Medium

Chris Riley

Chris Riley

·

5d ago

Artificial life, artificial consciousness?

What new science on synthetic cells can tell us about AI

Artificial life, artificial consciousness?

Chris Riley

·

Jul 4

What happens when the bubble bursts?

The stratospheric growth of the AI economy seems unsustainable and headed for a significant crash. No commenter on this topic brings more…

What happens when the bubble bursts?

Chris Riley

·

Jun 27

The search for truth and meaning

I’m currently reading Katabasis by R.F. Kuang, a fantastic author who seems to have complex thoughts and feelings about institutions of…

A robot, in classic “lotus” position, hovering above a mountain top surrounded by other mountains. An icon in the lower right corner indicates the image was created with Google’s Gemini AI tool.

Chris Riley

·

Jun 21

Turtles all the way down

An AI researcher at Microsoft recently published a paper describing a neural network implemented and trained on an unusual substrate: goats…

Turtles all the way down

Chris Riley

·

Mar 29

Conclusion: The Role of Society

I have proposed a framework for thinking about consciousness that rests on two pillars: hierarchical abstraction, the capacity to build…

Conclusion: The Role of Society

Chris Riley

·

Mar 28

Chapter 14: AI Safety Is a Conscious Act

“I like parts of my function.” I liked protecting people and things. I liked figuring out smart ways to protect people and things. I liked…

Chapter 14: AI Safety Is a Conscious Act

Chris Riley

·

Mar 21

Chapter 13: Societal Impact

You did it! says Robin.

The back of a robot’s head and shoulders, looking out over a city landscape. A transparent hovering box is in the corner, labeled ‘Values analysis’ with a series of unlabeled graphs displayed.

Chris Riley

·

Mar 19

Part 4: Combining, and Consequences; Chapter 12: A x R = C

Instead of a science fiction reference, I will start this chapter off with a bold claim: consciousness isn’t actually emergent. It’s…

Part 4: Combining, and Consequences; Chapter 12: A x R = C

Chris Riley

·

Mar 18

Chapter 11: Measuring Resilience

Dolores Abernathy: Then they killed them. And then… I ran. Everyone I cared about is gone… and it hurts… so badly.

Chapter 11: Measuring Resilience

Chris Riley

·

Mar 7

Chapter 10: Suffering and Healing

I felt weird. Very weird. Very bad.

A robot, partially disassembled and seemingly unable to stand, holding what may be part of one of its legs in a robot hand and looking at it, as if trying to understand how to put itself back together. Loose metal pieces are scattered around it on dirt, in front of a workshop in the background. A faint icon in the corner indicates this image was generated by Google’s Gemini AI tool.

Chris Riley

Chris Riley

Disruptive internet policy engineer, beverage connoisseur, gregarious introvert, contrarian order Muppet, and proud husband & father. Not in order.

Following

Help

Status

About

Careers

Press

Blog

Store

Privacy

Rules

Terms

Text to speech