[doom] Evolutionary progression

I'm reading Ray Kurzweil's "The age of spiritual machines" at the moment and finding that it is alarming close to my own thinking about technological progression and where we - the human race - are headed.



Now, I'm certainly not a luddite - hell, technology pays my wages. But, I've long been of the same mind as Ray with regards to historic evolution.

Put simply, the most intelligent species on the planet becomes the dominant force. For now, this is us (humans) of course (although not all of us fall into that category).

As it currently stands, if we follow Moore's Law, then by 2020 computers will be as powerful as the human mind. After this point, they will outstrip us (they already do of course in areas such as computation, mathematics, data analysis etc).



Does this mean that at 2020, machines will mount an uprising and go a-stomping around in superiority or indeed farm us á la Matrix. Well, no - at least not yet.

We need to establish what defines sentience and therefore determine if artificial intelligence will ever attain it. It can be argued that AI (invented by man, remember) already has sapience - the ability to act with judgement. Even a basic if…then…else statement indicates that. However, as it currently stands, those judgements are determined by man and those that develop the code commanding the AI.   "Sentience is the ability to perceive" according to Wikipedia and also "as the ability to experience suffering". With computers able to perceive the world around them, perceive scent and more, it can be argued that they are edging closer to sentience.

Ray's 2005-penned name for the point where AI becomes a definable species is "the technological singularity" - the next technological-evolutionary jump. Several people before Ray spoke about such an event. In 1965, statistician I. J. Good qas quoted as saying:

"Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an 'intelligence explosion,' and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make."

To supercede our intellect, AI needs to be able to reason beyond senses. The philisopher Descartes argued that the human senses are utterly unreliable for perceiving reality. We can only perceive what they are able to translate. From the Matrix:

"Morpheus: What is 'real'? How do you define 'real'? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then "real" is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain..."

Descartes originally expressed this by observing that during a dream, we sense everything as if it were real. Thus, our senses can easily be mistaken or fooled. He then goes on to consider wax as an example of our minds being more reliable than our senses. When holding a piece of wax, our senses inform us that it has certain colour, texture, weight, smell, structure etc. However, when melted in a flame, the wax's colour, smell, texture, structure etc can ll change. Our senses perceive a different object, yet our minds are able to understand that it is still wax.

AI will need to be able to understand the world in this way if it is to surpass us. But, I feel it won't be long.

The biggest barrier in my mind is the fact that machines are man-made. Thus they cannot surpass us. However, nanotechnology and artificial neural networkshave the opportunity to change this. Once AI achieves awareness of itself (Terminator 2's SkyNet was said to have done this. The movie might seem like mindless action but for me, it embodies a very real threat) then it will assess the most efficient methods for its own development and begin creation of itself (as AI is a globally-spanning entity, networked as such. Humans, by comparison, do not have a global network of minds; the Internet being the closest thing to it. Ironically, this is an artificial network).

I'm researching more, so this ends here for now. I intend to revisit the subject, but there's just too much information for me to absorb coherently right now.

Additional info: Ray Kurzweil's site about AI and the singularity

[vid] BakuTen - house of dominos

This is bloody brilliant! Dominoes using everday item :)

[music] Tool

I've gone on about them before and indeed I'm not in anyway alone in my appreciation of this band.

But I want to try to further focus what it is that makes them such an impressive band. Their music really is unlike anything else out there. I think the closest I can come to giving you an idea if you don't listen to them already is modern day "the Pink Floyd" of progressive rock. Floyd were renowned for creating long-play tracks that took you on a journey. Certainly, Tool's "Lateralis" album does that, containing no less than 8 tracks over 5 minutes, 5 of which are over 7 minutes each (11:07 being the longest). "10,000 days", their latest album contains 2 tracks over 11 minutes each.

Each song breaks boundaries - these are no teen-angst, radio-friendly or pop-idol fillers. Allmusic.com (my most reliable source of music info) rates every one of their 4 albums as 4 or 4.5 stars out of 5; something I've not seen from any other band on the site.

And don't be mistaken for thinking they're a metal band. This turns so many people off, but since most of their tracks revolve around serious social/world issues it would be a shame to miss out just because they like their guitars. Maynard James Keenan (vocalist) has such an impressive range and uses it well.

They're mercifully disinterested with media or fame. They don't appear in their own videos and rarely on their own album artwork. Granted, this lack of appearance, coupled with Maynard's liking of playing gigs entirely with his back to the audience could give license to call them somewhat egotistical and self-obsessed but it beats being like all the others.

