Foundations
Brick & Mortar, Wood & Windows
Flow
I’ve been compelled by a particular process of building (programming).
My AI Pond detector has consumed the majority of my excess bandwidth, I can hardly think of anything else, I enjoy the grind, I like thinking about how to optimize the detection improvement loops and testing them against one another.
As I get hour after hour deeper into optimization, iteration, and classification. I’m beginning to question the foundations and plan which I originally set to follow. “Build a great detector, use it to log the animal sightings and then use that data through AI to be able to ask broad questions about the data.”
I would ask questions like:
When do the raccoons usually visit?
How many times a day does a cat cross the pond? Which direction do the cats usually go? Is it the same route each day?
How long do the animals linger? Where do they linger most? I have code which I could use to generate a heatmap for each animal category.
How long does the dog lay in the sun before he gets too hot?
How many squirrels visit per day? When was the first squirrel sighted this year? When did we see the first birds? When did we see the first Racoons?
These are all questions which AI could answer if integrated with the right set of interconnected data layers. Skynet(WOPR) is coming online bit by bit, making it possible to ask & answer wide time horizon questions like I’ve proposed.
Project Goal
I surmised that kind of questioning and insight could be valuable if applied to retail stores in particular. Where do people stop and look most, how many people enter and exit, how many visit which product stands? When are the rush hours? Combined with many other data points available to retail, this “big data” could provide amazing insight into big and small businesses alike. (This is already applied to the Black Mirror you’re holding)
Of course, they already do some analysis like this, but this will become Realtime store floor sales optimization given enough time and energy.
Even if it wasn’t super valuable to know how many people walked up my street and down my street, how many cars went up and down, how many dogs were walked, how many bikes or motorcycles? These questions will soon be answerable regardless of our participation. Even if we don’t care to know the answers, big data already knows and owns more about you and I than we probably do. Our data will train someone’s AI if it hasn’t already.
This was the foundation I used as motivation to embark on this journey of learning. I had my foundational project and imbued it with enough energy to breakthrough the various barriers of complexity.
Journey, Exploration, Discovery
I’ve made many journeys like this one, all built similarly but each improved from the previous lessons. Psychology, Dreams, Chemistry, Physics, Nanotech, Electricity, Business.
My Solar Powered Pond project enabled a lot of similar learning. It was based in an attempt to beat the cost of the grid in a constrained timeframe. Despite its failed primary objective, that journey revealed deeper truth and reality behind electrical energy and power delivery.
Thorium & Fission enable the most viable and inevitable energy future. We already developed the technology to power humanity and life itself for millions of years, it’s just been shelved by fear and bureaucracy.
My journey of learning and problem solving to achieve the POND AI project goal has revealed a few realities and truths which I feel compelled to share with you.
Digital Intelligence?
“AI” is poised to be an internet scale revolution, siloed in the cloud as a moat, your data harvested for profit. Mirroring practices of today’s media platforms, that serve their own interests and shareholders. (Advertisers)
The real value the media companies hold is their network of people (active users). Who talks to who, where, about what, and for how long? Can they hold your attention? We live in an age where attention & data are the new oil & gold.
Your time & attention is your most precious resource, and we’re being mined for data by the media companies who hook us.
AI passed the Turing test long ago, but we humans have an insatiable hunger, and we are great at moving goalposts. We have to know where to aim next! The upcoming challenge for AI will be to solve fundamental physics problems, such as unifying the four forces of nature.
I’m not particularly sure if this counts as intelligence but the Large Language Models are already more capable of answering all kinds of questions better than most people including myself. Which is an endless source of novelty itself.
Prediction: Apple will be revealing their local “LLM” AI device models this year. (Hopefully Siri Improves, until then: heydata.org) We already have a dozen AI features running under the hood. That’s what “Apple Silicon” is all about.
Intelligence Amplifier
A more intriguing notion dubbed: Intelligence Amplifier made popular by Brian Roemmele (The Last Interface) is a much more compelling potential future enabled by what is called AI today.
The term: Artificial Intelligence has deep assumptions built within its linguistic structure, that it has its own agency, and its own directives. Thus far, the evidence does not support the idea that agency can emerge without being physically embodied.
The Intelligence Amplifier on the other hand, is a concept which empowers individuals to make more of themselves than anyone ever thought possible. I encourage you to view these new software technologies becoming available as Intelligence Amplifiers (amplifies the good and bad ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).
