The document discusses the possibility of life existing elsewhere in our solar system and the search for evidence of life on Mars. It summarizes the current Mars Science Laboratory mission, called Curiosity, which landed on Mars in 2012 and has been analyzing samples to search for organic compounds and signs of past life. Curiosity's instruments could detect organics despite perchlorates in the soil through combustion, liquid extraction, or headspace monitoring during pyrolysis. Any organics found would need to be distinguished from non-biological sources like meteorites or early Earth chemistry experiments.
Philosophy of Mind - Part 2 of Piero Scaruffi's class "Thinking about Thought...piero scaruffi
The document discusses various theories regarding the relationship between the mind and body/brain, including dualism, monism, idealism, materialism, and neutral monism. Dualism proposes that the mind and body are separate substances that interact, while monism argues they are different aspects of the same substance. Materialism specifically states that only matter exists and the mind can be explained physically. The debate examines ideas such as consciousness, cognition, intelligence and how to define the mind.
Lectures on Silicon Valley at Beijing and other cities in China - September 2014 - excerpted from my book http://www.amazon.com/History-Silicon-Valley-Almost-3rd/dp/1500262226/ref=sr_1_3_bnp_1_pap?ie=UTF8&qid=1405191978&sr=8-3&keywords=scaruffi+silicon+valley
Demystifying Machine Intelligence: Why the Singularity is not Coming any Time Soon And Other Meditations on the Post-Human Condition and the Future of Intelligence. A more updated version can be found at www.scaruffi.com/singular
The Brain - Part 6 of Piero Scaruffi's class "Thinking about Thought" at UC B...piero scaruffi
The Brain - Part 6 of Piero Scaruffi's class "Thinking about Thought" at UC Berkeley (2014). I keep updating this presentation at www.scaruffi.com/ucb.html
This document provides information on two artworks: "Double Feature", an acrylic painting on canvas measuring 36"x48", and "November Expansion", also an acrylic painting on canvas measuring 36"x36".
UC Berkeley psychologist Tania Lombrozo on Explanationspiero scaruffi
1) The document discusses three mysteries of scientific explanation: why we prefer some explanations over others based on simplicity and scope, why we bother explaining things we've already observed, and how explanations can support learning even without new information.
2) It presents studies that show explaining events leads to discovering broader patterns compared to simply describing or thinking about events. Explaining also helps children and students learn concepts more effectively.
3) The document argues that the drive for explanatory simplicity and scope may be evolutionarily adaptive as it fosters discovery and learning, even in the absence of new information or observations. Seeking explanations may support learning and survival.
The document discusses the possibility of life existing elsewhere in our solar system and the search for evidence of life on Mars. It summarizes the current Mars Science Laboratory mission, called Curiosity, which landed on Mars in 2012 and has been analyzing samples to search for organic compounds and signs of past life. Curiosity's instruments could detect organics despite perchlorates in the soil through combustion, liquid extraction, or headspace monitoring during pyrolysis. Any organics found would need to be distinguished from non-biological sources like meteorites or early Earth chemistry experiments.
Philosophy of Mind - Part 2 of Piero Scaruffi's class "Thinking about Thought...piero scaruffi
The document discusses various theories regarding the relationship between the mind and body/brain, including dualism, monism, idealism, materialism, and neutral monism. Dualism proposes that the mind and body are separate substances that interact, while monism argues they are different aspects of the same substance. Materialism specifically states that only matter exists and the mind can be explained physically. The debate examines ideas such as consciousness, cognition, intelligence and how to define the mind.
Lectures on Silicon Valley at Beijing and other cities in China - September 2014 - excerpted from my book http://www.amazon.com/History-Silicon-Valley-Almost-3rd/dp/1500262226/ref=sr_1_3_bnp_1_pap?ie=UTF8&qid=1405191978&sr=8-3&keywords=scaruffi+silicon+valley
Demystifying Machine Intelligence: Why the Singularity is not Coming any Time Soon And Other Meditations on the Post-Human Condition and the Future of Intelligence. A more updated version can be found at www.scaruffi.com/singular
The Brain - Part 6 of Piero Scaruffi's class "Thinking about Thought" at UC B...piero scaruffi
The Brain - Part 6 of Piero Scaruffi's class "Thinking about Thought" at UC Berkeley (2014). I keep updating this presentation at www.scaruffi.com/ucb.html
This document provides information on two artworks: "Double Feature", an acrylic painting on canvas measuring 36"x48", and "November Expansion", also an acrylic painting on canvas measuring 36"x36".
