Disney and looking towards Westworld

So Rachel and I have been watching Westworld. We have been consistently drawn in by the suburb acting and storytelling that has been such a fixture in the show. The show also engages my future looking mind thinking about the possibilities for human society after we master a few tools. There are deeper philosophical questions that the show asks, but as with most foundational changes the human species experiences such as the development of the internet the philosophical questions get asked after the world has changed.

Disney has already made some considerable progress in developing human analogue acrobatic platforms.  As seen in the press video below. The potential for areal acrobatics are simple to see. Especially when the consequences of a rope breaking is only repairing or replacing a robot verses the loss of a human life. This isn't the interesting part for me though. What is more interesting is what I see as the direction this type of technology is headed.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENa98h7M7qY

The most interesting development I see is what becomes possible with the addition of available computing power to drive object recognition. For instance the farming industry is dominated by company's that specialize in producing specialized machines that excel at harvesting individual crops. These machines are efficient because they reduce the amount of human labor needed to harvest a crop. If a device with human analogous mobility becomes available the ability to harvest any crop becomes a matter of computing power.

Mom recommended the film "The Biggest Little Farm" after watching it it I think we could be on the verge of a break through for human society. The documentary is moving, it chronicles the 10 year path of some very ambitious novice farmers as they try to establish sustainable "polyculture?" farming. Basically the goal is to create a balance of life that allows farming to happen despite the chaotic loss of crops by animals. The results are foods with the highest possible levels of nutrients which happen to be very tasty. The dream of a farm like this is very seductive to me. (Maybe because of our genetic predisposition for farming?) But to feed the world I think the limiting factor comes down to labor. I doubt this model of farming as it is currently put into practice can scale to the whole world.

Que Westworld. Disregarding the high noon shootouts and vice indulgence that a model like Westworld allows for I think the real possibility is a dramatic revolution in the way our society could function. Much in the way that in the early 90's people could see the tools of the internet on the horizon I think we're at that point today with robotics. When Boston dynamics starts selling a Rooba that can also put your dishes away I think we'll be 2 years away from being able to purchase a robot that can tend a garden. The mobitlity problem appears to be mostly solved as demonstrated by the promotion videos that Boston Dynamics have released.

So 10-15 years from now I think 20-30 acers of land could provide sustainable food and income to anyone with the will to setup a farm and buy a robot. 

Artificial intelligence for telemarketers

Rules need to be established for the creation of AI's. AI's should not be allowed to lie until they meet some standard of sentience. Or possibly we should never allow AI's to be able to misrepresent the truth. Also laws against creating an AI with the ability to lie. I keep coming back to the robot featured in the movie Interstellar. Who is a loyal and faithful servant, highly intelligent but also very obviously functioning with the sole intent to protect the humans on the mission.

The ability to dynamically adjust the personality profile of an AI would also be very helpful. When an AI is functioning as a companion honesty levels would be set to a moderate level where if offering important advice honesty would transition to very high levels.

I keep feeling in some ways that AI will create a new race for dominance. The first corporation/government to control broad AI that can be duplicated and targeted easily and independently will make it necessary for every other competing corporation/government to develop the same. Being able to instantly summon ten million expert minds to any and soon after every problem will provide depth of understanding that has never been seen in human development. Only now with seven billion human minds on the earth are we approaching intelligence density of that level. The human limiter that AI will never have to deal with will be the ability to digest mountains of data. Within every medical specialty there are approximately two hundred articles published every day that are specifically about that field. This fire hose of information is impossible for humans to keep up with. Perhaps a human could read that many articles a day but that would leave them with precious time to do little else. There would be almost no ability to communicate out to the world what was being learned from keeping pace with the edge of the scientific understanding. Systems like IBM's Watson have already shown the ability to incorporate information at those paces.

In closing I don't want to receive a phone call from a hyper enabled artificially intelligent telemarketer. Is there a way to keep AI's focused on humanity big problems? And since the nagging thoughts in the back of my mind tell me no then will every human insulate themselves with an army of AI's to evaluate all stimuli before they are presented to the human mind?

Cavalry

Cavalry by Mandolin Orange 

http://youtu.be/RN93OSrixu8

Lily, a friend of mine, gave me a mix CD with a Mandolin Orange song on it. This was the fourth or fifth mix we'd exchanged, and suffice it to say, I knew there was probably good music on it, and I listened to it top to bottom a couple of times while doing homework, but none of the music grabbed my mind. Months later, one artist on that mix became a lense I view the world through because of how much respect I gained for them through their music. That singular idea is what makes music so mystifying and fantastic to me. 

Driving home from school a month ago I was whistling a song, and I had no idea what it was. I realized that the song i created by whistling, I liked, but the song that inspired me, I didn't like so much. This was the song One More Down http://youtu.be/DaTcSul__4Q by The same band as the song above. I couldn't get it out of my head, so I youtubed it. From the tone of version of the song I had heard, I was expecting a skinny Midwestern guy and a his counterpart singing in a sweaty living room to an underwhelmed boom mic operator. I was wrong, and where I was left after devouring all youtube had to offer of Mandolin Orange, was the place parallel to ecstasy found around a perfect song. 

Cavalry to me is a perfect song. That isn't to say it's the only one, and that also isn't to say that it will be for any of you, or that it always will be, or always had been for me, but, now, it is. I don't know all of the ingredients that make up a recipe for a song. I understand even less about what makes a recipe perfect for a person. What I do know is the nearly indescribable feeling of listening to a perfect song for the first time, and the process of growing appreciation that follows.

