Responses to Catastrophic AGI Risk: A Survey

Many researchers have argued that humanity will create artificial general intelligence (AGI) within the next twenty to one hundred years. It has been suggested that AGI may inflict serious damage to human well-being on a global scale ('catastrophic risk'). After summarizing the arguments for why AGI may pose such a risk, we review the fieldʼs proposed responses to AGI risk. We consider societal proposals, proposals for external constraints on AGI behaviors and proposals for creating AGIs that are safe due to their internal design

Singularity and Coordination Problems: Pandemic Lessons from 2020

One of the strands of the Transhumanist movement, Singulitarianism, studies the possibility that high-level artificial intelligence may be created in the future, debating ways to ensure that the interaction between human society and advanced artificial intelligence can occur safely and beneficially. But how can we guarantee this safe interaction? Are there any indications that a Singularity may be on the horizon? In trying to answer these questions, We'll make a small introduction to the area of security research in artificial intelligence. We'll review some of the current paradigms in the development of autonomous intelligent systems and evidence that we can use to prospect the coming of a possible technological Singularity. Finally, we will present a reflection using the COVID-19 pandemic, something that showed that our biggest problem in managing existential risks is our lack of coordination skills as a global society

Surveillance capitalism in the context of futurology : an inquiry to the implications of surveillance capitalism on the future of humanity

