Author Topic: Singularity. Is it possible? When?  (Read 2882 times)

Offline RTHolmes

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #60 on: February 19, 2011, 02:32:07 PM »
^ fails the turing test.


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Offline FireDrgn

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #61 on: February 19, 2011, 03:59:38 PM »
A lot of semantics and one critical error.

Evolution isn't only "being alive" but a selection process by more or less fitness and reproduction.  The more fit survive and reproduce, and the less fit survive less and reproduce less.  Hence a natural tendency for fitness, hinged on death and reproduction.

You can have evolution without death, but death optimizes the process: any iterative process will evolve, in the literal sense, proportionately to its iterative frequency.   Without death you have an iterative process with indefinitely long (or inexistent, when death happens before reproduction) iteration frequency.  Those competing organisms that are death-optimized will out compete you and you're effectively "naturally selected" for extinction.  Ultimately you also have the finite resources issue that Bozon pointed out - without death you have no population restriction which is unfit for our environment of finite resources.
Non sequitur - You're mixing death the symbolic idea and death the real material "thing".How's that?               If you mean something else than evolution, use something else than the word evolution.  What you describe isn't evolution.
I am not arguing  that death does not optimize evolution.  Or that death exists. .You agreed that death is not a necessity. We are in agreement.   I am not arguing any other points.

It would be a fallacy of equivocation if I am using two differant definitions of death.  I am open to an explanation of your thoughts on that.

What did i describe if not evolution.  Is rocks to say liquid not the same randomess of chance. Evolution is nothing more than a discription of chance interactions.   Natural selection was added by chance as was death.


The finite resource argument only tells us what happens when we run out of resources it dons not stop evolution. The same random process whould just start over. I am not arguing that death does not exist or is necessary if evolution goes far enough.Death is only necessary for evolution to keep going past a certian point as evolution is now.
q\\YOur point of evolution getting ready to take off again in the next ten years or so certianly does not require death.

Evolution could find a way to take place within and make changes with in a living being without death.

« Last Edit: February 19, 2011, 04:04:24 PM by FireDrgn »
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Offline mechanic

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #62 on: February 19, 2011, 06:56:17 PM »
Consider that the Stone Age lasted for around 2,500,000 years. Then suddenly the eureka moment and it's all about metals. That was evolution not through genetics but through actions and thoughts of chains of individuals. Imagine....2.5mil years with the same technology. Genetics are obviously a great part of evolution but the real great changes happen in a flash and are caused by intelligence or action of individuals.
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Offline moot

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #63 on: February 20, 2011, 12:11:37 AM »
I am not arguing  that death does not optimize evolution.  Or that death exists. .You agreed that death is not a necessity. We are in agreement.   I am not arguing any other points.
You're not, yet you then go on to all the below verbosities for ... what?

Quote
It would be a fallacy of equivocation if I am using two differant definitions of death.  I am open to an explanation of your thoughts on that.
You use the same word "death" to describe the human notion of death, and the concrete "real" events that the human notion "death" refers to.  They're two different things and you argued them as though they were the same.

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What did i describe if not evolution.
Evolution is a very specific biological process.  You can't walk into a field where conventions have been agreed on for decades if not centuries, and misname those conventions expecting others to automatically understand your new arbitrary language.  

 
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Is rocks to say liquid not the same randomess of chance.
You mean to argue evolution as an instance of mere permutation of matter, IOW just a probabilistic process.  But what's the point?  It's like if I got into an argument over how to most efficiently get to Mars orbit given very specific parameters, and started arguing that heliocentric equations are "fake" because you could just as well describe orbital dynamics from an earth-centric POV.  Which you can, but it just complicates things for no good reason.  Evolution isn't about rocks changing into liquid.    

 
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Evolution is nothing more than a discription of chance interactions.   Natural selection was added by chance as was death.
No.  If you want the conventional definition of evolution the biological process, you can open a textbook and see for yourself how it's not just chance interactions resulting in phase changes..


Quote
The finite resource argument only tells us what happens when we run out of resources it dons not stop evolution.
It doesn't matter.  It's not a viable evolutionary path.  If you're going to seriously make this argument you need to start showing data.  And start a new thread, cause this doesn't have much to do with the topic, and I'm not interested (I slept thu bio classes and don't really regret it).

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The same random process whould just start over.
It didn't.  Despite old age existing in a small number of species.

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I am not arguing that death does not exist or is necessary if evolution goes far enough. Death is only necessary for evolution to keep going past a certian point as evolution is now.
What?   You gotta be less vague.  I don't know what you're talking about.

Quote
q\\YOur point of evolution getting ready to take off again in the next ten years or so certianly does not require death.
My point, not just selective parts of it, was that death is an essential part of optimized natural evolution. And it's not "my" point, it's history, data. I don't care about philosophical arguments for their own sake.

