Comments for The Mocking Eye

Comment on Feynman on Science and Religion by mikek

mikek — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:49:51 +0000

If you are interested in reading more about your first point, I highly recommend What Makes A Terrorist by economist Alan Krueger. This is a small paperback that mostly consists of data and regression. Comes to the conclusion that it’s mostly religion.

Comment on Feynman on Science and Religion by Vlad

Vlad — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:32:01 +0000

Recently there was research claiming that terrorism was not actually driven by a political agenda. Similarly, studies such as Milgram’s obedience experiments clearly show that no moral theorizing will stand up to good, old fashioned authority.

I had a book called Religion Explained by Pascal Boyer, which I unfortunately didn’t finish, which had a very… mechanistic approach to religion. If I recall correctly, he claimed that religion was a side-effect of the way our psychology evolved. He didn’t precondition religion on any metaphysics at all. Finally, as I understand it, anthropologists look at religion as a social system first, and a belief system only much later.

Yes, logically speaking, it makes no sense to be a religious nonbeliever; but remember that folks seldom reason logically. Logical arguments will not tip the scales either way - social forces will.

Comment on Douglas Engelbart - Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework by Buddy Smith

Buddy Smith — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:32:59 +0000

The new book “The Engelbart Hypothesis: Dialgos with Douglas Engelbart” by Valerie Landau and Eileen Clegg in conversation with Douglas Engelbart does a great job at laying out the Philosophy Behind Doug Engelbart’s Technology Inventions for Raising Collective IQ.”

Comment on unisteg.py — Hiding text in text using unicode by Kristian Erik Hermansen

Kristian Erik Hermansen — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:32:44 +0000

Dude, I need to show you my CeRuLiF code, which is very similar and I wrote a few years ago

Comment on unisteg.py — Hiding text in text using unicode by Interesting Information Security Bits for 12/29/2008 at Infosec Ramblings

Interesting Information Security Bits for 12/29/2008 at Infosec Ramblings — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:25:30 +0000

[…] things in plain sight. The Mocking Eye / unisteg.py — Hiding text in text using unicode Tags: ( unicode stegonography […]

Comment on Exploring the Exocortex by Boris

Boris — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:52:55 +0000

So it seems that at least three aspects are not clear for me.
First, if my solution differs from yours what solution your system will choose (especially if we both came to the same result by different ways)? BTW, what’s your solution to the presented example?
Second, how we will enter our respective approaches into the system?
And the last (but obviously not least), when one fries French toasts, how the system will correct him/her on the way?

Comment on Exploring the Exocortex by mikek

mikek — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:40:13 +0000

The system isn’t meant to infer new modus operandi. rather, it selects the best of what you’ve done. it essentially optimizes the task of “learning from your mistakes”. With a formalized way to define goals, you could also learn from other peoples’ mistakes. That is, if you can define “make french toast” formally, you can share strategies over the network.

So, your problem definition isn’t valid within the context of my proposal. Once a human solves the problem you described, the system would recognize when you are deviating from it, and let you know “oh, whoops, you’re not doing it the good way!”.

Comment on Exploring the Exocortex by Boris

Boris — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:54:57 +0000

I will believe that your system really can optimize strategies if it could resolve the following problem without having a specific algorithm for this kind of problems.
Here is the problem?s context.
You?re making French toasts and the recipe calls to fry each toast on a skillet exactly one minute on each side. Your skillet has room for two toasts only. The question is: ?What?s the minimal time needed to serve five toasts??

Comment on Science Fiction — Narratives That Let Us Grow by Ben

Ben — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 03:28:55 +0000

Thus why Blade Runner is such an awesome movie, especially for the time it was made. Also there are a handful of SF animes that are pretty intelligent(, and a truckfull of them that are not).

Comment on Science Fiction — Narratives That Let Us Grow by Dominique

Dominique — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:55:13 +0000

Didn’t you have this conversation with me a long time ago? I’m glad you wrote it down though, and now I totally get what you mean! I think I’m starting to miss studying Lit… though I never covered SF at Brandeis.

