How mind emerges from matter ⊗ The noetic spiral ⊗ Are other AIs possible?

There are still a few spots for the “flash membership drive” I’m running. You have the opportunity to be one of 25 new people who join at 25% off. (Only on the yearly Members tier.)

A radical new proposal for how mind emerges from matter

An emerging movement of scientists and philosophers posits that intelligence is a fundamental biological function present across various life forms, not exclusive to humans or animals with complex nervous systems. This perspective suggests that even plants, fungi, bacteria, and single-celled organisms exhibit behaviours indicative of intelligence, challenging traditional views that confine cognitive abilities to creatures with brains. They argue that recognizing these forms of intelligence could reshape our understanding of cognition and the evolution of life.

Critics on the other hand, maintain that “the behaviours that seem so intelligent are in fact ‘tropisms,’” which are “the opposite of cognition or agency: an automatic, mechanical reaction to external or internal physical or chemical factors.” They contend that attributing intelligence to such a wide array of organisms dilutes the concept, rendering it too broad to be scientifically useful.

We’ve covered these ideas before, but the reason I share this piece is the new-to-me section of the role of bioelectric signals in facilitating communication and coordination within and between cells. Research indicates that these electrical patterns are not limited to animals with nervous systems but are also present in plants and simpler organisms, suggesting a near universal use of bioelectric code, underlying various life processes. This bioelectricity may play a crucial role in development, regeneration, and the emergence of complex behaviours, implying that electrical signalling is a foundational aspect of intelligence across life forms.

That’s right, multiple forms of life seem to have in common the use of electric signals to communicate in networks, collaborate, and act as collectives, as swarm intelligences. The sci-fi novel or superhero character almost writes itself!

Previously, most research had focused on the electrical activity that was elicited by sensory, perceptual and cognitive activity. But even without stimulus or planned motion or any other input, there is a “background” signal that some consider the signature of a baseline awareness of being a self. […]

“The reality is that all intelligence is collective intelligence,” Levin told me. “It’s just a matter of scale.” Human intelligence, animal swarms, bacterial biofilms — even the cells that work in concert to compose the human anatomy. “Each of us consists of a huge number of cells working together to generate a coherent cognitive being with goals, preferences and memories that belong to the whole and not to its parts.” […]

As the evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis wrote, life “did not take over the globe by combat, but by networking.” Networks themselves may be crucial to intelligence in ways we are just beginning to realize. […]

The development of AI could also help cause a conceptual awakening of humans to different manifestations of “more than human” intelligences, from plants to protists. Interestingly, much of the heated rhetoric around AI is echoed in the discourse around plant and other nonhuman intelligences.

The noetic spiral

Zoe Scaman, following a period of being “creatively on fire” while unable to feed on other peoples’ inputs, explores the importance of balancing creativity with periods of rest, arguing that our modern obsession with constant productivity undermines our creative potential. She introduces the concept of the Noetic Spiral, which consists of four phases: Gathering, Rest, Integration, and Expression, emphasising that true insights often arise during moments of stillness. Scaman reflects on how our natural rhythms, including hormonal cycles, inform our creative processes, suggesting that we need to trust these cycles rather than fight against them. She proposes (or reminds us) a shift in perspective, recognising that “our creative process needs both the feast of input and the fast of silence.”

While going over this piece, I couldn’t stop thinking about the design squiggle, and what a hybrid of the two might look like. Is a three dimension squiggle a less geometrical noetic spiral? Or can it be flattened a bit if a period of rest is added? Or maybe they’re just different things of course.

Look at nature itself. Trees don't apologise for shedding their leaves. Bears don't feel guilty about hibernating. The moon doesn't try to stay full all month. Yet we've convinced ourselves that constant output, constant consumption, constant "productivity" is the only way forward. […]

Then comes Rest – the phase we're most likely to resist. It looks like nothing is happening. It feels unproductive. But beneath the surface, our minds are doing the essential work of processing what we've gathered. This is when we step back from active consumption and let our unconscious mind work through the material. […]

Our strength lies in something far more foundational: our capacity to move in cycles, to integrate deeply, to mine the creative wisdom that emerges from stillness. While AI races to compress time, we can expand into it. True innovation comes not from pushing harder, but from moving with these ancient rhythms of contemplation and action.

Are other AIs possible?

In this piece by Eryk Salvaggio, the first part anyway, there’s a bit too much “evil conspiracy” vibe, as opposed to “simply” aligned and destructive incentives. As I’ve said in the past (see No.334 for one example), the critics are correct about the results, as he is here, I just think sometimes they get lost in their analysis and vocabulary, which makes the writing harder to integrate for readers.

