Blockchain Cloudminds: Human-Machine Pooled-Mind DACs

Sunnyvale CA, April 2, 2016Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga

Blockchain CloudmindsHuman-Machine Pooled-Mind DACs

Melanie SwanBlockchain Theorist

Philosophy & Economic TheoryNew School for Social Research, NY NY

[email protected]

April 2, 2016Blockchain Cloudminds 2

Melanie Swan Blockchain Theorist, Philosophy and Economic

Theory, New School for Social Research, NY Founder, Institute for Blockchain Studies Instructor, Singularity University; Affiliate Scholar,

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technology (IEET); Contributor, EDGE

Traditional Markets Background Economic Theory Leadership

http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491

Book: Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy

April 2, 2016Blockchain Cloudminds

‘Fermi’s Crypto Paradox’First contact attempted via blockchain confirmation but…

Earth using hierarchical not decentralized power models Backward crypto (SHA 3 vs SHA 78) Object-oriented not state-change programming models;

immature category theory, no general typing or Haskell Smart contract DAC oracle found no lookup on Earth No consensus-based algorithmic trust to validate the

incoming message, lack of digital smartnetworks Periphery node could not join the decentralized

computing network; no asynchronous BFT1 truth-state updating in distributed computing network

Human (physical) time not integrated with compute time paradigms and so missed the blocktime confirm

31BFT: Byzantine Fault Tolerance


Contemporary Challenge

4http://www.robotandhwang.com/attorneys/

How to develop empowering human-

machine collaborations?

San Francisco CA law firm


Thesis StatementCrypto Abundance Theory of Flourishing

5

Blockchains might be an important singularity-class technology (e.g.; one that is globally robust with checks

and balances) for producing an empowering relation with technology, for example through the safe adoption of

BCI cloudminds


Blockchain Cloudminds Agenda

Introduction BCIs (Brain-computer Interfaces) Cloudminds

Applications: health, info-entertainment, subjectivation Adoption Risks

Expected: privacy, security, etc. Credit-assignation via blockchain administration Fear of personal identity loss

Concluding Vision: Theory of Crypto Flourishing

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Modern Relations with Technology

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The Prosthetic Relation The Drone Relation

L’Intrus (The Intruder) – Jean-Luc Nancy Théorie du drone (Drone Theory) – Gregoire Chamayou

Impoverished relation:roving invisible Panopticon, never

safe from unseen eyes

Intimate relation: Accepting the foreign into our own body


The Data Relation Cloud, background, crunching away,

silent tracking, continuous uploading Algorithms predicting and defining our

preferences What is our relation? Impoverished:

neither side has full mental model of the other (the very basis for conducive interaction with another) Data models humans as a sketch:

purchasing agent not aspirational being Humans have no way see, grasp or act

on big data, it acts on us (drone relation)

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Think through the problem of human-machine collaboration in one of the most vulnerable cases:

opening our brains up to big data in BCI Cloudminds


What is a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)? A brain-computer interface (BCI), brain-

machine interface (BMI), or neural prosthesis is any technology linking the human brain to a computer A computational system implanted in the brain

that allows a person to control a computer using only brainwaves; for example reading the electrical signals from the brain as a person focuses on a computer screen

Used to repair human cognitive and sensory-motor function Over 219,000 worldwide cochlear implants

10Source: http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/Cochlear-Implant-Frequently-Asked-Questions/


Future Applications of BCIs 24-7 connectivity to the Internet and other minds

Pathology resolution; cognitive enhancement; platform for human-machine collaboration

The BCI functionality of typing on a keyboard with the mind suggests the possibility of having an always-on brain-Internet connection Cell phones connected every individual, BCIs connect

every brain? (cloudmind, telepathic noosphere) Ubiquitous BCIs, on-board smartphones (‘better

horse’); new possibilities like cloudminds (‘car’) Key functionality: 24-7 connectivity

Human cognitive processing continuously linked to the Internet and other minds in cloudminds via BCI, VR headset, QS wearables, smart contact lenses, etc.

11Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491







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A Cloudmind is a cloud-based thinker, a mind based in the Internet cloud; some sort of virtual

processing or thinking capability (‘a mind’), located in Internet databanks without physical incorporeality

‘Mind’ is generally denoting an entity with some capacity for processing, not the volitionary action and

free will of a consciousness agent

What is a Cloudmind?

