Conscious AI Meetup: The Atoms of Computation

​We would like to welcome you to another event of the Salon of the California Institute of Machine Consciousness!

​When cognitive science looks for the first principles of cognition, it explores several competing paradigms: dynamical systems, cybernetics, arithmetic structures, mathematical logic, discrete computation. These ideas partially overlap, but also mark a fundamental philosophical divide: are the atoms of cognition continuous (geometric) or discrete?

A similar divide can be found in foundational physics, and classical vs. constructive mathematics. Is the world fundamentally continuous or discrete? Could reality be hypercomputational? Is it to be modeled in continuous or discrete ways? Or does it not matter?

This question throws an interesting shadow into machine learning: should a general learning system start out from discrete automata (like our CPUs) or from linear algebra (like our neural networks)?

​Our guest will be the AI researcher Stefano Massaroli; we are looking forward to a discussion with Joscha Bach and the audience.


Attendance is free; we appreciate if you bring non-alcoholic drinks and some snacks.