Eden

Posted on December 21, 2021 by Romeo

I’m only giving you my truth and my beliefs, nothing more. Your life is yours and yours alone. You have to follow your own path, the one that your gut feeling tells you about when your mind is quiet. But be aware, there are many wasteful and dangerous paths in the Exoverse.

If you read the Bible (other belief systems heave equivalent information too), the most interesting part (at least for me) is the start, the description of creation, then the mishap that (so said) ostracized our first ancestors, out of the perfect place they used to live at the time, the garden of Eden. But what is even more interesting is the reason behind the so-called “expulsion” and how it perfectly ties in the model of the hypothetical Exoverse idea I’ve been exploring for a while.

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/706/pioneer-plaque/ (maybe we should have also added a dog and a cat to give closer to the real image some aliens might see)

I argue that our ancestors, the ones that first created the scriptures wanted to send a message to us across the vast spans of time about what they found to be so fundamental to our existence that would supersede any other issue.

What I believe they tried to tell us is that we all are sharing one single Universal Body of Consciousness and to successfully accomplish our common goal in this existence we must succeed together regardless of the fragmentation this reality imposes on us and we perceive it as “self”.

In this article, I will use UBC as a shorthand for the Universal Body of Consciousness.

An excellent allegoric description of the beginning of this process is in the first verses of the creation, more important in this phrase (slightly different in each scripture) 1:2 “…the spirit of God moved over the Waters”. If we break through the allegory what remains is God and waters and to me, that translates in “UBC and Exoverse”. The allegory is important to convey these complex and deep pieces of information to young minds (that are almost all of us at some point in time). The ancestors could not directly describe “fields” of energy and information over pre-real states, a young mind would simply reject it as nonsense.

The UBC is here (in my opinion) to explore the “pre-real” or what I like to call the Exoverse in order to find a final solution to the problem it was tasked with at the begging of time. This final solution seems to be to find its most optimal form of existence a state that for most of us, can, for all proposes be called Eden.

However, once found I suspect that the event will mark “the end of time” as we perceive it, and more, (I believe that) the timeline itself is a finite entity, meaning that, if the UBC can’t find this Eden until “the end of time” then the “game” will be over either way.

However, our ancestors seem to suggest that there is also a “Dynamic Eden”, meaning an optimal state of existence here and now in the process of looking for that final one and maybe that is what we need to care most about as it is the only one we have access to.

So, what would this “Dynamic Eden” be? To try to understand that we need to see how the machinery of reality works at a most basic level or as it is now known the “quantum level” then integrate back to our macro and beyond to the cosmic one.

Since the details of the story are complex enough to fill a few books and since there is enough excellent information created by other people studying those domains I’ll simply lay down my conclusion and add the reasoning afterward.

My belief is that the UBC uses the universal machinery of the Exoverse to search the pre-real/Exoverse for the final solution. The process employed for the search is as simple as trying all possible states, then drop the ones leading to dead ends or useless outcomes and only keep the one that yields the best chance to fit the rules of the game. Darwin saw this process in the real world but I strongly believe this is much more fundamental and extends at UBC and Exoverse level.

If we consider the above assumption as valid, then the next logical step is to realize that in order for the UBC to be more efficient, its fragments (self) must be able to follow more “independent” or “diverse” paths. In this context more efficient means to be able to cover more potential states within a given quanta of time. Any unnecessary dependency between the fragments will lead to less independent paths checked, hence less efficient process overall.

On the other and we can’t over-fragment either as if we do we will simply loose ourselves in the immensity of the Exoverse. The UBC may dissipate into nothing when its fragments (self) won’t be able to connect back into the main body and this will also be considered a failure. Additionally all fragments need to be able to exchange information in the real world in order to allow for coordination that should lead to a better efficiency than a simple random search. However for the same reason, coordination should not impede diversity. Hyper coordination (tyrannies for example) lead to less diversity hence lower ability to test new paths in the Exoverse.

So, there you have it, we can define a “Dynamic Eden” by finding this optimal state of fragmentation and diversity whereas avoiding loosing ourselves in the immensity of the “space of possible states” we must explore, the Exoverse. When I say “we” I refer to more than humans, I refer to all forms of life in this reality (all over the visible and invisible universe) as WE are all parts of the same UBC.