In terms of their tracks, I am continually stunned by what I discover about them. Tracks I've listened to for years turn up new surprises. For example, "Lateralus" from the album of the same name, is said to have been written in time with the Fibonacci sequence. Indeed, allegedly the entire album is and playing it with the sequence applied is said to turn up different stories told by the tracks. So many other tidbits like this exist:

"The fourth track, "Mantra", was alleged to be a slowed-down recording of someone—possibly an old woman—saying "I love you". Keenan has since stated that the song is a slowed-down recording of one of his Siamese cats being squeezed. It has been noted that when the vinyl record is played on a phono player at 78 speed, the track actually sounds like a recording of a mantra being recited."

"There is a hidden message in 'Intension' when played in reverse: "work hard; stay in school; listen to your mother; your father is right," repeated twice. The second occurrence is softer, while the entire message starts at the beginning of the reversed track at approximately 1:10."

They are extremely priveleged that their record labels allow them such freedom and time to develop albums (often 5 years in the making), although it has strained their relationship and meant that they have been through a number of labels to date.

Official band site: http://www.toolband.com/

[random] Se7en

Watched Se7en again last night - I love that movie. It's just a great all-rounder: brilliant acting, meaningful subject matter (especially to me), wonderfully shot (so gritty and dark) and a great unexpected ending (well, not now I've seen it about a dozen times but still great).

There's a track by Sinch called "The Silent Acquiescence of Millions" which I wish they would have used somewhere in the movie. It ties in perfectly with the film's message: John Doe's driving purpose. The lyrics are below (I think they're great and it's tracks like this that reaffirm my total disregard for popular music as anything beyond throwaway time-filler. I like some popular music as much as the next man, but would never expect anything of worth to be said via it - it continues to prove me right).

Sinch - "The Silent Acquiescence of Millions" Always feeling so uncomfortable, and the situation tends to be predictable Hope slips through trained fingers, It's how it's always been I can't seem to tear myself away, been living in the past with my mistakes But I always find a way to numb the tension, bury thoughts alone Under the skin to hide the damage done to my defense Senses dulled then cracked, I concede that maybe

I'm unsure of just what it takes to frustrate and dismantle apathy Rain, wash away the temptations before I let them get the best of me

Yesterday's accomplishments, replaced by tomorrow's burdens A never ending cycle begins, so diseased and looking for a means to an end I found nothings solid anymore, all that's left is try and I confess that maybe

I'm unsure of just what it takes to frustrate and dismantle apathy Rain, wash away the temptations before I let them get the best of me

Designed and developed inside of my lungs, on the tip of my fucking tongue But no one ever gets the point That life is always about to fall to pieces, just something beautiful that's about to get wrecked But no one wants to feel at all Because we've made ourselves so numb, but I want to feel something

I won't ever live that way again, somewhere along the line I lost feeling And I lost control, But then I lost strength and completely lost hope When our lives are consumed by society's fumes, We punch our time clocks and watch the ignorance bloom

And how strange that we all feel the same, and how strange that no one dares complain See I'm always turning backwards and forwards again retracing my steps to the bitter cold end Rewind the tape and let me see exactly where it went wrong, indulge in our pasts strong And how strange that we all feel the same, and how strange that no one complains

Designed and developed inside of my lungs on the tip of my fucking tongue But no one ever gets the point That life is always about to fall to pieces something beautiful that's about to get wrecked But no one wants to feel at all Because we made ourselves so numb, don't you want to feel something

[new music] Lots of new stuff...

Buying music is one of my favourite things to do. Been on a bit of a spree and picked up:

Spoon - A series of sneaks



From 1st listen, it sounds great. Link.

Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers - Everybody's Talkin' Bout Miss Thing



Link.

The Essential Junior Kimbrough



The guy who inspired both The Black Keys and Mofro. Looking forward to this... Link.

The Black Keys - Chulahoma



The 'Keys covering Junior Kimbrough tracks. 2 listens and I'm hooked. Top stuff. Link.

Steve Marriott's All Stars - Marriott



The Small Faces' and Humble Pie front man goes it alone for some blues/soul/rock. Online listen sounded great and I love the track below - one of my favourites. Link.

Steve Marriott - Black Coffee

[art] a random nude

Grr, I've worked all (bloody) weekend, tied to my computer in my flat whilst the weather outside is cloudless, 30°C heat. Anyways, I got an email from deviantart.com telling me someone had posted a comment about one of my photos. Checked out his work and he has done some incredible nude black&white photography. The appeal of this is obvious ( :) ) but I've atctually always found it easier to sketch from B&W photos than anything else. I took 30 minutes break from work and had a crack at sketching one of his photos: Quite pleased with it since I've never used pen before (cross-hatching and all that) and that it only took 30 mins. Her left boob's gone a bit odd though :) Right, back to work… The original photo is here (NSFW).