065 — Peering Into the Mind of a Machine with Sam Friedman
Dr. Fred and co-host Sam Morris sit down for a mind-blowing conversation with Sam Friedman, an “artist and scientist working with electricity, trying to find a starry synthesis of the mysterious speedy electron and the soft slow human.”
A Machine Learning Scientist in the Data Sciences platform at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Sam is keenly interested in how machine learning can help advance our understanding of cardiovascular disease and make an impact in the clinic. As tech lead for the Machine Learning for Health group, his days are spent developing model architectures, interpreting learned features and trying to fuse multiple modalities into meaningful representations.
If you haven’t explored machine learning before, prepare to be astounded. Here are some of the topics Dr. Fred and Sam Morris explore with today’s guest:
How Sam’s artist background prepared him to behold the beauty of machine learning
The difference between machine learning and AI
Risks posed by bias in working with neural nets
What can humans learn from machines?
Can machines become self-aware?
How machines can have “beautiful thoughts and experiences”
What it means to be “carbon chauvinistic”
How do neural nets dream?
The incredible intersection of machine learning and psychedelics
Interoception and exteroception vs. ego dissolution
Where does the experience of ego dissolution map in the brain?
Episode Length: 00:52:05
SAM FRIEDMAN’S RESOURCES
Twitter > https://twitter.com/lucidtronix
GitHub > https://github.com/lucidtronix
Sam’s Bio > see below
ALSO MENTIONED ON TODAY’S SHOW
Broad Institute > https://www.broadinstitute.org
The Paperclip Apocalypse > https://voxeu.org/article/ai-and-paperclip-problem
AlphaZero > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaZero
WELCOME TO HUMANITY RESOURCES
Podcast Website > http://www.welcometohumanity.net/podcast
PURCHASE DR. FRED’S BOOK (paperback or Kindle) > Creative 8: Healing Through Creativity & Self-Expression by Dr. Fred Moss http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Healing-Through-Creativity-Self-Expression/dp/B088N7YVMG
FEEDBACK > http://www.welcometohumanity.net/contact
Sam Friedman Bio >
Sam Freesun Friedman is an artist and scientist working with electricity, trying to find a starry synthesis of the mysterious speedy electron and the soft slow human. Studying obsolete technology Freesun explores our potential lives as elderly cyborgs. Sam makes digital art, videos and algorithms. The works ask strange electric questions, and have been exhibited at FrostBite, IndieX, Figment Detroit, Seton Hall University, New York University, Flux Factory, Burning Man, and Dorkbot NYC.
Sam is also a Machine Learning Scientist in the Data Sciences platform at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is keenly interested in how machine learning can help advance our understanding of cardiovascular disease and make an impact in the clinic. As tech lead for the Machine Learning for Health group, his days are spent developing model architectures, interpreting learned features and trying to fuse multiple modalities into meaningful representations.
Sam was born and raised in New York City where he earned a BS in Electric Media and Obsolescence at Hunter College and a PhD in Computer Science at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. His thesis presented algorithms for object detection and registration in 3D point clouds. Prior to the Broad, Sam worked at Apple building machine learning tools for semantic segmentation and 3D modeling at massive scales.
