LabX
Three Comedians. One Expert. So many ridiculously wrong answers.
WRONG ANSWERS ONLY is an interactive show featuring celebrity guests who play games and quizzes while learning about exciting research with the help of a scientific expert.
THE HOST
Chris Duffy is a comedian and writer who hosts the TED podcast How to Be a Better Human. Chris wrote on both seasons of Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas on HBO, executive produced by John Oliver, and writes the popular weekly newsletter Bright Spots. Chris’ writing has been featured in The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, National Geographic Glimpse, Makeshift Magazine, and The California Sunday Magazine.
THE EXPERT
Jordan Harrod is a Ph.D. student in medical engineering working on deep learning and brain–machine interfaces at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School. Outside of the lab, she is a YouTube star (everydAI).
THE COMEDIANS
Michael Cruz Kayne is a Filipino-American comedian, actor, and writer based in NYC.He is currently a writer on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Michael has won a Peabody Award and a Writers Guild Award, which is neat. If you use your eyes, you may have seen Michael on Late Night With Seth Meyers, High Maintenance, or The Chris Gethard Show. If you use your ears, you can hear him in two Audible series: 64th Man with John Cena and Holiday Greetings from Sugar and Booze with Ana Gasteyer.
Joanna Hausmann is a Venezuelan-American comedian, writer, and actor who gained popularity through her videos on YouTube and as head-writer/talent on Univision’s digital platform Flama. Her viral creations have garnered over 100 million views and have been featured in places like CNN, NPR, and the BBC. Her biweekly show Joanna Rants has collectively reached over 70 million views and has attracted an international fan club of people who claim she looks like British survivalist Bear Grylls.
Chrissy Shackelford is an Emmy Award-winning comedian and writer. She’s currently working at Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and previously was a staff writer on the HBO series, Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas. Be sure to check out Ghostwritten, a character driven comedy series that Chrissy created and stars in.
18+/PG-13ish (Are we going to curse? Yes, yes we probably will.)
Expert intro video by Brenda Clemente (@ brendaclemente_art on Instagram)
Source
It's becoming clear that with all the brain and consciousness theories out there, the proof will be in the pudding. By this I mean, can any particular theory be used to create a human adult level conscious machine. My bet is on the late Gerald Edelman's Extended Theory of Neuronal Group Selection. The lead group in robotics based on this theory is the Neurorobotics Lab at UC at Irvine. Dr. Edelman distinguished between primary consciousness, which came first in evolution, and that humans share with other conscious animals, and higher order consciousness, which came to only humans with the acquisition of language. A machine with primary consciousness will probably have to come first.
What I find special about the TNGS is the Darwin series of automata created at the Neurosciences Institute by Dr. Edelman and his colleagues in the 1990's and 2000's. These machines perform in the real world, not in a restricted simulated world, and display convincing physical behavior indicative of higher psychological functions necessary for consciousness, such as perceptual categorization, memory, and learning. They are based on realistic models of the parts of the biological brain that the theory claims subserve these functions. The extended TNGS allows for the emergence of consciousness based only on further evolutionary development of the brain areas responsible for these functions, in a parsimonious way. No other research I've encountered is anywhere near as convincing.
I post because on almost every video and article about the brain and consciousness that I encounter, the attitude seems to be that we still know next to nothing about how the brain and consciousness work; that there's lots of data but no unifying theory. I believe the extended TNGS is that theory. My motivation is to keep that theory in front of the public. And obviously, I consider it the route to a truly conscious machine, primary and higher-order.
My advice to people who want to create a conscious machine is to seriously ground themselves in the extended TNGS and the Darwin automata first, and proceed from there, by applying to Jeff Krichmar's lab at UC Irvine, possibly. Dr. Edelman's roadmap to a conscious machine is at https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.10461
I worked as a messenger clerk at the NAS as a college dropout student at AU in DC. AI will definitely replace messenger clerks, and such at the NAS too. I saw much at the TRB, NCHRP, NAS, NAE, etc.. lol. Bathroom skills and bedroom skills is not off limits with AI I see too. oh my. Marty is at Stop N' Shop were i work as a Seafood Clerk. AI will replace Deli. and Seafood Clerks too. Oh my. Michael likes coffee it seems.. coffee bots rule.