UC Berkeley psychologist Tania Lombrozo on Explanationspiero scaruffi
1) The document discusses three mysteries of scientific explanation: why we prefer some explanations over others based on simplicity and scope, why we bother explaining things we've already observed, and how explanations can support learning even without new information.
2) It presents studies that show explaining events leads to discovering broader patterns compared to simply describing or thinking about events. Explaining also helps children and students learn concepts more effectively.
3) The document argues that the drive for explanatory simplicity and scope may be evolutionarily adaptive as it fosters discovery and learning, even in the absence of new information or observations. Seeking explanations may support learning and survival.
Indre Viskontas on "Music and Brain" at a LASERpiero scaruffi
The document discusses several studies relating to neurological responses to music. It summarizes that studies have found that listening to expressive musical performances compared to mechanical performances activates reward pathways in the brain. Experienced listeners report more chills than inexperienced listeners. Studies also found that mirror neuron systems activate when watching others perform music.
Niki Ulehla is a puppet-maker based in South Africa who creates intricate puppets and walking portraits. Her website www.nikiulehla.com provides information about her puppetry and commission work where she brings portraits to life through puppetry.
Tony Pratkanis (Stanford Univ) on Roboticspiero scaruffi
The document describes an autonomous coffee run performed by a mobile robot. It summarizes the key steps taken which included navigating doors and elevators, passing objects to humans, and ordering and obtaining coffee. Navigation used laser scanning and SLAM mapping to build maps and avoid obstacles. Door pushing and pulling used mechanical alignment. Elevator operation involved finding buttons and exiting on the correct floor. Object passing was done by holding out hands rather than finding objects or hands. Lessons learned were that simple heuristics often outperform complex algorithms, failures should be detected and retried, and software reuse is important for personal robotics.
Christina Smolke (Stanford) at a LASER on "Synthetic Biology"piero scaruffi
Synthetic biology is the next generation of biotechnology that uses engineering principles to design and construct new biological functions and systems not found in nature. Recent advances in DNA synthesis and genome engineering now allow researchers to design and build complex genetic circuits and biological systems from scratch in living cells. These new tools have the potential to transform many industries by enabling the large-scale production of novel drugs, chemicals, and materials through programmed living organisms.
- The document discusses the history and evolution of understanding the human body from ancient times to modern day. It covers topics like anatomy, astronomy, cartography, calculators/automata, medicine, and more.
- A key theme is how understanding has progressed from external representation and description to internal visualization and scientific explanation. Technologies like microscopy, dissection, and imaging techniques have revealed greater insights.
- The document also discusses emerging views of the body as interconnected with tools, environments, other organisms, and largely composed of symbiotic bacteria that we depend on for survival. The boundaries of the body are blurring.
Panelists for the SMMMASH on Language of April 2013piero scaruffi
The document announces a panel on language featuring five experts: Lera Boroditsky, Jeanne Finley, Amy X Neuburg, Curtis Frank, and Piero Scaruffi. It also lists seven artists who will be showing their work in an art show in the lobby: Salma Arastu, Jon Kuzmich, Jon Gourley, Lordy Rodriguez, Carissa Potter, Sarah Tell, and Renetta Sitoy. The panel will discuss topics related to how we understand language and why we understand it the way we do.
A History of Silicon Valley/ San Jose State Univpiero scaruffi
This document provides a history of the development of high-tech industries in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1900-2010. It discusses the early development of electrical engineering and radio engineering industries in the area. It also summarizes the growth of computing technologies on the East Coast during this period and how Stanford University encouraged students to start tech businesses in the Bay Area in the 1920s-1950s, leading to the founding of companies like Hewlett-Packard. The document also notes how military funding drove growth in the Bay Area's electronics and semiconductor industries during World War II and the Cold War.
Bernie Lubell's art installation "Conservation of Intimacy" was inspired by the work of 19th century physiologist Etienne Jules Marey. Marey pioneered the use of devices to record and analyze human and animal motion, seeking to understand life through movement. Lubell's installation uses tambours and other sensors to measure the interactions of couples and groups, exploring Marey's idea of extending the principle of energy conservation to intimacy between people. The installation aims to involve participants physically to gain a deeper understanding than if simply observing. Lubell's work continues Marey's goal of building mechanical models to comprehend the world in a hands-on, participatory way.
Life and Organization - Part 5 of Piero Scaruffi's class "Thinking about Thou...piero scaruffi
This document discusses various topics related to life and organization, including:
- The definition of life and what distinguishes living from non-living things.
- How life evolved on Earth through natural selection acting on random genetic variation over generations.
- The basic chemistry of life, including DNA, genes, and how genetic information is passed from DNA to RNA to proteins.
- The human genome and key facts about genes and genetic coding.
