2022. szeptember 1., csütörtök

Answer to "Why no-code is uninteresting"

Jonathan Edwards - Why no-code is uninteresting

Why no-code is uninteresting in 1 tweet. No game-changing inventions. Just design tradeoffs between generality & simplicity looking for market fit. The long tail of software makes that hard. Monetization entails self-defeating customer lock-in. Move along, nothing to see here.



Lorand Kedves
AUGUST 31, 2022 AT 9:35 PM

Hello Jonathan,

maybe it’s just me but I can replace “no-code” with “code” in this statement and works the same way. You complain about the general state of the software industry, not about a specific method.

But how about this?
Code is uninteresting because its core is data access and control structures: sequence, iteration, selection – which are, also not interestingly, the way to process an array, set and map, respectively. The rest is an overcomplicated struggle with modularization by those who failed to understand the difference between state machines and the Turing machine and can’t see them in a real information system. Or, more likely, don’t even understand the previous sentence.

If you are interested in my take on programming, take a look here. It was 10 years ago, but no regret.
https://github.com/MondoAurora/DustFramework/wiki/What-is-wrong-with-programming

2022. augusztus 30., kedd

Key to Space




Hi Scott! As always, a fantastic starter of my day, but let me add two comments. 

First, I missed a reference to Robert Zubrin's totally serious Mars Direct concept from 1990/1996, based on then-existing hardware and contains the tethered spinning vehicle idea. As far as I know, they came up with a prototype of creating fuel on the Martian surface. I think you could create a great video about this. 
"During the trip, artificial gravity would be generated by tethering the Habitat Unit to the spent upper stage of the booster, and setting them rotating about a common axis. This rotation would produce a comfortable 1 g working environment for the astronauts, freeing them of the debilitating effects of long-term exposure to weightlessness." 

Second (my obsession): We will never stay in space with this mindset. The 0th law of space exploration is that we need a working human mind in time sync in extreme distances. Not a human body. In space, it is a dead weight (or more precisely, a continuously dying burden regardless of all the ridiculous amount of effort and cost). If you like, our body is an excellent Earth-suit for the mind. Without a magical synchronous communication device, we must start with extracted brains, kept alive and in the immediate communication loop with the local equipment and delayed contact with Mission Control. Is there any serious research in this direction?


daviga118 hours ago (edited)

Regarding the second, of course there's some progress in that sort of direction, we have therapies like ECMO and Dialysis etc. However, to get a brain-in-a-jar means replacing all of the life support services that the body provides with artificial surrogates - including a prothetic immune system, blood cells or advanced blood surrogate, various hormones, detoxification etc. etc.. It's a very large set of problems, and the solutions need to weigh less than a human body, be at least equally resilient and fault-tolerant, cost-effective, non-traumatic (!), and as versatile as a living crew (the ability to do the space equivalent of 'get out and change the tires' when something goes wrong is very valuable). 

Happens that working towards extreme transhumanist goals invariably makes all healthcare better, so I'm 100% for it


Lorand Kedves12 hours ago (edited)

@daviga1 You don't seem to get the point. Have you ever seen a rocket and wondered how inefficient machine it is? See Artemis 1: MASS AT LIFTOFF — 5,750,000 pounds / PAYLOAD TO THE MOON — 59,000 pounds (copied from NASA). 99% of the mass is there only to lift itself and the 1% useful part at the top. 

From space travel's aspect, the human body is the "mass at liftoff", the brain is the "payload". You need bones and muscles to move and get food, digestion, immune system, healing capacities, ... only survive alone (self sustaining) on Earth and in this ecosystem. In space, you only need to keep your brain that "operates you" in homeostasis. 
Some Wikipedia facts (I am not an expert on this field). The dura mater contains the cerebrospinal fluid that completely surrounds the central nervous system: your brain and the spinal cord. You have the blood-brain barrier that filters most of the stuff out of your blood, allowing the transportation of the absolutely necessary components. Your brain is already in a biological jar. 
You should learn to replace this jar with external, mechanical systems. Such systems already showed that they can go around the solar system and even out of it, without "changing tires". Humans? Made it to the moon 50 years ago a few times. Because it only takes days, and a little luck to not meet with solar storms. (Or issues with wiring that killed the crew of Apollo 1 during ground test, blew up 13 in flight, and most missions have their close calls...) 
I absolutely do not think that keeping a brain alive in a jar is simple, but at least, more manageable than doing the same with a whole, continuously dying and totally useless human body. You should compare the weight and complexity of the "life" support systems - like for a brain, you need a cubic meter filled with water and you got sufficient radiation protection as a bonus. For a crew? Huge volumes "just to move around" with pressurized air or O2, with ventilation to avoid CO2 bubbles, food, water circulation, ... serious, error-prone etc. systems just to keep the bodies alive longer (but they are damaged regardless). You need humans to operate the systems that keep them alive? Does not sound too efficient... 

A hint. The key to space is energy management: not hopping over to another gravity well but go out of this one and stay outside, indefinitely. You even knew how to do it but it is not compatible with Star Wars and Marvel stories - so you forgot about that. Please, don't enlighten me, I also know this will not happen because people don't really want to leave Earth, just want to live in their dreams (or more precisely, most of them just admire the few who do and forget about how to live IRL). I just forgot to delete the previous comment. 

