This is Dr. Benjamin Goertzel. He is probably the leading AI researcher. He uses Narrow AI projects to fund his Strong AI project Open Cog. He's a very open minded scientist with a wide variety of skills (many appropriate to AI research). He is a genius that blew through his education at an early age. He's also a pretty cool guy.
One of the more interesting things about Dr. Goertzel is his interest in things unknown. Imagine that; a scientist interested in things we are ignorant about. This is a bit of a taboo topic because we (humans) really don''t have the perceptual tools to address them. In the recent decade or so, statistical evidence for what is referred to as Psy phenomena has been cropping up in peer reviewed journals. This essentially means that instances of outcomes that our current scientific understanding can't explain are happening at a rate significantly above chance. These instances are outside of our model of reality; so it's of course perfectly understandable to be surprised and\or skeptical. The evidence however is something that remains compelling; considering that the methodology is standing up to scrutiny.
Many scientists in the past have been referred to as quacks and\or mad scientists; only to be revered later on. The scientists with the brevity to address that which we can't fathom are some of my favorites. They seem to have the most interesting things to say. This of course is a topic for those with solid epistemologies. No one understands what is going on in the Noetic Sciences. Psy may be a completely inappropriate term in the end. This however doesn't dismiss evidence collected by scientific standards. The best view of this may be from the fence.
Very cool thread Guy did experiments with freezing water while comforting words were spoken. Then tried it with anger and hate. Results were amazing! and very very ignored.
Due to some of my personal experiences, I have long held a belief that our brains (in this environment) are capable of more than we are conventionally aware of or taught.
My skepticism along with the awareness of my scientific illiteracy keep these beliefs pushed way down as I do not know of a way to consistently repeat the possible occurrences that I believe might be "real". I just might be nuts... I am okay with that.
In case you are wondering, I do not believe in a mystical authoritarian overlord.
LifeNaut is a silly little experiment I am doing to program an Artificial Intelligence with my personality.
Basically I created a free AI MindFile that is backed up in nuke proof servers and the back ups are also being beamed into space. In the future all of the LifeNaut files can be uploaded into an AI robot. I do psychological surveys and stuff but mostly I talk to my Ai. I uploaded a photos and LifeNaut animates the eyes and lips. It's frustrating because initially my AI says incredibly stupid things and I have to reprimand it like a child. "How could you say that? That's not what I believe. Shut the fuck up you idiot!" It's learning... slowly.
The researcher did his wife first. The robot head is uncanny valley creepy but her AI is impressively smart.
So much of our communication is non-verbal. I think we all have a level of ESP. I know I am certifiably insane but this is what I would like to believe...
Much of what humans call God and/or religion is actually a 'Love Radio' in an un-researched lobe of our brains. A sub-conscious ESP connection to each other to smile & play nice. God's radio is in all of us for us to pick up the signals, not up on cloud 9. But many people's 'Love Radio' is defective, ignored or the volume is way down.
@anon85933304 I remember that study. Interesting stuff. The method that was used in the freezing was really difficult so they had to use statistical results. I'm not sure if anyone has taken the time to try to reproduce it or not. I may look back into that.
I feel similarly.
That's what I'm talkin' bout! 2 copies on site and one copy off site. " 3, 2, 1 bitches!"
There is a guy that has had an open challenge with a prize of 1 million dollars to anyone that can prove such things using a scientifically sound methodology. Many have tried, no one has taken the prize. He has had the challenge running for many years now.
I will share one of many, many experiences:
My father died when I was young, 12. Not too long after, about a year or so, my mother and I were sitting in the living room to watch TV; as often happened in the evening.
My father's keys had a distinct jingling sound. On that night, there was a sound that came from the kitchen that matched his keys. It was loud and steady for a 1-2 seconds. I heard it, then with an expression of "WTF?" looked at my mom (who had a similar look on her face). She asks me if I had heard that. I knew what she meant. I ran to the kitchen and no one was there. I sat back down and we affirmed what we heard, chalked it up to weird and moved on.
My most "rational" theory was that a combination of sounds, from various sources, was able to mimic the sound of my dad's keys.
Yeah that guy that does the $1m challenge is James Randi. He's a joke of an old magician. He doesn't even get that science doesn't prove things. That is what math does. No one could ever win his challenge. Statistically significant findings couldn't get through his ridiculous methods. He unwitingly stacks the cards against the findings because he feels that he knows better than the scientific method. He controls everything in the "experiment" and jealously guards that $1m. He is dishonest with himself and others. I can't take him seriously.
Things like that would be extremely hard to study. If similar things followed someone around, maybe they could move them into one of those labs where sleep studies are conducted and see if the researchers could observe it. I wouldn't know what they could possibly do with positives though.
Here's the thing that gets me: Regardless of whether the sound of the keys jingling was real or imagined, there was a shared (two brains) experience of that sound.
You know, if multiple people were hooked to EEGs while one of these instances occurred, there would probably be evidence of stimulation in the auditory centers. This happening simultaneously with no evidence of stimulus in the audio feed, would strongly suggest that there is some kind of mental event. That would be extremely interesting.
One of the hardest realizations I have with this stuff is that no definitive evidence has reached consensus in the community. If one person can do it, so can someone else. Maybe we have developed a blocking filter, something hard coded to preserve our sense of self/privacy/defense. We have kind of been assh*les to one another through the ages. IDK, just rambling here.
