The Shape of Things to Come

4 minute read. Simplicity can generate vast complexity - the Mandelbrot fractal is a wonderful example. Iterating one tiny equation leads to patterns of infinite depth and detail, nearly repeating, but not quite. Computers and software are based on nothing more than the transistor logic gate and bits memory - Alan Turing realized stringing enough of them together could solve nearly any algorithmic problem. The human genome has 2.5 billion base-pairs of DNA, which is only about 600MB of data. Somehow all the information that generated you or me could fit on one CD-ROM from the '90s, even though we largely can't even fathom how our own bodies function.  Deep neural networks are a relatively simple construct that led directly to the explosion of machine learning (ML) we're witnessing today, from facial recognition to real-time translation to image generation and artificial intelligence. They are a recursive statistical process, inspired by a theory of how the brain might w...

5 minute read. My previous post on Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence might have come across as a bit foreboding, but I actually find myself much less concerned about humanity's future than many software engineers I know. There's a rich background of dystopian science fiction about AI enslaving humanity, but I find it to be a bit far-fetched, even though I have no doubt that ML algorithms will eventually, perhaps soon, far surpass human skill in any measurable contest. The question of our future though, is not one of intelligence, but of power and motivation. We are building AI to solve problems. I speak not of myself personally (I don't work in the field) and not even of my employer (though they are certainly expanding the state of the art along with most other tech companies), but of humanity in general: we are a global society and no one acts in a vacuum. The primary fear I hear is that AI will, through superior intellect, come to either control or destroy us ev...

2 minute read. We used to say humans were the only conscious beings, so it didn't matter how we treated animals. In fact we even labeled many humans (slaves, native peoples, various foreign enemies) as animals, justifying their mistreatment as well. But running even deeper than the desire to have power over other beings is the desire to feel special ourselves - that our very nature puts us above someone or something.  We've been steadily widening our definitions as we have become more civil to more people and creatures. The more we study animals, the more we see ourselves - our brains are really not so different. Yet we feel comfortable with this broadening definition of consciousness because we smugly know that we humans still have more processing power. But now, along comes artificial intelligence.  Suddenly there is more talk of consciousness and specifically how artificial intelligence doesn't have it , but what terrible things it could mean if it were attained. Fundam...