In the interest of reading something a little different, I recently picked up Brilliance by Marcus Sakey. It didn’t fit squarely into my recent themes of science fiction and dystopian future visions, but it showed up in the Amazon recommendation engine with strong reviews. I figured it was worth a shot, and it certainly didn’t hurt that it was available through the Amazon Prime lending library.
Over the end of year holiday break, I cleansed my work and personal inbox. My work inbox had hundreds of emails, some as old as 8 months in it. While I’m not an “inbox zero” nut, the amount of clutter in my Inbox had become overwhelming and distracting. I decided something had to be done.
I’m a huge fan of William’s Hertling’s Singularity book series. Since reading the books, I’ve started following his blog where he often talks about artificial intelligence (AI) and the coming of the Singularity – that point in time where AI has achieved greater than human intelligence.
This weekend, he wrote an article in response to articles by Ramez Naam, author of one of my favorite books Nexus (and the sequel Crux), about how and when the Singularity may occur. In short, Naam suggests that the singularity is a ways off and won’t happen overnight. While Hertling more or less agrees with Naam, his concern is more related to the risks of an advanced AI. His biggest point is that we should be addressing the complicated ethical issues surrounding AI now so we are prepared for the Singularity when it occurs.
I’d be wading into water that is way over my head if I were to offer an opinion on how and when AI advancements will occur. I just don’t understand the technology well enough. However, I’ve read enough sci-fi books over the last 18 months regarding the Singularity that I agree we need to start discussions regarding the risks and ethical issues of a smarter than human AI sooner rather than later so we are prepared for it when it happens. I’m not suggesting I should be a part of the discussions, as I feel there are people who know way more about AI than me who should be addressing the issues, I’m just suggesting they happen.
Either way, here’s a link to all three articles. I suggest that you give them a read if you have any interesting in the advancement of AI and the emergence of the Singularity.
Finally, for good measure, here are my book reviews of Hertling’s and Naam’s books on AI and the Singularity. They’re longer form reading, but worth it if you want to understand the paths that AI could evolve along:
At a recent conference, I ran into an old acquaintance, Jeff Corbett. During an address to the conference attendees, he mentioned Neil Postman’s Technopoly. Over a beer later in the evening, we discussed the implications of technology, and I recommended he read Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, which I though was a better read than Technopoly. In return he suggested I check out Trust Me, I’m Lying : Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday. I just finished it, and I expect it will have a lasting effect on how I consume media, particularly online media.
Everyone’s athletic career peaks at different times. For me (unfortunately), it was my last year of Little League in 1982. A good season was capped off by making the Carroll Township All-Star team. Yes sir, that’s me at the far right in the second row.
We had a solid team, but ran into a buzz saw in our third game of the tournament and lost in extras 2-1. If a few bounces had gone our way, I’m certain we would have made a run. I doubt we would have made Williamsport, but oh, what could have been.
Unfortunately, It was all downhill for me in baseball from there, and I didn’t play beyond Pony League. It was a good run, but life had other things in store, which, truth be told, have turned out pretty good in their own right.
Special thanks to mom for sending this one out to me a couple of years back. I figured it would be fun to share, given we’re at the start of yet another baseball season with catchers and pitchers reporting this week.
Bitcoin has been in the news a lot lately. There have been wild price fluctuations, speculation, exchanges being shuttered, and talk of disruption. Out of all this talk, I’m not sure what to make of digital currency. Is it a world changing idea or just a fad?
I’ve written in the past about why I decided to start a blog, but a blog post written by Matt Mullenweg (yes, that Matt Mullenweg who is a founding developer of WordPress) sums up why I blog better than anything I could write. He advises us not to write with the hope of going viral. Instead, he suggests writing for two people – yourself and a single person you would consider the perfect person to read what you write.
I couldn’t agree more.
I didn’t start my blog with the hope of going viral or becoming some famous celebrity on the internet (whatever that means). I started my blog for two reasons:
I agree that once you stop writing to “go viral”, the process of starting a blog and keeping up with it become a lot easier. So if you want to start but are struggling with what to write about, quit stressing and just do it. It’s your blog, so write about what you want, and don’t worry if it never, ever goes viral. It’s still a digital record that you, your future self, and future generations can look back at to understand who you were at that point in time.