Misplaced Pages

#713286

41-3603: There have also been spinoff conferences in Melbourne, Australia in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Previous speakers include David Chalmers , Lawrence Krauss , Gregory Benford , Ben Goertzel , Steve Omohundro , Hugo de Garis , Marcus Hutter , Mark Pesce , Stelarc and Randal A. Koene . The first Singularity Summit took place in 2006 at Stanford University. Nick Bostrom , Todd Davies , Cory Doctorow , K. Eric Drexler , Tyler Emerson , Douglas Hofstadter , Ray Kurzweil , Bill McKibben , Max More , Christine Peterson , John Smart, Peter Thiel , Sebastian Thrun , Eliezer Yudkowsky . The second Singularity Summit took place in 2007 in San Francisco. Sam Adams, Rodney Brooks , Jamais Cascio, Tyler Emerson , Ben Goertzel , J. Storrs Hall , Charles L. Harper Jr , James Hughes , Neil Jacobstein , Steve Jurvetson , Ray Kurzweil , Peter Norvig , Stephen M. Omohundro , Barney Pell , Christine L. Peterson , Paul Saffo , Peter Thiel , Peter Voss, Wendell Wallach , Eliezer Yudkowsky The 2008 Singularity Summit took place in San Jose. Eric Baum, Marshall Brain , Cynthia Breazeal , Peter Diamandis , Esther Dyson , Pete Estep , Neil Gershenfeld , Ben Goertzel , John Horgan , Ray Kurzweil , Jame Miller , Dharmendra Modha , Bob Pisani , Justin Rattner , Nova Spivack , Vernor Vinge , Glen Zorpette The 2009 Singularity Summit took place in New York. Itamar Arel , Gregory Benford , Ed Boyden , David Chalmers , Aubrey de Grey , Gary Drescher , Ben Goertzel , Stuart Hameroff , Robin Hanson , Marcus Hutter , Randal Koene , Ray Kurzweil , Gary Marcus , Bela Nagy, Michael Nielsen , Anna Salamon, Anders Sandberg , Jurgen Schmidhuber , Brad Templeton , Peter Thiel , Michael Vassar, Gary Wolf , Stephen Wolfram , Eliezer Yudkowsky The 2010 Singularity Summit took place in San Francisco. Lance Becker , Dennis Bray , Ben Goertzel , David Hanson , Demis Hassabis , Ellen Heber-Katz , Ray Kurzweil , Shane Legg , Brian Litt , Steven Mann , Ramez Naam , Irene Pepperberg , James Randi , Terry Sejnowski , Mandayam Srinivasan , Gregory Stock , John Tooby , Michael Vassar , Eliezer Yudkowsky The 2011 Singularity Summit took place in New York on October 15 and 16, 2011. Sonia Arrison , Stephen Badylak , David Brin , Scott Brown, Dan Cerutti , Tyler Cowen , Riley Crane , David Ferrucci , Dileep George , Dmitry Itskov , Ken Jennings , Christof Koch , Ray Kurzweil , John Mauldin , Sharon Bertsch McGrayne , James McLurkin , Michael Shermer , Jason Silva , Jaan Tallinn , Max Tegmark , Peter Thiel , Alexander Wissner-Gross , Stephen Wolfram , Michael Vassar , Eliezer Yudkowsky The 2012 Singularity Summit took place on October 13–14, at Nob Hill Masonic Center, San Francisco. Stuart Armstrong , Linda Avey , Laura Deming , Julia Galef , Temple Grandin , Robin Hanson , Daniel Kahneman , James Koppel , Ray Kurzweil , Nathan Labenz , Melanie Mitchell , Luke Muehlhauser , Peter Norvig , Christopher Olah , Steven Pinker , Noor Siddiqui, Jaan Tallinn , Vernor Vinge , John Wilbanks , Carl Zimmer David Chalmers David John Chalmers ( / ˈ tʃ ɑː l m ər z / ; born April 20, 1966)

82-405: A primary intension and a secondary intension , which together form its meaning. The primary intension of a word or sentence is its sense , i.e., is the idea or method by which we find its referent. The primary intension of "water" might be a description, such as "the substance with water-like properties". The entity identified by this intension could vary in different hypothetical worlds. In

123-454: A silicon chip . Since each substitute neuron performs the same function as the original, the subject would not notice any change. But, Chalmers argues, if qualia (for example, the perceived color of objects) were to fade or disappear, the brain's holder could notice the difference, which would alter the brain's functional profile, leading to a contradiction. He concludes that such fading qualia are impossible in practice, and that after each neuron

