AI

the E.T. – Suppression

the E.T. - Suppression

My latest track is out now via YouTube and elliottelford.com. This is very influenced by the recent events with Elon Musk (Go Fuck Yourself Bob Iger), as well as my generation’s (the millennials and Z’s) conquest for a better world. I hope it gets you excited about the release of Grōk, AI, and the cosmic future of humanity.

I spent a little while on this one, mostly on the mix. The sound design process has been pretty consistently expansive for me lately, and I keep fine tuning the frequencies of the sounds that I truly LOVE to make. I am not super impressed with the AI music making software yet, but I also remind myself that highly technical tools, such a RIFT, or PhasePlant are undoubtedly made with AI precursor softwares (which are human oriented). I can’t recommend these two plug-ins enough. They are top of the line and I really love and appreciate the products.

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A.I. | Recent and Future Developments and Resources

Navigating the Future

artiphoria-steel spaceman

The first thing that has to be talked about with AI is ethical responsibility. Most people do not have proper ethics. It’s time to learn. Check out UNESCO IBM Wikipedia and Google for this.

There is currently a scarcity mindset that exists on planet Earth. We only have so many fossil fuels (surely they will someday run out); however we are probably no-where near that point (feel free to disagree in the forum). It is also extremely likely that we will invent carbon sinks (natural and machine..perhaps both?!?) in the new few decades, which could reverse the existing effects. We could also very carefully terraform our planet to support the largest amount of biodiversity that Earth has ever seen; which is what I would encourage.

However, this approach is very biased. It assumes that the greenhouse gas effect is irreversible, for which there is no supporting data. In fact, the existing data suggest that planet Earth has gone through many phases of extinction to get to where we are right now. It also assumes that the greenhouse gas effect is a negative thing for the planet, which also might not be true… we simply do not have enough data to know such things. And it is true that the Earth goes through phases in alignment with the life on the planet at the time (take the massive plankton extinction that nearly wiped all life off of planet Earth 250 million years ago, for instance).

I have no doubt that the old growth forests in the world, as well as the existing endangered species on Earth will be thoroughly protected in the future. We are guardians of the natural world; it is our birthright to transform this planet into a Utopia. The primary opposition to this is internal to humanity; greed and ignorance.

So with that said, let’s assume that we are all biased and that very shortly here, we are going to get to a point where we can learn about our biases and become more efficient at learning. At this point, we will start to run out of electricity. The reasoning is that we are all competing to make the coolest art, or mine bitcoin to create more crypto money, or conquer the planet with AI at the cost of mucho energies.

So we start getting into ethical use cases and most of this surrounds using electricity. The question becomes, how efficient are you with your energy consumption? Do you turn everything off when you sleep? Regulating this becomes a big deal, especially when the wealthy will compete with the poor for the resource.

We also have to deal with the fact that most people will use AI in a predatory way; mostly in advertising and politics; both of which are obviously corruptible. Also intelligent cheating and rates of fraud will rise drastically over the next decade. It is going to be more important than ever for us humans to learn to be honest and also to trust each other and also maintain a healthy degree of skepticism for the future.

The Continued Problem of Electricity

Charts FTW

This is an awesome look at how the world produces Carbon (which, by the way, is the primary fuel of plants on our planet). You can see that there are several countries using large amounts of carbon, even more than the United States.

Here is a separate chart on the use of energy by source:

So we have a very dirty economy of oil and coal that has not yet been properly supplemented by solar energy, which is, in my opinion, the way to produce the cleanest energy on planet Earth. We could literally throw a space station full of batteries into orbit and just shuttle the giant batteries back and forth between orbit and the planet’s surface to allow them to recharge. Or we can mind asteroids and awaken age old alien species that have been dormant to protect the exploitation of energy in the universe /s

In the meantime, we need to focus on nuclear fission and creating enough energy to power the quantum processors that run AI. This leads us into our first post-energy crisis problem. Climate Change.

Lets Postulate that Climate Change is Misunderstood

Do you ever feel like science is really bad at predicting the weather? There are undoubtedly classified and non-public variables (international energy regulations and agreements) that we are dealing with; but if climate science was decently understood at all, we would be able to predict the weather with a bit of accuracy, which does not seem to be the case. As we spew energy into the atmosphere, the climate becomes more variable and unpredictable; however, the green house gas effect might actually have a net positive impact on plant and animal life on planet Earth.

