"The Mind Game" series of posts

[dmm]

There was "The Mind Game" series of 6 posts between May 25, 2012 and June 25, 2012. The blog hosting those posts seems to be down lately, and I don't think it is even mirrored on the Wayback Machine.

I am going to use the comments to this post to mirror that content.

Crosspost: https://anhinga-travel.livejournal.com/19180.html

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[dmm]

4) The Mind Game: closing the loop

June 3, 2012

(before closing the loop, let’s consider half-closed loops and other chains; then consider weakly closed loops; then consider closed loops and the associated safety issues)

Imagine that we have a system for reading and measuring information about conscious state (like the machine learning system based on EEG described earlier), and a system to affect conscious state (like the participatory VJing system described earlier).

Before considered the situation where these two systems are connected into a closed loop, let’s consider simpler situations: various half-closed loops (basically, chains of two elements) and other chains.

EEG -> VJ system

Consider a VJ system, which takes an EEG (and its extracted features) as one of its inputs. To try to eliminate the feedback connections (because we don’t want a closed loop yet), consider a real-time EEG of someone who is not watching the VJ output, or a recorded EEG. Then one can play with the VJ system to learn to obtain interesting effects from various properties of EEG.

VJ system -> EEG

Consider doing experiments with predicting the introspection results from EEG done by a person exposed to a VJ output. Then one can start learning various effects of video features on the features of EEG and on the conscious state. If one wants to try to eliminate the feedback connections (because we don’t want a closed loop yet), someone else should probably control the VJ system, not the person wearing an EEG helmet. If that person is also controlling the VJ system, we have a weakly closed loop, even without an EEG input into the VJ system. (A weakly closed loop like this is of interest on its own).

EEG-1 -> VJ system -> EEG-2

An interesting example of a chain with 3 elements (and without closing the loop). We take a VJ system with, let’s say, the recorded EEG input EEG-1 (or an input EEG-1 taken from a person which is not looking at the VJ output), and look at VJ system -> EEG-2 effects in the style of the previous paragraph.

VJ system 1 -> EEG -> VJ system 2

Consider our familiar VJ system 1 -> EEG chain and drive another VJ system (VJ system 2) with the resulting EEG output (don’t show the VJ system 2 to the person wearing the EEG helmet). This is another interesting example of a chain with 3 elements.

Chains are much safer and tamer and easier to study than closed loops, so it is a good idea to spend some time with those.

***

VJ system -> EEG with the wearer of the EEG helmet manually controlling the VJ system as well as the EEG system.

This is an example of a weakly closed loops, which is already mentioned above. It has moderate safety issues. One can hope to learn to control and manipulate one’s own EEG and conscious state in this set-up, and one should have some warning on entering the risky modes (if one pays attention to the EEG monitors), and because the EEG signal is not fed into the VJ system, the chances of entering the unfavorable self-sustained modes should be limited.

Still it might be a good idea to have a watcher present. One should probably spend a good deal of time in this mode before attempting a fully closed loop (one might also decide not to attempt a fully closed loop at all).

***

Now let’s consider the simplest fully closed loop, and meditate on its possibilities and safety issues:

VJ system <—-> EEG

The EEG output and the real-time extracted features are fed into the VJ system, and the person watches the VJ output (on a big monitor, or using special goggles with built-in LCD screen, or something like that).

Let’s assume that the person wearing the helmet is also controlling the VJ system by available manual controls and reprogramming facilities).

Let’s say that a minimal safety guideline is to have a watcher able to turn the set-up off in an emergency (like it is good to have a watcher while using conventional strobe light goggles in case a seizure happens; only in our case it is not clear if seizure is the only danger, or even the main danger).

So, on one hand, this is a great set-up for exploration. One can program the VJ system to semi-automatically assist in the search of certain EEG modes and conscious states, using the real-time feedback from EEG input. And one can use all kinds of clever algorithms and machine learning to do that.

But the danger here is that even without algorithms being too clever, the system might sometimes converge to some very unfavorable and unpredictable mode (there are errors in thinking and programming, and dynamic systems are often very difficult to predict).

***

Also it might be premature to ascribe conscious or intent to the computer part of this set-up, but if such conscious or intent does arise, this set-up is ideal to control and manipulate the participating human — this might be a bit more forward looking danger, but something to be aware of.

In some sense, this set-up is a great stepping stone to hybrid machine-human consciousness, and precisely because it might be powerful enough for that, it is also powerful enough for having some very unpleasant versions of such hybrid machine-human consciousness.

***

The main safety guideline (short of not doing this at all) is to go slow and to be aware that closing feedback loops in a situations like these might lead to abrupt qualitative changes.

Let’s discuss…

[dmm]

In a closed loop we probably want to program automatic disconnects or automatic connection breaks, at least during the initial stages.