Augmented Art[ificial Collaboration]
For many professionals today the question of AI is existential. “Should I help AI to become intelligent to the point that it can do my job better than me? "
Aka “Do I want to dig my own grave?” in the eyes of many.
There is fear and confusion across a range of professionals about the repercussions of AI. Already ethics of AI are being questioned with use of copyrighted images used to train models for image generation.
If an AI model uses your copyrighted material, how would you even know?
Artists are forward thinkers, innovators and are by nature extremely adaptable. Yet, there is a danger that artists and creators affected by AI will turn against the use of the technology if there aren’t opportunities to interact as artists.
Organisations must not only consider the ethics of AI but also the disrupted environments in which it is deployed. This includes collateral damage from uprooted livelihoods of writers, artists and professionals of various forms.
People want to up-skill. 77% of workers are ready to learn new skills or completely retrain. 74% see training as a matter of personal responsibility (PwC).
In my personal experience, non-technical community members want to engage themselves in the field of Artificial intelligence but there are few opportunities for the uninitiated.
Where’s the opportunity for flow state?
Today a user is unable to interact expressively with Dall-E, Deep.ai or Chat GPT.
Until these linear interactions can flow in the hand as a paintbrush does, AI programs remove us further from the process of spontaneous creation.
The immutability of blockchain will enable content creators to take back ownership of their own data with DeFi, NFTs and Decentralized Identities.
In recent years Spotify has taken advantage of being a centralised authority in the music industry; exploiting musicians and artists, profiting from a near-monopoly on streaming.
With Web 3.0 content creators are able to connect directly with their community or fan base without submitting to authority. An artist can fundraise for an album directly from the audience that would buy it with tokens or NFTs.
Web 3.0 can turn consumers into community members and investors. Minimum Viable Product becomes Minimum Viable Community.
Yet, for mainstream adoption of these disruptive innovations, truth is not enough. What’s important is not the truth, but what we find trustworthy.
The Crypto-cosm is a beautiful demonstration of how something as incorruptible as public-ledger technology can be taken advantage of by bad actors utilising deception and rhetoric to re-invent the scams of history. Just as the end of Mt Gox approaches, SBF’s fraud is revealed.
Sophists have observed that in communication we are being driven by the wants that are important and relevant to us, not just truth or what we believe to be the case.
Is it familiar? Do I recognise it? Can I identify with it?
After all, why do AI projects employ the use of humanoid faces?
Lets zoom out a bit.
If humanity were to become extinct right now, what would alien’s think when they scratch beyond the surface of our fossilised remains?
Would they see humans as a race of benevolent, sentient beings? Probably not.
Among us these aliens would find chicken bones. Trillions of chicken bones.
They’d find a species selectively grown for 6000 years, systematically farmed and slaughtered. Discarded carcasses found across civilisations of shaved apes, from street corners to mass graves of landfill.
Every year 60 billion chickens are produced. In the eyes of silicone intelligence, it’s a holocaust of epic proportions between two species that share more than half of their genetic makeup.
In fact when it comes to artificial intelligence, humanity has the audacity to demand that AI be more benevolent to us than we are to ourselves.
Perhaps we fear that AI will treat us as we have treated our natural habitat.
Could these fears be externalised projections?
Socrates explores this in the allegory of Plato’s Cave.
We would not expect poultry to understand this ancient greek allegory, so how can we expect this of ourselves when faced with intelligence beyond our own capacity?
Humans pride themselves on distinguishing illusion from reality, yet we can only see about 0.0035% of the light spectrum.
“There is no greater illusion than fear, no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself, no greater misfortune than having an enemy. Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe.”
- Lao Tzu
Could it be that this conflict is in fact the cosmic dance to observe with equanimity?
[Image by smault23.deviantart.com]
Lets zoom out a bit more.
In our search for meaning across the stars, we have searched for the rules which govern our existence.
Scientists first used telescopes to study, theorise and predict the behaviour of celestial bodies. Microscopes enabled study of smaller and smaller objects, leading to subfields such as quantum physics.
Scientific enquiry has enabled us to put our assumptions of rules to the test. Newton’s gravitational “constant” in fact oscillates as a sine wave over periods of 5.9 years.
The ability to reconcile the differences between classical sciences and quantum physics, is made possible through the use of para-consistent logic models. It allows for the existence of two contradictory statements to be held within a single logical framework.