Getting back to the biblical story of Eden and cutting trough the veil of mythology and story telling, the fall from the Eden means we are off track from this Dynamic Eden I was talking about. We get off track by failing to be as diverse as required by the process we are engaged in, with or (most time) without our awareness.

It is said that we fall from Eden when we started to classify things as “good” and “bad”. We seek what we perceive as good and avoid what we perceive as bad. This “good vs. bad” as an issue is something that can surprise most of us and yet it makes a lot of sense when viewed in the context of the universal model I’ve explained above. It does because as “selfs” we do not have sufficient information to decide what is good and bad at universal level. To do that we would need to remember and integrate information in time intervals that spans billions of generations where in reality we struggle to even make sense of our own lives.

Overall, only what happens to the UBC matters and as such, only it can decide between what is good and bad. So, you see it all makes sense that our tendency to classify almost anything in a binary domain, a zero-dimensional space of “good-bad” is pretty much a slam-dunk way to run our lives in ditches.

I can “hear” some of the readers already asking “so you believe killing is good, right?”. Not so fast I’d say because killing is a special form of action that needs no classification to be deemed undesirable by the UBC. Why? Because is the most basic form of interference with the processes the UBC is engaged in. Killing simply makes exploring of states much more harder and inefficient. So there you go, in my opinion this is a much better explanation of why we should not kill, independent on the self centered good-bad dichotomy.

Obviously, following the same line of thought one can find other actions we “feel” as “bad” having the same root explanation. This all means that the ancestors were right when they told us to refrain form, over and/or miss-using the “good-bad” zero dimensional space of existence.

Just as an observation, in this line of thought the problem of “pure bisexual” issues we seem to have and had falls more towards the original indiscriminate good-bad dichotomy than the need of the UBC exploration principles.

Later on, in the Christian Bible (and other beliefs with different characters in play) Christ introduce the notion of forgiveness. This is another more complex path that our ancestors found important to communicate to us. Though even after 2000+ years most of us still do not actually understand what forgiveness really is. I’ll try explain it in just few words as this model of UBC and Exoverse fits it like a glove. You see, forgiveness simply allows for more states to be “sampled” in a more efficient way if we don’t interfere directly with the process of sampling of the Exoverse.

When one forgives, his or her actions will be more along what they were supposed to be, if the “bad thing” would not have happened to them. They will not consume time and energy to construct and act on revenge and would allow the other side to seek a better path going forward. You may say that “revenge” is just another “experience”, another “path” the UBC takes in the Exoverse but even if this is true the “coupling” between the two humans engaged in revenge are in a way more predictable and so having weaker potential to explore new states.

IMHO: Forgive does not equal forget and forgive is a strength not weakness as one needs a lot more strength to find the best path of action in the Exoverse (future) when under the burden of hate than to allow himself or herself to be consumed by it. Last but not least we are one (UBC) and hurting another self regardless of the reason will reverberate in the UBC (Socrates understood this well).

Buddha is even more clear in this matter and it describes better how once can find this optimal path of “experiencing life” by letting go of pain and illusions in life. In a nutshell that also translates in a less complex and interdependent set of “paths” the UBC can use to explore the Exoverse.

https://ethics.org.au/big-thinker-buddha/

From the Islam world of faith I can cite Rumi, where the UBC would be the Sea and the self as a drop. A beautiful analogy.

In the Sci-Fi fandom this notion was also pursued some time ago and kept alive to this day in the well known StarWars series. (though lifting objects with one’s abilities to use “the Force” is not the point here)

And even a better explanation (but judged from the Exoverse hypothesis incomplete) in the new scene where Luke Skywalker teaches Ray about what the force is (again please try cut trough all the cinematic effects and hype and go to the core of the matter)

The hypothesis of the Exoverse and UBC as I believe it ,is briefly explained in the page bellow. I hope to be able to add more “meat” around it though it may remain forever a hypothesis as it is very difficult if not impossible to test.