164-467: A simulation without knowing it. Chalmers proposes that computers are forming a form of "exo-cortex", where a part of human cognition is 'outsourced' to corporations such as Apple and Google . Chalmers was featured in the 2012 documentary film entitled The Singularity by filmmaker Doug Wolens , which focuses on the theory proposed by techno-futurist Ray Kurzweil , of that "point in time when computer intelligence exceeds human intelligence." He

205-466: A bet—made in 1998, for a case of wine—with neuroscientist Christof Koch that the neural underpinnings for consciousness would not be resolved by the year 2023, while Koch had bet that they would. Chalmers is best known for formulating what he calls the " hard problem of consciousness ," in both his 1995 paper "Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness" and his 1996 book The Conscious Mind . He makes

246-557: A child, he experienced synesthesia . He began coding and playing computer games at the age of 10 on a PDP-10 at a medical center. He also performed exceptionally in mathematics , and secured a bronze medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad . When Chalmers was 13, he read Douglas Hofstadter 's 1979 book Gödel, Escher, Bach , which awakened an interest in philosophy. Chalmers received his undergraduate degree in pure mathematics from

287-439: A decade. Chalmers has published works on the "theory of reference" concerning how words secure their referents. He, together with others such as Frank Jackson , played a major role in developing two-dimensional semantics . Before Saul Kripke delivered his famous lecture series Naming and Necessity in 1970, the descriptivism advocated by Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell was the orthodoxy. Descriptivism suggests that

328-418: A distinction between "easy" problems of consciousness, such as explaining object discrimination or verbal reports, and the single hard problem, which could be stated "why does the feeling which accompanies awareness of sensory information exist at all?" The essential difference between the ( cognitive ) easy problems and the ( phenomenal ) hard problem is that the former are at least theoretically answerable via

369-618: A doctoral thesis entitled Toward a Theory of Consciousness . He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology program directed by Andy Clark at Washington University in St. Louis from 1993 to 1995. In 1994, Chalmers presented a lecture at the inaugural Toward a Science of Consciousness conference. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education , this "lecture established Chalmers as

410-470: A name does not secure its reference via any process of description fitting. Rather, a name determines its reference via a historical-causal link tracing back to the process of naming. And thus, Kripke thinks that a name does not have a sense, or, at least, does not have a sense which is rich enough to play the reference-determining role. Moreover, a name, in Kripke's view, is a rigid designator , which refers to

451-458: A name is an abbreviation of a description, which is a set of properties. This name secures its reference by a process of properties fitting: whichever object fits the description most, is the referent of the name. Therefore, the description provides the sense of the name, and it is through this sense that the reference of the name is determined. However, as Kripke argued in Naming and Necessity ,

SECTION 10

#1732782815714

492-642: A part-time professorship at the philosophy department of New York University in 2009, becoming a full-time professor in 2014. In 2013, Chalmers was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences . He is an editor on topics in the philosophy of mind for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . In May 2018, it was announced that he would serve on the jury for the Berggruen Prize . In 2023, Chalmers won

533-507: A prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor that, when delivered subdermally, confers regenerative healing to a normal mouse. She has obtained evidence of regenerative healing of chronic wounds and osteoporosis in aged mice using this experimental therapeutic approach. With Dr. George Hajishengallis at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dentistry , the hydrogel drug formulation was shown to induce rapid and complete bone and soft tissue regrowth in

574-400: A term T such that (i) the parties to the dispute disagree over the meaning of T, and (ii) the dispute arises solely because of this disagreement. In the same work, Chalmers proposes certain procedures for the resolution of verbal disputes. One of these he calls the "elimination method", which involves eliminating the contentious term and observing whether any dispute remains. Chalmers addressed

615-690: A thinker to be reckoned with and goosed a nascent field into greater prominence." He went on to coorganize the conference (renamed "The Science of Consciousness") for some years with Stuart Hameroff , but stepped away when he felt it became too divergent from mainstream science. Chalmers is a founding member of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness and one of its past presidents. Having established his reputation, Chalmers received his first professorship at UC Santa Cruz , from August 1995 to December 1998. In 1996 he published

656-452: A way to explain how reference is determined by distinguishing between epistemic possibilities (primary intension) and metaphysical necessities (secondary intension), ensuring that the referent (H2O) is uniquely identified across all metaphysically possible worlds. In some more recent work, Chalmers has concentrated on verbal disputes. He argues that a dispute is best characterized as "verbal" when it concerns some sentence S which contains

697-543: Is an Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist specializing in the areas of the philosophy of mind , and the philosophy of language . He is a professor of philosophy and neural science at New York University , as well as co-director of NYU's Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness (along with Ned Block ). In 2006, he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities . In 2013, he

