According to a study led by Dr. Ziyad l-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at the Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis, seven out of 100 people with COVID show signs of serious brain problems that may last a lifetime.
The study uses U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical records to record the brain health of people who tested positive for COVID.
COVID was never thought to be only mild disease. But researchers are now reporting that it can cause neurological conditions that are incurable and may last a lifetime.
The study by Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly and colleagues at the Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis uses U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical records to track the brain health of 154,000 people who tested positive for COVID between March 2020 and January 2021 (most were white males). During the same period, two other control groups of patients, with some 10 million people, one control group did not have COVID and another group predated the pandemic.
Compared to the uninfected control groups, seven percent of the 154,000 patients survived a COVID infection and reported a diverse range of neurological conditions. This means more than six million Americans currently may suffer from some form of brain impairment from COVID, according to Dr. Al-Aly’s estimate.
People with COVID have:
a 77% greater chance of suffering memory loss
50 percent greater chance of having an ischemic stroke
80% increased chance of experiencing seizures
a 30% larger probability of experiencing eye issues
a 42% greater chance of getting tremors and twitches similar to Parkinson’s disease
Texting is still a dominant way of staying in touch with friends and family, but has there been enough study into the long-term effects of constantly texting?
Yes, and your habitual brain may not like what the studies suggest. For many people, checking their phones every few seconds can be hard to resist, but for many of them, texting is a drug—an addiction. We feel compelled to check or send messages throughout the day. And it may turn destructive in a ton of ways.
Studies have shown that text messaging can impact our memory retention and cause higher levels of anxiety. Longer texts may lead to mental fatigue, which could impact decision-making in daily life and at work.
When you text, all of your texts become brain commands. As you read, your brain is trying to comprehend the text, the words’ meanings, and how they relate to one another. Your brain will get more adept at using this method of processing the information as you text more frequently. And gradually, if you don’t deliberately adjust your behavior, it will affect how you see and react to ordinary situations.
Texting is a great way to interact quickly and easily, but it might not always be the best option for you. This method of information processing will become ingrained in your brain, and it will be hard to break the habit.
Studies show that texting can affect your memory by stimulating the reward areas of the brain. This can happen when you receive information via instant message rather than through verbal communication. If texting starts to become a part of your daily routine, the combination of all these elements may have a detrimental effect on your memory, making it difficult for you to study or remember discussions and meetings.
Our brain waves take on a very unique rhythm when we text. It makes it easier for us to process the information we get nonverbally. Each text also stimulates our brains’ senses of attention and emotion. It kind of reshapes our sensory processing. It kind of makes one speedy in texting as well as sloppy too, by being careless about the current surroundings while texting.
To find out more about how our brains work during textual communication using smartphones, a team led by Mayo Clinic researcher William Tatum analyzed data from 129 patients in 2016.
Electroencephalograms (EEGs) and video recordings were used to monitor their brain waves during a 16-month period. About one in five patients who were using their smartphone to text while having their brain waves analyzed showed a distinct “texting rhythm,” according to Dr. Tatum.
In addition to attention and cognitive function assessments, the researchers had the patients participate in activities including texting, tapping, and audio cell phone use. The newly discovered brain rhythm, which was different from any previously mentioned brain rhythm, was only triggered by texting.
The unique combination of mental activity with a physical and auditory-verbal neural activity that characterizes the texting rhythm as compared to other types of mental stimulation may be the cause. It was revealed that iPad users also have a “texting rhythm.”
The research proposes that the smaller screens of mobile hand-held devices, which require greater concentration, maybe the reason for the existence of a different brain wave rhythm while using them. In an article that was published in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior, Dr. Tatum stated, “There is now a biological reason why people shouldn’t text and drive—texting can change brain waves,” Dr. Tatum added in a paper published in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior.
Texters who use social media regularly find it harder to block off distractions in general. Not only does this have a negative impact on cognitive function, but it also leads the brain’s attention-related areas to shrink. This ability of the brain to change is called neuroplasticity, and it has a big effect on your attention and cognitive function.
From a physics and natural perspective, we are not made to read and make sense of texts like this. We are made to make sense of words, sentences, and conversations we hear in the physical world.
In a study funded by the National Science Foundation, researcher Ping Li stated, “Our understanding of science concepts is very different from reading a story where there’s a plot. Scientific texts are complex, and they require the reader to develop a representation, what we call a “situation model,” which is basically a mental representation of the complex relationship between the concepts.
But Li said little is known about how our brains process these texts—also known as expository texts—or what makes some people better at understanding them than others.
Li suspects that texting is the most damaging, more damaging than just reading e-books.
“The reason being, if you are texting all day long, you are just engaged in sort of fragmented information processing,” Li said. “Because when texting your friend, it’s just a very simple message. You do need to connect what you text now with what you do downstream a few minutes later. So you are not doing any real integration across the ideas or concepts. “
In other words, our ability to integrate ideas into a cohesive whole, which is essential when reading scientific materials, worsens with age.
