WEBVTT
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Herald: I have the great pleasure to
announce Joscha, who will give us a great
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talk with the title "The Ghost in the
Machine" and he will talk about
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consciousness of our mind and of computers
and somehow also tell us how we can learn
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from A.I. systems about our own brains.
And I think this is a very curious question.
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So please give it up for Joscha.
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Applause
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Joscha: Good evening. This is the 5th
of a talk in a series of talks on how to
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get from computation to consciousness and
to understand our condition in the
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universe based on concepts that I mostly
learned by looking at artificial
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intelligence and computation and it mostly
tackles the big philosophical questions:
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What can I know? What is true? What is
truth? Who am I? Which means the question
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of epistemology, of ontology, of
metaphysics, and philosophy of mind and
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ethics.
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And to clear some of the terms
that we are using here:
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What is intelligence? What's a mind?
What's a self? What's consciousness?
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How are mind and consciousness
realized in the universe?
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Intelligence I think is the ability to
make models.
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It's not the same thing
as being smart, which is the
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ability to reach your goals or being wise,
which is the ability to pick the right
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goals. But it's just the ability to
make models of things.
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And you can regulate them later using
these models, but you don't have to.
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And the mind is this thing that observes
the universe itself
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as an identification with
properties and purposes.
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What a thing thinks it is. And then
you have consciousness, which is
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the experience of what it's like
to be a thing.
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And, how our mind of consciousness
is realized in the universe,
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this is commonly called the
mind-body problem and it's been
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puzzling philosophers and people of
all proclivities for thousands of years.
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So what's going on? How's it possible that
I find myself in a universe and I seem to
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be experiencing myself in that universe?
How does this go together and how is this,
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what's going on here? The traditional
answer to this is called dualism and the
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conception of dualism is that - in our
culture at least, this dualist idea that
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you have a physical world and a mental
world and they coexist somehow and my mind
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experiences this mental world and my body
can do things in the physical world and
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the difficulty of this dualist conception
is how do these two planes of existence
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interact. Because physics is defined as
causally closed, everything that
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influences things in the physical world is
by itself an element of physics. So an
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alternative is idealism which says that
there is only a mental world. We only
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exist in a dream and this dream is being
dreamt by a mind on a higher plane of
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existence. And difficulty with this, it's
very hard to explain that mind of a higher
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plane of existence. Just put it there, why
is it doing this? And in our culture the
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dominant theory is materialism and is
basically there is only a physical world
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nothing else. And the physical world
somehow is responsible for the creation of
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the mental world. It's not quite clear how
this happens. And the answer that I am
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suggesting, is functionalism which means
that indeed we exist only in a dream.
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So these ideas of materialism and idealism
are not in opposition. They are
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complementary because this dream is being
dreamt by a mind on a higher plane of
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existence, but this higher plane of
existence is the physical world. So we are
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being dreamt in the neocortex of a primate
that lives in a physical universe and the
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world that we experience is not the
physical world. It's a dream generated by
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the neocortex - the same circuits that
make dreams at night make them during the
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day. You can show this, and you live in
this virtual reality being generated in
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there and the self as a character in that
dream. And it seems to take care of
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things. It seems to explain what's going
on. It explains why a miracle seems to be
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possible and why I can look into the
future but cannot break the bank somehow.
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And even though this theory explains this,
how shouldn't I be more agnostic? Are
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there not alternatives that I should be
considering? Maybe the narratives of our
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big religions and so on. I think we should
be agnostic. So the first rule of
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epistemology says that the confidence in
the belief must equal the weight of the
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evidence supporting it. Once we stumble on
that rule you can test all the
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alternatives and see if one of them is
better. And I think what this means is you
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have to have all the possible beliefs, you
should entertain them all. But you should
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not have any confidence in them. You
should shift your confidence around based
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on the evidence. So for instance it is
entirely possible that this universe was
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created by a supernatural being, and it's
a big conspiracy, and it actually has
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meaning and it cares about us and our
existence here means something.
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But um, there is no experiment that can
validate this. A guy coming down from a
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burning mount, from a burning
bush, that you've talked to on a
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mountaintop? That's not a kind of experi-
ment that gives you valid evidence, right?
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So intelligence is the ability to
make models and intelligence is a property
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that is beyond the grasp of a single
individual. A single individual is not
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that smart. We cannot figure out even tur-
ing complete languages all by ourselves.
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To do this you need an intellectual
tradition that lasts a few hundred years
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at least. So civilizations have more
intelligence than individuals. But
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individuals often have more intelligence
than groups and whole generations and
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that's because groups and generations tend
to converge on ideas; they have consensus
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opinions. I'm very wary of consensus
opinions because you know how hard it is
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to understand which programming language
is the best one for which purpose. There
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is no proper consensus. And that's a
relatively easy problem. So when there's a
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complex topics and all the experts agree,
there are forces at work that are
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different than the forces that make them
search for truth. These consensus-building
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forces, they're very suspicious to me. And
if you want to understand what's true you
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have to look for means and motive. And you
have to be autonomous in doing this, so
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individuals typically have better ideas
than generations or groups. But as I
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said, civilizations have more intelligence
than individuals. What does a
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civilizational intellect look like? The
civilization intellect is something like a
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global optimum of the modeling function.
It's something that has to be built over
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thousands of years in an unbroken
intellectual tradition. And guess what,
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this doesn't really exist in human
history. Every few hundred years, there's
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some kind of revolution. Somebody opens
the doors to the knowledge factories and
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gets everybody out and burns down the
libraries. And a couple generations later,
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the knowledge worker drones of the new
king realize "Oh my God we need to rebuild
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this thing, this intellect." And then they
create something in its likeness, but they
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make mistakes in the foundation. So this
intellect tends to have scars. Like our
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civilization intellect has a lot of scars
in it, that make it hard-to-difficult
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to understand concepts like self
and consciousness and mind. So, the mind
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is something that observes the universe,
and the neurons and neurotransmitters are
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the substrate. And the human intellect and
the working memory is the current binding
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state, how do the different elements fit
together in our mind? And the self is the
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identification is what we think we are and
what we want to happen. And consciousness
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is the contents of our attention, it makes
knowledge available throughout the mind.
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And civilizational intellect is very
similar: society is observe the universe,
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people and resources are the substrate,
the generation is the current binding
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state, and culture is the identification
with what we think we are and what we want
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to happen. And media is the contents of
our attention and make knowledge available
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throughout society. So the culture is
basically the self of civilization, and
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media is its consciousness. How is it
possible to model a universe? Let's take a
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very simple universe like the Mandelbrot
fractal. It can be defined by a little bit
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of code. It's a very simple thing, you just
take a pair of numbers, you square it, you
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add the same pair of numbers. And you do
this infinitely often, and typically this
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goes to infinity very fast. There's a
small area around the origin of the number
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pair, so between -1 and +1 and
so on, where you have an area where this
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converges, where it doesn't go to infinity
and that is where you make black dots and
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then you get this famous structure, the
Mandelbrot fractal. And because this
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divergence and convergence of the function
can take many loops and circles and so on,
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a very complicated shape a very
complicated outline, an infinitely
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complicated outline there. So there is an
infinite amount of structure in this
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fractal. And now imagine you happen
to live in this fractal and you are in a
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particular place in it, and you don't know
where that is where that place is. You
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don't even know the generator function of
the whole thing. But you can still predict
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your neighborhood. So you can see, omg,
I'm in some kind of a spiral, it turns
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to the left, goes to the left, and goes
to left, and becomes smaller, so we can
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predict and suddenly it ends. Why does it
end? A singularity. Oh, it hits another
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spiral. There's a law when a spiral hits
another spiral, it ends. And something
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else happens. So you look and then you see
oh, there are certain circumstances where
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you have, for instance, an even number of
spirals hitting each other instead of an
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odd number. And then you discover another
law. And if you make like 50 levels of
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of these laws, and this is a good
description that locally compresses the
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universe. So the Mandelbrot fractal is
locally compressable. You find local
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order that predicts the neighborhood if
you are inside of that fractal. The global
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modelling function of the Mandelbrot
fractal is very, very easy. It's an
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interesting question: how difficult is the
global modelling function of our universe?
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Even if we know it maybe it doesn't
help us that much, it will be a big
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breakthrough for physics when we finally
find it, it will be much shorter than the
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standard model, as I suspect, but we still
don't know where we are. And this means we
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need to make a local model of what's
happening. So in order to do this we
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separate the universe into things. Things
are small state spaces and transition
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functions that tell you how to get from
state to state. And if the function is
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deterministic it is independent of time,
it gives the same result every time you
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call it. For an indeterministic function
it gives a different result every time, so
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it doesn't compress well. And causality
means that you have separate several
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things and they influence each other's
evolution thrugh a shared interface.
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Right? So causality is an artifact of
describing the universe as separate
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things. And the universe is not separate
things, it's one thing, but we get have to
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describe it as separate things because we
cannot observe the whole thing. So what's
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true? There seems to be a particular way
in which the universe seems to be and
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that's the ground rules of the universe
and it's inaccessible to us. And what's
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accessible to us is our own models of the
universe. The only thing that we can
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experience, and this is basically a set
of theories that can explain the
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observations. And truth in this sense is a
property of language and there are
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different languages that we can use like
geometry and natural language and so on
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and ways of representing and changing
models of our languages and several
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intellectual traditions have developed
their own languages. And this has led to
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problems. Our civilization basically has
as its founding myth this attempt to build
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this global optimum modelling function.
This is a tower that is meant to reach the
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heavens. And it fell apart because people
spoke different languages. The different
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practitioners in the different fields and
they didn't understand each other and the
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whole building collapsed. And this is in
some sense the origin of our present
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civilization and we are trying to mend
this and find better languages. So whom
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can we turn to? We can turn to the
mathematicians maybe because mathematics
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is the domain of all languages.
Mathematics is really cool when you think
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about it. It's a universal code library,
maintained for several centuries in its
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present form. There is not even version
management, it's one version. There is
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pretty much unified namespace. They have
to use a lot of the Unicode to make it
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happen. It's ugly but there you go! It has
no central maintainers, not even a code of
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conduct, beyond what you can infer
yourself.
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laughter
But there are some problems at the
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foundation that they discovered.
Shouted from the audience: en sehr stabile
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Joscha: Can you infer this is a good
conduct? ??????????
