MIT predicts 12 Plausible Endings to the AI Story (Spoiler Alert: Not a fairy story ending)

It does make me wonder. Don't the happy people at MIT have something better to be doing instead of re-running variants of "The Matrix" in their academic papers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLcrvMfHUJM

Other AI YouTube Memes: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9werF1SR3Ag

Note to Self: Following this person ... Hannah Fry (Mathematics-Science)

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iz6zFt7G3Kc

Interesting Science Info Youtube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@fryrsquared/shorts

Hannah Fry: Cambridge Mathematician, Science Evangeliser

Note: Panzer Taster - Please avoid the wargamer cringe at the beginning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkSZN-Zs9No

Yes, I may even forgive her for showing images of a T-80, Pz I and a Pz IV Short 75mm which definitely were not worrying Allied planners in 1944) because she is a brilliant mathematics and science educator.

PS: I completely agree with her on the negative hypothesis on AI Agents. 

Google Deep Mind - Demis Hassabis (Noble Prize Winner) - Lex Fridman Podcast

Keeping up with the world is hard .. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HzgcbRXUK8

Lex Fridman seemed genuinely in awe of this guy!

The Worse Case Scenario for Gen AI - "Vegetive Electron Microscopy" - Eh?

Spoiler alert .. this post highlights a silly episode in Gen AI (see below, the construction of a bogus term, "vegetive electron microscopy" by AI automated consumption on mass of thousands of documents, because the input process did not expect the document to be formatted in columns): 

Column one is about biology, column two is about physics, by parsing convention the AI sees "a thing/entity" called "vegetive electron microscopy" and pumps it into the LLM and from there is gets used and recommended. Read full article below:  

https://theconversation.com/a-weird-phrase-is-plaguing-scientific-papers-and-we-traced-it-back-to-a-glitch-in-ai-training-data-254463

Funny after you spot it, serious when you don't!

Audible Book: Black Holes by Brian Cox and Jeff Foreshaw

Following my son's interest in Physics (I was pretty useless at hands on Science at school and ended up doing Computers instead) I thought I might try and "audible" my way into what makes him so excited about it. The latest book by Brian Cox and his compatriot Jeff Foreshaw seemed as good a place as any to start (see below, "to boldly go" or rather "sit back and listen") : 

Well there is an Elton John song that comes to mind, aka Rocket Man and the line "All the science I don't understand", but I enjoyed the ride and bought a physical copy of teh book to go back to! I may well have to listen again to this one. Thought provoking and often mind blowing!

Books of Interest

It comes from my early childhood days, I am hooked on the "book habit" (they are magical things) and throughout my life nice people (damn them) keep encouraging me to read, by making very good book recommendations. If that were not bad enough, some authors (damn them twice over) are not just content to write one interesting book, but they then go and have the cheek to write another or more! Imagine this crazy situation, what am I to do? (see below, this "book" made me want to read more about the sciences, Ben Miller being a well known TV comedian who kept a dark, secret [as in, he liked science]!): 

I am pretty sure it is a form of mind control (see below, from sensible science mysterious to looking for alien life - then a friend recommended a book that says it is about structure problem solving - but it has a hidden use, designing wargames): 

The question is do I push for another bookshelf or try and squeeze them into my existing ones, or pile them discreetly on the floor, until they become a tripping hazard? Your recommendations greatly received!

Audible Book Completed: The Creativity Code by Marcus du Sautoy

Full title - The Creativity Code: How AI Is Learning to Write, Paint and Think, by Marcus di Sautoy (see below, for the sexy artwork that hints at robot domination, without having to show a robot. I listened to it via Audible rather than reading it, but in the end I bought a copy of the book as well, as there were sections in it you really needed to read IMHO - yes, like the ones that mentioned sums I could not do in my head!): 

So, now I have finished listening to this .. it seems to be pointing out that we’ve done lots of quirky things, some of which look and feel impressive .. but we seem to be back in a loop, back to 1990 when Expert Systems (symbolic logic machines) were going to going to transform the world. Deep Learning is now the new flavour of the revolution (Artificial Neural Nets that are trained to be clever) .. but back in 1990 it was not Expert Systems that shaped the Commercial World for teh next twenty plus years. No that was the dirty old Database and Networks which transformed into a brand the new thing called the Internet .. the "What Net" are you going fishing somewhere strange? Yet it dictated the course of computing for the next 20+ years by reinventing the Network to be used by everybody and therefore everybody's concern . My personal opinion of course .. which like most things these days seems to be in the Cloud, running better on someone else's piece of tin. 

A blogger worth looking at Ashley R Pollard

This Blog certainly deserves more followers:

 http://ashleyrpollard.blogspot.co.uk/

BBC iPlayer/Web-site: The Bomb (Interesting Series)

While reading the news on the BBC web-site I came across (see below, amazingly already onto its second series): 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p08llv8n

Twenty minute sound bites!

Wikenigma - Wikipedia of Unknown things

 https://wikenigma.org.uk/start

Lots of science and maths stuff here, but some history too

50% Through my Jarred Diamond Book Stack

A friend recently commented that he had just completed "Guns, the Germs and Steel" (which admittedly is an "old" Jarred Diamond) book, which I knew I had in my collection, so I dutifully checked my collection of four (yes I know there are others) and I see that was still on my to do list (see below, the pile is only only 50% done, "The Third Chimpanzee" and "Upheaval" done, "Guns Germs and Steel" along with "Collapse" still to do): 

Chaos and uncertainty, plus surviving in troubling times seems to be a constant theme. Trouble is he keeps writing books quicker than I am reading them.