You’re capable of so much! Sometimes there isn’t anyone around to hear you, or to bounce ideas off of, but with an Intelligence Amplifier, you can learn, discover, create, and explore more in 30 seconds than you could in hours at the library! (but you should still go to the library for specialized knowledge)
Asking questions is the foundation of the American Can Do Ethos. I believe that with the help of my local IA I will be able to design and test all manner of reactor core designs in simulations until a near fully formed product can be built. A sub 1k$ gaming GPU has enough compute to run many high-quality simulations and models. TinyBox.org offers a near consumer level of compute & dev software. Nvidia makes the cloud hardware that powers AI. Tesla builds their own hardware and software into every car they make.
SuperNormal Stimuli
If your data goes to the cloud, it goes into the pockets of those who own that infrastructure. If the data never leaves your device, you own it. Similarly, it’s in our interest to hold onto our data, preferences, likes, and habits.
Your computer is a mess! (so are mine) but if you had an assistant, you might re-discover that Research paper you saved, or those pictures you buried deep in folders, you could finally re-organize your notes, so the important ones were on top!
Asking documents questions is a particularly interesting idea to me. A concept called RAG(Retrevial Augmented Generation) maps the connections of words to other words and then brings paragraphs of relevant text into the context window of the LLM for when it generates responses.
I think this would be interesting to implement for 2000 page omnibus spending bills congress drops at 2am (“to pass it so we can find out what’s in it” -Pelosi) Lawyers are discovering and utilizing this so what happens when AI generated Law becomes ratified?
Transition to Open Source and Local AI Models
Very soon the models will be operating computers using the mouse and keyboard GUI just like you, but if your model stays on your computer and works when the Wi-Fi is unplugged, you own it. Let me know if you want to learn how to run local AI.
Local Innovation, Global Vision
While the immediate goal is to streamline the monitoring of pond wildlife, run local LLMs, and make content to teach you how to do it too, these projects tie into an even broader vision.
How does a {Mother}{Father}{Son}{Daughter} playing the longest lasting family game act?
This week, my aim is to supply you with software and technologies that can help you accelerate towards your goals or to help you develop your goals in the first place.
My personal goals include contributing to the mass manufacturing of Thorium molten salt reactors as the primary power source for human prosperity and interstellar travel.
Thorium-based reactors are a clean, long term energy source. This ambitious goal requires mastery of automation, a deep understanding of integrated technologies, human cooperation, and strong transferable spirit.
Bricks & Mortar, Wood & Windows
These Foundations are critical to long term success; baseline values will help steady you during the seasonal storms on the ocean of life.
Projects are like Bricks,
Lessons like Mortar,
Habits are like Wood,
Dreams are like Windows.
Projects are like Bricks: Each project you undertake is a building block that contributes to the structure of your career or personal life. Each one adds strength and substance, shaping the reality of your ambitions.
Lessons like Mortar: Lessons learned from experiences, both successes and failures, act as the mortar. They fill the gaps between projects (bricks), providing cohesion and stability, ensuring that the lessons learned from one project help support the next.
Habits are like Wood: Habits form the supporting framework or the beams of your life’s structure. Good habits help to support and uphold your daily activities, reinforcing your projects and lessons, while bad habits can detract from the integrity of your achievements.
Dreams are like Windows: Dreams offer a view to possibilities and the world beyond your current state. They provide light and perspective, motivating and inspiring you to reach beyond the immediate structure of your daily life to what could be achieved.
Type, Talk, or Tap:
Everything on Your Mind:
List out all the things currently occupying your thoughts, both big and small. This could include immediate tasks, ongoing projects, worries, or even fleeting ideas and aspirations.
The Problems in Your Life:
Write down the challenges you are facing. These might be related to your personal life, work, health, relationships, or finances. Try to be specific about what these problems are and how they affect you.
Where You Will End Up If You Don't Solve Them:
Reflect on the possible consequences of not addressing these problems. How might your life be impacted in the short term and in the long term? Consider different areas such as your career, personal happiness, health, and relationships.
If You Don't Change, How Will Your Life Look?
Imagine a future where you haven’t made any changes to address the problems you listed. What does this future look like? How does it compare to where you want to be?
Last but not least, I have a request for those of you wise enough to see its value: Please record your wisdom and experience somewhere for your kids, grandkids, nephews or loved ones, your personal wisdom.
SaveWisdom.org
Start right now, use your phone, “Hey Siri, start a voice recording”
Answer the questions I posed above, then the ones on the website. No need to do it all at once, but we will remember you for it…