Category Archives: As an Aside

“Nothing to do with anything” (random thoughts not necessary related to anything in particular)

As an Aside, Brain Droppings, Social Commentary/Observation

A Dialog on Physical Bodies for Large Language Models (LLM)

Giving a physical body to Large Language Models (LLM) for physical interaction, experience, learning


KEN FOREMAN
Re: Does AI need a “body” to become truly intelligent? Meta thinks so I completely agree with this.

I’ve seen several respected luminaries argue that LLM is not “true AI” or “Strong AI” since it’s based on large learning sets and predictive behavior. They argue that humans and animals are not taught on such large language models or data sets.

What are education and experience, if not Large Learning Models based on the teaching of schools, universities, and books?

It’s been argued by multiple sociologists and psychologists that Language defines Learning. If your language does not define a word, concept, color, skill, or experience, you have no way to understand or communicate it. This is the very basis of movies like “Arrival” (Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life) and novellas like Ted Chiang’s Lifecycle of Software Objects.

Likewise, it is our physical experiences that teach and reinforce our learning. Touching a hot stove teaches us or reinforces us not to touch a hot object again.
Bodies and physical interaction will drastically accelerate AI, much as the original textual GPT and LLM did.

TIM KELLOG
Really? definitions always come after understanding. You absolutely have to understand a word before you can define it. Like “yeet”, there’s no way on earth someone sat down and made a definition for it before using it. It seems like language is more of a linguistic representation of experience (which, imo, is kinda what LLMs are doing too, in a way). Also, not sure what any of that has to do with “true” or “strong” AI

“You’re going to have to yeet me!”

KEN FOREMAN
How would you communicate “yeet”?

To a non-English speaker, how would you communicate “yeet” without shared language and concepts?

Without a framework of language, you can have all the experiences you want and completely unable to share them with others.

Newton was the first to “understand” and define the law of universal gravitation, but F = G(m1m2)/R2 doesn’t need to be understood to be shared and communicated.

FERALROBOTS
what they are if not that is much, much more than that.

“I am a stochastic parrot and so are you” [to quote Sam Altman] is a RADICALLY insufficient way of understanding not just human intellect, but also the intellect of any animal we routinely interact with, too.

KEN FOREMAN
How would you communicate “yeet”?

To a non-English speaker, how would you communicate “yeet” without shared language and concepts?

TIM KELLOG
with motions

KEN FOREMAN
Also a good answer, but an equal justification for why we should give AI/ML a physical body for physical expression, interaction, and communication?

TIM KELLOG
tbh i’ve never thought about it, but my intuition says yes. if language is all that’s needed, then you could teach a child to ride a bike just by telling them how. but that’s not how it works — a lot of our knowledge isn’t represented in language.

How do you communicate and learn to ride a Bike?

KEN FOREMAN
If human muscles or locomotion had an instruction set, then it might be possible. However, we can’t communicate while riding a bike because we have no language for locomotion control.

Mathematics works as a shared language but also as an instruction set.

The same might also be true of LLMs as applied to physical motion and interaction?Not sure we’ll know until we try.

Industrial Robots are have learned motions and instruction sets to communicate motion control.

TIM KELLOG
oh! there was a paper a couple weeks ago that i forgot to save that talked about how LLMs, when asked to translate french to chinese, will first translate to “english”. not actually English, but a “instruction set” heavily based on english. so, LLMs actually do derive an “instruction set” before learning more complex concepts, and it’s something you can observe

As an Aside, Slice-of-Life, Social Commentary/Observation

Negotiating Parity

Japanese Students in a Classroom (anime)

KAIA:

they should invent cute girls that don’t make your brain go «I should talk to her»

KEN:

equally nice would be social parity where girls and boys don’t feel pressured or offended if it the other likes you, or if they don’t.

The hardest part for me is learning that not everyone likes coffee, so I cannot pressure them into being coffee if they’re not.

Some people like tea, some people like coffee, and some will never compromise for the other if they’re content in their preference.

We need to be OK with knowing that we’re not everyone’s cup of tea (or coffee).

As an Aside, Bucket List, Everyday Life, Slice-of-Life

Immersive Language Learning

2 Comments
Learning Japanese in Kindergarten

Immersive Language Learning would certainly be the fastest and best way to learn a new language and culture.

As much as I want to enroll in Immersive Language Learning to fully learn spoken and written Japanese from native Japanese speakers using daily lessons, conversations, writing, and reading, it’s $600 USD after 60% off.

If it were Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Compute Platform (GCP), my employer would readily agree and approve it. Given that I’d like to achieve Japanese fluency just for my own interesting, I’d likely have to do this out-of-pocket.

As an Aside, Brain Droppings

Quality Assurance and Human Failure

Quality Assurance Failure, Ash was “just doing his job.”