I am not a "transhumanist", I only have a properly trained and tested logical thinking. I simply don't care much about "healthcare" as long as you spend thousand times more on killing; "education" as long as you do everything to enslave; "communication" as long as you only want to remote control; etc. each other. Very inhuman and absolutely not popular attitude. But you do your best to prove that a technological civilization does not work without it. 
Sorry, I am not as good as Douglas Adams with sugarcoating, and TMI anyway. Good luck. You all will need it...


daviga14 hours ago

@Lorand Kedves “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” - Thomas Jefferson


Lorand Kedves3 hours ago

@daviga1 To the "nothing can stop" part... 

"The Internet's Own Boy depicts the life of American computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist Aaron Swartz. It features interviews with his family and friends as well as the internet luminaries who worked with him. The film tells his story up to his eventual suicide after a legal battle, and explores the questions of access to information and civil liberties that drove his work." 

You find the film here on YouTube. The momentum of the "long tail" is a pretty strong adversary today and mental attitude is just part of the game. I would add a wink if Aaron survived but instead, Skol, brother!

2022. augusztus 13., szombat

That's my secret, monkeys. I'm always angry...

Regarding this article, The Problems with AI Go Way Beyond Sentience


2022.08.09.

Dear Noah,


I read your article that on the surface talks from my heart except for the optimistic conclusion related to academy and community. In my experience, this does not work that way. For example,

Those who refer to the Turing test do not seem to care about its definition, even when the clues are highlighted on the very first page...



I also asked the OpenAI folks about sentience when they had an open forum back in 2016. And yes, I offered an objective definition with levels as follows:

Knocking on Heaven's Door :-D

At OpenAI gym.

May 14 08:31

I would ask you a silly question: what is your definition of "intelligence"? No need to give links to AI levels or algorithms, I have been on the field for 20 years. I mean "intelligence", without the artificial part, "A" is the second question after defining "I". At least to me :-)

May 14 21:47

@JKCooper2 @yankov The popcorn is a good idea, I tend to write too much, trying to stay short.

@daly @gdb First question: what do we examine? The actions (black box model) or the structure (white box)?

If it's about actions (like playing go or passing Turing test), intelligence is about "motivated interaction" with a specific environment (and: an inspector who can understand this motivation!). In this way even a safety valve is "intelligent" because it has a motivation and controls a system: it is "able to accomplish a goal". Or a brake control system in a vehicle, a workflow engine or a rule based expert system.

However, white box approach: how it works is more promising. At least it enforces cleaning foggy terms like "learn", "quicker", or how we should deal with "knowledge representation", especially if we want to extract or share it.

In this way, I have starter levels like:

  • direct programmed reactions to input by a fixed algorithm;
  • validates inputs and self states, may react differently to the same input.

So far it's fine with typing code. But you need tricky architecture to continue:

  • adapts to the environment by changing the parameters of its own components;
  • adapts by changing its configuration (initiating, reorganizing, removing worker components).

So far it's okay, my framework can handle such things. However, the interesting parts come here:

  • monitors and evaluates its own operation (decisions, optimization);
  • adapts by changing its operation (writes own code);
  • adapts by changing its goals (what does "goal" mean to a machine?)

At least, for me artificial intelligence is not about the code that a human writes, but an architecture that later can change itself - and then a way of "coding" that can change itself. I did not see things related to this layer (perhaps I was too shallow), this is why I asked.

May 16 06:10

@gdb Okay, it seems that my short QnA does not worth serious attention here. I have quite long experience with cognitive dissonance, so just a short closing note.

Do you know the Tower of Babel story, how God stopped us to reach the sky? He gave us multiple languages so that we could not cooperate anymore. With OpenHI ;-) this story may resemble the myriads of programming languages, libraries and tools - for the same, relatively small set of tasks, being here for decades. (I have been designing systems and programming for decades to get the pain of it - see Bret Victor for more.)

So my point here: Artificial intelligence is not about algorithms, python codes, libraries, wrappers, etc. that YOU write and talk about. All that is temporal. (And by the way, AI is NOT for replacing human adults, like Einstein, Gandhi, Neumann or Buddha. It is only better than us today: dreaming children playing with a gun. hmm... lots of guns.) However...

When you start looking at your best codes like they should have been generated. When you have an environment that holds a significant portion of what you know about programming. When it generates part of its own source code from that knowledge to run (and you can kill it by a bad idea). When you realize that your current understanding is actually the result of using this thing, and that you can't follow what it is doing because you have a human brain, even though you wrote every single line of code. Because its ability is not the code, but the architecture you can build but can't keep in your brain and use it as fast and perfect as a machine.

By the way, you actually create a mind map to organize your own mind! How about a mind map that does what you put in there? An interactive mind map that you use to learn what you need to create an interactive mind map? Not a master-slave relationship, but cooperation with an equal partner with really different abilities. I think this is when you STARTED working on AI, because... "Hey! I'm no one's messenger boy. All right? I'm a delivery boy." (Shrek)

Sorry for being an ogre. Have fun!


Since then I learned that with this mindset, you can pass the exams of a CS PhD, but you can't publish an article, the head of your doctoral school "does not see the scientific value of this research", you don't get response from other universities like Brown (ask Andy van Dam and Steve Reiss) or research groups, etc.

