To say that the rise of Artificial Intelligence and the Singularity poses a hard problem for humanity is an understatement, as anyone who has been following my posts for the last year and a half will know. The utility of AI is undeniable, the temptation, almost irresistible. But the danger to humanity is great, perhaps Read more about Safely Containing AI using “Pandoran Spheres”[…]
Those who are interested in the cutting edge of computing will be familiar with the opportunities and benefits afforded by simulators and simulation in general. We’ve come a long way from Conway’s “Game of Life”. Exciting new opportunities, in both the short and long term are starting to open up now. One of the most Read more about The Last Invention[…]
I ordinarily leave the heavy technical posts to writers far more capable than myself; I’m not close enough to the early-release cycle on the latest Frameworks/gismos/gadgets to be able to write the perfect tutorial on anything, even if that’s the way I was inclined. Rather, my interest lies in understanding the actual import of the Read more about Emergent Behaviours in Massively Integrated Systems[…]
Recently, I had the great pleasure of watching a video of Bret Victor, talking about design and development. It’s long, but it’s really brilliant. Bret Victor – Inventing on Principle from CUSEC on Vimeo. The title of the video is “Inventing on Principle”, which I think does not actually sell what is a truly jaw-dropping Read more about Design by Principle[…]
In recent years, I’ve been called on to write a lot of low-level system software, like parsers, compilers, high-availability data stream monitors and the like. But at fairly regular intervals, I get the opportunity to lead teams of developers in enterprise projects using J2EE. It’s an interesting sensation to contemplate the architectural choices made by Read more about Closing the Loop on Software Development[…]
Maybe you’ve heard of it; the “Singularity”. The day that history ends. The moment when the sum of all effective machine intelligence exceeds the sum of all effective human intelligence. The day when Creature parts company with Creator. If you think about it, the Singularity represents the ultimate loss of social control. In that moment, Read more about The Electronic Savannah[…]