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Saturday, Mar 14, 2015 - 22:34 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

A World In One

Research's rolling on a little too slowly for my tastes, but I suppose it can't be helped. Still, I'd suspect that, especially in a production environment, having a lot of compute resources could speed things up by a ton. Need to grid search two parameters with fifty possibilities each, each combination of which takes about ten minutes? No problem, just wait for a couple of weeks... or if you've access to a large enough cluster, just map it out, have a cup of coffee, and you're done.

Well, at least there's plenty to read through, while waiting - to begin with, a new AMA by Schmidhuber, where I learnt that his motivation for getting into artificial intelligence was to... create a scientist superior to himself, and let it do the heavy lifting (of course, this naturally suggests a feedback loop whereby super A.I. invents even-better-A.I. and so on, i.e. Vinge's Singularity). Also, he's with Einstein on the dice (not sure about how certain special irrational constants being of low complexity ties into the universe being deterministic, though)

I dunno, I'm still not nearly as optimistic on his "general intelligence will be simple in hindsight" stand, but it's good to be hopeful, or we'd never take long shots. Then again, for now, simple can be very useful, and heavily-tuned solutions might not be quite worth the trouble in actual deployment.

Doing my usual smartphone browsing while waiting for the bus, I got wind of a Gladiator-style parang duel here, and a student who beat up foreign workers for fun. Just as well that the local mixed martial arts scene is expanding. Hmm, it seems that another of Malaysia's funds has come under fire, with their CPF-equivalent slammed for not providing 80% of their retirees with payouts sufficient to keep them above the poverty line (RM830, about half the median salary of RM1500)

It was then that I realized the foresight of our incumbent administrators, who have ensured that such an embarassment could never happen here... by declining to set a poverty line in the first place. So what if even having the full Minimum Basic Retirement Sum (which, recall, less than half manage) would supply a monthy payout less than a quarter of our median salary? Money can't buy you such wisdom, so it seems.

As it is, one of our loudest CPF critics is making the rounds of Europe, and has just gotten airtime on French radio. Finalement grandi quelques balles happened, after all. While I can understand how some don't like what they regard as airing of dirty laundry overseas, I don't see how continuing to insist on putting up a front will help much either.

Hearing a large vehicle pull up, I raised my head... well, I knew our public transport was in need of some work, but I hadn't thought that it had gotten this bad.


Howdy, neigh-bour!


Mr. Ham: Speciest as always, human.

Me: Ah, I was just wondering where you had disappeared to.

Mr. Ham: *lights cigar* Unlike you, human, I have this thing called "a life". You should have a go at it sometime.

Me: I do have obligations, you know, unlike a certain ne'er do well hamster - and, wait, are you even alive-alive?

Mr. Ham: It's... complicated. There are... implications. For example, the not paying of taxes is an attractive inducement for my ambiguous mortality status.

Me: *mutters* Not that you ever bothered.

Mr. Ham: Excuse me?

Me: Nothing.

Horse: Ey, fancy meeting you here, guvnor! Dropping by the races tommorow afternoon? It's all set up right and ready, like you ordered - homeboy here's gonna pull up lame on the second lap, and Ol' Jeb will take over at thirty to one to place. Sweet n' easy, all like. We've booked the usual seats at the Drum and Barrel to hang loose after the job, yeah?

Me: *ahem*

Mr. Ham: *pulling hat over face* Wrong fella, you gotta wrong fella, my friend.

Horse: Sure? You look like Towkay Ham to me. But my eyesight's not what it was, to be sure. Pardon me, then.

*bus moves off*

Me: I think you have got some explaining to do.

Mr. Ham: Strangers nowadays, so forward. I mean, do you know that horse? Because I certainly don't. And as I was saying, before he so rudely and randomly interrupted - "dead" is more a state of mind than anything. You know that canned line: "you're only as old as you think you are"? Guess what it happens to also apply to?


(Source: pinterest.com)


Me: Can't argue with that. Still, it was sudden. First Spock, then now Terry Pratchett. It was just a few days ago that I was saddened by Maurice consuming Additives - it's kinda strange what leaves an impression, given that there're worse real-life atrocities happening every day.

Mr. Ham: He was a cat, what did you expect?

Me: Uh, about the speciest thing...

Mr. Ham: *firmly* Cats are an exception, human. You can never trust one. Cruel, heartless scum. By the way, I've just come up with a theory as to why female humans stereotypically prefer cats as pets, while males prefer dogs.

Those blasted cats are independent, approach on their own terms, do nothing to order, and dole out scant and intermittant affection - in other words, they behave like classical Byronic brooding alpha males. Dogs on the other hand are loyal to a fault, unflinchingly supportive, always eager to see you, and very obedient - which happen to be old-fashioned wifely traits.

Me: It does make a certain sense... not that I can officially agree or anything, you understand.

Mr. Ham: It's alright, it's not like you're against animals talking or anything, unlike some people I'd rather not mention. Anyway, you needn't feel bad about Additives, he's ok. *puffs on cigar* Frickin' felines lucked themselves into a Heaviside Layer, but we've got our own scythe-wielding representative. Suck it, cats!

But yeah, the Pratchett guy got it - reality is very subjective, a huge load of what you think you know is just made up. Too often, you lot ask why... when it should be, why not?

Me: Yeah, I can't be the only one who maintains his own realms. And on the not knowing part, Neil Gaiman described Pratchett as hardly jolly - which one could have easily expected, with his books bursting with non-stop humour - but angry. Moreover, it was admitted by the man himself; his comedy was driven by fury. I knew it had its uses, especially when the alternative is to sink into an idle morass.

Mr. Ham: Fellow deserves his tributes. And would you look at the time, gotta make a move here. Oh, I know you're not one for tips, but perhaps you might want to put something on Sneaky Runner pulling an upset in Sunday's one-twenty sprint - it could be worth your while. *winks*



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