So, I do it alone, because I am an engineer with respect to real science, even though I have not found a single "real" scientist to talk with. Yet.

Best luck to you!

  Lorand


2022.08.11.


[Response from Noah - private]


2022.08.12.

Hello Noah,


Thanks for the response to the message in the bottle. Before going on, a bit of context.

I used to be a software engineer, as long as this term had any connection with its original definition from Margaret Hamilton. Today I am "Solution Architect" at one of the last and largest "real" software company. You know, that gets its revenue from creating information systems, not mass manipulation (aka marketing), ecosystem monopoly etc. (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, ... you name it).

When I started working on AI in a startup company, we wrote the algorithms (clustering, decision tree building and execution, neural nets etc.) from the math papers in C++, on computers that would not "run" a coffee machine today. The guy facing me wrote the 3D engine from Carmack's publications; in spare time he wrote a Wolfenstein engine in C and C++ to see how smart the C++ compiler is. I am still proud of that he though I was weird. Besides leading, I wrote the OLAP data cube manager for time series analysis, a true multithreaded job manager, and the underlying component manager infrastructure, the Basket, later learned that it was an IoC container, the only meaningful element of the "cloud". I was 25.

I saw the rise and fall of many programming languages and frameworks, while I had to do the same thing all the time in every environment: knowledge representation and assisted interaction, because that is the definition of all information system if you are able to see abstraction under the surface. I followed the intellectual collapse of IT population (and the human civilization by the way), fought against both as hard as I could. Lost. Went back to the university at 43 to check my intelligence in an objective environment. Got MSc while being architect / lead developer at a startup company, then another working for the government. Stayed for PhD because I thought what else should be a PhD thesis if not mine? I had 20 minutes one-on-one with really the top Emeritus Professor of model based software engineering, a virtual pat on the shoulder from Noah Chomsky (yes, that Chomsky), a hollow notion of interest from Andy van Dam, a kick in the butt from Ted Nelson (if you are serious about text management, you must learn his work), etc., etc., etc. In the meantime, I looked for communities as well, like published the actual research on Medium, chatting on forums like LinkedIn, RG, ... Epic fail, they think science is like TED lectures and Morgan Freeman in the movies... and oh yes, the Big Bang Theory. :D

Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted. (Randy Pausch, Last Lecture) I learned that this is the nature of any fundamental research and there is no reason to be angry with the gravity. The Science of Being Wrong is not a formal proof of that, but with the referred "founding fathers", a solid explanation. Good enough for me. Side note: of course, you can't publish a scientific article that among others states that the current "science industry" is the very thing information science was aimed to avoid before it destroys the civilization. See also, the life and death of Aaron Swartz. Yes, I mean it.


Back to the conversation.

If anyone carefully reads the Turing article instead of "yea yea I know", finds the following statements (and only these!) 

  1. We don't have a scientific definition of intelligence. 
  2. We tend to define intelligence as something we think it is intelligent because it behaves somewhat like us. 
  3. The machines will eventually have performance enough to fulfil this role. 

If you also happen to know about the work and warnings of Joseph Weizenbaum (the builder of the ELIZA chatbot) and Neil Postman (the "human factor" expert), then you will not waste a single second of your life on nn-based chatbots, whatever fancy name they have. I certainly do not do that, although understand how fantastic business and PR opportunity this is. For me this is science and not the Mythbusters show where you break all the plates in the kitchen to "verify" gravity (and make excellent sales opportunity for the dishware companies).


You also wrote that "Instead of talking in circles about how to use the word “sentience” (which no one seems to be able to define)"

I repeat: I have this definition with multiple levels quoted in the part you "skimmed". And use these levels as target milestones while building running information systems in real life environments. For the same reason, I stopped trying to write about it because nobody puts the effort to read what I write (general problem), I write the code instead. A code that I can see one day generate itself completely (partial self-generation in multiple languages for interacting multi-platform systems is done). You find a partially obsolete intro here - GitHub, etc. also available from there.

So, thank you for the support, but I am not frustrated about academy, I understood how it works, cows don't fly. The painful part is understanding that they never did, it's just self marketing. I am kind of afraid of losing my job again right now, but that's part of the game as I play it.

Best,

  Lorand


2022.08.13

FYI, this is where "your kind" abandons the dialog all the time, lets it sink under the guano of 21th century "communication". Been there, done that all the time, no problem. So just one closing note while I am interested in typing it in.

At least I hope you realize: a chatbot will never generate the previous message. I am not pretending intelligence by pseudo-randomly select some of the trillions of black box rules collected by adapting to the average of the global mass. I am intelligent because I create my rules, test and improve by using them, keep what works and learn form what does not. Another constructive definition and if you think about it, the direct opposite of a chatbot or the whole "emerging" tech-marvel-cargo-cult.

We both know "infinite mass of monkeys in infinite time will surely type in the Hamlet". But please consider that this is not the way the first one was created, and none of the monkeys will be able to tell the next Hamlet from the infinite garbage. Similarly, I may have a nonzero chance to create a conscious information system, even if I do it as a public project on GitHub, it will die with me because nobody will be able to see it. Btw, this is a valid conclusion of Turing's article (and the reason why Vannevar Bush wrote the As We May Think article and initiated the computer era).