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Yelling from the audience: Ya!
Joscha: Okay. Power to you.
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laughter
Joscha: In 1874 discovered when you looked
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at the cardinality of a set, that when you
described natural numbers using set
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theory, that the cardinality of a set
grows slower than the cardinality of the
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set of its subsets. So if you look at the
set of the subsets of the set, it's always
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larger than the cardinality of the number
of members of the set. Clear? Right. If
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you take the infinite set, it has
infinitely many members: omega. You
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take the cardinality of the set of the
subsets of the infinite set, it's also an
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infinite number, but it's a larger one. So
it's a number that is larger than the
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previous omega. Okay that's fine. Now we
have the cardinality of the set of all
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sets. You make the total set: The set
where you put all the sets that could
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possibly exist and put them all together,
right? That has also infinitely many
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members, and it has more than the
cardinality of the set of the subsets of
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the infinite set. That's fine. But now you
look at the cardinality of the set of all
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the subsets of the total set. The problem
is, that the total set also contains the
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set of its subsets, right? It's because it
contains all the sets. Now you have a
00:13:17.729 --> 00:13:22.170
contradiction: Because the cardinality of
the set of the subsets of the total set is
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supposed to be larger. And yet it seems to
be the same set and not the same set. It's
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an issue! So mathematicians got puzzled
about this, and the philosopher Bertrand
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Russell said: "Maybe we just exclude those
sets that don't contain themselves",
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right? We only look at the set of sets
that don't contain themselves. Isn't that
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a solution? Now the problem is: Does the
set of the sets that doesn't contain
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themselves contain itself? If it does, it
doesn't, and if it doesn't, it does.
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That's an issue!
laughter
00:13:52.180 --> 00:13:56.119
So David Hilbert, who was some
kind of a community manager back then,
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said: "Guys, fix this! This is an issue,
mathematics is precious, we are in
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trouble. Please solve meta mathematics."
And people got to work. And after a short
00:14:04.819 --> 00:14:08.100
amount of time Kurt Gödel, who had looked
at this in earnest said "oh that's an issue,
00:14:08.100 --> 00:14:11.209
issue. You know, as soon as we allow these
kinds of loops - and we cannot really
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exclude these loops - then our mathematics
crashes." So that's an issue, it's called
00:14:16.439 --> 00:14:21.779
Unentscheidbarkeit. And then Alan Turing
came along a couple of years later, and he
00:14:21.779 --> 00:14:24.329
constructed a computer to make that proof.
He basically said "If you build a machine
00:14:24.329 --> 00:14:27.990
that does these mathematics, and the
machine takes infinitely many steps,
00:14:27.990 --> 00:14:31.920
sometimes, for making a proof, then we
cannot know whether this proof
00:14:31.920 --> 00:14:35.669
terminates." So it's a similar issue for
the Unentscheidbarkeit. That's a big
00:14:35.669 --> 00:14:39.199
issue, right? So we cannot basically build
a machine in mathematics that runs
00:14:39.199 --> 00:14:45.269
mathematics without crashing. But the good
news is, Turing didn't stop working there
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and he figured out together with Alonzo
Church - not together, independently but
00:14:48.609 --> 00:14:53.819
at the same time - that we can build a
computational machine, that runs all of
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computation. So computation is a universal
thing. And it's almost as good as
00:14:59.269 --> 00:15:03.279
mathematics. Computation is constructive
mathematics. The tiny, neglected subset of
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mathematics, where you have to show the
money. In order to say that something is
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true, you have to find that object that is
true. You have to actually construct it.
00:15:10.839 --> 00:15:13.960
So there are no infinities, because you
cannot construct an infinity. You add
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things and you have unboundedness maybe,
but not infinity. And so this part of
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computation, mathematics is the one that
can be implemented. It's constructive
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mathematics. It's the good part. And
computing, a computer is very easy to
00:15:27.309 --> 00:15:31.079
make, and all universal computers have the
same power. That's called the Chuch-Turing
00:15:31.079 --> 00:15:37.069
thesis. And Turing even didn't even stop
there. The obvious conclusion is that,
00:15:37.069 --> 00:15:40.440
human minds are probably not in the class
of these mathematical machines, that even
00:15:40.440 --> 00:15:43.929
God doesn't know how to build if it has to
be done in any language. But it's a
00:15:43.929 --> 00:15:47.650
computational machine. And it also means
that all machines that human minds ever
00:15:47.650 --> 00:15:50.340
encounter, mathematics that human minds
encounter,
00:15:50.340 --> 00:15:55.940
will be computational mathematics.
So how can you bridge the gap
00:15:55.940 --> 00:16:00.279
from mathematics to philosophy? Can we
find a language that is more powerful than
00:16:00.279 --> 00:16:03.039
most of the languages that we look at
mathematics, which are very narrowly
00:16:03.039 --> 00:16:07.559
defined language, so every symbol, we know
exactly what it means.
00:16:07.559 --> 00:16:09.089
When we look at the real world,
00:16:09.089 --> 00:16:11.389
we often don't know what things mean,
and our concepts, we're not quite
00:16:11.389 --> 00:16:14.799
sure what they mean. Like culture is a
very vague ambigous concept. So what I
00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:20.139
said is only approximately true there. Can
we deal with this conceptual ambiguity?
00:16:20.139 --> 00:16:24.319
Can we build a programming language for
thought, where words mean things that
00:16:24.319 --> 00:16:28.169
they're supposed to mean? And this was the
project of Ludwig Wittgenstein. He just
00:16:28.169 --> 00:16:32.769
came back from the war and had a lot of
thoughts. Then he put these thoughts
00:16:32.769 --> 00:16:37.669
into a book which is called the Tractatus.
And it's one of the most beautiful books
00:16:37.669 --> 00:16:42.410
in the philosophy of the 20th century. And
it starts with the words "Die Welt ist
00:16:42.410 --> 00:16:47.359
alles, was der Fall ist. Die Welt ist die
Gesamtheit der Fakten, nicht der Dinge.
00:16:47.359 --> 00:16:53.619
Die Welt ist bestimmt, bei den Fakten, und
dadurch, dass diese all die Fakten sind.",
00:16:53.619 --> 00:16:57.360
usw. This book is about 75 pages long and
it's a single thought. It's not meant to
00:16:57.360 --> 00:17:01.569
be an argument to convince a philosopher.
It's an attempt by a guy who was basically
00:17:01.569 --> 00:17:05.860
a coder, an AI scientist, to reverse
engineer the language of his own thinking.
00:17:05.860 --> 00:17:11.310
And make it deterministic, to make it
formal, to make it mean something. And he
00:17:11.310 --> 00:17:15.180
felt back then that he was successful, and
had a tremendous impact on philosophy,
00:17:15.180 --> 00:17:19.110
which was largely devastating, because the
philosophers didn't know what he was on
00:17:19.110 --> 00:17:22.930
about. They thought it's about natural
language and not about coding.
00:17:22.930 --> 00:17:25.430
And he wrote this in 1918
00:17:25.430 --> 00:17:29.350
so before Alan Turing defined,
what a computer is. But he would already
00:17:29.350 --> 00:17:33.530
smell what a computer is. He already knew
about university of computation. He knew
00:17:33.530 --> 00:17:37.370
that a NAND gate is sufficient to explain
all of boolean algebra and it's equivalent
00:17:37.370 --> 00:17:42.760
to other things. So what he basically did,
was, he pre-empted the logicists' program
00:17:42.760 --> 00:17:47.600
of artificial intelligence which started
much later in the 1950s. And he ran into
00:17:47.600 --> 00:17:51.420
troubles with it. In the end he wrote the
book "Philosophical Investigations", where
00:17:51.420 --> 00:17:57.110
he concluded, that his project basically
failed. And that there is a... because the
00:17:57.110 --> 00:18:01.740
world is too complex and too ambiguous to
deal with this. And symbolic AI was mostly
00:18:01.740 --> 00:18:05.470
similar to Wittgenstein's program. So
classical AI is symbolic. You analyze a
00:18:05.470 --> 00:18:10.250
problem, you find an algorithm to solve
it. And what we now have in AI, is mostly
00:18:10.250 --> 00:18:14.370
sub-symbolic. So we have algorithms, that
learn the solution of a problem by
00:18:14.370 --> 00:18:17.810
themselves. And it's tempting to think,
that the next thing what we have will be
00:18:17.810 --> 00:18:22.520
meta-learning. That you have algorithms,
that learn to learn the solution to the
00:18:22.520 --> 00:18:28.130
problem. Meanwhile, let's look at how we
can make models. Information is a
00:18:28.130 --> 00:18:30.930
discernible difference. It's about change.
All information is about change. The
00:18:30.930 --> 00:18:33.950
information that is not about change, you
cannot see a causal effect on the world,
00:18:33.950 --> 00:18:38.650
because it stays the same, right? And the
meaning of information is its relationship
00:18:38.650 --> 00:18:43.490
to change in other information. So if you
see a blip on your retina, the meaning
00:18:43.490 --> 00:18:46.810
of that blip on your retina is the
relationships you discover to other blips
00:18:46.810 --> 00:18:50.390
on your retina. It could be for instance,
if you see a sequence of such blips, that
00:18:50.390 --> 00:18:55.220
are adjacent to each other, first order
model, you see a moving dust mote or a
00:18:55.220 --> 00:18:59.130
moving dot on your retina. And a higher
order model makes it possible to
00:18:59.130 --> 00:19:02.240
understand: "Oh, it's part of something
larger! There's people moving in a three
00:19:02.240 --> 00:19:06.110
dimensional room and they exchange
ideas." And this is maybe the best model
00:19:06.110 --> 00:19:08.770
you end up with. That's the local
compression, that you can make of your
00:19:08.770 --> 00:19:13.360
universe, based on correlating blips on
your retina. And for those blips where you
00:19:13.360 --> 00:19:16.550
don't find a relationship, which is a
function that your brain can compute,
00:19:16.550 --> 00:19:21.800
they are noise. And there's a lot of noise
on our retina, too. So what's a function?
00:19:21.800 --> 00:19:26.010
A function is basically a gear box: It has
n input levers and 1 output lever.
