#14 Alyssa Adams- Emergence, artificial intelligence and what it means to be human - a podcast by PJ (Poh Jie)

from 2020-12-04T04:35:07

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My guest today is Alyssa Adams. She has a PhD in Physics from Arizona State University and a Bachelors in Physics from East Tennessee State University. She is currently a CIBM Postdoctoral Trainee at University of Wisconsin-Madison and has worked as a data scientist and lab director at VEDA Data Solutions. Please enjoy the show. 



Show Notes
  • [1:11] What is the craziest political idea that Alyssa holds?


  • [2:37] Designing a government from scratch in the 21st century


  • [3:40] How should we view ethics if it is just a construct by humans?


  • [7:40] What are some experiences that Alyssa value more than her peers?


  • [10:40] What are the phases in evolution that capture Alyssa’s imagination?


  • [13:05] Are the underlying rules of life simple or complex?


  • [15:31] Are we moving in the right direction in the theory of everything?


  • [19:42] Is our current modelling of neutrons in deep neural networks optimal?


  • [24:09] How did Alyssa’s polymathic view of the world come about?


  • [28:00] What advice will Alyssa give to her younger self re: making friends?


  • [32:06] Why the pronoun ‘they/them’ for Alyssa?


  • [34:13] Labels in society


  • [37:41] Cultivating a sense of happiness and managing depression


  • [48:31] Thoughts on current scientific and religious explanation of how the universe came about 


  • [56:08] Filling the gaps that may have been left behind by religion


  • [1:00:15] Is Alyssa afraid of death? What makes a good life?


  • [1:04:03] Measures of intelligence and creating truly intelligent machines


  • [1:06:56] Ethics in creating sentient and intelligent robots


  • [1:08:54] What does it mean to be human?


  • [1:13:28] What is emergence?


  • [1:15:45] State of artificial intelligence


  • [1:18:00] Does biology provide the best framework for evolution or will humans come up with something better?


  • [1:21:27] What is public data? Management of public data and future of private data


  • [1:29:00] Are we living in a simulation?



Mentions

Open-endedness: The last grand challenge you’ve never heard of – O’Reilly



Connect

If you like to find out more about me, please find me on my personal website at www.pohjie.com, or connect with me on Twitter (@pohjie_pj).



Outro

Thank you for listening to this episode. If you like this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with 1-3 friends. I started this podcast with the intention of having awesome conversations with interesting people, and having your support means a lot. Thank you.



Music credits

Further episodes of PyJamas Pillow Talk

Further podcasts by PJ (Poh Jie)

Website of PJ (Poh Jie)