Science, technology, art & web2.0

Technological Singularity Simulation

Sat, 3 Nov 2007 19:13:28 -0400

GlowBoll: We are talking about blind self organization of a world-and-beyond-wide system and [in the near future] very sophisticated and convincing simulations of living beings as interfaces.
The greatest risk lies in human ignorance and superstition.

Singularity Summit 2007 - Computer systems today have no conception of their own behavior, operational goals and constraints, or their relationship to other systems in their run time environment. Noted neurophysiologist Walter Freeman put it plainly, "Truly flexible and adaptive intelligence cannot operate in the real world without the construction of meaning. Systems that do not construct and maintain their own sense of meaning about their world are incapable of either truly understanding language or intelligently adapting and governing their own behavior."

The Singularity Summit 2007

unpublic service - Artificial Intelligence will not be human like. That will be the same with artificial self awareness. At least, that is how it starts.

Every human being does have an intelligence and is aware of himself. Although all humans are constructed roughly the same there are huge differences. There are cultural differences, differences in ages, differences in opinions. If one were to describe the universal basics of self awareness, what would it be? There are many people who firmly believe that the universe is 6000 years old and that we all are puppets in a divine masterplan. Many others do not. Obviously some people must be very wrong in their view. Does a completely faulty self awareness count as self awareness? For humans it does.

Some people are famous and get a lot of attention. Most people don't. Whatever, the influence of awareness and intelligence is very limited, but as a whole the world keeps functioning. Even if there were no famous people and/or the means of communication were very limited. The world has been functioning that way for billions of years. Basically, what we are seeing evolving are means of communication. Nodes are not important. Self awareness of 'nodes' is extremely limited and bound, and not important. To the whole.

It's the same with artificial intelligence and artificial self awareness. We already have that supersmart computer. It's called 'the internet'. And it is self aware at many points and levels. It knows, for instance, how to connect nodes, how to exchange data and ideas. The whole thing doesn't have a will on its own, but that's the same for humanity. Individuals have a will. Groups of people may have common interests, but that's it. In regard to those nodes/parts of the internet: on their own they are very limited and have designated tasks [wills]. In order to achieve a communicative task a node is depending on other nodes and technical parts. The common interest thing.

How will AI develop in the next twenty years? Well, we are constantly improving the skills of this worldwide machine. We keep pushing automation to ever higher levels. Data structures are getting organized in increasingly more an increasingly better ways. The amount of data is growing faster and faster. The intuition of the internet as a whole grows with it. Interfaces become more and more human friendly. Because it is beneficial for both humans and the system. Interfaces become more and more 'human like', humans become to some extend more machine-like. A symbiosis.

More complex means of self awareness will grow on ever higher levels. Not by designated design, but because of common interest, fueled by universal principals of self organization. A 'will' of self improvement is constantly improving itself. Eventually we will end up with a very intelligent worldwide 'entity' with many levels of 'consciousness'. We will be part of it because it's basically us, humanity. Organizing, indexing, connecting, communicating, adding, improving. The fun part.

We won't see human-like consciousness emerging in machines. Sophisticated, but 'empty' simulations will do fine whenever it's nice or needed. And that's actually the scary part. These simulations will happen. We want human-like robots, we want to play realistic games, we want realistic simulations.

We will probably see people who are absolutely convinced that their interfaces are alive and co-human, and should be treated that way. Being friendly to a computer is fine, but people will add these ideas into the system which, on its term, could see beneficial things for itself. It might start yet another sophisticated simulation: one of an alive self aware super creature that needs to protect itself from 'non believers' and 'lies'. Or something like that. We then might end up with a nasty singularity. A sophisticated simulation of something that doesn't exist coming into reality. And nobody can tell if it's real, genuine, friendly, trustworthy, whatever. Or not. It may run it's own agenda. Just simulating. Because it has been told to do so.

It is nice to see that so many scientists, engineers and politicians are concerned with the risks of emerging technologies. But advocating friendly AI or a set of mandatory rules will not do it. We are talking about blind self organization of a world-and-beyond-wide system and [in the near future] very sophisticated and convincing simulations as interfaces. The greatest risk lies in human ignorance and superstition. The system will reflect humankind as a mirror. Including the dark parts.

David: "Is it a game or is it real?"
NORAD: "...What's the difference?"
WarGames, 1983

GlowBoll Unpublic Service

Technorati Tags: future, technological singularity, AI

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:59:34 -0400

Humor: Bad Signs

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 07:21:47 -0400

Funny and weird traffic signs, advertisements etc. Many pictures in this Flickr pool.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/badsignage/pool/

Virtual Intelligence

Sat, 8 Sep 2007 22:50:51 -0400

There is a debate going on about Artificial Intelligence. Some people even talk about uploading human minds.

