Sat Mar 06, 2010

GUI's Can't be Modified.

OK, I'm back to ranting and raving about GUI's.

You can't change a GUI. You are stuck with what you've got. If you have an operation you would like to do often, you would probably like to have a simple way to do it. If the GUI provides a complicated and long string of actions to perform it you can not change this. You have to click and click and click each time you want to do it. No code, means no ability to change things. Code means control of the way things operation. No code means the GUI builder controls how things operate. IF the GUI builder doesn't know what you are going to do with their program, they can't set it up to work efficiently for you.

Why don't GUI's expose little bits of code so that you could modify some portion of the way they GUI operate and also have a reset button if you mucked the code up? We can do this.

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Posted by: Jon Grover | Mar 06, 10 | 10:01 pm

Sat Feb 27, 2010

A First Pass at a Design for The Singularity

Human relationships have progressed through six orders.
The seventh is upon us. I forecast that the revolution will be in 2014.

	2^0	| 1 self
x2
	2^1	= 2 partnership (one-on-one)
x4
	2^3	| 8 family
x16
	2^7	= 128 team
x256
	2^15	| 32,768 tribe\hierarchy (B)
		- with a person at the top
x64K
	2^31	= 2,147,483,648 civil society (F)
x4B
	2^63	| 8*10^18 cyber society - 8 quintillion people - 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (J)
		- At 1 billion people per planet, that's 8 billion planets.
		- At 1 billion agents per person that's 8 billion people
		- with the person at the top
x2^64
	2^127	= what would this be?, it's not even imaginable to me (Network)


Here is the same progression again focusing on the expected number of people for each order, showing group size:


1	self	|
2	pair	= each interacts with 1 - (1 other) - God is a friend
8	family	| each interacts with 2 - (1 mother, 1 father) - God is the father
128	team	= each interacts with 8 - (2 chiefs, 4 members, 2 others) - God is the captain - there is only one God, the 

creator of the universe
2^15	tribe	| each interacts with 128 - (2 hierarchs, 4 above above, 8 above, 16 below, 32 peers, 64 others) - God is 

the top of the hierarchy, bad: there are many gods
2^31	civil	= each interacts with 2^15 - (2K competitors, 4K vendors, 8K customers, 16K market) - God is the most 

important, bad: god is everything
2^63	join	| each interacts with 2^31 - (120M deciders, 250M organizers, 500M services?, 1B people in the world) - God 

weaves the spread, bad: I am the center?
2^127	network	= each interacts with 2^63 - (2^127 agents)


What if every person in the world had a separate intelligent agent (an artificial person) to interact with every other person in the world as part of the next order. How would that do?



How out of a billion agents do you rise to the level of attention?

- to conceive, select, grow, implement an idea
- to work/create together
- to alert each other
- to broadcast a message to many
- to converse
- to help each other
- to understand each other
- to know each other so that we can know the significance of the contact
- to 1 build a partnership
- to 2 marry each other
- to 3 build a team
- to 4 build a hierarchy
- to 5 build a civil market
- to listen to many
- and the agent would make decisions
- and the agent would interact with other agents in order to determine priority
- the agent would become an entity
- sales vs honesty (fix this problem)
- therapy/support
- navigating the spread

- and the agents would have 2^127 interactions 'links' - but you need to develop the agents first

- what can an entity do? create, analyze, decide, interact, learn/grow, love, attack, ignore, search/find, follow/obey



Here is the history structure within which each of these orders has/will occur:


