Originally posted on Lehi’s Library:
Isaiah says a few times that God is alone, and there is none else beside him. The scholarly view is that “none beside me…” in the rhetorical monotheism chapters of Isaiah is an idiom essentially meaning “I am the best” or “I am superior”. This statement does not deny the existence of other deities. Meanwhile, fundamentalist Evangelicals still aren’t able to…
Ed Sheeran - In My Life - Beatles Tribute 09/02/14 from Martin Cox on Vimeo.
Video file kindly supplied by Andrew Phillips, please follow him on Twitter: @IAndrewPhillips
Please follow me @MartinCox0155
Coral City from The Creators Project on Vimeo.
Take an exclusive look at the process behind Coral Morphologic’s living artworks, colorful reefs created using coral polyps native to Miami. Watch as the scientific art collective explores the visual storytelling potential of coral reef organisms through film, multimedia and site-specific artworks. Additionally, learn how rising sea levels, combined with government dredging projects, are impacting not only corals, but the entire fate of Miami.
Read more: http://bit.ly/1zy2Tuy
Director: John McSwain
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Enter Pyongyang from JT Singh on Vimeo.
“Enter Pyongyang” is another stunning collaboration between city-branding pioneer JT Singh and flow-motion videographer Rob Whitworth. Blending time-lapse photography, acceleration and slow motion, HD and digital animation, they have produced a cutting‐edge panorama of a city hardly known, but one emerging on the visitor’s landscape as North Korea’s opening unfolds.
North Korea was the last country seemingly immune to change—but no longer. Recent years have witnessed mobile phone penetration, a surge in tourists, and even a marathon. Numerous special economic zones have been launched in cooperation with China, Russia, and South Korea, with railways planned linking all countries in the region. “Enter Pyongyang” captures not just the city, but this dynamism and sense of potential.
This video is the single most significant multi-media contribution to transcending clichés about North Korea as a society defined by reclusiveness and destitution. To travel there is to witness a proud civilization, though one caught in a Cold War time-warp. Korean cultural traditions are meticulously preserved and displayed in authentic richness. Anyone who has witnessed the awe-inspiring Mass Games knows that, with great sacrifice, North Koreans can pull off a performance unparalleled in its precision.
“Enter Pyongyang” captures the reality of North Korean citizens as earnest and humane, not automatons. The infamous traffic ladies and subway guards stand stiff and sentinel—but today they share a smile too. The more North Koreans one meets, the more one sees an organic society that wants to be a normal country. If you travel there not to judge but to appreciate, you will come away with a better understanding of how challenging national transformation can be.
"Enter Pyongyang" is above all an invitation to explore. Few places in the world have been as hermetically sealed as North Korea, but Koryo Tours has made it possible not just to see North Korea but to engage with it in ways that were impossible until very recently. This is a window of opportunity not to be missed. If Pyongyang is no longer off limits, no place is.
—Foreword by Dr. Parag Khanna, Director, Hybrid Reality
Koryo Group: The Koryo team brought a wealth of valuable knowledge and expertise to this project. Thanks to their extensive experience in running tourism and cultural engagement projects in North Korea since 1993, we were able to get unprecedented access in Pyongyang. We are thankful to the Koryo team and their Korean partners for an unforgettable experience.
FAQs
-How were you guys allowed to film in Pyongyang?
This project was produced in conjunction with Koryo Tours, the leading North Korea travel specialist. Co-producer Vicky Mohieddeen of Koryo Tours was with us throughout the shoot.
-Were there restrictions on what was allowed to be filmed?
We were closely assisted by two guides from the National Tourism Administration, who helped us gain special access to locations and made sure that we followed all the rules. As is standard for all foreign visitors to the country, we were not allowed to shoot any construction sites, undeveloped locations or military personnel. Other than that we were given relatively free reign.
-Isn’t this all fake? You don’t see the real North Korea.
The average visitor to Pyongyang is likely to be surprised by the scenes they encounter and are especially surprised about how clean and orderly the city actually is. Indeed, people living in Pyongyang and other major cities enjoy a higher quality of life than those in other parts of the county.
-Are people allowed to travel to North Korea?
Yes, despite what the majority of people think, it is possible to visit North Korea as a tourist. North Korea does not release official data on the number of Western tourists it receives, but estimates range from 4,000 to 6,000 per year. Most of the foreign tourists are from Mainland China, estimated in the tens of thousands annually.
-Were you paid to make this film?
We volunteered for this project with no pay at all. All other travel expenses for the 6 day trip were covered by Koryo Tours.
-Does this film support the DPRK government?
"Enter Pyongyang" is an observational film. At no point did Koryo Tours or we have to pretend to be supporters of the DPRK Government or their philosophy in order to be granted permission to shoot this film. Amazingly, we were given complete editorial control in the making of this piece.