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491


Different types of Cloudminds Machine minds

Deep-learners, big data analytics, algorithms crunching in the background, IoT ecosystems

Human minds Backups, sims, digital selves

Human-human minds Human-machine minds

A person plus a cloud-based personal assistant ‘thinker helper’ such as Siri or Her

Mind-pools Multi-agent minds operating together, multiple

entities pooled together, human minds, human-machine minds, or machine minds



Prototypical Cloudminds Functionality already exists: automated cloud-

based coordination of processing activity by multiple agents

Mechanical Turk Orchestrated tasks requiring human intelligence

Crowdsourced eLabor marketplaces Topcoder, Elance, Upwork (formerly Odesk), etc.

Humans as a community computing network Each person a computing node operating on data

Big data algorithms Classifiers, recommendation parsers, sentiment

engines, neural nets



Cloudmind Starter App: SETI@home for the brain

Sell permissioned braincycles to the cloud (like selling generated electricity back into the power grid)

Sharing unused computing resource Community computing projects such as

SETI@home or protein Folding@home Timesharing cognitive processing

power during sleep cycles or other down time

Securely and unobtrusively share one’s own unused resources, downtime braincycles

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3 Classes of BCI Cloudmind Applications

1. Health and biology Survival, pathology resolution, cure and

enhancement, health-tracking, daily health check, neural data-logging to EMRs, virtual patient modeling

2. Information and entertainment In-mind 24-7 information query (antiquated

device lookup), permissioned experience-sharing, crowdfile event memories

3. Actualization, self-creating Realization of individual cognitive and artistic

potential, individual and collaborative sense

17Source: EMR: Electronic Medical Record. http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491


Cloudmind App:Crowdminding an IoT Archipelago Commanding IoT-connected objects in

the environment Sense of feeling as one entity: commander

and ship, remote telepresencing robot Control physical objects in a local or

remote environment A security guard could command a whole

smart building Link with your smarthome IoT security system

Concept: One cloudmind entity that is a human plus IoT objects, functioning together








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Adoption Risks1. Expected: privacy, security, etc.

2. Credit-assignation Blockchain-tracking

3. Personal identity protection Identity multiplicity

Brain: enormous sensitivity for a trustworthy and responsible adoption path could be one that is gradual and identifies specific limited use cases



1. Expected Adoption Risks Accommodate wide spectrum of adoption and

non-adoption Clear pathways to increased engagement Uncoerced and reversible adoption Responsible technology design principles

Monitoring ecosystem with external referees Industry standards bodies (BCIs: IEEE 802.15

Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) working group)

Security, anti-virus protection, mind-hacking safeguards

Privacy: transparency, opt-out, and monetization selections regarding data collection and use



Fear of being absorbed into the vortex Cloudminds so

entrancing as to become extremely addictive, possibly to the detriment of otherwise being able to ‘participate in a meaningful life’

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Video Games: mixed research results Negative

Susceptibility to addiction, player fatigue, etc. Positive

Social interaction remains a priority Ultimately novelty preferred to pleasure, turn away from

pleasure-center stimulation out of boredom Gamers have more grey matter and better brain connectivity

Conclusion Video games are not only for fun, entertainment, community,

and status-garnering, but also for brain development and intelligence amplification: “brainjack our potential”

BCI cloudmind design challenge: produce applications that safely extend our being as humans while balancing risks

23Source: References cited in Swan, M. The Future of Brain-Computer Interfaces: Blockchaining your way into a Cloudmind. Journal of Evolution and Technology. In review.


The Future: Cloudmind Fulfillment or Couch Potato? What is ‘healthy’ or ‘addictive’ in

mentally-stimulating virtual reality? Cloudminds might be exactly the

venue for meaningful engagement opportunities, remuneration, and fulfillment, especially in a post-scarcity automation economy where labor-work is no longer compulsory

Unclear why ‘couch-potatoing’ into virtually-fulfilling states might be categorially ‘bad’








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What is blockchain technology?

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Blockchains are the secure distributed ledger software that underlies cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin – a giant tracking ledger or database, a means of

updating truth states in distributed computing network



What is blockchain technology?

