Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #FQXI2019
Most recents (6)
Interested in the origins of time, life, consciousness & free will? Or the AI singularity and transhumanism? Audio from the talks at FQXi's "Mind Matters" meeting in Tuscany is being added each day, along with slides: fqxi.org/community/podc…. Videos will appear soon (promise). 
@seanmcarroll @carlorovelli @quantummoxie @gmusser @FrancesVidotto @SimonDeDeo @okw Memory, Causality and Cats. Cosmologist @seanmcarroll
searches for a mathematical description of why causes precede effects & asks what makes our memories of the past special & different from calculations of what went before: fqxi.org/community/foru… Audio of talk from #FQXi2019
searches for a mathematical description of why causes precede effects & asks what makes our memories of the past special & different from calculations of what went before: fqxi.org/community/foru… Audio of talk from #FQXi2019
@seanmcarroll @carlorovelli @quantummoxie @gmusser @FrancesVidotto @SimonDeDeo @okw We could run out of computational resources in 32 years, says astrophysicist Fred Adams. And how alien civilizations could mine stars to create solar-system-sized #BlackCloudComputers detectable from Earth. Audio of Adams' talk from #FQXi2019 #SETI fqxi.org/community/foru…
Next, Scott Aaronson riles things up with “Lessons from the Failure of Integrated Information Theory.” #FQXi2019
Aaronson: Had been smack talking about IIT at a previous FQXi meeting, and @tegmark challenged me to do a calculation to back it up. Argument continued on blog: scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1799
Hard Problem of Consciousness (Chalmers): How do a bunch of neuron firings give rise to first person experience of consciousness?
Panel: Will we hit an AI Singularity? #FQXi2019
Michael Vassar: What is the singularity? Earlier meaning: There would be feedback as AI makes ever more sophisticated AI we could reach a point where AI take over. Expected between 2005 and 2030, a switch between human intelligence as the driver of history to AI as the driver.
Vassar: Other definitions of the singularity are in terms of Moore's Law. But seem less relevant now, as Moore's Law seems to be ending.
Now panel “Intelligence + Agency = Free Will” moderated by Jennan Ismael #FQXi2019
Do we have free will?
Sara Imari Walker: Something is missing in our understanding of physics needed to explain origin of life (my research) and free will. But yes.
Now, a panel asking “What will quantum computers be good for?” Thoughts? What will quantum computers be useful for? And when? #FQXi2019
Scott Aaronson: Uses are more specialised than popular articles suggest. But amazing there are applications at all: (1) simulating chemistry and physics (Feynman's original idea in '80s). Useful for material science, designing high-temp superconductors, better batteries...
Aaronson: ...use of quantum computers: (2) Breaking cryptography -- all systems used to secure the internet, but we can switch to more secure systems (3) Grover's algorithm speeding up searches, (4) quantum machine learning -- but hard to show better than classical equivalent...
Now, panel “Is Time Real?” #FQXi2019
Bernard Carr: Conscious experience exists over a very narrow timescale ('specious present'). But we know perception of time can change.
Jayne Thompson: If there is a thermodynamic arrow of time. We have a finite memory and ability to track all information, leads to perception of entropy increasing. Time is real.
