Inputs

I have been part of brainy joys of late;
herein attend, let me enumerate.

Most recent, Watching Morg'n Freeman narrate
"Through the Wormhole", numbers one through eight

Of course Ghost in the Shell, long overdue
inner universe; all fifty-two
kusanagi, tachikoma in blue
no rhyme forthcoming; no more rhymes for you!

Explained to Ewan through a misty night
how subcellular structures all unite
from central dogma to the axon spike
with emphasis on gradients, and the like

because posts in iambic pentameter with unreliable rhyming patterns are maybe a nice break from silence. I did enjoy rekindling some of my intersections with neuroscience again. Hopefully I'll be through Stand Alone Complex soon. Through the Wormhole has been tantalizing - not really revealing anything I didn't know, but, much like the Dogfights show, giving a slick veneer to a chunk of subject matter that's near and dear to me.

Like TMZ, but for scientists.

Oh and duh

I'm writing on this one again -- and probably to the exclusion of Tumblr -- because after seeing those initial scenes with Livejournal in "The Social Network" I got nostalgic for how much fun it was to externalize my thought processes.

Thinkin'

So there are two general categories of AI that seem to make sense. Others probably do, but here's where I'm at right now.

There's the kind of AI that attempts to do what a human can do, but unattended, automated, repetitively, reliably. It acts like somebody with a reeeeallly clear performance plan.

Then there's the kind of AI that interacts with a person, acts like a robot butler or exoskeleton.

The second kind is a heck of a lot harder to build, right? Because that's the one where you need to understand how people think and act, rather than how a task needs to be divided and conquered. The first kind could generally be addressed with a recipe, or a recursive algorithm. The second has to be on pins and needles, constantly insecure that it might lose the user's attention, consideration, interest. It has to act like an improv performer, or a European-style clown.

What would go into an expert system that didn't act "expert-like", condescending, dismissive like a Call Centre employee? How would you build an expert system that acted like a bartender?

Talk about my new obsession

I'm reading "Fatal System Error", written at a grade 5 level 'cause it's journalism, but pretty darned good at giving the reader the facts 'n' figures they need to understand the basics of online gambling, distributed denial-of-service attacks, and TEH E-CYBONETS and so forth. It's pretty gripping, 'cause Barrett is a naive goofball not entirely unlike Tucker Case from Chris Moore's "Island of the Sequined Love Nun".

On the stack right after that is the rest of Nick Taleb's "The Black Swan", which Andrej recommended to me.

"Protection" by Massive Attack is on my iPhone.

Tron Legacy is on my brain.

Today the weather was so nice, and I was so sleep-deprived, that I stopped to grab a Starbucks coffee. Probably because I got confused and thought it was 1996.

If I get out of here, I'ma go play some Malifaux.

Action Potential

Good morning!

I have a lot to talk about but seldom the focus to get to it. I'd be great at consistency, if I could just stick to it.

Thank goodness I can fake sincerity.

Lots to talk about here as time goes on. Time is going on every day, I guess. It's going on right now! Quick, catch it!

I'm still at the office with something to finish before I scram -- back to't now.