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More broadly, blockchains are a new form of singularity-class technology, core next-gen infrastructure for Kardashev-level

advance; planetary-scale projects; hierarchical models break; cannot get to million-member genome banks with centralized

models, need secure distributed smartnetworks; modernizing IT

System of checks-and-balances; trust-manufacturing system; enrichens the impoverished big data relationship we have with the cloud, now data quietly crunches in the background with

accountability; in a way that is tracked and can be inspected on-demand, including with remuneration



Blockchain Cloudmind Administration Blockchains (giant online

cryptographic ledgers), might be used to administer all of the coordination aspects of cloudminds Privacy Security Credit-tracking



Line-item Tracking and Credit-Assignation Like Github, or SVN or CVS for brainstorming,

tracking line-items Deep-learning algorithms could automatically

transcribe BCI thoughts, like creating a written transcript from Skype calls now

Ideas logged to blockchains with time date-stamped hashes

Line-item contributions thus tracked in cloudminds, acknowledging and rewarding new ideas in a trustable annuity stream, in an open but inconspicuous ledger that does not detract from the idea generation itself



3. Fear of Personal Identity loss Fear of being irreversibly

incorporated into a groupmind

Personal identity (Webster): The persistent and continuous

unity of the individual person

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Personal Identity: Multidisciplinary Question

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Philosophy of Mind Psychology

Evolutionary BiologyEvolutionary Psychology

Philosophy of Biology

Theoretical Biology

Social TheorySociology

SociobiologyBiology


Philosophical Views of Personal Identity Traditional ‘philosophy of mind’ view

Assumes already-existing subject Personal identity needed for continuity

and persistence Personal identity is not required for

the survival of the person, relational experience between past/future selves and experience is (Parfit) fMRI studies: We procrastinate because

we think of our future selves as strangers Third persons no different than politicians

or celebrities

32Sources: http://nautil.us/issue/9/time/why-we-procrastinate citing van Gelder JL, Hershfield HE, Nordgren LF. (2013). Vividness of the future self predicts delinquency. Psychol Sci. 24(6):974-80, and Pronin, Emily. (2008). How we see ourselves and how we see others. Science. 320(5880):1177-80.


Biology: Individuals are not a Privileged Unit What are the appropriate units in

biology? Organisms do not play a privileged role Genes, genomes, mechanisms,

phenotypes, gene pools, organisms, populations, ecologies

Individual is merely convenient terminology Individuals are spatiotemporally localized

entities that have reasonably sharp beginnings and endings in time

33Hull, David (1980), "Individuality and Selection," Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11: 311-332.


Multidisciplinary Conclusion: Personal Identity is Ephemeral and Constructive Hypothesis is supported by multiple fields

If the evolutionary biological drivers that caused personal identity to develop as a fitness adaptation were to change, the need for personal identity too would change/disappear

Biology Individuality is not personal identity

Psychology/Sociology Malleability of self

Philosophy Relationality and subjectivation

Evolutionary Biology Fitness adaptation

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Personal Identity: custom and familiarity Preferencing of personal identity and

humans as an organizational unit is custom and familiarity - so far there been no other alternative Having known only one mode of existence we

may have developed a natural attachment Assumption (bias?) that memory,

emotion, and ‘meaning’ can only be instantiated in humans, but it is possible that in the future, any pattern associated with the human brain might be stored as information

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BCI Cloudminds: Identity Multiplicity BCI cloudminds do not

necessarily preclude or curtail personal identity, and some rather accentuate and extend it One or more digital selves

participate in cloudminds on a limited basis

‘Classic meatspace brains’ Different configurations of selves

(for example, a team of selves, what Hanson calls a ‘self clan’ or an ‘em[ulation] clan’)

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BCI CloudmindsGradual Adoption Strategies Sharing unused brain processing cycles

SETI@home for your brain Backup, archival, storage

Life-logging, memory-logging Digital self as opposed to original self Permissioning limited access to certain domains

of the brain and cognitive activity Demarcating structural borders Personal connectome files limit cortical access Limited time blocks (sleep cycles) for mindstream access

Full cloudmind participation: problem-solving, creative-expression, idea-generation

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Conclusion, this talk addressed: The potential advent of brain-

computer interfaces (BCIs) that are ubiquitous and widely-adopted, where humans might be continuously connected to the Internet and other minds in cloudmind formats

Adoption risk solutions Privacy, security, reversibility, credit

assignation, and personal identity retention

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Thesis StatementCrypto Abundance Theory of Flourishing

40

Blockchains might be an important singularity-class technology (e.g.; one that is globally robust with checks

and balances) for producing an empowering relation with technology, for example through the safe adoption of

BCI cloudminds

Accelerando: blockchain-type trust networks join humans and technology in partnership, where digital copies “watch over their originals from the consensus

cyberspace of the city”

Source: Stross (2006). Accelerando. P. 355

Sunnyvale CA, April 2, 2016Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga

Blockchain CloudmindsHuman-Machine Pooled-Mind DACs

Thank You! Questions?

Melanie SwanBlockchain Theorist

Philosophy & Economic TheoryNew School for Social Research, NY NY

[email protected]

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