Asa's subconscious

The concepts out of which Asa's self model is made (see my blogs of 21 July 2016 and 1 Jan 2017) and other concepts that Asa is conscious of (see my blog of 19 Oct 2016) are, in turn, composed out of lower level concepts/"features". Each concept (vector) in the Asa H memory hierarchy can evolve over time. The upper levels in the hierarchy are not directly aware of these lower level features and any evolution that is occurring. These details and processes are subconscious.

It depends on your definition

Whether there is a god or not depends upon your definition of god. (See my blogs of 10 June and 3 July 2017.) Similarly, the question of digital immortality depends upon your definition of immortality. My argument against the possibility of human immortality can also be leveled against AIs (see my blog of  15 Oct 2010). But one might also consider the possibility of an immortal society * of (specialist?) AIs. And if one believes in the block universe interpretation of relativity theory I suppose we are all immortal in some sense even as things stand today. This all points once again to the importance of scientific pluralism.

* perhaps a society that has even formed a concept of its self

Can we model ultimate reality?

Our current best model of ultimate reality is probably quantum fields in a Fock space. But since our knowledge of reality is limited by our sensory access* can we really generate adequate models?  (See my blog of 27 April 2017.) Bohr believed we would have to stick to classical concepts and language only. Things like mass, force, 3 space, time, etc. The fact that we have been able to create mathematics that has no application (examples) in the physical world may argue that we CAN extrapolate to pattern structures that transcend classical (direct sensory based) models.

* We have only our 5 senses: touch, smell, taste, sight, and hearing but other creatures can also directly sense electric and magnetic fields.

Cloud-based Asa H

The upper levels of the Asa H memory hierarchy evolve over longer time scales. The lower levels of the hierarchy can be implemented locally, the fastest reacting may even serve as reflexes. The higher levels might be off-loaded into the cloud. This will work well if the utility assessments are confined to their own levels in the hierarchy (as is the case with typical versions of Asa H light, see my blog of  10 Feb 2011). Network latency becomes an issue if utility feedback is required from higher levels to lower levels (as in other versions of Asa, see Trans. Kan. Acad. Sci., vol 109, pg 159, 2006).

Conciseness

I tend to write short, compact publications. I have considered this a virtue. Wittgenstein balked at those who complained that his Tractatus should be expanded. I felt much like he did. But each human has slightly different concepts and slightly different meanings for the words we share and use. So the only way to communicate accurately (completely) may be to use more words, more sentences. Probably my published papers should have been longer.

Fusion boundary conditions

In  1991 (R. Jones, Phil J. Sci., vol 120, pg 203) I published computer simulations showing that by controlling recycling at the boundary of the plasma one could obtain flat temperature profiles and enhanced performance. The Princeton plasma lab's LTX device has now produced such plasmas experimentally (D. P. Boyle, et al, Phys. Rev. Lett's.,on line 5 July,  2017).

The Manchurian Candidate of 2016

It makes sense for the Russian government to want an american president who is incompetent. It is foolhardy for them to want an american president who is crazy. No one should want a mad man in control of nuclear weapons anywhere.

Student and worker motivation

If there are too few engineers, or scientists, or teachers then in capitalism their salaries should rise. (Value monism) If this does not occur then capitalism is at fault and should be fixed. Don't blame the educators.

Faith-based atheism?

Referencing Dawkins (The God Delusion, Houghton Mifflin, 2006) Page and Navarick (Skeptic, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2017) argue that "one can not prove that something does not exist. It would have to be accepted on faith" and so if a person is 100% confident in their atheism it must be based on faith. I strongly disagree. Many people define "god" in terms of a property list like: creator of our universe, perfectly good, all knowing, all powerful, etc. etc. If I am able to prove that the components of such a list are incompatible/inconsistent with one another I CAN be 100% sure that such a thing does not exist. It is simply not a coherent concept and must be rejected. I realize, of course, that there may be different meanings of the word "god." What is required to prove or disprove the existence of "god" will depend upon what you claim god to be.

Robot effectors

You should not use a hammer to drive a screw. A toolbox should contain many tools for many tasks: hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, saws, etc. Similarly, robots should not simply have hands like humans do, rather, they should have interchangeable end effectors.

My robotics work has been aimed instead at simply, quickly, and cheaply symbol grounding Asa H. This does not produce a very dexterous robot. (My robotics lab is unusual in its heavy emphasis on sensors/instrumentation.)