Exploring the contents of consciousness

A common model of consciousness* is the blackboard model. At each time step every layer** of the A.s.a. hierarchy outputs its N most active cases/categories to the blackboard using something like: 

1010 OPEN "f:asahb.dat" FOR APPEND AS #5

1011 FOR case = 1 TO N

1012 PRINT #5, level; case; activity(case)

1013 NEXT case

In turn, each level/layer of A.s.a. H. reads the file/blackboard for input (the M strongest activations).

In this model the asahb data file contains the contents of consciousness recorded as a function of time.

* See my blog of 29 June 2011

** See my blogs of 10 February 2011 and 14 May 2012 as possible simple examples.

Social Pluralism

There is not just one "correct" model of the world*. Rather, pluralism argues that it is better to have a number of different overlapping models*. This is true for models of society as well as scientific theories. I therefore favor a society of intelligent agents** and collective leadership***.

The scientific research community is an especially successful example of such a collective intelligence.**** To function properly it needs to be "open source".*****

* See my blogs of 17 August 2012 and 26 September 2010 and Bull. Am. Phys. Soc.,vol. 55, #2, February  2010. Also pages 381-382 of Kelly's The Logic of Reliable Inquiry, Oxford Univ. Press, 1996.

** Humans and/or A.I.s.  See also my blog of 16 September 2010.

*** Perhaps involving things like my blog of 10 September 2023. 

**** Despite various issues such as those noted in my blogs of 26 August 2011, 3 February 2012, and 2 May 2026.

***** See my blog of 20 February 2026.

World Models

A.s.a. H. learns models of the world, itself, and itself in the world. As one simple early example see my blog of 4 September 2024. 

AI Pluralism again

Rashid Mushkani has a new paper on AI Pluralism.* One early example of A.s.a. H.'s value pluralism is presented in my blog of 19 February 2011. Examples of A.s.a. H.'s ontological pluralism are work like that in my blogs of 22 April 2013 and 12 September 2013. AI specialists also may have various differing sensors, outputs and actuators, architectures, etc. and perform/fulfill quite different tasks/functions/roles.

* Al Pluralism and the Worlds It Misses, arXiv: 2606.16167v1, 15 June 2026, see also my blogs of 6 April 2026, 1 January 2026, 28 June 2024, 1 June 2024, etc.

Flint Hills Digital Campus

 I have very mixed emotions regarding the gigawatt 1000 acre hyper scale data center being proposed for Emporia. On the one hand I always want larger computers. On the other hand the power and water demands are so high that I can't help but think that they are doing it wrong.

Data centers in space are not a viable alternative at the moment. They would have to come down in price by an order of magnitude in order to be competitive.

A.s.a. H. hardware upgrade

Although A.s.a. H. robots may make use of cameras* I have done very little original work on computer vision, there are so many other researchers doing that. But I have now upgraded my capability a bit with the addition of a Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano.

* for example see the concept structure in my 4 September 2024 blog  

Specialists

My A.s.a. H. A.I.s are specialists* and so am I. So there are some things that my A.I.s are more expert at than I am** and there are some things that I am better at than some of my A.I.s.***

* As one means of coping with complexity. 

** Pocket calculators have long been better and faster at arithmetic than I am.

*** I am more physically coordinated than some of my A.s.a. H. mobile robots. (but not some surgical robot)