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Evolution could find a way to take place within and make changes with in a living being without death.
Again you're saying evolution and meaning something else than the established meaning of Evolution.  Why encapsulate a set of phenomena inside a word for the sake brevity, when what it is you're trying to describe by that word is neither what the word conventionally means nor clear to anyone but you, since you've never explicitly described what you mean?  No one but you knows what you mean by "evolution".  It's not the textbook meaning of the word, that's all I can tell. 

I don't care about biology and there's much better people/things to learn it from.  I recommend you just read the literature on the topic yourself.  What you're arguing isn't novel in anyway, just mistaken.  You don't need me or even a human to see how.  Just open a book or good reference website and see for yourself.
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Evolution could find a way to take place within and make changes with in a living being without death.
This is not "evolution"
« Last Edit: February 20, 2011, 12:14:05 AM by moot »
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Offline Penguin

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #64 on: February 20, 2011, 12:38:30 PM »
I am not arguing  that death does not optimize evolution.  Or that death exists. .You agreed that death is not a necessity. We are in agreement.   I am not arguing any other points.

It would be a fallacy of equivocation if I am using two differant definitions of death.  I am open to an explanation of your thoughts on that.

What did i describe if not evolution.  Is rocks to say liquid not the same randomess of chance. Evolution is nothing more than a discription of chance interactions.   Natural selection was added by chance as was death.


The finite resource argument only tells us what happens when we run out of resources it dons not stop evolution. The same random process whould just start over. I am not arguing that death does not exist or is necessary if evolution goes far enough.Death is only necessary for evolution to keep going past a certian point as evolution is now.
q\\YOur point of evolution getting ready to take off again in the next ten years or so certianly does not require death.

Evolution could find a way to take place within and make changes with in a living being without death.



Life from non-life is abiogenesis. 

Nextly, let's separate death due to aging from externally induced death (saber-tooth tiger).  If old individuals didn't die simply because of age, then only the newest individuals would have evolved.  Furthermore, if there were no way to remove individuals from the gene pool, then evolution would cease.

Take autism for example- in the days of hunter gatherer groups, it would get you killed.  Now, autistic individuals can reproduce (assuming they find a mate).  Thus, autism is now a greatly reduced factor in reproductive fitness. 

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Offline FireDrgn

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #65 on: February 20, 2011, 09:02:14 PM »
FireDrgn,

The kind of inferences you are drawing would make a philosopher wince.  People who take the subject seriously are very cautious and circumspect about imposing ideas like logical necessity and possibility onto the findings of the empirical sciences.  Those philosophers who do wade into the empirical sciences are, hopefully, heavily studied in both fields.

How am I imposing logical necessity?    How do you have empirical science without logical necessity? 
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Offline FireDrgn

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #66 on: February 20, 2011, 09:13:41 PM »
You're not, yet you then go on to all the below verbosities for ... what?
You use the same word "death" to describe the human notion of death, and the concrete "real" events that the human notion "death" refers to.  They're two different things and you argued them as though they were the same.
Evolution is a very specific biological process.  You can't walk into a field where conventions have been agreed on for decades if not centuries, and misname those conventions expecting others to automatically understand your new arbitrary language.  

 You mean to argue evolution as an instance of mere permutation of matter, IOW just a probabilistic process.  But what's the point?  It's like if I got into an argument over how to most efficiently get to Mars orbit given very specific parameters, and started arguing that heliocentric equations are "fake" because you could just as well describe orbital dynamics from an earth-centric POV.  Which you can, but it just complicates things for no good reason.  Evolution isn't about rocks changing into liquid.    

 No.  If you want the conventional definition of evolution the biological process, you can open a textbook and see for yourself how it's not just chance interactions resulting in phase changes..

It doesn't matter.  It's not a viable evolutionary path.  If you're going to seriously make this argument you need to start showing data.  And start a new thread, cause this doesn't have much to do with the topic, and I'm not interested (I slept thu bio classes and don't really regret it).
It didn't.  Despite old age existing in a small number of species.
What?   You gotta be less vague.  I don't know what you're talking about.
My point, not just selective parts of it, was that death is an essential part of optimized natural evolution. And it's not "my" point, it's history, data. I don't care about philosophical arguments for their own sake.
Again you're saying evolution and meaning something else than the established meaning of Evolution.  Why encapsulate a set of phenomena inside a word for the sake brevity, when what it is you're trying to describe by that word is neither what the word conventionally means nor clear to anyone but you, since you've never explicitly described what you mean?  No one but you knows what you mean by "evolution".  It's not the textbook meaning of the word, that's all I can tell. 

I don't care about biology and there's much better people/things to learn it from.  I recommend you just read the literature on the topic yourself.  What you're arguing isn't novel in anyway, just mistaken.  You don't need me or even a human to see how.  Just open a book or good reference website and see for yourself. This is not "evolution"

I dont mind studing evolution more. Can you recomend  a website for me?

