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Song for New Year's Eve
I hope you were able to listen to Dan Fogelberg's 1980 hit: "Same Old Lang Syne." The New York Times Magazine speaks of the song: "The year 1980 brought us the greatest holiday song of all time: one that finds beauty in the shabbiness of life." So, if you think you'd like to hear about romance blossoming in the super market checkout line, or six-pack beer drinking in your car, then, by all means, check this out. I'm told that Dan performs everything on the disk except for a saxophone rendition of the real "Old Lang Syne." So, don't believe the liner quotes with names of performers such as Donny Trout.. or other cuties, blame it all on Dan.. except that Dan died of prostate cancer a few years ago.
The Future Brain
The New York Times magazine for December 18, 2016 has a book-length article about the "Brain" project of the Google folks. This is an attempt to make AI ("artificial intelligence") more "real." In the past, AI has taken an adult approach to learning. That is, like an adult, the computer brain would have access to encyclopedic databases, from which it would fill its available spaces like someone in school tries to do.
The new, and revolutionary, approach is to treat the computer brain as if it were a one year or younger child. A bottom-up approach, instead of a top-down approach.
(Of course, this is my reading of the article, and my tired old Mensan mind may have read into the article things that are not there. So, be careful and read it for yourself.)
Look at this quote from the article: "An average brain has something on the order of 100-billion neurons. Each neuron is connected to up to 10,000 other neurons, which means that the number of synapses is between 100 trillion and 1,000 trillion. For a simple artificial neural network of the sort proposed in the 40's, the attempt to ever try this was unimaginable. We're still far from the construction of a network of that size, but Google Brain's investment allow(s) for the creation of artificial networks comparable to the brains of mice."
(Many years ago, Datamation magazine published some articles about AI. I copied some of the code that was printed in the magazine and developed from it a program that learned from input given in response to questions. But, of course, working with less than 80,000 bytes of program and data storage, I could only go so far. However, some branches of the code gave me some ideas about how to create a cross-reference file for computer code, something that IBM said at the time that they were not able to do.
I showed the code to George Orange, one of Social Security's hotshot programmers, and he, and later, John Taylor developed it into a useful tool for COBOL programmers, without dropping a little addition from me, because even today, I'm told, if there is a need to somehow utilize old fashioned cross-reference listings, one might find, under the tag "genius".. the name "Joe Vaughan"... toot! toot! toot!)
More Brain Stuff
The Reader's Digest for December 15, 2016 has an article by Simon Parkin from BBC.Com Future. The title is "Forever Memory."
The article mentions Eternime, which is a Web service that attempts to preserve a prerson's memories after death. How? Well, before you die, you grant Eternime access to your Facebook, Twitter, and EMAIL accounts, as well as the other stuff that you have uploaded, like photographs.
To quote the article: "The data are collected and analyzed before being transferred to an artificial intelligence avatar that tries to emulate your looks and personality... with the aim of better reflecting you after you're gone." (Surely, a boon for genealogists and progeny.)
The article then asks: "What if, rather than picking and choosing what we want to capture in digital form, it were possible to record the contents of a mind in their entirety?" (Would that we were able to do that.)
Some references mentioned in the article.:
The BRAIN Initiative.
The Human Brain Project in Europe
The Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University
Anders Sandberg's Oxford paper published in 2008, titled "Whole Brain Emulation, A Roadmap", in which he says: "Memories are not neatly stored like files on a computer to create a searchable index. Memory consists of networks of associations that are activated when we remember. A brain emulation would require a copy of them all."
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I predict.. within the next 20 years, cancer will be cured and brain "uploads" will become commonplace.
If I'm wrong, sue me.
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Even More Brain Stuff
Brain Box: the caboose of a freight train.
Brain Child: a product of one's intellect, a plan
Brain Picker: somebody who profits from stealing your ideas
Brain Wave: Brain Storm: a brilliant idea
Brain Tablet: a cigarette
Brainwash: to change one's opinions and thoughts
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das ist genug!
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