Blockchain Cloudminds: Human-Machine Pooled-Mind DACs

Sunnyvale CA, April 2, 2016
Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga
Blockchain Cloudminds
Human-Machine Pooled-Mind DACs
Melanie Swan
Blockchain Theorist
Philosophy & Economic Theory
New School for Social Research, NY NY
melanie@BlockchainStudies.org

April 2, 2016
Blockchain Cloudminds 1
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, 2016
‘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
2
1BFT: Byzantine Fault Tolerance

April 2, 2016
Contemporary Challenge
3
http://www.robotandhwang.com/attorneys/
How to develop
empowering human-
machine collaborations?
San Francisco CA law firm

April 2, 2016
Thesis Statement
Crypto Abundance Theory of Flourishing
4
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

April 2, 2016
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
5

April 2, 2016
Modern Relations with Technology
6
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

April 2, 2016
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)
7

April 2, 2016
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

April 2, 2016
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
9
Source: http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/Cochlear-Implant-Frequently-Asked-Questions/

April 2, 2016
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.
10
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491

April 2, 2016
 Introduction
 Cloudminds
 Adoption Risks
11

April 2, 2016
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?

April 2, 2016
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
13

April 2, 2016
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
14

April 2, 2016
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
15

April 2, 2016
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
16
Source: EMR: Electronic Medical Record. http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491

April 2, 2016
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
17

April 2, 2016
 Introduction
 Cloudminds
 Adoption Risks
18

April 2, 2016
Adoption Risks
1. 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
19

April 2, 2016
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
20

April 2, 2016
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’
21

April 2, 2016
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
22
Source: References cited in Swan, M. The Future of Brain-Computer Interfaces: Blockchaining your way into a Cloudmind. Journal
of Evolution and Technology. In review.

April 2, 2016
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’
23

April 2, 2016
 Introduction
 Cloudminds
 Adoption Risks
24

April 2, 2016
What is blockchain technology?
25
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

April 2, 2016
What is blockchain technology?
26
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

April 2, 2016
Blockchain Cloudmind Administration
 Blockchains (giant online
cryptographic ledgers), might be used
to administer all of the coordination
aspects of cloudminds
 Privacy
 Security
 Credit-tracking
27

April 2, 2016
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
28

April 2, 2016
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
29

April 2, 2016
Personal Identity: Multidisciplinary Question
30
Philosophy of Mind Psychology
Evolutionary Biology
Evolutionary Psychology
Philosophy of Biology
Theoretical Biology
Social Theory
Sociology
Sociobiology
Biology

April 2, 2016
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
31
Sources: 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.

April 2, 2016
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
32
Hull, David (1980), "Individuality and Selection," Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11: 311-332.

April 2, 2016
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
33

April 2, 2016
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
34

April 2, 2016
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’)
35

April 2, 2016
 Introduction
 Cloudminds
 Adoption Risks
36

April 2, 2016
BCI Cloudminds
Gradual 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
37

April 2, 2016
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
38

April 2, 2016
Thesis Statement
Crypto Abundance Theory of Flourishing
39
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, 2016
Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga
Human-Machine Pooled-Mind DACs
Thank You! Questions?
Melanie Swan
Blockchain Theorist
Philosophy & Economic Theory
New School for Social Research, NY NY
melanie@BlockchainStudies.org

Blockchain Cloudminds: Human-Machine Pooled-Mind DACs

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