I hope that you can see how things start to make more sense, and that our ancestors understood such deep truths about what are we and why are we here. Their problem though was to try convey such complex and deep insights to the other minds, to propagate this insight to the whole “body of consciousness” in order to push it and all of us to a next level of this game we play in the Exoverse. Did they succeed? I think they did at least partially, but the cart (of knowledge) seem to have run in some ditches many times and we have to try pick it up and keep it on the path as, there is no other chance for us.

My own approach on life at the moment is basically:

“Live and let live, enjoy life, then share your life experience with as many others as you can and that are willing or able to listen. Three should be no comparison and no judgement of another one’s path in life, as it is just another experience, another path walked by the UBC in the Exoverse.”

Merry Christmas to everyone that it means something and Happy New Year to you all.

(PS: This is the first draft, the “as is” version, the article may be edited later based feedback I’ll get on its clarity and English proofreading)

The Road to Hell…

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Romeo

It is said that “The road to hell is paved only with good intentions”. Does this folkloric knowledge “hods water” and if so, why and how? Let’s explore this concept with few diagrams and a bit of ideation around them.

Humans (and not only) are born in this reality and are roaming it until they die. During all this time all forms of life must solve one big problem, and that is, how to maintain their “alive” state. This implies solving various problems among others how to find or grow food and keep away from being food for other living beings.

Humans are one of the few species that have mastered collaboration in large groups and this is due to our larger magnitude of the abilities to communicate more efficiently in large groups.

Unfortunately to us this reality is much more complex than we can handle now or ever, even if its “guts” are working by following relatively simple rules (quantum mechanics might look weird but it is make of relatively simple rules). This is simply because of its immensity of states and configurations those simple rules can combine in order to create diversity.

The best we can do is only to ever increase our abilities to more accurately know what the reality is by using Scientific Methods in order to reduce the risk of confusions and mistakes.

In this context some of the errors and mistakes we do are embedded in the processes we use to identify and find solutions to our problems.

In most cases (unless ignorance, fear and hate are predominant drivers) we identify problems and than start with a large amount of compassion, some knowledge about why and how and some hope of being able to help more than ourselves, to help the others (the business component).

The diagram bellow tries to depict the relative importance of those 3 aspects of our fight to solve an issue.

Please understand the difference between the absolute quantity and the relative quantity. This is not a “zero sum game” depiction it is simply the relative (to each other) influence of each of the three factors considered in this case. For example you may say, well my Compassion or Knowledge did not diminish (as the diagram may suggest) and that is true, yet what matters is the relative comparison of the magnitude of all three factors. That is important as our minds (and processes) tend to be impacted by the relative importance and not only by the absolute magnitude of the feature.

As time passes we may get our idea off the ground, we start to gain more understanding and other people start to “buy into it” by investing resources (time or money or hope). It is only natural that now we have (relatively) more focus on acquiring knowledge and try to “sell” it to more people. However this simple “normal” action has the consequence of pushing the Compassion component down in the relative balance between itself and the other two components. An important observation is that in absolute terms the compassion may remain at the same value but the unfortunate reality is that in the relative space it becomes less important.

This phenomena is depicted in the diagram bellow.

Once we have a solution, the business world takes over and the main reason of action is now to “sell” the idea or the product to other people. Now gaining profits take main stage and since we still need a grip on the “how it works” (or the Science component) it is almost inevitable that the Compassion component will be in further relative decline and will slide into the configuration depicted bellow.

Unfortunately this configuration is the one that has the highest probability to create monsters that will end up destroying (almost) all we initially intended. Now is the time when mistakes are hid and coverup of mishaps happens and when BS flourishes.

Twenty six years ago, in 1995, Orson Scott Card wrote once a short called “How Software Companies Die” where he follows on how this process happens in the software application development companies and groups. The article ends with the prophetic phrase “Got to get some better packaging” that is the main indication of BS overdrive of a product. You should read it, is only two pages long and is as relevant today as it was 26 years ago.

OK, fine, you may say, now what? What is the solution to this problem? Eventually a solution that not ends in a bigger disaster by embedding in it the very process we just described.

