Sara Lumbreras | Universidad Pontificia de Comillas (original) (raw)

Papers by Sara Lumbreras

Philosophies

Consciousness and intelligence are properties that can be misunderstood as necessarily dependent.... more Consciousness and intelligence are properties that can be misunderstood as necessarily dependent. The term artificial intelligence and the kind of problems it managed to solve in recent years has been shown as an argument to establish that machines experience some sort of consciousness. Following Russell’s analogy, if a machine can do what a conscious human being does, the likelihood that the machine is conscious increases. However, the social implications of this analogy are catastrophic. Concretely, if rights are given to entities that can solve the kind of problems that a neurotypical person can, does the machine have potentially more rights than a person that has a disability? For example, the autistic syndrome disorder spectrum can make a person unable to solve the kind of problems that a machine solves. We believe the obvious answer is no, as problem-solving does not imply consciousness. Consequently, we will argue in this paper how phenomenal consciousness, at least, cannot b...

arXiv (Cornell University), Aug 3, 2022

Consciousness and intelligence are properties commonly understood as dependent by folk psychology... more Consciousness and intelligence are properties commonly understood as dependent by folk psychology and society in general. The term artificial intelligence and the kind of problems that it managed to solve in the recent years has been shown as an argument to establish that machines experience some sort of consciousness. Following Russell's analogy, if a machine is able to do what a conscious human being does, the likelihood that the machine is conscious increases. However, the social implications of this analogy are catastrophic. Concretely, if rights are given to entities that can solve the kind of problems that a neurotypical person can, does the machine have potentially more rights that a person that has a disability? For example, the autistic syndrome disorder spectrum can make a person unable to solve the kind of problems that a machine solves. We believe that the obvious answer is no, as problem solving does not imply consciousness. Consequently, we will argue in this paper how phenomenal consciousness and, at least, computational intelligence are independent and why machines do not possess phenomenal consciousness, although they can potentially develop a higher computational intelligence that human beings. In order to do so, we try to formulate an objective measure of computational intelligence and study how it presents in human beings, animals and machines. Analogously, we study phenomenal consciousness as a dichotomous variable and how it is distributed in humans, animals and machines. As phenomenal consciousness and computational intelligence are independent, this fact has critical implications for society that we also analyze in this work.

Science Progress

Infection by SARS-CoV-2 causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can be associated with seriou... more Infection by SARS-CoV-2 causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can be associated with serious and life-threatening conditions, including acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Severity and mortality have been related to a cytokine storm, an imbalance of oxidative stress, and a pro-thrombotic state. We conducted an observational retrospective cohort study from a community-based large population of hospitalized COVID-19 PCR + patients admitted from March 01, 2020, to January 24, 2021, with integrated primary to tertiary care information in Castilla la Mancha, Spain. We explored the potential benefits of the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic drug N-acetylcysteine (NAC) administered orally in high doses (600 mg every 8 h), added to standard of care in COVID-19 patients by using the free text information contained in their electronic health records (EHRs). Out of 19,208 patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19 hospitalized, we studied 2071 (10.8%) users of oral NA...

Religions

Giving humility a key role in scientific practice and communication would improve its objective s... more Giving humility a key role in scientific practice and communication would improve its objective social function—that is, the production of knowledge about our world and its application to the improvement of the human condition—and its public acceptance. This article reviews the limits of science arising from systemic, epistemic, methodological, and individual limitations and links them to the phenomena in scientific practice that they originate from. The reflection invites us to consider science from the point of view of its limits in situations where there is difficulty in reaching a consensus but also when a consensus has indeed been achieved. Science and technology reflect who we are as individuals and as a society and inherit both our virtues and weaknesses. Humility is the key to getting technoscience that brings us closer to the truth and helps us advance toward improving the human condition. Humbler science becomes a better science.