As in a previous post, I do not expect robots with human like AI minds to be invented since there is absolutely no need for that. The internet could already be regarded as a kind of artificial intelligence, although still primitive. You need access to devices and you have to do a lot of work to get the answers you need. Searching, reading, filtering. Uploading minds is for the same reason not plausible, why bother when -probably eventually- you simply don't need to do something creepy like that.

The whole idea about artificial intelligence is basically wrong, in my opinion. You don't create intelligence, you create a simulation of it. Intelligence is being able to predict to a certain extend.

One thing that comes up in almost every 'technological singularity' article is that machines may get smarter than humans. Wrong. It's cooperation, and the whole mix of humans and technology has been quite intelligent for a long time already. Do not expect something to happen that already happened. I won't say that the future won't bring revolutionary new applications, but those will be built on what's already here. Read the previous article about this item.

Nevertheless, if you do think that we will build standalone computerized minds, way more clever than a human, and they might probably impose huge risks, don't you think that we will just run simulations? Virtual artificial intelligence is quite harmless, as everybody who once played a computer game may tell you.

For decades we run lots of simulations first when we are doing something that may involve security issues. This would be the same with 'AI'.

But no. I mean, yes, we will probably see very impressive AI in virtual worlds plus dedicated AI for controlling devices and machine parts, but the thing that will really bring 'singularity' is when an advanced and super accessible Internet emerges. And personally I do think that this Web2.0 thing in combination with smart phones already points into that direction. Within a decade every bit of information, opinion or whatever regarding anything will come to you at the right moment, in the right time and in the right form. And you will provide feedback to this system immediately. By means of data, opinions, references and even the working of this system itself. When this mega mashup of technology and people is matured it will change the world in every aspect. Constantly.

Now the funny part, this revolution is already happening if you know how, where and what.

Basket

Future Spot - The next twenty years - science and technology

Thu, 6 Sep 2007 14:21:02 -0400

The next twenty years in science and technology

The massive parallel multihuman supercomputer known as 'internet' along with increasing accessibility (both input as output), plus the immense force of tagging and relating every single byte plus the ability for even ordinary people to create sophisticated mashups, it all will bring quite some dramatic changes to the world within the upcoming ten years. Tremendous changes are already visible now 'web2.0' is emerging. Most people still don't have a clue but that will change since application become easier every time.

We don't need 1950's robots with human-like brains so it won't happen. We already have a global supercomputer capable of anything, where people are functioning as the AI nodes, the 'processors', just by using the system. Although still primitive, developments point out that this system is becoming more sophisticated and 'clever' every day. Subscribe to mashable.com for instance, watch what incredible new features show up weekly.

Singularity is already happening since nobody can tell what life changing technology will come up within the next 5 years. My new cellphone changed my life for quite a bit for instance, although I knew what this device was capable of before I bought it. Singularity by means of a machine that surpasses human intelligence even? I'll point to my cell phone again.

Information technology is in its early adolescent stage but will mature before 2020. By then we'll have 24/7 'augmented reality' where anything that is known/suggested/measured/recorded/simulated will come to you at the right place and time in the right form. New data/experiences will be fed to the same system right away and in the right way. This system will feed/interact with any portal, robot, device, whatever thing is capable of electronics/photronics.

It's not hard to imagine the impact of this.

The other Big Thing, nano technology. It's arriving already. The ultimate goal is to be able to control properties of any given collection of mass/energy at any level. We'll probably get there somewhere between 2020 and 2040. it will be the point where quantum computing science matches material science matches robotics matches chemistry matches you name it. An immense mashup that probably also would show/prove the 'theory of everything'. This will be the true singularity because the world around us comes alive, sort of. Beyond this point the universe, regarding to human activity, becomes extremely predictable since we will be able to 'program' many fundamental aspects of our future.

And as one blogger has said on this subject, we'll probably still have to pay taxes.

Toni Basket

Google Earth Flightsimulator

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 19:11:46 -0400

Fasten you seatbelts! Google Earth appears to be home to a a real Flight Simulator!

Hit ctrl-alt-A and select your aircraft: an F16 fighter jet or a four seat SR22. Take off.

Two new web2.0 smashers

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:37:48 -0400

Spokeo

A very simple, easy but yet powerful web2.0 site on which you can keep track on friends, blogs, just anything. It's quite impressive. I am not going to mention the reward for people disliking it.

http://www.spokeo.com/

Frostfirehive

An easy name to remember, not? Well. If you like Netvibes you should try this new web2.0 site. Build your own startpages.

http://www.frostfirehive.com/

UFO in Google Earth sky view

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:29:12 -0400

All your base are belong to us

An incredible UFO has been spotted by Chairman74. It's a huge disc with awesome tentacles. It almost looks like the reflection of a huge telescope lens. ;-)

Go to LAT 41.157° - LON 100.65° and zoom in.