For most, it would be clear that the solution would be to forever keep an eye on the compassion and humility in the business process. But this is much easier said than done. If you put yourself in the shoes of a business owner or a manager that needs to make it possible for his employees and himself to take a salary home then you can see how this can be more than nerve wreaking it can be almost impossible to overcome.

Given our current state of business with the “dog eats dog” type of competitive environment it is extraordinary that we are still keeping sanity in the society at large. To me, this is one item banking towards the proof that human beings are good in their “normal” state but the environmental constraints can erode that “goodness” to sometimes horrific levels.

And that my friends is “the road to hell”, as you can see it starts with good intentions (at least) most of the times but without a lot of focus on the relative importance of the Compassion, Science and Business components we can all “go to hell” sooner or later.

Let’s try to target to the bellow (or close to) distribution of relative importance of those components that are part of all we do.

One important tool to help us with that is the notion of humble and humility. Too many of us seem to equate humble with weakness when in fact it is one of our greatest strengths. If you are surprised to hear that please read my previews article on humility.

Thank you a lot for reading the article!

Some related articles:

On factual information
Humble and Humility
On how to recognize and fight BS
How Software Companies die (Orson Scott Card)

2020 Articles and Drafts and what may be coming in 2021 in this blog

Posted on December 27, 2020 by Romeo

A short retrospective about the published articles and ideas during 2020 and some predictions about what you should expect to see here in 2021

As I’ve outlines in the Read Me First page this blog is not a daily blog but rather an idea sharing blog. This means that (in general) I’m trying to produce a minimal number of articles and try focus only what I believe (is my blog) really matters. This way I’m trying to reduce the overall information pollution out there on the internet. Feedback that will help improve the quality of the site will always be welcome!

From this perspective, the ideas I’ve explored during 2020 were around “Real Facts“, “COVID-19 Pandemic“, “Humility as a tool“, “Police brutality“. In addition I’ve published a hypothesis on the overall picture of the place we live in and postulated that there is more “out there” than just the “Real” and “Imaginary” and I’ve called this space the “Exoverse”. There is a lot of my activity on the Exoverse on twitter, please see the diagram bellow.

Also linked to the above diagram I’ve settled on a definition of the relationship between the notions of “self” and “Universal Consciousness” with the following image

The Self and the Whole

There was a lot of activity on Twitter and you can check my twitter profile for learning more about it.

About the drafts I’ve worked on during 2020 but did not published. I’ve drafted ~14 articles during 2020 that remain in unpublished state and I hope some of them will get published during 2021 (in addition to potential new ones might come my way during 2021). Bellow are some of the titles of the drafts and short descriptions. Please live me feedback (via twitter will be just fine) if you think you would like to see some of them be published, that will help me to work on priorities.

#	Title	Description
1	Constructive and Destructive Competition	Making sense of the notion of competition and providing a solid way to define and separate the notion of Constructive versus Destructive Competition and the impact those two forms of Competition have on our society at large
2	Will	Is there free will? A look into this issue from the perspective of Exoverse and “The drop in the Ocean” concept
3	Faith	What is Faith what are the advantages and disadvantages of having/using it (expect information, computers, Exoverse links)
4	Magic	Defining magic in the context of today and why we can’t rule it out yet unable to have a “normal” relationship with the concept
5	Morality	Linking the notion of Moral/Morality in the greater picture of the Exoverse, expect same gist as in the published article “Humble”
6	Boxed	Explore the notion of “thinking out of the box”, what really is is, how can we use it efficiently to improve our lives
7	Self Reliant	Describing practical ways to achieve various levels of #SelfReliance following the ideas in the “The Nautilus Project”
8	Dogs	Presenting my experience in raising my dog Mocha my four legged friend. Feeding, caring, playing, working together
9	Simple Extremes	Defining the notion of “Simple Extremes” and how this negatively affects our individual lives as well as social ones
10	Robocop?	A look into how can we safely combine technology information and humans in order to allow for a lawful society but without the issues we’ve known and also seen lately happening in our societies when it comes to Law Enforcement with humans (Policemen)
11	Scientific mind	What is the difference between the Scientific Minds and the rest of the minds? Can/Should we all use this approach?
12	RGF	The “Rube Goldberg Factor” Taking a look on these fascinating “solutions” where “taking the long cut” is the rule. Help define over complexity in human solutions in a more measurable way
13	About AI	Its suddenly everywhere. Should we fear it? Will it take our jobs? Will it bring us in a “Star Trek” scenario or a “Hunger Games” one? when should we use it and when not? Safety?
14	Correlation Causation and Intelligence	What is Correlation and Causation? What is Intelligence? What are the issues we may have if we can’t tell them apart?
15	Terraformer	We are all “Terraformers” as all life before us was and we are alive because of that. Taking a look at this concept that explains that everyone is important for life

