John Wilkins – Comprehension and Compression
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John Wilkins – Comprehension and Compression

“In short, data is not knowledge; knowledge is not comprehension; comprehension is not wisdom” The standard account of understanding has been, since Aristotle, knowledge of the causes of an event or effect. However, this account fails in cases where the subject understood is not causal. In this paper I offer an account of understanding as…

Conference: AI & Human Enhancement – Understanding the Future – Early 2020
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Conference: AI & Human Enhancement – Understanding the Future – Early 2020

Introduction Overview The event will address a variety of topics futurology (i.e. accelerating change & long term futures, existential risk, philosophy, transhumanism & ‘the posthuman’) in general though it will have a special focus on Machine Understanding. How will we operate along side artificial agents that increasingly ‘understand’ us, and important aspects of the world…

Physicalism & Materialism – John Wilkins
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Physicalism & Materialism – John Wilkins

Materialism was a pre-socratic view that for something to be real it has to be matter – physical stuff made of atoms (which at the time were considered hard like billiard balls – fundametal parts of reality).  The reason these days the term physicalism is used is because it can describe things that aren’t matter…

Marching for Science with John Wilkins – a perspective from Philosophy of Science
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Marching for Science with John Wilkins – a perspective from Philosophy of Science

Recent video interview with John Wilkins! What should marchers for science advocate for (if anything)? Which way would you try to bias the economy of attention to science? Should scientists (as individuals) be advocates for particular causes – and should the scientific enterprise advocate for particular causes? The popular hashtag #AlternativeFacts and Epistemic Relativism –…

Anders Sandberg -The Technological Singularity

Anders Sandberg -The Technological Singularity

Anders gives a short tutorial on the Singularity – clearing up confusion and highlighting important aspects of the Technological Singularity and related ideas, such as accelerating change, horizons of predictability, self-improving artificial intelligence, and the intelligence explosion. Tutorial Video: Points covered in the tutorial: The Mathematical Singularity The Technological Singularity: A Horizon of predictability Confusion…

Automating Science: Panel – Stephen Ames, John Wilkins, Greg Restall, Kevin Korb
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Automating Science: Panel – Stephen Ames, John Wilkins, Greg Restall, Kevin Korb

A discussion among philosophers, mathematicians and AI experts on whether science can be automated, what it means to automate science, and the implications of automating science – including discussion on the technological singularity. – implementing science in a computer – Bayesian methods – most promising normative standard for doing inductive inference – vehicle : causal…

Philosophy of Science – What & Why?
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Philosophy of Science – What & Why?

Interview with John Wilkins: Every so often, somebody will attack the worth, role or relevance of philosophy on the internets, as I have discussed before. Occasionally it will be a scientist, who usually conflates philosophy with theology. This is as bad as someone assuming that because I do some philosophy I must have the Meaning…

Abstract: Can Religion Accommodate Science and Must Science Accommodate Religion? – John Wilkins
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Abstract: Can Religion Accommodate Science and Must Science Accommodate Religion? – John Wilkins

It is often said that some or all of science and religion conflict with each other, and that one must choose between them. In this talk John Wilkins will look at how science and religion interact, and show that the issues are more complex and subtle than often claimed. What is the relationship between religion…