Namaste :-)

2022. július 20., szerda

"you'll always be inferior"


It's hard to give a good answer to a bad question. Learning means you realise that you made a mistake. That you were wrong. That you missed the point. This is the meaning of the word. Real learning must feel bad. 

The thing that feels good is edu-tainment, the real danger identified by people who knew how this works (see https://neilpostman.org/ ). However, today you find edu-tainment everywhere because that has a business model - but no education that you would need to become a "knowledge worker". 

You don't feel that you are inferior developer but almost surely, you don't even know what it used to be. Give this guy 5 minutes to explain, and listen carefully. https://youtu.be/ecIWPzGEbFc?t=3056 If you feel weird, that means you at least have a tiny chance to start learning someday.

"Why do my eyes hurt? You've never used them before." (The Matrix)

---

[Of course, deleted immediately - I don't know if YouTube AI or the author, you never know that.]

2022. január 14., péntek

Hol van most a magyar értelmiségi elit?

Hol van most a magyar értelmiségi elit?
A kérdés nyilván úgy is hangozhat, hogy „Hol a csudában vannak ők?"
2022. január 06. - Tamáspatrik

Érdemes alaposabban megvizsgálni kérdésben szereplő a szavak jelentését, beleértve azokat többletjelentéseket, konnotációkat, amik a közbeszédben való használat során rájuk rakódtak és általában negatív értelműek. (A köznyelv minden alapvető, klasszikus értékjelölő fogalmunkat elkoptatja és kiforgatja magából előbb vagy utóbb.)

...

2022.01.07. 19:03:28
Érdeklődés hiányában kihaltunk, nem kérünk elnézést. :-D

Például íme Csermely Péter akadémikus, kutató, "világjobbító" 2010 tájáról, csak szemezgetve:
Meritokrácia: csermelyblog.tehetsegpont.hu/node/25
Az írástudók felelőssége: csermelyblog.tehetsegpont.hu/node/127

Ugyanő... "2018 tavasza óta az angyalföldi evangélikus gyülekezet presbitere, 2020 februárjától a gyülekezet felügyelője..." csermelyblog.hu/bemutatkozas

Sic transit gloria mundi.


2022.01.09. 05:36:49
@Tamáspatrik

Úgy látom a lényeg nem ment át, és félek, nem csak a ricsaj miatt.

Szerinted van értelme megpróbálnom elmagyarázni, miért teljes válasz a kérdésedre Csermely Péter története? Vagy valójában nem is kérdeztél, csak ugyanazt a művészi nyafogást adtad elő, amivel a többség az "értelmiség" fogalmát azonosítja, a saját (konyha-) színvonalának megfelelően, és sajnos egyre inkább jogosan... :-( ?

És mi lenne a jó nekem abban, hogy megpróbáljam? Én unom, a közönség elküld a p....ba. Ez egyébként a rövid válasz a kérdésre: "Ahová kergettétek." Ja igen, a kérdés így szólt: "hol van a magyar értelmiségi elit?" Persze az itteni traccspartinak ehhez már nincs semmi köze... :-)


2022.01.10. 05:42:56
@Kurt úrfi teutonordikus vezértroll: "Van olyan ismerősöm, akit nyugdíjasként, angol tudás nélkül, felvett egy amcsi multi, mert az adott szakterületen majd 50 éves gyakorlata van."

Azért ez még mindig eltérés a tárgytól, ha megengeded... Nyugdíjba vonuló mérnökök pótlása még elég távol áll az "elit"-től. A tény hogy közben (nem csak olyan szubjektívnek kezelt fogalmak tekintetében, mint "értelmiség" vagy "vita", hanem objektív környezetben, mint pl informatika) az elvárható színvonal úgy zuhan, mint a kő, még nem teszi a korábbi "jó" szintet elitté. :-)


2022.01.10. 08:28:46
@Kurt úrfi teutonordikus vezértroll: "De persze az értelmiség elitjéhez az atomfizikus Pálinkás, a matematikus Lovász, stb."

NEM. És ezt lenne jó, ha a csacsogó közönség valaha felfogná. Akinek a nevét az istenadta nép az adott időszakban ismeri, NEM az elit.

Az elit az, aki ha elkezd a saját szintjén gondolkodni és kommunikálni, a világon száz ember ha akad (azok között akiket te említesz), akik 1: eleget tudnak ahhoz, hogy esélyük legyen megérteni, de 2: elég bölcsek is ahhoz, hogy ezt elengedve képesek legyenek újat tanulni. Mert amit az elit mondani próbál, NEKIK magas, lásd pl: Einstein relativitás elmélete, születése idején.
Ez egy a szükséges mértékig pontos, objektív, informatikai definíció. Egyébként, az informatikát ennek jobb kezelésére találták ki, függetlenül attól, amivé az üzleti motivációk és a tudás illúzióval magát szórakoztatni vágyó tömeg (lásd: fogyasztó) kezében vált.

Egy történelmi példa a "magyar értelmiségi elit" szintre (és "megértettségére") Szilárd Leó. Engedtessék meg egy példával illusztrálni az ő viszonyát a "state of the art" tudománnyal és az azt művelő "ismert tudósokkal".

