dreamdancer 0 #1 August 27, 2011 approaches... QuoteYou claim that our lives are ruled by algorithms. In what way? Put simply, an algorithm is a set of instructions that a computer uses to make a decision about something. They are like an invisible architecture that underpins almost everything that's happening. The way Wal-Mart prices its goods, the movies you rent on Netflix, the contours of the car you drive - they can all be traced back to an algorithm. Seventy per cent of trading in the US stock market is "algotrading" - executed autonomously by computer algorithms. Why should we be worried about this? The pernicious thing about algorithms is that they have the mathematical quality of truth - you have the sense that they are neutral - and yet, of course, they have authorship. For example, Google's search engine is composed entirely of fancy mathematics, but its algorithms, like everybody's, are all based on an ideology - in this case that a page is more valuable if other pages think it's valuable. Each algorithm has a point of view, and yet we have no sense of what algorithms are, or even that they exist. You believe that algorithms are starting to shape our culture. How so? Take Netflix, which is used by 20 million people to rent and watch movies. Of the movies rented in the US, 60 per cent are chosen because Netflix recommended them. It does this using an algorithm called Pragmatic Chaos, which takes into account other movies you like and how many movies you rated before you rated your most recent one. The algorithm is taking ideas about human behaviour and coding them and reinforcing them. The danger is that such an algorithm can create a monoculture. But this is not the way culture works - it is actually much spikier, much less predictable. The movie Napoleon Dynamite, for example, always breaks the Netflix algorithm: people who really should love this movie hate it, and people who should hate it, love it. Why is it so important that we be aware of algorithms' impacts on culture? If you know that machine control is part of the picture, you might behave differently. Once you are aware that most of what you are renting from Netflix is based on a very specific model of the human brain that might not correspond to reality, maybe you would start asking your friends what they recommend - which is what we used to do. It is also important to understand how algorithms shape what you learn and know. There's a quiet war in the US between Google and a company called Demand Media, which generates content that is optimised for Google searches. When Google changes its algorithm, Demand Media's output becomes worthless until it can figure out what Google has done and rewritten its content to match. It used to be that you wrote news for how people read - now it's written for how machines read. Imagine if we all had to change our handwriting to a certain style so that computers could recognise it. That is effectively what is happening, but inside our heads. It is shaping our expression and behaviour. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128260.400-game-developer-beware-algorithms-running-your-life.htmlstay away from moving propellers - they bite blue skies from thai sky adventures good solid response-provoking keyboarding Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 4 #2 August 27, 2011 I don't think we have anything to fear from the Netflix algorithm. See proof attached. If this is an example of the state of the art in artificial intelligence, it's going to be quite some time before Skynet takes over.quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dreamdancer 0 #3 September 20, 2011 the army is training... QuoteDo you think you have what it takes to be a Blackwater operative? You can soon find out, thanks to the video game Blackwater, the latest addition to Xbox 360’s virtual warfare collection, set for an October 25 release. For just $50, Blackwater will provide gamers ages 13 and up the opportunity to join one of the world’s most reviled private mercenary forces, with the first-ever first-person-shooter experience designed exclusively for Xbox 360’s motion-sensing Kinect technology. According to a press release from the video game’s publisher, 505 Games, the player adopts the role of a Blackwater mercenary, leading a team of operatives on a mission to rescue UN officials taken hostage in a fictional North African town overrun by warlords and rival militias. The interactive Kinect feature allows the player to navigate the game with body motions that mimic throwing a grenade, aiming and shooting the enemy, and taking cover. http://www.alternet.org/story/152465/13-year_olds_learn_how_to_murder_like_mercenaries%2C_thanks_to_blackwater_video_game/stay away from moving propellers - they bite blue skies from thai sky adventures good solid response-provoking keyboarding Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
popsjumper 2 #4 September 20, 2011 The U.S. needs an AAD. We're too low and fallin' too fast. My reality and yours are quite different. I think we're all Bozos on this bus. Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #5 September 20, 2011 Quote The U.S. needs an AAD. We're too low and fallin' too fast. They will probably get about 5 0r 6 sales from some of the wanna be's here in SC that blither on and on about their GUNS GUNS GUNS. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dreamdancer 0 #6 September 21, 2011 the weapons are being tested... QuoteOne afternoon last fall at Fort Benning, Ga., two model-size planes took off, climbed to 800 and 1,000 feet, and began criss-crossing the military base in search of an orange, green and blue tarp. The successful exercise in autonomous robotics could presage the future of the American way of war: a day when drones hunt, identify and kill the enemy based on calculations made by software, not decisions made by humans. The automated, unpiloted planes worked on their own, with no human guidance, no hand on any control. After 20 minutes, one of the aircraft, carrying a computer that processed images from an onboard camera, zeroed in on the tarp and contacted the second plane, which flew nearby and used its own sensors to examine the colorful object. Then one of the aircraft signaled to an unmanned car on the ground so it could take a final, close-up look. Target confirmed. This successful exercise in autonomous robotics could presage the future of the American way of war: a day when drones hunt, identify and kill the enemy based on calculations made by software, not decisions made by humans. