I’m a PhD student in artificial intelligence/robotics, though my work is related to computational neuroscience, and I have strong interests in philosophy of mind, meta-ethics and the “meaning of life”. Though I feel that I should treat finishing my PhD as a personal priority, I like to think about these things. As such, I’ve been working on an explanation for consciousness and a blueprint for artificial general intelligence, and trying to conceive of a set of weighted values that can be applied to scientifically observable/measurable/calculable quantities, both of which have some implications for an explanation of the “meaning” of life.
At the center of the value system I’m working on is a broad notion of “information”. Though still at preliminary stages, I’m considering a hierarchy of weights for the value of different types of information, and trying to determine how bad this is as a utility function. At the moment, I consider the preservation and creation of all information valuable; at an everyday level I try to translate this into learning and creating new knowledge and searching for unique, meaningful experiences.
I’ve been aware of Less Wrong for years, though haven’t quite mustered the motivation to read all of the sequences. Nevertheless, I’ve lurked here on and off over that time, and read lots of interesting discussions. I consider the ability to make rational decisions, and not be fooled by illogical arguments, important. Though without a definite set of values and goals, any action is simply shooting in the dark.
Hi everyone,
I’m a PhD student in artificial intelligence/robotics, though my work is related to computational neuroscience, and I have strong interests in philosophy of mind, meta-ethics and the “meaning of life”. Though I feel that I should treat finishing my PhD as a personal priority, I like to think about these things. As such, I’ve been working on an explanation for consciousness and a blueprint for artificial general intelligence, and trying to conceive of a set of weighted values that can be applied to scientifically observable/measurable/calculable quantities, both of which have some implications for an explanation of the “meaning” of life.
At the center of the value system I’m working on is a broad notion of “information”. Though still at preliminary stages, I’m considering a hierarchy of weights for the value of different types of information, and trying to determine how bad this is as a utility function. At the moment, I consider the preservation and creation of all information valuable; at an everyday level I try to translate this into learning and creating new knowledge and searching for unique, meaningful experiences.
I’ve been aware of Less Wrong for years, though haven’t quite mustered the motivation to read all of the sequences. Nevertheless, I’ve lurked here on and off over that time, and read lots of interesting discussions. I consider the ability to make rational decisions, and not be fooled by illogical arguments, important. Though without a definite set of values and goals, any action is simply shooting in the dark.