claim

active

claim:physicality-is-not-a-requirement-for-a-machine-a-machine-learning-algorithm-that-generates-other-machine-learning-algorithms-or-designs-robots-qualifies-as-a-machine

Physicality is not a requirement for a machine; a machine learning algorithm that generates other machine learning algorithms or designs robots qualifies as a machine.

Proposed definitional update removing physicality as a necessary condition for machines

Source paper

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Living Things Are Not (20th Century) Machines: Updating Mechanism Metaphors in Light of the Modern Science of Machine Behavior

(2021) · Joshua Bongard · Michael Levin

Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count

Claims (1)

claim

Updated Machine Definition: any system that magnifies and partly or completely automates an agent's ability to effect change on the world, composed of parts several steps from raw materials, using rationally discoverable principles of physics and computation.
extends
The paper's proposed new definition of 'machine' that includes domesticated organisms and synthetic organisms

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

The notion of 'machine' used to claim living things are not machines refers to an outdated definition that no longer fits.claim0.804
First central claim of the paper: the machine concept used in organicist critiques is historically contingent, not essential
General computational machines with sufficient resources possess the necessary and sufficient means to implement consciousnesshypothesis0.799
CIMC's central testable hypothesis grounding the entire research program
We hypothesize that general computational machines with sufficient resources possess the necessary and sufficient means to implement consciousness, and that successful implementation can be established via analysis or testing.hypothesis0.796
The central hypothesis of the paper
Machines can now make machines.claim0.793
Evolutionary algorithms and self-organizing systems blur distinction between evolved and designed.
"It is certainly very hard, and perhaps impossible, for mere humans to anticipate and rule out in advance all the disastrous ways the machine could choose to achieve a specified objective."quote0.787
Russell's statement opening Section 2 articulating the core motivation for the Contemplative AI approach
What is an appropriate definition of machine, and does it apply to all, some, or no living forms?question0.786
Central interrogative driving the paper's entire argumentative structure.
Progress in theory and practice requires a novel conception of 'machines as they could be,' based on the profound lessons of biology at all scales.claim0.783
The paper's overarching constructive goal, paralleling Langton's 'life as it could be'
The material implementation and back-story of a given system are not sufficient information to reliably place it into a category of machine vs. living being.claim0.780
Core ontological claim: composition and origin story are contingent, not essential, classifiers