Official Random Incident / Fact Thread 2 - Electric Boogaloo

[Rizimar]

Looking at a short Psychology course for next year to accompany my other AI & Natural Intelligence course.  The uni recommends some previous knowledge of the subject although not required to complete the course, so I bought "Teach yourself Psychology" to get up to speed with the topic.

Its not exactly a topic I'm in love with, but I feel that it will help in developing my AI knowledge and to understand others - and myself - much better.  I also like the idea that there is a traditional foundation to the subject before even bringing a computer into the equation.  Its good to know that the study of human communication and intelligence has been there from the dawn of the human race, and that the goal of AI is not just a five-minute fad but has been pursued for decades. 

Anyway, bullshit aside, its a nice feeling to finally be nearing the climax of my studies; I've always wanted to do AI programming since I started learning programming seriously almost ten years ago.

I've wanted to do AI programming before. It's no walk in the park! I hope it goes well for you

Not a year ago, I was thinking about what it would take to develop an AI that could withstand the Turing Test. I filled up tons of notebook pages with ideas and plans of how such a program would learn and respond to input while appearing "human" itself. Though, it seems impossible to make a convincing program that was only limited to textual input for its knowledge. Not only that, but it would take a lot of time and effort to teach the program everything required that a typical person knows, just to prepare it for any possible question or comment the judges of a Turing Test may say (especially if they misspelled words, used obscure abbreviations, and had no concept of grammar! ).

Needless to say, I gave up on the idea after a while, but it's still very interesting. And the possibility of someone winning the Loebner Prize sometime before I die keeps me checking back on other peoples' progress every now and again.

[Boone]

Cheers, Riz.

Not entirely sure where my study and practice of AI will take me, but I've pretty much resigned myself to being there at the early days of the field, and maybe when I've thrown in the towel and retired, the generations thereafter will pick up where we all left off - and they will be the ones who will produce some of the most brilliant AIs we will ever witness.

I suppose it comes down to increasing computer power and new practices in design. More will be possible in the future than it is now etc.

Sounds rather melodramatic, but my life work will probably end in a couple of machines linked together, to form a single AI that focuses more on HCI than breaking AI records.  One machine for 3D display, another for a data bank, another for the logic, another for a creative side, etc.  If I can at least present this prototype to the on-line community and maybe inspire others, some clever bugger will see what is good about it and what can be improved - then will we see another AI that totally takes the world by storm.

One thing I do notice is the focus on AI to be "perfect" and never wrong.  I've learned from writing stories and creating animation:  Its our faults, weaknesses and imperfections that also give us humans additional character.  Take Gene Hunt from Life on Mars - he's a bully, a homophobe, a drunk and has a violent streak - without those beautiful "qualities", he just wouldn't stand out from other police officers in other shows! ^_^

Can't wait to get started!

[コービン]

I miss the days of monsters just moving towards you =)

Kidding though.

Wow, how is everyone? It's been awhile, huh?

[Rizimar]

Cheers, Riz.

Not entirely sure where my study and practice of AI will take me, but I've pretty much resigned myself to being there at the early days of the field, and maybe when I've thrown in the towel and retired, the generations thereafter will pick up where we all left off - and they will be the ones who will produce some of the most brilliant AIs we will ever witness.

I suppose it comes down to increasing computer power and new practices in design. More will be possible in the future than it is now etc.

Sounds rather melodramatic, but my life work will probably end in a couple of machines linked together, to form a single AI that focuses more on HCI than breaking AI records.  One machine for 3D display, another for a data bank, another for the logic, another for a creative side, etc.  If I can at least present this prototype to the on-line community and maybe inspire others, some clever bugger will see what is good about it and what can be improved - then will we see another AI that totally takes the world by storm.

One thing I do notice is the focus on AI to be "perfect" and never wrong.  I've learned from writing stories and creating animation:  Its our faults, weaknesses and imperfections that also give us humans additional character.  Take Gene Hunt from Life on Mars - he's a bully, a homophobe, a drunk and has a violent streak - without those beautiful "qualities", he just wouldn't stand out from other police officers in other shows! ^_^

Can't wait to get started!

