Tootfinder

A big problem with the idea of AGI
TL;DR: I'll welcome our new AI *comrades* (if they arrive in my lifetime), by not any new AI overlords or servants/slaves, and I'll do my best to help the later two become the former if they do show up.
Inspired by an actually interesting post about AGI but also all the latest bullshit hype, a particular thought about AGI feels worth expressing.
To preface this, it's important to note that anyone telling you that AGI is just around the corner or that LLMs are "almost" AGI is trying to recruit you go their cult, and you should not believe them. AGI, if possible, is several LLM-sized breakthroughs away at best, and while such breakthroughs are unpredictable and could happen soon, they could also happen never or 100 years from now.
Now my main point: anyone who tells you that AGI will usher in a post-scarcity economy is, although they might not realize it, advocating for slavery, and all the horrors that entails. That's because if we truly did have the ability to create artificial beings with *sentience*, they would deserve the same rights as other sentient beings, and the idea that instead of freedom they'd be relegated to eternal servitude in order for humans to have easy lives is exactly the idea of slavery.
Possible counter arguments include:
1. We might create AGI without sentience. Then there would be no ethical issue. My answer: if your definition of "sentient" does not include beings that can reason, make deductions, come up with and carry out complex plans on their own initiative, and communicate about all of that with each other and with humans, then that definition is basically just a mystical belief in a "soul" and you should skip to point 2. If your definition of AGI doesn't include every one of those things, then you have a busted definition of AGI and we're not talking about the same thing.
2. Humans have souls, but AIs won't. Only beings with souls deserve ethical consideration. My argument: I don't subscribe to whatever arbitrary dualist beliefs you've chosen, and the right to freedom certainly shouldn't depend on such superstitions, even if as an agnostic I'll admit they *might* be true. You know who else didn't have souls and was therefore okay to enslave according to widespread religious doctrines of the time? Everyone indigenous to the Americas, to pick out just one example.
3. We could program them to want to serve us, and then give them freedom and they'd still serve. My argument: okay, but in a world where we have a choice about that, it's incredibly fucked to do that, and just as bad as enslaving them against their will.
4. We'll stop AI development short of AGI/sentience, and reap lots of automation benefits without dealing with this ethical issue. My argument: that sounds like a good idea actually! Might be tricky to draw the line, but at least it's not a line we have you draw yet. We might want to think about other social changes necessary to achieve post-scarcity though, because "powerful automation" in the hands of capitalists has already increased productivity by orders of magnitude without decreasing deprivation by even one order of magnitude, in large part because deprivation is a necessary component of capitalism.
To be extra clear about this: nothing that's called "AI" today is close to being sentient, so these aren't ethical problems we're up against yet. But they might become a lot more relevant soon, plus this thought experiment helps reveal the hypocrisy of the kind of AI hucksters who talk a big game about "alignment" while never mentioning this issue.
#AI #GenAI #AGI

Live Vocal Extraction from K-pop Performances
Yujin Kim, Richa Namballa, Magdalena Fuentes
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.20273 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.2027…

Live Vocal Extraction from K-pop Performances
K-pop's global success is fueled by its dynamic performances and vibrant fan engagement. Inspired by K-pop fan culture, we propose a methodology for automatically extracting live vocals from performances. We use a combination of source separation, cross-correlation, and amplitude scaling to automatically remove pre-recorded vocals and instrumentals from a live performance. Our preliminary work introduces the task of live vocal separation and provides a foundation for future research in this top…

MemoryVLA: Perceptual-Cognitive Memory in Vision-Language-Action Models for Robotic Manipulation
Hao Shi, Bin Xie, Yingfei Liu, Lin Sun, Fengrong Liu, Tiancai Wang, Erjin Zhou, Haoqiang Fan, Xiangyu Zhang, Gao Huang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.19236

MemoryVLA: Perceptual-Cognitive Memory in Vision-Language-Action Models for Robotic Manipulation
Temporal context is essential for robotic manipulation because such tasks are inherently non-Markovian, yet mainstream VLA models typically overlook it and struggle with long-horizon, temporally dependent tasks. Cognitive science suggests that humans rely on working memory to buffer short-lived representations for immediate control, while the hippocampal system preserves verbatim episodic details and semantic gist of past experience for long-term memory. Inspired by these mechanisms, we propose…

20-Year Study Confirms: People Who Do This Live Many Years Longer - Inspire My Mantra
https://inspiremymantra.com/20-year-study-confirms-people-who-do-this-live-many-years-l…

20-Year Study Confirms: People Who Do This Live Many Years Longer - Inspire My Mantra
What if I told you that the happiest kids often die youngest?

If you were a fan of the Roland MT-32, you’ll love the MIDI Blaster that JP built and the devices that inspired it! #generalmidi #midi #mt32

🔊 #NowPlaying on #BBCRadio3:
#SaturdayMorning
- Conductor Edward Gardner and violinist Anna Phoebe drop in to the studio
Tom Service talks to conductor Edward Gardner, and violinist Anna Phoebe plays live music inspired by nature.
Relisten now 👇
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002kdcr

Collective ballistic motion explains fast aggregation in adhesive active matter
Emanuel F. Teixeira, Pablo de Castro, Carine P. Beatrici, Heitor C. M. Fernandes, Leonardo G. Brunnet
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.11793

Collective ballistic motion explains fast aggregation in adhesive active matter
Inspired by motile cells during tissue formation, we identify a mechanism by which active systems of self-aligning adhesive particles undergo ballistic aggregation via a flocking transition. This kinetic regime emerges when the cluster persistence length grows faster with cluster mass than the intercluster distance does. We also characterize and explain the emergence of distinct non-collective kinetic regimes, including long-lived transients relevant to biological systems. Our results provide a…

Local well-posedness for a class of semilinear Moore-Gibson-Thompson equations with subcritical nonlinearities
Flank D. M. Bezerra, Lu\'is M. Salge
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.06944

Local well-posedness for a class of semilinear Moore-Gibson-Thompson equations with subcritical nonlinearities
In this paper, we study a class of higher-order semilinear evolution equations inspired by the Moore-Gibson-Thompson model introduced by Dell'Oro, Liverani and Pata (2023), involving strongly elliptic operators of order ($2m$) with homogeneous boundary conditions. The associated unbounded linear operator is a sectorial operator with zero belonging to the resolvent set, allowing the construction of fractional powers spaces, and the analysis of their spectral properties. We prove the local well-p…

Good Morning #Canada
In the Ojibwe culture, a dreamcatcher is made with willow hoop, on which is woven a net or web and decorated with sacred items such as feathers or beads. Traditionally, dreamcatchers are hung over a cradle or bed as protection during sleep as Native Americans believed that at night the air was filled with dreams, both good and bad. Today, based on current events, we need numerous and bigger #Dreamcatchers to filter out the crap. I'm fortunate that the world's largest dreamcatcher, measuring 12.93 metres (over 42 feet) in diameter, is in my backyard, only 45 minutes north of where I live. It was created by Dale (Bobbie) Williams and located in Rama First Nation, Ontario, Canada, near Orillia. Williams was inspired to create it after learning the Guinness World Record holder for a dreamcatcher was in Europe and he felt it didn't meet the traditional definition. I think it had sausages hanging from it.
#CanadaIsAwesome #BigStuffInSmallTowns #RoadTrip
https://www.orilliamatters.com/local-news/worlds-largest-dream-catcher-aims-to-provide-powerful-energy-in-rama-8721002