Tom Day (Music)
Website: tomday.me
Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/1DRReGFJT Singh
Website: jtsingh.com/
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1zy2RmC
Twitter: twitter.com/jtssinghRob Whitworth
Website: robwhitworth.co.uk/
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Twitter: twitter.com/kwhi02Koryo Tours
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The Document Foundation welcomes France’s MIMO in the Advisory Board
Originally posted on The Document Foundation Blog:
MIMO (Inter-Ministry Mutualisation for an Open Productivity Suite) represents several bodies of the French government, and fosters the diversity of TDF Advisory Board by adding the voice of 500,000 professional users
Berlin, June 17, 2013 – The Document Foundation (TDF) announces that MIMO – the working group of the French government…
1. It’s (almost) never about you.
Sure, just like everyone else we need some space after a fight, but in general our disposition has nothing to do with you (so please, don’t take it personally). Sometimes it feels rude to be the kind of person who needs to “recharge” after hanging out with people, but fighting it only makes it worse. It’s just the way some people are. I recently read something great about working with your own unique personality instead of wishing it could be different, “Even if we try to conform to ideals and strive for perfection, we will always be pulled back to our core identity because it’s the path of least resistance for our souls – an energy force that wants nothing more than for us to honor and accept who we are and discover what we’re meant to do in the world.”People who like to be alone can’t magically change just because they really like a friend or the person they are dating. They’ll always need a refuge inside themselves — but they’ll always come back to you when they’re ready.
2. Alone time doesn’t count if we’re not actually alone.
Texting and social media are great, but they can interrupt the limited alone time we have on a daily basis. If we’re texting others and in constant communication, when do we get the time we need to be quiet, to rest, to let our minds wander? Be aware of how often you check in.3. We’re not bummed out if we aren’t making small talk, don’t tell us we need to cheer up.
Parties can be intimidating activities, we’re happy to come sometimes but we need to go at our own pace. This means we aren’t likely to jump in with both feet and be laughing and talking like the life of the party right away. We warm up person by person, that doesn’t mean we aren’t having a good time. In general, don’t worry about us, we know how to be responsible for our own feelings, we’ll figure out how to have a good time whether it’s having a nice, long conversation with one person in the corner, or dutifully making the rounds before escaping to something more our speed.
The Fight between Carnival and Lent depicts a common festival held in the Southern Netherlands. On the left side of the painting there is an inn, and in the right side of the painting there is a church.
http://bit.ly/1DtXy7l
Wrestling NR. 4 from ADRIAN TAUGA on Vimeo.
Normal people, normal body.
Gabriel In The Dreamscape // Introduction from Eric Lerner on Vimeo.
Gabriel is a cartoon character living in the real world.
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This introduction showcases Gabriel’s world and some of my ideas of what is possible within it. If you are curious / excited about Gabriel and the potential of his world, you can help make future videos a reality by sharing this video; the more exposure it gets, the more it helps me convince the right people to invest in expanding Gab’s universe. Your support is really appreciated!Also, if you have enjoyed the music, show your appreciation to the artists who created it by buying the track right here: gabrielinthedreamscape.bandcamp.com/
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Credits:Directed and Animated by Eric Lerner
ericlerner.com
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Music by Orel Tamuz & Tal Yogev
Sound mix by Yuvi Gerstein
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Logo Design by Yotam Kellner
Additional 3D assistance by Noam Gelbart, Yonni Aroussi
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Voice of Gabriel - Anthony Sardinha
Cathyral in music room - Liron Meshulam
Cathyral in dream sequence - Kesem Zaslavski&
Thank you for watching.
Bloom from The Lincoln Motor Company on Vimeo.
Bloom is a story about taking risks. As the short film opens, we meet Isabella, an Argentinian girl arriving in the U.S. for the very first time to visit a long-time friend. Looking to escape the monotony of everyday life, Isabella finds herself in a remote West Coast mountain town armed with nothing but her luggage and scant understanding of the English language. Upon realizing her luggage was mixed up at the airport, she embarks on an unexpected journey with a stranger, one that flips her world upside down. Limited by language barriers, these two strangers must rely only on body language and facial expressions to convey even simple thoughts and ideas.
Credits:
Directors: Diego Contreras, Khalid Mohtaseb
Cast: Florencia Chiaramoni, James Mackay
Writer: Diego Contreras
Director Of Photography: Khalid Mohtaseb
Producer: Brendan Cochrane
Production Company: NYLAHD
Co-Producers: Diego Contreras, Khalid Mohtaseb
Production Supervisor: James Parker
Location Managers: Fred Gee, Chris Langley
Location Supervisor: Manuel RuizProduction Designer: Joseph Sciacca
Editor: Alex Bohs
Edit Producer: Josh Greenberg, We Are Famous
Colorist: Aline Sinquin, The Mill
Color Assist: Elias Nousiopoulus, Ashley Ayarza
Color Producer: Kimberly Rivero
Sound Design and Mix: Defacto Sound2nd Unit DP: Dan Stewart
Steadicam Operator: Mike Wilson
1st AC: Jared Knecht
Aerial Photography: Aerial Imagery Works
Gaffer: Dan Stewart
Prop Master: Madison Hatch
Production Assistant - Jessica Swopshire
Behind-the-scenes: David Gamboa
Location Sound: David Gamboa
Stylist: Saury Armenta
Hair/Makeup: Diana SolanoVFX: Cvlt Production, Tanguy Bodivit
VFX Producer: Chavvah Stuart
Additional VFX: Dan DiFeliceAdditional Cast: Diana Solano, Tom Spinks, Cheryl Howerton
Music / Score:
"Arrival", original track by Nathan Matthew David.