Tiedekunta/Osasto – Fakultet/Sektion – Faculty Valtiotieteellinen tiedekunta Laitos – Institution – Department Sosiaalitieteiden laitos Tekijä – Författare – Author Sandberg Markus Roy Rikhard Työn nimi – Arbetets titel – Title Valvontakapitalismi tulevaisuudentutkimuksen viitekehyksessä: tutkielma valvontakapitalismin vaikutuksista ihmisyyden tulevaisuuteen Oppiaine – Läroämne – Subject Yhteiskuntapolitiikka Työn laji – Arbetets art – Level Pro gradu-tutkielma Aika – Datum – Month and year 18.5.2020 Sivumäärä – Sidoantal – Number of pages 105 Tiivistelmä – Referat – Abstract Tämä tutkielma ammentaa aiheensa parhaastaan Shoshana Zuboffin The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: A fight for a human future at the new frontier of power -teoksesta. Kirja panee pöydälle uuden teorian ajanmukaisimmasta kapitalismista ja esittää vallanvaihdoksen uusliberalismista valvontakapitalismiin. Ilmiön alkujuuret sekä seurannaisvaikutukset tulevat olemaan tämän maisterintyön polttopisteessä. Kirjallisuuskatsauksessa tulevaisuudentutkimuksen tieteenalan taustaa ja sitoumuksia puntaroidaan pintapuolisesti niin akateemisen- kuin kaunokirjallisuudenkin voimin. Rinnakkaisesti raotetaan valvontakapitalismin käsitettä ja tehdään juotos sen ja Yuval Noah Hararin dataismin välillä. Hararin näkemykset ihmiskunnan eilispäivästä ja huomisesta palvelevat piirtoheittimenä työn tulkinnoille valvontakapitalismista. Mielikuvitus, kardinaalivaltti, joka kuuluu tavaramerkkioikeudella ainoastaan Homo Sapiensille koko tunnetussa maailmankaikkeudessa, nostetaan tapetille olennaisimpana sotanäyttämönä, jolla valvontakapitalismi toteuttaa lannistavinta täsmäiskuaan. Tämä tutkielma oikeuttaa olemassaolonsa kertaamalla pääpiirteittäin kansantajuisen futurologian suuntauksia ja pyrkii tekemään selväksi, missä ja miten tieteenala on kulkeutunut kiertoraiteille, vieraantunut kiireellisimmistä kysymyksistä ja langennut kamariteoreettisiin kiistoihin keinoälystä jumaluusopin jalanjäljissä. Tutkielma puolustaa pulmanasettelua, jonka mukaan tämä sumentaa inhimillistä toimijuutta valvontakapitalismin kuliseissa ja toimii täten sen tehosteena. Maisterintyön kolmannessa kappaleessa esitetään kiteytys Sohail Inayatullahin syy-yhteyksien kerrostuneen tarkastelun menetelmästä sekä siitä, miksi se on omiaan tämän tutkimuskysymyksen tarpeisiin. CLA-metodologian vahvuuksia ja vajavuuksia ruoditaan ja lukija vihitään tasoja taaplaavaan tutkimusotteeseen, joka tulee sävyttämään tätä maisterintyötä pitkin matkaa, ennen kuin itse analyysi toteutetaan. Yhteenvedossa edessä on valvontakapitalismin tyhjentävä ruodinta, jota säestetään aprikoimalla ylimalkaisesti sitä, noinkohan valvontakapitalismi alkuunkaan välttää edustavasta markkinatalouden muunnelmasta, vai ilmentääkö se jotakin tyystin toisenlaista. Avainsanat – Nyckelord – Keywords Valvontakapitalismi Tulevaisuudentutkimus DataismiTiedekunta/Osasto – Fakultet/Sektion – Faculty Faculty of Social Sciences Laitos – Institution – Department Department of Social Research Tekijä – Författare – Author Sandberg Markus Roy Rikhard Työn nimi – Arbetets titel – Title Surveillance capitalism in the context of futurology: An inquiry to the implications of surveillance capitalism on the future of humanity Oppiaine – Läroämne – Subject Social and Public Policy Työn laji – Arbetets art – Level Master's Thesis Aika – Datum – Month and year 18.5.2020 Sivumäärä – Sidoantal – Number of pages 105 Tiivistelmä – Referat – Abstract This dissertation owes its research topic largely to Shoshana Zuboff's book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: A fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. The work ushers in a novel theory of the contemporary strain of capitalism and posits a shift from neoliberalism to surveillance capitalism. The origins and ramifications of this phenomenon will be at the focus of this thesis. In the review of relevant literature, the background and the commitments of futures studies as a field are eclectically touched upon by the aid of both scholarly work and science fiction. Concomitantly, the concept of surveillance capitalism is unfurled and welded to Yuval Noah Harari's notion of dataism. Harari's thoughts on humanity's past and future shall also furnish the overhead projector for my interpretation of surveillance capitalism. Imagination, the foremost forte that Homo Sapiens enjoys the monopoly of in the known universe, is singled out as the main theatre of war, as it is the area where surveillance capitalism is carrying out its most crippling strafe. The raison d'etre for this treatise is lent support to by virtue of a once-over of popular futurology, as I seek to sort out, where and why the discipline has gone off at a tangent and detracted from acute matters, divagating into disputes over synthetic intelligence that echo theological dialectics. I propose the problematization that this befuddles the human agency at the core of surveillance capitalism and thus works as an adjuvant to it. In the third compartment a précis of the history of Sohail Inayatullah's causal-layered-analysis method as well as its viability and pertinence to this dissertation is presented. The boon and bane of CLA as an epistemology is audited as the reader is familiarized with the stratum-superpositioning approach which shall inform this thesis passim before the analysis itself is presented. In the summarization surveillance capitalism is sized up from top to bottom, accompanied by a cursory contemplation apropos of the question to what degree surveillance capitalism is equipped to emblematize capitalism in the first place, or perhaps rather something altogether outré. Avainsanat – Nyckelord – Keywords Surveillance capitalism Futurology Datais

FUTURE WORLD(S): A Critique of Disney\u27s EPCOT and Creating a Futuristic Curriculum

