousness.   

Post Script: Ray Kurzweil proposes AI consciousness by 2029 through LLM. Ofcourse his idea of consciousness is philosophical! Singularity by 2045. Also, recent research into role of glial cells adds to new dimensions.