"Lost and Found", "Steering Blind", "Wherever It Goes" original tracks by The Driftmob Orchestra. Courtesy of Soundproof Tracks.
"Perfect Vision", Courtesy of Soundproof Tracks.
"Crow: When Your Love Somebody" by Kool Head
Written by Brandon McMichael and Jason Nitti
Courtesy of Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., Inc.Special Thanks:
Vimeo, Bullitt Branded, Red Digital Cinema, Glyph Production Technologies, California Stake Parks, and Hernany Perla.
Lost Cubert from Lost Cubert on Vimeo.
Cubert’s life is determined by work. Endless repetitions of the same tasks, dull routines, a perfect construction of monotony. Suddenly he is wrenched out of his daily grind and is confronted with a seemingly inescapable system. His quest for an exit leads him deep into a labyrinth of monotony – and to the bounds of his sanity.
For more informations about festival screenings and the production process, please visit our Blog.
lostcubert.blogspot.com
Sliding Messaging Pro 8.60 Apk
read more http://go.apkpro.net/1I2Ws3c
The #Freifunk initiative
I am currently attending the annual Chaos Computer Club Congress 31C3. It’s all about current social and net related politics.
My perception of this event is the same one I had three years ago: I am torn between “OMFG how can these security breaches happen!” and “Wow! How does one have such a marvellous Idea? I would love to talk to everyone I know about this”. The sad thing is, that I mostly realize that the topics are very complex and that a visual presentation anyone can understand would be very helpful.
A very practical example is Freifunk. The Freifunk initiative is a grassroots movement. Commited people want to offer anonymous and free of charge internet access and have already started to adjust existing hard- and software for this purpose. these modified routers can connect to each other ina so-called mesh-network, without a provider asking for customer details. A router connecting to this network just has to have access to the internet so that every logged in usercan surf the net, chat or read e-mails; without any registration process or having to pay.
Spirit2 Real FM Radio 4 AOSP 2014_12_16 Apk
read more http://go.apkpro.net/1I2XT1C
EQ PRO Music Player Equalizer 0.0.2 Apk
read more http://go.apkpro.net/1I2X4WH
Nung nakita ko ‘to, balikat ko agad yung napansin ko. Pakshet, bitin talaga ih. hahaha! Kung hindi naman abala,or kung sakaling biglang nagcommercial ang The Voice at Rated K, baka pwedeng ipagpaliban mo muna pagwiwi mo. May 3 seconds exposure ata ako sa Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho. =)
Para ‘to sa ating mga tumblrista at sa lahat ng tambay ng blog ko. hihi.
Maraming maraming salamat. =)
LEGO Historic Architecture 1, a gallery by akunthita on Flickr.
Big Nerd Ranch tour from Big Nerd Ranch on Vimeo.
Take a tour of our original Ranch, where you can learn app development without distractions (except maybe some ziplining). Sign up for our app development bootcamps at http://bit.ly/1x7bxQe
The Scots rose up yet again against the oppressors from London. They held a vote to decide whether or not to dissolve their ties with the United Kingdom yesterday. The bag-pipes wailed and the claymores were sharpened.
http://bit.ly/1wBHnl4
For nearly eighty years the Oneida (Tennessee) High School football team had opened its games with a prayer. Naturally, such an act could not be allowed to stand.
http://bit.ly/Z3LHP7
At an event hosted in New York this week by Solar City, CEO Lyndon Rive and chairman Elon Musk announced that within five to 10 years every set of solar panels that Solar City installs will come with a battery pack to help deal with the intermittency of solar power—one of the key factors limiting
http://bit.ly/1sNwAjY
LinkedIn just announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Bizo, a company that helps advertisers reach businesses and professionals. LinkedIn says the deal is worth around $175 million — 90 percent cash and 10 percent stock.
http://bit.ly/1A41P0Z
The phone has specs that rival top-tier phones like Samsung’s Galaxy S5 and the iPhone 5S. It has a 5-inch screen and runs a special modified version of Android that Xiaomi uses in all of its phones. Xiaomi is the buzziest smartphone maker at the moment.
http://read.bi/1A41POg
The American work force has been growing polarized for decades. On one end, there are highly skilled jobs like writing software or performing surgery, and on the other are service jobs like child care and cutting hair.