- How the genome functions more like a network than a linear program to regulate cells and traits.
Alison Gopnik (UC Berkeley) on "The Philosophical Baby"piero scaruffi
1) The human brain develops the most connections early in life from birth to age 3, with the prefrontal cortex developing the most connections between ages 3 to 10.
2) Babies are intuitive statisticians and scientists, able to learn probabilities and identify causal relationships through exploration and experimentation.
3) Babies attend more to people than objects, focusing on faces, while adults attend more to objects and tasks. This shows babies are born learning about people and social relationships.
Margot Gerritsen (Stanford Univ) on the beauty of Linear Algebrapiero scaruffi
Matrices are used to represent systems of linear equations. Visualizing matrices using "spy plots" shows the nonzero elements as dots, revealing patterns. For larger matrices, graphs can show the connections between rows and columns but may become cluttered. Alternative visualization methods arrange matrix elements based on electrical charges and springs to find optimal layouts.
1) The document discusses the origins and evolution of the human mind, thinking that emotions first evolved for survival purposes and thinking developed later as tools relieved the need for certain emotions.
2) It argues that tools and technology have shaped the human mind and that the mind and tools have co-evolved over time, with more sophisticated tools enabling more advanced thinking.
3) The author notes that discovering how the mind evolved has revealed that humans are products of their environment and technology and have little control over their own thoughts, calling into question human notions of free will and identity.
History of Thought - Part 6: The Modern Agepiero scaruffi
History of Thought - Part 6: The Modern Age. for UC Berkeley lectures (2014) - Excerpted from "A Brief History of Knowledge" http://www.scaruffi.com/know/history.html . I keep updating this presentation at http://www.scaruffi.com/univ/slideshot.html
This document discusses the value of slow, contemplative music in contrast to the noisy, busy modern world. It argues that slow music allows for deeper thinking and different states of consciousness compared to typical entertainment. The document explores the history of ambient, trance, and meditative music traditions from various cultures. It provides examples of modern classical and experimental musicians who have created long-form, trance-inducing compositions that aim to shift listeners' mental states, including works by Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Lucier, and the document's author, Robert Rich.
Shamit Kachru on "Extra dimensions" at a LASERpiero scaruffi
The document discusses the idea in theoretical physics that there may be more than three spatial dimensions. Many physicists now believe this could help explain and unify fundamental forces and particles. Originally proposed in the 1920s, theories with extra dimensions beyond our everyday experience could give rise to forces like electromagnetism from higher-dimensional gravity. Modern string theory also requires the existence of 6 or 7 additional dimensions. If extra dimensions exist, they would have to be small enough to have avoided detection so far. Finding evidence of extra dimensions could help geometrize our understanding of physics.
From Cosmology to Neuroscience to Rock Music and backpiero scaruffi
The universe led to a brain that led to music that led to rock music that will lead to a different brain that will lead to a different planet that will lead to a different universe.
Indre Viskontas on "Music and Brain" at a LASERpiero scaruffi
The document discusses several studies relating to neurological responses to music. It summarizes that studies have found that listening to expressive musical performances compared to mechanical performances activates reward pathways in the brain. Experienced listeners report more chills than inexperienced listeners. Studies also found that mirror neuron systems activate when watching others perform music.
Niki Ulehla is a puppet-maker based in South Africa who creates intricate puppets and walking portraits. Her website www.nikiulehla.com provides information about her puppetry and commission work where she brings portraits to life through puppetry.
Tony Pratkanis (Stanford Univ) on Roboticspiero scaruffi
The document describes an autonomous coffee run performed by a mobile robot. It summarizes the key steps taken which included navigating doors and elevators, passing objects to humans, and ordering and obtaining coffee. Navigation used laser scanning and SLAM mapping to build maps and avoid obstacles. Door pushing and pulling used mechanical alignment. Elevator operation involved finding buttons and exiting on the correct floor. Object passing was done by holding out hands rather than finding objects or hands. Lessons learned were that simple heuristics often outperform complex algorithms, failures should be detected and retried, and software reuse is important for personal robotics.
Christina Smolke (Stanford) at a LASER on "Synthetic Biology"piero scaruffi
Synthetic biology is the next generation of biotechnology that uses engineering principles to design and construct new biological functions and systems not found in nature. Recent advances in DNA synthesis and genome engineering now allow researchers to design and build complex genetic circuits and biological systems from scratch in living cells. These new tools have the potential to transform many industries by enabling the large-scale production of novel drugs, chemicals, and materials through programmed living organisms.
- The document discusses the history and evolution of understanding the human body from ancient times to modern day. It covers topics like anatomy, astronomy, cartography, calculators/automata, medicine, and more.
