Links for 2021-09-16
A paper by Hanson et al. on grabby aliens has been accepted by the prestigious Astrophysical Journal: "we actually have enough data to say that aliens really are out there, and to roughly estimate where (some kinds) are, what they are doing, and when we will meet them." https://grabbyaliens.com/press-release
Are insects tiny nonconscious machines? Or are they sentient beings with cognitive powers beyond what we tend to assume? Interesting survey of the scientific literature on insect cognition and sentience. https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168159121002197
"In vertebrates the capacity for subjective experience is supported by integrated structures in the midbrain that create a neural simulation of the state of the mobile animal in space. This integrated and egocentric representation of the world from the animal’s perspective is sufficient for subjective experience. Structures in the insect brain perform analogous functions. Therefore, we argue the insect brain also supports a capacity for subjective experience." https://www.pnas.org/content/113/18/4900
A Single Laser Fired Through a Keyhole Can Expose Everything Inside a Room https://gizmodo.com/a-single-laser-fired-through-a-keyhole-can-expose-every-1847638281
DeepMind Reinforcement Learning Lecture Series, a comprehensive introduction to modern RL https://deepmind.com/learning-resources/reinforcement-learning-series-2021
Irradiation (short SF film) youtu.be/r_9f1_z8y1U
A developer built an AI chatbot using GPT-3 that helped a man speak again to his late fiancée. OpenAI shut it down https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/08/project_december_openai_gpt_3/
The Drone Unit that Helped the Taliban Win the War: "The work of the drone unit, reported in detail here for the first time, shows how the Taliban were able to neutralize the technological and military superiority of the U.S." https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-drone-unit-that-helped-the-taliban-win-the-war/