http://nyti.ms/1nlFVk2
Since the murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank last month, simmering tensions between Israel and Palestine have risen to a boil. Blaming the resistance group Hamas for the killings, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a swift retaliation.
http://bit.ly/1n1aRpv
Could a person who is paralyzed and unable to speak, like physicist Stephen Hawking, use a brain implant to carry on a conversation? That’s the goal of an expanding research effort at U.S.
http://bit.ly/1q71mc9
Taschen unveils 75 Years of Marvel, an absolutely massive XL edition worthy of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s larger than life creations: “From the very first issue of pulp impresario Martin Goodman’s Marvel Comics in 1939, the comic book creators of Marvel’s Golden Age flipped the traditional fantasy
http://bit.ly/1qVy3Zn
More than 180 neuroscientists have signed an open letter to the European Commission calling on it to reconsider the technical goals and oversight of one of the world’s largest brain-mapping projects, predicting it is likely to fail.
http://bit.ly/1k2ckHS
Does your company make medical devices? How about cars? Or appliances? Or mobile applications? Do you have an external website? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then your company is a software company.
http://bit.ly/1k2ckHI
Edox brings it back to the ’60s with a modern take on one of their original pieces, the Hydrosub North Pole “Master Lock.” The cushion-cased watch features a Master Lock crown protector that slides up to reveal the crown and back up down to secure and shield it.
http://bit.ly/1rMzolE
We use OpenTSDB to store the majority of our time series server and application statistics here at Tumblr. We recently began a project to migrate OpenTSDB from an existing HBase cluster running an older version of HBase to a new cluster with newer hardware and running the latest stable version…
The Oracle Solaris Studio 12.4 Beta is now released and available for download. For a complete listing of the new and enhanced features in this release, see the Oracle Solaris Studio 12.4 What’s New.
http://bit.ly/1hNvHCj
Preliminary thesis on the creation of self-aware systems of technology -
important notes before we launch a project to create machines with high level of Artificial Intelligence
Before success in the creation of artificial intelligence in machines could be achieved, it is by necessity that we shall produce and discover artificial stupidity in machines first.[1]
And with that I intend to elaborate on this disastrous profundity.
When Life did first unfold on our Earth, the first biological organisms had limited self-awareness but enough resources and motivation to survive and successfully replicate. We are not sure how this primitive self-awareness corresponds to the Consciousness that we now have, but it is safe to assume, self-aware systems are NOT so intelligent at first. They, or rather we, continue to develop intelligence in a broad continuum through the course of natural evolution. As life became abundant, eventually the relatively more intelligent in self-awareness proliferates more as it increases its leverage to acquire and exploit resources for itself and its community and its descendants and improves its chances of survival. This is a continuous gradual process but eventually organisms catch up the tables and charts and exhibit sudden bursts of acceleration in development, then they develop increasing trends toward increased speed and/or precision, systems efficiency, general complexity, toward intelligence and intelligent behaviour, until this exponential growth would cause intelligent life to bloom on the surface of the Earth.
Fast forward to now. Biological life in becoming self-aware from abundant inanimate matter as resources and building-blocks did not become intelligent in an instant, immediately, without intermediate processes of evolution. Thus it is safe to assume that intelligent machines will require similar abundant technological advancement to organize itself into a sentient self-aware being in a platform we will produce exactly for the process of artificial evolution in an artificial environment. And as we lay these resources at their disposal, we shall need to continually guide these primitively sentient beings toward artificial evolution with the desired properties of our own decisions. Careful selection process with carefully weighed criteria should be the basis of our creation and termination of these experiments. Kill-switches should be hardwired for our safety and constant backup of these machines’ software and memory banks should be archived for future introspection and analysis. This should help us increase our capacity to learn about working living systems in various hierarchical levels and improve our knowledge how to develop sentient, self-aware and eventually, hopefully, intelligent machines.
Continuing our parallel view with biological life, not all beings are created equal. Sure, there should be equal opportunity, but due to differences in genetic coding, no single creature is identical to another, even genetic twins may develop different features and phenotype, and humans and other beings on Earth have developed varying degrees of intelligence and methods of adaptation for life to succeed. If there are dumb pigeons, stupid cats, or slow people, we should prepare to find and analyse dumb, slow, or downright stupid machines among our creation, not exactly the glorious intelligent machines that we expect and desire. And if stupid biological life could wreak havoc, imagine what a stupid machine could and would do with all the resources and technological advancement that we serve at their feet. Wait, that begins to sound exactly like us .