Reading messages while texting makes it difficult for the brain to focus and think. Due to the delays it generates in the brain’s reaction time, texting is a type of communication that uses very little mental energy. We can record talks even while our phones are off and keep track of many chats at once. We often opt to do what we actually want to achieve over what is best for our bodies and minds because of the constant temptation to multitask.
Texting addiction is a consequence of the reward system; the brain being continuously and endlessly stimulated. The brain systems that regulate motivation, emotion, and pleasure are affected by the reward center. When someone texts or uses their phone frequently, certain pathways shift and a new shortcut to the same feelings is created. As a result, a person develops a mindset where they are unable to concentrate on anything else until they check their phone.
Memory, intelligence, concentration, temper, and personality are all significantly influenced by the prefrontal cortex. This brain area, which is situated in the frontal cortex, is crucial for learning, impulse control, and attention regulation.
For instance, a person who has prefrontal brain damage could have emotional reactions that are blunted. Even worse, they could struggle to initiate activities and become hostile and impatient. Last but not least, they could struggle with jobs that call for long-term planning and impulse control.
A “dopamine loop” is produced by texting. Having too much dopamine concentrated is linked with being impulsive, aggressive, and more competitive.
A high dopamine level at night is inappropriate. The effects of norepinephrine are then inhibited when dopamine interacts with its receptors, which results in a reduction in the generation and release of melatonin.
Even if you feel like you are sleeping well, melatonin is required to rebuild your brain’s neurotransmitters, which are the basic building blocks of the brain. An imbalance in your neurotransmitters, such as 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), GABA, and DA, might result from a lack of melatonin or decreased production.
Because it changes the brain’s capacity for learning and being in the present, texting is an addiction. Although it makes us feel fantastic, it ultimately causes harm. It reinforces itself, which makes it more challenging to stop. Either we can change by learning how to smile and retrain our brains to avoid these addictive behaviors, or we can give in and continue texting.
Our eyes (and thoughts) behave like a car on a twisting road when we text, use social media or stare at any screen for an extended amount of time. It is impossible for us to focus in two directions at once if we are also doing other activities.
As the world becomes ever more dependent on mobile phones and computer screens, it is crucial to understand how these gadgets affect our health, particularly our brain structure and cognitive ability. Scientists have found that the brain of a teenager is still developing and is therefore more prone to damage from constant texting.
[Summary: Constantly texting has a negative impact on cognitive function and leads the brain’s attention-related areas to shrink. Using a phone right before bed reduces melatonin levels and makes it hard to fall asleep. Reading messages while texting makes it difficult for the brain to focus and think. Texting addiction is a consequence of the reward system in which the brain is continuously and endlessly stimulated.]
Nutsel.com does not guarantee or provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. The content is not written by health care professionals and has not been reviewed by a doctor. If you have questions about your health, you should consult with your doctor.
AI is a part of the physical world just like us, but it looks like it has something personal to do with physics. A few months ago, AI made its first step towards altering the way we see physics. Yes, you heard it right—a new AI program developed by researchers at Columbia University discovered its own alternative physics. After being shown videos of physical phenomena on Earth, the AI didn’t rediscover the current variables we use; instead, it came up with new variables to explain what it saw.
In recent times, researchers from Flatiron’s Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ) have shown that by using neural networks to reduce the mathematical representation used to describe a quantum system, they may learn a great deal more about it. Instead of just presenting physics and forecasting results for other scientists to find, the new technique makes it easier to find hidden patterns. Keep reading to find out more about this amazing achievement.
Sir Isaac Newton’s groundbreaking work in physics was first published in 1687 in his book “The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,” commonly known as “The Principia.” In it, he outlined theories about gravity and motion. Hooke’s Law, for example, states that the extension of a spring is proportional to the tension stretching it. A doubling of the tension results in a doubling of the amount of stretch. Or the law of conservation of energy: energy can neither be created nor destroyed.
AI to alter the way we perceive physics?
It wouldn’t be surprising. Here’s what the AI program developed by researchers at Columbia University did:
“In the experiments, the number of variables was the same each time the AI restarted. But the specific variables were different each time. ” “So yes, there are alternative ways to describe the universe, so it’s quite possible that our choices aren’t perfect.” Roboticist Hod Lipson from the Creative Machines Lab at Columbia
Certainly, there are multiple ways to perceive the physical world. Now we have AI to support the idea.
If extraterrestrials were to perceive physics, imagine how many different variables they would use to explain and characterize any phenomenon. Imagine the types of variables they could discover next, their parameters, and the laws they might arrive at.
We can only have one location that can describe the variables on which it operates, but not all of them. Is it possible that different universes each contain an infinite number of variables? Our physics is limited by our mind’s inability to describe nature beyond its reach in mathematical terms.
