Have you begun your Magnum Opus?

Posted by lemiffe in Life on Jan 14th, 2010 | 0 comments

The Great Work (Latin: Magnum opus) is a term which originated in medieval European alchemy which refers to the successful completion of the transmutation of base matter into gold or the creation of the philosopher’s stone.

Just as Paulo Coelho described it in “The Alchemist“, each one of us has a great work to accomplish in this lifetime. For some of us, this great work might be delivering an incredible child to this world, for some others this work may consist of making a change in somebody, who will in turn make a great change in someone else.

Some would see this as destiny, or life’s purpose, however I beg to differ in the meaning attached to this. To me, the great work consists not of the future, not of destiny, but of one’s search for our greatest satisfaction. Many people follow it blindly, never knowing what awaits them. Many others search for it, never finding it. It is not just about the search, it is about the acknowledgement that in time it will reach us, and we must be prepared to exercise our knowledge and desire to fulfill it… our great work.

Are you on the right track? I have begun my Opus Magnum… have you?

Doug McGuff’s “Dirty Dozen for Black Swan Avoidance”

Posted by lemiffe in Life on Nov 13th, 2009 | 0 comments

A Black Swan is a term coined by Nassim Taleb that describes an unpredictable event whose effect is greatly disproportionate to its cause.

Doug McGuff has written the following 12 tips from the perspective an emergency physician, which under a common point of view might seem a bit excessive or neurotic, however, might end up saving your life. We obviously can never follow all of them, as many of us rely on cycling to work daily through traffic, but it’s never too much to ask for a little precaution.

Read on and digest only the necessary:

1. Drive the biggest vehicle you can afford to drive. Your greatest risk of death comes from a motor vehicle accident. Despite all the data from the government on crash test safety, I can say unequivocally that in a 2-car accident, the person in the larger car always fairs better. Force=Mass x Acceleration. The vehicle with larger mass imparts the greater force. Also, purchase the newest large vehicle that you can afford. Crumple zones in newer cars can expand deceleration time from 30 milliseconds to 90 milliseconds which decreases deceleration forces by a factor of 3. I am not a believer in global warming or man’s contribution to it, but if you are and you want to do your part by driving a Smart Car or a Prius you should be commended for potentially standing by your convictions with your life. Also, if your midlife crisis plans include a motorcycle or sports car, realize that you might resolve your midlife crisis by avoiding old age all together. It goes without saying to wear your seatbelts, and you should be engulfed by as many air bags as possible. If we were truly rational about risk, all seat belts would be 5-point restraints and we would wear helmets while driving.
2. Never get on a 4-wheeler ATV. These are the most dangerous vehicle that I know of. ATV’s have produced more quadriplegics than anything else I have seen.
3. Do not road cycle or jog on public roads/roadsides. This is self-evident.
4. Do not fly a plane or helicopter unless you are a full-time professional pilot. If you are a doctor, lawyer, actor, athlete, stockbroker or other well-to-do professional do not get a pilot’s license. Expertise in one area of life does not transfer to piloting, often with fatal results.
5. If you are walking down a sidewalk and are approaching a group of loud and apparently intoxicated males, cross to the other side of the street immediately. If anyone tries to start a fight with you, the first step should be “choke them with heel dust”.
6. If your gas grill won’t start….walk away. Never throw gas (or other accelerant) on a fire.
7. Never dive into a pool or body of water (except in a pool diving area marked 9 feet or deeper after you have checked in out feet-first).
8. Never get on a ladder to clean your gutters, or on your roof to hang Christmas lights. Do not cut down trees with a chainsaw. I have seen too many middle age males (with a bug up their ass to get something done) die from these activities. In general, any house or lawn work that you can hire for an amount equal to or less than your own hourly wage is money well spent.
9. If you are retirement age and plan on moving to a new home…think twice. The stress pushes many seniors over the edge. If you do, buy an existing house. I have lost count of the number of retirees that have died of heart attacks while going through the stress of custom-building their retirement dream home.
10. If anyone tries to force you into your car or car trunk at gun point, don’t cooperate. Fight and scream all you can even if you risk getting shot in the parking lot. If you get in the car, you will most likely die (or worse).
11. If you are in any personal or professional relationship that exhausts you or otherwise causes your recurrent distress, then end the relationship immediately.
12. Don’t play the lottery…you might win. Any unearned wealth, or wealth that is disproportionate to the objective value you provide will destroy you. Lottery winners and Sports/Movie stars share a common bond of disproportionate rates of depression, addiction, and suicide.