That being said, the second part is the one I’m recommending the article for. It’s about his early experiments using Public Diffusion, “a new image-generation model from Spawning, an artist-lead company created by Holly Herndon, Matt Dryhurst and Jordan Meyer.” Salvaggio gives a list of characteristics of this model. I’ll pull out two; “it is trained from scratch on 12m public domain images” and “the image training data is auditable, with an interface that encourages exploration, tagging, and reporting problematic content in the training data.”

The conclusion, to put it succinctly, is that there is more friction and more transparency in this project, resulting in quite a different experience, one that encourages understanding the model and the sources, more of a tool than a magic box. A good thing, in both our opinions. I encourage you to have a read if you are into generative AI tools and/or if you struggle to imagine other models for AI. As he offers at the very end, “perhaps you want AI to become obsolete: I don’t blame you. But I want AI to be different than it is, and that is what this is.”

Part of that optimism is a reminder that the way ideologies of AI are reinforced through the technology is because the tech is designed to reflect that ideology. Spawning, at least for now, suggests that conscious approaches to the design and purpose of a machine can transform its outcomes. […]

We are seeing a generation of tools built without critically rethinking the purposes they are meant to serve or their role in the broader world. What if we did? What might AI be then? […]

Projects that claim to “democratize” AI routinely conflate “democratization” with “commodification”. ... it renders autonomy farther away from us, by the way that it alienates our authority on the subjects of our own expertise.” […]

To steal Luke Stark’s phrase, generative AI is plutonium. If you want to use it, consider nearly every possible option and every possible consequence before you commit to it as a tool. Any hope of using it well depends on resisting nearly every single affordance.

§ Principles for the permaweird. Venkatesh Rao goes over three of his principles for out time. The three are not given as much time and it’s quite hard to summarise, so I didn’t feature it higher. But if you are trying to deal with the Truskian blitzkrieg, the third principle of Boyd’s Razor (as in John Boyd’s OODA loop) is definitely worth taking the time. Quite a useful, verging on hopeful, lens through which we can analyse that duo.

Futures, Fictions & Fabulations

• Corporate foresight: from fearing the future to actively shaping it. “Motivating people not by instilling fear of change, but by inspiring them with positive images of the future – that’s what distinguishes sustainable organisations from those that just react to trends.”
• The truth about the forecasting paradox. “Here’s the problem with forecasts: some of them are right, and some of them are wrong, and by the time we find out which is which, it’s too late. This leads to what we might call the forecasting paradox: the test of a useful forecast is not whether it turns out to be accurate, but whether it turns out to prompt some sort of useful action in advance. Accuracy may help, but then again it may not. Forewarned is not necessarily forearmed.”

Algorithms, Automations & Augmentations

• Mistral Saba. “Mistral Saba is a 24B parameter model trained on meticulously curated datasets from across the Middle East and South Asia. The model provides more accurate and relevant responses than models that are over 5 times its size, while being significantly faster and lower cost. The model can also serve as a strong base to train highly specific regional adaptations.”
• New York Times goes all-in on internal AI tools. “In messages to newsroom staff, the company announced that it’s opening up AI training to the newsroom, and debuting a new internal AI tool called Echo to staff, Semafor has learned. The Times also shared documents and videos laying out editorial do’s and don’t for using AI, and shared a suite of AI products that staff could now use to develop web products and editorial ideas.”
• Fiverr wants freelancers to create AI models. I’ve got a feeling this is not going to end well. “The feature is part of its new Fiverr Go suite of tools, allowing creators to “train AI exclusively on their own body of work, maintaining complete control over their creative process and rights.” Freelancers can edit and set the price for their custom AI models, which are available across services like voiceovers, songwriting, graphic design, illustration, copywriting, and digital marketing.”

Asides

• Luddite teens still don’t want your likes. An update to the 2022 story, they’re still going strong! “They said they still relied on flip phones and laptops, rather than smartphones, as their main concessions to an increasingly digital world. And they reported that their movement was growing, with offshoots at high schools and colleges in Seattle, West Palm Beach, Fla., Richmond, Va., South Bend, Ind., and Washington, D.C.” Also, The Luddite Club.
• Large-scale recycling of modern textiles is now in sight. The “fast” needs to disappear, but yeah, that’s useful too. “Fast fashion creates mountains of polyester-cotton textile waste—a new recycling method that separates and recycles the two materials could be what the industry needs.”
• Ribbon map of the father of waters. “This is the most ambitious Coloney & Fairchild strip or ribbon map: it shows the Mississippi River from its delta to its source at Lake Itaska, a distance of 2600 miles. It is backed on linen and rolls into paper covered spool with a hand crank.” (Via 10+1 Things)