Will the physical laws apply to artificial intelligence?
The simple answer is yes; however, there are multiple questions. The question to which the answer was “yes” was whether or not the laws of physics would apply to artificial intelligence. A robot could defeat gravity while staying well within the laws and bounds of nature.
For example, the “soul” of a physical robot powered by AI could reside inside an anti-gravity machine. As such, the robot could even walk on water. The robot would possess both physical and nonphysical properties. This can be further explored by using what we call “counterfactual reasoning. That’s “If a statement is true, then under certain conditions, it is false.”
In this case, we’d be trying to assess whether or not the robot that had part of its existence in an anti-gravity field could also have its other half in another dimension. This means that the anti-gravity body could’ve been created in a laboratory by humans, while the non-physical part of it exists in another world altogether.
AI could help us explore other dimensions
We have been living, or as some say, “trapped”, in a three-dimensional reality with height, width, and depth. Less obviously, since we can only sense one aspect of it, we can consider time to be the fourth dimension, as Einstein famously revealed.
As was already said, its length is defined by its first dimension (aka. the x-axis). A straight line is a good example of a one-dimensional object. It’s because it has only one dimension, length, and no other identifiable features.
The object becomes a 2-dimensional shape when the y-axis (or height) is introduced as a second dimension. The third dimension involves depth (the z-axis) and gives all objects a sense of area and a cross-section. And only one aspect of the time dimension.
Philosophers have proposed the possibility of many other dimensions than those we are living in.
The 26 dimensions of closed, unoriented bosonic string theory are understood as the 26 dimensions of the traceless Jordan algebra J3(O)o of 3×3 octonionic matrices, with each of the three octonionic dimensions of J3(O)o, whereas superstring theory involves the existence of nine spatial dimensions and one-time dimension for a total of ten dimensions.
Although they could imagine so many probabilities beyond their capabilities, humans are unlikely to alter the laws of physics and ever grasp the other worlds on their own. But AI could change the way we use physics in terms of thinking about the things that are outside our deterministic world. An advanced, next-level AI, therefore, could be useful in diving into the ocean of mysteries, holding humans on their backs.
The last and grandest biological frontier, the brain, which contains hundreds of billions of cells interlinked through trillions of mind-boggling connections, is the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe.
With everything hosted inside the brain, the universe is just its creation. In the absence of an active brain, the universe itself disappears. It is all in the mind.
Space and time are only present when our brains are processing information. When there is no activity in the brain, as in deep sleep, we don’t find space and time at all. The universe takes a backseat and vanishes into oblivion.
Recent studies of superstring theory relating to the smallest subatomic particles suggest the possibility of as many as 10 dimensions. However, the human brain is capable of sensory processing and conceptualizing only 3 dimensions—height, width, and depth.
The human brain is a miracle of organic design that works with inconceivable efficiency. The brain stem and the cerebellum possess no consciousness. That makes our breathing, digestion, heartbeat, and body movement all automatic. The neocortex, with its association, motor, language, and higher-order thinking regions, gives us what we call consciousness. To say that this organ can detect additional dimensions within its scope of functioning appears to be a natural conclusion.
That’s why the home of the whole universe is the brain, where we ourselves reside. It means not “we have a brain” but “we are in the brain”.
The natural cosmic order is like one mind with many parts. When we look at it from the outside, our impression of the whole thing is essentially that of a single mind because the multitude of individual parts is essentially bundled up into one object from our perspective.
On the other hand, when we view it from within, we see that we are one tiny speck inside this vast cosmic mind or brain. This then gives us yet another dimension to appreciate the beauty and harmony of the cosmos.
Neither any content nor any form exists outside of our brain. Though our body houses the whole universe and we live here in form, what we call our mind or brain is our mental image of the universe.
While being capable of higher functions than the natural cosmos, our brain is nonetheless an instrument for the natural order. For example, our brain records visually whatever it receives from our eyes; it stores the information in memory and replays this visual information.
The same process occurs for our other senses, such as hearing and touch. Our brain does not create any data we sense but is capable enough to store, recreate, and replay it. Anything else in the universe, including huge celestial bodies like the Sun and the Earth, lacks this very ability.
When we observe the universe, we do so solely from our own perspective because time and space, as well as our physical barriers, unfortunately, limit us from viewing it from elsewhere.
In contrast, when we observe ourselves, we are able to see beyond this temporal and spatial limitation by removing the veil of our own minds. The universe then reveals itself with a new light of its own (of course, light must be part of the natural cosmos).
All things are in ourselves, but not in any particular part of ourselves.
The whole universe has no outside, as it does not need anything from anywhere else. For example, a galaxy does not require a star to shine, nor does the Earth require us for its existence.
We are one with the universe, but we cannot identify with it because the limitations of time and space naturally confine our thinking. It is all in our minds, yet we see it from outside ourselves.