- A key theme is how understanding has progressed from external representation and description to internal visualization and scientific explanation. Technologies like microscopy, dissection, and imaging techniques have revealed greater insights.
- The document also discusses emerging views of the body as interconnected with tools, environments, other organisms, and largely composed of symbiotic bacteria that we depend on for survival. The boundaries of the body are blurring.
Panelists for the SMMMASH on Language of April 2013piero scaruffi
The document announces a panel on language featuring five experts: Lera Boroditsky, Jeanne Finley, Amy X Neuburg, Curtis Frank, and Piero Scaruffi. It also lists seven artists who will be showing their work in an art show in the lobby: Salma Arastu, Jon Kuzmich, Jon Gourley, Lordy Rodriguez, Carissa Potter, Sarah Tell, and Renetta Sitoy. The panel will discuss topics related to how we understand language and why we understand it the way we do.
A History of Silicon Valley/ San Jose State Univpiero scaruffi
This document provides a history of the development of high-tech industries in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1900-2010. It discusses the early development of electrical engineering and radio engineering industries in the area. It also summarizes the growth of computing technologies on the East Coast during this period and how Stanford University encouraged students to start tech businesses in the Bay Area in the 1920s-1950s, leading to the founding of companies like Hewlett-Packard. The document also notes how military funding drove growth in the Bay Area's electronics and semiconductor industries during World War II and the Cold War.
Bernie Lubell's art installation "Conservation of Intimacy" was inspired by the work of 19th century physiologist Etienne Jules Marey. Marey pioneered the use of devices to record and analyze human and animal motion, seeking to understand life through movement. Lubell's installation uses tambours and other sensors to measure the interactions of couples and groups, exploring Marey's idea of extending the principle of energy conservation to intimacy between people. The installation aims to involve participants physically to gain a deeper understanding than if simply observing. Lubell's work continues Marey's goal of building mechanical models to comprehend the world in a hands-on, participatory way.
Life and Organization - Part 5 of Piero Scaruffi's class "Thinking about Thou...piero scaruffi
This document discusses various topics related to life and organization, including:
- The definition of life and what distinguishes living from non-living things.
- How life evolved on Earth through natural selection acting on random genetic variation over generations.
- The basic chemistry of life, including DNA, genes, and how genetic information is passed from DNA to RNA to proteins.
- The human genome and key facts about genes and genetic coding.
- How the genome functions more like a network than a linear program to regulate cells and traits.
Alison Gopnik (UC Berkeley) on "The Philosophical Baby"piero scaruffi
1) The human brain develops the most connections early in life from birth to age 3, with the prefrontal cortex developing the most connections between ages 3 to 10.
2) Babies are intuitive statisticians and scientists, able to learn probabilities and identify causal relationships through exploration and experimentation.
3) Babies attend more to people than objects, focusing on faces, while adults attend more to objects and tasks. This shows babies are born learning about people and social relationships.
Margot Gerritsen (Stanford Univ) on the beauty of Linear Algebrapiero scaruffi
Matrices are used to represent systems of linear equations. Visualizing matrices using "spy plots" shows the nonzero elements as dots, revealing patterns. For larger matrices, graphs can show the connections between rows and columns but may become cluttered. Alternative visualization methods arrange matrix elements based on electrical charges and springs to find optimal layouts.
1) The document discusses the origins and evolution of the human mind, thinking that emotions first evolved for survival purposes and thinking developed later as tools relieved the need for certain emotions.
2) It argues that tools and technology have shaped the human mind and that the mind and tools have co-evolved over time, with more sophisticated tools enabling more advanced thinking.
3) The author notes that discovering how the mind evolved has revealed that humans are products of their environment and technology and have little control over their own thoughts, calling into question human notions of free will and identity.
History of Thought - Part 6: The Modern Agepiero scaruffi
History of Thought - Part 6: The Modern Age. for UC Berkeley lectures (2014) - Excerpted from "A Brief History of Knowledge" http://www.scaruffi.com/know/history.html . I keep updating this presentation at http://www.scaruffi.com/univ/slideshot.html
This document discusses the value of slow, contemplative music in contrast to the noisy, busy modern world. It argues that slow music allows for deeper thinking and different states of consciousness compared to typical entertainment. The document explores the history of ambient, trance, and meditative music traditions from various cultures. It provides examples of modern classical and experimental musicians who have created long-form, trance-inducing compositions that aim to shift listeners' mental states, including works by Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Lucier, and the document's author, Robert Rich.
