{"id":689,"date":"2022-06-13T15:44:19","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T14:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/philosophyandpsychedelics\/?page_id=689"},"modified":"2022-06-13T15:44:19","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T14:44:19","slug":"689-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/philosophy-psychedelics\/transdisciplinary-research-colloquium-on-psychedelics\/colloquium-recordings\/689-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Faces in things? Psychedelic visuals, Pareidolia and AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-automation=\"listing-event-description\"><strong>Matthew Watkins<\/strong><\/div>\n<div data-automation=\"listing-event-description\">10 June 2022<\/div>\n<div data-automation=\"listing-event-description\"><strong>Faces in things? Psychedelic visuals, Pareidolia and AI<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><div class=\"iframe-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"embed-responsive-item\"  title=\"Dr Matthew Watkins \u2013 Faces in things? Psychedelic Visuals, Pareidolia and AI\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/719869151?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/p>\n<p><strong>Abstract:<br \/>\n<\/strong>Increased facial pareidolia, the tendency for the human mind to see faces where there aren\u2019t any, is a common feature in accounts of psychedelic experiences. Recently, researchers developing and experimenting with AI facial recognition systems have encountered a phenomenon analogous to facial pareidolia occuring with their algorithms. \u00a0Harnessing this type of phenomenon, creative adaptation of such algorithms can be used to create convincing (to many) recreations of the visual component of psychedelic experience This goes back to Google DeepDream in 2015, and has since evolved considerably. Having recently been exploring the mysterious internal workings of Artificial Neural Network visual systems, another source of profoundly psychedelic imagery, I will explore what this unexpected crossover between technology and psychedelia might mean.<\/p>\n<div data-automation=\"listing-event-description\"><\/div>\n<div data-automation=\"listing-event-description\">\n<div><strong>Bio:<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><span class=\"x_markpen0ra4sb\">Matthew<\/span>\u00a0Watkins is a mathematician, author, broadcaster, DJ and generalist thinker. In the world of psychedelic research, he\u2019s best known for a 1996 critique of Terence McKenna\u2019s notorious Timewave theory (announced by McKenna to his audience as \u201cThe Watkins Objection\u201d). His most recent publication was an experimental cosmic\/local history book (You Are Here: The Biography of a Moment, 2017). Lately, he\u2019s reluctantly become involved with AI safety research.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew Watkins 10 June 2022 Faces in things? Psychedelic visuals, Pareidolia and AI Abstract: Increased facial pareidolia, the tendency for the human mind to see faces where there aren\u2019t any, is a common feature in accounts of psychedelic experiences. Recently, researchers developing and experimenting with AI facial recognition systems have encountered a phenomenon analogous to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":521,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Faces in things? 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