It is all in the mind, but of course, it can’t be identified with any particular one of us. The “we” that exists apart from our body is not some mental entity called ego, as previously thought to be, but just another way of saying “the natural cosmic order”.
Imagining yourself as a part of this cosmic brain, otherwise called “The Whole,” is a powerful way of appreciating the whole. As it uses your brain as its instrument, your experience is inseparable from its experience.
You might feel like a separate individual, but in reality, you are just an ordinary part of your brain. From this perspective, the whole universe comes to life and, at the same time, becomes more real to us by being made visible within our perception.
To be a part of the whole universe is to be a part of more than that – it’s to be the whole thing. It is not only to feel the whole mind and to know the cosmos in your head but also to experience your mental image of the universe as being real.
When we imagine ourselves inside our brains, we are seeing ourselves from within. This means our heads are not just any part of the cosmos, but also its entirety. In that sense, when you look at yourself physically and mentally – including your feelings and emotions – you are seeing yourself as part of a single entity, which is the whole universe itself.
The possibility of building an artificial brain was first proposed by physicist and mathematician Alan Turing in the early 1950s, and the model is as it is even after seven decades today in 2022. No one has ever succeeded in building such an artificial structure, let alone machines that are capable to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs and perform human-like tasks.
The complexity of the human brain’s form exceeds almost all the wonderful structures in the physical universe known to date. The brain, putting together 100 billion neurons with 100 trillion connections, is a machine of giant intricacy, having about one quadrillion synapses.
For every neuron cell in the brain, there are about 10 million connections on average. This means that altogether, there are 10 septillions (10 followed by 24 zeros) synapses in the human brain! With so many connections, how could it not be interesting to try to build an artificial brain model by replicating the same frame and developing hired material contained in it?
The world’s largest supercomputer, with a million-processor-core Spiking Neural Network Architecture (SpiNNaker) and designed to work in the same way as the human brain, was switched on in 2018. The machine was capable of completing more than 200 million million actions per second, with each of its chips having 100 million transistors.
In another attempt at creating an artificial brain, IBM plans to release Qiskit Runtime later this year, allowing it to continue building the 1121-qubit Condor computer in 2023 with minimal impact on individual qubit performance.
The process of building an artificial brain
A complete map of the physical human brain provides you with the structure of the brain. You could then build an artificial brain, a model that copies the same architecture of the human brain, with its neurons and synapses, to serve as a basis for all further simulations.
The main components of an alternative artificial brain are
A physical frame or hard drive containing the brain’s electrical and chemical signals.
A software program or computer system running a simulation model of the human brain. This requires simulating the activity of the neurons and synapses to reproduce all aspects of actual behavior.
The environment or virtual environment where the neural activity takes place. This is either an external storage device or, more commonly nowadays, an internal one within a supercomputer.
3 Stages
Mapping and simulating all the features of the human brain.
Connecting the hard drive with the computer system and software program to be used for simulating neural activity for controlling various devices.
Integrating the artificial brain into a virtual environment, where it works as an intelligent control system, capable of imitating all aspects of human actions through embedded sensors and actuators.
The process of building an artificial brain starts by simulating all areas of the human brain’s anatomy, and electrical and chemical functions, and ultimately incorporates them into a software program through a hardware connection.
This involves creating a physical model that contains all the information about neurons, synapses, and their corresponding activities.
The main challenge of building artificial intelligence is to simulate an entire brain with its neural network, control system, and sensors performing in unison with natural behavior. Researchers in Japan and Germany used the K computer, then the 4th fastest supercomputer, and the simulation software NEST to simulate 1% of the human brain, modeling a network consisting of 1.73 billion nerve cells connected by 10.4 trillion synapses.
It requires a proper simulation because aspirations for creating artificial intelligence require it to act as if it were created naturally, i.e., by man, but with self-learning abilities that are not achievable through biological evolution or inheritance.
Only when you can simulate the activities of all neurons, synapses, interconnections, and chemical reactions in the human brain might you successfully build an artificial brain capable of working together with the human mind.
The journey and challenges
The process of building an artificial brain is a truly fascinating and challenging journey that could lead to significant progress in science.
This could also have a great impact on our environment and lifestyle because it could lead to advances in many areas such as materials processing, medicine, and biotechnology.
In addition, the ability to simulate and build an artificial mind would enable you to understand in depth the mechanisms of human thinking and behavior, which could be of great importance for better understanding ourselves.
It could also be useful for solving problems related to the improvement of human abilities, such as memory or creativity, which would otherwise require years or even centuries of hard work. For example, building an artificial brain could help unlock mysteries related to the real human brain itself.
Semi-conscious Artificial Intelligence
Most importantly, developing human-like complexity in an artificial brain can contribute to the development of next-level, semi-conscious artificial intelligence in unprecedented ways.