Crypto-Timestamped pdf-as-ja r of the article (make it factual)

Five steps to tyranny

Posted on October 11, 2020 by Romeo

A BBC documentary, Prof. Philip Zimbardo and Sheena McDonald

“us” and “them” (the mirage of self)
obey orders (mindlessly ~ human automatons)
do “them” harm (instill fear)
‘stand up’ or ‘stand by’ (fear control)
exterminate the opposition (destroy diversity)

What is most interesting is that the steps 1 and 2 seem to be a consequence of confusing factual(real) and fictional(imaginary) information. Once can only divide in “us” and “them” then blindly obey if they first confuse the real and imaginary.

See more about this subject in my articles:
Real Fact
Fact Fiction and the Truth
Fact Fiction and BS

More, as we start to better understand the place we are part of, what we call real, universe life consciousness we should realize that we are but temporary parts of a much larger consciousness fields spanning the Exoverse.

Each of us is a small drop existing for a short time before returning back to the whole

The last three steps are directly linked to our abilities as individuals to be Self-Reliant.

On Self Reliance see “The Nautilus Project”

Please watch this documentary at least few times a year!
This will be time well spent!

Confusion * US Senate and Supreme Court Appointments

Posted on September 29, 2018 by Romeo

Confusion seem to be the right word to describe what’s going on these days in the US Senate. I think that most people got so tightly pushed in their own corners that they forgot to check the big picture of why this is done and what are the consequences on long term.

I’m a Canadian so you may think “why do you care”, well because I work daily with US colleagues and because US used to be “The shiny city on the hill”. These days though it seem the lights in the city tends to flicker as before they would fade away forever. From where I live that affects me too even if as a non US citizen I have o way (other than this blog) to influence anything.

Why Confusion?

The first type of confusion is on the notion of Truth and Fact, second we seem to be convinced that people can’t change, “once a criminal, always a criminal” there is no redemption out there and last but not least not being able to distinguish between “the letter” and “the spirit” of the law.

Another very dangerous trend I see in the US senate when appointing supreme court judges these days is the obvious biased way of selection. The senators does not seem to look for judges which have none or minimal bias from political perspective but exactly the contrary. This means both social halves (left and right) are looking to create and use a biased justice system hoping it will force their own cause. This means one side wants to use the justice system to force the other side to live their lives they way the other side feels is right. Unfortunately this bias goes against one fundamental and universal principle of this reality and that is diversity. I’m afraid the universe will not take lightly on entities trying to break or circumvent its basic rules. Usually when a universal rule is circumvented there is a price to pay and the payment is always due, tough it is not necessary paid by the people who did the did but by their successors.

If we take in account the above ideas and apply them to the current vote for appointing judge Kavanaugh one can realize that both side’s arguments are mostly pointless. Even if it can be decided factually that the unfortunate event which hurt and turned lives upside down for both the judge and his accusers what we need to know is how will Judge Kavanaugh will rule in matters of fundamental importance in the society. None of the events which happened when he was a child and a teenager should matter now if we as a people can understand and apply the well known phrase “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone” or if we believe in redemption. Personally I think that a society which do not believe in redemption will not be able to survive for long in this universe.

I waited and hopped that Judge Kavanaugh would have testified in the US senate by saying something equivalent to this: “I do not have a memory of the event professor Ford has. I do not believe she lies. I call for all people who can help this case to be solved to come forward. If professor’s Ford memory is factual then I will apologize for the trauma I’ve accidentally created.” In less than 5 minutes all would have been over and Judge Kavanaugh would (in my opinion) been part of the supreme court today with his head up.

