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.

Interesting Word reading The Lifebox, The Seashell, and the Soul

MSN Search: define logician: "Definition:
logician logic specialist"
Bet it looks great on a resume.

The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul

Here's an interesting combination of philosophpy and computers. Might put it on my Christmas list.

We're presently in the midst of a third intellectual revolution. The first came with Newton: the planets obey physical laws. The second came with Darwin: biology obeys genetic laws. In today’s third revolution, were coming to realize that even minds and societies emerge from interacting laws that can be regarded as computations. Everything is a computation.

Does this, then, mean that the world is dull? Far from it. The naturally occurring computations that surround us are richly complex. A tree's growth, the changes in the weather, the flow of daily news, a person's ever-changing moods --- all of these computations share the crucial property of being gnarly. Although lawlike and deterministic, gnarly computations are --- and this is a key point --- inherently unpredictable. The world's mystery is preserved.

Faith's Brian Kiss

Couldn't resist posting this one.

Family and Baby Brian

Beautiful Baby and Mom

Here's an interesting link, its a search engine that finds all mention of the word sojourner in the Bible.

Here's another one in Hebrews; hey, look who he was sojourning with, "... dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob..."

Also, here is the verse that Michael and Nancy gave. In several versions, the word 'sojourner' is replaced with pilgrim. This is the entire chapter 11 and commentaries on this chapter about faith.

Is this intentional on Michael and Nancy's part? Choosing a name from a chapter speaking of Faith?

Hello Brian Sojourner Brough

Hip Hip hooray!! And yeah for Aunt Nancy, at 9 lbs 13 ozs I think we have a new rugby prop on our hands.
We weren't sure the definition of sojourner, but here's a couple of guesses. We'll have to wait for the parent's explanation. We're ready for playing!!

Great quote of the day

Great quote of the day
Found an awesome quote to celebrate getting a house.  But, it applies to anyplace you feel at home.
Maryanne Radmacher-Hershey "May your walls know joy; May every room hold laughter and every window open to great possibility."

Document for Michael - How to be published quickly

One more comment on your paper Michael. Your mother mentioned when we saw her during the summer, that she found herself reading your papers with a dictionary in hand. I wanted you to see the power of the web. http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=af65sc5fcjr

You can link words or phrases that you think might be difficult, or you want to give a concrete exemple of to web sites, or as I have done, a Google search. Click on your phrase 'jus ad bellum' or the Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman's name. This makes your document extremely dynamic, people can get as much out of it as they need.

I didn't want to publish your entire article, but will with your permission. Then, instead of giving people a copy, you can just give them a link. I've also made it so you can revise this copy.

New House

Take a look at the new house on Google maps. Very cool! Nancy inspired this post with her question.
What you can't see in the map is the bayou in our back yard.

Hello World

Hello World.  This is my very first online document.  I should be able to link to it from my blog, and you should be able to read and click links hopefully.

 

How about different colored text.

---

Even a line, and even a spell checker.

 

I can even post to the document. http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=af6tnhq96nz

 

But, how about images?  Yes, images work too.  This is NASA's image of the day.  The Boomerang Nebula.  Even a link, how cool!