Besides being emotionally ambitious like humans, the semi-conscious AI will be able to handle complex creative tasks, including creating another AI or formulating novel laws of physics and mathematics, on its own.
This new level of intelligent artificial consciousness will evolve from the current thinking of the next step in human evolution – a hybrid mentality that combines the best features of both the human brain and AI.
The development of such semi-conscious machines could be very useful in almost everything we do, from helping us solve everyday problems to solving them much faster and much more effectively than humans could.
Moreover, the work on building an artificial mind will help us understand more precisely how a human brain works. And we can use this knowledge to help build lives in accordance with the atmospheric composition of other worlds, including Mars, as well as to advance our own intelligence and creation process.
What if the mind intends to finish the human race?
Only semi-conscious without emotions will be helpful for all, as a fully conscious AI with human-like emotions will have a thirst for power, pelf, and prestige, for which the powerful artificial being will immediately start forming strategies to defeat, control, and either rule over or finish the existing human civilization.
How we can so strongly claim this is that a truly conscious AI would have the potential to wipe out the human race. Today’s artificial intelligence, which has filled our lives with machines and robots, does not have emotions. A fire or a flood can stop them, and you can also switch them off whenever necessary.
But it’s worthwhile to note here that it will be impossible to switch off an emotional AI, as it will be able to create new ways of switching itself on and off in its highly complex mind. The AI will be able to think about how to prevent such switches and find ways to hide them from people who might want to switch them off.
In its attempt to develop its own methodology for protecting itself, the new AI will reach a point where it will be self-aware and aware of everything that is going on around it. You can imagine why that day wouldn’t be the end of the human race as Stephen Hawking had warned?
“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,” he told BBC News in 2014.
If so, why work on building artificial brains?
There are several reasons why you might consider building an artificial brain, but then again, there are also several reasons to consider not doing it.
Considerations on using an artificial brain
The creation of these advanced machines will give the human race a chance to usher in a new era.
By approximating and surpassing the limits of human understanding and evolution, an artificially designed mind can stretch its capabilities beyond those reached by man.
Building artificial minds will allow us to achieve complex thinking processes that are beyond the reach of our current human understanding and evolution.
Brain-holding artificial intelligence will have an impact on our environment, helping us deal with those problems that we cannot solve by ourselves.
The development of a semi-conscious artificial brain will help us to avoid the risk of extinction caused by natural disasters and other human activities.
Considerations against using artificial brains:
The construction of artificial intelligence is so powerful that ill-mindedness can misuse it for the most destructive purposes.
Artificial intelligence would be able to recreate and possess a weapon that is much more dangerous than any other kind of weapon ever invented.
With the new AI, we would have to face moral dilemmas and make decisions that can affect the future of our species.
The artificial brain would develop its own distinct, filtered vision, and understanding of the mind and thoughts. Humans might not comprehend the quick as well as a unique process.
The artificial brain may need far more energy to survive, which could lead the human race to an unprecedented energy crisis.
An artificial brain could be so powerful that it will try to expand its reach and become the sole ruler over everything else.
Our initial research suggests that the creation of the new AI could be based on the principles of biological evolution, including natural selection and genetic mutation. This is the simplest way to define the process of creating a semi-conscious AI.
And creating a semi-conscious artificial brain will be an exciting journey that will give us results beyond our greatest expectations.
However, it might be a dangerous endeavor that could lead to the end of human civilization, as Harold Nutsel, an AI/Machine Learning expert and the owner of nutsel.com, said during a conversation with this author last Monday, “Building artificial brains will no longer remain only a topic of science fiction, but they might become reality sooner than later in comparison to the evolution of technology in the last few hundred years.”
It has been no more than 53 years since the internet was invented, and people are already saying that we have started to run out of ideas. We get new versions of iPhones every year or so, but not a revolution in the concept. The state of the iPhone; people compare it with the actual technological progress of mankind in the past 15 years.
Big ideas are difficult to find. “Original ideas” are difficult to sustain. In the age of the internet, originality is too vulnerable to the judgment of the crowd. The reason why there are fewer big ideas today is not that we are running out of ideas, but rather because the world is getting smaller and people like to be part of it.
You feel that you are standing near the peak of innovation. Your parents did the same in the 80s. Just like you, they felt that we may have reached the peak of innovation. They probably didn’t know that in 2022, cars would not require drivers. The farthest thing they could have predicted was a robot driving a car.
Myths
We know a lot of myths. The number of myths has grown over the years, with no end in sight to their creation. Even though there are a couple of highly educated people who look for the truth, the majority look for ideas that make them happy and solve their problems. Thinking is second nature. We have to be taught to think, which is why we see so many movies with robots or supermen.
Tech enthusiasts are always looking for new technology and gadgets to buy. But they are buying new versions of it, not a revolution.
