Will artificial intelligence become conscious?

In the last 10 years, the field of robot awareness has made significant progress, and the advances are expected to proceed toward intellect and independent decision-making. Ongoing research is trying to better understand what the new AI programs will be able to do.

In today's AI, connections emulate synapses, the relationships between neurons. The problem-solving ability is expected to improve with the size and complexity of links. Today's AI can translate text, make personal recommendations for books and movies, recognize people in images and videos, and more specialized applications in industry and personal life constantly surprise us. As we have seen with Go, chess, and poker, today's algorithms can best humans in many fields, but algorithms are far from the ability to write a coherent literary masterpiece.

Intelligence is an inescapable consequence of our brain's powers. Although attempts to build supercomputer brains have not even come close to this, it is expected that sooner or later, computers will achieve artificial general intelligence. But, will they ever be conscious?

Although all life processes are based on interaction with the environment, life's fundamental characteristic is homeostasis, a dynamic equilibrium. Sensory abilities lend environmental insight for purposeful behavior to even the most primitive animals. The sensory cycle revolves between an information-rich surrounding and an information-hungry sink (the brain). The processing of the stimulus generates memory, which lends the predictive ability and creates meaning, a fundamental character of intellect. Synaptic complexity, based on interaction with the environment, evolves into an abstract mirroring. 

AI systems transform inputs into outputs by manipulating the data as it moves through the layers. For example, the deep neural network (DNN) accumulates intellect from experience by extracting higher-level features from the raw input like the human mind. This is the network's "black box." A deeper understanding of the DNN black box is the topic of my manuscript, WILL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BECOME CONSCIOUS? CAN THERMODYNAMICS EXPLAIN THE EVOLUTION OF INTELLECT?

Copyright © 2022 by Eva Deli

Memorization and learning

"A serious man in dealing with severe subjects carefully avoids writing," lamented Plato about writing. He considered unwritten knowledge more profound and seasoned because it could stand up against arguments. Indeed, human thought before the widespread prevalence of writing is notable. Ancient philosophers and sages — Jesus, Buddha, Plato, Aristotle. Laozi (Lao-Tzu) and others — produced the most important philosophical, scientific questions of human thought. Their work remains relevant. The profound work was credited to these great thinkers by contemporary writers, but the ideas might be a culmination of a long evolution of thought. 

It is essential to go back to Plato's lament about memorization and reasoned thought. The accepted view is that learning must be based on understanding. Discovering logical connections in a new material makes learning fun, exciting and motivating. However, in any subject matter, lots of information fall outside of logic, such as vocabulary or definitions. Rotary memorization creates automatic associations by long-term potentiation between neuronal connections. Building new connections also weaken old associations. It increases mental flexibility, allowing focus on a larger picture. 

Emotion has a vital role in memorization and learning. Emotional experiences are remembered according to their impact. Also, negative emotional experiences are remembered even better than positive ones, such as sensational, violent incidents. Csikszentmihalyi and Hunter have shown that learning imbues long-term psychological capital, inspiring happiness and well-being. A positive attitude in school makes learning pleasurable and highly efficient. Rote learning is viewed as an old-fashioned, shallow learning method with no place within the contemporary school. However, in Asian countries, rote learning is used as a form of meditation, enhancing mood and patience, and emotional stability. It also improves mental capital, which comes in handy when taking international tests or applying for higher learning. 

Debates impart fluid, seasoned connections between materials; controversy creates a solid framework to file away knowledge. It ensures the validity of knowledge, proving Plato's point. Writing can cover up inconsistencies in argument, as the falsities of many 'scientific ideas' of the past demonstrate. It might also explain why the depth of philosophical discussions in antiquity was rarely surpassed. How relevant will the sea of scientific information published in prestigious journals remain in the coming years? 

How to build a better society? Lively social, political, and scientific conversation and debate on social media form a better community. This would naturally weed out unreliable, fake news items. A well-informed citizenry is emotionally stable and makes good decisions even at the ballot box.

