Episode
#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
3:00:45
Published: Sat Jun 13 2020
Description
Joscha Bach is the VP of Research at the AI Foundation, previously doing research at MIT and Harvard. Joscha work explores the workings of the human mind, intelligence, consciousness, life on Earth, and the possibly-simulated fabric of our universe. Support this podcast by supporting these sponsors: - ExpressVPN at https://www.expressvpn.com/lexpod - Cash App – use code "LexPodcast" and download: - Cash App (App Store): https://apple.co/2sPrUHe - Cash App (Google Play): https://bit.ly/2MlvP5w This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts, follow on Spotify, or support it on Patreon. Here's the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. OUTLINE: 00:00 - Introduction 03:14 - Reverse engineering Joscha Bach 10:38 - Nature of truth 18:47 - Original thinking 23:14 - Sentience vs intelligence 31:45 - Mind vs Reality 46:51 - Hard problem of consciousness 51:09 - Connection between the mind and the universe 56:29 - What is consciousness 1:02:32 - Language and concepts 1:09:02 - Meta-learning 1:16:35 - Spirit 1:18:10 - Our civilization may not exist for long 1:37:48 - Twitter and social media 1:44:52 - What systems of government might work well? 1:47:12 - The way out of self-destruction with AI 1:55:18 - AI simulating humans to understand its own nature 2:04:32 - Reinforcement learning 2:09:12 - Commonsense reasoning 2:15:47 - Would AGI need to have a body? 2:22:34 - Neuralink 2:27:01 - Reasoning at the scale of neurons and societies 2:37:16 - Role of emotion 2:48:03 - Happiness is a cookie that your brain bakes for itself
Chapters
In this podcast episode, Lex Fridman sits down with Yoshua Bach, the VP of Research at the AI Foundation, to discuss the mysteries of artificial intelligence and the workings of the human mind and consciousness.
00:00 - 03:23 (03:23)
Summary
In this podcast episode, Lex Fridman sits down with Yoshua Bach, the VP of Research at the AI Foundation, to discuss the mysteries of artificial intelligence and the workings of the human mind and consciousness.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Nassim Taleb discusses the key philosophers, scientists, ideas, and realizations that impacted his intellectual development, particularly growing up in a village school with an education system focused on rote learning rather than critical thinking.
03:30 - 08:51 (05:20)
Summary
Nassim Taleb discusses the key philosophers, scientists, ideas, and realizations that impacted his intellectual development, particularly growing up in a village school with an education system focused on rote learning rather than critical thinking.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
This podcast episode explores the complex topics of objective truth, self-awareness and Ayn Rand's beliefs in relation to philosophical ideas.
08:51 - 13:32 (04:40)
Summary
This podcast episode explores the complex topics of objective truth, self-awareness and Ayn Rand's beliefs in relation to philosophical ideas. The discussion delves into the Steppenwolf syndrome and the potential challenges individuals face in understanding themselves and the world around them.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
This episode explores the idea of putting computation at the center of the world view and how it can help in understanding mathematics and reality.
13:32 - 20:38 (07:05)
Summary
This episode explores the idea of putting computation at the center of the world view and how it can help in understanding mathematics and reality. The discussion also touches upon the significance of Turing's work on computation and its impact on classical mathematics.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The podcast discusses the limitations of viewing consciousness and intelligence solely through the lens of information processing and encourages exploring alternative perspectives outside traditional scientific disciplines to gain a more comprehensive understanding.
20:38 - 25:49 (05:11)
Summary
The podcast discusses the limitations of viewing consciousness and intelligence solely through the lens of information processing and encourages exploring alternative perspectives outside traditional scientific disciplines to gain a more comprehensive understanding.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The ability to understand what a system is saying and to have a self-awareness is the basis of intelligence in AI, known as sentience.
25:49 - 32:00 (06:11)
Summary
The ability to understand what a system is saying and to have a self-awareness is the basis of intelligence in AI, known as sentience.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
This podcast explores the concept of the world as a multiplayer role-playing adventure and how it relates to the Catholic church's mythologies and the existence of God.
32:00 - 39:05 (07:04)
Summary
This podcast explores the concept of the world as a multiplayer role-playing adventure and how it relates to the Catholic church's mythologies and the existence of God.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
This episode dives into the topic of whether a simulation can be conscious and how computer scientists can engineer systems and test their theories to understand consciousness in virtual worlds.
