4 ms·

In that case, the fact that our minds run on similar substrates is probably non-coincidental.

akvadrako 9y ago
Indeed, the connections seem profound. It seems to be a general-purpose optimal algorithm for, well, optimisation. And that would explain why the universe, our brains and AIs all trend toward it. It could also be just that intelligence tends to mirror the outside world, but that seems a bit arbitrary.
- vanderZwan 9y ago
  > It could also be just that intelligence tends to mirror the outside world, but that seems a bit arbitrary. We are part of the universe, so why would it be arbitrary if our brains were structured in ways that match typical structures found in this universe?
  - sitkack 8y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism
    - vanderZwan 8y ago
      I was thinking more along the lines that if our minds process outside information in a way that makes sense of that information, partially through simulating it, it does not seem so strange if the structures end up matching the outside structures through some form of convergent evolution. From a cursory reading of that article I do not see it argue the same thing.
      - sitkack 8y ago
        That the universe is the best simulator of itself? That say, simulating water flowing through a pipe, the system doing the simulation re-formulates itself into something that resembles the pipe and the water?
        vanderZwan 8y ago
        > That the universe is the best simulator of itself? What is this even supposed to mean? Also, "pipe" and "water" are ridiculously high level constructs, categorisations made by humans. Neither says anything about structures inherent to the universe. I mean that when working with symmetries, information flow, and fundamental building blocks, certain structures just tend to pop up naturally. Hence fractals and geometrically shapes in places where you might not expect them. Or how laws of thermodynamics suddenly seems to be everywhere in biology all of a sudden now that we started looking[0][1]. [0] http://ecologicalsociology.blogspot.de/2010/11/geoffrey-west-on-scaling-rules.html http://ecologicalsociology.blogspot.de/2010/11/geoffrey-west... [1] https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-thermodynamic-answer-to-why-birds-migrate-20180507/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-thermodynamic-answer-to-why...

Indeed, the connections seem profound. It seems to be a general-purpose optimal algorithm for, well, optimisation. And that would explain why the universe, our brains and AIs all trend toward it. It could also be just that intelligence tends to mirror the outside world, but that seems a bit arbitrary.

vanderZwan 9y ago
> It could also be just that intelligence tends to mirror the outside world, but that seems a bit arbitrary. We are part of the universe, so why would it be arbitrary if our brains were structured in ways that match typical structures found in this universe?
- sitkack 8y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism
  - vanderZwan 8y ago
    I was thinking more along the lines that if our minds process outside information in a way that makes sense of that information, partially through simulating it, it does not seem so strange if the structures end up matching the outside structures through some form of convergent evolution. From a cursory reading of that article I do not see it argue the same thing.
    - sitkack 8y ago
      That the universe is the best simulator of itself? That say, simulating water flowing through a pipe, the system doing the simulation re-formulates itself into something that resembles the pipe and the water?
      - vanderZwan 8y ago
        > That the universe is the best simulator of itself? What is this even supposed to mean? Also, "pipe" and "water" are ridiculously high level constructs, categorisations made by humans. Neither says anything about structures inherent to the universe. I mean that when working with symmetries, information flow, and fundamental building blocks, certain structures just tend to pop up naturally. Hence fractals and geometrically shapes in places where you might not expect them. Or how laws of thermodynamics suddenly seems to be everywhere in biology all of a sudden now that we started looking[0][1]. [0] http://ecologicalsociology.blogspot.de/2010/11/geoffrey-west-on-scaling-rules.html http://ecologicalsociology.blogspot.de/2010/11/geoffrey-west... [1] https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-thermodynamic-answer-to-why-birds-migrate-20180507/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-thermodynamic-answer-to-why...