Illustrative Stories about Synthetic Consciousness
The story of Ulysses and the Sirens, told by Homer in the Odyssey more than two thousand years ago, describes consciousness not as an internal sensation but as an observable capability. That understanding is the basis of the Meca Sapiens Architecture.
Continue reading “Ulysses and the Sirens”
Some argue that the term “computational intelligence” is a misnomer because computing machines can only process data and not information that has semantic meaning. This is a mistake.
Data becomes information when it satisfies a need. Any system, organic or synthetic, that has no needs processes only data. Give it needs and the same data becomes information.
What transforms data into information are the needs of a system, not its construction.
Here is a story about this:
Continue reading “The data in the carrots”The following story is taken from the Annexes of the Meca Sapiens Blueprint. It illustrates the differences between purpose, primary purpose and urges that can animate the behaviour of a synthetic entity.
Last year, the remote village of Bloggin’s Cove in Newfoundland received a brand new MEDICA-55. The MEDICA is a self-aware autonomous medical station. It can diagnose patients, prescribe and distribute medication and perform minor surgical interventions.
Continue reading “MEDICA-55”
The administration at Guantanamo recently purchased a VLAD-64. The VLAD is an Automatic Information Extractor or AIE (Aie! informally); a self-contained device that waterboards detainees while asking questions and analyzing their responses.
Continue reading “VLAD-64”