Unfortunately this is now what I’ve seen and heard. The way the judge Kavanaugh approached this issue is a testimony of how we expect he would approach any issue of crucial importance for people’s freedoms. He did not seem to allow for any chance that his memory to be faulty and this is an issue when it comes form a person with his experience. He also did not show empathy for professor’s Ford memory and situation. He said his Daughter prayed for professor Ford but that did not seem tome come form him and unfortunately his Daughter will not sit on the supreme court. The last, but not least, the judge seemed vengeful rather than understanding, something that if true (vengeance) should make all your hair raise on your body, as such a person will be able to influence decisions on how justice will treat you in the future.

I do not doubt that judge Kavanaugh is a good person and a good judge and I have no way to tell if what he is accused of is true or not. However I think the universe (or GOD) gave him a test in this nomination and to my current opinion he failed it for the reasons I’ve explained above. I do not think that based on his last audition on the US senate he still qualifies for a sit in the US supreme court.

So, you can see why I say Confusion is the best word to describe the state of this appointment process. In my opinion no FBI investigation will bring any information more important than the one the judge provided himself to the senate.

Unfortunately we seem to be also blind not only confused, or maybe the blindness comes from the confusion, who knows. I predict that there is a high probability that judge Kavanaugh will be in the supreme court. I hope judge Kavanaugh will overcome all this unfortunate events, will learn from it and become the person we all hope he will be.

I believe it is possible, I believe in redemption, I believe in all my human (and not human) brothers and sisters, I believe we as humans are here to stay.

“Live long an prosper!”

PS: In case you wonder about “(and not human) brothers and sisters” would mean remember that if you go back in time, based on scientific proof of evolution we all share the genes of same parents, so we are truly all brothers and sisters. If you don’t believe in science and evolution then based on sacred books the same is true!

Fact and Truth & the fascinating case of Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Professor Christine Blasey

Posted on September 27, 2018 by Romeo

I watched like many others the US senate hearings of Professor Christine Blasey Ford and judge Brett Kavanaugh. Is it possible that they are both telling the truth and will pass with full colors any lie detector test?

I’m not a US citizen, so I have no interest in left or right but this case seem to be the best example of people confusing the notions of fact and truth.

I believe judge Brett Kavanaugh tell the truth and so Professor Ford even if there is one and only one fact which none of us will ever be able to know.

If you read my article Fact, Fiction and the Truth then you’ll see that for a fact (real event) there can be different recollections for each mind witnessing the fact. Each person can have different memories which in time will drift apart or be deleted from one’s memory. So, there is one fact and multiple truths. The notion of “the truth” is meaningless in a group of people.

All the people I’ve seen, on both senate floor as fell as the new channels, were talking about truth as being interchangeable with fact. This confusion can lead to dangerous situations.

On CNN Wulf Biltzer said that if both Kavanaugh and Ford have given contradictory depositions under oath it means one of them lied and should be investigated and punished. That is true if and only if we can demonstrate that someone lied. In my opinion (and other people smarter than me) this is not possible beyond doubt. (what really ‘reasonable’ means in the classic expression? where do we draw the line for reasonable?)

The worse thing though is that we “the people” should be able to behave like civilized people and not make the life hell for two people who most likely tell their own truth. It is completely unacceptable to attack and issue threats to people just because we decided they are layers when in fact is basically impossible to know when someone lies.

I hope judge Kavanaugh and other members of the justice system will think and work harder to distinguish between Fact Truth and Fiction to avoid horrible injustice by justice mistakes…

US, the latest communist state?

Posted on June 17, 2018 by Romeo

United Sates is becoming a communist regime. I could not (or did not want to) believe it, but the signs are there. I lived trough it, and I can recognize it.

Contrary to common beliefs communism is not about the economy, or the common ownership of goods or businesses, is about confusing fact and fiction, or more concise, the wide spread of disinformation and lies in the core of the society leading the destruction of the diversity.

The universe hates to have its diversity reduced. When the diversity falls under a certain level the group who over simplified will collapse. This is how civilizations die. I hope we’ll wake up in time to avoid a western civilization collapse.