Copyright © 2022 by Eva Deli

Trying to predict what is next for COVID-19

Predicting precisely what any virus may do next is next to impossible, but scientists can make an intelligent guess.

The world in which SARS-CoV-2 first emerged at the end of 2019 was different from today's world. The ability of the virus to produce lots of copies of itself and spread between individuals was indeed key to its success early in the pandemic. However, as the number of people immunized through vaccination and naturally acquired infection rises, the virus will experience more pressure to evade immune responses.

Microbes reproduce so rapidly that evolution happens daily. Mutations can help SARS-CoV-2 evade some of the antibodies that the immune system typically directs against the virus receptor. However, very few of the mutations get passed on to new hosts, particularly when only a tiny amount of virus is required to cause an infection. So far, no viral lineage has evolved all three mutations needed for evasion. However, the appearance of such a variant would be a worrying development.

Read: Evolution ''Landscapes'' Predict What's' Next for COVID Virus

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The voice in your head, what it is and how to make it a friend?

The resting-state 

It is 1 am, but your pounding heart keeps you awake. Judgmental voices in your head discuss your faults. You toss and turn, trying to shush the chatter, but the voices cannot be silenced; only complete exhaustion spares you from the internal battle when finally, you fall asleep.

The resting state is a wave of slow activations occurring between functionally related brain regions. These activations give rise to continuous self-talk. Stimulus halts this self-centered flow of thoughts to direct focus onto your daily tasks. However, this constant self-talk always returns to fill your downtime with personal vignettes, evaluations, and endless chatter.

The quality of your internal dialog depends on your mental state. When you are happy, then your mind generates a constructive and pleasant internal dialogue. Anxiety generates quarreling voices in your head, which castigate and diminish you. You must seek diversions to spare yourself from being alone. You spend time with friends or online, using drugs, cigarettes, anything that helps you escape, or at least postponing their onslaught. But these are fake solutions, which make the problem only more acute.

Why does the brain form a resting state at all? The resting-state weaves current events into the fabric of our lives. The resting-state combines your past into your present moment. The resting self-talk formulates your convictions, beliefs, loves and hates, the emotional foundation of your personality. A healthy personal anchor provides a secure grounding. It provides instant response to millions of problems during the day, whether you should accept the extra assignment from your boss or join your friend for a drink after work.

What is the quality of your self-talk? Do you have demons in your head? Watch my video: Mental Congruence: TheSecret Ingredient of Success. You will learn how to develop persistence and determination to move forward and reach your goals. Instead of constant sources of mental torture, your past mistakes and sins can become tools of learning and self-betterment.

You have only one life; live it well.  

More information on the resting state of the brain: Resting-State fMRI: A Review of Methods and Clinical Applications 

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Are we close to an answer about consciousness?

According to philosopher Richard Rorty, revolutionary theories in science have been made when some scientists had departed from a scientific point of view held inviolate for centuries. Consciousness science is no exception. Although consciousness remained a mystery for many millennia, only a relative outsider could solve its mystery: the mind is an elementary particle. 

You probably remember learning about the electron in secondary school. It is indivisible, constant (never changes no matter what you do to it), and cannot be destroyed. Likewise, the most fundamental qualities of the mind are its unity, indivisibility (we always have unified perception), and its constancy from birth to death. So electrons (and their nuclei) build matter in space, which you can hold, but the mind exists in time, which you cannot control.

Looking at another quality of consciousness is our difficulty regulating our thoughts and emotions. The more we try to control what we think, the more unsuccessful it becomes, to the point that emotions can cause mental and bodily diseases. During meditation, you watch your thoughts pass by or temporarily orient your focus by an active process. The difficulty arises because emotions represent energy, the fundamental forces of motivation. This insight correctly reminds you of the photon, the fundamental force of material interaction. Emotions are analog of photons. Photons make an electron faster or slower. Likewise, emotions make you feel more or less energized. 