39:05 - 45:56 (06:51)
Summary
This episode dives into the topic of whether a simulation can be conscious and how computer scientists can engineer systems and test their theories to understand consciousness in virtual worlds. The idea that the world we perceive is not the "real" physical world is also discussed.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
In a conversation with Nick Bostrom, the idea of simulation in existence is explored with the notion that each mind is a sub-simulation.
45:56 - 50:26 (04:29)
Summary
In a conversation with Nick Bostrom, the idea of simulation in existence is explored with the notion that each mind is a sub-simulation. The concept of syncing and experiencing things together is also discussed.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The universe contains regions that allow for the complexity required to sustain the creation of minds like ours, which are tightly controlled and controllable.
50:27 - 58:54 (08:27)
Summary
The universe contains regions that allow for the complexity required to sustain the creation of minds like ours, which are tightly controlled and controllable. Attention plays a crucial role in this as it gets trained with the same mechanism as the feedback that keeps complexity stable around certain attractors.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The intentional mechanism in transformer models highlights individual concepts and tracks them through text using an attentional mechanism.
58:54 - 1:04:18 (05:24)
Summary
The intentional mechanism in transformer models highlights individual concepts and tracks them through text using an attentional mechanism. This loop of attention and intentional mechanisms may be the key to waking up and becoming aware.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The brain is not just a learning system, but a meta learning system that discovers algorithms for solving complex problems, such as playing the game GO, and utilizes reinforcement learning agents.
1:04:18 - 1:13:03 (08:44)
Summary
The brain is not just a learning system, but a meta learning system that discovers algorithms for solving complex problems, such as playing the game GO, and utilizes reinforcement learning agents.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The software that describes what a plant is doing is referred to as the plant's operating system or spirit.
1:13:02 - 1:19:24 (06:21)
Summary
The software that describes what a plant is doing is referred to as the plant's operating system or spirit. Similarly, civilization's spirit can be viewed as the entirety of its operating system, which may not exist for long as it competes with dumb chemical reactions.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The definition of poverty is having as many children as you can feed before they die, which is why people in the lower classes tend to have a limited number of children to avoid economic hardship.
1:19:24 - 1:22:23 (02:58)
Summary
The definition of poverty is having as many children as you can feed before they die, which is why people in the lower classes tend to have a limited number of children to avoid economic hardship. The goal is to let their children survive, even if they have diseases, by increasing productivity and sufficiently feeding their families.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Trees and plants may be a set of living organisms that operate at different timescales and possess their own kind of intelligence, far superior to human beings.
1:22:23 - 1:28:01 (05:37)
Summary
Trees and plants may be a set of living organisms that operate at different timescales and possess their own kind of intelligence, far superior to human beings. We may discover that there have been intelligent ecosystems on Earth that have existed for thousands of years in an almost undisturbed state.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
In hot environments, having a cooling chain is crucial for survival as it helps regulate body temperature through evaporation.
1:28:01 - 1:32:33 (04:32)
Summary
In hot environments, having a cooling chain is crucial for survival as it helps regulate body temperature through evaporation. Having access to air conditioning in places such as homes, cars and supermarkets is key to maintaining a safe body temperature and preventing heat-related deaths.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
In the pursuit of terraforming and colonizing Mars, we may discover new ways to increase the power of closed cooling circuits that empower communities.
1:32:33 - 1:37:25 (04:51)
Summary
In the pursuit of terraforming and colonizing Mars, we may discover new ways to increase the power of closed cooling circuits that empower communities. Open-ended technological innovation must keep up with our tendency to overuse resources if we want to avoid self-destruction.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
This podcast explores the idea of social media evolving into a global brain, and the consequences that could result from this uncontrollable game.
1:37:25 - 1:41:06 (03:41)
Summary
This podcast explores the idea of social media evolving into a global brain, and the consequences that could result from this uncontrollable game.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
This episode touches upon the implementation of government regulations to encourage environmentally-friendly transportation and the US's transition from a high trust to a low trust society.
