Machines Like Us – Science News

Johnjoe McFadden is Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Surrey, and has published more than 100 articles in scientific journals on subjects as wide-ranging as bacterial genetics, tuberculosis, idiopathic diseases and computer modeling of evolution. He lectured extensively in the UK, Europe, the USA and Japan and his work has been featured in radio, television and national newspaper articles. He wrote the popular science book, Quantum Evolution, which examines the role of quantum mechanics in life, evolution and consciousness.

Aubrey de Grey, Ph.D., is a controversial biomedical gerontologist who lives in the city of Cambridge, UK. He is editor-in-chief of the academic journal Rejuvenation Research, and his work centers upon a detailed plan called Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS), which is aimed at preventing age-related physical and cognitive decline.

An outspoken atheist and social commentator, Mano Singham is currently Director of Case’s University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education (UCITE) and Adjunct Associate Professor of Physics. He obtained his B.Sc. from the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in theoretical nuclear physics from the University of Pittsburgh. He has researched and conducted seminars and workshops for university faculty on teaching and learning, and has conducted workshops around the country on Active Learning methods for science teachers at pre-college and college levels.

As the Singularity Institute's Director of Research, Ben Goertzel, Ph.D., is responsible for overseeing the direction of the Institute's research division. He has contributed over 70 publications, concentrating on cognitive science and AI, including Chaotic Logic, Creating Internet Intelligence, Artificial General Intelligence (edited with Cassio Pennachin), and Hidden Pattern. He is chief science officer and acting CEO of Novamente, a software company aimed at creating applications in the area of natural language question-answering.

Lurking in the shadows, in a secret location known only to a select few, is the man behind this website. You won't find his name mentioned anywhere else on the site, because he's a modest soul, but if he is willing to interview us ego-heads, it's about time one of us did the same to him. Norm Nason is a senior graphic designer, illustrator and fine artist. By day he makes beautiful women look perfect, but by night he is an essayist, a musician, a filmmaker and a veritable Hoover of human knowledge. You can learn more about Norm's other interests here, but first let's meet the machine behind Machines Like Us.

Prof. Dr. Hugo de Garis is professor of computer science and mathematical physics at Wuhan University, China, where he migrated in 2006. He was formerly an associate professor of Computer Science at Utah State University, Utah, USA. His research area is “artificial brains,” a research area that he has largely pioneered.

An honorary research fellow at Cardiff University's School of Psychology and NESTA Dreamtime fellow, Steve Grand, OBE, has carved himself a reputation at the cutting edge of artificial life. He is Director of Cyberlife Research Ltd. and was formerly Technical Director of Creature Labs, where he was responsible for the architecture and programming of the artificial life game, Creatures. Currently Grand is developing artificial life applications as well as an intelligent living machine that embodies a set of hypotheses about the neurological mechanisms present in various species of animal.

Steven Lehar is an independent researcher who has made a number of radical proposals on theories of philosophy, psychology, biological vision, and consciousness. His most radical theory is that the solid spatial world that we see around us in visual experience is not the world itself, but merely a miniature replica of that world in an internal representation.

An outspoken UK atheist and independent researcher in the field of artificial intelligence, Paul Almond's innovative projects include his conceptual probabilistically expressed hierarchy AI system -- using meaning extraction (partial model) algorithms -- which learns by experiencing the real world. The system is superficially similar to that of Jeff Hawkins, but differs in its robust approach to probability and the incorporation of planning into the hierarchical model itself, removing any distinction between planning and modelling.