Issues in science and religion: publications of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology, 2022

Pensamiento. Revista de Investigación e Información Filosófica

Uno de los principales retos del transhumanismo lo encontramos en su antropología. Nos encontramo... more Uno de los principales retos del transhumanismo lo encontramos en su antropología. Nos encontramos ante un reduccionismo en el que el cuerpo aparece despojado de su dignidad y el espíritu no existe. El ejemplo que más me llama la atención de esto es el de la endogénesis: no se valora el hecho de que el ser humano sea gestado dentro del vientre de otro ser humano; para ellos sería preferible tener una máquina que pudiese hacer la misma misión, en lugar de que el embarazo sea un acto de amor que tiene impacto en toda la vida de la persona. Creo que este es el mayor obstáculo en el que nos encontraremos al valorar el transhumanismo, y es especialmente importante: la persona es un edificio de múltiples dimensiones (física, psíquica, espiritual...) inextricablemente ligadas. Es necesario reconocer la dignidad de nuestro cuerpo, que va más allá de ser sustrato material de nuestra consciencia. El cuerpo forma parte de nuestra naturaleza, en la que cuerpo, emoción, pensamiento y espíritu so...

Frontiers in Psychology

Understanding artificial intelligence (AI) and belief formation have interesting bidirectional sy... more Understanding artificial intelligence (AI) and belief formation have interesting bidirectional synergies. From explaining the logical derivation of beliefs and their internal consistency, to giving a quantitative account of mightiness, AI still has plenty of unexploited metaphors that can illuminate belief formation. In addition, acknowledging that AI should integrate itself with our belief processes (mainly, the capacity to reflect, rationalize, and communicate that is allowed by semantic coding) makes it possible to focus on more promising lines such as Interpretable Machine Learning.

ABSTRACTBackgroundFrom the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, an association between the severity of... more ABSTRACTBackgroundFrom the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, an association between the severity of COVID-19 and the presence of certain medical chronic conditions has been suggested. However, unlike influenza and other viruses, the burden of the disease in patients with asthma has been less evident.ObjectiveThis study aims at a better understanding of the burden of COVID-19 in patients with asthma and the impact of asthma, its related comorbidities, and treatment on the prognosis of COVID-19.MethodsWe analyzed clinical data from patients with asthma from January 1st to May 10th, 2020 using big data analytics and artificial intelligence through the SAVANA Manager® clinical platform.ResultsOut of 71,192 patients with asthma, 1,006 (1.41%) suffered from COVID-19. Compared to asthmatic individuals without COVID-19, patients with asthma and COVID-19 were significantly older (55 vs. 42 years), predominantly female (66% vs. 59%), had higher prevalence of hypertension, dyslipidemias, diabete...

Issues in Science and Religion: Publications of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology, 2020

In our own biology, in our very own body, we have been given the seeds of spirituality. I argue t... more In our own biology, in our very own body, we have been given the seeds of spirituality. I argue that life events and other experiences that activate particular biological mechanisms in our bodies have a spiritual meaning in themselves. Their spiritual dimension should not be understood as an epiphenomenon: it is fundamental and inescapably intertwined with its biological extent. The scope of self-transcendent experiences considered ranges from flow to mystical experiences. The biological mechanisms that seem to be involved focus on oxytocin cascades, which are an integral part of the regulation of social behaviour across mammal species. Oxytocin has been linked to feelings of love and connectedness as well as to faith. Interestingly, the moment where its concentration is at its highest is during childbirth. This article explores the different varieties of transcendent experience in relation to their biological support processes and the life events they accompany. It stresses the dangers of reducing biology to commodified processes that disregard the importance of their spiritual component. Showing respect to our physical experiences means acknowledging our own transcendence. If we fail doing so, we risk losing one of the most precious gifts we have received: the transcendent within.

