Sunday, September 10, 2006
Artificially intelligent greasemonkeys are not here coincidentally, you know
So I'm not keeping up. It's tough. I'm not sure if it's this tough to keep up with a blog for everyone, or just tough for me because I have 2 part-time jobs and go to school full time, or what. I bought that USB stick I was talking about a couple of days ago.
I tried to call Lion today, because I had a bunch of questions. I got his voicemail, so instead I'm going to ask the Internet:
1. Why do people believe in AI?
2. Why is there no coincidence?
3. Why not use Greasemonkey to make LocalNames links in blog posts instead of writing a plugin for every blogging software known to man, and still not end up covering everything?
1. Why do people believe in AI?
I don't understand why anyone with at least a simple understanding of how programming works could believe in such a thing. It doesn't mean I don't want AI. I think AI would be cool. I just don't think it's possible. I've thought about it a lot, I don't have a good solid argument or anything, but both intuitively and technically I don't see how it's possible.
2. Why is there no coincidence?
I have heard this twice now. The first time was in V for Vendetta. V, the main character and a supposedly well-read and knowledgeable guy (judging from the countless books in his underground lair), makes the statement in the beginning of the movie. About 15 minutes ago I watched the first part of the first episode of XXXHolic, and I heard it again. I don't understand why, why there is no coincidence. Does this just mean that these characters all believe in a higher being, or that everything is predetermined? What would give them these beliefs? I have none of the sort quite yet.
3. Why not use Greasemonkey instead of writing a bunch of plugins?
Yeah, this one is out of place, I know. I didn't say this was an organized Q&A session. I think it would make much more sense to invest time writing a Greasemonkey script that turned things that look like LocalNames into links when you are typing in a textarea in your browser. I'm not sure what the overhead is like when using Greasemonkey, it may be more efficient to implement as a native Firefox plugin. Either way, simply parsing every textarea on the screen and turning LocalNames into links, either on the fly, or on Submit would pretty much bring the whole LocalNames idea to everything on the web. This means GMail, ... hey, do those Meebo guys use textareas for IM windows? It would be awesome to see links in IM so soon!
Anyways, just some thoughts. I'm not trying to attack anything, honestly! I'm not trying to set my ideas on questions 1 and 2 in stone, either. I'm looking for someone to lead me to an understanding of this stuff, I'm not solid or clear on these thoughts, I'm just trying to learn and understand.
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Sorry about the voicemail; My cell has been out of power the last few days.
That has now been remedied. But, here we are.
1. Why do people believe in AI?
Well, if you believe that a single neuron could be simulated, then it makes sense to think that you could simulate 100 neurons, or 10,000 neurons, or perhaps even 100,000,000,000 neurons.
I've answered a little bit more on CommunityWiki:YesAICanExist.
Ray Kurzweil's written a neat essay: Why We Can Be Confident of Turing Test Capability Within a Quarter Century. It does a good job of laying out what's happening in AI.
2. Why is there no coincidence?
I don't know if it's true or not, that there is no coincidence.
But it can be helpful to act as if there is no coincidence.
I think it has something to do with perceiving that things are interconnected. Whether it is true or false, the effect of the perception is what matters.
Similar to: It does not matter if a fictional character in a story book is real or not: What matters is how it causes you to behave afterwards, in the context of your life.
Existentialism states that there is no intrinsic meaning to life, that we must create it for ourselves. Others have said that meaning is not a thing that is found inside of another thing, rather, that meaning is something that comes from context. That would mean that to construct meaning is to construct context and situation.
Some people seem to be interested in creating a world in which everything has meaning, and in which there is no coincidence. This might be part of an effort to connect all things to all other things, either consciously or unconsciously.
I have no real good solid answers here, but I can give you some good questions.
Though, it seems you're good enough at finding them yourself! I hear it's a good skill to have.
3. Why not use Greasemonkey to make LocalNames links in blog posts instead of writing a plugin for every blogging software known to man, and still not end up covering everything?
Jonathan, that's a wonderful point and I'm grateful for it.
You've increased (for me) the priority of the Local Names GreaseMonkey Script.
That said, I have some caveats:
1. A Windows-based cut-and-paste intercept may have more influence, because perhaps 80% of people are using Windows (I would guess,) and they could use Local Names in Word & Excell & IE, not just in Firefox.
2. Local Names are very valuable for communities. Mass "group installs" are easiest to do by intercepting the technology platform they use. Remember, to install the plugin & use the plugin, they have to know the how and the why. When the "why" is "because everyone else is," and when the "how" questions are answered by the other users in the community that are faced with the exact same interface, then those questions are answered.
A greasemonkey FireFox plugin is a great solution for the skilled standalone individual who writes a lot and understands the benefit, and so on. But I'm not sure it's such a good thing for a community out there in the wild.
Regardless of this answer: Your point is made, and I'll give it a higher priority.
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