Shamit Kachru on "Extra dimensions" at a LASERpiero scaruffi
The document discusses the idea in theoretical physics that there may be more than three spatial dimensions. Many physicists now believe this could help explain and unify fundamental forces and particles. Originally proposed in the 1920s, theories with extra dimensions beyond our everyday experience could give rise to forces like electromagnetism from higher-dimensional gravity. Modern string theory also requires the existence of 6 or 7 additional dimensions. If extra dimensions exist, they would have to be small enough to have avoided detection so far. Finding evidence of extra dimensions could help geometrize our understanding of physics.
From Cosmology to Neuroscience to Rock Music and backpiero scaruffi
The universe led to a brain that led to music that led to rock music that will lead to a different brain that will lead to a different planet that will lead to a different universe.
Intelligence is not Artificial - Stanford, June 2016piero scaruffi
The document discusses artificial intelligence and argues that the field is progressing more slowly than predicted. It makes four main points:
1) Recent AI accomplishments like image recognition and AlphaGo are narrow and rely on large datasets and computational power rather than true intelligence.
2) Progress in AI has not accelerated as much as claimed and past eras saw similar revolutionary changes in technology.
3) Claims of soon achieving superhuman AI are dubious as many animals already demonstrate abilities beyond humans.
4) Machines have long been able to perform tasks humans cannot, but near future AI will focus more on applications like consumer products, healthcare, and jobs rather than general human-level intelligence.
This document provides an overview of what the Romans knew during the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. It discusses how the Romans adopted Greek culture, philosophy, religion and city planning. It describes Roman society, from the early republic dominated by patricians and plebeians, to the late republic with its large slave population. The empire brought two centuries of peace and prosperity, with a globalized free trade network. The document outlines the decline of the western empire in the 3rd century AD and the rise of Constantinople as the center of the eastern empire.
Thinking about Thought - Theories of Brain Mind Consciusness - Part 6. Consciousness, Self, Free Will I keep updating these slides at http://www.scaruffi.com/ucb.html
Thinking about Thought - Theories of Brain Mind Consciusness - Part 5. Machine Intelligence; Physics I keep updating these slides at http://www.scaruffi.com/ucb.html
Thinking about Thought - Theories of Brain Mind Consciusness - Part 3: Language, Dreams, Emotions. I keep updating these slides http://www.scaruffi.com/ucb.html
Thinking about Thought - Theories of Brain Mind Consciusness - Part 1: Philosophy of Mind & Cognitive Psychology. I keep updating these slides at http://www.scaruffi.com/ucb.html
A brief history of the notion of the Singularity, why some think it is coming soon, why some disagree, and why some are afraid of it. This is a very old presentation. See the updated one at www.scaruffi.com/singular
Birgitta Whaley (Berkeley Quantum Computation) at a LASER http://www.scaruffi...piero scaruffi
1) Quantum mechanics plays a role in various biological processes like photosynthesis, bird navigation, smell, and ion channels.
2) Quantum biology has long been studied since the 1930s when quantum effects were first probed in biological structures.
3) Modern tools of quantum science allow unprecedented study of structure and dynamics across biological time and size scales, revealing quantum effects like coherence in light harvesting complexes involved in photosynthesis.
Artificial intelligence and the Singularity - History, Trends and Reality Checkpiero scaruffi
A lecture given at the second LAST festival (www.lastfestival.org) by Piero Scaruffi on Artificial intelligence and the Singularity - History, Trends and Reality Check. This is a very old presentation. See the updated one at www.scaruffi.com/singular
History of Thought - Part 5: The Victorian Agepiero scaruffi
History of Thought - Part 5: The Victorian Age. for UC Berkeley lectures (2014) - Excerpted from "A Brief History of Knowledge" http://www.scaruffi.com/know/history.html I keep updating this presentation at http://www.scaruffi.com/univ/slideshot.html
History of Thought - Part 4 from the Renaissance to the Industrial REvolutionpiero scaruffi
History of Thought - Part 4 from the Renaissance to the Industrial REvolution for UC Berkeley lectures (2014) - Excerpted from "A Brief History of Knowledge" http://www.scaruffi.com/know/history.html I keep updating this presentation at http://www.scaruffi.com/univ/slideshot.html
History of Thought - Part 3 - From Rome to the Middle Agespiero scaruffi
This document provides an overview of what the Romans knew about various topics including:
- Adopting Greek culture, philosophy, architecture, and pantheon of gods
- Establishing a vast empire through military conquest spanning from Britain to North Africa and the Middle East
- Developing advanced engineering technologies like concrete, aqueducts, and roads to connect their territories
- Spreading Latin as a lingua franca and standardizing laws and currency to facilitate trade and administration
- Christianity initially emerged in the 1st century AD in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.