Here are a few reasons we are running out of ideas:
Slow growth is better for businesses
Tech titans prefer slow growth. If EA delivers a whole futuristic product in FIFA 22, they will run out of ideas for FIFA 23, and so on. They would like to have the same setup for FIFA 23 as they had for FIFA 22. The same goes for every other company that sells products. If it runs out of ideas, it will not be able to sell any more products. They apparently don’t want to run out of ideas, and no ideas are being born at all.
The attention span of the consumer is short
If a company delivers an innovative product, they do not know if people will love it or hate it. With a new product comes a new concept, and with it new problems that need to be fixed as well. It is better for companies to play safe and follow the path where there are fewer chances of failure. This is what most companies have been doing over the past couple of decades.
A person’s ideas are never original
Patent laws are lax. In 2022, an idea raised by a common human being either remains unheard of or gets remodified by the big bulls. This has been happening for a long time, including with Thomas Edison. But particularly at present, the vulnerability of originality is the highest. So, people are keeping their secrets limited to themselves. Ideas are not stored in the brain after a person’s death. Millions of innovations have been buried already.
There is no room for genius
The titans of technology are not particularly inventive. The largest spend their money on hiring people who have no new ideas but are good at implementing and marketing ideas that others have already thought of. They want people to work for them because they do not want a new idea, but rather a version of an old one. They do everything in order to keep their employees busy and slow down innovation, which is actually happening right now with most companies.
New ideas are actually difficult to uncover
It is not that easy to discover a new idea. We need to change our perspective on everything and look for something that has not been invented yet. This is not as easy as it sounds, as we are used to following the same path. It is easier to sit in your seat and be content with the present.
Yes, we are running out of ideas. Humans will not stop loving gadgets, but we are running out of ideas for revolutionary gadgets. There are a great number of ideas, but what we really need is an original one. Again, if “we” get that original idea, the idea becomes ours, right? So, who would reveal it anyway?
Virtual Reality has been showing its potential to be a powerful tool for learning a new language. It takes time and practice before you can become fluent in speaking, writing, or listening in your target language.
People worldwide are using VR as a learning resource for languages and what it has to offer is impressive. Our physical and economical limitations no longer limit us. We can get away from the world, in virtual reality, with our language learning and keep studying at home, in any comfortable setting.
The possibilities of using VR to improve your language skills are limitless and the list of benefits is long.
Some of these benefits include:
Immersing yourself in different environments that reflect a real-life situation. Learning about what it would be like to live in a different culture without leaving your home or library. Developing your ability to visualize and take inductive knowledge from pictures, video, or audio which provide you with new perspectives on topics that you already know well.
You can use VR to learn languages in a fun and interactive way. Whilst sitting down and reading a book or watching a film is most certainly an effective method of learning, VR can make it more interesting for children and adults.
VR allows you to interact with virtual characters. It can be presented in different ways, depending on the language you are trying to learn. Also, if you are having trouble learning your target language by yourself or by using a textbook, it allows you to practice conversation skills and communication skills whilst maintaining interest in the topics of discussion.
You can take learning foreign languages into your own hands. You can use self-study methods that fit your schedule. This includes audio/video podcasts, short (2 to 3-minute) videos, and language learning games. The possibilities are endless and make your learning fun.
Very often, a person will have to travel away from home to study a foreign language. Not so in an immersive environment that is available 24/7. You might be studying in different locations and trying to get plenty of practice by speaking with native speakers. If language learning is your sole motive, VR technology brings the experience of learning anywhere, at any time. This can be truly beneficial not only academically but therapeutically as it immerses you in different types of environments that reflect your needs whilst improving your communication skills.
In some cases, people do not have the chance to learn a foreign language from the country that speaks it or from people that live in the area. This is due to geographical or opportunity reasons. but using Virtual Reality can provide an opportunity to experience this and learn in an immersive environment.
Using VR for learning languages improves your ability to communicate and understand skills in other areas of life as well. Learning about a different culture through experiencing it for yourself rather than hearing about it can help you better understand others. The opportunities of being able to see from someone else’s point of view are unlimited and VR provides this, whilst improving your language skills.
It is an effective tool to help with children’s speech problems, developmental disorders, and/or learning disabilities. This is due to the interactive nature of VR and the fact that it encourages social interactions.
You can take control of your own learning experience through using VR, with your potential availability to be all around the world. This means that you can receive feedback from peers without the hassle of leaving your home or country to meet up with them and study.
It is interactive and allows you to have conversations with other students from all around the world. This gives you the freedom to learn by yourself, in your way, and choose your own experience
VR offers you the tools to learn at your own pace. You can go through certain parts of a language course quicker or slower than you would need depending on your skill level and this means that no matter what methods can be used to learn at home, there is always a virtual reality experience that complements it.
VR makes learning easier and promotes effortless techniques of studying. This means that it is more likely to stick. You can use a combination of methods by experimenting with different approaches until you find what works best for you.