738-432: Is famous for his commitment to the logical (though, not natural) possibility of philosophical zombies . These zombies are complete physical duplicates of human beings, lacking only qualitative experience. Chalmers argues that since such zombies are conceivable to us, they must therefore be logically possible. Since they are logically possible, then qualia and sentience are not fully explained by physical properties alone;

779-594: Is just a fact of life. It's a natural fact of life". Ellen Heber-Katz Ellen Heber-Katz is an American immunologist and regeneration biologist who works as a professor at Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR). She discovered that the Murphy Roths Large (MRL) mouse strain can regenerate wounds without scarring and fully restore damaged tissue. Her research focuses on immunology , regenerative medicine , and cancer . In July 2015, she expanded her research to include studies funded by

820-620: Is replaced, the resulting functionally isomorphic robotic brain would be as conscious as the original biological one. In addition, Chalmers proposed a similar thought experiment, "dancing qualia", which concludes that a robotic brain that is functionally isomorphic to a biological one would not only be as conscious, but would also have the same conscious experiences (e.g., the same perception of color when seeing an object). In 2023, he analyzed whether large language models could be conscious, and suggested that they were probably not conscious, but could become serious candidates for consciousness within

861-418: The University of Adelaide . After graduating Chalmers spent six months reading philosophy books while hitchhiking across Europe, before continuing his studies at the University of Oxford , where he was a Rhodes Scholar but eventually withdrew from the course. In 1993, Chalmers received his PhD in philosophy and cognitive science from Indiana University Bloomington under Douglas Hofstadter , writing

SECTION 20

#1732782815714

902-541: The University of Pennsylvania , studying with D.B. Wilson. In her thesis work, she showed that single T-cell subsets could respond to both histocompatibility antigens and environmental antigens, establishing the unity of these two branches of the immune response. She pursued postdoctoral studies at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the Laboratory of Immunology, under

943-485: The twin Earth thought experiment , for example, inhabitants might use "water" to mean their equivalent of water, even if its chemical composition is not H 2 O. Thus, for that world, "water" does not refer to H2O. The secondary intension of "water" is whatever "water" refers to in this world. When considered according to its secondary intension, water means H 2 O in every world. Through this concept, Chalmers provides

984-566: The "A/5R experiment" confirmed the Determinant Selection Hypothesis, which concerned the spatial relationships between the histocompatibility I-A and I-E molecules on the surface of antigen-presenting cells, the bound antigen and the recognition structure of the T-cell receptor, contributing to the fundamental understanding of how ‘foreign’ antigens activate the adaptive immune system in mammals. In 1976, Heber-Katz

1025-531: The National Cancer Institute (NCI) that investigate novel aspects of breast cancer causation. Heber-Katz received her B.A. in microbiology and immunology in 1969. She received her M.S. in immunology in 1972 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison while studying with Robert E. Click. Her M.S. thesis focused on the role of reducing agents as critical factors in cellular immune responses. In 1976, she earned her Ph.D. in immunology from

1066-428: The borders of the mind. According to Chalmers, systems that have the same functional organization "at a fine enough grain" (that are "functionally isomorphic ") will have "qualitatively identical conscious experiences". In 1995, he proposed the reductio ad absurdum "fading qualia" thought experiment . It involves progressively replacing each neuron of a brain with a functional equivalent, for example implemented on

1107-643: The dominant strategy in the philosophy of mind: physicalism . Chalmers argues for an "explanatory gap" from the objective to the subjective, and criticizes physicalist explanations of mental experience, making him a dualist . Chalmers characterizes his view as " naturalistic dualism": naturalistic because he believes mental states supervene "naturally" on physical systems (such as brains); dualist because he believes mental states are ontologically distinct from and not reducible to physical systems. He has also characterized his view by more traditional formulations such as property dualism . In support of this, Chalmers

1148-449: The facts about them are further facts . Instead, Chalmers argues that consciousness is a fundamental property ontologically autonomous of any known (or even possible) physical properties, and that there may be lawlike rules which he terms "psychophysical laws" that determine which physical systems are associated with which types of qualia. He further speculates that all information -bearing systems may be conscious, leading him to entertain

1189-558: The immunologists E. Shevach, W.E. Paul, and R. Schwartz. While there, she established the first functional evidence for the formation of a molecular complex between a T-cell antigen and the MHC class Ia molecule, anticipating the crystal structure later determined for this fundamental molecular complex in T-cell biology. At NIAID , Heber-Katz also conducted experiments that illuminated the molecular details involved in controlling interactions between T-cells and macrophages. The experiment termed