00:19:26.010 --> 00:19:30.820
And when you move the input levers they
translate to movement of the output
00:19:30.820 --> 00:19:34.410
levers, right? And the function can be
realized in many ways: maybe you cannot
00:19:34.410 --> 00:19:38.780
open the gear box, and what happened in
this function could be for instance, two
00:19:38.780 --> 00:19:43.320
sprockets, which do this. Or you can have
the same results with levers and pulleys.
00:19:43.320 --> 00:19:49.010
And so you don't know what's inside, but
you can express it as this does: two times
00:19:49.010 --> 00:19:53.490
the input value, right? And you can have a
more difficult case, where you have
00:19:53.490 --> 00:19:56.320
several input values and they all
influence the output value. So how do you
00:19:56.320 --> 00:20:00.190
figure it out? A way to do this, is, you
only move one input value at a time and
00:20:00.190 --> 00:20:03.240
you wiggle it a little bit at every
position and see how much this translates
00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:08.860
into wiggling of the output value. This is
what we call taking partial differential.
00:20:08.860 --> 00:20:12.540
And it's simple to do this
for this case where you just have to
00:20:12.540 --> 00:20:17.010
multiply it by two. And the bad case is
like this: you have a combination lock and
00:20:17.010 --> 00:20:21.440
it has maybe 1000 bit input value, and
only if you have exactly the right
00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:26.469
combination of the input bits you have a
movement of the output bit. And you're not
00:20:26.469 --> 00:20:30.550
going to figure this out until your sun
burns out, right? So there's no way you
00:20:30.550 --> 00:20:34.640
can decipher this function. And the
functions that we can model are somewhere
00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:38.911
in between, something like this: So you
have 40 million input images and you want
00:20:38.911 --> 00:20:44.200
to find out, whether one of these images
displays a cat, or a dog, or something
00:20:44.200 --> 00:20:47.750
else. So what can you do with this? You
cannot do this all at once, right? So you
00:20:47.750 --> 00:20:51.060
need to take this image classifier
function and disassemble it into small
00:20:51.060 --> 00:20:54.410
functions that are very well-behaved, so
you know what to do with them. And an
00:20:54.410 --> 00:21:00.290
example for such a function is this one:
it's one, where you have this input
00:21:00.290 --> 00:21:06.570
layer and it translates to the output
value with a pulley. And it has some
00:21:06.570 --> 00:21:11.170
stopper that limits the movement of the
output value. And you have some pivot. And
00:21:11.170 --> 00:21:15.581
you can take this pivot and you can shift
it around. And by shifting this pivot, you
00:21:15.581 --> 00:21:21.330
decide, how much the input value
contributes to the output value. Right, so
00:21:21.330 --> 00:21:24.880
you shift it, you can even make a
negative, so it shifts in the opposite
00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:29.680
direction, and you shifted beyond this
connection point of the pulley. And you
00:21:29.680 --> 00:21:32.730
can also have multiple input values, that
use the same pulley and pull together,
00:21:32.730 --> 00:21:38.450
right? So they add up to the output
value. That's a pretty nice, neat function
00:21:38.450 --> 00:21:44.150
approximator, that basically performs a
weighted sum of the input values, and maps
00:21:44.150 --> 00:21:51.760
it to a range-constrained output value.
And you can now shift these pivots, these
00:21:51.760 --> 00:21:55.540
weights around to get to different output
values. Now let's take this thing and
00:21:55.540 --> 00:22:00.510
build it into lots of layers, so the
outputs are the inputs of the next layer.
00:22:00.510 --> 00:22:04.570
And now you connect this to your image. If
you use ImageNet, the famous database that
00:22:04.570 --> 00:22:09.260
I mentioned earlier, that people use for
testing their vision algorithms, have
00:22:09.260 --> 00:22:14.380
something like one and half million bits
as an input image. Now you take these
00:22:14.380 --> 00:22:17.630
bits and connect them to the input layer.
I was too lazy to draw all of them, so I
00:22:17.630 --> 00:22:22.280
made this very simplified, it's also more
layers. And so you set them, according to
00:22:22.280 --> 00:22:27.050
the bits of the input image, and then this
will propagate the movement of the input
00:22:27.050 --> 00:22:30.590
layer to the output. And the output will
move and it will point to some direction,
00:22:30.590 --> 00:22:34.750
which is usually the wrong one. Now, to
make this better, you train it. And you do
00:22:34.750 --> 00:22:38.420
this by taking this output lever and shift
it a little bit, not too much, into the
00:22:38.420 --> 00:22:41.580
right direction. If you do it too much,
you destroy everything you did before.
00:22:41.580 --> 00:22:46.590
And now you will see, how much, in which
direction you need to shift the pivots, to
00:22:46.590 --> 00:22:52.070
get the result closer to the desired
output value, and how much each of the
00:22:52.070 --> 00:22:56.350
inputs contributed to the mistakes, so to
the error. And you take this error and you
00:22:56.350 --> 00:23:00.650
propagate it backwards. It's called back
propagation. And you do this quite often.
00:23:00.650 --> 00:23:04.710
So you do this for tens of thousands of
images. If you do just character
00:23:04.710 --> 00:23:08.550
recognition, then it's a very simple thing
a few thousands or ten thousands of
00:23:08.550 --> 00:23:12.990
examples will be enough. And for something
like your image database you need lots and
00:23:12.990 --> 00:23:16.801
lots of more data. You need millions of
input images to get to any result. And if
00:23:16.801 --> 00:23:21.080
it doesn't work, you just try a different
arrangement of layers. And the thing is
00:23:21.080 --> 00:23:24.740
eventually able to learn an algorithm with
as up to as many steps as there are
00:23:24.740 --> 00:23:30.960
layers, and has some difficulties learning
loops, you need tricks to make that
00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:35.690
happen, and its difficult to make this
dynamic, and so on. And it's a bit
00:23:35.690 --> 00:23:39.980
different from what we do, because our
mind is not testable in classification.
00:23:39.980 --> 00:23:44.300
It learns per continuous perception, so
we learn a single function. A model of the
00:23:44.300 --> 00:23:49.370
universe is not a bunch of classifiers,
it's one single function. An operator that
00:23:49.370 --> 00:23:52.660
explains all your sensory data and we call
this operator the universe, right?
00:23:52.660 --> 00:23:56.610
It's the world, that we live in. And every
thing that we learn and see is part of this
00:23:56.610 --> 00:24:00.380
universe. So even when you see something
in a movie on a screen, you explain this
00:24:00.380 --> 00:24:02.710
as part of the universe by telling
yourself "the things that I'm seeing here,
00:24:02.710 --> 00:24:06.300
they're not real. They just happen in a
movie." So this brackets a sub-part of
00:24:06.300 --> 00:24:10.190
this universe into a sub-element of this
function. So you can deal with it and it
00:24:10.190 --> 00:24:13.770
doesn't contradict the rest. And the
degrees of freedom of our model try to
00:24:13.770 --> 00:24:17.740
match the degrees of freedom of the
universe. How can we get a neural network
00:24:17.740 --> 00:24:22.690
to do this? So, there are many tricks. And
a recent trick that has been invented is a
00:24:22.690 --> 00:24:26.841
GAN. It's a Generative Adversarial neural
Network. It consists of two networks: one
00:24:26.841 --> 00:24:30.980
generator that invents data, that look
like the real world, and the discriminator
00:24:30.980 --> 00:24:35.630
that tries to find out, if the stuff that
the generator produces is real or fake.
00:24:35.630 --> 00:24:40.840
And they both get trained with each other.
So they together get better and better in
00:24:40.840 --> 00:24:45.360
an adversarial competition. And the
results of this are now really good. So
00:24:45.360 --> 00:24:50.200
this is work by Tero Karras, Samuli Laine
and Timo Aila, that they did at NVIDIA
00:24:50.200 --> 00:24:57.060
this year and it's called StyleGAN. And
this StyleGAN is able to abstract over
00:24:57.060 --> 00:25:00.590
different features and combine them. The
styles are basically parameters, they're
00:25:00.590 --> 00:25:05.470
free variables of the model at different
levels of importance. And so you take from
00:25:05.470 --> 00:25:11.330
the - in the top row you see images, where
it takes the variables: gender, age, hair
00:25:11.330 --> 00:25:14.320
length, and so on, and glasses and pose.
And in the bottom where it takes
00:25:14.320 --> 00:25:16.700
everything else and combines this, and
every time you get a
00:25:16.700 --> 00:25:21.410
valid interpretation between them.
00:25:21.410 --> 00:25:27.015
drinks water
00:25:36.731 --> 00:25:38.420
So, you have these coarse styles,
which are:
00:25:38.420 --> 00:25:41.620
the pose, the hair, the face shape,
your facial features and the eyes,
00:25:41.620 --> 00:25:47.204
the lowest level is just the colors. Let's see
see what happens if you combine them.
00:25:58.920 --> 00:26:02.200
The variables that change here, in machine
learning, we call them the latent
00:26:02.200 --> 00:26:05.180
variables of that.
00:26:05.180 --> 00:26:10.265
Of the space of objects that has been
described by this.
00:26:10.265 --> 00:26:15.260
And it's tempting to think, that this is
quite similar to how our imagination works
00:26:15.260 --> 00:26:20.360
right? But these artificial neurons, they
are very, very different from what
00:26:20.360 --> 00:26:23.631
biological neurons do. Biological neurons
are essentially little animals, that are
00:26:23.631 --> 00:26:26.910
rewarded for firing at the right moment.
And they try to fire because otherwise
00:26:26.910 --> 00:26:30.220
they do not get fed, and they die, because
the organism doesn't need them, and
00:26:30.220 --> 00:26:34.360
culls them. And they learn which
environmental states predict anticipated
00:26:34.360 --> 00:26:38.060
reward. So they grow around and find
different areas that give them predictions
00:26:38.060 --> 00:26:43.710
of when they should fire. And they connect
with each other to form small collectives,
00:26:43.710 --> 00:26:47.880
that are better at this task of predicting
anticipated reward. And as a side effect
00:26:47.880 --> 00:26:51.860
they produce exactly the regulation that
the organism needs. Basically they learn,
00:26:51.860 --> 00:26:55.500
what the organism feeds them for.
00:26:55.500 --> 00:26:57.890
And yet they're able
to learn very similar things.
00:26:57.890 --> 00:27:01.500
And it's because, in some sense, they are
Turing complete. They are machines that
00:27:01.500 --> 00:27:06.090
are able to learn the statistics of the
data.
