Philosopher's Walk - Royal Botanic Gardens
Weather looks reasonable on Sunday. Participants are invited to join us for a walk and talk about science, philosophy, AI and emerging technology.
**Schedule**
* **10.30** am – Meet outside the entrance to the Royal Botanic Gardens Visitor Centre (near the Observatory House, and a walk away from the Shrine of Remembrance)
* **11.00** am – Venture into the gardens and walk the outer path anticlockwise, spiralling inwards towards the lake
* \~1.00 pm – (optional) Lunch by the lake, (BYO or there are Terrace Café options)
**Getting there:** If coming by **tram**, get off at Stop 19 - Shrine of Remembrance/St Kilda Rd
**Parking** is free on Anderson St far side of the Botanic Gardens ([near eastern gate B and Tecoma gate C](https://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/melbourne-gardens/interactive-map/)) subject to time limits in some stretches (mostly 3 hrs) - which is the only free parking area near the gardens that I can find. Check signage on the day. See this [PDF for more detail](https://athsvic.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/The-Tan-Parking-Map.pdf).
**Possible discussion topics**
* Latest AI models - Anthropic's Mythos and Fable blocked after US bans foreign use
* AI Pause / Stop - will it work? (Regulatory catch-up, xrisk, global-coordination & geopolitical arms races, enforcement & logistics, existing capability overhang)
* Technical AI safety - Mechanistic interpretability, linear probes, RLHF, behavioural evals
* General AI alignment approaches: control vs motivation:
\- control \(External Constraints\) focuses on building walls *around* the AI to restrict what it can do, trip wires etc.
\- motivation \(Internal Alignment\) focuses on changing the AI’s inner desires so it *wants* to be ethical/help humans/act in accordance with the well-being of all sentience
* AI ethics: how is it related to AI safety? What should be the target for AI alignment? Should the target be aggregate human preferences, religious doctrine, moral naturalism or something else?
* Metaethics and ethics
* Moral realism: a stance-independent moral ontology, useful for capturing non-arbitrary moral choice
* Moral anti-realism: error theory, non-cognitivism, moral relativism etc
* Can AI be fault-tolerantly aligned to moral realism or anti-realism?
* Is sentience required for moral reasoning or moral deliberation? Can it be a hindrance?
* Moral progress and indirect normativity
* AI safety, automated persuasion, the orthogonality thesis
* How epistemics (including science) makes progress
* Health, wellness, and how to live a good life
* Latest trends in AI: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude
* Economic impacts of AGI, automation, and unbounded inequality
* UBI and universal wealth redistribution
* The likelihood of future doom or utopia
* Human augmentation and hacking human potential
* Plato's cave
* Fun theory and value theory
"All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking." - Nietzsche, *Twilight of the Idols*
Philosophy discussions can feel quite sedentary - hence our experiment in cross-pollinating exercise with engaging discussion. Exerting mind and body together may produce a fascinating dynamic. A sedentary lifestyle (and, by association, philosophy) has been linked to depression, anxiety and chronic stress.
Ease the anxieties of the armchair philosopher engaging in mental gymnastics with minimal muscle movement - join our raggle-taggle crew of aspiring philosophers walking the talk. Healthy body, healthy mind.
Bring elemental protection (umbrellas, sunscreen, etc).
location_onRoyal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne
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