Peering Into the Mind of a Machine with Sam Friedman

Welcome To Humanity

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.