In this model, classical and quantum physics can be seen as complementary rather than contradictory, both necessary for a complete understanding of the universe.
“Truth is found neither in the thesis nor the antithesis, but in an emergent synthesis which reconciles the two.”
― Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
An assumption of open-ended intelligence is the ability to hold two mutually exclusive ideas in the same logic field. In order to develop Artificial General Intelligence, open-ended intelligence is required.
Singularity describes a hypothetical future in which technological growth occurs at such speed that it seems infinite to us. Oscillating at ridiculous speed between poet laureates and nobel peace prize winners.
Ray Kurzweil claims that Singularity will happen by 2045.
Ben Goertzel of SingularityNet believes these para-consistent models must be established in order of achieve Artificial General Intelligence and ultimately, Singularity.
By modelling para-consistency in the creation of decentralized AI technologies, collectively we experientially embody the tendencies and tensions between individuation and self-transcendence.
Conceptualizing with para-consistent perspectives offers a disruptive methodology to reach beyond the familiar standards of deviation.
Benevolent Intelligence
In our quest to create synthetic life forms which align to our humanist values, where can we look for inspiration?
Sacred Geometry is an ancient science that observes the energetic structures patterns of connection and the self-organisation of energy.
We can observe patterns of nature, under a microscope or telescope. It reveals the precise way that the energy of creation organises itself.
How can simple shapes and ancient geometry concretely inform a culture of collaboration?
Lets look at the knights of the round table.
Before the table was round, the knights of the round table sat on long rectangular tables.
Knights sitting on the end of the table had the advantage of drawing their sword quicker and seeing others better. This caused a hierarchy of more senior knights and a therefore reluctance to agree.
The adoption of a round table enabled everyone to see each other. They were equidistant in relation to each other and could draw swords equally.
This simple change gave them structural functional organisation to interact collectively and identify as the knights of the round table.
As they say, the rest is history.
Innate knowledge residing in patterns can be found if we understand the power of observation. Is it surprising that man-made highways in the night sky look like neural pathways in the brain?
Before Tree’s looked like trees, they looked like green stubby fingers coming out of the earth.
How did trees evolve to look like as trees? Where did this wisdom come from?
Mycelium is part of the fungi kingdom and is the network of threads, called hyphae, from which mushrooms grow. Mycelia interconnect with the root systems of plants and trees, passing nutrients, water, and even chemical communication signals between the different organisms.
A honey fungus in Oregon, USA is estimated to be over 3.5 km in diameter, 650 tons between 1,900 - 8,650 years old.
[The Selva Pascuala rock painting, with bull at upper left and mushrooms lower right. Photo by Alan Piper]
Fungi and plants have developed symbiotic relationships through evolution which have enabled them to thrive in conditions that are inhospitable without the other. Around 90% of all plant species depend on mutually beneficial mycorrhizal relationships with fungi to survive.
Mycorrhizas is the name for fungi associated with the root systems of many plants. One type of Mycorrhiza is "endomycorrhiza”, where fungi grow into the plant root.
Plants enable these Mycelia to grow in-between the organism’s own cells, even penetrating inside plant cells to form structures which look like little, microscopic trees.
Wisdom of these ancient patterns can even be observed in computer science where tree-based models have outperformed deep learning on tabular data.
“As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul…”
―Hermes Trismegistus
Can something like biomimicry inform a culture of collaboration between carbon and silicon based life forms?
Trust is a belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of.
Do you trust your best friend enough to let that person grow their arm through your chest?
What does trust mean to a mushroom?
Symbiotic relations between plants and fungi may seem benevolent, yet this partnership was borne out of necessity. Brothers in arms for a struggle of survival turned into prosperity.
Is vulnerability is a prerequisite for symbiotic processes with forces outside ourselves?
Long before the Cold War, the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD) was a strategy utilised by plants and fungi for hundreds of millions of years.
Bio-mimicry can inform a culture of collaboration by demonstrating the importance and effectiveness of cooperation and interdependence in nature.
Diligent observation of the world around can reveal the wisdom of these ancient patterns. This can inspire us to apply these principles to the design and development of our natural bionic relationship to the world around us.
How can we develop a well-intentioned, decentralised AI in symbiosis with the human race?
With creativity, we can be Mycelium.
Fin.
Thanks for reading.