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/09/20-3stay away from moving propellers - they bite blue skies from thai sky adventures good solid response-provoking keyboarding Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dreamdancer 0 #7 September 27, 2011 the population will be entertained... QuoteImagine walking away from a doctor's office with a prescription to play a video game. Brain Plasticity, the developer of a cognitive training game, has begun talks with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market the game as a therapeutic drug. Brain Plasticity has been fine-tuning a game to help people with schizophrenia improve the deficits in attention and memory that are often associated with the disorder. Early next year, they will conduct a study with 150 participants at 15 sites across the country. Participants will play the game for one hour, five times a week over a period of six months. If participants' quality of life improves at that "dosage," Brain Plasticity will push ahead with the FDA approval process. FDA approval for computer games in general – whether for schizophrenia or more common disorders such as depression or anxiety – could change the medical landscape, says Daniel Dardani, a technology licensing officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20962-maker-of-cognitive-training-game-seeks-fda-approval.htmlstay away from moving propellers - they bite blue skies from thai sky adventures good solid response-provoking keyboarding Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dreamdancer 0 #8 October 2, 2011 the games will become real... QuoteArmed with a map, small groups of us are let loose on the streets, where a network of stooges playing survivors drip-feed us the co-ordinates of our route towards Resistance HQ. The overarching narrative follows a similar trajectory to the Danny Boyle film from which the game takes its name, and as we set out at dusk, baulking at every passing jogger, there's suddenly a cinematic quality about everything; I momentarily wonder which of us is the easy meat who gets killed in the first five minutes, then realise it's probably me. The encounters with the survivors, among them a frightened old man on the doorstep of a terraced house and a diabetic girl trading her knowledge for sweets, are dramatic vignettes in the style of immersive theatre, and throughout there's a strong imprint of collective first-person shooters such as Doom and stealth computer games such as Metal Gear Solid. As such, 2.8 represents a particularly spectacular example of the burgeoning trend for street games that has seen adults in cities around the world reclaiming play of all kinds in public spaces. The game's sellout three-night run in Leeds last weekend was 2.8's third staging. Its previous incarnations provided the star turn at the most recent editions of Bristol's igfest, a four-day celebration of "interesting games" from all over the world, founded in 2008 by SlingShot, the company behind 2.8. At the end of this month, in a refreshing inversion of the principle that those living within the M25 get everything first, 2.8 will make its London debut. Outings in other cities are planned and will respond partly to demand; thanks to largely word-of-mouth publicity, would-be players have been campaigning for their home towns in their thousands. On the night, it is clear that though the zombie plague is fictional, enthusiasm for the game itself is infectious. As the crowd builds, there's the friendly vibe of a music festival and a carnivalesque atmosphere enhanced by fancy-dress efforts including multiple paratroopers, Apocalypse Now-style renegades accessorising with cigars, a burlesque performer in leotard and fishnets and a man dressed as a butcher, who I later discover just came in his work clothes. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-zombies-are-coming-why-urban-games-for-adults-are-all-the-rage-2362763.htmlstay away from moving propellers - they bite blue skies from thai sky adventures good solid response-provoking keyboarding Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dreamdancer 0 #9 October 5, 2011 it will come in many guises... QuoteFor those hoping for an iPhone 5, Apple's "Let's Talk iPhone" event today might have been a disappointment. But the consumer electronics firm did grace the world with the new iPhone 4S, an overhaul from the iPhone 4 that also came with some breakthrough software in the form of the personal assistant program, Siri. On stage at the event senior vice president of iPhone software Scott Forstall asked his phone: "What's the weather like today?" And Siri responded with the forecast. That was just the beginning. Over the next few minutes, Forstall asked Siri to find him some Greek restaurants and arrange them by their ratings. He showed that Siri could set up business meetings, or search Wikipedia or search engine Wolfram Alpha - all by speaking to a phone in plain English, just as you would ask any human the same questions. Such an apparent breakthrough in natural language processing promises to change the way we interact with our phones - say "find me a table at an Italian restaurant near my office for 7 pm" and Siri will get it done, even make you a reservation. http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/10/forget-the-new-iphone-lets-tal.htmlstay away from moving propellers - they bite blue skies from thai sky adventures good solid response-provoking keyboarding Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
