Okay, I read that whole thing and my mind is blowing right now. Whenever I have done ye old psychedelics, I'm always like "what is this, i don't even..." because it's like, what is that even? Where or what is that shit in our brains or perceptions or vision or who knows what? Is it always there, just waiting to be tapped into? Is it the regular stuff on overdrive, or something external?
But I know how neural nets work. I mean nobody knows how they really work (like the article said), but I know how to build them and train them. My masters thesis is in computer vision and I extremely understand the research in the paper. Also to study computer vision you have to study human vision, (which also nobody really knows how that works either). So reading this thing and how they made and processed the photos, I'm like OMG I GET IT! SORT OF!
Also, even, psychedelics aside, the research and photos are so fucking cool
I know it should not wig me out so hard when computers act like brains and vice versa, because of course they do. Artificial intelligence is modeled on natural intelligence, and we are just weird machines, so of course they kind of work the same ways.
But it still does. It still kind of wigs me out. In a really good way, of course, because DAAAAANG.
I posted this in a Gizmodo comments thread and thought I would post it here too,
(Question: is this like taking LSD?)
Yes it is, only brains are still much more complex and something like LSD affects multiple receptors. In the case of vision, it is quite close to how we see and its actions are similar to psychedelics which shut down specific dampening systems in your brain allowing the signals to go wild and feedback into themselves which not only strengthens them but gives you repeating images. The ‘everything is dog faces’ effect is similar to psychedelics as it appears the brain has specific processing areas for certain things like faces which is great for detecting slight body language changes but it’s pretty one minded, if something gets sent to it it *must* be a face so it enhances what it thinks is a face and suddenly Mad Max is all about dog faces, and thanks to feedback loops it has two, no three, no four faces! The dream program isn’t like psychedelics in that neuron columns sit close together and interconnect so this wild feedback loop can spill over into neighboring networks.
The dream program seems to be fixated on the idea of edge detection and object recognition through specified networks that hunt for that object, which is an awesome start but there’s still lots more to go to fully replicate vision and psychedelics cause a number of effects not seen here because it’s not a complete simulation, but for the first time giving a computer drugs I say it’s worked quite well.
Everywhere around work and respectable internet places, people keep talking about shit like "AI dreams" or "computer daydreams" or whatnot, and I am like, motherfucker, somebody needs to say it. That is straight up psychedelics for computers.
I am left wondering how many of these researchers and reporters and rebloggers have never tried strong acid, and how many other ones have but are keeping their mouths shut out of propriety. But this is yuge to me, like it should be front-page news. I don't know why, and I'm probably biased because drugs and AI are like 2 of my favorite things, but I just wish this was something the mainstream could have a conversation about.
And of course I can't help the situation because I talk all so again, thanks, Ari.
Yeah, more than the dog faces, the one that really gets me is the gazelle (?) one:
Quote:
Each layer of the network deals with features at a different level of abstraction, so the complexity of features we generate depends on which layer we choose to enhance. For example, lower layers tend to produce strokes or simple ornament-like patterns, because those layers are sensitive to basic features such as edges and their orientations.
When I'm tripping, maybe I fixate on dog faces, maybe on something else, maybe it shifts and bounces around so it's not a fixation at all. But there are always edges. Everything has edges. Beautiful, glowing, moving, flowing edges.
__________________
Thanks, from:
Ari (07-08-2015), Crumb (07-08-2015), Janet (07-08-2015), JoeP (07-08-2015), lisarea (07-08-2015)
Indeed, I think people really like using the electric sheep quote, but as amusing as it is this has almost nothing to do with dreams. While some of the same areas might be activated this is all about recognition and not simulation. In dreams the world is simulated using not yet fully explored areas* of the brain, to replicate and prepare for future events. Having spent some time exploring the inner workings of this simulator it's clearly way more advanced than just visual patterns and is serious about its job involving a good chunk of the brain as if one was awake and actually wandering around your high school naked on the day of the big test.
*I say areas but it's become clear that while the brain has specific processing areas many actions make use of a large group of these areas all at once and often in a thrown together fashion. Brain area 1 just assumes brain area 2 is following the same script it received, and brain area 3 is currently arguing brain area 6 while area 5 mediates and 4 waits till they're done to clean up the mess. The more I explore the brain the more I'm surprised we are able to do anything but lay in a twitching mass.
But there are always edges. Everything has edges. Beautiful, glowing, moving, flowing edges.
Yep, vision is heavily about edge detection, specific neurons in the eye will only fire when they see a vertical edge or a horizontal edge, etc. So even before your brain figures out what the object might be it's sent a ton of edge data to deal with and you feedback on that and suddenly everything is hyper-sharp rainbows. In some cases having this crazy set of expanding edges being fed into object recognition means your brain says 'fuck it, it's all one object' and suddenly you can't tell the difference between a pencil and a table even though the pencil's edge has unicorn farts expanding from it.
(Question: is this like taking LSD?)
Yes it is, only brains are still much more complex and something like LSD affects multiple receptors. In the case of vision, it is quite close to how we see and its actions are similar to psychedelics which shut down specific dampening systems in your brain allowing the signals to go wild and feedback into themselves which not only strengthens them but gives you repeating images. ...
The dream program seems to be fixated on the idea of edge detection and object recognition through specified networks that hunt for that object, which is an awesome start but there’s still lots more to go to fully replicate vision and psychedelics cause a number of effects not seen here because it’s not a complete simulation, but for the first time giving a computer drugs I say it’s worked quite well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign Steve
Everywhere around work and respectable internet places, people keep talking about shit like "AI dreams" or "computer daydreams" or whatnot, and I am like, motherfucker, somebody needs to say it. That is straight up psychedelics for computers.
Neural Networks (aka Inceptionism)
Re: Miscellany
Re: Neural Networks (aka Inceptionism)
so again, thanks, Ari. 
ATTENTION.
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Linear Mode
