Consciousness

I've been following philosophical discussions about AI recently. One idea which seems to penetrate the discussion a whole lot is about whether we should treat AI machines with compassion if they ever reach "consciousness".

I think this is a flawed question because I don't think consciousness is a binary switch, I think it's a spectrum. Consciousness is a fundamental property all living things have evolved with to different degrees. Mold, for example, can grow and form itself by reacting to the environment, and trees "know" when to grow and shed leaves. I think when you look at it this way, consciousness is nothing more than a very complicated accumulation of indifferent particles reacting to the environment by the laws of nature. I think its tempting to see ourselves with such an advanced level of thinking that it's tempting to draw an artificial line in the spectrum and declare one side conscious.

This becomes relevant when talking about morality, but i'll save that for a different rant :)

Liberals and cognitive bias

I've recently become aware of the strong liberal backlash to offensive ideas being shared on US campuses. Two of which that annoy me most are the Berkeley University protest and the Yale student mob harassing the professor Nicholas Christakis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELzUfKWTvI0).

It's tough to say when you view these things on YouTube whether these events are an accurate representation of liberal ideas. None the less, I've noticed my own liberal friends become increasingly more staunch about their ideas, so I think this rise in dogmatic and violent liberalism is somewhat accurate. Here's a cartoon mocking what I think is a mainstream liberal and conservative approach to truth.

I suspect the leading cause of this is that most young people trap themselves in virtual echo chambers, which leaves them emotionally hypersensitive to opposing ideas. This makes it harder to view social issues objectively. How can you have a rational conversation about gay rights when the atmosphere is so emotionally unstable? It's just not a good way to pursue truth! 

I fear that the internet has also become the modern day equivalent of gathering your pitch fork and torch. It's easy for a group of people to damage businesses via reviews, and it's even easier to write hate speech anonymously via message boards. Having the power to cause an instantaneous effect due to a spike in emotion is a cause for instability. And das bad.

You're gonna be surprised to hear me say this, but I think the main culprit of these problems is NOT religion, it's the internet. We're biologically predisposed to seek confirmation bias, and to feel anger, and I think these primal parts of ourselves are being facilitated with 21st century technology.

objective truth

I've met people who study philosophy who claim that 'everything is subjective'. This mocks that viewpoint.

Cultural rulebook

Must... not... rant... about... arbitrary cultural... norms... Arraaargghh

Why is it that walking around the city shirtless is so offensive? If it's because seeing a potentially ugly sweaty persons torso in the city is physically or mentally scaring to some degree, then it should also be culturally taboo to do it at the beach.

Why is it that we can't eat with our hands at a restaurant? If it's because the sight of someone eating with their hands is disgusting to you, then it should also be culturally taboo to do it at the beach. 

Why is it that we all feel the subtle pressure not to run while on a deserted pedestrian walkway? If it's because it's too dangerous or causes too much congestion, then it should also be culturally taboo to run on a crowded beach. 

The reason we act in certain ways isn't entirely for practical reasons. Humans have evolved to conform to accepted norms - and those norms evolve over time as well due to environmental and social factors. The real reason we don't do the things I mentioned above is mostly because 1) Accessorizing through clothing has historically been a sign of wealth and success 2) Eating with cutlery is hygienic and 3) Running through streets has historically been associated with childish or criminal activity. 

It frustrates me that people defend these arbitrary cultural norms by lazily labeling any other way of acting "impolite". But why is it impolite? It's not for practical reasons, it's because people subconsciously learn to mimic a behavior observed in certain places at certain times. Saying that "it's just polite" is a really circular argument. 

I feel like I'm going crazy just watching humans march around like ants obeying arbitrary cultural norms. So I thought I'd mock this idea by creating a 'cultural rulebook'. Here it is.

Suspension of judgement (philosophical rant)

Two cartoons in short succession! Aren't you guys lucky? You're in for a real treat today! Today I'm going to mindlessly rant about suspension of judgement.

Every claim you believe to be true (eg I'm 27 years old, gravity is 9.81 m/s^2, the earth is round etc etc) requires evidence or rational proof to be true. This is clearly true for scientific things like proving a^2 + b^2 = c^2. But I think it's also true for "subjective" things like 'my family loves me'. Why? Well, the only way to try and pluck something true from a mysterious universe is to make hypotheses about the world (eg water evaporates) and experiment with the universe as much as possible (eg testing hundreds of buckets of water in different environments). Statistically speaking, the larger the sample size, the more confident we can be that our hypothesis is true. Mathematical statements like x = -b +-sqrt(b^2-4ac)/2a are things that we can be most confident of being true because these are generalized formulas which means they'll work for any number (an infinite sample size!). Sadly though, we can never have absolute certainty that anything is 100% true (even 1+1 = 2) because we could all be in a vat seeing a virtual world that could be fake. This means that to be entirely rational you should suspend judgement on literally everything. That's where practicality comes in; where you should believe things to be true proportional to the likely hood that they're true - but this is a rant for another cartoon.