...
That month, Niels Bohr brought news to New York of the discovery of nuclear fission in Germany by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, and its theoretical explanation by Lise Meitner, and Otto Frisch. When Szilard found out about it on a visit to Wigner at Princeton University, he immediately realized that uranium might be the element capable of sustaining a chain reaction.

Unable to convince Fermi that this was the case, Szilard set out on his own. He obtained permission from the head of the Physics Department at Columbia, George B. Pegram, to use a laboratory for three months. To fund his experiment, he borrowed $2,000 from a fellow inventor, Benjamin Liebowitz. He wired Frederick Lindemann at Oxford and asked him to send a beryllium cylinder. He convinced Walter Zinn to become his collaborator, and hired Semyon Krewer to investigate processes for manufacturing pure uranium and graphite.

Szilard and Zinn conducted a simple experiment on the seventh floor of Pupin Hall at Columbia, using a radium–beryllium source to bombard uranium with neutrons. Initially nothing registered on the oscilloscope, but then Zinn realized that it was not plugged in. On doing so, they discovered significant neutron multiplication in natural uranium, proving that a chain reaction might be possible. Szilard later described the event: "We turned the switch and saw the flashes. We watched them for a little while and then we switched everything off and went home." He understood the implications and consequences of this discovery, though. "That night, there was very little doubt in my mind that the world was headed for grief".


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard

Meh. Fecsegek.


2022.01.11. 08:16:13
@cvsvrs

Azért ez az eredeti kérdésre vonatkozó, korrekt levezetés. Mint ilyen, szépen mutatja, hogy a köznapi, amorf fogalom definíciók szintjén erről a témáról csak hadüzeneteket meg sírverseket lehet írni. Emiatt a jelenlévők igazából nem is kárhoztathatók, amit meg én csinálok, falra hányt borsó, lásd például...

Viszont ha foglalkozunk kicsit a definíciókkal... Az "értelmiségi" vagy akár "civil" gondolkodás alapja a meritokrácia, mondjuk úgy: "érdemek az érdekek felett". Olyan emberekről beszélnénk, akik komoly munkával objektív szaktudásra tettek szert, ezt tekintik értéknek önmagukban és másokban; a hatalomban a felelősséget látják, az anyagi javakat külső kényszernek tekintik amelyhez valamilyen szinten alkalmazkodni muszáj. Ha valaki képes annyira figyelni, mint mondjuk a fiaim, akkor egyszerű elmagyarázni: kint van a kincs, bent van a becs, és vannak helyzetek amikor csak egyet választhatsz, mert ez egy ilyen világ. Mindegy.

Az ilyen embereket valamikor nagyítóval keresték és szervezték, ma félrelökik és eltapossák vagy kihasználják őket, mert a "modern" (elegáns szó az öngyilkosra) világban élhetetlenek. Ezért létezett valamikor számukra az "akadémia" nevű tér, amely definíciójának részeként "autonóm" volt, ha ebben a nemzeti focializmusban még bárki emlékszik ilyesmire. Hát ez megszűnt, a felhergelt istenadta nép lelkes tapsa mellett ("köldöknéző buzológusok, úgy kell nekik"). Ráadásul még az autonóm akadémia létezése sem garancia semmire, lásd erről egy "külföldi értelmiségi elit", a területet egész életében kutató Neil Postman rövid figyelmeztetését. youtu.be/YtjjFmCxc8s

Nem csoda, ha a nép inkább cirkuszt kíván, még ha el is fogy közben a kenyér. Nem neki való az időközben eltűnt elit által megteremtett 21 század.


2022.01.11. 09:28:38
@BiG74 Bodri: "Korrekt gondolatsor."

Dehogy, csak ugatom a Holdat... végtelenül szánalmas és unalmas blog kommentekben pofázni két bekezdésben akkor, ha olvastál előtte valódi mestereket. Viszont ha itt egyetlen ember is kicsit letekeri az acsargást, félreteszi a saját véleményét az "elitről" és utánanéz akár egynek is, például Postmannek, már megérte... neilpostman.org/


2022.01.12. 05:42:47
@BiG74 Bodri: "Akkor tessék csak tovább ugatni, viszont szánalmas dolgokba kár belemenni."

Látod, pont ez a probléma. Mert például mit kezdjek azzal, hogy

@Vén motoros hosszú tirádában ekézi a saját szűklátókörűségét és bizonyítja, hogy egy linkre nem volt képes rákattintani. Mert akkor esetleg rájön, hogy az idézett Neil Postman egész életét azzal töltötte, hogy a média illetve a nyomása alatt elsatnyuló oktatás és kommunikáció viszonyát kutatta, azért tekintem "értelmiségi elitnek". Aztán tökéletes példát ad arra, hogy ő sem fogja fel mit jelent a 21. század: amikor egy ember élet arra kevés, hogy egyetlen tudományág addig összegyűlt teljesítményét FELFOGNI képes legyen egy abban tehetséges és szerencsés alany. Jön a reneszánsz emberrel, de ha lefordítaná szaktudásra, akkor rájönne, hogy mindenhez IS értő figuráról már csináltak mesefilmet, az ő ideálja Mekk Mester.

vagy itt van

@Tamáspatrik, aki "egyetért a postással", ami innen nézve kábé olyan, hogy a szénné betépett Bob Marley "I feel you bro, I really do" shóhajjal meglapogatja Liszt Ferenc vállát. Cool. (I mean: youtu.be/HSz-fREw41c?t=21 ) Továbbá igen, az "ipsének" elég komoly meggyőző ereje volt. Ő mondta tollba egy bizonyos Albert Einsteinnek azt a Roosevelt elnöknek küldött levelet, amiből a Manhattan projekt, abból pedig a mai civilizáció született. Az ő dühöngésének eredménye lett az amerikai-szovjet forró drót, amely szintén szerepet kapott abban, hogy még mindig itt vagyunk.