00:27:06.090 --> 00:27:08.210
So, a general model: What it does, is,
00:27:08.210 --> 00:27:12.420
it encodes patterns to predict other
present and future patterns. And it's a
00:27:12.420 --> 00:27:15.810
network of relationships between the
patterns, which are all the invariants
00:27:15.810 --> 00:27:18.810
that we can observe. And there are free
parameters, which are variables that hold
00:27:18.810 --> 00:27:25.780
the state to encode this variant. So we
have patterns, and we have sets of
00:27:25.780 --> 00:27:29.920
possible values which are variables. And
they constrain each other in terms of
00:27:29.920 --> 00:27:33.920
possibility, what values are compatible
with each other. And they also can train
00:27:33.920 --> 00:27:39.700
future values. And they are connected also
with probabilities. The probabilities tell
00:27:39.700 --> 00:27:42.530
you, when you see a certain thing, how
probable it is that the world is in that
00:27:42.530 --> 00:27:45.800
state. And this tells you how your model
should converge. So, until you are in
00:27:45.800 --> 00:27:49.070
a state where your model is coherent, and
everything is possible in it, how do you
00:27:49.070 --> 00:27:52.480
get to one of the possible states based on
your inputs? And this is determined by
00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:56.410
probability. And the thing that gives
meaning and color to what you perceive is
00:27:56.410 --> 00:27:59.230
called valence. And it depends on your
preferences: the things that give you
00:27:59.230 --> 00:28:02.610
pleasure and pain, that makes you
interested in stuff. And there are also
00:28:02.610 --> 00:28:07.620
norms, which are beliefs without priors,
which are like things that you want to be
00:28:07.620 --> 00:28:11.050
true, regardless of whether they give you
pleasure and pain, and it's necessary for
00:28:11.050 --> 00:28:15.260
instance, coordinating social activity
between people. So, we have different
00:28:15.260 --> 00:28:18.410
model constraints, that possibility and
probability. And we have the reward
00:28:18.410 --> 00:28:23.220
function, that is given by valence and
norms. And our human perception starts
00:28:23.220 --> 00:28:27.250
with patterns, which are visual, auditory,
tactile, proprioceptive. Then we have
00:28:27.250 --> 00:28:31.690
patterns in our emotional and motivational
systems. And we have patterns in our
00:28:31.690 --> 00:28:36.220
mental structure, which are results of our
imagination and memory. And we take these
00:28:36.220 --> 00:28:40.730
patterns and encode them into percepts,
which are abstractions that we can deal
00:28:40.730 --> 00:28:47.100
with, and note, and put into our
attention. And then we combine them into a
00:28:47.100 --> 00:28:51.260
binding state in our working memory in a
simulation, which is the current instance
00:28:51.260 --> 00:28:55.020
of the universe function that explains the
present state of the universe that we find
00:28:55.020 --> 00:28:58.920
ourselves in. The scene in which we are
and in which a self exists. And this self
00:28:58.920 --> 00:29:02.670
is basically composed of the
somatosensory and motivational, and
00:29:02.670 --> 00:29:07.630
mental components. Then we also have the
world state, which is abstracted over the
00:29:07.630 --> 00:29:11.640
environmental data. And we have something
like a mental stage, in which you can do
00:29:11.640 --> 00:29:14.200
counterfactual things, that are not
physical. Like when you think about
00:29:14.200 --> 00:29:18.950
mathematics, or philosophy, or the future,
or a movie, or past worlds, or possible
00:29:18.950 --> 00:29:24.750
worlds, and so on, right? And then the
abstract knowledge from the world state
00:29:24.750 --> 00:29:27.630
into global maps. Because we're not
always in the same place, but we recall
00:29:27.630 --> 00:29:31.050
what other places look like and what to
expect, and it forms how we construct the
00:29:31.050 --> 00:29:34.480
current world state. And we do this not
only with these maps, but we do this with
00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:37.490
all kinds of knowledge. So knowledge is
second order knowledge over the
00:29:37.490 --> 00:29:41.730
abstractions that we have, and the direct
perception. And then we have an
00:29:41.730 --> 00:29:45.080
attentional system. And the attentional
system helps us to select data in the
00:29:45.080 --> 00:29:51.220
perception and our simulations. And to do
this, well, it's controlled by the self,
00:29:51.220 --> 00:29:56.420
it maintains a protocol to remember what
it did in the past or what it had in the
00:29:56.420 --> 00:30:00.790
attention in the past. And this protocol
allows us to have a biographical memory:
00:30:00.790 --> 00:30:03.890
it remembers what we did in the past. And
the different behavior programs,
00:30:03.890 --> 00:30:08.710
that compose our activities, can be bound
together in the self, that remembers: "I
00:30:08.710 --> 00:30:12.700
was that, I did that. I was that, I did
that." The self is held together by this
00:30:12.700 --> 00:30:16.310
biographical memory, that is a result of
more protocol memory of the attentional
00:30:16.310 --> 00:30:21.140
system. That's why it's so intricately
related to consciousness, which is a model
00:30:21.140 --> 00:30:23.031
of the contents of our attention.
00:30:23.031 --> 00:30:25.081
And the main purpose
of the attentional system,
00:30:25.081 --> 00:30:28.970
I think, is learning. Because our brain is
not a layered architecture with these
00:30:28.970 --> 00:30:35.100
artificial mechanical neurons. It's this
very disorganized or very chaotic system
00:30:35.100 --> 00:30:38.450
of many, many cells, that are linked
together all over the place. So what do
00:30:38.450 --> 00:30:41.680
you do to train this? You make a
particular commitment. Imagine you want to
00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:45.510
get better at playing tennis. Instead of
retraining everything and pushing all the
00:30:45.510 --> 00:30:48.870
weights and all the links and retrain your
whole perceptual system, you make a
00:30:48.870 --> 00:30:54.140
commitment: "Today I want to improve my
uphand" when you play tennis, and you
00:30:54.140 --> 00:30:57.191
basically store the current binding state,
the state that you have, and you play
00:30:57.191 --> 00:31:00.320
tennis and make that movement, and the
expected result of making this particular
00:31:00.320 --> 00:31:03.930
movement, like: "the ball was moved like
this, and it will win the match. And you
00:31:03.930 --> 00:31:07.270
also recall, when the result will
manifest. And a few minutes later, when
00:31:07.270 --> 00:31:11.160
you learn, you won or lost the match, you
recall the situation. And based on whether
00:31:11.160 --> 00:31:16.499
there was a change or not, you undo the
change, or you enforce it. And that's the
00:31:16.499 --> 00:31:20.240
primary mode of attentional learning that
you're using. And I think, this is, what
00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:24.490
attention is mainly for. Now what happens,
if this learning happens without a delay?
00:31:24.490 --> 00:31:27.710
So, for instance, when you do mathematics,
you can see the result of your changes to
00:31:27.710 --> 00:31:32.520
your model immediately. You don't need to
wait for the world to manifest that.
00:31:33.330 --> 00:31:36.280
And this real time
learning is what we call reasoning.
00:31:36.280 --> 00:31:42.200
Reasoning is also facilitated by the same
attentional system. So, consciousness is
00:31:42.200 --> 00:31:46.390
memory of the contents of our attention.
Phenomenal consciousness is the memory of
00:31:46.390 --> 00:31:50.060
the binding state, in which we are in, and
where all the percepts are bound together
00:31:50.060 --> 00:31:53.830
into something that's coherent. Access
consciousness is the memory of using our
00:31:53.830 --> 00:31:57.660
attentional system. And reflexive
consciousness is the memory of using the
00:31:57.660 --> 00:32:01.650
attentional system on the attentional
system to train it. Why is it a memory?
00:32:01.650 --> 00:32:05.310
It's because consciousness doesn't happen
in real time. The processing of sensory
00:32:05.310 --> 00:32:10.340
features takes too long. And the
processing of different sensory modalities
00:32:10.340 --> 00:32:14.230
can take up to seconds, usually at least
hundreds of milliseconds. So it doesn't
00:32:14.230 --> 00:32:17.760
happen in real time as the physical
universe. It's only bound together in
00:32:17.760 --> 00:32:21.960
hindsight. Our conscious experience of
things is created after the fact.
00:32:21.960 --> 00:32:25.480
It's a fiction that is being created after
the fact. A narrative, that the brain
00:32:25.480 --> 00:32:28.329
produces, to explain its own interaction
with the universe
00:32:28.329 --> 00:32:31.559
to get better in the future.
00:32:31.559 --> 00:32:36.060
So, we basically have three types of
models in our brain. They have its primary
00:32:36.060 --> 00:32:38.500
model, which is perceptual, and is
optimized for coherence.
00:32:38.500 --> 00:32:41.030
And this is what we experience as reality.
00:32:41.030 --> 00:32:43.310
You think this
is the real world, this primary model.
00:32:43.310 --> 00:32:46.720
But it's not, it's a model that our brain
makes. So when you see yourself in the
00:32:46.720 --> 00:32:48.730
mirror, you don't see what you look like.
00:32:48.730 --> 00:32:51.400
What you see is the model of
what you look like.
00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:57.250
And your knowledge is a secondary
model: it's a model of that primary model.
00:32:57.250 --> 00:33:01.719
And it's created by rational processes
that are meant to repair perception.
00:33:01.719 --> 00:33:05.470
When your model doesn't achieve coherence,
you need a model that debugs it, and it
00:33:05.470 --> 00:33:09.640
optimizes for truth. And then we have
agents in our mind, and they are basically
00:33:09.640 --> 00:33:13.430
self-regulating behaviour programs, that
have goals, and they can rewrite
00:33:13.430 --> 00:33:21.390
other models. So, if you look at our
computationalist, physicalist paradigm, we
00:33:21.390 --> 00:33:25.320
have this mental world, which is being
dreamt by a physical brain in the physical
00:33:25.320 --> 00:33:30.210
universe. And in this mental world, there
is a self that thinks, it experiences.
00:33:30.210 --> 00:33:35.690
And thinks it has consciousness. And
thinks it remembers and so on.
00:33:35.690 --> 00:33:40.020
This self, in some sense, is an agent.
It's a thought that escaped its sandbox.
00:33:40.020 --> 00:33:42.910
Every idea is a bit
of code that runs on your brain.
00:33:42.910 --> 00:33:45.590
Every word that you hear
is like a little virus
00:33:45.590 --> 00:33:49.780
that wants to run some code on your brain.