Anywho, my whole point was to say this. At no point would it be rational to believe anything true on faith. Faith requires belief without evidence, and I think this is the most intellectually damaging approach to truth that there is. If faith was an appropriate way to discover truth then the world should bend according to my imagination - why not have faith that the world is flat? Or that orange juice is made from spider blood?

Even if something is true then it would be rational to suspend judgement until you have enough evidence to believe it.

Freedom isn't good for you.

Hey folks, I've been wanting to make this small little cartoon for a while now. I kinda rushed it a bit so don't judge me on my drawing skills.

The purpose of this cartoon is to show that the human desire for more freedom is nothing more than a product of our evolutionary past. The first two rows aren't controversial at all; we all know that our bodies have evolved to naturally crave high energy sugar and to minimize physical labor. And we know this is a problem because a recent explosion in technology has placed our primitive bodies in an environment where we have unlimited snack food, and a sedentary lifestyle.

I don't think it's too much of a stretch to connect the dots a bit further. I think early humans evolved with a biological urge to maximize choice. 10,000 years ago the choice to have another home, meal or piece of clothing would have been a huge evolutionary advantage. Now humans are placed in an environment where there is almost unlimited opportunity (career wise, clothing wise, travel wise etc) which I suspect is ironically a huge source of anxiety for us since choosing one path is closing the door on all the others. In western countries (and especially in America), freedom is value that we continue to strive blindly towards, yet I suspect our biology is misleading us. I think we'd be on the whole happier if we had less freedom, and instead one very well defined path for our lives.

I'll even go one step further and suspect that depression (which is a super complicated condition correlated with hundreds of variables) is mainly caused by having a lifestyle which is sufficiently different from the lifestyle our caveman brains expect us to be living.

Delft Second Impressions

So I've been in Delft for about 3 weeks now. This place is great; the weather has been amazing, my flatmates are all awesome, I've made a few friends from the induction and the University seems to be a great mix of social, sporty and academic.

First about the weather. It's been sunny and shining every day (except one) that I've been here. This actually makes me a little scared because now I know the next coming months of weather must be especially shit to live up to Netherlands average of bad weather.

I have 3 flatmates; Joost (Joosty-toasty), Ivo (Ivory), and Ubles (Blue balls). All of them are great fun. Meeting Joost and Ivo went just as you'd expect - I met them when I first moved in and they seemed like really social guys. Ubles was different; I first met Ubles as he was half way between a frantic rush to drop off some acoustic equipment and leave with another suitcase. As he waved hi and bye to me he managed to squeeze out that he was in a band that had just performed in Poland and was about to perform in the north of the Netherlands. Later that week I found myself fiddling around with the radio only to hear Ubles voice pop out of the speakers - apparently he's also a radio host for his fraternity in his spare time from being a full time Architecture student and programmer. All 4 of us gather around on Mondays to do a group activity like go to a pub, watch a movie, cook dinner etc. I'm very happy I've found a house with mature people who genuinely care about flatmate integration, this is exactly what I was looking for. Moreover, I think the stereotype that Dutch people are too direct to the point of being rude, false. It's true that they're very direct, but this is a very welcome trait for me, because now I don't need to potter around someones feelings to describe something objective. The Dutch have a saying which translates directly into "I hear what you're saying and I disagree, let's move onto another topic". Amazing :D

The house is also a messy shithole! Yay! There's a small hole in my ceiling, paint is peeling off everywhere, and the staircase is so dangerously steep you have to rock-climb to get to the lounge. There are also a whole bunch of half-assed Engineering projects scattered around the house everywhere, some of these include; the radio power supply connected to the light-switch, a neck tie connected by a pulley system to flip a switch, a half built hot tub in the back and a beer crate that's been filled with soil, plants and herbs (we officially have a beer garden!).

OK, now let's talk about some general things I've observed about Holland. People here are tall, like really tall. I think I'm slightly below average height and now I constantly get the sensation that my view is being obstructed by giant bobbing blonde human heads. I suspect the reason Dutch people are so tall is so that they can remain above sea level if the dykes ever break. Dutch people are also super honest. At some super markets they have scanner guns which customers can pick up to record their own items as they shop. The staff completely trusts them as they go through the self serve checkout in less than 10 seconds.

Oh yeah, the food here is a really good! Not as good as German food, but still pretty mouth watering. Cheese and mustard has become my new favorite snack food. I've cooked dinner a few times for my flatmates and once they incorrectly start questioning my strange cooking styles, I reply "oh, that's just the Australian way of doing it". If anyone asks, under-cooked chicken is an Australian specialty.

Not everything is perfect though. I set up my bank account with ING on the 13th of August and I still haven't received my bank card in the mail. WTF, mate? It takes me less time to send a bicycle to Australia and back again...