De könyörgöm, az "ipse" NEM Teller, hanem Szilárd Leó!!! Szilárd! Leó! Őket összekeverni olyan, mint azt mondani, "Gandhi vagy Hitler, nem mindegy, valami népvezér fazon mindkettő". Tudod, "postás, egyik szó olyan mint a másik", yo chill man, why are you so mad?

----

Mi a fenének csinálom én ezt? Amiért szilveszter után összeszedem a széttört üveget is a járdán, mert a végén még egy gyerek elesik és belemegy a kezébe. És nem arra haragszom, aki eltörte, hanem a saját fajtámra, aki LEGYÁRTOTTA azt a rohadt üveget. Mert az istenadta nép számára a mámor ugyanúgy megjön, ha a saját kulacsából rúg be, de akkor nem hagy szellemi hulladékot maga után, amivel minden utána arra járó szembesül. A végén pedig megállapítja, hogy "a gyereket nem lehet utcára engedni, mert ez egy veszélyes világ, tele van üvegcseréppel."

Igen, az. Miattad. Az emberi civilizáció olyan, mint a hegymászás: a gravitáció (természetes zsigeri motivációk, a Maslow piramis alja) ELLENÉBEN történik. Nem "elsatnyul, kiüresedik, álságossá válik" a környezet, hanem ez egy már csak technikával (globális informatika) mászható hegyfal bakker, aki nem kapaszkodik, nem figyel arra hova lép, az leesik. És ha elég magasan járt előtte, belehal (klíma, atom, fake news, ...), de erre nem esés közben jön rá, hiszen nem az öl meg, hanem a becsapódás... youtu.be/keithzev6kE


2022.01.13. 08:26:41
@Vén motoros: "Különben qrvára nem állhatom, ha valaki egyes szám 3. személyben beszél hozzám vagy rólam..."

Én meg azt nem értékelem túl nagyra, amikor valaki (igen, például te, de ez egy általános probléma) nekem címez egy olyan kiselőadást, amelynek SEMMI köze nincs ahhoz a tartalomhoz, amire elvileg válaszol. Ehhez nem tudok semmit hozzátenni, ezért nem is szóltam "hozzád". Amilyen az adjonisten, olyan a fogadjisten (még Pilátusig se kellett mennem érte...) :-)

@Tamáspatrik
Kedves ez a matekos levezetés - kár, hogy szintén azt jelzi: nem törődsz azzal, amit írok, csak gépelsz valamit ami eszedbe jut róla. Próbálj nekifutni újra ennek a bekezdésnek, különös figyelemmel az "egyetlen" szóra:

"végtelenül szánalmas és unalmas blog kommentekben pofázni két bekezdésben akkor, ha olvastál előtte valódi mestereket. Viszont ha itt egyetlen ember is kicsit letekeri az acsargást, félreteszi a saját véleményét az "elitről" és utánanéz akár egynek is, például Postmannek, már megérte... "

Sikerült? Épphogy nem érdekelnek a százalékaid! Az elején elmagyaráztam hogy miért (elit definíciója). Ha tényleg felfogtad volna Postman beszédét, akkor tudnád: az érvelésed egy vizigót szöveg volt... Ha pedig minimális szinten értenéd Szilárd és Teller viszonyát, akkor nem "más is csinál ilyet" mentségre hivatkoznál, miután összekevertél egy elfeledett athénit egy közismert vizigóttal. Ez egyébként két, a maga módján elit értelmiségi magyar tudós, helló! - és mekkorát lehetett volna beszélgetni a Teller-Szilárd vitáról, ami szintén meghatározza a mai emberi civilizációt, csak persze a "mai értelmiségnek" fogalma sincs erről.

És már megint a falnak beszélek, ugye? :-)TUDOM, hogy semmi értelme nincs ebben a pillanatban és számotokra, de összefoglalnám a jegyzőkönyv kedvéért.

1: az "értelmiségi kommunikáció" alapja a hibátlan és figyelmes olvasás, a másik fél részéről annak feltételezése, hogy OBJEKTÍV tartalmat igyekszik közölni, nem egy képzelt közönségnek játszik és próbálja bizonyítani a saját igazát (Fodor Ákos: "Mindenkinek van igaza"). Csak ezután jönne (feltételes módban) az alapvető érvelési szabályok ismerete és BETARTÁSA, ami nélkül érdemben kommunikálni lehetetlen. Például tök mindegy, hogy nem szokás és mások sem...
Ez nyilván komoly odafigyelést igénylő szellemi munka, semmi köze egy blogposzthoz vagy az alatta lévő kommentekhez. Teljesen jogosan vetitek a szememre, hogy mit keresek én itt! Ismétlem. TELJESEN JOGOSAN. NEM vitatkozom ezzel.
Viszont ha valakiben a menj a p---csába elvárással szemben a "mit keresek itt" kérdésként fogalmazódna meg, akkor két választ is tudok rá adni.