Issues in Science and Theology: Are We Special?, 2017

The last decades have witnessed an unprecedented development in Information and Communication Tec... more The last decades have witnessed an unprecedented development in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), which have modified the way that interpersonal relationships are established and could also modify the way that human specificity is understood, even challenging the concept of human specialness. These technological advances have led some authors to anticipate that soon there will be machines built in our own image and to which we will relate as equals. However, we understand that subjectivity is a key element of all expressions of intelligence and emotion and is pivotal to consciousness itself, despite being overlooked in many reductionist arguments. We propose to bring the concept of authenticity to the discussion to distinguish different values in the possible expressions of intelligence, consciousness or emotion. Authenticity in this context would be deeply linked to subjective experience: for instance, an emotion is only authentic if it is felt in addition to being expressed. These subjective experiences, by definition, cannot be objectively measured. In order to overcome this limitation, we propose to use emergence as an objective surrogate for this authenticity: when behaviour is authentic, it emerges from lower-level domains rather than being imposed by programming or conditioning. In this paper we provide a framework for these concepts, with a double aim: stressing the importance of subjectivity and the difference between simulated processes and real ones, and proposing a filter based on emergence as a first guide in assessing the authenticity of these processes in AI.

Quantitative Finance, 2016

Transmission Expansion Planning (TEP) is a complex problem where building a new line involves a l... more Transmission Expansion Planning (TEP) is a complex problem where building a new line involves a long permitting process of around 10 years. Therefore, transmission expansion must anticipate the evolution of uncertainties particularly those derived f by changes in the capacity and location of new generating facilities. As it is not possible to request permits for all possible lines, priorities must be established. We develop a formulation to use Real Options Valuation (ROV) to evaluate the potential benefit of candidate lines and thereby identify priority projects. We present a feasible representation of optionality in TEP projects and propose a tractable evaluation of option value. The proposed technique identifies the candidate transmission lines with the highest potential, as well as their main value drivers. This is implemented on a realistic case study based on the Spanish system.

Annals of Operations Research, 2014

Sustainability

The decarbonization of the energy sector puts additional pressure on the transmission network. Th... more The decarbonization of the energy sector puts additional pressure on the transmission network. The main cause for this is that renewable sources are often more abundant in geographical areas far away from the main demand centers, so new transmission lines are required to connect the new renewable energy capacity. In addition, by connecting different geographical zones, the transmission network could smooth the intermittency and the variability of renewable energy production. Thus, the changing energy landscape leads to a need to reinforce the transmission network through the Network Transmission Expansion Planning. Ideally, all the idiosyncrasies of the electricity system are considered in the operation and expansion planning process. However, several critical dimensions of the planning process are routinely ignored since they may introduce parameters that are difficult to quantify and complexity that state-of-the-art planning methods cannot handle. This paper identifies the most re...

Energies, 2019

Transmission expansion planning is a problem of considerable complexity where classical optimizat... more Transmission expansion planning is a problem of considerable complexity where classical optimization techniques are unable to handle large case studies. Decomposition and divide-and-conquer strategies have been applied to this problem. We propose an alternative approach based on agent-based modeling (ABM) and inspired by the behavior of the Plasmodium mold, which builds efficient transportation networks as result of its search for food sources. Algorithms inspired by this mold have already been applied to road-network design. We modify an existing ABM for road-network design to include the idiosyncratic features of power systems and their related physics, and test it over an array of case studies. Our results show that the ABM can provide near-optimal designs in all the instances studied, possibly with some further interesting properties with respect to the robustness of the developed design. In addition, the model works in a decentralized manner, using mostly local information. Thi...

A two-stage stochastic optimization model for the design of the closed-loop cable layout of anOff... more A two-stage stochastic optimization model for the design of the closed-loop cable layout of anOffshore Wind Farm (OWF) is presented. The model consists on a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP) with scenario numeration incorporation to account for both wind power and cable failures stochasticity. The objective function supports simultaneous optimization of: (i) Initial investment (network topology and cablesizing), (ii) Total electrical power losses costs, and (iii) Reliability costs due to energy curtailment fromcables failures. The mathematical program is embedded in an iterative framework called PCI (Progressive Contingency Incorporation) in order to simplify the problem while providing the global optimum. The applicability of the method is demonstrated by tackling a real-world instance. Results show the functionality of the tool in quantifying the economic profitability when applying stochastic optimization compared to a deterministic approach, given certain values of failure par...