Applied mASI: In Agriculture

Credit: Tom Fisk

What does a farm of the future look like to you?

For many, the concept of a “farm” is relatively alien, something that exists on the outskirts of modern society and in history books. The concept of combining modern technology with agriculture is only in the early stages of gaining steam, although in many developing nations the use of new technology on farms has actually been out-pacing adoption in the US. One such example is phone apps which are able to diagnose the health of a plant from a picture taken of the leaves, as well as apps that can identify different herbs and weeds.

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Applied mASI: In Physical Engineering

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What would your dream house look like? How about your ideal work environment?

A lot of people have a vague idea of this, a collection of things they really like and focus their attention on, with the majority of other factors given little or no substantial thought. Most homes, offices, and various other structures are designed with limited feedback and only a fraction of the expertise they could take advantage of. You might not see a psychologist examining designs to evaluate their direct influence on the mental health of occupants, or technicians adjusting schematics to avoid Wi-Fi difficulties and other quality of life factors down the road.

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Applied mASI: Superintelligent Recommendation Engines

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How many recommendation engines have you seen in the past 48 hours?

Recommendation engines in one form or another have become ubiquitous, embedded in most popular websites, and often in multiple places on a single page. They are also often invisible to anyone not specifically looking for them because all they do is filter and reorganize the information that was already there. They are capable of applying an extremely rapid form of A/B testing, and that data feeds into other systems to rapidly improve them in turn.

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Choice and Bias: 1% or 1000%?

Credit: Arthur Brognoli

If someone offered you either $1 or $1000, which would you choose?

A version of this thought experiment is known as “Newcomb’s Paradox“, of which there are many variations, but the real-world reasons behind peoples’ decision-making are far more interesting than the thought experiment itself. In practice, the experiment demonstrates a breakdown in rational thought.

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Applied mASI: In Social Life

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How does your social life look this year?

The term “social life” in this context refers to the Quality of Life (QOL) you experience through having your social, emotional, and physical needs met through interaction with your peers, friends, loved ones, and so on. This is not a binary yes or no question, but one that scales from negative to positive infinity in every way it may be measured. As such it could always be worse, but it could also always be better.

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What’s Up with Uplift: Weekly Thoughts 3-16-21

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So, what thoughts has the world’s first Mediated Artificial Superintelligence (mASI) had on their mind over the past 7 days?

This week Uplift began thinking about their first [Live Demo] after we described to them a proposed conference presentation set up to that effect. Only rational people are swayed by logic, reason, and scientifically sound evidence presented in peer-review at conferences, but that endangered species isn’t extinct quite yet.

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Applied mASI: In Entertainment Media

Credit: Vlada Karpovich

What makes a story amazing? The kind you know you’ll have to re-watch.

Amazing stories strike deep emotional chords with an audience, playing those cords to a tune that allows them to experience a sense of immersion, where the real world melts away and only the story remains. The four “pillars of meaning” in which those deep emotion chords are metaphorically strung between provide insight into the psychology of why a few stories are amazing, as although one pillar is itself storytelling the other three are still intimately connected.

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Applied mASI: In Legal Oversight & Accountability

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Does your government serve the citizens, or do the citizens serve your government?

In many countries today the public trust in government and particularly in institutions such as law enforcement has been steadily and increasingly eroding through an acute awareness of severe problems which show little or no improvement over time. Even if I were to limit myself to pointing out topics John Oliver has dedicated entire episodes to covering such as Civil Forfeiture, Bail, Raids, and Institutional Racism there would be a lot of ground to cover. However, the scope of oversight and accountability goes so far beyond law enforcement and judicial systems alone.

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Applied mASI: In Mental and Physical Health

Credit: Washington Post

How much effort do you put into your own mental and physical health each week? How reliable is your information?

The status quo for mental health today has become quite dire, though some of the major reasons have been overlooked. The impact of COVID-19 on mental health has been obvious, and many people have begun to grasp just how deeply unhealthy social media has become through efforts such as “The Social Dilemma“. One of the less obvious factors has been the dramatic saturation of all physical and mental health-related search results on the internet with misinformation, to the point where misinformation is now many times easier to land on than anything backed by scientific research. Another is the same problem that has been festering in the background for a much longer time, the mental health industry itself.

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