Machines and Chaos (opens in new tab)

I'm not classically trained but I've always privately felt that computers are perhaps a fundamentally fraudulent form of escapism which exists merely to model artificial perfection atop the physical world. In obtaining relief from the constant decay of physicalia, humanity obtains a kind demi-deus, Shivan state. While this freedom has granted us the technological wealth of the modern world, it ultimately remains a folly, since even the most shielded and fault-tolerant systems will eventually succumb to chaos[0]. The best we can do is add longevity, the most effective methods for which[1] begin to ape biology and embrace chaos and global non-determinism. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25218687 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_computing

I suppose research physicists have far more developed philosophies along these lines. We do live in interesting times.

Perhaps this can be modeled mathematically (non-rigorously)? For some problem space C with dimensionality d, a mechanical or biological system can be described by the tuple s = (x0, x1, ..., xd) which describes a starting, stable configuration of the system, with some room for variance s + y = (x0 + y0, x1 + y1, ... xd + yd). The stable conditions for the system might be described as extrema on a hypersurface or hypervolume of C. Then for some chaotic function f, f(s) -> s', where s' is another point on on hypersurface describing the system, if f is chosen properly, it will result in the system evolving to another saddle point on the hypersurface describing that biological or mechanical system.

The question then is it possible to model the hypersurface with some anayltical equation, and what's the iterative, Chaotic function that will optimize f(s) finding another local saddle point on the hypersurface.

Love this. Read the whole incerto. Great examples, too.

Do boats swim? The question doesn't make sense. In a similar fashion, is the end goal of artificial intelligence actually artificial stupidity? Haha. "IT'S TOO ACCURATE TO PASS THE TURING TEST AND THEREFORE FAILED IT!!!!"

Great read, thanks Jake