The fermionic mind hypothesis is a paradigm shift in consciousness science; it shows the mind as an organic and necessary part of the physical world, which operates by physical principles. The mind is the smallest unit of intellect. Our bodily and mental needs, even hunger or thirst, spur interaction with the environment. Therefore, emotions determine our intelligence, morality, and mental health. The energetic nature of emotions shows that although negative emotions can cause mental and other health problems, a meaningful struggle can spur extraordinary achievements and ensure overall well-being. 

Watch my video How do you Explain Consciousness? on YouTube

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Decision making ability is a reliable marker of emotional stability

 

A common factor called "decision acuity" underpins diverse decision-making abilities. Decision acuity reflects a facility for sound decision-making. High decision acuity reflected fast learning, considering outcomes in the distant future, reward sensitivity, trust in others, and a low tendency for retaliation. Crucially, decision acuity and IQ had dissociable brain signatures. Independent of IQ, decision acuity predicted performance in the decision-making tasks was higher in older subjects and increased parental education. 

Decision acuity may be necessary for understanding mental health, inferior social function, and aberrant thought patterns. Decision acuity increased with age and was associated with mental health symptoms independently of intelligence. It was associated with distinctive resting-state networks, particularly in brain regions typically engaged by decision-making tasks. Decision acuity is reliable and stable over months and even years later. Therefore, stable, functional connectivity underpins decision-making ability. 

These results may be necessary for understanding mental health, inferior social function, and aberrant thought patterns. Decision acuity is reduced in individuals with low general social functioning. Decision acuity was decreased in those with deviant thinking and low general social functioning. 

Image: Rodin, The Thinker

Read the original article: A generic decision-making ability predicts psychopathology in adolescents and young adults and is reflected in distinct brain connectivity patterns

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The psychological consequences of emotions

Time representation of emotions Positive emotions come from slow oscillations, which expand time perception (top left). Negative emotions carry a lot of information, which contracts time perception (Bottom left)  

 

Neurons transfer information by electric means, forming brain frequencies. Although emotions represent the unlimited colors of the human experience, they only have positive or negative energy signatures. Therefore, emotions represent energy imbalances, the fundamental motivations of the mind. The brain’s self-regulation produces a response that restores the equilibrium position or resting state. The resting state is the spontaneous fluctuations of the inactive, resting brain.

The need for air, water, food, and mating modulates between urgency and relaxation, turning time into a subjective mental experience. In the words of Einstein, "When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it's only a minute. But when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it's two hours." Einstein’s insight shows that even minutes and seconds trigger impatience when we are suffering; the painful misery makes the clock seem to tick slower. In addition to hot stoves and pains, positive experiences also slow the perception of time. We feel the transience only in retrospect. When spending time with a nice girl, or boy for that matter, time seems to stand still.

Information processing builds on the mental state; fast oscillations permit greater information transmission, but their significant energy needs tax the brain's energy cycle. Positive and negative emotions have contrasting energy needs and contrasting mental and health consequences. The increasing time perception in both cases suggests the trigonometric (wavy) origin of emotions; positive emotions expand, and negative emotions contract the wave. 

Fast oscillations are deterministic, leaving their residual energy on resting activations. They constrict focus and create psychological heaviness. They recreate the past via rumination and repetitive thinking. Negative emotions are also information-rich. The excess information has to go somewhere. There are two possible paths to channel their pent-up tension. In the first case, aggravation, critical tendency, and physical brutality radiate into the environment. In the second case, negative emotions are internalized, wreaking havoc on the hormonal system via anxiety and depression. Both possibilities induce adverse hormonal and psychological consequences, as shown in my YouTube video, where psychological tightness is represented by lines drawn closer together. Where do the pressure and tightness of negative emotions go? Watch Understanding and Managing Emotions. 

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