
Generating Videos with Scene Dynamics - Ivoah
http://web.mit.edu/vondrick/tinyvideo/
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undershirt
Once, when waking from a nap, I was able to consciously keep my "dream eyes"
open with my real eyes closed. I could vividly see images my dream was still
generating, and it looked a lot like this.

Makes me wonder if I'm just influenced by the work happening in ML, or if we
are really approaching what the brain is already doing.

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gallerdude
People may call BS, but I do think we'll reach a point where we can generate
coherent books or movies. It'll take many more neurons, but I think the
possibility is out there.

The real question is where these "fake" pieces of art will be placed in our
society.

~~~
jacobush
I could live with that. One scenario I could imagine, a program "dreams up" a
movie. Critics then proceed to interpret it and explain what it's about. This
is already pretty much the situation for some movies...
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166924/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166924/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

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goblin89
Future prediction capability here can greatly improve video monitoring of all
kinds. Run a constantly trained system like this in real time over incoming
streams and let the agent observe generated predictive videos N units of time
ahead.

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jedimastert
>These videos are not real; they are hallucinated by a generative video model.

I'm not sure why, but the fact that they used the term "hallucinated" is a
little unsettling.

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taneq
Maybe because ML is starting to enter its own uncanny valley, where we can't
quite decide whether to view the results as machines or minds?

~~~
rl3
If you take the view that consciousness may simply require a sufficient degree
of complexity (electronic or otherwise), it gets even more murky.

Especially so when you're trying to pin down the facets of cognitive machinery
required to experience suffering. Memory in particular adds an interesting
dimension to the question.

Not that it was anything groundbreaking, but HBO's _Westworld_ did a decent
job of exploring this. Granted, it did so using fictional human-level analogs.

With the state AI in its infancy today, the ethical considerations surrounding
insects may offer more insight. I found this article extremely fascinating:

[http://relaximanentomologist.tumblr.com/post/51301520453/do-...](http://relaximanentomologist.tumblr.com/post/51301520453/do-
insects-feel-pain)

~~~
hacker_9
Westworld is also dramatized to make for interesting TV. For example, deaf
people without a voice in their head would not be conscious by their
definition.

Consciousness, and suffering, are biological concepts. Computer code running
algorithms on microprocessors aren't going to experience these things.

~~~
rl3
I wasn't suggesting _Westworld_ was some comprehensive scientific study of the
matter. Rather, that it did a decent job exploring the relationship between
suffering and memory, and some of the complexities that entails. For example,
memory wipes intended to reduce suffering inadvertently creating more
suffering via the unsettling emotional side effects involved.

> _Consciousness, and suffering, are biological concepts. Computer code
> running algorithms on microprocessors aren 't going to experience these
> things._

You seem so confident in this being the case. Who is to say cognition cannot
exist on silicon?

If you accept the supposition that cognition is a requium for emotion, and
emotion is a requium for suffering, then a digital organism need not have the
pain receptors of its biological counterpart in order to experience suffering.

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myowncrapulence
Interesting this only used 11tb worth of video.

Makes me wonder what this could produce with youtube's entire library.