Death is not a necessity for evolution.
and the rest
 We seem to be arguing over the definitions of evolution and possibly when evolution started.  You keep telling me what is not. I am looking for what is.
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Offline maddafinga

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #67 on: February 20, 2011, 09:21:30 PM »
http://pandasthumb.org/archives/evolution/

Lots of reading, but good stuff here, and lots of links to other sites to check out as well.
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Offline FireDrgn

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #68 on: February 20, 2011, 09:33:07 PM »
FireDrgn,

The kind of inferences you are drawing would make a philosopher wince.  People who take the subject seriously are very cautious and circumspect about imposing ideas like logical necessity and possibility onto the findings of the empirical sciences.  Those philosophers who do wade into the empirical sciences are, hopefully, heavily studied in both fields.


All of these are complete and utter straw man arguments.

No.  You need death and new generations to have evolution.  No evolution = no adaptation = extinct.


This was your response to my statment that  "a feature" is philisophical.            Your argument is false.  Death is not needed for evolution.  I am claiming you need a true argument.
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Offline FireDrgn

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #69 on: February 20, 2011, 09:33:46 PM »
http://pandasthumb.org/archives/evolution/

Lots of reading, but good stuff here, and lots of links to other sites to check out as well.


Thank you.
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Offline Sonicblu

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #70 on: February 20, 2011, 10:31:46 PM »
As far as aging just read an interesting article on telomere shortning, interesting stuff. And looks like researchers have found a jellyfish that doesn't die to to aging. I'll have to find a link to the article.

Back to AI. Wouldn't AI be defined as self aware. Ok just opened another can of worms.

Can self aware be defined?
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Offline Anaxogoras

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #71 on: February 20, 2011, 10:38:16 PM »
All of these are complete and utter straw man arguments.

Get your logical fallacies straight before you come after me.  A straw man argument is where you present your opponent's position in a very weak and lame way for rhetorical points.  I have never attempted to present any of your positions (yet).  Moreover, I gave you a thorough and sound explanation of the role of death in evolution, which you rejected.

Quote from: FireDrgn
How do you have empirical science without logical necessity?  

Of course research scientists make logical inferences and deductions as part of their trade, but what you're doing is completely different.  Biologists tell us all about the role of death in evolution, how it is as much a part of the process as life itself.  These are the people who actually do the research and revise the theories.  It is their belief as scientists that death can actually imply a competitive advantage in the struggle between species on planet Earth, i.e. death is a feature.

Now, you object that death could not be regarded as a feature except in a philosophical way.  Let me be as charitable as possible here, your only argument for this claim was that "feature" is a human idea, and evolution happened long before humans, and therefore death could not be a true "feature" of evolution.  That's the kind of bunk logical necessity that is pure sophistry to apply to the empirical sciences.  It's as if by logic alone you might sweep away decades of research and theory since Darwin...if only it were so simple, I would have a Phd.
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Offline Sonicblu

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #72 on: February 20, 2011, 11:27:42 PM »
No Sonicblu, it's not an error for the purpose of natural selection, natural selection which was the ruling paradigm till we grew evolutionary intentions of our own.  Before that there was no such volition as "live forever". 
My original point was death by aging, not any other kind of death incident. You are re framing my argument by adding all the other deaths that NS can produce.

They have found a jellyfish that is capable of not aging. I don't see how it has anything to do with volition.
Therefore Dna is capable of not aging. Death in Natural selection can still work without aging can't it? Predators, accidents, to name a few. Aging is just one way something can die. 

I think Madda is the closest to NS according to the theory it can help but it is reproduction that passes on the information or Leap of information to make evolution possible. I don't see how death is necessary. I do see how reproduction is.

Just a thought, If there is no death " that is survival of the fittest" It is the ultimate form of evolution.
Most of the arguments are begging the question, or circular reasoning.   


Offline bozon

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #73 on: February 21, 2011, 03:20:48 AM »
Just a thought, If there is no death " that is survival of the fittest" It is the ultimate form of evolution.
The point of argument is death due to aging, not just the ability to die by a rock falling on you. It does not even have to be death in a bed - being weakened by age and dying to a predator, the elements or battle is good enough. The survival in evolution refers to the genes, not the individual creature that carries them.
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Offline moot

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Re: Singularity. Is it possible? When?
« Reply #74 on: February 23, 2011, 09:16:56 AM »
You keep telling me what is not. I am looking for what is.
My bad.  I don't have time for an arguing reply but here's some starters on evolution.  In order of relevance -
http://academicearth.org/subjects/biology/category:127
http://www.khanacademy.org/#Biology
http://academicearth.org/subjects/biology/category:7
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