Do You Love Me? |
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The video below is owned by “Boston Dynamics” and is located on their YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/BostonDynamics). I make no claim to the video (which is great) or the song (which is also great)! I am sharing this because watching it made me happy (and I love the song)… | |
I found the above video of robots dancing amazing. It was only when I read some of the comments I realized how “programmed” we (humans) have become to fear the future. Maybe “Blade Runner” and “Terminator” are not that far away. For now, I’m amazed and can’t wait until a robot can improvise when dancing. The robots in the video appear (to me) to be programmed for this song and seem synchronized (timing and distance) with each other. | |
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On This Day In: | |
2020 | Still Willing |
2019 | Another Prayer |
2018 | After Silence |
2017 | Are You Looking Forward To A Trump Presidency? |
2016 | Three Errors From Eureka |
2015 | Limiting Choices |
2014 | Praise The Lord And Pass The Hypocrisy |
That Sound | |
2013 | Still Waiting For Answers |
2012 | Informal Leadership |
2011 | A Little More Progress |
2010 | Bec’s Gone Again… |
Posts Tagged ‘AI’
Amazing Or Terrifying?
Posted in Included Video, Music and Concerts, Philosophy, Quotes, Serendipity and Chaos, Videos, tagged AI, Artificial Intelligence, Blade Runner, Boston Dynamics, Dancing Robots, Do You Love Me? -- music video, Included Video, Philosophy, Robotics, Terminator, The Contours on January 4, 2021| Leave a Comment »
With Proper Guidance
Posted in Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged AI, Artificial Intelligence, Computing, Fei-Fei Li, Jessi Hempel, Quotes, Science, The Human In The Machine, Wired Magazine on June 25, 2019| 4 Comments »
On the phone, I ask Li if she imagines there could have been a way to develop AI differently, without, perhaps, the problems we’ve seen so far. “I think it’s hard to imagine,” she says. “Scientific advances and innovation come really through generations of tedious work, trial and error. It took a while for us to recognize such bias. I only woke up six years ago and realized ‘Oh my God, we’re entering a crisis.’ ” | |
On Capitol Hill, Li said, “As a scientist, I’m humbled by how nascent the science of AI is. It is the science of only 60 years. Compared to classic sciences that are making human life better every day — physics, chemistry, biology — there’s a long, long way to go for AI to realize its potential to help people.” She added, “With proper guidance AI will make life better. But without it, the technology stands to widen the wealth divide even further, make tech even more exclusive, and reinforce biases we’ve spent generations trying to overcome.” This is the time, Li would have us believe, between an invention and its impact. | |
— Fei-Fei Li (being quoted) | |
Quoted by: Jessi Hempel | |
From her article: “The Human In The Machine“ | |
Appearing in: Wired Magazine, December 2018 | |
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On This Day In: | |
2018 | MAGA? |
2017 | Neutral |
Family Over Ego | |
2016 | Hard Learners |
2015 | Goals |
2014 | Switch To Dogs… |
2013 | Times Change |
2012 | Ashes Not Dust |
2011 | A Handful From Saudi |
None Of This Happened | |
Take Responsibility | |
No One Can Imagine
Posted in History, Leadership, Movie Review, Movies, Philosophy, Reviews, tagged AI, Alan Turing, Alex Lawther, Allen Leech, Artificial Intelligence, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bletchley Park, Charles Dance, Codebreaker -- movie review, Commander Denniston, Cross-country Running, Dr. Franz Greenbaum, Ed Stoppard, Enigma, Henry Goodman, Highly Recommended Movie, History, Hugh Alexander, Joan Clarke, John Cairncross, Keira Knightley, Leadership, Mark Strong, Matthew Goode, MI6, Quotes, Robert Nock, Rory Kinnear, Stewart Menzies, Strong To Highly Recommended Movie, The Imitation Game - movie review on June 4, 2019| 1 Comment »
Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine. | |
— Alan Turing | |
“Codebreaker” (2011) — movie review | |
Codebreaker is a “docu-drama” about the life of Alan Turing, the famous mathematician who lead the team which developed the computer which broke the “Enigma” German code machine back in World War II. Turing is played by Ed Stoppard. The “drama” portion of this film is mostly from the journals of Dr. Franz Greenbaum, who was the psychiatrist Turing was forced to see for counseling. Dr. Greenbaum is played by Henry Goodman. | |
This film was made for TV and was aired in 2011 in the UK under the title: “Britian’s Greatest Codebreaker“. The title was changed and the film had a limited theatrical release in the US in 2012, so you may find it noted with either year of release. | |
The documentary portion of the film is interspersed into the drama and features a series of interviews with relatives of both Turing and Greenbaum, a few of Turing’s colleagues / contemporaries and some otherwise famous folks from mathematics and the computer industry. | |
Of course the “psych” interviews delve into Turing’s childhood, schooling and his homosexuality. The documentary interviews try to give a lay-person’s explanation of some of Turing’s main computer breakthroughs. For those who don’t know, Turing is considered one of the creators of both digital computers / computing, and of artificial intelligence (AI). | |
Turing is reputed to have died from suicide by poisoning. This film does nothing to explicitly contradict that conclusion, but it offers slim insights into the conspiracy theory that Turing might have been killed off by the British government in the interest of state secrecy. In any case, some 50 years after the fact, Turing was given a full pardon for his “crime” (indecent acts) as well as a formal apology from the British government. | |
Final recommendation: Strong to highly recommended. Although no where near the “movie” which followed in 2014 (see below) for production value or drama, this made for television movie was just as interesting and probably more informative. If you are interested in computers, AI or the history surrounding WWII, I think you’ll enjoy this film. | |
“The Imitation Game” (2014) — movie review | |
This is my third or fourth time viewing this movie and my initial review can be found here. | |