Haha. Well, even laying the framework would be an accomplishment, as you said.

Ever study psychology? I think that once we can figure out the human mind in much greater capacity, we can emulate it much more easily. I mean, I don't think we've even been able to figure out just how information is encoded in the mind yet.

A lot of chatterbots are little more than simple (and poorly-functioning) language parsers, sadly.

[Bad Sector]

I miss the days of monsters just moving towards you =)

Play some Painkiller: Resurrection. I've heard its good.

[Unconscious]

I miss the days of monsters just moving towards you =)

Play some Painkiller: Resurrection. I've heard its good.

I preferred the first Painkiller, to be honest.

[Stage-It]

I love Orgy. This band is amazing.

[Boone]

Bloody shit night out on the town last night.  Forgot my phone so chasing up my friends was tricky - resulting in me running around town like a headless chicken.  By luck I bumped into them...

Then we went into a pub for a quiet drink, but one of my friends decided to have a crack at someone they had a beef with...

THEN, the "party" insisted that we went to the roughest pub in the land: The Grapes.  In a nutshell, Disc World has The Mended Drum, here we have The Grapes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mV6ZSQt9ho

...and so in such an establishment, I had to play Diana Troy to defuse my friend's argument in the previous pub.

THEN! And probably the worst crime of the night, we went down to my favourite night club but one of our party was challenged for ID...AND SHE LEFT IT AT HOME! So being the decent sorts that we were, we said "nope, we stay together. Don't worry about it...we'll go elsewhere.  Why she was challenged for ID when she looks like Kirsten Dunst is completely beyond me...

But no, it didn't end there...I got voted down once again to go to the shitest night club in the land, which was up the other end of the town.  Now I don't mind R&B, hip-hop or moto town - but this place took the biscuit!  Even worse, the DJ stopped the music cold to change it to another track! I paid £7 for what was practically night-time robbery!  Christ, when I asked him to play Cotton Eye Joe, he gave me a disgusted look! o_O  The music on offer was absolutely shite. 

And probably the biggest kick in the nuts was that the late-open kebab shop was out of choc-fudge cake too!  For comedy effect I "cried" whilst being comforted by my friend from the tragedy of being deprived of my beloved choc-fudge cake...it gave the staff a good laugh I suppose....

"THEY...THEY GOT NO CHOCALATE FUDGE CA-HAHAHAHAHA-HAAAAAAAAAKEEEE!" ^_^

[Bad Sector]

...and this is why i prefer to stay at home

[コービン]

I love Orgy. This band is amazing.

Your avatar is fucking scary. Was that supposed to be a realistic rendition of Spongebob or something?

Weird.

[jleeto]

Remembering the 90's always makes me happy.   That's why I don't need Zoloft or whatever anti-depressant drugs people take these days.   I can live in my memories forever!   weeeeeeeee!

[Rizimar]

Remembering the 90's always makes me happy.   That's why I don't need Zoloft or whatever anti-depressant drugs people take these days.   I can live in my memories forever!   weeeeeeeee!

I prefer remembering decades that I wasn't even a part of. Like the 70's! Man, those were the days, I tell ya!

[Boone]

Loved the 90s.  Doom, Super Metroid(even though I never played it back then), Tie Fighter, Meat loaf's second album, wanting to become a comic book artist...ah, those were the days!

[jleeto]

wanting to become a comic book artist...ah, those were the days!

  Me too.  That desire defined my whole teen life.  It was what I was going to do as an adult.  I never doubted the future and I never worried.   I was blissfully drawing comics while listening to White Zombie or NIN and playing a lil Quake or RE2 in little breaks.  I was going to be a pro comic creator and live off of it and avoid the crappy jobs...    so much for that.       Now the only thing I can do is make webcomics for free in my spare time after work if I'm not too tired.      waaaaaaaah

[Boone]

Ah yes, the comic book dream.  I think it was a mix of Harryhausen movies and Star Wars that got me going.  Then it was Manga, but in 2000 I took up programming and the wonders of the games world was opened up to me...

I did try a comic book with a friend a few years ago, but being in a distributed environment eventually took it's toll...