The Machine Question: AI, Ethics, Cybernetics. Making it Work.

[wolven7]

Real Talk, folks:

Haujobb - Platform--- I need money. I need money for travel to England, for paying US Passport fees, for conference dues. I need Money, in a big way, and I need it realy soon.

I was going to do a kickstarter for this, but I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to spend a lot of time telling you why you should have a vested interest in my going to England and Presenting at a conference, and saying it in just such a way that you'll have an interest in what I want to be doing. I'm not up for it, and you won't go in for it. What I'm going to do, instead, is tell you something:

What I have always wanted to do is talk to people about my ideas. I want to write about my ideas for how we need to reshape the way we ask questions, in the first place, before we can begin to ask the "right" questions, at all. I have wanted to talk to people who read, write, and work in the fields of my interest, and pose questions to them about what they do, and how they do it. I have wanted this, since before I knew there was a term for it. (Radiohead - [Fitter Happier]). Since before I knew that there was a way to get paid to do it. I want this as an end in itself, and as means to other ends.

Winterkalte - Slash-and-Burn--- I have the opportunity to talk to leaders in the field or Artificial Intelligence about what it means to be an Autonomous Created Intelligence; about what the rights and duties owed that kind of being are; about how they'll interface with us. And, to be honest, I'm terrified. I'm terrified I'll sound like an uninformed idiot; that I won't reference the latest and most lauded research; that they'll laugh me out of the room. That no-one will want to read what i have to say.

But I'm also terrified I won't get the chance to go and even try, in the first place.

Coil - [Ravenous]--- That, my friends, is where you come in. I don't have the several Thousand dollars necessary to get me registered for the conference, and to England. I have some money, and I have Some Time, but the majority of my time needs to be spent writing, right now, and too much of it will be taken up by Grading in the Anyway. "I Want More Life..." But, before we let time make fools of us all, let's do our best to distract time, and slip out round the back. What I'm saying is, that you can supplement my time. You can help ease my worry. You can donate money to this cause.

Now I have nothing to offer you, in return. I have no fantastic rewards, or sneak peaks at my work, or anything like that. To be honest, the best sneak peak at what I'm going to be doing is already out there, specifically at NeedCoffee.com, and at last year's Dragon*Con. (The Pierces - Ruin). So far as tangible rewards, I could tell you that the money from anything you buy from unknownbinaries goes toward the general cause of us having More Money, but that has ever been the case; it's not changed.

So here's the deal: If you all donate enough money...

Rammstein - [Sonne]--- That is if I am able to afford the airfare and the passport fees and a place to stay--

If I am able to do something I have dreamed about for years upon years, since I was a very small child--

If I am given the opportunity to, in some very small way, shape the nature of the perception of what it is that we do, when we engage design, ethics, mind creation, and the reflexive and reflective nature of self-fulfilling prophecy--

Then i promise you that I will do the absolute best job that I can.

It's all I've got.

You can donate, here: https://www.wepay.com/donations/machine-question-symposium-travel-expenses-fund

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

There is a conference this summer that is addressing this subject. It is called the Machine Question. More information is available at http://machinequestion.org

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Yep. That's what I've been accepted to, all right. Care to donate to the cause?