2: A poszt eredeti kérdése így szólt: hol van a magyar értelmiségi elit? Nos, nekem van ezekre a fogalmakra konstruktív és ellenőrizhető definícióm, amelyek mentén élni, dolgozni és kommunikálni törekszem (igen, folyamat, nem állapot). Tehát a válasz így szól: itt voltam. És ahogy a legelején jeleztem: megyek a többi után oda ahová kergettek. Köszönöm az illusztrációt! :-)

3: Én is keresem a magyar értelmiségi elitet. Talán öt év múlva egy keresőben rábukkan valaki erre a kérdésre. Nyilván három mondat után átugorja a posztot, mert az elit valóban nem blogol a 20% igényeinek megfelelő színvonalon, és beletúr a kommentekbe. Ha az általam képviselt színvonal számára megfelelő, akkor megkeres. Érted? NEM "nektek" írok, titeket győzködlek, stb. amit persze nem kéne magyaráznom, ha a "filozófia" eredeti definícióját ismernétek. Olyan szinten kommunikálok, amilyet én magam találni szeretnék amikor keresek. Az elmúlt húsz évben élő elitet nem találtam, de a remény hal meg utoljára, nem igaz? Idézet-rajongóknak: "Te magad légy a változás, amit látni szeretnél a világban!" (Gandhi - akit azért merek idézni, mert gyerekként többször végigolvastam az önéletrajzát :-) )

Namaste. :-D

2021. december 31., péntek

Don't Look Up!



Lorand Kedves
2 days ago (edited)
I am a scientist/engineer studying the root causes of this collapse of reasoning and communication for 15+ years. Someone like Mr. DiCaprio (or rather, Ms. Lawrence) plays in a more convincing way than I could ever present myself, because acting is their profession, not mine - I do things. I can only say that repeating the same message on the same level again and again is part of the problem and has nothing to do with the solution. Which could even have a chance if "famous alternative thinkers" did not waste all the resources on "delivering the message"... 

So, true. “We really did have everything, didn’t we? I mean, when you think about it.” Climate change, a comet, COVID, ... - the actual subject does not matter. I know why you don't look up. I know the science that predicted this, almost exactly by date. Unfortunately, none of the movies of this kind will prepare you to deal with it.

Dacialastun2 days ago
So what are the causes of that collapse? You forgot to say that.........


Lorand Kedves2 days ago (edited)
@Dacialastun Yup, because here comes that scientific yada-yada. This is the part that allows finding a comet, predict its trajectory and perhaps, plan some actions. I wrote a ton about those things, but found nobody who would like to read. You know, the look up part that I miss from this movie. 

If you happen to be my kind... I talk about informatics. From the neo-whorfian hypothesis and its connection with Douglas Engelbart on the technical/infrastructural side and Neil Postman with McLuhan, Licklider on the human effects (from individuals to mankind level) - and many-many other exceptional thinkers. On the other side, its business-oriented collapse through Kay, Jobs, the Google bros, the Tesla guy, and the continuous moaning since "The Wall", etc. 

If not, well... it's all about opening up a global online communication network without being conscious about our ancient mental patterns and now obsolete world model. Mankind grew a global brain but is not ready for a headache of this magnitude. Like, you can do anything with a toy, but if you find yourself controlling a 30 ton excavator, you'd better forget not only about kidding but the "trial and error" approach. And it's not about censorship, "AI Ethics", the "Social Dilemma" or "Humane technology", but about growing up, both as individuals and the global human species. 

Is this somewhat clear, or do I sound like a moron as always (like the movie scientists in that TV show)? Anyway, read The Voice of the Dolphins from Leo Szilard (1961) for a funny intro.

benz_ask2 days ago
I feel the don't look up supporters are take your vaccine and ask no questions..and the scientists that are fired because they reduce the fear and go against government agenda..this film is a double bluff trust me


Lorand Kedves2 days ago (edited)
@benz_ask Exactly, and thank you for illustrating what I mean the global headache. 

I took my vaccines together with my wife and sons and asked no questions. Not because what I feel or whom I trust, but because I am a scientist. I know that I do not know enough to understand or judge the answer of a scientist of a different field. On the other hand, there were multiple hospital doctors in my family, I worked at a pediatric clinic (as a nurse/first line computer support after my BSc in CS, good old days...) for more than a year. My feelings and trust do not come from soap operas or reality shows, but personally knowing people who make me proud to be a human being. I do what they say that I should do, anytime. 

Take this one. You can be a master car mechanic, you still don't start arguing with a carpenter about how he should do his job. Because you are not a carpenter. And of course, you will trust a car mechanic in a carpenter shirt more than a real carpenter (especially when blaming them), because you understand what that fake carpenter says and don't understand the real one. 