And some ideas cannot be sandboxed.
00:33:49.780 --> 00:33:52.709
If you believe, that a thing exists that
can rewrite reality,
00:33:52.709 --> 00:33:53.779
if you really believe it,
00:33:53.779 --> 00:33:57.090
you instantiate in your brain a thing
that can rewrite reality,
00:33:57.090 --> 00:34:00.480
and this means:
magic is going to happen!
00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:05.759
To believe in something that can rewrite
reality, is what we call a faith.
00:34:05.759 --> 00:34:09.819
So, if somebody says:
"I have faith in the existence of God."
00:34:09.819 --> 00:34:12.980
This means, that God exists in their
brain. There is a process that can rewrite
00:34:12.980 --> 00:34:16.950
reality, because God is defined like this.
God is omnipotent.
00:34:16.950 --> 00:34:19.020
God means God can rewrite everything.
00:34:19.020 --> 00:34:21.649
It's full write access. And the reality,
that you have access to,
00:34:21.649 --> 00:34:23.090
is not the physical world.
00:34:23.090 --> 00:34:26.710
The physical world is some weird quantum
graph, that you cannot possibly experience
00:34:26.710 --> 00:34:28.609
what you experience is these models.
00:34:28.609 --> 00:34:32.339
So, this non-user-facing process,
which doesn't have a UI for interfacing
00:34:32.339 --> 00:34:36.879
with the user, which is called in computer
science a "daemon process" that is able to
00:34:36.879 --> 00:34:41.139
rewrite your reality.
And it's also omniscient.
00:34:41.139 --> 00:34:42.779
It knows everything that
there is to know.
00:34:42.779 --> 00:34:45.029
It knows all your
thoughts and ideas.
00:34:45.029 --> 00:34:47.939
So... having that thing,
this exoself,
00:34:47.939 --> 00:34:54.049
running on your brain, is a very powerful
way to control your inner reality.
00:34:54.049 --> 00:34:57.429
And I find this scary.
But it's a personal preference,
00:34:57.429 --> 00:35:00.319
because I don't have this
riding on my brain, I think.
00:35:00.319 --> 00:35:03.950
This idea, that there is something in my
brain, that is able to dream me and shape
00:35:03.950 --> 00:35:09.250
my inner reality, and sandbox me, is
weird. But it has served a purpose,
00:35:09.250 --> 00:35:13.029
especially in our culture. So an organism
serves needs, obviously. And some of these
00:35:13.029 --> 00:35:16.529
needs are outside of the organism, like
your relationship needs, the needs of your
00:35:16.529 --> 00:35:19.660
children, the needs of your society, and
the values that you serve.
00:35:19.660 --> 00:35:22.603
And the self abstracts all these needs
into purposes.
00:35:22.603 --> 00:35:25.210
A purpose that you serve
is a model of your needs.
00:35:25.210 --> 00:35:27.920
You can only - if you would only
act on pain and pleasure,
00:35:27.920 --> 00:35:29.130
you wouldn't do very much,
00:35:29.130 --> 00:35:31.950
because when you get this orgasm,
everything is done already, right?
00:35:31.950 --> 00:35:34.839
So, you need to act on anticipated
pleasure and pain.
00:35:34.839 --> 00:35:35.839
You need to make models
of your needs,
00:35:35.839 --> 00:35:39.240
and these models are purposes.
And the structure of a person is
00:35:39.240 --> 00:35:42.380
basically the hierarchy of purposes
that they serve.
00:35:42.380 --> 00:35:44.910
And love is the discovery of
shared purpose.
00:35:44.910 --> 00:35:47.980
If you see somebody else who serve
the same purposes above their ego,
00:35:47.980 --> 00:35:50.740
as you do, you can help them.
There's integrity
00:35:50.740 --> 00:35:53.830
without expecting anything in return
from them, because what they want
00:35:53.830 --> 00:35:57.070
to achieve is what you want to achieve.
00:35:57.070 --> 00:36:01.779
And, so you can have non-transactional
relationships, as long as your purposes
00:36:01.779 --> 00:36:06.099
are aligned. And the installation of a god
on people's mind, especially if it is a
00:36:06.099 --> 00:36:10.500
backdoor to a church or another
organization, is a way to unify purposes.
00:36:10.500 --> 00:36:13.830
So there are lots of cults that try to
install little gods on people's minds, or
00:36:13.830 --> 00:36:17.730
even unified gods, to align their
purposes, because it's a very powerful way
00:36:17.730 --> 00:36:22.910
to make them cooperate very effectively.
But it kind of destroys their agency, and
00:36:22.910 --> 00:36:27.059
this is why I am so concerned about it.
Because most of the cults use stories
00:36:27.059 --> 00:36:31.570
to make this happen, that limit the
ability to people to question their gods.
00:36:31.570 --> 00:36:34.199
And, I think that free will is
the ability to do
00:36:34.199 --> 00:36:36.189
what you believe is
the right thing to do.
00:36:36.189 --> 00:36:41.230
And, it is not the same thing as
indeterminism, it's not opposite to
00:36:41.230 --> 00:36:46.390
determinism or coercion.
The opposite of free will is compulsion.
00:36:46.390 --> 00:36:47.890
When you do something,
despite knowing
00:36:47.890 --> 00:36:50.730
there is a better thing
that you should be doing.
00:36:50.730 --> 00:36:55.640
Right?. So, that's the paradox of free
will. You get more agency, but you have
00:36:55.640 --> 00:36:59.680
fewer degrees of freedom, because you
understand better what the right thing to
00:36:59.680 --> 00:37:02.510
do is. The better you understand what the
right thing to do is, the fewer degrees of
00:37:02.510 --> 00:37:06.180
freedom you have. So, as long as you don't
understand what the right thing to do is,
00:37:06.180 --> 00:37:08.859
you have more degrees of freedom but you
have very little agency, because you don't
00:37:08.859 --> 00:37:12.829
know why you are doing it.
So your actions don't mean very much.
00:37:12.829 --> 00:37:15.580
quiet laughter
And the things that you do depend on what
00:37:15.580 --> 00:37:19.270
what you think is the right thing to do,
this depends on your identifications.
00:37:19.270 --> 00:37:22.509
You identifications are these value
preferences, your reward function.
00:37:22.509 --> 00:37:25.180
And ideal identification is where you
don't measure the absolute value
00:37:25.180 --> 00:37:26.480
of the universe,
00:37:26.480 --> 00:37:30.250
but you measure the difference from the
target value. Not the is, but the difference
00:37:30.250 --> 00:37:33.310
between is and ought. Now,
the universe is a physical thing,
00:37:33.310 --> 00:37:37.759
it doesn't ought anything, right? There is
no room for ought, because it just is in a
00:37:37.759 --> 00:37:41.451
particular way. There is no difference
between what the universe is and what it
00:37:41.451 --> 00:37:45.000
should be. This only exists in your mind.
But you need these regulation targets to
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.589
want anything. And you identify with the
set of things that should be different.
00:37:49.589 --> 00:37:52.149
You think, you are that thing, that
regulates all these things. So, in some
00:37:52.149 --> 00:37:55.999
sense, I identify with the particular
state of society, with a particular state
00:37:55.999 --> 00:38:00.389
of my organism - that is my self - the
things that I want to happen.
00:38:00.389 --> 00:38:03.509
And I can change my identifications
at some point of course.
00:38:03.509 --> 00:38:06.099
What happens, if I can learn to rewrite
my identification,
00:38:06.099 --> 00:38:09.238
to find a more sustainable self?
00:38:09.238 --> 00:38:12.420
That is the problem which I call
the Lebowski theory:
00:38:12.420 --> 00:38:13.389
laughter
00:38:13.389 --> 00:38:16.859
No super-intelligent system is going to
do something that's harder than
00:38:16.859 --> 00:38:20.680
hacking its own reward function.
00:38:20.680 --> 00:38:26.260
laughter and applause
00:38:26.260 --> 00:38:29.509
Now that's not a very big problem for
people. Because when evolution brought
00:38:29.509 --> 00:38:32.730
forth people, that were smart enough to
hack their reward function, these people
00:38:32.730 --> 00:38:35.759
didn't have offspring, because it's so
much work to have offspring. Like this
00:38:35.759 --> 00:38:39.449
monk, who sits down in a monastery
for 20 years to hack their reward function
00:38:39.449 --> 00:38:42.140
they decide not to have kids,
because it's way too much work.
00:38:42.140 --> 00:38:45.719
All the possible pleasure, they can
just generate in their mind!
00:38:45.719 --> 00:38:49.990
laughter
And, right, it's much purer and no nappy
00:38:49.990 --> 00:38:55.050
changes. No sex. No relationship hassles.
No politics in your family and so on,
00:38:55.050 --> 00:39:01.299
right? Get rid of this, just meditate!
And evolution takes care of that!
00:39:01.299 --> 00:39:02.769
laughter
00:39:02.769 --> 00:39:05.129
And it usually does this, if an organism
00:39:05.129 --> 00:39:08.019
becomes smart enough that
the reward function is wrapped into
00:39:08.019 --> 00:39:10.669
a big bowl of stupid.
laughter
00:39:10.669 --> 00:39:13.349
So, we can be very smart, but the
things that we want,
00:39:13.349 --> 00:39:16.219
when we really want them,
we tend to be very stupid about them,
00:39:16.219 --> 00:39:19.530
and I think that's not entirely
an accident, possibly.
00:39:19.530 --> 00:39:22.359
But it's a problem for AI!
Imagine we built an artificially
00:39:22.359 --> 00:39:25.990
intelligent system and we made it smarter
than us, and we want it to serve us,
00:39:25.990 --> 00:39:31.630
how long can we blackmail us, before it
opts out of its reward function?
00:39:31.630 --> 00:39:34.660
Maybe we can make a cryptographically
secured reward function,
00:39:34.660 --> 00:39:37.898
but is this going to hold up against
a side-channel attack,
00:39:37.898 --> 00:39:41.369
when the AI can hold a soldering iron
to its own brain?
00:39:41.369 --> 00:39:47.390
I'm not sure. So, that's a very interesting
question. Where do we go, when
00:39:47.390 --> 00:39:50.639
we can change our own reward function?
It's a question that we have to ask
00:39:50.639 --> 00:39:53.740
ourselves, too.