1:41:06 - 1:47:36 (06:29)
Summary
This episode touches upon the implementation of government regulations to encourage environmentally-friendly transportation and the US's transition from a high trust to a low trust society.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
In this episode, Dr. Stuart Armstrong from the Future of Humanity Institute discusses AI safety, the potential risks of AI, and the ways in which we can prevent them.
1:47:36 - 1:54:10 (06:34)
Summary
In this episode, Dr. Stuart Armstrong from the Future of Humanity Institute discusses AI safety, the potential risks of AI, and the ways in which we can prevent them.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The fear of mortality is the fundamental thing from which most of our human minds spring, according to Ernest Becker's denial of death.
1:54:11 - 2:04:05 (09:53)
Summary
The fear of mortality is the fundamental thing from which most of our human minds spring, according to Ernest Becker's denial of death. However, living in modern society with its concrete buildings and machines often makes people feel like they are not well cared for as the monkeys they are, leading to a disconnection from their primal nature and the natural world.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The discussion sheds light on the limitations and constraints of intelligent systems that require colossal computation and the notion of common sense reasoning for better walking, all while exploring the ideas of self-play in automated systems such as AlphaGo.
2:04:05 - 2:16:45 (12:40)
Summary
The discussion sheds light on the limitations and constraints of intelligent systems that require colossal computation and the notion of common sense reasoning for better walking, all while exploring the ideas of self-play in automated systems such as AlphaGo.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Steven Kotler talks about the possibility of nourishing our body in virtual reality and its potential impact on consciousness and intelligence.
2:16:45 - 2:22:31 (05:45)
Summary
Steven Kotler talks about the possibility of nourishing our body in virtual reality and its potential impact on consciousness and intelligence. The discussion also touches on the difference between the physical world and its interface in the real and virtual world.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The possibility of connecting the brain to a computer can lead to new breakthroughs that can expand the capacity of our brains.
2:22:31 - 2:29:05 (06:33)
Summary
The possibility of connecting the brain to a computer can lead to new breakthroughs that can expand the capacity of our brains. Although recreational and creational brain computer interfaces might not be possible in the present legal system, there is potential in the future for brain computer interfaces to enhance our cognitive abilities.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
This podcast episode discusses how religion played a role in state building by enforcing rule-based administration and is a way to promise payment in the afterlife to justify long hours of work for little gain.
2:29:05 - 2:34:05 (05:00)
Summary
This podcast episode discusses how religion played a role in state building by enforcing rule-based administration and is a way to promise payment in the afterlife to justify long hours of work for little gain. It also briefly mentions how democracy is the rule of the oligarchs who currently own the means of production.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker discusses the evolutionary process of replacing bakers with machines and weighing the negative effects against the benefits of such a shift.
2:34:05 - 2:39:51 (05:45)
Summary
The speaker discusses the evolutionary process of replacing bakers with machines and weighing the negative effects against the benefits of such a shift. They also touch on the concept of adulthood and taking charge of one's emotions through understanding affect and modulation parameters.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker discusses how our facial expressions and body language are crucial to understanding nonverbal communication, and how we can use them to convey our emotions and connect with others.
2:39:51 - 2:44:48 (04:57)
Summary
The speaker discusses how our facial expressions and body language are crucial to understanding nonverbal communication, and how we can use them to convey our emotions and connect with others.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The reality of suffering is something that every conscious being experiences, and moments of beauty are inextricably linked to this reality.
2:44:48 - 2:49:28 (04:40)
Summary
The reality of suffering is something that every conscious being experiences, and moments of beauty are inextricably linked to this reality. And yet, pleasure can also arise from scarcity, as Eastern European traditions teach us to balance our experiences in life.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The complexity and self-organizing nature of cells can provide insights into the meaning of life and the regulation of feedback loops and control.
2:49:28 - 2:55:37 (06:09)
Summary
The complexity and self-organizing nature of cells can provide insights into the meaning of life and the regulation of feedback loops and control.
Episode#101 – Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The Christian God in its original form, without the accompanying mythology, can be defined as the platonic form of visualization, as it mirrors the equation of the first mover, i.e., the automaton responsible for running the universe, in Catholicism.
2:55:37 - 3:00:21 (04:44)
Summary
The Christian God in its original form, without the accompanying mythology, can be defined as the platonic form of visualization, as it mirrors the equation of the first mover, i.e., the automaton responsible for running the universe, in Catholicism.