Do I "trust the system"? Of course not, because I could explain why it does not work, and this includes fueling the rage of the masses through fake conflicts. Easy and used for centuries, my dear Watson, but with global social media and trained IT experts like myself, it's the perfect storm. Keep this one. You know, trained dogs don't bite the stick, they grab the hand. But the real danger is the one that goes for the neck. And how can you protect yourself? Beat a hundred "hero dogs" with a blue stick, another hundred with a red one, and enjoy the show. They will not even bite the stick anymore, they will attack each other while ward off the trained and dangerous ones. You are safe. :-) 

And please don't trust me. Read carefully, think, decide and then own your responsibility. You may make mistakes (just like me), but they should be yours, not mine.

Fiona Mulvey2 days ago
Rita Levi Montalcini predicted all of this, long before 15 years ago.

Lorand Kedves1 minute ago (edited)
@Fiona Mulvey  Probably, but she had nothing to do with the actual process, and that 15+ years is only my work, not the ones I refer to. For example, see JCR Licklider: Libraries of the Future from 1964, the result of a two year state funded official research (please keep in mind, this was in deep cold war era when our current pop-science was impossible...) ;-)

This book is the exact, scientific forecast of the core features and our interaction with the internet, derived from the exponential growth of computing power and the amount of "transferrable" (objective, scientific) knowledge. Informatics used to be true science, not the playground of billionaires or hype-lords "surprised" by the inevitable side effects of their own business... :-) 

„... the "system" of man's development and use of knowledge is regenerative. If a strong effort is made to improve that system, then the early results will facilitate subsequent phases of the effort, and so on, progressively, in an exponential crescendo. On the other hand, if intellectual processes and their technological bases are neglected, then goals that could have been achieved will remain remote, and proponents of their achievement will find it difficult to disprove charges of irresponsibility and autism.”

That means (translating complex statements to "Twitter-English"): blinded by cheap marbles of global IT, we will not be able to look up. Here we are.

Fiona Mulvey1 hour ago
@Lorand Kedves I am a scientist too, specialising in human perception and attention. Again, Nobel prizewinner in medicine and physiology Rita Levi Montalcini predicted all this decades ago, and tried to do something about it in the declaration of human duties. You should have a read, I can translate the neuroscience to twitter English, as you call it, if you need, too. I don't even have a twitter account and personally prefer primary source in general, but she wrote in Italian. Don't assume the people you are talking to are morons who speak only twitter English, there are thousands of scientists working on the same topic for years and you might learn something new.

Lorand Kedves1 second ago
@Fiona Mulvey Don't take it personal, please. From one short sentence how could I detect your level of education? Although checked that your name exists on Google Scholar, but that is just a hope, not a unique identification... ;-) I also think that while chatting on YouTube, Twitter-English translation is important for the average audience (just see the responses to my texts here). 

However, I still hold my statement. I totally agree, many exceptional thinkers including scientists of many fields warned about the general collapse of communication, much more than I know about. However, the actual machinery that is now abused to the extreme against human sanity, is informatics. ... although we use "Computer Science" (which is a ridiculous simplification) or "Information Technology" (yet another), because when Ted Nelson coined that we should use this name just like physics or mathematics, it was already occupied by a company in the US, and this is what counts. Very funny and telling story... 

So, I have my heroes in other areas, like Neil Postman or Konrad Lorenz, etc. and have no issue to add Professor Montalcini to the list. But I still say that the major issue today is that "informatics" had forgotten its own scientists and replaced with cult leaders and businessmen. The number one problem is "information poisoning", and the creators of communication tools and infrastructure have clear motivation to make the situation worse. On the other hand, without the fundamental concepts of individual reasoning and communication, we have no chance to solve any problem. This is a perfect storm, and while respecting the warnings of many wise people, I expect the solution from the experts on the field that causes the problem. 

If you are interested and give an address, I can send you a short article with more details. Lund, HCI, artificial vision? Cool stuff, we may have a few common topics. Unfortunately, I dropped RG, academia.edu and other accounts together with my PhD when I could not find a single person in the AI community to discuss the first page of the Turing Test article... Maybe you would be the first one? :-)

2021. december 8., szerda

"Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Programming"


In short: you are right.

To add a few more words. 
I have been payed for coding, designing architectures and analysing problems for 25+ years. After 20+, I went back to the university to check if I am wrong or all the others - may call it "an inverse impostor syndrome". I got MSc, went on with PhD and during that time, I finally met with the fundamentals that explained why my mantras worked along the years. 
Like "structure eats code" means that we actually write information systems to understand a situation, learn to write a capable interactive model - or in academic terms, transfer our current knowledge to a Turing Machine only to extract a network of clean state machines, the process is called "refactor". 
Or: "I want to make my mistakes, not other people's mistakes" means the fundamental statement of information science: information is the noise. The things we did not know about the system. And we are there to make and understand different noise because from that knew understanding emerges. 
Etc, etc. Information science is an absolute gem, but it takes a lot of experience to understand... 

To be more specific and add Google compatible keywords. 
Understand the design patterns, they will work in any environment. Take the original Gang of Four materials. 
Check "Tracer Bullet Development" and other core ideas from The Pragmatic Programmer. That works. 
Listen to old guys, they did the same thing before the current "big names" appeared. Recommended: Bob Martin, Alan Kay. 
And if you think you know enough, you can start learning about the heavy stuff. Start with Bret Victor's Future of Programming lecture, https://youtu.be/8pTEmbeENF4 Then learn about those who he mentions: Sutherland, Engelbart, Licklider, Bush. They are the real deal.


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