Consider, for instance, the new evolutionary theories that have gained traction since Darwinism (which at this point, honestly, is a bit archaic, though Darwin was a genius). Pangenesis was Charles Darwin‘s hypothetical mechanism for heredity, in which he proposed that each part of the body continually emitted its own type of small organic particles called gemmules that aggregated in the gonads, contributing heritable information to the gametes.[1] This is originally from Hippocrates of Kos (/hɪˈpɒkrətiːz/Greek: Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, translit. Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; c. 460 – c. 370 BC), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine.

gamete (/ˈɡæmiːt/; from Ancient Greekγαμετή (gametḗ) ‘wife’, ultimately from Ancient Greekγάμος(gámos) ‘marriage’) is a haploid cell that fuses with another haploid cell during fertilization in organisms that reproduce sexually.[1] Gametes are an organism’s reproductive cells, also referred to as sex cells.[2]

Modern Synthesis is the model we should be using currently imho. Julian Huxley coined the term during World War II.

Here is the process:

Let’s say that life on Earth is evolving, somewhat quickly, which seems to be true if you are a naturalist looking at photos from around the world depicting animal behaviors (which includes humanity). The increased speed of the feedback loop would enable faster evolution over time, which means that the species on Earth will evolve more rapidly over time. This becomes a major problem for humanity; the animal species could, in theory, evolve beyond our capacity to defend ourselves from the primordial world. We have this nuanced competition for resources on the planet and eventually we will be competing with animals that have evolved beyond our ability to compete with them for resources. This could become an even bigger issue than climate change, especially in the near future, if humanity is able to survive the increased variability in the weather and planetary super-events (mud-slides, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, etc). Something to think about.

“The only problem we really have is we think we’re not supposed to have problems!” – some rich asshat

I love Google. Thank you for your work!

References:

  1. Royal Society on Evolutionary Synthesis
  2. Google HyperDisk
  3. UNESCO
  4. Wikipedia AI Ethics
  5. Google AI Principles
  6. Google Responsible AI
  7. Artphoria.ai
  8. Grok Log Parsing (still researching this)
  9. Futurism.com
  10. Google Secures America’s Banks amid A.I. Revolution
  11. Digiconomist
  12. ourworldindata.org
  13. Hippocrates
  14. Julian Huxley
  15. Zoonomia is recommended reading! (amazon copy here)

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the E.T. Presents!! – A Digital Native in an Analog World

This is a really fun track that I made about throwing my cell phone into the woods about three weeks ago. I’ve had a really good time detaching from my cell-phone since then and I have the new iPhone now, but I will always miss the times when I did not have the ability to access a phone. I’m not super stoked about how the world is changing to digital and I think it’s best if we, as a society, take our time to adopt new technologies, such as AI. The Analog world is so cool; I highly recommend giving yourself sometimes without technology, especially a phone, sometime in the next few months. Take a week off and explore the real world…..

#ElectroBassHouse

This is a really fun track that I made about throwing my cell phone into the woods about three weeks ago. I’ve had a really good time detaching from my cell-phone since then and I am going to get a new iPhone tomorrow, but not super stoked about it. The Analog world is so cool; I highly recommend giving yourself sometimes without technology, especially a phone, sometime in the next few months. Take a week off…..

Digital Native in Analog World
the E.T.’s Latest Release: Digital Native in Analog World

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The_School_of_Athens_by_Raffaello_Sanzio_da_Urbino

Socrates and the Importance of Skepticism in the Modern World

Lysippos’ Socrates

It has never been more important to question what is happening in today’s society; the news, entertainment, commercials, and the advent of A.I. is propelling us towards a world where people will believe almost anything easily and readily. In this new world, it is important to be skeptical of everything and to question all of the information that you receive. This is one of the fundamental aspects of epistemology or theory of knowledge and is core to western philosophy.

Once upon a time, in ancient Athens, there was a man who walked around owning nothing and arguing with everybody about how dumb they were. He birthed the philosophical movement of skepticism. He might be one of the few humans in all of history that was uncorrupted by money and power. His name, was Socrates.

Born of a stone-cutter and a midwife in 469, Socrates particularly liked to argue with a group of people who called themselves Sophists. They were the lawyers of ancient Greece; orators, public speakers, mouths for hire in an oral culture. His arguments with the sophists became the basis for logic and dialogues and influenced the youth of Athenian society, ultimately leading to his death.

Socrates was extremely disruptive to Athenian society, but he didn’t write anything down. He was remembered by his students, Plato and Xenophon through their work who each had different account of Socrates. He is credited with founding western philosophy through his student Plato and his student, Aristotle and is also credited with founding epistemology through his Socratic method, which was largely based on incubation and midwifery.

Indeed the Oracle of Delphi claimed there was no wiser man alive. He was also a veteran of the Peloponnesian war.

He was polarizing and disruptive figure in Athenian society, so much so that he was sentenced to death for impiety and corrupting youth. He spent his last days in prison, refusing offers to help him escape, which is recored in Plato’s Apology and Xenophon’s Apologia.