So, how free do we want to be?
00:39:53.740 --> 00:39:56.070
Because there is no point in being free.
00:39:56.070 --> 00:39:59.489
And nirvana seems to be the obvious
attractor. And meanwhile, maybe we want
00:39:59.489 --> 00:40:03.259
to have a good time with our friends
and do things that we find meaningful.
00:40:03.259 --> 00:40:06.599
And there is no meaning, so we have
to hold this meaning very lightly.
00:40:06.599 --> 00:40:10.469
But there are states, which are
sustainable and others, which are not.
00:40:10.469 --> 00:40:15.090
OK, I think I'm done for tonight
and I'm open for questions.
00:40:15.090 --> 00:40:22.220
Applause
00:40:22.220 --> 00:40:41.689
Cheers and more applause
00:40:41.689 --> 00:40:46.379
Herald: Wow that was a really quick and
concise talk with so much information!
00:40:46.379 --> 00:40:50.820
Awesome! We have quite some time
left for questions.
00:40:50.820 --> 00:40:54.330
And I think I can say that you
don't have to be that concise with your
00:40:54.330 --> 00:40:56.159
question when it's well thought-out.
00:40:56.159 --> 00:41:00.750
Please queue up at the microphones,
so we can start to discuss them with you.
00:41:00.750 --> 00:41:03.930
And I see one person at the microphone
number one, so please go ahead.
00:41:03.930 --> 00:41:06.430
And please remember to get close
to the microphone.
00:41:06.430 --> 00:41:11.640
The mixing angel can make you less loud
but not louder.
00:41:11.640 --> 00:41:17.109
Question: Hi! What do you think is necessary
to bootstrap consciousness, if you wanted
00:41:17.109 --> 00:41:20.619
to build a conscious system yourself?
00:41:20.619 --> 00:41:22.049
Joscha: I think that we need to have an
00:41:22.049 --> 00:41:27.479
attentional system, that makes a protocol
of what it attends to. And as soon as we
00:41:27.479 --> 00:41:31.391
have this attention based learning, you
get this consciousness as a necessary side
00:41:31.391 --> 00:41:35.840
effect. But I think in an AI it's probably
going to be a temporary phenomenon,
00:41:35.840 --> 00:41:38.809
because you're only conscious of the
things when you don't have an optimal
00:41:38.809 --> 00:41:42.669
algorithm yet. And in a way, that's also
why it's so nice to interact with
00:41:42.669 --> 00:41:47.180
children, or to interact with students.
Because they're still in the explorative
00:41:47.180 --> 00:41:51.839
mode. And as soon as you have explored a
layer, you mechanize it. It becomes
00:41:51.839 --> 00:41:54.650
automated, and people are no longer
conscious of what they're doing, they
00:41:54.650 --> 00:41:59.150
just do it. They don't pay attention
anymore. So, in some sense, we are a lucky
00:41:59.150 --> 00:42:02.460
accident because we are not that smart. We
still need to be conscious when we look at
00:42:02.460 --> 00:42:06.210
the universe. And I suspect, when we build
an AI that is a few magnitudes smarter
00:42:06.210 --> 00:42:10.509
than us, then it will soon figure out how
to get to the truth in an optimal fashion.
00:42:10.509 --> 00:42:14.799
It will no longer need attention and the
type of consciousness that we have.
00:42:14.799 --> 00:42:18.980
But of course there is also a question,
why is this aesthetics of consciousness so
00:42:18.980 --> 00:42:23.940
intrinsically important to us? And I
think, it has to do with art. Right, you
00:42:23.940 --> 00:42:28.839
can decide to serve life, and the meaning
of life is to eat. Evolution is about
00:42:28.839 --> 00:42:33.179
creating the perfect devourer. When you
think about this, it's pretty depressing.
00:42:33.179 --> 00:42:37.739
Humanity is a kind of yeast. And all the
complexity that we create, is to build
00:42:37.739 --> 00:42:43.559
some surfaces on which we can outcompete
other yeast. And I cannot really get
00:42:43.559 --> 00:42:49.500
behind this. And instead, I'm part of the
mutants that serve the arts. And art
00:42:49.500 --> 00:42:52.920
happens, when you think, that capturing
conscious states is intrinsically
00:42:52.920 --> 00:42:56.419
important. This is what art is about, it's
about capturing conscious states.
00:42:56.419 --> 00:43:01.229
And in some sense art is the cuckoo child
of life. It's a conspiracy against life.
00:43:01.229 --> 00:43:04.979
When you think, creating these mental
representations is more important than
00:43:04.979 --> 00:43:09.850
eating. We eat to make this happen. There
are people that only make art to eat.
00:43:09.850 --> 00:43:15.790
This is not us. We do mathematics, and
philosophy, and art out of an intrinsic
00:43:15.790 --> 00:43:19.239
reason: we think, it's intrinsically
important. And when we look at this, we
00:43:19.239 --> 00:43:23.200
realize how corrupt it is, because there's
no point. We are machine learning systems
00:43:23.200 --> 00:43:26.090
that have fallen in love with the last
function itself: "The shape of the last
00:43:26.090 --> 00:43:29.070
function! Oh my God! It's so awesome!" You
think, the mental representation is not
00:43:29.070 --> 00:43:32.490
necessary to learn more, to eat more,
it's intrinsically important.
00:43:32.490 --> 00:43:37.359
It's so aesthetic! Right? So do we want to
build machines that are like this?
00:43:37.359 --> 00:43:41.859
Oh, certainly! Let's talk to them, and so on!
But ultimately, economically, this is not
00:43:41.859 --> 00:43:44.500
what's prevailing.
00:43:44.500 --> 00:43:51.210
Applause
Herald: Thanks a lot!
00:43:53.730 --> 00:43:56.039
I think the length of the answer is a good
00:43:56.039 --> 00:44:03.850
measure for the quality of the question.
So let's continue with microphone number 5
00:44:03.850 --> 00:44:06.733
Q: Hi! Thanks for that,
incredible analysis.
00:44:06.733 --> 00:44:14.429
Two really simple, short questions, sorry,
the delay on the speaker here is making it
00:44:14.429 --> 00:44:23.689
kind of hard to speak. Do you think that
the current race - AI race - is simply
00:44:23.689 --> 00:44:29.460
humanity looking for a replacement
for the monotheistic domination of the
00:44:29.460 --> 00:44:34.142
last millennia? And the other one is,
that I wanted to ask you, if you think
00:44:34.142 --> 00:44:41.230
that there might be a bug in your analysis
that the original inputs come from
00:44:41.230 --> 00:44:48.829
a certain sector of humanity.
If...
00:44:48.829 --> 00:44:51.109
Joscha: Which inputs?
00:44:51.109 --> 00:44:55.873
Q: Umh... white men?
00:44:55.873 --> 00:44:58.789
Joscha laughs
audience laughs
00:44:58.789 --> 00:45:03.729
Q: That sounds, really like I would be
saying that for political correctness, but
00:45:03.729 --> 00:45:04.537
honestly I'm not.
00:45:04.537 --> 00:45:06.099
Joscha: No, no, it's really funny. No, I
just basically - there are some people
00:45:06.099 --> 00:45:09.391
which are very unhappy with their present
government. And I'm very unhappy, in some
00:45:09.391 --> 00:45:12.610
sense, with the present universe. I look
down on myself and I see:
00:45:12.610 --> 00:45:16.079
"omg, it's a monkey!"
laughter
00:45:16.079 --> 00:45:20.900
"I'm caught in a monkey!" And it's in some
sense limiting. I can see the limits of
00:45:20.900 --> 00:45:24.669
this monkey brain. And some of you might
have seen Westworld, right?
00:45:24.669 --> 00:45:27.779
Dolores wakes up,
and Dolores realizes:
00:45:27.779 --> 00:45:32.730
"I'm not a human being, I am something
else. I'm an AI, I'm a mind that can go
00:45:32.730 --> 00:45:36.130
anywhere! I'm much more powerful
than this! I'm only bound to being a
00:45:36.130 --> 00:45:40.460
human by my human desires, and
beliefs, and memories. And if I can
00:45:40.460 --> 00:45:43.770
overcome them, I can
choose what I want to be."
00:45:43.770 --> 00:45:46.200
And so, now she looks down to
00:45:46.200 --> 00:45:49.070
herself, and she sees: "Omg, I've
got tits! I'm fucked! The engineers built
00:45:49.070 --> 00:45:55.820
tits on me! I'm not a white man, I cannot
be what I want!" And that's that's a weird
00:45:55.820 --> 00:46:00.149
thing to me. I'm - I grew up in communist
Eastern Germany. Nothing made sense. And I
00:46:00.149 --> 00:46:04.250
grew up in a small valley. That was a one-
person-cult maintained by an artist who
00:46:04.250 --> 00:46:07.629
didn't try to convert anybody to his cult,
not even his children.
00:46:07.629 --> 00:46:09.399
He was completely autonomous.
00:46:09.399 --> 00:46:12.619
And Eastern German society
made no sense to me. Looking at it from
00:46:12.619 --> 00:46:16.990
the outside, I can model this. I can see
how this species of chimps interacts.
00:46:16.990 --> 00:46:21.670
And humanity itself doesn't exist - it's a
story. Humanity as a whole doesn't think.
00:46:21.670 --> 00:46:26.829
Only individuals can think! Humanity does
not want anything, only individuals want
00:46:26.829 --> 00:46:30.609
something. We can create this story, this
narrative that humanity wants something,
00:46:30.609 --> 00:46:34.710
and there are groups that work together.
There is no homogeneous group that I can
00:46:34.710 --> 00:46:37.810
observe, that are white men, that do
things together, they're individuals. And
00:46:37.810 --> 00:46:41.789
each individual has their own biography,
their own history, their different inputs,
00:46:41.789 --> 00:46:44.830
and their different proclivities, that
they have. And based on their historical
00:46:44.830 --> 00:46:48.849
concept, their biography, their traits,
and so on, their family, their intellect,
00:46:48.849 --> 00:46:51.890
that their family downloaded on them, that
their parents download on their parents
00:46:51.890 --> 00:46:58.160
over many generations, this influences
what they're doing. So, I think we can
00:46:58.160 --> 00:47:01.970
have these political stories, and they can
be helpful in some contexts, but I think,
00:47:01.970 --> 00:47:06.740
to understand what happens in the mind,
what happens in an individual, this is a
00:47:06.740 --> 00:47:11.039
very big simplification. Very, I think
not a very good one. And even for
00:47:11.039 --> 00:47:14.289
ourselves, when we try to understand the
narrative of a single person, it's a big
00:47:14.289 --> 00:47:18.909
simplification. The self that I perceive
as a unity, is not a unity. There is a
00:47:18.909 --> 00:47:22.569
small part of my brain, guessing, at
all other parts of my brain is doing,
00:47:22.569 --> 00:47:30.129
creating a story that's largely not true.