This movie is based on the book / biography: “Alan Turing: The Enigma” written by Andrew Hodges. The movie is a dramatized version of “basically” historical events with liberties taken for “drama”. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, (Alex Lawther plays a young Alan Turing), Keira Knightley plays Joan Clarke (the female / “love” interest), Allen Leech plays John Cairncross (a Russian agent / collegue of Turing on the project), Rory Kinnear plays Detective Robert Nock, Mark Strong plays Stewart Menzies (the MI6 super-spy), Matthew Goode plays Hugh Alexander (one of the brilliant collegues), Charles Dance plays Commander Denniston (Turing’s commanding officer at Bletchley Park ). The basic premise is that a brilliant Turing invents a general purpose computer to defeat the Nazi coding machine “Enigma”, thus saving lives by helping to end the war faster. Their work is performed at Bletchley Park. Turing (and the team) are successful, but because it is all TopSecret, there is no record of his achievements until much later (several decades) and Turing has committed suicide in the meantime. | |
The movie (and presumably the book) is based on fact. Turing was a real person; he was brilliant, he did come up with this codebreaking machine. Also, he was homosexual; he was subject to hormonal “treatment” to “cure” his desires; he did die in 1954. Beyond that, there are a number of points which are probably better handled in the “Codebreaker” TV movie reviewed above. To begin with, I don’t believe he was autistic (as is implied in this movie). I gather he had a mild stutter, but nothing like what is implied in the movie. He was homosexual, but he was not as closeted as the movie implies. My understanding is while he was open about it with his friends and colleagues, he was not what would be described as “flaming”. He was “in love” with Joan Clarke and did propose to her and later break off the engagement. By “in love” I mean he cared for her deeply, although it appears the relationship was more than Platonic but less than physical. At any rate, as portrayed in the film, Turing does tell her he is gay and she did appear to not care (in real life) about his sexual preferences. | |
There are also a number of other factual inconsistencies: the character Hugh Alexander did handle most of the supervisory / administrative duties for the team. He was not “really” Turing’s supervisor and Turing was uninterested in those duties and most office (and real) politics. The character John Cairncross may or may not have been a Russian agent. In either case, he and Turing did not work together and I’ve read it’s unlikely they even met or knew each other. Finally, Turing was not add odds with Commander Denniston, but it seems there was some issue with funding, a letter was sent to Churchill by the team and Turing’s name was on the letter, but it was from the whole of the team, not just from Turing. | |
Okay. So after all that, was the movie any good and did I enjoy it? Yes and very much so. I admit I am a fan of both Cumberbatch and Knightley. I also quite like Mark Strong as I see him in more things (the “Kingsman” series is top of this list). Because I spent a career in computing, I already knew of Turing and some of his accomplishments, so it was nice to see it dramatized and put up on a big screen film. Final recommendation: (still) highly recommended. I am a fan of the two leads, the specific (codebreaking / history) and general (computing / WWII) topics are also of personal interest, so I had a natural predisposition to enjoy this film. But, beyond my personal interests (biases), I do think this was a good film / drama and worth the time of anyone who happens to view it. | |
For those wondering about the movie’s title… Turing wrote a paper about computing and artificial intelligence which proposed that if a person sat in front of a typing instrument (what we today would call a terminal or workstation) and could type in a series of sentences and questions to “someone” at another workstation using normal language and could not tell the responses came from a machine, then the machine, was in fact, intelligent. This is the simplified version. The more complete version had three participants: the human testing / judging, a human responding, and a computer responding. In this case, the judge had to decide which responder was human and which was the machine. In some variations, the judge isn’t advised one responder is a machine until after completing several question / response cycles. Basically, the test was evolving to add a blind control situation: the judge didn’t know there was a test or what was being tested until after the cycles. I found it interesting that the producers of the movie would try to educate the audience about this aspect of computing and AI even though it had little to do with the premise of the movie, that is, a long-suffering individual genius breaking the German code machine. | |
As an aside (and final note), the movie shows Turing out running cross-country several times. What isn’t specified is that he was a world class distance runner who nearly qualified for the British Olympic team in the marathon. Again, nothing earth shaking, but I found the detail interesting. | |
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On This Day In: | |
2018 | Until Integrity, Decency, Wisdom, And Humility Return |
Just Tell (And Re-tell) The Big Lie Often Enough On Fox News | |
2017 | To Laws, Not Office Or Individuals |
Beast / General / Civil | |
2016 | Patronage |
2015 | For Blogs, Too! |
2014 | Righteous Anger |
2013 | An Irish Blessing |
2012 | But Is It Worth It? |
2011 | Let Us Start |
But The Beginning Of What?
Posted in Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged A To-Do List For The Tech Industry, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Jason Tanz, Mark Zuckerberg, Optimism, Predicting The Future, Quotes, Science, Wired Magazine on April 19, 2017| Leave a Comment »
As powerful as advanced AI might be someday, we need to understand it first and think carefully about how it should be applied. The best thing we can do is make sure we have the best minds working on AI and support research that helps us develop it faster. Again, it’s just math. Not magic. | |
At a very basic level, I think AI is good and not something we should be afraid of. We’re already seeing examples of how AI can unlock value and improve the world. If we can choose hope over fear — and if we advance the fundamental science behind AI — then this is only the beginning. | |
— Mark Zuckerberg | |
Quoted by: Jason Tanz | |
In his article: “A To-Do List For The Tech Industry“ | |
Appearing in: Wired Magazine; dtd: November 2016 | |
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On This Day In: | |
2016 | Today’s Rule |
2015 | Remembering Oklahoma City |
2014 | Who Was That Masked Man? |
2013 | Enemy Mine |
2012 | Strengthen Me |
2011 | Service, Please |
2010 | The Church In Crisis… |