Evolutionary Intelligence

Evolutionary Intelligence. Harvard Graduate and Doctorate biologist Francisco Jose (Ze) Ayala posted a link to his paper in Google Group comp.ai last year. I didn’t noticed the significance then. The guy has serious credentials in biological evolution and its detailed evidence in the fossil record (S J Gould has cited his work). His paper proposed a mathematical model for evolving a complex intelligent brain from simple neural networks with relatively simple computational and selection functions.

Presumably EI per se is a well enough established concept, though no doubt the relationship between genetic physical biological cellular evolution and the memetic mental evolution is not yet understood. (This is the whole mind-matter “science of consciouness” agenda, quantum or otherwise.)

Interestingly Ze also notes parallels with Cellular Automata, and the then recent publication of Wolfram’s ANKOS, which claimed that all the worlds complexity can be created from relatively simple CA’s.

EI as a mathematical model seems to have died a damp squib in 1999 / 2000 if Ze’s web site is anything to go by. (His only two threads in Google Groups died with little intelligent input. Lots of lectures / talks 1998/9 &2000. Nice paper summarising Evolution on the Counterbalance Meta-Library web site.

Interesting conclusion [Quote] Scientific knowledge, like the description of size, materials, and geometry of Guernica, is satisfying and useful. But once science has had its say, there remains much about reality that is of interest, questions of value and meaning that are forever beyond science’s scope. [Unquote] Definite tendencies here and elsewhere that non-scientific interest leads towards the religious as well as philosophical, but hey.

Actually this whole paper is worth a read, though his teleological view of evolution is initially a little disconcerting. True the popping into existence of anything from nothingness doesn’t bear thinking about, but for the most part his teleological evolution is “internal” non-conscious (emergent / metaphorical I’d say) rather than “external” or conscious. His coda on scientific knowledge is salutory. [Quote above] and [Quote] Science is a way of knowing, but it is not the only way … In The Myth of Sisyphus, the great French writer Albert Camus asserted that “we learn more about ourselves and the world from a relaxed evening?s perception of the starry heavens and the scents of grass than from science?s reductionistic ways” … a scientific view of the world is hopelessly incomplete. [Unquote]

[Quote] Francisco Ayala was recently [2000] profiled in a major story in The New York Times as the “Renaissance Man of Evolutionary Biology.” He is professor of biology and philosophy at the University of California at Irvine, where he specializes in evolutionary genetics, using DNA to track the path and flow of evolution. He has published 12 books and 650 articles. He is past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). [Unquote] Source “Closer to Truth” TV Media Production Channel – no sign of activity since 2001/2 – their last show “Will Intelligence Fill The Universe ?”

Terry Lecturer at Yale 2001 / 2002. Here at UCI (post-2003) Still very busy publishing – highly technical / scientific in genetics etc, however at the “Faculty of Philosophy“.

Interesting person I’d not heard of. Obviously doesn’t have Brockman as his publicist.

Interesting Post-Grad Philosophy course at UCI “Ontology of Intentionality”, featuring the work of David Chalmers. The increasingly tangled web.

McAfee pulls it off

McAfee pulls it off. Been struggling under spam and adware in recent weeks. The spam’s bad enough, but the adware (CoolWebSearch) has gradually been hijacking and spawning browsers all over the place.

Difficult to be vigilant with the firewall with four different domestic users klicking OK to so many different legitimate reasons to access the web that eventually the garbage starts leaking through. VirusScans help, but I needed to install McAfee AntiSpyware today to get rid of the hijackers. When it turned out that didn’t scan and delete deep enough to get rid of the particular hijacker without the infection popping-up next time you hit a browser, the guys at McAfee instantly sent me a tool from Ad-Aware that did the trick.

Very impressive service, the McAfee 24/7 human web-chat support.
Maybe I should start attacking the spam more vigilantly too.

Bubbles

Bubbles. Spookily, Ray Girvan has been blogging about bubbles too, well foam anyway.

We’re all children in the long run

We’re all children in the long run. Only just noticed a post by Mitch Ratcliffe, from over a year ago in response to one of my “Nothing new under the sun” threads, quoting William Barrett and Ortega y Gasset.

[Quote] One can find all sorts of tools for dealing with new problems in history, if only you let go of the conceit that you’re inventing everything. I tell my kids this all the time, when they are banging their heads against experience that is easily borrowed and improved upon. We’d do well to recognize we are all children in the long run. Better than just being dead, because it leaves your whole life in front of you and millennia of history to parent you through it all. [Unquote]

Well said.

Knowledge Dialogue

Knowledge Dialogue. Lilia posts, and several other people pick-up on Lilia’s recent post on “Questions Powering Knowledge”. No doubt about that. Just look at the popularity of FAQ’s as a substitute for more planned communication.

A question is (generally on the face of it) an indication of someone wanting to know something. As Jack Vinson notes (quoting Denham Grey) questions come in all shapes and sizes. The problem with this list of categories is that it is a bit one-dimensional as ontologies go. In fact many different aspects of questions are being categorized. Who’s asking who, with what kinds of objectives, and using what strategies & processes. In fact 9 times out of 10 gaining knowledge in the form of a direct response to the question posed is not the main motive, or not even part of the motive, notice.

Lilia also concludes “KM is about motivation to learn”. Well OK, but for me this still begs the question about the motive in the learning itself. It’s about making or influencing a decision to achieve something else. Learning for it’s own sake – to simply have more knowledge as a resource as the outcome, is rarely the sole objective.

The Q&A process, and dialogue more generally, is definitely where knowledge is created, though gaining the A to the Q is only (a small) part of it. Secondly, classifying people’s motives in Q&A / Dialogue is really back to what makes people tick generally – anthropology, Maslow, Hertzberg, Heylighen, Pirsig, etc. An (evolutionary) ontology of life, the universe and everything.