Via BodyByScience

The Dream of A.I. and the Elixir of Life

Posted by lemiffe in A.I. on Sep 1st, 2009 | 0 comments

Today I read an article about A.I. on NewScientist called “Why AI is a Dangerous Dream“. I thought the article was partially biased. In my perspective the interviewee, a robotics expert named Noel Sharkey has lost faith in AI which can be confirmed by a statement on the article that reads:

“Robotics expert Noel Sharkey used to be a believer in artificial intelligence. So why does he now think that AI is a dangerous myth that could lead to a dystopian future of unintelligent, unfeeling robot carers and soldiers?“

I have dreamed of AI since childhood, creating flooders, scrollers, and chatter bots. I once developed a complete TCP/IP application using the MSNP8 to log on to the MSN Messenger network with a bot that would simulate intelligent talk. I have always been fond of the Turing Test. I even held a small conversation over email once with John McCarthy. I know this does not make me an expert in AI, however, it does make me an AI enthusiast.

There were two segments of the article that really put me off:

“Are machines capable of intelligence? If we are talking intelligence in the animal sense, from the developments to date, I would have to say no. For me AI is a field of outstanding engineering achievements that helps us to model living systems but not replace them. It is the person who designs the algorithms and programs the machine who is intelligent, not the machine itself.”

Anything that can be defined as a physical or logical entity or construct can be emulated. Anything that can be emulated could work equally or even be superior to the original. If a machine can emulate the logical processes of the human brain, then it can be said that the machine is intelligent.

“Are we close to building a machine that can meaningfully be described as sentient? I’m an empirical kind of guy, and there is just no evidence of an artificial toehold in sentience. It is often forgotten that the idea of mind or brain as computational is merely an assumption, not a truth. When I point this out to “believers” in the computational theory of mind, some of their arguments are almost religious.“

AI is beautiful. It let’s us, as humans, test ourselves to our limit. It allows us to analyze how the human system works, and attempt to imitate our inner construction, our mind. It allows us to try to break the barriers, and build machines that are capable of so much more than us, and so much faster.

I am aware that AI often becomes somewhat of a cult. Sometimes it attracts the same type of people that follow all of Steve Job’s life events, spam online forums and blogs that post articles against the iPhone, and get hard-ons at a keynote. I am aware that AI can be a “believers” dream, but I am also aware that not everyone is like this. Not everyone takes their beliefs to a “religious” level. I am aware that to accomplish goals you have to be down to earth.

For starters there is Strong AI and Weak AI. When you talk about AI, you should generally make a point as to which type of AI you are talking about. AI related to specific tasks, or AI related to the reproduction of general human intelligence. It makes a huge difference to an article about the topic.

I believe in both. The proper coordination of the different Weak AI segments can lead to a fully sentient being. And to study one topic, you must be knowledgeable in all surrounding topics.

If the human mind is nothing more than neurons passing on electric signals which can be described as thinking, and thinking is the mechanism that allows us to communicate, and everything we perform in the world is a form of communication, then why shouldn’t a computer be able to be “intelligent”? A computer after all has a heart (PSU), a brain (CPU & HD), a face (LCD), ears (Mic), a mouth (Speakers), eyes (Camera), and can effectively move and communicate through different mechanisms such as robotic limbs, wheels, and other accesories.

Human beings consistently change their thoughts, ideas, knowledge and personality in the same way a computer program could re-compile itself to meet new standards and “personality” as has been described by Matt Knox in this article about his days as an adware author.