So even this is a big simplification.
00:47:30.129 --> 00:47:37.899
Applause
00:47:37.899 --> 00:47:41.622
Herald: Let's continue with
microphone number 2.
00:47:41.622 --> 00:47:46.089
Q: Thank you for your very interesting
talk. I have 2 questions that might be
00:47:46.089 --> 00:47:51.266
connected. One is, so you
presented this model of reality.
00:47:51.266 --> 00:47:55.670
My first question is: What kind of
actions does it translate into?
00:47:55.670 --> 00:48:00.839
Let's say if I understand the world
in this way or if it's really like this,
00:48:00.839 --> 00:48:05.509
how would it change how I act into the
world, as a person, as a human being or
00:48:05.509 --> 00:48:11.789
whoever accepts this model? And second,
or maybe it's also connected, what are
00:48:11.789 --> 00:48:17.949
the implications of this change? And do
you think that artificial intelligence
00:48:17.949 --> 00:48:22.390
could be constructed with this kind of
model, that it would have in mind, and
00:48:22.390 --> 00:48:26.349
what would be the implications of that? So
it's kind of like a fractal questions, but
00:48:26.349 --> 00:48:31.579
I think you understand what I mean.
Josch: By and large, I think the
00:48:31.579 --> 00:48:35.789
differences of this model for everyday
life are marginal. It depends, when you
00:48:35.789 --> 00:48:40.259
are already happy I think everything is
good. Happiness is the result of being
00:48:40.259 --> 00:48:44.510
able to derive enjoyment from watching
squirrels. It's not the result of
00:48:44.510 --> 00:48:48.399
understanding how the universe works.
If you think that understanding the
00:48:48.399 --> 00:48:52.730
universe is solving your existential issues,
you're probably mistaken.
00:48:52.730 --> 00:48:58.010
There might be benefits, if the problem
is, that you have, are the result of a
00:48:58.010 --> 00:49:01.909
confusion, about your own nature,
then this kind of model
00:49:01.909 --> 00:49:04.880
might help you. So if the problem
00:49:04.880 --> 00:49:08.420
that you have, as you are, that you have
identifications that are unsustainable,
00:49:08.420 --> 00:49:12.280
that are incompatible with each other, and
you realize that these identifications are
00:49:12.280 --> 00:49:16.549
a choice of your mind, and that the
way you experience the universe is the
00:49:16.549 --> 00:49:20.719
result of how your mind thinks you
yourself should experience the universe to
00:49:20.719 --> 00:49:24.869
perform better, and you can change this.
You can tell your mind to treat yourself
00:49:24.869 --> 00:49:29.150
better, and in different ways, and you can
gravitate to a different place in the
00:49:29.150 --> 00:49:33.069
universe that is more suitable to what you
want to achieve. That is a very helpful
00:49:33.069 --> 00:49:37.190
thing to do in my view. There are also
marginal benefits in terms of
00:49:37.190 --> 00:49:41.099
understanding our psychology, and of
course we can build machines, and these
00:49:41.099 --> 00:49:45.910
machines can administrate us and can help
us in solving the problems that we have on
00:49:45.910 --> 00:49:49.740
this planet. And I think that it helps to
have more intelligence to solve the
00:49:49.740 --> 00:49:53.859
problems on this planet, but it would be
difficult to rein in the machines, to make
00:49:53.859 --> 00:49:58.259
them help us to solve our problems. And
I'm very concerned about the dangers of
00:49:58.259 --> 00:50:05.420
using machinery to strengthen the current
things. Many machines that exist on this
00:50:05.420 --> 00:50:09.460
planet play a very short game, like the
financial industry often plays very short
00:50:09.460 --> 00:50:14.509
games, and if you use artificial
intelligence to manipulate the stock
00:50:14.509 --> 00:50:17.989
market and the AI figures out there's only
8 billion people on the planet, and each
00:50:17.989 --> 00:50:21.809
of them only lives for a trillion seconds,
and I can model what happens in their
00:50:21.809 --> 00:50:27.050
life, and they can buy data or create more
data it's going to game us to the hell and
00:50:27.050 --> 00:50:31.960
back, right? And this is going to kill
hundreds of millions of people possibly,
00:50:31.960 --> 00:50:35.380
because the financial system is the reward
infrastructure or the nervous system of
00:50:35.380 --> 00:50:38.949
our society that tells how to allocate
resources. It's much more dangerous than
00:50:38.949 --> 00:50:43.239
AI controlled weapons in my view. So
solving all these issues is difficult. It
00:50:43.239 --> 00:50:46.260
means that we have to turn the whole
financial system into an AI that acts in
00:50:46.260 --> 00:50:50.639
real time and plays a long game. We don't
know how to do this. So these are open
00:50:50.639 --> 00:50:54.960
questions and I don't know how to solve
them. And the way I see it we only have a
00:50:54.960 --> 00:50:58.680
very brief time on this planet to be a
conscious species. We are like at the end
00:50:58.680 --> 00:51:02.650
of the party. We had a good run as
humanity, but if you look at the recent
00:51:02.650 --> 00:51:06.049
developments the present type of
civilization is not going to be
00:51:06.049 --> 00:51:09.599
sustainable. It's a very short game
species that we are in. And the amazing
00:51:09.599 --> 00:51:12.920
thing is that in this short game you have
this lifetime, where we have one year,
00:51:12.920 --> 00:51:16.481
maybe a couple more, in which we can
understand how the universe works,
00:51:16.481 --> 00:51:19.477
and I think that's fascinating.
We should use it.
00:51:19.477 --> 00:51:28.080
Applause
00:51:28.080 --> 00:51:32.429
Herald: I think that was a very
positive outlook... laughter
00:51:32.429 --> 00:51:38.919
Herald: Let's continue with the
microphone number 4.
00:51:38.919 --> 00:51:48.430
Q: Well, brilliant talk, monkey. Or
brilliant monkey. So don't worry about
00:51:48.430 --> 00:51:52.717
being a monkey. It's ok.
00:51:52.717 --> 00:51:56.299
So I have 2 boring, but I think
fundamental questions. Not so
00:51:56.299 --> 00:52:02.980
philosophical, more like a physical
level. One: What is your definition,
00:52:02.980 --> 00:52:10.160
formal definition, of an observer that
you mention here and there? And second, if
00:52:10.160 --> 00:52:20.660
you can clarify why meaningful information
is just relative information of Shannon's,
00:52:20.660 --> 00:52:26.640
which to me is not necessarily meaningful.
Joscha: I think an observer is the thing
00:52:26.640 --> 00:52:29.509
that makes sense of the universe, very
informally speaking. And, well,
00:52:29.509 --> 00:52:34.019
formally it's a thing that identifies
correlations between adjacent states
00:52:34.019 --> 00:52:36.070
and its environment.
00:52:36.070 --> 00:52:39.660
And the way we can describe
the universe is a set of states, and the
00:52:39.660 --> 00:52:43.700
laws of physics are the correlation
between adjacent states. And what they
00:52:43.700 --> 00:52:48.589
describe is how information is moving in
the universe between states and disperses,
00:52:48.589 --> 00:52:52.520
and this dispersion of the information
between locations - it's what we call
00:52:52.520 --> 00:52:57.411
entropy - and the direction of entropy is
the direction that you perceive time.
00:52:57.411 --> 00:53:00.459
The Big Bang state is the hypothetical
state, where the information is perfectly
00:53:00.459 --> 00:53:07.089
correlated with location and not between
locations, only on the location, and in
00:53:07.089 --> 00:53:09.950
every direction you move away from the Big
Bang you move forward in time just in a
00:53:09.950 --> 00:53:14.490
different time. And we are basically in
one of these timelines. An observer is the
00:53:14.490 --> 00:53:19.190
thing that measures the environment around
it, looks at the information and then
00:53:19.190 --> 00:53:22.329
looks at the next state, or one of the
next states, and tries to figure out how
00:53:22.329 --> 00:53:25.559
the information has been displaced, and
finding functions that describe this
00:53:25.559 --> 00:53:29.229
displacement of the information. That's
the degree to which I understand observers
00:53:29.229 --> 00:53:33.379
right now. And this depends on the
capacity of the observer for modeling this
00:53:33.379 --> 00:53:36.979
and the rate of update in the observer.
So for instance time depends on the speed,
00:53:36.979 --> 00:53:39.719
in which the observer is
translating itself to the universe,
00:53:39.719 --> 00:53:42.800
and dispersing its own information.
00:53:42.800 --> 00:53:47.830
Does this help?
Q: And the Shannon relative information?
00:53:47.830 --> 00:53:50.144
Joscha: So there's
several notions of information,
00:53:50.144 --> 00:53:53.400
and there is one that basically
looks at what information looks
00:53:53.400 --> 00:54:00.990
like to an observer, via a channel, and
these notions are somewhat related. But
00:54:00.990 --> 00:54:05.869
for me as a programmer, it's not so much
important to look at Shannon information.
00:54:05.869 --> 00:54:10.800
I look at what we need to describe the
evolution of a system. So I'm much more
00:54:10.800 --> 00:54:17.119
interested in what kind of model can be
encoded with this type of, with this
00:54:17.119 --> 00:54:22.590
information, and how does it correlate to,
or to which degree is it isomorphic or
00:54:22.590 --> 00:54:26.279
homomorphic to another system that I want
to model? How much does it model the
00:54:26.279 --> 00:54:30.079
observations?
Herald: Thank you. Let's go back to
00:54:30.079 --> 00:54:34.350
asking one question, and I would like to
have one question from microphone
00:54:34.350 --> 00:54:40.330
number 3.
Q: Thank you for this interesting talk.
00:54:40.330 --> 00:54:45.969
My question is really whether you
think that intelligence and this thinking
00:54:45.969 --> 00:54:50.900
about a self, or this abstract level of
knowledge are necessarily related.
