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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Is time travel impossible because of the space you occupy in the present?

« on: 06/01/2021 21:11:19 »

Sean Carroll explores some of the issues with time travel from a physics and entertainment viewpoint:
Listen (2.5 hours): https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2020/11/23/124-solo-how-time-travel-could-and-should-work/
Or with an artistic video background:

The part talking intensely about actual movies & TV shows starts at the 2 hour mark (but there are other parts scattered through the earlier physics).

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Geology, Palaeontology & Archaeology / Re: Could pyramids have been terraformed?

« on: 05/07/2016 07:54:37 »

Alex, you have an active imagination and that is commendable. Unrestrained active imaginations are of great value when creating works of fiction. However, when dealing with the non-fiction world, imagination must  be constrained by reality. Unfortunately your imaginative thoughts conflict with many facts established by tens of thousands of scientists over decades and centuries. I encourage you to do a little study of what is known and use your imagination to build on a solid foundation in future.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Is consciousness a metaphysical experience of reality?

« on: 24/12/2015 00:57:49 »

Could an AI computer appreciate art to the extent that it could distinguish between beauty and ugliness also without instruction?

A parallel question: Could a human appreciate art to the extent that it could distinguish between beauty and ugliness also without instruction?
I think not.

Indications are that things like music, art and beauty are basically fashions which are cultural artifacts of our own creation.
People growing up in one musical culture have trouble appreciating very different musical styles and even musical scales that are popular in other cultures.
In many respects, I think our appreciation of art and beauty is trained via subconscious cultural cues; some experiments have shown that a baby relates more to the music, rhythm and language to which a baby was exposed before birth.

One area that seems to be a universal measure of human (and biological) beauty is symmetry. When the shape of an organism is controlled by the outworking of a genetic algorithm, major deviations from symmetry indicate a major genetic or environmental crisis. We regard this as a blight, even when the asymmetry is too small to register consciously.

Could an AI computer appreciate art?

Art is very much in the eye of the beholder. But when some apps recommend similar images or similar music, part of their determination comes from algorithms that study the content, not just what other people also consumed.

Could an AI computer feel sorrow or regret when faced with an error of it's own making?

There are people who think that AI can only work well when computers have emotional states that reinforce learning or cause it to change its behavior.
Current AI learning algorithms (like backpropagation) do change behavior, but don't rely on emotional states.

could an AI computer enjoy the activity of "playing" even though the "playing" had no specific profit or progress as it's goal?

I think this is closely linked to the previous question. A human (or an AI) starts with a low level of experience.
"Play" is a safe way of gaining experience, and it must be pleasurable and self-rewarding, or we would not do it, and we would end up naive and unready to face the world.

If we punished and shamed every child (or AI) for every time they failed to make an adult decision, we would end up with insecure children (or AIs) who were unwilling to try anything.
 
The same goes for organisations - an environment which encourages innovation (which will often fail in small or big ways) is more successful than an organization that punishes even a hint of failure; the latter just produces bureaucracies where everyone just focuses on "protecting their butt" (like politics).
 
A rich and welcoming play environment produces more innovated and interested adults who are self-motivated to learn new things. We need to approach this with AIs that are continually self-motivated to learn.