Though I’ve seen this coming I was not able to see all the details on how will it happen.

The good thing is that there is a way to overcome the collapse, I call it “The Self reliant way” and includes using all the knowledge we already acquired to strengthen the base of the society, the individual.

To all out there believing that strengthening the individual is a bad idea and the group (or the society must prevail) I will remember you what the realistic solutions look like (as opposed to delusional ones). To showcase this please check how the cabin crews are instructing you to proceed in an emergency case. You FIRST put your oxygen mask BEFORE trying to help ANYONE else. Obviously once you have the mask on you MUST help other if they need help!

That is the key in balancing the abilities between individuals and groups and not the other way around we see currently be promoted in a delusional way by the social agents posed to extract the last ounce of profit of the society even if that will lead to its total collapse.

We need to wake up and face the factual world or we will go the way of the dinosaurs.

Google Assistant – AI – potential astronomical RG Factor?

Posted on May 10, 2018 by Romeo

The English mountaineer George Mallory was asked “Why did you want to climb Mount Everest?”, he answered “Because it’s there”. Mallory died at 37 doing what he loved, climbing Everest.

I have the feeling that with AI these days we seem to have an equivalent approach “Why do we want machines to be like people?” and the answer seem to be “Because is possible!”. I really hope we will learn from history and avoid getting lost (or die) climbing the mountain of humanizing machines.

To understand the technological feat of this simple call, made by a machine, with a voice really indistinguishable from a human, you would need to open the hood of the machine learning software driving the AI application and take a look. I guarantee that 99.99% (or more) of the people on earth will have absolutely no clue on how the machine does what it did (provided all this was not just a trick).

I mean this is “rocket science” for most of people out there, so Google needs to be congratulated. Until you start to think…. (yeah thinking can be dangerous sometimes).

So, we hear a machine making a phone call to talk to a human in order to make an appointment. Both parties sounds perfectly human, but the caller is not. Let’s now think what would happen if the business also get a Google business assistant?

Now it really get’s interesting, and wired and, well … wired, and here is why. If you know a bit of computer programming you already know that you can achieve the same final outcome (your computer scheduling an appointment into another computer) by a 1000x simpler and more predictable algorithm by using simple structured text over internet connections.

What struck me is that this unavoidable future (as a businesses are more probable to get the AI before you) where machines talk to machines and pretend to be people is ludicrous. It is in fact this is an equivalent of a Rube Goldberg case of software solutions where the only reason to do it is “Because is possible!”.

For those cases, I usually like to talk about a potential measure of unnecessary complexity as the RG factor from famous (and funny) Rube Goldberg machines.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a computer nerd and I love those things, but I’m also aware of times when we seem to loose our bearing. Thanks to the audio bellow now I’ll have to drop my home phone as a machines can now impersonate anyone and call me for insane reasons.

Should I now start to send passwords over encrypted channels first so that if my wife call’s me I should ask her the password first to make sure I’m not talking to a machine?

What’s next?

May 16, 2018 —— adding some (positive) ideas —–

The only way to try keep the RG factor low for language tools in AI is to use it exclusively for personal use. That is, you train your own natural language to your own machine interface. Both recognition of your voice and speech syntheses (your machine talks back to you in natural language) are valuable tools when it comes to AI use cases.

This means you can “grow in” your personal machine (starting from very early age and continue to improve it until you die. This will minimize the error rate for both speech recognition as well as speech synthesis leading to a flawless interface between humans and their personal machines. An there is where “personal assistant” has a lot of meaning and real use.

This approach allows us to get one step closer to mastering the many-to-many class of communication we basically are unable to engage today. This will be done by using natural language to communicate with our personal assistants (human <-> personal machine) and communicate between each other via structured, secure, factual machine to machine channels.

In more lay terms you talk to your machine and get things straight and clarified then your machine talks to other machines out there. The receiving end machine(s) will receive, validate, process the information let’s say to remove redundancy (things you already know) then feed you only what really matters for you and the whole community of intelligent living entities.

The future can be bright. Is all up to us to choose the right path…

TSA