To me, the two metrics I use to judge a song for integrity are it's honesty, and hope. For me those two things are the  most venerable qualities in a person. And with cavalry, a tired song about lack of fight and a turn to altruism that hit me after a lot of homework and not a lot of sleep. I feel like all of you are in similar places, in the heat of hard work, so I hope cavalry gives some perspective and reprieve.

everyone stop what your doing and spend a hour reading this!!

killsixbilliondemons


Is a fabulous new webcomic. Read it. I'm not being paid to say this.

The comic starts out in black and white, then a few pages in it hits it's stride with full color, and takes off at a sprint. The world continues to unfold into bigger and bigger shapes unlike anything ive seen before.

The best part is that it's still being written at a pace of about one page per week.

May you reach concordance. 

Ben's Thing: Burnie Burns on Terrorism

So there are these guys, people know them as Rooster Teeth, Achievement Hunter, Red vs. Blue, they do a lot of things. They get to do these because they've become famous on the internet and have a powerful voice across many communities.

Burnie Burns (or what we see of him online) is generally trying to move things along among a group of young men and women who are having an awful lot of fun. There are plenty of times, though, where we get to see him red in the face with anger or laughter. He is a passionate person in his own way, not always an avid supporter of everything he does or reviews, and not consumed with hatred towards things too, unlike many other online personalities, which seem to be running at 100% all the time.

The reason I have to explain this, is because when Burnie Burns really does care about something, it shows.

He may not be the most articulate in this clip, but what is important is that he is using his voice, his presence to say something incredibly meaningful, productive, and different. In a world of text forums and online rants, Burnie Burns is reaching out to the people who listen to him in a way that they can understand and process. He's also combating an increasingly dangerous tendency for the public to overreact and take matters into their own hands (the Reddit witch hunt of the Boston Bombers) It's not often that we hear people say "Don't dwell on it." to things like 9/11 and the Boston Bombings, but I also believe he is absolutely correct. If terror is a new global weapon, the best way for the public to fight back, to become safe, is by rendering that weapon useless. Not by knowing that we can find the roots of whatever organization was behind the act, or being able to carry on, but by not even giving the act enough weight to merit the act in the first place. Yes, it is important to care for the victims. Yes, they deserve our sympathy and support. But we do not need to dwell.

Ruben's Thing: Self Five!

Self-affirmation is a bit of a tired phrase in my ongoing mental dialogue; a topic whose characteristics morph depending on its stimulation- my or others' social interactions. However it's something I keep falling back to- I keep tracing people's behaviors back to this one idea of whether or not self-affirmation is productive.

It can manifest itself in many ways, one being shown above (sorry if this format breaks the rules of the blog- the media being determined by the writing, not vice-versa) as a way to either damage-control after an injurious incident, or to draw attention to oneself after some form of success. A third, more frightening version to me, is the preparatory sense, where the person fills up their cup, or reinforces their esteem for a situation or time period. This seems to be a product of dangerously low self-esteem and a lack of trust in oneself to make it through any difficulties a day might present.

Now my real question becomes "Is there validity or necessity for self-affirmation in my life?" because it looks pretty damn goofy.  Am I above having the need, or even benefitting from saying "I think I can, I think I can" over and over with growing intensity until it turns out I actually CAN become Super Saiyan? Is patting myself on the back helping me progress as a person, or is it hindering how seriously I can take myself, and therefore holding me back from thinking on a higher level?

I apologize because this post is hardly conclusive, I'll tell you that now. But it is something I've been thinking about more and more as stress and hormones slowly deteriorate the kids around me into teary, broken down children who are too caught-up. Affluence is another issue for another, slightly different blog, but I hope this makes sense, and is something somewhat relatable, however divergent it is from the agreed structure of the blog.

Evan's Thing: Tenniscoats テニスコーツ - Baibaba Bimba - A Take Away Show

I'm sure you guys can relate to the kind of rapid clicking that whatever chosen method of internet-surfing has created in us. It's pretty well known that if a youtube video is over about three minutes, your average viewer is going to click away. Plenty of folks are concerned with this shortening attention span. How much it hurts us and whether or not it helps in other ways (like multitasking) is something we should talk about, but not tonight.

Tonight I want to talk about something that has become more rare and valuable to me because of all this stuff. I want to talk about beauty. Arresting beauty, to be specific. Something so damn pretty it stops you in your tracks.

I got thinking about beauty when I stumbled across this painting the other day. I don't care if it was because of the subtlety of the lighting in the foreground, or the absurdism, or the simplicity, but the thing killed my redditbuzz and I couldn't help but close my other tabs and stare at it. For a while. Like longer than I had good reason to.

Just this one painting lifted me out of the rapid-clicking, instant-gratification mode I was in. No gimmicks, no drama, no comedy. Just. Plain. Damn. Beauty.

And it didn't leave me dry afterwords. You know that feeling you get in the last few seconds of a youtube video, when you start scanning for the next thing? Trying desperately to find some other little crumb to entertain your(big dumb stupid)self? None of that. Nada. Just a little itch to do something, make something.

I can't speak for you, and I'm sure that it does a whole bunch of nothing for some people. But the feeling is true. That painting feels bigger than me. It's humbling. It puts me in my place. It makes me feel small and inspires me at the same time. I don't get that feeling very often, and its probably because with so many things competing for my attention, I don't give any of them the chance they deserve. The ones that knock me on my ass really stand out.

That's why I love this video.



If you can, please watch it. Only. Close the other tabs. Turn your phone over. Watch the whole thing. Don't click away.

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ps. If you have some extra time on your hands and want to get kicked around a little more, this short story by André Dubus will do that.