The sessions of the ASIM workshop will run after the Singularity Summit workshop on Monday and Tuesday, as a satellite event to the main Singularity Summit (August 14-15). The Singularity Summit workshop finishes at 5pm on both days, so there will be time to find some dinner before joining us for our evening sessions.If you are interested in attending and would like more information, please feel free to contact the organizers.

While we all long for a better tomorrow, very few of us have the courage to try to imagine what the future might actually look like. Bound by conventions and by fear of ridicule, most of us dare not to dream or speak about the deep future, instead we as a society choose to focus on the short-term future, which is safe and generally agreeable.

Futurists everywhere, I applaud your courage. Even when you are wrong, you contribute more to the future of our species than your critics ever will.

Even though collectively we choose poverty of imagination as the default mode of thinking about the future, here we stand on the verge of profound societal changes that cannot be stopped and cannot be reasoned with. We are witnessing the dawn of an age of technological wonders, of technology so advanced that it is itself indistinguishable from magic.

Take a minute to admire the monitor in which you are reading these words. Maybe you are using a modern LCD flat panel or maybe you are using an old CRT tube. Either way, old or new, appreciate its beautiful complexity with millions of interconnected parts that are able to convert a symphony of electrons, bits and bytes into the perfectly weaved tapestry of light required to carry my words to you.

Now consider for a moment the most complex devices we possessed a mere 200 years ago. How does your monitor measure up to it? Do you even know how your monitor really works? What about your computer? Your cell phone? Would you be able to design any of these devices from scratch? Do you know anyone who could?

We came a long way in a very short period of time. Now try to imagine what miracles of science we will witness in the course of the next 200 years. No matter what you think you know about the future, I assure you that if we don’t destroy ourselves, the best is yet to come.

Like Martin Luther King, I too have a dream.

I dream of a world where people are once again thrilled about the future.

I dream that one day curing death, understanding the human brain and traveling to the stars will be seem as urgent challenges that must be conquered at all cost.

I dream that one day scientists will be considered celebrities and that each of us will be measured not by how much capital we have accumulated but by how much have we contributed to the future of our species.

I dream that one day all nations will unite in the war against ignorance and superstition, the true enemies of all sentient beings.

In sum, I dream of the day humanity finally grows up.

Yes I agree that there are many challenges ahead on the path to AGI. Right now, I think we should focus on acquiring a better understanding of how the brain works from an algorithmic perspective and try to derive a hypothesis of general intelligence from it. After all, the brain is the only implementation of a general intelligence “platform” currently known to us.

I am sure that our brains represent nothing but one design out of a multitude of possible general intelligence implementations. However, I believe that the search-space for viable AGI architectures is just too large to be traversed by anything other than a super-civilization. Think about the staggering amount of computation mindlessly performed by evolution over millions of years to come up with the design of what we carry in between our ears.

I think it must be clear to you by now that I sit on the bio-inspired AGI camp and I definitely share your newfound fascination with the brain. Just recently, I started to tell people I am a hobbyist neuroscientist.

Reactions are interesting, sometimes hilarious.

I see whole-brain emulation as the worst-case scenario or “plan B”. If everything else fails, we will achieve AGI once we become able to emulate a whole brain down to an arbitrary level of precision yet to be determined.

That begs the question – what would be the best-case scenario?

Ultimately, I believe there is an algorithm for general intelligence yet to be discovered. Something I hope it will be as simple, beautiful and powerful as the genetic algorithm: a small set of rules that give rise to ever growing complexity and intelligence after many generative iterations.

It is unquestionable that this elusive algorithm is engraved not only on the neuronal topology of the brain but also in the rules that govern how topology changes over time. That is why any simulation of the brain must take into consideration plasticity and generative topology to be useful.

I also believe that only a very small subset of the human brain is actually responsible for general intelligence. In the best-case scenario, we will be able to identify the bare minimum amount of brain tissue necessary for general intelligence and derive powerful algorithmic insights from it. I am not talking about generating conectomes or maps but about understanding how to replicate what the brain does, not the minutia of how it does it.

Because truth be told: I don’t want an artificial brain, I want to automate work. I want to copy-and-paste scientists.

Unfortunately, the human brain is the farthest thing from a von-neumann computer (a.k.a. a stored-program computer) we could possibly imagine. Natural processes lead to the emergence of neuronal topology that then give rise to complex human behavior. Your mind is not your brain’s software – because in reality there is no software at all – information flows through the brain and computation happens naturally due to the physical properties of the neuronal pathways.

The key concept I want you to embrace is that your mind is fully described by the physical configuration of your brain. To “edit” your mind – for example, to implant a memory or instantly learn a skill – it would be necessary to either physically rewire your neurons or have your brain significantly augmented to support on-demand topology modification.

Input/Output interfaces are the most feasible in the short term

Right now we are only able to communicate with the brain by stimulating neurons (input) and measuring specific properties of neurons (output). There a lot of incredible things we can do using this approach, the key concept is to think in terms of what could be done using real-time input and output streams:

• Give people senses they don’t have (vision to the blind, GPS to the willing);
• Give people actuators they don’t have (arms to amputees, drive a car with your mind);
• Read active thoughts and intentions, including memories a person is actively conjuring;
• Give people artificial experiences using multi-sensorial stimulation;
• External knowledge databases (Google in your head);
• Ultimately, we could have an isolated brain with full-digital I/O, enabling for example, full-prosthetic bodies and disembodied living;

Science-fiction examples of I/O interfaces:

• The Matrix: the Matrix simulated world;
• Ghost in the Shell: full-prosthetic bodies, “the net”, external memories;
• Avatar and Surrogates: remote control of a prosthetic body;

Read/Write interfaces are possible but they will probably require advanced brain augmentation

There are things however, we might never be able to do using I/O interfaces because they require being able to read and modify the brain’s neuronal topology directly (read/write):

• Read a memory, without the subject actively conjuring it;
• Write a memory without generating an experience (“imprinting”);
• Significantly faster-than-real-time learning or instant knowledge transfer;
• “Editing” personality traits;

We currently lack significant understanding of how to address the challenge of building such R/W interface to the brain. First we would need significant advancements in neuroscience in order to learn how to design useful neuronal pathways. Secondly, we will need a few fundamental breakthroughs in nanofabrication and nanorobotics to gain the ability to manipulate matter with the degree of accuracy needed to make useful (and desirable) changes to a living human brain.

Science-fiction examples of R/W interfaces:

• The Matrix: instant learning through downloads;
• Ghost in the Shell: hacked memories, “puppet” agents;
• Dollhouse: personality imprints, “tabula rasa” programming;

Talking to the brain and altering the brain are two fundamentally different tasks

Although limited, I/O interfaces are the easiest to build. Even though every bit of information that enters the brain indirectly leads to neuronal topology change, the minutia and scope of these changes are not under our direct control. This means that there are fundamental limits of what we can do with I/O interfaces alone.

However, I/O brain-computer interfaces will significantly expand our mental landscape in the near term by adding new information streams to our conscious experience of the world. Yet, the dream of instant learning and mental imprints might never be achieved before we move on to considerably enhanced or artificial brains that provide easy R/W access to neuronal topology.

In other words, for the foreseeable future, you will not be downloading a kung-fu app into your brain. And when you are finally able to do so, you might not have what you currently call a brain anymore.