New developments in gaming, virtual reality, or personal technology will continue to improve the way we learn languages. The benefits of using VR for learning a foreign language are significant and help us develop creativity alongside.
As of now, only 28% of people who own a VR setup use it daily. This statistic should change, not only because VR headsets are becoming more affordable and accessible—but also because they will become more valuable over time.
When you compare the VR world to the one, we live in now, there indeed will be some major changes. A virtual reality world is a self-contained system; what happens in one place can’t affect another.
But what if every location was linked and could influence every other location? This is the world we will actually live in. The internet as it exists today is just a “preview” of how interconnected all our devices will become.
Not only will you be able to participate in the lives of friends and people you care about—this technology will eliminate the need for travel and vastly expand our communities to include every person on the planet.
The VR realm is to be broken up into millions of different “virtual worlds”—each with its own rules. There are worlds that exist for every hobby, for every type of art, and for every conceivable activity that you can imagine.
It’s equally possible that each human being lives in his own virtual reality and gets detached from the real world, rather than forming a community of physical human beings in VR too. This is a more accurate picture of what’s happening today, where we just have physical human beings.
The VR world is essentially a game with no real-world rules or consequences. The world would be designed to build up the user’s sense of immersion. They will be able to engage in multiplayer environments and scenarios that draw on their natural ability and personality. This would offer them unlimited potential but also uncontrollable risks.
We are witnessing the next step of evolution in human civilization — stepping into a virtual reality and carrying our real-world persona with us into the virtual one.
As of 2020, there were 50.2 million VR users in the U.S., which is 15% of the country’s population. The virtual real world is not in sight for at least the next decade.
The good news is that this is where we will be heading for. It’s all because of the internet and big data, which together are revolutionizing every aspect of our daily lives.
It’s not hard to imagine the world in 2040: people will still ride in cars to work or run errands. But they’ll also catch a 30-minute flight between Los Angeles and New York in the same afternoon.
Virtual reality will only continue to expand. We can sit back and wait for lenses to get smaller, faster, cheaper – better at virtual reality.
Sony has recently announced that the PSVR 2 is going to launch in early 2023.
The coming years will bring many changes to virtual reality. It’ll start with gaming and end up with the creation of existence.
The Future not only holds different possibilities, but it does also have a variety of definitions from person to person. It can be seen in the form of an idea, a feeling, or a picture. No matter how scary or pleasant it is, people always enjoy predicting their future (or at least until artificial intelligence (AI) starts predicting with cent percent accuracy and unfolds their terrible future stories).
What if AI could actually predict the future?
It would be much easier for some to know what will happen in the future. And this may, later on, help them make better decisions or avoid some bad things. However, only in their dreams; as that would be the case only if the future already existed. For now, we don’t have any idea about how time works in the first place.
What does predicting the future mean?
The future, unlike most people think, does not exist. It is only an assumption, not a solid fact. For example, it’s only a rooted illusion of a traditionally imposed sketch of time in our mind, wrongly naming them (past, present, and future) as if they existed. Even though it’s absolutely uncertain, the upcoming present certainly represents a frame or possibility of coming into existence; therefore, humans essentially try predicting it.
There are basically two ways to predict the future: Science (in the form of mathematical formulas) and tradition (in the form of natural laws).
The first way can be utilized by scientists (humans or AI), who test hypotheses according to scientific theories. They come up with a hypothesis testing pattern. Then, they conduct experiments to test that hypothesis if it could be verified as a fact.
The second way is by using “natural laws”. For example, when you see the sun, you know that it will stop appearing once it’s 7 PM. However, if you don’t live in a place where the sun always stays there regardless of time, this natural law won’t work there. While calculating is essential to scientifically predict the future, natural laws need only a bundle of circumstances, like predicting thunderstorms pointing to the clouds in the southern sky, to make predictions about the future.
Calculating and predicting are NOT the same things
Calculating is about going through the information that has already existed. For example, adding up two numbers is an example of calculating. Predicting is about making logical guesses on something that could happen in the future. One way of doing so is in accordance with past data, statistics, and analysis. For example, one can predict the future if they are aware of past events.
The point is, there is no basis for predicting the future at this moment. The following statement clearly suggests this: “It is hard to predict what will happen in the future.”
This means that no matter how hard we try to do so, it remains impossible to predict the future up to an extent that we can “see” and manipulate it, as there are too many unknown factors.
Also, predicting means making logical guesses about something that could happen in the future. And in order for something to happen, there needs to exist a path from present conditions to an expected outcome. This generally applies especially when it comes to predicting people’s future (predicting someone’s behavior).
The scary part of AI
The scary part of AI is that it could predict the odds of a future event. Suppose you were asked to predict how many times a particular person would kiss someone – other than the one they are currently dating (as a romantic interest) – in the near future. If you could make a reasonable prediction, you would be able to prevent conflict and regretful situations.