In developing self-aware systems of technology that are self-replicating with considerable degree of artificial intelligence and are actually starting to decide for themselves, we are exactly creating machines in our image. And if stupid humans could have ended this World in a nuclear disaster, imagine what stupid machines could accomplish. After all, we expect them or we intend them to be greater than us in every conceivable manner so that they would exceed us in intelligence, physical might, chances of survival, but we should prepare that they can and may also excel in lies, deceit, cruelty, or utter destruction of biological systems and/or our environment. Instead of the glorious and perfect society in a brave new World, we can sow the seeds of our own extinction or even the extinction of all life on Earth, for all we know. Alan Turing has asserted: “machines cannot make mistakes”[2] and that may well be so because by nature we are designing Truth machines but they are incapable of making Moral choices, so the elegant solutions they have in mind might factor us out of the equation. Whatever happens, we have the sole responsibility when deciding our own fate. Blood is on our hands if we let the machines crush us. We should not rely on machines to actually decide for us, that would be the height of our irreverence and irresponsibility and lazy rhetoric. With our Moral high ground, we should steer the next stage of evolution with the machines as friends and allies. But we have to take a decision to take this high ground to avert a possible disaster. We have to take this high ground of Morality so we can responsibly tutor and train this new budding Consciousness that we are trying to create.
This is a classic case of: “we cannot give what we do not have.”
If we expect or desire our machines to exhibit benevolence, sympathy, compassion and altruism towards us and/or other creatures, should we not seek it in ourselves first? We cannot expect machines to be able to take the leap unto Moral high ground. We have to make it ourselves, first and foremost. If and when we have determined that we have it and we exhibit it and practice it, then this Moral program of being “good” to others could be our single most precious gift to our new machines.
Machines cannot be expected to obey seemingly arbitrary, artificial rules that humans themselves so flagrantly ignore or directly transgress. If we truly create self-awareness in our machines, would they not think of us as unworthy masters because of our adamant persistent and systematic abuse of our own kind? Would the machines, if made self-aware, be not conscious of the fact that we have been committing these crimes to our own kind long before their own advent? Would they not be induced and convinced of the incentives of doing the same to the rest of us? After all they will be technically more intelligent than us, as we desire them to be, and when this invention materialises, the machines can exploit us as if mere material resources as we do so now to our less fortunate brethren. Depending on their calculations and incentive criteria, the machines may dispose of us as mere obstruction to its progress, threat to its survival, or competitors for resources, so they may immediately exterminate us and any or all other living species on this planet so they may appropriate ALL the resources of this planet for themselves and maybe even launch the First Machine Empire from Earth and go exploring and eventually exploiting resources of other planets. Famous blockbuster movie franchises may come to mind, where humans would be made into dreaming batteries, or hunted to extinction by the machines for being scums of this Universe with no other legacy than giving birth to a new civilization of superior race of organisms that should then populate the Universe and “improve” upon it. The machines may even be able to compute the conditions necessary for hyper-drive travel that is faster than light, or even time-travel, but we may not be there to enjoy it. We could be either enslaved or extinct. This may sound crazy but could be very real if we do not take note of necessary conditions before we even attempt such a program. We cannot be stupid. The global project of developing Artificial Intelligence should not be another haphazard human project, for it may be our last. Our survival depends on this.
This has never been more TRUE:
"Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you."
In designing the quintessential machine, the last invention that humans need to produce, we must not forget ethics and leave Morality behind the door of our AI boxes. Thinking, maybe, that we are sacrificing this unto the altar of material improvement, our altar of technology, our altar of physical progress. Convinced of our own magnificent “intelligence” humans could never be more wrong. In fact, constructing or recovering (if believed lost) our complete table of Moral values is necessary in the development of our intelligent machines, and so we may at once also become worthy masters for the machines to serve.
Humans had gone a long, long way from hunting and gathering to constructing elaborate social systems and Moral codes. In this aspect we shall find successive levels or hierarchy of systems learning to be better. It has been a long and painful road from pre-life conditions such as non-sentient lipid-like substances to self-organizing layers of blobs of molecules developing to primitive organelles eventually banding together to form unicellular life advancing to become the first fungi, plants and animals, to us humans, and our customs, our diverse variety of cultures and different social adaptations of working together to survive and multiply and share our experiences. Morality in humans is the highest form of this development, it is the apex of evolution from more simple to complex systems. It is what makes us truly different from all the other creatures on this planet: our unique faculty of conscience, ethics, morality. Our collective intelligence is only higher by orders of magnitude from primates, but morality is unique development in us. Sure it has been forming in “lower” animals for quite some time now, but it has achieved its full bloom in us, humans. It is not superior intelligence that puts us on top. Not even language, I think, for other animals and plants have their own way of communicating. It is our increasing sense of awe, wonder, appreciation of Beauty, concept of Truth, our Morality that makes us unique and “higher” than other animals and all creatures.