----1	226B yrs
-W-
-V-
-U-
-T-
----2	14.1 B yrs
-S-universe/stars
-R-planets
-Q-quickening/life
-P-oxygen
----3	881,942,216 yrs
-O-animals
-N-land
-M-massive/size
-L-flowers
----4	55,121,389 yrs
-K-lemurs
-J-jungle/monkeys
-I-apes					64 ice ages
-H-hominids				32 ice ages
----5	3445086.8 yrs
-G-humans				16 ice ages
-F-family				8 ice ages
-E-stone				4 ice ages
-D-killing/language			2 ice ages
----6	215317.92 yrs
-C-consciousness/minds/cold		1 ice age
-B-teams
-A-artifact/technology
 @-merging
----7	13457.370 yrs
+A-agriculture/cultures	age		hexadecade	quartade	4096ade
+B-barbarian		-------		-------		-------		-------		-------
+C-civilized		1792 years	112 years	7 years		160 days	10 days
+D-dark/decycle/alphbet	897 years	56 years	3.5 years	80 days		5 days
----8	841.08564 yrs
+E-enlighten		448 years	28 years	640 days	40 days		sleepless
+F-federal		224 years	14 years (era)	320 days	20 days
+G-generator		112 years	7 yrs		160 days	10 days
+H-holocaust/computers	56 years	3.5 yrs		80 days		5 days
----9	52.567853 yrs
+I-internet/agents	28 years	640 days	40 days		sleepless - whatever was before does not impinge
+J-join			14 years	320 days	20 days
+K-krobotics		7 years		160 days	10 days
+L-loss			3.5 yrs		80 days		5 days
----10	3.2854908 yrs = 1200 days
+M-			640		40 days		sleepless - whatever was before does not impinge
+N-network		960		20 days
+O-			1120 days	10 days
+P-			1200 days	5 days
----11	75 days
+Q-queen of ?		1240 days	sleepless
+R-return?		1260 days
+S-			1270 days
+T-			1275 days
----12	4.6875 days = 112.5 hrs
+U-
+V-
+W-
+X-

with 7.03125 hrs left over


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Posted by: Jon Grover | Feb 27, 10 | 8:14 pm

Sun Feb 21, 2010

GUI's Have No Formal Notation.

GUI's are not formal languages and they do not adhere to a formal language. Although they are as complicated as computer languages they suffer from the lack of formalization. When you work with a computer language there is a consistent format to what you are working with. These are called formal languages. Formal languages mean that you don't have to learn a different configuration for every operation. They mean that you can learn the formalism and then rely on what you've learned as you learn new part so the language. They mean that you know what to expect. Even with a new language you know there's going to be a formal language in there somewhere. GUI's are not like that. Every one is different. No formal notation exists to describe them. You can't learn one GUI and then expect to use your knowledge to learn others. You can't even take a step back and look at a formal representation of the GUI to see how it's structured.

There could be a formal notation for GUI's. It would help as we tried to learn the next GUI. We can do this.

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Posted by: Jon Grover | Feb 21, 10 | 6:42 pm

Sat Feb 13, 2010

GUI's make it hard to figure out what went wrong.

If I am going to complain about GUI's, it makes sense for me to probably come up with something better. The better UI would perhaps include the best of GUI, a little bit of file editing (code like) and a search feature beyond anything we now have. The search feature would be based on endemes and focused as its context on the application at hand. Anyway, here is this week's rant about GUIs.

Lets say you use the SQL Server Reporting Services Report Designer to build a report, then store it in SharePoint, then run it from either SharePoint or a C# program. Most of this is handled with GUI's. If something goes wrong, you get the useless message 'An error has occurred during report processing. (rsProcessingAborted) Query execution failed for dataset 'MyList'. (rsErrorExecutingCommand) For more information about this error navigate to the report server on the local server machine, or enable remote errors '. How do you tell where the error is? Is it in Sharepoint? SQL Server? Your Stored Procedure? Your Dataset? Your Report? The way the connection is stored in SharePoint? Your C# program? The browser? Because none of these systems allow you to use breakpoints you can't tell which failed. In this case it turned out to be permissions on my stored procedure. It could just as easily have been any of the others; but the error doesn't say anything about permissions problems. It doesn't say anything about a stored procedure. And yes I've tried enabling remote errors and it has never worked.

Another error I have had complains about not being able to connect to the database. How was I to know it was some checkbox or other in SharePoint? The error mentioned the database, not SharePoint.
--
Why don't GUI's have debuggers? Even if you can't change the code inside, seeing where things go wrong could be really helpful. We who build user interfaces can do this.