“Ivan Bowman spends his days as a programmer at iAnywhere Solutions in Waterloo, Ontario, in much the same way his colleagues do. He writes code, exchanges notes in other developers’ offices, attends meetings and hangs out in the kitchen over coffee. About the only thing he can’t do is drink the coffee – or touch anything, for that matter. It’s not that Bowman doesn’t have hands or a mouth; they’re just in Halifax, Nova Scotia, along with the rest of his body, about 840 miles (1,350km) away.”

So we have also got that point covered. We can interact hundreds of miles away at an office using a coat rack on wheels as described in this article.

I am aware that these are not true applications of AI as a whole. But we have strived in different areas, creating artificial limbs that move like an animal’s paw or a human’s leg or arm. We have created programs that can re-compile themselves to allow different circumstances to occur, or to “evolve” as we would say. We have created robots that can detect surfaces and objects and go around them. We have stuck computers on coat racks with webcams, microphones and speakers to be able to “live” in an office from hundreds of miles away. We have created chatter bots that are close to beating the turing tests. We have achieved a lot in speech understanding and generation in the past years.

This leads me to say that even though we have not achieved a real strong AI system, we are certainly on the path to producing great results, and who knows, maybe in a few years we will have discovered the pathway that will lead us to develop a remarkable electronic clone of us.

I believe alchemists have ever pursued the dream of living forever. But A.I. has given us the dream of creating intelligent copies of us. I believe that this dream will eventually allow us to download our minds into intelligent beings, technically allowing us to live forever. And while we might have not found the philosophers stone, we will have found the elixir of life.

Cycles

Posted by lemiffe in Life on Jan 21st, 2009 | 1 comment

I’ve been thinking about life recently, and I noticed that just like most things in life, opportunities come in cycles as well:

A fast example of this would be the opportunity most of us have to get 15+ minutes of fame in our lifetime.

If we dig deeper into this, the cycles are much more complex. For example, some people lose a loved one early in life, so they must make a decision:

1. Mature, take it with calm, deal with the situation, and learn to cope with the emotional pain so as to gradually overcome it.
2. Cover the feelings, try and dig it down under, suppress all related emotions and avoid talk about the subject.
   Each of those decisions amounts to a very different lifetime, so it all comes down to how we take the situation in the first place.

This person has been given the opportunity to overcome one issue which will allow him/her to overcome many other issues in life much easier.

We all get opportunities to be famous, to get rich, to be scammed, to die, to crash, to get high, to get bashed, to steal, to win, to lose, to sin, to get married, to kill, etc.

We even get more than one opportunity sometimes, and the result of our actions can determine the fate of our life. A brief example of this would be as follows:

Person A is 19 years old, learns guitar and becomes a multi-instrumentalist, by 21 he has the opportunity to start a music career, he has contacts to enter the music business and do a professional recording. This could be his ticket to fame, nonetheless, Person A is also quite fluent with the Oracle Database Architecture, so he makes a decision and drops out of music career to become a certified DBA. He then finds a job that pays him a lot more than what he would have started earning as a musician.

Anything can happen in life, so we must learn to make a distinction between possibilities and opportunities, we are in control of our lives only to the extent of our decisions. From there on the social machine is in control.

What is Maturity?

Posted by lemiffe in Communication, Life on Sep 22nd, 2008 | 0 comments

Being mature is not the same as growing, or “becoming of age”.

To become a mature person is to learn various important things in life, and to develop ways to deal with situations in a proper way.

It is avoiding excuses, accepting responsability for your actions, making an effort an remembering important things and keeping track of your duties, being responsible with what you own and what you’ve been lent, remembering to give it back on time. It is being patient and searching for the right solutions without losing your temper when terrible, unfortunate or disastrous situations come along.

Drinking alcohol to deal with ones ‘pains’ or to escape from situations is an example of immaturity. Same as doing drugs for the sake of fitting in or being with a group. And the same also applies to going or doing something to avoid facing a certain situation, when by facing it you can end it’s possible future consequences.

Mastering these issues will favor you in life, allowing you to become a better person, serve society, yourself, your family, and be happier in general.