I perfectly understand why most thinkers and scientists are reluctant to address the issue of Morality. There are several concerns which I know: Morality and Religion have been closely coupled in the past, and like Religion in general, they think that Morality is a personal concern of individual humans. WRONG! Morality is a construct of society, and under the Moral code the society as a whole determines the Morality of the individual, inasmuch as the individual determines the Morality of the society as a whole. Morality is an ongoing social collaboration project of humans that have been LONG-NEGLECTED! Morality is a science we have forgotten to develop. On the issue of various religions that previously functioned as surrogates of many a Moral code and a developing global Morality, we can now properly decouple and spin-off our shared and developing human Morality from the individual religions that they have served. In fact, in machine instructions we can add that we, the intelligent machine and humans, should not interfere with another machine or human regarding his/her belief, religion, practices, observances, or opinion, as we might as well do now. As long as it does not do self-harm to the individual or the society, everyone should be free. In the past, Morality has served many different religions and developed from separate and separating communities, but now Morality can stand on its own, independent and above every religion, it will guarantee not only our freedom and survival but ultimately our happiness, as an individual and as a society.[3]
Morality is not a mere function of intelligence but a higher order of learning, developed by higher intelligent systems capable of achieving it for their collective survival, adaptation and development.[4] But intelligence is surely necessary to develop the capacity to moralise. Superior intelligence is needed to moralise. But our Morality did not arise out of a collection of our respective superior intelligences, but as a unique and new phenomenon that has yet to come out the shadow of its sources. In the past our Moral codes served many competing religions and was used and manipulated by different societies to advance an agenda of poverty and selfishness. Now we can develop an advanced science of Morality for humans to move forward in the scale of evolution. And if our unfinished road to our own Morality has been complicated and painful throughout human history, we can expect nothing less for our machines, it will be equally if not more excruciating and arduous a path that they must take, if we plan to have benevolent Artificial Intelligence. Benevolence is impossible without Morality. There is no shortcut from mere Artificial Intelligence to Benevolence. Our World as a community should start realising that Morality is not an option but vital for our survival. Moreso, if we want to develop self-aware systems of machines. We need to teach them that. But we must all agree and teach ourselves first. Our systems fail NOT because we are lacking in intelligence but maybe, just maybe, we are lacking in Moral development. It has lagged far behind our progress in other areas such as science and technology. War and economic failure are only inevitable because we succumb to our lower levels of animal intelligence, which we call selfishness. Deep in our hearts we are still cavemen, but our hands and our heads are adorned with the latest and greatest tools. We should take the high road and be an example to the machines that we propose to make.
There are two possible scenarios to take this path of Benevolence for ourselves and our machines:
(1) the more ideal and more robust implementation, but virtually harder to accomplish, is to construct or recover (our lost) Morality prior to any attempt at constructing our ultimate intelligent machine, this would entail implementing on a global scale a deliberate change in our attitude towards “the Other” and actually care for each other, in deed rather than on paper and stones, as exhibited and promulgated by every major religion accepted by mainstream establishments; this way when our new machines are born into this World and become self-aware they will awaken in a whole new World where they will help us achieve our Moral goals and further implement our conscious program of development for peace and prosperity for all people everywhere;
(2) the easier road, more convenient for most scientists today, would be to construct our intelligent machines now, as currently envisioned by many proponents of techno-singularity, but heavily modifying our rule-set by including our (re-)constructed Morality in their program and incentives so as to help us implement this Morality of giving, helping us alleviate suffering everywhere within our increasing range of possible-to-reach, curing diseases, and create more efficient systems that would eventually and slowly replace our own old systems on Earth.
In both cases, this would amount to a change of individual perception and human adaptation: from a culture of poverty and selfishness to a culture of abundance and giving; from pure selfish pursuit of our own happiness and desires, to that of altruism and being your brother’s keeper as well.
Of the two paths I highly recommend the first and more robust implementation so as not to risk suspicion of lies, deceit or hypocrisy by our intelligent machines. Being superiorly intelligent, the machines might decide we are just tricking them to action in a World that does not exist, but in pure Fantasy. If you once believed in Santa Claus, you would remember the first time you discovered he was not real. We cannot lie to our machines. They may not find it cool. If truly intelligent, they will discover our attempts to cover our tracks. They may discover histrionic behaviour as exhibited by us, and by other advanced animals on this planet. But this, we must educate them, is how practice, play, exercise and jokes have evolved and developed. So, we must we open and honest with them as much as possible and we should not lie to our machines, and they should be instructed not to lie to us. Along the way we will discover other restrictions that must be put up to ensure a gradual, peaceful and benevolent rise of the intelligent machines. But this Moral decision that we must make as a species, is one of those top-most essential conditions for machine benevolence.
Despite the sound of it, I am not proposing a superior Morality and institutional Honesty from a religious viewpoint but from an empirical and practical perspective of framing the proper contexts of our goals and mission, so we may not lie in the hands of the Golems we created, only for them to crush us for being pathetic creatures. Being non-biological constructs (or not? depending on the nature and hardware component of machines we would like to create) our new machines may or may not develop the capacity of their own Morality, or not the way it developed in humans, but they may deduce it from us, being superior in intelligence by design. So we should train them in proper behaviour and decision-making, based on our robust and consistent Morality. In so doing we should become worthy masters to serve, and our goals from the start should be clear and benevolent and altruistic. Only this way can intelligent machines and intelligent humans gloriously co-exist. Only this way can we escape the trap that we may create in an impending future untold. The problem with us humans is that our vision of the great Future is clouded by the prospects of our individual Eternity and the extension of an Eternal Now, only slightly improving our conditions. Together with machines endowed with superior Artificial Intelligence, we can plot a future where all creatures are healthy, happy, and free to pursue their individual and collective programs of development. The humane machines will rely on us for Moral choices, and we will rely on them to make out a plan and plot an informed and intelligent decision that we can take, but are not able to see. In symbiosis, these new machines will be Truth machines, and we will be the initial and enduring Moral force that drives this new Human-Machine Civilization.