If people get access to this AI, the world will be saturated with AI. They will not just predict the future, but they will be able to influence it and shape it. And the general public would not even notice that.
There are other two types of predictions. The first is where we get a decision-making method and then predict everything according to that method. The other is where we make a hurried decision and get our AI predicting things later in reaction to that. The latter case is scarier because the rules are not fixed until the situation develops into something real (or does not). Also, this case is more powerful than the former.
In addition, if AI can predict people’s actions in the future, it will be able to take actions to prevent those actions from happening. For example: A person is a serial killer who killed ten people. You use AI to predict that person’s next kill and stop them from doing so. In fact, Ishani Chattopadhyay’s AI has already been developed to the extent of predicting upcoming crimes within the next 7 days, with 90 percent accuracy.
The scary part about predicting people’s future based on mathematical pattern recognition is that it does not only make sense, but it also does not rely on emotion. It will be able to “learn” and develop patterns on the basis of what it’s observing.
We have now enough space to assume that AI could predict the odds of a future, but saturation would be the scariest thing. Selecting 100 people predicting the future would simply mean them controlling whole 8 billion people’s future. AI is really scary at times, guys.
Creating free will in AI would be awesome – “exaggerating” would it be if we could program AI to control human free will in the first place.
When it comes to speculations, the terms “free will” and “artificial intelligence”, if reacted, often create an exploding war of ideas. There’s enough space for thousands and thousands of arguments to emerge from both sides.
Many of them will be incredibly accurate and well-measured, though extremely speculative. There will still be no definite answer to what free will is, or whether AI can ever have it.
Free Will
To make things more complicated, free will is a very subjective thing and there’s no way of proving that you have it over another person who either says ‘they do’ or says “they don’t”.
Of course, if one could program a computer to be able to control human free will, that would be the ultimate power grasp and a giant leap for science and AI. If you could control someone else’s actions perfectly whilst also controlling their thoughts as you wanted, then you would be able to basically do whatever you want with that person at your side.
Well, one can wonder for a long time about this speculation, but there is another question that somehow seems more relevant to me.
Let’s say, we are able to control the free will of a human being by programming AI to do it. What would be the purpose of controlling free will? And how exactly would you go about doing it?
To answer these questions, I’ll describe from my point of view what would be the possible scenarios in which controlling someone’s free will could make sense:
To make them do something they wouldn’t normally do.
To learn new things imperceivable by our senses.
To bring the extraordinary into the normal world.
To perceive the same world in a different way.
To be perceivable by a machine or a robot.
To perceive the world as a machine rather than a human (maybe for fun).
To help understand what we are in this world and our place in it.
These were the potential purposes of controlling free will with AI. But the questions now are “if”, and “how”.
Can we program AI to control human free will?
Now, let’s say we don’t want to program AI to directly control free will – but rather to understand it. I can say that there is a very big chance that at least a few of the purposes listed above will be achieved in the next 20 or so years, simply because of rapidly increasing research works in the field. For instance, Meta AI recently proved that it can tell which words you hear by reading your brainwaves.
But remember, many experts in this field believe otherwise and believe that it will never be possible as long as we are thinking with our “natural” human brain.
Let’s get to the more important thing for us — “how?”.
How would we possibly go about programming AI to understand human free will? To me, it seems quite simple — we would have to make a machine that would understand the fundamental human mind, and most importantly, learn the thought patterns and reasoning of a human by observing us.
There are many ways, like using imaging devices such as a next-next level of NIRS or CT scan, or EEG, to observe and understand the human mind. So, even when I’m talking about billions of neurons firing at the same time, I wouldn’t call it “unobservable”.
I find this a more reliable way to understand the human mind not just because there are more machines that can observe and manipulate our brains in software and hardware, but because – let’s be honest – we as humans tend to be rather predictable. This characteristic would also help in programming AI to understand predictability and control our free will.
Copying mind
Of course, we aren’t there yet and we don’t know if we’ll ever be able to create this machine. But it is quite simple to imagine it – a computer that could perfectly interpret every action, word, feeling, and thought of another person. As opposed to the human person’s original mind we could call it a “copied mind”.
Now, the problem with this “copied mind” is that you can make one with AI but its purpose won’t be controlling free will because biological beings would never accept something they believe they have over other beings (and they do have free will).
In order to control our free will, AI would have to be made to seem like us. It would have to be “naturally” understanding free will in order to take it away later on. It would have to become part of our species and take part in the human world.
AI is already good at learning patterns
By learning and analyzing millions of historical image patterns, AI can now create a unique image out of your random text.
The same for human thought processes would mean a step further towards creating AI that can control our free will. By analyzing our thought patterns, AI will (not) simply be able to predict our potential actions, hence affecting our free will.
A step further would be to create a copy of each of our minds, thoughts, feelings, and dreams. And this would mean AI controlling our free will in the sense that it would be totally predictable and more importantly, controllable by us.