Still not really sure what this is: The Modular Body (OSCAR) Online Science Fiction Story ... [Not true .. yet]

Please keep a "steady head" while reading this ...

http://themodularbody.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfoVOGMz054

Art or Science?

Comments appreciated - Please help me understand as I am finding this thing this hard to comprehend! Not a spoof exactly, but a thought experiment .. (it fooled me, the animation was superb, the right level of believability) 

Explanation .. sort of .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TldUZwF7POw

Animation Explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aub1vBYhsaM

Got to say, I love those Dutch accents, which just seem to add to the Mad Scientist feel ;) 

Perfect for a Traveller Sci-Fi Adventure?

Nikola Tesla: Audiobook

I found this book both interesting and disturbing. To me Tesla was an enigmatic background figure I knew very little about, bar references to photographs of strange sparking coils [plus the crazy one of fields of planted 'lit' light bulbs] and his name being assigned to a unit of scientific measurement (for magnetic fields). The fact Elon Musk named a car after him is an interesting footnote. The disturbing aspect to me was drawn from the time period (mid-nineteenth century to mid-twentieth century) in which he lived and the attitudes that permeated societies, the scandalous battles of patents and sharp business practices (see below, the Serbian genius, the father of the polyphase AC current and whose full impact on science is still shrouded in mystery [the mystery of the missing Tesla papers]): 

 

A brilliant original inventor who could make remarkable prototypes but who again as often as not, could not bring a viable product to market (but others used his technology to do so and the consequently costly litigation of patent law battles ensues [Marconi implementing something]). Who knows how history will truly judge Tesla, were it for not the US dropping their suite against Marconi because of the first world world war his precedence might have been. Dying as a recluse, "all" were keen to see the material he was working on in his latter days. 

Other Reference Material:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z97iOZQd-B4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIR7tcS5d8A

Space Website: Physics or Orbital Space Engagements

Not quite Star Wars for sure!

https://aerospace.org/paper/physics-space-war-how-orbital-dynamics-constrain-space-space-engagements

The Science of Cracks rather than Cracked Scientists?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-51413801

Designed Experiments: Set in a General Lecture Course

Extracting Value from Variables:

https://youtu.be/bTmBy5nvHVY

Variable at a time versus Designed Experiments: 

https://youtu.be/-fnI21N7Sx8

Response Surface Method: 

https://youtu.be/kuiTCzOhh6c

Latin Squares: 

https://youtu.be/7DsnV4F_xRQ

Neural Networks: 

https://youtu.be/Tl3YolpO1g0

AI in the News - Good News: Explainable AI

Google admits the Black Box problem of AI: 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50506431

Google's answer eXplainable AI (XAI): 

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/google-cloud-ai-explanations-to-increase-fairness-responsibility-and-trust

Shapely Values:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapley_value

When you think you are an expert you are not, when you have doubts then you know you are on the way to becoming an expert:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect

Oh dear this does not sound good at all: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/50225315/artificial-intelligence-machines-given-power-to-kill

AI in "playing" Games better than humans: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50212841

Lets see what happens in 2020!

Terraforming Mars - a board game of a different kind!

Now this looks a (different) and interesting game:
https://boardgamegeek.com/image/3543630/terraforming-mars

I am tempted .. has anybody played it?
BoardGameGeek 8.4 seems a very good rating.

PS: I would have thought Elon Musk might have a copy!

Bits of Space, Science and Technology Related News

Lots of interesting posts I emailed myself: 

BBC News:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49026227
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48966645
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/nkzysaP3pB/to-the-moon-and-beyond
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48696023
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47879538 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47786248
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47732139
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47607696
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-47553876
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47555588
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-46778879
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48289550
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47983756
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44654098
https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/whats-the-point-of-humiliation/p06c6xxb
https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/five-compelling-reasons-why-we-all-need-to-sleep-m/p06fshzv
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/get-inspired/43501261
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49240745
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49182184
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-49265125
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-49270325
https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/can-you-really-multitask-finally-an-answer/p07jstyl
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49253951

Psychology: Stamford Prison Experiment (VSAUCE) 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6nSFpj9HTCZ5t-N3Rm3-HA

Sky News: 
https://news.sky.com/story/eu-satellite-navigation-system-galileo-suffers-major-outage-11763506

Air and Space Website:
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/what-can-you-really-see-space

Nuclear Weapons Accident - Spain:
https://fsu.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fsu:180784/datastream/PDF/view

Real Size of Countries
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mercator-map-true-size-of-countries/

YouTube Ground Tracking:
https://youtu.be/g2lKb1SnpsQ

Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_warfare

Curious Droid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVvaVvRViYQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=428&v=vluzeaVvpU0

Python Tutorial:
https://docs.python.org/3.6/tutorial/index.html

Space Web-Site:
https://www.heavens-above.com/SolarEscape.aspx?lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=UCT

Real-Time Satellite Tracker:
http://www.gano.name/shawn/JSatTrak/
http://apps.agi.com/SatelliteViewer/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydbbd-4oEds&feature=youtu.be
https://www.wmo-sat.info/oscar/satellites
https://celestrak.com/satcat/search.php
https://celestrak.com/software/satellite/sat-trak.php

Just tell me this is not true please:
https://mb.ntd.tv/inspiring/life/ancient-texas-hammer-found-embedded-in-rock-said-to-be-500-million-years-old.html

Inspirational Site: Real Bionic Arms

https://openbionics.com/about/

This seems a truly fantastic feat of initiative and engineering, I am impressed!