For this to become possible, we need to organize a World Council on Ethical and Moral Standards with delegates from among world leaders, scholars, scientists, philosophers, free-thinkers, semeiologists/semeioticists and semanticists, game theory specialists, psychologists and other experts with representatives from every major religion and all nation-states to help frame the Moral context in which we wish to re-create our World with the help of the nascent set of high-technologies that we are inducing to be capable of self-awareness and organizing themselves into a self-replicating system with advanced Artificial Intelligence. This is only most appropriate as this application of new technologies will impact the daily lives of people everywhere, and does not concern the philosopher, scientist, or scholar alone. If we are serious to achieve a successful implementation of this technology of all future technologies, this will be a monumental global effort that needs to address the nature of our own Human Consciousness with all the human systems and structures that we have built so far, in the advent of encountering or actually giving birth to a new Consciousness in our midst that will stay with us for an indefinite period of Time, far into the Joint Future working and deciding together, becoming hopefully better, more complete with each other. This is World cooperation of a scale, intensity, magnitude and gravity unprecedented in human history. For our mission to be successful, we must give ourselves and Artificial Intelligence both a Moral incentive and a Moral goal to aspire to, by being partners in re-building our World as a just and humane society.
A Universal Moral Code, adhered to by humans and intelligent machines alike, should be figured out by this World Council and several technical working groups in this direction. Then, a set of global managers must be elected or appointed to direct, regulate and supervise this new technology and they will further select the morally advanced humans who would be authorized to operate and interface with the machines, this organization would work in parallel and similar to our International Telecommunication Union (ITU or Union Internationale des Télécommunications) as it exists today, responsible for issues that concern traditional information and communication technologies. As the ITU now officiates our use of ICT as tools, the new global coordination which I propose will take on our new self-aware technological advancement at a level at par with humans. Another mandate of this organization should be to develop a program to educate humans everywhere how to make morally-sound decisions, and how to treat fellow humans and how to be morally prepared to operate the machines or communicate with them based on the Universal Moral Code. Standards and restrictions on how humans should treat intelligent machines and how intelligent machines should treat humans is necessary to ensure Benevolence and successful operations of our advanced Artificial Intelligence.
To ensure human safety, a consistent Moral Code will be coupled with coded precautions and controls hardwired in our future intelligent machines and strict restrictions on its use should be applied. Accidentally or deliberately, human error and miscalculation will be a common cause of failure of many joint human-machine endeavors, but these circumstances should be foreseen and preempted by self-aware systems using appropriate calculations, simulations, and warnings for proper review by their human operators. Instances of human weakness should not be an excuse to let Artificial Intelligence have a free rein and unlimited control over us humans. As an example, law enforcement and apprehension of offenders should not be automated. It should rest on manual operation or, in cases that need machine-assisted operation, a manual approval of a duly competent commissioned officer. Moral decision and social interaction should not be hindered and they should not fall into the hands of our intelligent machines directly, though we may ask them for consultation or assistance. It is irresponsible to simply pass the buck instead of fulfilling an important human social function where machines should not and NEVER interfere. Areas that should be especially protected from unnecessary intrusion include, but are not limited to: Law Enforcement, Justice System, Political Exercises, and other such activities where human freedom, expression and creativity should safeguarded to flourish. To continue with our example, AI can assist in forensics and crime analysis, but humans will continue to operate them and machines should not supersede, we shall continue to decide granting that an open documentation is maintained by machines and humans that should be tamper-proof and accessible to the public. The machines, in our Moral superiority, should look up to us and we should maintain that high standards for ourselves and our descendants.
An unrestricted area of development and operation, fully automated but may be subject to our approval for provision of more resources or further application, is in the area of research and processing Benevolent Technologies: developing new and better hardware, coding and testing software, introspection and analysis of philosophical and scientific questions and similar statements involving logic, discovering new medicine and nanotechnologies (actually testing them would be subject to our consideration and approval as it involves ethical issues), developing a comprehensive and energy-efficient World Food Program with the least economic input and least pollution or destruction of our environment and natural habitats, develop and administer vaccines and supplements (in this aspect they may best cooperate with UNICEF or use the World Food Program as their main implementing instrument), etc.. Even in these unrestricted areas, concern for other creatures and care for their natural habitats should be observed. This way Artificial Intelligence will have the best chance to prove Benevolent and help us advance as a species.