Lilia also links to Andy at Croeso. Must follow-up the Shell EP connection – a customer in my day job.

Bloggers to Meet in London in September ?

Something being hatched by the BlogWalkFive ?

Putting Humans Back in the Traffic Loop

At last …. blogged about this over a year ago, when BBC Radio 4 “Today” reported on a Dutch experiment to do away with traffic signs and road markings, and just leave the drivers to it. Sounds irrational, but it’s proven that there are less accidents and more courtesy, because the humans have to use eye-contact and body-language to work out priorities and safe manouvres.

Well yesterday it was announced that such a scheme was going to be adopted in an experiment in the UK that included a busy zone passing a school, where many “traffic calming” measures had previously been tried – doing away with speed-bumps, chicanes, cameras, speed limits, and in fact all road signs and white lines – the lot. (The Thursday Today link is ephemeral – I’ve downloaded the interview and will upload a link – needs Real Player.)

Less is more – you better believe it.
Irrational (subject-involving, non-objective, non-scientific rationale) is better than rational, for any complex evolved system involving humans. That’s MoQ.

We humans are not rational, we are “post-rationalising” for reasons of comfort – Argyris Theory I Model in Use, etc… Wake up from that meme dream (Blackmore) …. need I go on ?

(Our current bee-in-bonnet is new white lines appearing all over multi-lane roundabouts – how does any traffic planner believe these can possibly help anyone, except cover his own arse, and his employer’s arse, in the event of an incident ?)

Classical Physics Cannot Explain Consciousness

Classical Physics Cannot Explain Consciousness. Blindingly obvious when you see this straightforward opening quote from Henry Stapp. [Quote] Classical mechanics arose from the banishment of consciousness from our conception of the physical universe. Hence it should not be surprising to find that the readmission of consciousness requires going beyond that theory. [Unquote]

Taken from his 1995 paper “Why Classical Mechanics Cannot Naturally Accommodate Consciousness but Quantum Mechanics Can” of which copies reside in many www locations. This QEDCorp version has editorial input from Jack Sarfatti.

Chrucky – Chalmers link

Chrucky – Chalmers link. The plot thickens.

McKeon, Adler and Hutchins

A bit of a brain dump after following the new Adler link from Jorn in the previous post. All old ground, but suggesting Pirsig missed aspects of McKeon as the “Chairman” in ZMM.

Richard Peter McKeon (1900 – 1985) Columbia – Woodbridge & Dewey AB’20, AM’20, PhD’22, Sorbonne, Columbia’25, Hutchins – Chicago’35, Dean’36-’48, Ideas & Methods 211 (Room Cobb 112 first floor corner), Retd’74, (Bibliography)

Mortimer J Adler (1902 – 2001) – Columbia PhD’22(approx), Chicago’30 Law’31 (Great Books / Synopticon ’52)

Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899 – 1977) Yale AB’21, LLB’25, Law Dean’27, Chicago President’29-’51, (World constitution – post Hiroshima)

Charles Hartshorne (1897 – 2000) Chicago’28-’55

In the polarizing battles surrounding the general-education movement at Chicago, McKeon was often stereotyped as a Great Books advocate, an Ancient (vs. the progressive Moderns), and a strict Aristotelian who analyzed texts based on the requirements laid down in the Poetics. His schematism made it possible to appreciate the philosophy of the past without taking sides.

Common themes – The Great Books, Liberal Education, Ford Foundation, Encyclopeadia Brittanica.

Frederick J E Woodbridge
John Dewey
George Anastaplo
Richard Rorty – McKeon AM’49, AB’52
Robert Pirsig – Minneapolis BA’50, MA’58, Chicago McKeon Ideas&Methods’61
Doug Mitchell – McKeon AB’65 (book)
Zahava McKeon (his wife) – McKeon PhD’74
David Owen – McKeon AM’66, AB’80, PhD’84
Milton S Mayer (1908 – 1986) – McKeon
Robert Coover – McKeon AM’65
Susan Sontag – McKeon AB’51
Paul Goodman – Mckeon PhD’54
Paul Rabinov – Mckeon AM’65, AB’67, PhD’70
Wayne C Booth – McKeon AM’57, PhD’50
Morman McLean – McKeon Phd’40
William McNeill – Mckeon AB’38, AM’39 (Book – Hutchin’s University)
Richard Buchanan – McKeon AB’68, PhD’73

With thanks to Andrew Chrucky’s “In Search of the Real University of Chicago” for the many direct and secondary links.

Robert Maynard …. both Hutchins & Pirsig – spooky.

“Our erroneous notion of progress,” Hutchins writes, “has thrown the classics and the liberal arts out of the curriculum, overemphasized the empirical sciences, and made education the servant of any contemporary movements in society, no matter how superficial.” Consequently, a student who entered the university would find a “vast number of departments and professional schools all anxious to give him the latest information about a tremendous variety of subjects, some important, some trivial, some indifferent. He would find that democracy, liberalism, and academic freedom meant that all these subjects and fractions of subjects must be regarded as equally valuable. It would not be democratic to hint that Scandinavian was not as significant as law or that methods of lumbering was not as fundamental as astronomy. He would find a complete and thoroughgoing disorder.” Hutchins advocates at the collegiate level “a course of study consisting of the greatest books of the western world and the arts of reading, writing, thinking, and speaking, together with mathematics, the best exemplar of the processes of human reason.

That’s a plea for values in my book, shared with Adler and KcKeon I’d guess. Can’t see Pirsig would disagree ?

Mortimer Adler dropped out of school at 14 years of age and went to work as a secretary and copy boy at the New York Sun, hoping to become a journalist. After a year, he took night classes at Columbia University to improve his writing. A biography Pirsig would recognise !