10/30(Tue) The Kingdom of Far Far Away (Host:Wenhan)

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wenhan1122
Vice President
文章: 175
註冊時間: 週三 8月 20, 2008 3:29 pm

10/30(Tue) The Kingdom of Far Far Away (Host:Wenhan)

文章 wenhan1122 »

10/30(Tue) The Kingdom of Far Far Away (Host:Wenhan)


Dear YoYo members,

It’s my honor to be the host for the meeting of Tuesday, Oct. 30th.

By the chance of reading Dr. Yuval Noah Harari’s books and picking up the warnings from Dr. Stephen Hawking on his latest book, I was surprised to learn that great minds think alike and they both concern about the on-going developments of Artificial Intelligence and genetic engineering/editing to eventually change the landscape of human race significantly. To further discuss the impacts from AI or genetic engineering/editing to human race, I like to first address a fundamental perception about decision making via some exercises. Back in Stone Age, a prophet member ever hosted a meeting using the same TED speech we are going to discuss tonight (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2974&p=23071&hilit= ... ely#p23071) and asking the similar exercises touching base with decision making which, to some extent, involves the characteristic of Free Will idea.

So, here are some short video clips and an excerpt from Dr. Steve Hawking for today’s discussions, it’s highly recommended to watch these clips and read the article prior to this meeting. They are all very interesting, thought-provoking, and compact.

1. Professor Dan Ariely’s TED speech, “Are we in control of our own decision?”, explaining some of our decision making process by Behavioral Economics
https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_as ... anguage=en

2. Dr. Yuval Noah Harari’s panel discussion by The New York Times, The Future of Humanity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_16yt9wkDA0

3. Dr. Stephen Hawking
Essays reveal Stephen Hawking predicted race of 'superhumans'
https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... ays-reveal

Last, but not least, these video clips and article are not very much about Shrek. But please feel free to discuss it with your table members.


QUESTIONS:

SESSION I

1a. Do you consider yourself an independent person with free will to make decisions? By your first impression, how would you interpret the term “free will”?
In your opinion, was everyone born with the same opportunity to grow their free will? (except for mentally challenged kids)
1b. Based on the experimental results in Dan Ariely’s speech, the anticipated outcomes could be manipulated by elaborately settings, under this circumstance, does free will matter to make the final decision? If yes, why? If no, why not?

2. In Dr. Yuval Noah Harari’s panel discussion above, he foresees the AI could know you better than yourself in the future
2a. Are you convinced that AI could know you better? If yes, why or how? If no, why couldn’t it be so?
2b. Assuming there is an AI who knows every member of a dating club very well and it could precisely predict a happy ending or a heart-breaking result of a couple. You are in the dating club seeing Person A and Person B in the same period (but different time, of course).
2b1. With the proud accuracy of 80%, If the dating AI advises you to choose Person A as your future partner while you are okay for both candidates, would you take the advice? Why?
2b2. The same condition as above, but you really like Person B more than Person A, would you disregard the advice from dating AI and make a different choice? Why? (or, If the accuracy changes to 95%, could it alter your decision?)


3. Similar to question group 2, Dr. Yuval Noah Harari comments that the future of AI era is completely unknown to human beings and liberal democracy could be an emotional puppet show if the algorithm does know you better. Let’s discuss the possible changes to politics,
3a. If there is a neutral algorithm able to predict the future performance of the political candidates with accuracy of 80%, in case you have not any particular preferences for an election, would you trust the recommendations and vote for the candidates AI recommends?
3b. If the candidates AI recommends differ from your preferences (different political parties, genders, politics…), would you still trust the judgements of the AI and vote for the candidates it recommends? Why? Or Why not?
3c. If it’s proven that, among governmental decisions, AI has done most of the decisions with accuracy, efficiency, and cost saving ( since it comes with no personal attachments and, surely, no corruption), would you prefer to have the government run AI for decisions? Why? Or, Why not?

SESSION II

4. Dr. Yuval Noah Harari predicts that, different from industrial revolution to create the working class, AI age will eventually generate the useless class. However, other scholars have different opinions and take the invention of automobile as an example ( it eliminated wagons and created much more jobs), what is your stand on this prediction, and why?


5. Both Dr. Yuval Noah Harari and Dr. Stephen Hawking are against genetic engineering to create superhumans
5a. If you were a high-rank government official who is strongly against genetic engineering for improvements, in addition to unfairness to others, could you come out with other ethical or legal reasons to convince people not to pursuing genetic editing for improvements?
5b. It’s legal to conduct plastic surgery to alter one’s outlook. Why isn’t it encouraged to conduct genetic editing to alter one’s intelligence?

6. If there are no legal issues for generic editing to improve one’s intelligence, and NTU hospital is able to do it for 5 million NTD,
6a. Would you like to have this operation of genetic editing to boost your intelligence (and if you don’t have the 5 million NTD now, you are willing to borrow it from a bank)?
6b. How about for your kids? If it proves that this genetic editing actually save you even more from the time and money you have to spend for your kids on cram schools or extra educational resources, would you consider to have it on your kids? Why? Or, Why not?


********************************************************************************************************************************************
Agenda:
6:45 ~ 7:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
7:00 ~ 7:10pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
7:10 ~ 7:50pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
7:50 ~ 8:10pm Summarization (20 mins)
8:10 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 10 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 9:05pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
9:05 ~ 9:25pm Summarization (20 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding Remarks / Announcements ********************************************************************************************************************************************
聚會日期:列於該貼文主題內
聚會時間:當天請準時於 6:45 pm 到達 ~ 約 9:30 pm 左右結束
星期三聚會地點:丹堤濟南店
地址、電話:台北市濟南路三段25號 地圖 (02) 2740-2350
捷運站:板南線 忠孝新生站 3 號出口
走法:出忠孝新生站 3 號出口後,沿著巷子(忠孝東路三段10巷)走約 2 分鐘,到了濟南路口,左轉走約 2 分鐘即可看到。
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The real peace is not merely the absence of warfare, but the presence of justice
Luis Ko
YOYO member
文章: 970
註冊時間: 週三 6月 06, 2007 10:18 pm

Re: 10/30(Tue) The Kingdom of Far Far Away (Host:Wenhan)

文章 Luis Ko »

what is free will? are we in control of our own decisions?

if we have our own control, if we have the freedom to choose, to say either yes or no, even neither of them, then that's free will i would say. if you are free to make your decision, it doesn't matter if you are influenced or manipulated by other factors, it's your free will. as to genetic editing for intelligence, it depends on the return of investment. it seems a calculated risk, but guess it won't be that good, after all, there would be too many smart guys. then again, if the majority of people in the world have taken it, and everyone becomes genius sort of person then, i might have second thoughts.. :lol:

anyway, it's a good topic lo~ :mrgreen:
i might be a cynic and, a sceptic as well but, i'm definitely not a bad person!!
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wenhan1122
Vice President
文章: 175
註冊時間: 週三 8月 20, 2008 3:29 pm

Re: 10/30(Tue) The Kingdom of Far Far Away (Host:Wenhan)

文章 wenhan1122 »

Dear All,

Thanks for coming to the meeting on Tuesday, hope you all enjoyed the discussions.

Attendees(15): Janice, Bernie, Shirley, Steve, Felicia, David, Rosie, Iris, Ryan, Wenhan,Ian, Sherry, Liwen, Miller, Chris
The real peace is not merely the absence of warfare, but the presence of justice
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