In my dissertation inquiry, I explore the need for utopian based curriculum which was inspired by Walt Disney’s EPCOT Center. Theoretically building upon such works as utopianism (Bregman, 2017, e.g., Claeys 2011;) and Disney studies (Garlen and Sandlin, 2016; Fjellman, I q work that combines historiography and speculative essays. The work explores how schools must do the hard work of working toward building a better future (Chomsky and Foucault, 1971). Through tracing the evolution of EPCOT as an idea for a community that would “always be in the state of becoming” to EPCOT Center as an inspirational theme park, this work contends that those ideas contain possibilities for how to interject utopian thought in schooling

Vanishing Borders: Protecting the Planet in the Age of Globalization--Ch. 7-10

As the twenty-first century dawns, goods, money, people, ideas, and pollution are traveling around the world with unprecedented speed and scale, producing transnational environmental problems, from climate change to the soaring trade in commodities like timber and shrimp. In Vanishing Borders, author Hilary French provides people concerned about the future of the planet with a clear plan of action for ensuring environmental stability in the wake of globalization. French argues for integrating ecological considerations into the still-nascent rules of global commerce by reforming international treaties and institutions. She shows that new communications technologies are making it possible for nongovernmental organizations to mobilize powerful coalitions of private citizens to force government and corporate decision-makers to take global environmental issues into account. She finds that some forward-thinking businesses have begun to support environmental codes of conduct and other international standards that international institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and the business community are forging innovative partnerships to reverse ecological decline

Online Deliberation Lived Experiences of Kānaka Maoli Women.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2018

General Psychology for Honors Students

What are the most effective methods to study for a test? What are the meanings of dreams? How do illusions work? With whom are you most likely to fall in love? These are just a few of the questions that have been asked by psychologists since the birth of the field as an area of scientific research in the 1870’s. This text surveys the basic concepts, theories, and pivotal findings over the past 100 years in the science of Psychology, with special emphasis on contemporary concepts and findings focused on the relation of the brain to normal and pathological behaviors. Psychology has long evolved past the psychodynamic influence to include biological, social, learning, motivational, and developmental perspectives, to name a few. Contemporary psychologists go beyond philosophical or anecdotal speculation and rely on empirical evidence to inform their conclusions. Similarly, readers will push beyond pre-existing schemas and misconceptions of the field of psychology to an understanding of contemporary quantitative research methods as they are used to predict and test human behavior. This textbook is a compilation of thirty-nine readings organized into ten sections. Introduction to Psychology (Readings 1 - 5) A brief history of psychology, followed by an introduction to contemporary psychology, an overview of the scientific method, an introduction to research design, and thinking like a psychological scientist. Psychophysiology (Reading 6 - 8) Neurons, how our brain controls our thoughts, feelings, & behavior, and an introduction to psychophysiological methods in neuroscience. Consciousness & Sleep (Readings 9 - 12) The nature of consciousness, an exploration of sleep, why we sleep, the stages of sleep, and sleep problems and disorders. Perception (Readings 13 - 14) Seeing, and on the accuracy and inaccuracy of perception. Healthy Living (Readings 15 - 16) A healthy life, and substance use & abuse. Learning & Memory (Readings 17 - 20) Learning and memory, predictive learning, operant conditioning, memories as types and stages, and how we remember, with cues to improving memory. Social Psychology (Readings 21 to 26) Conformity, obedience, power & leadership, how the social context influences helping, and determinants of helping, gender and prejudice & discrimination. Psychological Development (Readings 27 to 30) Cognitive development in childhood, theories of development, and attachment through the life course. Research methods in developmental psychology. Personality & Psychological Disorders (Readings 31 - 37) Personality, psychological disorders, diagnostics and classification, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and personality disorders. Treatment (Readings 38 - 39) Therapeutic orientations and psychopharmacology. Changes to the original OER works were made by Kate Votaw and Judy Schmitt to suit the needs of the Inquiries in the Social and Behavioral Sciences course in the Pierre Laclede Honors College at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. This work was developed with support from the University of Missouri-St. Louis Thomas Jefferson Library, with special thanks to librarians Judy Schmitt and Helena Marvin