Computers Take over the World

From a discussion on artificial intelligence, an interesting quote from Simon Ings, a science fiction writer,

"When our machines overtook us, too complex and efficient for us to
control, they did it so fast and so smoothly and so usefully, only a fool or a
prophet would have dared complain."

With this vision in mind, Alan Turing suggests more caution and reverence in attempts to creation of intelligence,

"In attempting to construct such machines we should not be irreverently usurping His power of creating souls, any more than we are in the procreation of children, rather we are, in either case, instruments of His will providing mansions for the souls that He creates"

Philosophy Study

The book I’ve referenced recently by Rudy Rucker, The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul has lead to a fabulous philosophy study.  In the book, Mr. Rucker proclaims to use the Hegelian Dialectic to discuss is proposition that all life is really “universal automatism” (a thought that revolves around the idea that the universe is a set of very complex computations).

To prove this in the Hegelian Dialectic, he uses a basic triad of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.  

The thesis is the lifebox; a term the author created being like an “intelligent blog”; a collection of sounds, videos, and stories which represent a simulation of you.  The lifebox represents the thesis that even human consciousness is a computation.

Secondly, the antithesis is belief that we all have something that’s not captured by any mechanical model, a soul.  Last is the synthesis, a combination of the first two.  His model is a cone shell seashell.  It serves to bridge the differences between the thesis, and antithesis.

I guess I’ve never paid so much attention to the similarities between mathmatics, computers and philosophy, and may not have the specifics 100% correct; but, it certainly is an interesting investigation.

Rudy's Blog Midterm Exam

The computer and philosopher that I've discussed, Rudy Rucker, posted his midterm philosophy exam online. Thought it might be interesting and thought provoking. Isn't the internet awesome.

Frozen Rose Picture

Interesting picture of a rose frozen with liquid nitrogen being shot with a bullet and captured with a high speed camera.

E books

Further in the discussion of reading material you hold in your hand. Here's a science fiction e-book which has been released by the author for free. Not only can I download this one, I can get it several chapters at a time in my news aggregator. How cool is that.

He says this,

There may well be a time between the sunset of printed text and the appearance
of robust models for unfettered distribution of electronic text, an interregnum
during which the fortunes of novelists follow those of poets and playwrights and
other ink-stained scribblers whose industries have cratered beneath them.

I read his first Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which has some very interesting ideas (everyone has a huge drive in their brain where they can browse and mail others people's machine. Talk about non-verbal communication).

Isaac Christmas List

Thought this would be the easiest way to give you some thoughts for Isaac's Christmas list

* These looked pretty cool, and I like the
construction pieces. There are many different iterations.

* He's been keen on collecting rocks and doing experiments lately.

* He has a little tape player and really enjoys the tapes, interesting music on tapes would be a good idea. Maybe even some in different languages.

* Of course always looking for interesting reading as well.

I will try to come up with some for Denise and myself later, we're just thrilled to have a new home near Isaac.

Quote of the Day

I found this in my daily quote feed and it reminded me of Michael's paper.

"Any community's arm of force - military, police, security - needs people
in it who can do necessary evil, and yet not be made evil by it. To do only the
necessary and no more. To constantly question the assumptions, to stop the slide
into atrocity."

In fact, Ms. Bujold has several interesting quotes

Lunar Eclipse

Denise and I saw an amazing lunar eclipse this morning on the way to work. It made waking up before dawn well worth it. Apparently, we were looking at the same moon as this Flickr user.

Happy Birthday Michael

Michael hope you had the happiest of days two days ago with excellent celebrations.

Here's a quote from the computational philosophy article I referred to earlier, "... Interesting things happen as the consequences of the physical laws unfold. The unfolding process is a computation carried out by the world itself."

Isaac, Denise and my "unfolding process" continued over my own birthday. We moved into our new house in Kingwood, and loved every second of it. What a great adventure! Gammy was on hand for the festivities as well, while we all ran circles around our new home in a non-stop happy dance. Pictures of our home to come.