It is not diffificult to argue that what we are seeing in the world around us is a Technological Revolution. People living in 2023 are blessed to be able to experience advanced technology in their everyday life. Everything from contactless payments to self-driving cars, all of it has roots in singular minds of visionary individuals. With every Technological Revolution there follows a cultural revolution. The latter manifests itself through a change in people’s daily behaviours and their outlook on the world. The people who have to accept a new reality, embrace it sometimes without ever understanding it. Every person seems to have an upper bound on what they are willing to inquire, on complexity of premises that they are willing to challenge. Anything that resides above that bound is accepted straightaway, thereby falls into a category of ’common things’ where it does not provoke any critical thought. This leads to a culture of general acceptance, and never challenging the status quo. The responsibility that is imprinted in the role of Science as an engine propelling the Technological Revolution is diffificult to understate. Science gets to decide what, where and how you will be living your life. While this antropomorphisation of Science may seem misguided, it is a point of view allowing to comprehend that the state Science is a key variable in the evolution of our civilisation. This brief essay treats about several aspects of the scientifific craft, its current condition and prospects. It focuses on the dynamics between entities at the forefront of science, the meaning of original research and the future of science in light of technological progress.
The Dawn of New Science
I read your essay last night. It's a good read, I enjoyed it. My essay is going to be discussing AI's ability to enhance peer review so I thought I would demonstrate its ability by providing an AI-generated review for you, of your essay. You'll be pleased with its opinion I'm happy to report.
Chat GPT 4
The essay discusses the current state and prospects of scientific research, highlighting the relationship between universities and research-oriented companies, the importance of original research, and the future of science in light of technological progress. The author argues that the average quality of published papers is declining, and universities are increasingly focused on the number of papers published rather than scientific discovery. The private sector is leading the way in research, particularly in areas such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence. The essay raises important questions about the role of universities in scientific research and the impact of technological progress on the future of science. The author presents a clear and well-argued perspective, and the essay provides an interesting and thought-provoking analysis of the current state of scientific research. The quality of the essay is high, and it would be of interest to anyone interested in the future of science and the relationship between universities and research-oriented companies.
I fully agree with the conclusion for the role of AI in this essay. Besides the peer reviewing I came to the same conclusion in my contribution.
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Adam Wesołowski
You write:
<<... people seem to have understood that scientific progress is the way to go whether we like it or not.>
If we trace the path of the Homo genus for 2.5 million years from the manufacture of the first tool (chopper) to a nuclear missile with a multiple warhead, then this path is an uncontrolled fall into the future. Today we need a turn of consciousness towards the creation of a Sustainable Life World, a new dialogue between Science and Humanity with Nature, a new dialogue and mutual understanding between us, Earthlings.
"The concept of "artificial intelligence" is a marketing metaphor. Correct from an ontological point of view - "artificial quasi-intelligence".
Dmitry Kwon, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences:
"Many AI lovers do not understand well that from the point of view of physics, that is, the only literate science, even a hand-held adding machine has artificial intelligence, not to mention a modern personal computer (PC). Both the first and second can from time to time as a result of the failure of which - any of the parts (mechanical in the case of an adding machine and semiconductor in the case of a PC) to give out such that anyone prone to mystical explanations (and almost all citizens of the world are such, since few of them understand that, for example, the voice in their mobile phones - this is the result of the propagation of electromagnetic waves of meter length around the globe only due to the presence of the Earth's atmosphere), this will seem like God's punishment. Same with AI.
Few of his ardent fans realize that this is just an electron moving in a complex potential field, and he can do such a thing in terms of intelligence under the influence of this field that he will not dream even in the most fantastic dream. Accordingly, few people fully understand that computers, smartphones, navigators, robots, etc., etc. are just devices for processing an electrical signal. And that they are extremely sensitive to various kinds of influences caused by the fact that our entire terrestrial space floats in an ocean of electromagnetic and electronic waves, interference and diffraction of which can build such a thing in the work of all the electronic toys listed above.... As a result of the information technology revolution of the late twentieth century, the world has become more fragile than ever."
(D.Kwon, "Artificial intelligence as a triumph of idiocy / From the point of view of physics, AI has even a manual arithmometer", 2020)
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what about visual communication?
![ i think it would be nice if people would draw all the words under /above the writing ]
I mean perhaps in certain occasions like a curtain unveil of the meaning behind the scene; this could encourage people to learn languages like Russian, German , French, Chinese, Spanish, or other endangered languages and especially for the deaf people ; although sign language is a complete different story to be drawn not like my example above or SignWriting , perhaps not only necessarily for deaf inclusion .the normal spoken languages could get infused with Signs this is also for scientific relevance not only art and culture. it is a long term project .
I was interested in the discussion in this essay, from public (universities) to private research efforts to AI inspired research and technology. However it mostly lays out the issues and challenges without putting forward potential directions to take or comparing different directions.
Do we constrain research to private institutions focused more on technology solutions and let the public research producing research for the purpose of publication die out? I agree the latter seems a dead end, however I am not convinced that private institutions do not have their biases and therefore produce very directed, goal-oriented research. And these large institutions are developing the new AI products.
You make the statement : "There is an underlying paramount idea to allow people to make the best of themselves and utilise their potential regardless of the age that they peak in". Is there a way forward that provides for a much larger input of ideas from many more people (actually expanding the polluted river of published research - just reduce research for publishing's sake), that is also highly filtered by AI and human reviews? If AI sourcing can ingest such huge quantities of information, teach it to filter out the pollution (as you insinuate, but do not really suggest).
I do think the true power of AI has more to do with 'what if' thinking, extrapolating experiments, and developing ideas in conjunction with humans than preprocessing and filtering that which humans produce (and it should be able to do both). I think your example of folding proteins speaks to this power and the generative use of AI.
But an example does not state a direction to take. Do you have more specific recommendations?
AI has been around- for a while, now. It is our narrow and dysfunctional definition of intelligence which fools us. Or can you substantiate the claim that a slime mold is more intelligent and adaptable than the Internet.?
Granted, a slime mold is better adapted to its environment than present day human society. After the slime mold eats everything it can reach, leaving, (from its perspective) desolation, and has to sporulate, at least its spores have possible favorable places to land, sprout and grow.
So a slime mold has better chances at survival than human civilization. The "Sixth Extinction" may likely add additional evidential weight to this. The historic precedences indicate the chances of any Apex Predators to be- close to non-existent. Exactly so. Many of us will likely get to see...
The situational awareness of the mainstream scientific community is appalling. In denial, perhaps, of their- of our contribution to the devastation.