1230-418: The issue of virtual and non-virtual worlds in his 2022 book Reality+ . While Chalmers recognises that virtual reality is not the same as non-virtual reality, he does not consider virtual reality to be an illusion, but rather a "genuine reality" in its own right. Chalmers sees virtual reality as potentially offering as meaningful a life as non-virtual reality, and argues that we could already be inhabitants of

1271-515: The possibility of conscious thermostats and a qualified panpsychism he calls panprotopsychism . Chalmers maintains a formal agnosticism on the issue, even conceding that the viability of panpsychism places him at odds with the majority of his contemporaries. According to Chalmers, his arguments are similar to a line of thought that goes back to Leibniz 's 1714 "mill" argument ; the first substantial use of philosophical "zombie" terminology may be Robert Kirk 's 1974 "Zombies vs. Materialists". After

Singularity Summit - Misplaced Pages Continue

1312-689: The publication of Chalmers's landmark paper, more than twenty papers in response were published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies . These papers (by Daniel Dennett , Colin McGinn , Francisco Varela , Francis Crick , and Roger Penrose , among others) were collected and published in the book Explaining Consciousness: The Hard Problem . John Searle critiqued Chalmers's views in The New York Review of Books . With Andy Clark , Chalmers has written " The Extended Mind ", an article about

1353-442: The reference of natural kind terms. The kind of theory of reference that is advocated by Kripke and Putnam is called the direct reference theory . Chalmers disagrees with Kripke, and direct reference theorists in general. He thinks that there are two kinds of intension of a natural kind term, a stance called two-dimensionalism . For example, the statement "Water is H 2 O" expresses two distinct propositions, often referred to as

1394-425: The same T-cell receptor in mice and rats recognized different antigens to mediate different diseases. In 1995, during her investigations into how autoimmune disease arises, Heber-Katz discovered that two of the mouse strains she was using (MRL/LPR and MRL/MPJ) had an unusual ability to heal in a regenerative amphibian-like fashion rather than through a fibrotic response. This was shown first for ear hole closure but

1435-405: The same object in all possible worlds . Following this line of thought, Kripke suggests that any scientific identity statement such as "Water is H 2 O" is also a necessary statement, i.e. true in all possible worlds. Kripke thinks that this is a phenomenon that descriptivism cannot explain. And, as also proposed by Hilary Putnam and Kripke himself, Kripke's view on names can also be applied to

1476-583: The widely cited book The Conscious Mind . Chalmers was subsequently appointed Professor of Philosophy (1999–2004) and then Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies (2002–2004) at the University of Arizona . In 2004, Chalmers returned to Australia, encouraged by an ARC Federation Fellowship , becoming professor of philosophy and director of the Center for Consciousness at the Australian National University . Chalmers accepted

1517-540: Was a featured philosopher in the 2020 Daily Nous series on GPT-3 , which he described as "one of the most interesting and important AI systems ever produced." As of 2012 Chalmers was the lead singer of the Zombie Blues band, which performed at the music festival Qualia Fest in 2012 in New York. Regarding religion, Chalmers said in 2011: "I have no religious views myself and no spiritual views, except watered-down humanistic, spiritual views. And consciousness

1558-583: Was appointed as the Assistant Professor at the Wistar Institute . In her viral studies, she developed a T-cell vaccine for the herpes virus HSV-2 that could protect subjects against lethal infection in the total absence of an antibody response. This proved for the first time that, by themselves, T-cells could protect against lethal viral infection. In her autoimmune studies, she developed the “V Region Disease Hypothesis” in showing that

1599-589: Was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences . Chalmers is best known for formulating the hard problem of consciousness , and for popularizing the philosophical zombie thought experiment. Chalmers and David Bourget co-founded PhilPapers ; a database of journal articles for philosophers. David Chalmers was born in Sydney , New South Wales , and subsequently grew up in Adelaide , South Australia , where he attended Unley High School . As

1640-466: Was extended to many organ systems such as the heart. Together with Dr. Robert K. Naviaux at the University of California at San Diego , an expert in mitochondrial physiology, Heber-Katz discovered that a key to non-scarring healing in the adult MRL mouse was activation of an embryonic metabolic pattern known as aerobic glycolysis, suggesting the types of molecules involved in this unusual healing response. In particular, hypoxia-inducible factor-1a (HIF-1a)

1681-475: Was identified as a critical molecule, based on the discovery that blocking its activity in MRL mice was sufficient to eliminate the regenerative response. She has investigated therapeutic strategies to activate this regenerative healing response with Phillip Messersmith, a biomaterials chemist at the University of California at Berkeley . An initial milestone was the creation of time-release hydrogel formulations of

Singularity Summit - Misplaced Pages Continue

#713286