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Posted by: Jon Grover | Feb 13, 10 | 7:23 pm

Sat Feb 06, 2010

GUI's Lack Memory

GUI's have no memory. GUIs don't have the ability to retain the sequence of what you just did with them. When you click, and drop, and click, and drop, and type, and bring up, and close etc, there is no memory in the system of what you just did. How on earth can you figure out the long and convoluted series of actions you took with the GUI so six months down the road you can do it again? Then lets say you have to grind through a dozen of these complex sequences a week. How can you possibly remember all of them? Or even a few of them. GUI's are not easy. They are a pain in the brain. At least they are for me because I have a weak memory. Are computers really only for those people with great memories. come on!
--
GUI's could have traces so that you can repeat or at least re-read what you've done? You could go tho the trace page ad see what you have done and even copy it out and paste it into a user manual. We can do this.
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Posted by: Jon Grover | Feb 06, 10 | 6:37 pm

Sat Jan 30, 2010

GUI's hide the functions you need to use, in remote places

I have for years had trouble with GUI's. For those who don't know, a GUI is a graphic user interface and is what you nearly always see these days when you open a program. I have trouble with them. I have scoured the net looking for others with my particular difficulty and have found little comment and nothing organized. So I have decided it is time for someone to speak up. This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of articles on the trouble with GUI's. Mostly it will be rants about the difficulties. If I am successful, it will also include a few solutions to the problems I describe.

The things you need to know about are hidden behind GUI's and you have to go through one two three or more buttons, menus drop-downs etc to find them, if you can find them. When you look at a GUI all that is there at the start is a few buttons, links and menus in a grey (or sometimes colorful) screen. Grey does not convey much neither does color. So where do you look for the function you need. Well you have to start going through each menu, drop-down, button and link to find it. You are likely not to recognize it when you do. It often won't have the name you expect it to have. And it may be some obscure little check box off in the corner of some obscure screen, many levels deep in your search, by which time if you actually reach that screen you may be so tired of looking at screens or just tired in general that you don't have the mental energy left over to notice it as it goes by. The number of places to look for something often makes this a gargantuan task, and then once you've found it you have to go through the same process again for the next thing. Think of having to search a disordered library without an index for a single book by having to read the title page inside every book until you come to the right one. Then consider that there may be a closet that you don't know exists with even more books. This is what I face every day when I use GUI's.
--
GUI's could have indexes. Web sites often do, or they use Google. We who build GUI's can do this too.
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Posted by: Jon Grover | Jan 30, 10 | 7:36 pm

Sat Jan 23, 2010

Diagrams of World History 1765 BC to 2049 AD

I apologize for not writing for a while. My life has been a bit overwhelming the last couple months. I hope to start writing on a more regular basis now.


Here is a diagram of history from 1765 BC to 1935 AD. Each character is 14 years. During declines, maybe you get a revolution possibility once the previous has finally died out. The down stroke is unstoppable until forced to reverse by a decision point 2 levels up, this also drags lower level down strokes up.

