Joscha Bach - Why Your Thoughts Aren't Yours.

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Machine Learning Street Talk

Self-Authoring and the Nature of Consciousness

Humans' ability to become self-authoring, changing their interaction with the world and themselves.

Evolution as a competition between software agents that reproduce and code themselves.

Consciousness as a virtual property; something behaving 'as if' it exists.

Conscious agents observing themselves interacting with the world; physical perspective of non-existence.

The human brain as an activation pattern producing behavior; comparison to Minecraft's implementation on a computer.

AGI Timelines and the Definition of Intelligence

Realness defined by the degree of implementation; different degrees of realness.

Controlling the future through model-making; discovering limitations of observation and models.

AGI's perceived lack of significant change; optimism and hype surrounding current technology.

AGI timelines; differing views on what constitutes AGI.

Comparison of current AI capabilities to Star Trek's 'computer' concept.

Intelligence as superhuman performance across many domains; potential for skill acquisition as a key component.

Limitations of human intelligence tests for non-human applications.

Measuring intelligence by comparing performance before and after learning; focusing on skill acquisition.

AGI as the ability to make any mathematically obtainable model, given available resources and data.

Limitations of Current AI and the Role of Self-Play

Current systems focus on predicting the next token; limitations in tackling complex problems like mathematical proofs.

The need for self-play and feedback mechanisms to surpass human performance; examples in games and mathematics.

Discussion of intelligence as model-building efficiency; the role of agency and self-play.

Agency as a more useful concept than intelligence; focus on deploying intelligence for specific goals.

Agency contrasted with the thermostat; the ability to regulate the future versus the present.

Building systems that regulate the future; incorporating anticipatory modeling and inference.

Model-building as a key component of agency; emergence of agent-like properties from the ability to control the future.

Reinterpreting animism through an information processing lens; the concept of spirits as self-organizing software agents.

Money as an example of a coarse-grained causal pattern with causal power; its existence independent of belief.

Mental states as invariances; the degree to which they are implemented and have causal structures.

Virtual patterns as real with causal powers; clarification of the term 'virtual'.

Different degrees of realness; examples of simulations, simulacra, and observable dynamics.

Discussion of emergence; the relationship between software and hardware.

The lack of surprise regarding emergence in software; comparison to the surprise surrounding mental states.

The confusion around emergence; distinction between weak and strong emergence.

Mental concepts as black boxes; the need for mapping to first principles.

Example of drawing a line on a Commodore 64; the complexity underlying seemingly simple mathematical concepts.

The Bipartite Model of the Mind and Consciousness

Different ways to implement an agent; the role of needs and evolutionary priors.

The bipartite model of the mind; a generator and critic, similar to GANs.

The self-model as a character solving problems within a game engine; the projection of multi-dimensional problems into emotions and motivation.

The potential for detachment of consciousness from the personal self through meditation or altered states.

The self as part of its own environment; interaction with representations rather than the physical environment.