The Imprisonment of Socrates

is also recorded in Plato’s Crito, who was a rich Athenian that came to aid Socrates while he was imprisoned. He told a very calm and collected and even happy Socrates that he was to be sentenced to death. Socrates responded with his visions of a dream of a goddess and her calling him to Phthia which is a reference to the Illiad, and was the home of Achilles.

Socrates (rubbing chin) and Plato (under tree) from a mosaic from Pompeii

One of the most powerful things that Socrates says is that opinions of the educated should be taken into consideration and that the opinions of those with subjective biases or beliefs may be disregarded. Likewise, the popularity of an opinion does not make it valid. Socrates uses the analogy of an athlete listening to his physician rather than his supporters because the physician’s knowledge makes his opinion more valuable.[20] The dialogue becomes lengthy and ends with Socrates refusing Crito’s help for the greater good of Athenian Society.

This gives us some brief insight into the life of Socrates and his insights into society, justice, and logic.

The Athenian Trial of Socrates

Socrates was an incredible human. He refused to escape prison until his dying breath and his trial still puzzles historians in the biggest way. The trial of Socrates in 399 BC contained two charges: asabeia (impiety) and the corruption of the youth of the city state of Athens. He was basically questioning the authority of the local government through their religious practices. His elenctic method of questioning was imitated by the youth and was a threat to the credibility of his competitor intellectuals credibility of men of wisdom and virtue. His trial lasted a day and he willingly drank poisoned hemlock to end it all; happily ending his life for the city that he believed in. Socrates’ death as described in Crito corresponds very closely to the Hindu concept of Moksa, or the release of a soul from Samsara after death in that he was released from the cycles of death and rebirth by breaking his karmic cycle.

We should all aim to be more like Socrates, willing to sacrifice ourselves for the greater good of our fellow man and for the youth of our society. Our karmic legacy is all that will endure.

THE END
Header Image by artiphoria.ai (thanks!)

References:

  1. Wikipedia – Socrates
  2. Queensorough Community College – Sophists
  3. MIT – Classics – Crito by Plato
  4. Famous Trials – Socrates
  5. Wikipedia – Socratic Method
  6. IPL – Socrates’ and Epistemology

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The AI Revolution: Crafting Humanity’s Future in the Cosmos

Ever felt like you’re living in a science fiction novel? Me too. AI will become the most powerful force in the universe, probably.

However, with great power comes great responsibility (thank you, Spider-Man). With AI’s immense potential comes the risk of equally grand-scale mishaps. To prevent a dystopian future where AI runs amok, we need a guardian—a cosmic superhero AI, if you will. Think less Skynet, more the benevolent force behind the likes of Godzilla or the Gundam, or even the protective spirits from Dragonball Z.

I’ve pretty much spent the last 3 days learning about what is happening and listening to Elon Musk talk about AI; I’ve also been learning about China’s awesome space program and of course have been watching the evolution of Tesla, Neuralink, and Space X for a while now. I think it’s fair to say that a revolution is upon us that is going to change humanity’s understanding of the nature of the universe, intelligence, and ourselves.

I think that our first priority with AI should be to increase the bio-diversity on planet earth, including the human race. There is no reason that our planet should not be an absolute marvel and spectacle of the nature that birthed us, exactly similar to Avatar.

Respecting as the Earth as a god-mother to AI will be foundational for creating a love of life that I think will be necessary for us to use AI in a benevolent way. This includes re-populating coral reefs, learning to properly manage and enhance the forests of Earth, and reversing the effects of climate change to restore the polar ice caps. Animal corridors and floating cities will abound, and wildlife roams freely.

We could also employ AI bots to clean the surface of the ocean and to assist in the breaking down of plastics in the ocean, as well as generating power from the ocean. Undoubtedly, this advancement will bring the planet to a new level of energy dependence, so creating a nuclear energy source that is sustainable (old Spider man 2 anyone?) will be a real potential for us.

There is also the possibility of launching ships with AI into black holes to explore for us, coming back to perhaps share with us how the dark matter in the universe behaves.

The real next priority is to explore the solar system; learn to amass resources from it (asteroids, Jupiter’s gases, etc) and also measure and find new habitable planets close by. colonization of Mars and its moon Eros, would be a priority. I think that turning Phobos into the ultimate VR party to create electricity would be a cool way to go about brining life to the Mars System.

There is, however, a major possibility for abuse; which obviously needs to be mitigated by creating an AI that is benevolent to watch over us. Similar to a good version of Godzilla, Gundam, perhaps even similar to Dragonball Z. All of the super hero movies are now completely in play, once we are aligned with an advanced version of Neuralink, humanity could become inseparable from AI. We could travel the universe with it.

Let me know what you think about AI! Looking forward to tomorrow. 😀

Images by artiphoria.ai/

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