================================================================================ADVANCE ===========================>|<================== DECLINE ================>|<========= AMBIGUOUS =========>|<================================ ADVANCE ================================>
  |                                                               |                               |               |167                            |                                                               |                               |               |       |
  |<------------------------ heroic age ------------------------->|<------ philosophic age ------>|<- Roman age ->|<------- canonic age --------->|<------------------------- dark age -------------------------->|<- enlightenment/renaissance ->|<-federal age->||
  |                                                               |                               |               |                               |                                                               |                               |               |       |
1765    1653    1541    1428    1316    1204    1092     980     868     756     643 BC  531     419 363 307 251 195 139 83  27 30.5  87 143 199 255 311 367 423 479 535 591 647 703 759 816 873 928 984 1040   1152    1264    1376    1488    1601    1713 69 1825 81 1937    2049
  |               |               |               |               |       |       |       |       |       |       |   |   |       |       |       |   |   |   |   |               |               |               |               |               |       |       |   |   |
  #..__                           |                             _.#._             +              _#_      |       #   |   |       +              _#_      |       +               |                             _.#._             |              _#_      |       #   |   #
  |    ''--..__   Egypt           |             Mesopotamia _.-'  |  '-._         |     Greece _- | -_    |  Rome/|\  |   |       |    Germany _- | -_    |       |               |                  Arabia _.-'  |  '-._         |       Spain_- | -_    Britain/|   USA/|
  |            ''--..__           |                     _.-'      |      '-._     |          _-   |   -_  |     / | \ |   |       |          _-   |   -_  |       |               |                     _.-'      |      '-._     |          _-   |   -_  |     / |   |  /|
  |                    ''--..__   |                 _.-'          |          '-._ |        _-     |     -_|    /  |  \|   |       |        _-     |     -_|       |               |                 _.-'          |          '-._ |        _-     |     -_|    /  |   | / |
  |                            ''-+..__         _.-' David        +              '+._    _-       |       +_  /   |   +   |       +      _-       |       +_      +               |             _.-'              |              '+._    _-       |       +_  /   |   | / |
  |                               |    ''--._.-'                  |               |  '-_-         |       | -/    |   |\  |       |    _-         |       | -_    |               |         _.-'                  |               |  '-_-         |       | -/    |   |/  |
  |                               |     _.-'   ''--..__           |               |  _-  '-._     |       | / -_  |   | \ |     Jesus_-           |       |   -_  |               |     _.-'                      |               |  _-  '-._     |       | / -_  |   |/  |
  |                               | _.-'               ''--..__   |               |_-        '-._ |       |/    -_|   |  \|       |_-             |       |     -_|               | _.-'                          |               |_-        '-._ |       |/    -_|   |   |
  |                             _.+'                           ''-+..__          _+              '+._     +       +_  |   +      _+             _.+._     |       +_            _.+'                              |              _+              '+._     +       +_  |   |
  |                         _.-'  |                               |    ''--..___- |               |  '+._/|       | -_|   |\   _- |         _.-'  |  '-._ |       | -_      _.-'  |                               |            _- |               |  '-._/|       | -/|   |
  |                     _.-'      |                               |          _-''-+..__           |     /'+._     |   -_  | \_-   |     _.-'      |      '|._     |   -__.-'      |                               |          _-   |               |     /'|._     |  /|_  |
  |          Moses  _.-'          |                               |        _-     |    ''--..__   |    /  |  '-._ |167| -_|_-\    | _.-'          |       |  '-._ | _.-'-_        |                               |        _-     |               |    /  |  '-._ | / | -_|
  |             _.?'_             |   <- decision points (?) ->   +      _?_ =====+===============+=> ? ==+=====>'+ ? ==> #   \ _.+'              +   ? ==+=====>'#'      -_      |                               |      _?_ =====+===============+=> ? ==+=====>'+ ? |   +
  |         _.-'     '-._         |                               |    _-   -_    |               |  / \ -|..__   |/ \|._ | _.-\  |               |  / \  |       |         -_    |                               |    _-   -_    |               |  / \  |       |/ \|   |
  |     _.-'             '-._     |                               |  _-       -_  |               | /   \ |    ''-+/ \|  '-'    \ |               | /   \ |       |           -_  |                               |  _-       -_  |               | /   \ |       |/ \|   |
  | _.-'                     '-._ |                               |_-           -_|               |/     \|       |   |   |      \|               |/     \|       |             -_|                               |_-           -_|               |/     \|       |   |   |
--+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+---------------+---------------#-------+-------#---+---+-------+-------+-------#---+---+---+---+---------------+-------------------------------+---------------+---------------+-------+-------+---+---+-------+
  |                               |  '-._                      _- |               | -_           /|       |\     /|   |\  |       |\             /|       |\      |               | -_                         _- |               | -_           /|       |\     /|   |\  |
  |                               |      '-._                _-   |               |   -_        / |       | \    /|   |\  |       | \           / |       | \     |               |   -_                     _-   |               |   -_        / |       | \    /|   |\  |
  |                               |          '-._          _-     |               |     -_     /  |       |  \  / |   | \ |       |  \         /  |       |  \    |               |     -_                 _-     |               |     -_     /  |       |  \  / |   | \ |
  |                               |              '-._    _-       |               |       -_  /   |       |   \ / |   | \ |       |   \       /   |       |   \   |               |       -_             _-       |               |       -_  /   |       |   \ / |   | \ |
  |                               |                  '-._         |               |         -/    |       |    /  |   |  \|       |    \     /    |       |    \  |               |         -_         _-         |               |         -/    |       |    /  |   |  \|
  |                               |                  _-  '-._     |               |         / -_  |       |    /\ |   |  \|       |     \   /     |       |     \ |               |           -_     _-           |               |         / -_  |       |    /\ |   |  \|
  |                               |                _-        '-._ |               |        /    -_|       |   /  \|   |   |       |      \ /      |       |      \|               |             -_ _-             |               |        /    -_|       |    / \|   |   |
  |                               |               R              'X               |       R       X       |   R   X   |   X       |       R       |       |       X               |               R               |               |       R       X       |   R   X   |   X
  |               |               |               |               |       |       |       |       |       |       |   |   |       |       |       |   |   |   |   |               |               |               |               |               |       |   !   |   |   |
1765    1653    1541    1428    1316    1204    1092     980 924 868 812 756 699 643 587 531 475 419 363 307 251 195 139 83  27 30.5  87 143 199 255 311 367 423 479 535 591 647 703 759 816 873 928 984 1040   1152    1264    1376    1488    1601    1713 69 1825 81 1937    2049



