Forms of life, forms of mind

2 responses to “Synthetic_living_machines_A_new_window_on_life_”

1. 

   Will

   October 15, 2023

   An interesting set of images, the software has taken your prompt for window quite literally. The prompts for synthetic / machines can be found in the fabricated appearance of the window-like recesses, parts of which also resemble large domestic appliances. The prompts for living, A_new and life are seemingly represented by the green shoots and vegetation as well as the in vitro gestating humanoid adult foetuses. I can only guess it’s using human biology as a symbol for all biology and therefore life? You could spend hours trying to workout the association between the prompts and images – AIs seem to be a little too literal in their application of thought – however, the same accusation might well be levelled at the surrealists of the last century? Great images 👍

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   1. 

      Mike Levin

      October 15, 2023

      Yes! One amazing thing is how it handles very abstract prompts, like some of our paper titles (I was using it at one point to try to generate symbolic art for covers of journals where we have papers like “Metacognition as a Consequence of Competing Evolutionary Time Scales” – that makes it really hard to be literal.

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