Comment on The Shahadah (Islamic Declaration of Faith) in Python by Nodalities » Blog Archive » This Week’s Semantic Web

Nodalities » Blog Archive » This Week’s Semantic Web — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:58:40 +0000

[…] The Shahadah (Islamic Declaration of Faith) in Python […]

Comment on Introducing Gargoyle POI Server by Nodalities » Blog Archive » This Week’s Semantic Web

Nodalities » Blog Archive » This Week’s Semantic Web — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:52:50 +0000

[…] Introducing Gargoyle POI Server [GPS Point of Interest] […]

Comment on Political Spectrum Through Fiscal Preference by David Stemmer

David Stemmer — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:56:53 +0000

It might be true in American politics that fiscal priority is the best indicator of party inclination, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case in a global sense. In particular I wonder if it can be applied to systems of proportional representation, where there are lots of smaller parties that are more internally homogenous. In these systems, there sometimes emerge “single-issue” parties which might not have opinions about fiscal priorities at all — they just want to apply pressure to a particular issue, such as, say, abortion rights. These represent, of course, single-issue voters, who still exist in a plurality system like the US even if they are not represented directly.

So I guess my point is, “what are your spending priorities” is not always an accurate way to distill somebody’s political opinions. Some are apathetic on the issue, some don’t understand enough to have an opinion, and others simply think that the government can decide better than they can where to put their tax dollars.

Comment on Fractals, Strawberry DNA, and Making Bento by The Mocking Eye / DIYBio

The Mocking Eye / DIYBio — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:18:21 +0000

[…] The meeting was hosted at BetaHouse this time rather than the less experiment friendly Asgard “irish” pub. I got there early, but soon enough other diybionauts — there is no consensus yet around nomenclature, though biohacker seems to hold most sway — began to filter in. We started by chatting and discussing the proposed activity: the good old party trick of extracting DNA from various things (I posted a very similar protocol in this blog before). […]

Comment on “next to of course god america i by Dominique

Dominique — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:58:38 +0000

did you post this from my book when you were reading it in my room? I don’t remember exactly…

Comment on Introducing Gargoyle POI Server by The Mocking Eye / Gargoyle Roadmap

The Mocking Eye / Gargoyle Roadmap — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:42:59 +0000

[…] Gargoyle POI Server (GPS) […]

Comment on Moving Gargoyle to CouchDB by Noah Slater

Noah Slater — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:42:49 +0000

Hey, this is great news! Welcome!

Please be sure to add your application to the wiki:

http://wiki.apache.org/couchdb/InTheWild

Comment on Introducing Gargoyle - The Geospatial Web in Your Pocket by The Mocking Eye / Progress on Gargoyle

The Mocking Eye / Progress on Gargoyle — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 05:03:21 +0000

[…] Remember Gargoyle? […]

Comment on What the Roads Can Teach Us by Mike K

Mike K — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:09:29 +0000

I completly agree. Shared spaces can only work when you introduce that piece of regulation into the mix. But unlike the standard set of road rules which specifies mostly what you can do and how you can do it. The regulation required by Shared Spaces on the other hand places a minimal restriction on personal behavior and freedom.

I was attacking the idea that a complex and intricate set of laws devised by a technocrat is usually a more optimal safety solution than a more compact set of rules.

A legal system and recourse to it are essential to a healthy society, but as with shared spaces the laws don’t have to be quite so overt and intrusive. One can lay a foundation where the well-being of others is important and limit other activities minimally, and go from there. In cases where that isn’t working of course increased intervetion would be in order.

Comment on What the Roads Can Teach Us by Alexander McLeay

Alexander McLeay — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:26:33 +0000

Mike, I don’t think your conclusion is at all right. Shared space relies on external authority and regulation to effectively work. The road rules still apply; as far as I am aware it is still illegal to drive a car into another road user in these areas.

Risk-reducing devices seem to actually increase risks, yes, but regulation and control are still necessary on the road and in everyday life.