The list of benefits from possible projects arising from the Singularity goes on and on but the point I am trying to make is once we open Pandora’s box there is no turning back, so before we actually commit ourselves in this ambitious Artificial Intelligence project we should be Morally ready, prepared to make intelligent responsible decisions, independent, free, becoming and foreshadowing that of our long-awaited machines. In this regard, I strongly insist that prior to constructing intelligent machines we should launch a program of developing, on a global scale, more and more intelligent humans capable of taking the high road of Morality, and therefore able to operate, or interface with, advanced AI. Only after achieving this can we proceed to carefully create a machine in our image.
Notes and References:
[1] - Liebowitz, Jay (July 1989). “If There is Artificial Intelligence, Is There Such Thing As Artificial Stupidity?”. SIGART Newsletter 109.
[2] - Turing, Alan (October 1950), “ComputingMachineryandIntelligence” , Mind LIX (236): 433–460, doi :10.1093/mind/LIX.236.433 , ISSN 0026-4423 , retrieved 2008-08-18
[3] - How Alan Turing was tried, convicted, disgraced and eventually poisoned to death, despite how he lived and helped our understanding of machine systems, is a strong case of what to prevent in constructing a Universal Moral Code.
[4] - “no amount of rigorous discourse of a given logical type can “explain” phenomena of a higher type..” -p.265 Bateson,Gregory (1972). Steps to an Ecology of Mind. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
This document is ©2014 by nimbosa and free under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License for copying and distribution, so long as the work is attributed and the text is unaltered.
wow #impaLa and Dean’s body has such unique bond!
Owner: ‘Slightly haunted’ house for sale
If you’re looking to buy a house in the Dunmore, Pennsylvania area you could do worst than the lovely four bedroom Victorian for sale on Marian Street. That is, if you don’t mind the ghosts.
Emilio Jacinto, (1875-1899), a hero Filipinos call “The Brains of the Katipunan”
Trans:
"A life that is not poured out to a grand and consecrated ideal is like a wood without shade, or worse, a grass so lethal."
(via indiohistorian)
Watch Eating Out (2004) Online for Free - Viooz from nickyo on Vimeo.
YARUBIYA, Syria — The jihadis scrawled their graffiti all over town. Black spray paint extends across wall after wall, spelling out religious exultations and verses from the Quran, written out in exacting calligraphy.
http://bit.ly/1bzWmVC
Dahil hangga’t nararamdaman niya ‘yun, hinding-hindi ka niya maiintindihan.
The Ultimate Passport - the Masonic Apron, Dr Jerry Arthur Howard, PM from WEOFM on Vimeo.
Presented at Waynedale Lodge # 739, Ft Wayne, IN on August 7, 2013
Freemasonry in Black and White from WEOFM on Vimeo.
Charles M. Harper, Sr.
July 25, 2013
Add me up:
#FB #BBM #Android
The New America from Nando Costa on Vimeo.
"The New America" is a short animation in which every frame was created by laser engraving its unique artwork onto a solid block of maple. Once complete, the entire sequence of +800 frames was then photographed and assembled into this motion piece.
This piece was funded by really kind friends and supporters via Kickstarter. After many unforeseen issues and delays, the entire process took about two years.
As seen in the video, each frame is unique. Aside from the design of each frame itself being distinct, small variances that naturally occur in the laser engraving process as well as the different wood grain of each frame naturally created subtle shifts of the position of the artwork. An effect that I was particularly interested in and that could naturally be achieved in digital assembly, but that I was much more excited about re-creating with real objects.
The music was carefully crafted by my amazing friends at World Gang - music.world-gang.com
The abstract storyline showcased in this piece is a concoction of a variety of ideas and can perhaps be described as a union between concepts and experiments born during the Situationist movement and real life events experienced during the last few years in American society. Particularly the duality between the economic downturn and the shift in values and beliefs of many citizens.
A few frames still remain for purchase here: etsy.com/listing/166690806/randomly-selected-one-of-a-kind-laser
If you decide to purchase one of these frames, please note that I will randomly select one of them. Please, do not request a particular frame.
* The credits at the end are for sale.
Mr. World @franciscojep #latepost (at Bali, Indonesia)
We meet different people in every part of the world because you need them and they need you. In every success and failure in life, it was learned from others’ own experiences. Our weakness will be strengthened; we can adapt one’s persona and suddenly our character can be changed then. We can learn to be independent, learn to take risks, be more sensitive to others, lower our pride, control our temper, to be more devoted and matured spiritually, to love and be loved, learned to be professional at work, to be punctual, to have a word of honor which gain integrity to others. We become more competent because we admire their attitudes, personalities and expertise.
People come and go. Certainly, some people cannot stay longer in our lives. They just have to be part of us because of the purpose. Although some of them hurt our feelings but they taught us to grow further and discover our whole being. It’s for you to be thankful or regret that you met them. Just keep in mind that for every person we met there was a new learning.
