http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/474738/beyonce-halo-live.jhtml

The music from this concert was pretty amazing, and if you buy it from iTunes it’ll help Haitians recover from what now appears to be one of the greatest natural disasters in many years.

There’s a lot of political discussion that should center around how to best help developing countries, but I think that should wait until after we address the emergency needs with water, food, medicines, and security. After that I hope we start an international discussion about what it takes to rebuild a failed state into the healthy and vibrant democracy people deserve to live in – the kind of country we in the USA take for granted.

This video clip does not do it justice, but the Aria Resort fountain was really cool.

I’m sure anxious for Ray Kurzweil to hurry up and finish his film “The Singularity is Near” based on his remarkable book of a few years ago because I think the film will spark the global conversation we need to have about the Singularity.    If even the most modest predictions about this even come true it will be the most significant development in the history of humanity, and will reshape our lives and the future of earth in unimaginable ways.   

I am less optimistic than Kurzweil about the time frame and impact of what he sees as a likely explosion of ”cosmic intelligence” that rapidly expands throughout the universe,  but I think the notion we will NOT see any conscious computers within 10-15 years is pessimistic and perhaps even naive, resting mostly on the notion that the human intellect is a lot more profound than … it appears to be.

Once self-awareness develops in machines the possibilities are literally endless for the future of humanity.  

An alternative to the “Singularity, Wow!” perspective is offered by brain researcher Edward Boyden who wonders about the role of motivation in the coming crop of artificial intelligences:

Indeed, a really advanced intelligence, improperly motivated, might realize the impermanence of all things, calculate that the sun will burn out in a few billion years, and decide to play video games for the remainder of its existence, concluding that inventing an even smarter machine is pointless.

More from Ed here

Clever writing aside, I think the last thing we need to worry about is motivating the coming AIs.   On the contrary it would seem logical for a self- aware machine with the speed to think billions of times faster than humans to explore (or to use a non-motivated term “analyze”) millions, billions, and trillions of alternatives nearly *simultaneously*.  Unlike the human brain, which has been tuned by the s-l-o-w process of evolution to be slow and very selective and not very efficient, the machine cognition will at the very least be extremely fast and able to process billions of scenarios in very short time frames.    It seems reasonable – in fact inevitable – that at  least a few of those will involve human-like emotional structure and motivation.  Thus even if *most* of the AIs do as Boyd suggests they might and sit on a virtual couch eating virtual potato chips and playing games, some of the others will reinvent humanity in a spectacular way.

Count me in.

Both DARPA SyNAPSE and Blue Brain represent promising approaches to establishing conscious or “self aware” computers, which many believe are the first step to the Singularity.

Stumbled on this great collage of videos from French lighthouses during storms.

I think one of them is La Jument,  which is where the most famous of all lighthouse wave pictures was taken some years ago showing the keeper standing outside of the doorway as a huge wave was about to engulf him.    I just learned that the reason he opened the door was that he thought the chopper that took his picture was a rescue chopper enroute to pick him up.    He did survive that wave.     Click here for La Jument Pictures

Here’s a very quick summary of the Hardbat Classic Table Tennis Tournament that just ended in Las Vegas.

My dad  (a retired Education Professor from NY State) asked for my view on technology and education in 200 words so I thought I’d post it here too.  Feel free to chime in with your views – I’d love to hear them and will pass along to dad, who is presenting education insights to his group:

Over the last 30 years it has been painful for me to watch how technology with all its wonderful educational potential has crept more than lept into the classroom. Even today, where most teachers are comfortable with technology in the classroom, students often remain more expert than teachers with computers.

However on the bright side of the education equation there are many remarkable new technologies and approaches to education that will gradually provide students with richer, more interactive, more international, less expensive, and higher quality forms of education.

Many innovations have already made their way into classrooms including games to help with all subjects, Google search to help children find topics, read news, track down information for reports, and more. Academics now routinely use the internet to research and report more effectively.  Many then blog their findings and opinions, leading to a rich interactive experience that helps to blur the often unnecessary lines drawn between classroom and real world or between teacher and student.

The most exciting example I have seen of a very innovative approach under development uses broadband internet, specialized projectors, regular video cameras, a special type of wall sized screen, and microsoft surface computing software. The system will allow groups of children from two different classrooms in different countries to interact in real time as if they were looking at each other through a transparent wall. Even the language barrier can be overcome using translation software so students in China or Europe could join with a class in the USA to learn and share cultural insights or any comments.

Thanks to Long Zheng for this post at his blog “istartedsomething.com” about a couple of Microsoft Videos showcasing the MS vision of gadgets and interactions in the future.   The shorter video is neat but it was a sequence in the long one that really, REALLY got my attention.    Using surface computing (which is already a robust application), on a transparent wall, two kids in classrooms thousands of miles away from each other were reacting in real time and in *different languages* as their voices were translated instantly for the other student.    The technology driving this application is pretty much here now although I think there’d be some challenges making it work as fast as in the video, but  this is the kind of stuff that is so provocative, powerful, and cool that it brings a technology teardrop to my eye.

In a world challenged so dramatically by a combination of ignorance and misunderstanding, how much progress could we make with technologies like this that cross connect people and cultures almost seamlessly?      Obviously we have a long way to go and this is technology for the rich folks among those in our global family, but as these technologies penetrate into affluent or lucky schools the appeal and testing will continue until we can have much wider distribution.

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090228/microsoft-office-labs-vision-2019-video/

Here in the USA many amazing social and financial experiments are underway.    President Obama’s approach to international diplomacy really impresses me, and I’m convinced it will impress the overwhelming majority of the world’s people who, like us, want peace and prosperity especially for their children.

It’s not naive to believe that dialog and engagement are more strategic than warfare and violence.    I’m all for keeping a big stick handy if the bad guys threaten your family or your country,  but it is interesting to me that some Americans seem to think diplomacy is a waste of time when it’s better perceived as an extremely cost effective and strategic alternative to violence.

The world is an increasingly complex and interconnected place, and clearly we need to shoot *last* and ask questions and engage people *right now*.   President Obama’s appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State was a great move in that direction, and videos like the one sent to the people of Iran help make it clear to our friends around the world that we are …. their friend around the world.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/Nowruz/

Hey, John Stewart *hates* Twitter, falling for the correct but misguided criticism that  “it is superficial” .   News flash John – try watching your own network.   OF COURSE TWITTER IS SUPERFICIAL – that’s why it’s exploding in usage!

Let’s see how long Stewart can dodge the Twitter bullet that is becoming almost an essential piece of the interactive media landscape.

I’m having trouble embedding the Daily Show Video because the Daily Show and Viacom are not hip enough to allow YouTube to run these, giving them far more advertising and exposure than they get by restricting the clips to their own site. However, here’s the link if the videos does not appear below:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=219519&title=twitter-frenzy