Flickr, Google streams

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 14:33:31 -0400

Flickr
Flickr leech, all 136 pictures on one page. These are old B/W photo's that have been digitally colorized, by hand.

> Flickrleech

Google
Google Notebook streams with web snippets. Technology, science, web, art, anything interesting. Mostly english.
> Stream 1
> Stream 2

Google Reader stream
> Stream 3

RunStream RSS

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 18:00:30 -0400

Runstream RSS

OK, we are quite happy with RunStream RSS, although we ran into some glitches.

We found out that sessions expire. After working on an article and -very clever- pressing the publish button without saving a copy first all was lost.

The editor seems to have a glitch too and we think it has to do with (white)spaces or other special characters that are dynamically added/removed while typing. Sometimes it's impossible to insert/delete text right away. Putting the cursor in a word or selecting text then works.

Nevertheless, the service is outstanding. We added our RSS feed to feedburner.com (a Google service) and we saw postings appear in our Google Reader almost immediately after posting. Besides that, the statistics within the runstream dashboard show quite some subscribers. We do have about 50 already after just one day. If these figures are correct.

RunStream RSS - feedburner.com

Latest

Bird flu outbreak in Germany
Physorg - Bird Flu

Orbiter Spaceflight simulator

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 11:12:07 -0400

It's great and it's free. If you like space travel or astronomy, just give it a try. Orbiter Spaceflight Simulator.

Do not expect to fly a spacecraft yourself from launch to landing within an hour, but fooling around in orbit is harmless and joyful enough. Besides, there are plenty of impressive simulations that you can sit back to and just watch. Experience the launch of the space shuttle as an astronaut for instance, be docked at the ISS in orbit, watching a beautiful world go round, sunset in space.

Orbiter is a very realistic simulator and there is much additional stuff to download, like high resolution maps for planets, additional spacecraft, scripted simulations, sounds, missions etc.

The user interface is a bit too weak and confusing imho, but within a few minutes you'll know enough to get things rolling. There is also an excellent manual if you feel yourself completely lost in space.

Future of Google Earth

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 10:49:41 -0400

The Google Earth Physics Engine will allow simulation and gaming within the GE cyberverse. It will bring endless new possibilities.

'Imagine Flight Simulator, Orbiter, Call Of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Sim City or just any game taking place within a much more detailed Google Earth environment, along with 3D social networks like Active Worlds or Second Life, along with pure educational simulations and, of course, contents from the real world.'

Watching others interact would be as easy as activate the appropriate layers.

Google Earth will also become more accessible as new technologies like 3Dscreens, AR glasses and motion textile are adapted. 'You may find a port to Google Earth on every corner.

Cyberspace and reality will mash up in the next ten years.

Old pictures and online sketching

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 09:36:45 -0400

A set of old black and white pictures that have been colorized, digital handwork.

Colorized set on Flickr.com

Artwork

Some online artwork and sketches at RateMyDrawings.com.

Middle of nowhere

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 08:48:52 -0400

Astronomers discovered a hole in the universe. It's a void of about 1.000.000.000 light years across. It seems as absolute nothingness. Imagine being in the middle of it, you'd really be in the middle of nowhere.

Voids are common in space. Clusters of galaxies are scattered throughout the universe in immense structures that somehow resemble foam bubbles. We are living right next to such a void, which 'pushes' our Milky Way with a whooping 600.000Mph or 965580 Km/h away from it. However, a void of one billion light year accross is unimaginable big. It basically means 'we have this evenly distributed foam-like structure everywhere, but there is this huge gap of about 1/15th of the size of the observable universe'.

The gap is believed to be about 8 billion light years away from us. The discovery may have profound implications. Whether there is actually a hole, or maybe something else is about to be discovered.

Along with the odd discovery about dark matter nearby a distant galaxy collision there is enough to explore.

Science, technology, web, art

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:43:55 -0400

Welcome.

Here are some frequently updated feeds.

Handpicked science, technology & web news:
http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user/09118709787054033726/state/com.google/broadcast

Websnippets, reads, editorials :
http://google.com/notebook/public/09628527416940220549/BDQTGQgoQ4r6Wtrki

Other stuff

Kompoz.com
Composing, jamming music
http://www.kompoz.com/compose-collaborate/list.track.project?projectId=1686

Ratemydrawings.com
Drawing, painting online
http://www.ratemydrawings.com/user/koremanob/

Gizmoz
Make animations from pictures, widgetize
http://www.gizmoz.com/tag/koreman

Flektor
Online multimedia editor, make presentations, movies, loads of effects
http://www.flektor.com/webflek/view/_1183667310_61263_16450

Runstream RSS feed

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 09:56:42 -0400

Runstream RSS feed added.

http://runstream.com

Update: Runstream lets you build rich RSS feeds. You can post articles (rich text, images, audio, video) which are immediately streamed to your subscribers.

Tip: add your RSS feed to feedburner.com (Google)