And here is a diagram of history from 1881 to 2042. The future is of course merely a continuation of trends and not a certainty. Each character is 21 months.

============================================= ADVANCE ==============================================
industrial age ------------------>|<----- holocaust age --------->||<- j ->||
                                  |                               |               |       |   |
1881            1909            1937    1951    1965    1979    1993 00 2007 14 2021 28 2035 42 2049
  |               |               |       |       |       |       |   |   |   |   | | | | |   |   |
  |                             _.#._             +              _#_      +       #   |   |
  |                         _.-'  |  '-._         |            _- | -_    |      /|   |   |
  |                     _.-'      |      '-._     |          _-   |   -_  |     / |   |   |
  |                 _.-'          |          '-._ |        _-     |     -_|    /  |   |   |
  |             _.-'              |              '+._    _-       |       +_  /   |   |   |
  |         _.-'                  |               |  '-_-         |       | -/    |   |   |
  |     _.-'                      |               |  _-  '-._     |       | / -_  |   |   |
  | _.-'                          |               |_-        '-._ |       |/    -_|   |   |
_.+'                              |              _+              '+._     +       +_  |   +     _.+
  |                               |            _- |               |  '-._/|       | -_|   | _.-'
  |                               |          _-   |               |     /'|._     |   | _.-'
  |                               |        _-     |               |    /  |  '-._ | _.-'-_|
  |                               |      _?_ =====+=============> |   ? ==+=====>'#'_ |   +_
  |                               |    _-   -_    |               |  / \  |       |  '-._ | -_
  |                               |  _-       -_  |               | /   \ |       |   |  '-._ -_
  |                               |_-           -_|               |/     \|       |   |   |  '-._
--+---------------+---------------#-------+-------+-------+-------#---+---+---+---#-+-+-+-#+++#+##+
  |                            _- |               | -_           /|       |\      |   |   |
  |                          _-   |               |   -_        / |       | \     |   |   |
  |                        _-     |               |     -_     /  |       |  \    |   |   |
  |                      _-       |               |       -_  /   |       +   \   |   |   |
  |                    _-         |               |         -/    |       |    \  |   |   |
  |                  _-           |               |         / -_  |       |     \ |   |   |
  |                _-             |               |        /    -_|       |      \|   |   |
  |               !               |               |       !       X       +   !   X   |   |
  |               |               |       |       |       |       |   |   |   |   | | | | |   |   |
1881            1909            1937    1951    1965    1979    1993 00 2007 14 2021 28 2035 42 2049


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Posted by: Jon Grover | Jan 23, 10 | 6:27 pm

Sat Aug 01, 2009

What is an Endeme Set?