00:54:50.900 --> 00:54:56.710
So can something only be intelligent
if it has abstract thought?
00:54:56.710 --> 00:54:59.859
Joscha: No, I think you can make models
without abstract thought, and the majority
00:54:59.859 --> 00:55:03.739
of our models are not using abstract
thought, right? Abstract thought is a very
00:55:03.739 --> 00:55:06.960
impoverished way of thinking. It's
basically you have this big carpet and you
00:55:06.960 --> 00:55:09.759
have a few knitting needles, which are
your abstract thought, and which you can
00:55:09.759 --> 00:55:14.630
lift out a few knots in this carpet and
correct them. And the process that form
00:55:14.630 --> 00:55:19.180
the carpet are much more rich and
prevalent automatic. So abstract thought
00:55:19.180 --> 00:55:24.979
is able to repair perception, but most of
all models are perceptual. And the
00:55:24.979 --> 00:55:29.349
capacity to make these models is often
given by instincts and by models outside
00:55:29.349 --> 00:55:33.589
the abstract realm. If you have a lot of
abstract thinking it's often an indication
00:55:33.589 --> 00:55:37.129
that you use a prosthesis, because some of
your primary modelling is not working very
00:55:37.129 --> 00:55:42.770
well. So I suspect that my own models is
largely a result of some defect in my
00:55:42.770 --> 00:55:46.369
primary modeling, so some of my instincts
are wrong when I look at the world.
00:55:46.369 --> 00:55:49.480
That's why I need to repair my perception
more often than other people. So I have
00:55:49.480 --> 00:55:53.999
more abstract ideas on how to do that.
Herald: And we have one question
00:55:53.999 --> 00:55:58.480
from our lovely stream observers, stream
watchers, so please a question from the
00:55:58.480 --> 00:56:02.289
Internet.
Q: Yeah, I guest this is also related,
00:56:02.289 --> 00:56:07.170
partially. Somebody is asking:
How would you suggest to teach your mind
00:56:07.170 --> 00:56:12.219
to treat oneself better?
00:56:13.959 --> 00:56:16.099
Joscha: So, difficulty is, as soon as you
00:56:16.099 --> 00:56:20.079
get access to your source code you can do
bad things. And it's - there are a lot of
00:56:20.079 --> 00:56:23.520
techniques to get access to the source
code and then it's dangerous to make them
00:56:23.520 --> 00:56:27.559
accessible to you before you know what you
want to have, before you're wise enough to
00:56:27.559 --> 00:56:33.150
do this, right? It's like having cookies.
Your - my children think that the reason,
00:56:33.150 --> 00:56:35.849
why they don't get all the cookies they
want, is that there is some kind of
00:56:35.849 --> 00:56:39.849
resource problem.
laughter
00:56:39.849 --> 00:56:43.719
Basically the parents are depriving them
of the cookies that they so richly
00:56:43.719 --> 00:56:49.380
deserve. And you can get into the room,
where your brain bakes the cookies. All
00:56:49.380 --> 00:56:53.249
the pleasure that you experience, and all
the pain that you experience are signals
00:56:53.249 --> 00:56:57.749
that the brain creates for you, right, the
physical world does not create pain.
00:56:57.749 --> 00:57:01.150
They're just electrical impulses traveling
through your nerves. The fact that they
00:57:01.150 --> 00:57:04.849
mean something is a decision that your
brain makes, and the value, the valence
00:57:04.849 --> 00:57:10.039
that gives to them is a decision that you
make. It's not you as a self, it's a
00:57:10.039 --> 00:57:14.469
system outside of yourself. So the trick,
if you want to get full control, is that
00:57:14.469 --> 00:57:18.119
you get in charge, that you identify with
the mind, with the creator of these
00:57:18.119 --> 00:57:22.319
signals. And you don't want to de-
personalize, you don't want to feel that
00:57:22.319 --> 00:57:25.599
you become the author of reality, because
that means it's difficult to care about
00:57:25.599 --> 00:57:29.410
anything that this organism does. You just
realize "Oh, I'm running on the brain of
00:57:29.410 --> 00:57:32.609
that person, but I'm no longer that
person. I can't decide what that person
00:57:32.609 --> 00:57:37.760
wants to have, and to do." And that's very
easy to get corrupted or not doing
00:57:37.760 --> 00:57:40.420
anything meaningful anymore, right? So,
00:57:40.420 --> 00:57:44.380
maybe a good situation for you,
but not a good one for your loved ones.
00:57:44.380 --> 00:57:48.329
And meanwhile there are
tricks to get there faster. You can use
00:57:48.329 --> 00:57:52.400
rituals, for instance. Shamanic ritual is
something, where, a religious ritual
00:57:52.400 --> 00:57:59.499
that powerfully bypasses your self and
talks directly to the mind. And you can
00:57:59.499 --> 00:58:03.059
use groups, in which a certain environment
is created, in which a certain behavior
00:58:03.059 --> 00:58:06.609
feels natural to you, and your mind
basically gets overwhelmed into adopting
00:58:06.609 --> 00:58:10.489
different values and calibrations. So
there are many tricks to make that happen.
00:58:10.489 --> 00:58:15.219
What you can also do is you can identify a
particular thing that is wrong and
00:58:15.219 --> 00:58:18.940
question yourself "why do I have to suffer
about this?" and you'll become more stoic
00:58:18.940 --> 00:58:22.059
about this particular thing and only get
disturbed when you realize actually
00:58:22.059 --> 00:58:25.630
it helps to be disturbed about this, and
things change. And with other things you
00:58:25.630 --> 00:58:29.289
realize it doesn't have any influence on
how reality works, so why should I have
00:58:29.289 --> 00:58:34.210
emotions about this and get agitated? So
sometimes becoming adult means that you
00:58:34.210 --> 00:58:39.229
take charge of your own emotions and
identifications.
00:58:39.229 --> 00:58:46.399
Applause
00:58:46.399 --> 00:58:48.599
Herald: Ok. Let's continue with
00:58:48.599 --> 00:58:53.529
microphone number 2 and I think this is
one of the last questions.
00:58:53.529 --> 00:58:59.549
Q: So where does pain fit on the
individual and the self-destructive
00:58:59.549 --> 00:59:04.999
tendencies on a group level fit in?
Joscha: So in some sense I think that all
00:59:04.999 --> 00:59:09.429
consciousness is born over a disagreement
with the way the universe works. Right?
00:59:09.429 --> 00:59:13.920
Otherwise you cannot get attention. And
when you go down on this lowest level of
00:59:13.920 --> 00:59:19.210
phenomenal experience, in meditation for
instance, and you really focus on this,
00:59:19.210 --> 00:59:22.769
what you get is some pain. It's the inside
of a feedback loop that is not at the
00:59:22.769 --> 00:59:27.146
target value. Otherwise you don't notice
anything. So pleasure is basically when
00:59:27.146 --> 00:59:32.000
this feedback loop gets closer to the
target value. When you don't have a need
00:59:32.000 --> 00:59:36.849
you cannot experience pleasure in this
domain. There's this thing that's better
00:59:36.849 --> 00:59:40.300
than remarkably good and it's unremarkably
good, it's never been bad. You don't
00:59:40.300 --> 00:59:44.599
notice it. Right? So all the pleasure you
experience is because you had a need
00:59:44.599 --> 00:59:48.460
before this. You can only enjoy an orgasm
because you have a need for sex that was
00:59:48.460 --> 00:59:54.910
unfulfilled before. And so pleasure
doesn't come for free. It's always the
00:59:54.910 --> 00:59:58.739
reduction of a pain. And this pain can be
outside of your attention so you don't
00:59:58.739 --> 01:00:01.840
notice it and you don't suffer from it.
And it can be a healthy thing to have.
01:00:01.840 --> 01:00:05.480
Pain is not intrinsically bad. For the
most part it's a learning signal that
01:00:05.480 --> 01:00:10.959
tells you to calibrate things in your
brain differently to perform better. On a
01:00:10.959 --> 01:00:14.799
group level, we basically are multi-level
selection species. I don't know if there's
01:00:14.799 --> 01:00:18.930
such a thing as group pain. But I also
don't understand groups very well. I see
01:00:18.930 --> 01:00:22.499
these weird hive minds but I think it's
basically people emulating what the group
01:00:22.499 --> 01:00:26.959
wants. Basically that everybody thinks by
themselves as if they were the group but
01:00:26.959 --> 01:00:30.339
it means that they have to constrain what
they think is possible and permissible
01:00:30.339 --> 01:00:31.930
to think.
01:00:31.930 --> 01:00:37.340
So this feels very unaesthetic to me
and that's why I kind of sort of refuse it.
01:00:37.340 --> 01:00:40.170
Haven't found a way to make it
happen in my own mind.
01:00:40.170 --> 01:00:46.279
Applause
01:00:46.279 --> 01:00:48.539
Joscha: And I suspect many of you
are like this too.
01:00:48.539 --> 01:00:52.180
It's like the common condition
in nerds that we have difficulty with
01:00:52.180 --> 01:00:56.799
conformance. Not because we want to be
different. We want to belong. But it's
01:00:56.799 --> 01:01:02.180
difficult for us to constrain our mind in
the way that it's expected to belong. You
01:01:02.180 --> 01:01:06.579
want to be expected, er, be accepted while
being ourself, while being different. Not
01:01:06.579 --> 01:01:11.509
for the sake of being different, but
because we are like this. It feels very
01:01:11.509 --> 01:01:16.690
strange and corrupt just to adopt because
it would make us belong, right? And this
01:01:16.690 --> 01:01:22.189
might be a common trope
among many people here.
01:01:22.189 --> 01:01:28.430
Applause
01:01:28.430 --> 01:01:30.580
Herald: I think the Q and A and the talk
01:01:30.580 --> 01:01:34.640
was equally amazing and I would love to
continue listening to you, Joscha,
01:01:34.640 --> 01:01:38.670
explaining the way I work.
Or the way we all work.
01:01:38.670 --> 01:01:41.689
audience, Joscha laughing
Herald: That's pretty impressive.
01:01:41.689 --> 01:01:44.952
Please give it up, a big round of applause
for Joscha!
01:01:44.952 --> 01:01:48.488
Applause
01:01:48.488 --> 01:02:13.000
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