Lifeboat Foundation

After a short period of relative silence, the metaverse became a hot topic again in no small part thanks to Mark Zuckerberg’s and Meta’s most recent buzz, which, unsurprisingly, split people into camps again. Some say or are hoping that the metaverse is already dead and, along with it, the more controversial NFTs. If that were the case, it seems that nobody told luxury luggage maker RIMOWA about it because it seems that the marque will be diving right into this mess when others seem to be silently stepping out. RIMOWA has partnered with Nike-owned digital fashion brand RTFKT to bring its iconic luggage brand to the metaverse via two NFT drops, but RIMOWA fans can rest assured that they can still get this upcoming limited edition luggage in physical form as well.

Designer: RIMOWA x RTFKT.

A classic thought experiment in the philosophy of mind is reduplication, in which a person (or her mind) is duplicated such that two or more descendant people of shared mental ancestry now exist where previously there was one. The philosophical quandary is to resolve what happened to the original person’s identity. Did she survive and if so, in which of the resulting people’s minds? Which of the two resulting people is the original and which is a mere copy of denigrated identity status? Alternatively, is there something fundamentally wrong with the wording of such questions, such that we should we adopt a different perspective on the nature of personal identity that offers alternative solutions to the reduplication quandary? Reduplication further arises not only in abstract philosophical musings, but also in the futuristic and variously conceivable (depending on the reader’s tastes), technology of mind uploading, in which a person’s physical brain is emulated via the technology of whole brain emulation. While mind uploading might produce a single result, such as if the original brain is destroyed by the uploading process and only one upload is created, we can also conceive of either nondestructive scenarios (in which the original brain is not destroyed) or scenarios that produce multiple uploads. Either case results in multiple descendant minds, each operating in distinct physical systems (brains or cloned brains, or computers of some sort). The philosophy of personal identity has produced several possible stances on the nature of personal identity. The most popular are body identity and psychological identity, with other options including closest continuer identity, space-time worm identity and branching identity. However, there is always room for new theories to enter the discussion. The way in which blockchains work, and Bitcoin’s mining process and protocol for handling orphaned blocks, suggests a new theory of identity along with a new solution to the reduplication problem. The proposed blockchain solution to personal identity has applications to the handling of the reduplication problem as it may arise during a futuristic mind uploading procedure.

A blockchain holds a hashed transaction ledger, essentially the history of all transactions encoded to prevent any subsequent alteration of the history. In this way, all transactions back to the beginning of the ledger’s history can be confirmed by any interested party. Deceit, fraud, and other attempts to undermine the history simply don’t work, and consequently blockchains enable a variety of interactions with the currently most popular being digital currency. In addition to more conventional applications, blockchains could also be used to assign identity status (original or copy) to the descendent minds of a mind uploading procedure. Each descendant could then venture out into the world confident that their identity status will be honored by all third parties thereafter. Let us call this the blockchain theory of personal identity.

Though available only to select customers, this reaffirms faith in the blockchain method of payments.

Technology major Google has teamed up with cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase as it looks to allow cryptocurrency payments for its cloud services. According to a press release, the two entities will leverage their strengths towards building the next iteration of the internet, dubbed Web3.

400tmax/iStock.

Continue reading “Google teams up with Coinbase to make a major move into cryptocurrency payments” »

Metaverse project Decentraland, a sandbox environment that allows users to buy and sell virtual real estate, isn’t exactly teeming with people. Despite billions of dollars in valuations, companies betting on a metaverse future simply haven’t made much headway.

In fact, according to data aggregator DappRadar, the Ethereum-based world Decentraland only had 38 “active users” over a period of 24 hours — a confoundingly low number, especially considering the company has a market cap of a whopping $1.2 billion.

Decentraland pushed back, though, saying that “active users” are defined as unique blockchain wallet addresses that interact with its system. As CoinDesk explains, that means users who simply log in to chat or interact with others aren’t being counted.

Joscha Bach is a cognitive scientist focused on cognitive architectures, mental representation, emotion, social modeling, and learning.

Currently the Principal AI Engineer, Cognitive Computing at Intel Labs, having authored the book “Principles of Synthetic Intelligence”, his focus is how to build machines that can perceive, think and learn.

Continue reading “AGI-22 | Joscha Bach — It from no Bit: Basic Cosmology from an AI Perspective” »

Science-fiction author Neal Stephenson predicted cryptocurrencies and virtual worlds — even coining the term metaverse — in his 1992 novel Snow Crash. Now, 30 years later, he is combining the two ideas by launching a blockchain-powered open metaverse. It is a move that sets him against big tech firms with their own metaverse plans, so why is he doing it and what even is an open metaverse?

Developers have pushed various versions of the metaverse for decades, but nothing has stuck.

Lamina1 was contacted for comment.

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Are NFTs seeing a revival in different “avatars”, though?

The rage among celebrities last year, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), have been hit badly by the crypto winter and have seen sales dip by 98 percent in the eight months since January, Coin Telegraph.

How bad are trading volumes for NFTs?

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It’s not often that you get to hear things from the horse’s mouth. In this case, I was able to do an interview with the guy who came up with the term “metaverse” decades ago. I feel like I’ve been waiting decades to talk to him.

Science fiction author Neal Stephenson recently announced he was teaming up with crypto entrepreneur Peter Vessenes to create Lamina1, a blockchain technology startup dedicated to the open metaverse, the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, as first depicted in Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash, which debuted 30 years ago in 1992. I interviewed both Vessenes and Stephenson yesterday, just a day after McKinsey & Co. predicted the metaverse would be worth $5 trillion by 2030.

Those who are venturing into the architecture of the metaverse, have already asked themselves this question. A playful environment where all formal dreams are possible, where determining aspects for architecture such as solar orientation, ventilation, and climate will no longer be necessary, where – to Louis Kahn’s despair – there is no longer a dynamic of light and shadow, just an open and infinite field. Metaverse is the extension of various technologies, or even some call them a combination of some powerful technologies. These technologies are augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and a 3D world.

This technology is still under research. However, the metaverse seems to make a significant difference in the education domain. Also, its feature of connecting students across the world with a single metaverse platform may bring a positive change. But, the metaverse is not only about remote learning. It is much more than that.

Architecture emerged on the construction site, at a time when there was no drawing, only experimentation. Over time, thanks to Brunelleschi and the Florence dome in the 15^th century, we witnessed the first detachment from masonry, a social division of labor from which liberal art and mechanical art emerge. This detachment generated different challenges and placed architecture on an oneiric plane, tied to paper. In other words, we don’t build any structures, we design them. Now, six centuries later, it looks like we are getting ready to take another step away from the construction site, abruptly distancing ourselves from engineering and construction.