An endeme set is a list of characteristics which when combined or ordered, result in an emergent property. An endeme is a particular ordering of these characteristics therefore having a particular emergent property. Endemes and endeme sets are often coded with a different letter for each characteristic. Endemes and endeme sets occupy a conceptual space between bit-wise enumerations which unlike endeme sets may not be ordered, and words which unlike endemes may use the same letter more than once. In other words an endeme is a permutation of letters in a particular coded endeme set context which results in an emergent property. Endeme sets can be described in a particular format which shows both which letter applies to each characteristic and which other letters might have been used. Here is an example:

A fantasy humanoid species endeme set


ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV|   characteristic	opposite	description
----------------------+
A]         -M-        |A. Aquatic		vs mountains	how much lives in or under water
[B]C-                 |B. Brave/courageous	vs cautious	how much does not hide
 [C]  -H-             |C. Centauroid		vs humanoid	number of appendages
A-[D]            -S-U-|D. Delving/underground	vs aerial	enclosedness of environment
   [E]          -RS-  |E. Equestrian/steeds	vs walking	prevalence of riding
  -E[F]         -R-   |F. Freedom		vs enslavable	desire for freedom
-B--E[G]              |G. Good			vs evil		level/amount of goodness
    -F[H]             |H. Hostile		vs friendly	initial/long term reactions
       [I]       -S-  |I. Intelligent/smart	vs not smart	level of intelligence
        [J]-MN-       |J. Jungle/natural	vs material	preference for things of nature
         [K]  -P-     |K. Killing		vs peaceful	tendency/effectiveness at killing
          [L]    -S-  |L. Large			vs small	size of species members
A-         [M]        |M. Magical		vs antimagic	amount of use of magic
-B-         [N]       |N. Noble			vs base		refinement vs earthiness
-B-       -LN[O]      |O. Ocean-going/boats	vs land based	how much do they use boats
          -M- [P]     |P. Patrilineal		vs matrilineal	how much male or female oriented
 -C-           [Q]    |Q. Quick tempered	vs cool/reserve	quickness or reactins to emotion
     -G-        [R]ST-|R. Robust/short/wide	vs gracile/tall	robustness of features
                 [S]  |S. Social		vs solitary	how much they live in groups
            -N- -S[T] |T. Traveling/nomadic	vs sedentary	how much they will travel
A-C-               [U]|U. Urban/cities		vs agrarian	preference for built up areas
 -C-  -H-           [V|V. Vegetarian/herbivour	vs carnivourous	vegetable/meat balance
----------------------+
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV|
Endemes are coded little endian, so the characteristics on the left are strongest (and when they have opposites on the right their opposites are strongest). Here are some particular endemes for some particular species:

Fantasy humanoid species endemes

fairie
MVF.TJQE.IGBONSUA-CHPR-KDL
elf
FNI.SJVM.GBEKPOLD-CUAT-HQR
dwarf
DRB.KSFU.QGIPHNLT-CVMA-OJE
hobbit
DSP.GIJB.FVRETNUQ-COHK-LMA
human
SOK.TBLI.EUPAFRGQ-CVNH-JMD
ogre
KLQ.HJRB.DFPMUTSA-CIGO-ENV
centaur
LCT.BFIQ.RJKSPVGH-NMOU-AED
mermaid
AJF.MQTG.IBNSLEKU-DHRV-OPC
The punctuation accentuates which characteristics are high, above average, average, below average, and low. It also helps when an endeme is also only partially filled. Often the top three characteristics are the most important and 'define' the endeme, so they need to be ordered with especial care.

Endeme sets allow for controllable ambiguity and randomness. For example, a random endeme can create a new species as an emergent property:

FAM.TEIC.TPHRVBJQ-GONK-LDS new species

This new species loves freedom, lives in the water, is magical, travels, rides things, is intelligent and has 6 limbs. It is also very small, lives in coral, alone, is somewhat malicious, despises boats and is nonetheless fairly peaceful.

Interpreting this I have decided that it has the tail of a lobster and a couple pairs of its legs, and the arms of a human. It is about the size of a very large lobster, and has the tendency to attack shipping. It rides sharks, rays and large fish, caries a small trident and can adhere itself to the hull of a ship and transform things within its cargo from outside the hull. It can also zap things. It has gills and antennae. It lives in warm seas inside coral mansions or in harbors.

It sometimes takes years to develop a good endeme set. It has to be both compact in its length and perfect in its application and excellent in its ability to combine its elements. By perfect, I mean its combinations cover what it needs to cover and its combinations do not generate bunches of 'invalid' results.


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Posted by: Jon Grover | Aug 01, 09 | 1:06 pm

Wed Jul 29, 2009

Separate the Information Desired from the Information Storage Format

Separate what is desired information from the format. Right now what information is desired is embedded in the data format. [0] comments (174 views) |  | [0] Trackbacks

Posted by: Jon Grover | Jul 29, 09 | 6:24 pm

Wed Jun 03, 2009

'Natural' artificial intelligence

What if artificial intelligence was a natural outgrowth of the work we do all the time? what would happen would be that UI's would be programmed looser and looser over the years, slowly able to handle more and more variable input. It would be the natural way we organize software. Instead of making software tighter and tighter with validation rules and strong typing, the typing and validation would become more relaxed, there would be fewer and fewer types, or maybe as many types but they (types) would become more and more
complex and powerful.

It would start with parsers to handle numbers and dates in different formats, simple commands in many guises. For example, programs would allow 'bye', 'logout', 'quit', 'log out' and other forms of the program closing command. It would continue with richly embedded characterizations of words so that different programmers would add characterizations and use the ones they needed. Ways would be discovered to merge things rather than having them precisely separate.

Major projects would get going to use this foundation of variability tolerance to give programs an idea of what was going on, then after a while there would be projects focusing on various computer cognition design models. Various different models of cognition would be tried and the few that really worked well would be expanded on. People would expect some level of actual intelligence from programs. It wouldn't be human intelligence, it would be very much stronger in some areas and very much weaker in others. Artificial intelligence would be a day to day thing.

So why has this not happened? Well, for one thing, we as programmers want everything nailed down very tight, with specific objects, validation rules, and strong typing. second, we don't have a standardized way of merging concepts. For another most software is proprietary so the base of intelligence artifacts that would have been built up over the years is prevent. Another problem is no standardized way to combine intelligence artifacts.

The endeme data structure would solve some of these problems. It allows both definition of meanings and matchability between meanings. An endeme is a partcular instance of a combinable orderable list of meanings. For example the list of your three favorite colors in order is an endeme and color and shape are endeme sets. Figuring out how to stack endemes and relate endemes of different endeme sets is something I am still working on, but if thousands of programmers had been working with them for the last 30 years we would have figured it out.

My (half baked) proposal:
  1. 1. start using endemes,
  2. 2. companies allow combinable intelligence artifacts to be published,
  3. 3. Start big bases of word characterizations using endemes.
  4. 4. Figure out how to match, stack, translate and combine them
  5. 5. Companies allow and programmers use highly complex validators in UI's to process user input text.
  6. 6. Come up with more combinable artifacts besides just endemes.
  7. 7. Do some sort of artifical creativity wherever possible, even if it's just variable colors on a UI background
  8. 8. combine the sciences of fuzzy logic, probability, and endemes


Endemes are good for AI analysis and they are good for AC Artificial creativity.


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Posted by: Jon Grover | Jun 03, 09 | 12:35 pm

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