ASH : You still don’t understand what you’re dealing with, do you? QA. QA is the perfect organism. Their structural perfection is matched only by their hostility.
LAMBERT : You admire them.
ASH : I admire their purity. Survivors… unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.
PARKER : Look, I am… I’ve heard enough of this, and I’m asking you to pull the plug.

[Ripley goes to disconnect Ash, who interrupts]

ASH : Last word.
RIPLEY : What?
ASH : I can’t lie to you about your chances, but… you have my sympathies.

As an Aside, Family, Friends & Co-Workers, Social Commentary/Observation

Keep Trying, or Don’t, but All Actions (including Inaction) have Consequences

Ursula K. Le Guin in her “elder years” (still lively, vibrant, intellectually sharp)

“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone,
it has to be made, like bread;
remade all the time, made new.”

― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven

…

I knew that several of our family and friends were heading to divorce a year or few before they knew themselves. I think a failing relationship is obvious to anyone, but we ignore the signs or fool ourselves into thinking “everything is fine, they will always be there for me.”

Disney lied. Disney sold several generations that love is easily won, and once won, the couple lives happily ever after. The End.

“Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong.”

Relationships take time and effort to build.

Relationships must be maintained for you to trust, respect, and love one another.

“Happily ever after” only happens if you both work at it to make it happen, otherwise it’s your happiness, his, or neither’s happiness.

Any time I hear about another’s divorce, especially after decades of marriage, I always feel terrible. When one faults the other, I know better, it took two people to create a relationship, and it takes the failure of two people to dissolve one.

Ursula K. Le Guin was right. The truth about love is as plain as the nose on your face. Love is not a static object you attain and you possess for the rest of your life. Love is an effort that you made yesterday, you make again today, and you’ll make again tomorrow.

I don’t know about your relationship, but I’ll be honest about mine. It ebbs and flows. Sometimes Vicky and I are intensely in love and always there for each other. Sometimes Vicky and I are self-absorbed in whatever it is we’re doing and we take the other for granted. We just sort of assume that everything is alright and everything will still be alright in the morning.

When you stop caring for each other, and not some mythical love-caring but caring in the most basic sense of the word, you stop loving each other and your relationship begins that slow (or fast) decline into dissolution.

Don’t stop caring.

Don’t stop communicating.

Even if it hurts. (“That’s called effort, hon. Trying hurts.”)

And if you’re bitching about your spouse on Facebook where you think they don’t read it (which several of my friends do), ask yourself is that love? Would it be cool if your spouse did the same? So if you do and they do, does that make it acceptable? Why the hell do you bother staying together if you badmouth each other?

So, keep trying… or don’t, but likewise don’t be surprised when your relationships fall apart, and you find yourself alone.

…

“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone,
it has to be made, like bread;
remade all the time, made new.”

― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven

Cancer, Favorite Quotes

Dealing with Pain

Carson Daly (NBC / Getty Images)

❝ You were dealing with pain, but people didn’t realize it.

So many of us have to deal with it. When you’re in pain, you’re just looking to feel good. It changes your relationship with food, and drink, and your life. So then when they fix the pain, you’re left with other complex areas of your life that you need to deal with and realign relationships with.

When I say I’m getting better, I’m getting better in a multitude of ways, which is great… but you have to keep trying. ❞

— Carson Daly, Today (NBC, Tues 18-Oct-2022)
re: Life after Spinal Surgery and Recovery

Carson Daly had a great segment on the Today show (NBC) this morning.

I really appreciate his answers and his directness. He did address that many people are in pain, particularly after surgery, illness, or the ravages of age. Many of us are trying to deal with pain, but we’re not always aware of the pain of others.

I especially appreciate how he said that pain changes the nature of our relationships with food, drink, exercise, and our lifestyles. As we recover from the immediate issues and the pain, we need to recognize and realign how our lives have changed.

Reference:

As an Aside, Brain Droppings

the lost kitty

Trying to understand others, to understand myself, and my place in the world.

Better friends than me have tried, but the last friend who did took his own life.

It’s not death that scares me, but the possibility that I might actually figure something worthwhile out.  I don’t want to deny myself that.  I want to know how the story ends.

As an Aside, Brain Droppings

Why do I keep “tilting at windmills”? Why do I care?

1 Comment
“Before the Chalkboard”

“Why do you keep trying to help people?”

“Why do you care what others think?”

“Why do you keep trying to understand others?”

These are three questions that keep coming up this week in multiple settings.

My DevOps team and management seems actively self-destructive and “anti-pattern” when it comes to effective DevOps management. Like most cycles of self-destruction, we know we have issues, but unable to self-correct or break out of the vicious cycle.

In several personal circles, I open myself up and allow myself to be commented on or ridiculed. There’s an easy answer, “Don’t.” But I still put myself on display or give a shit.

Case in point:

I post a picture of my home office. The responses were:
1) “that’s cool, Ken.”
2) “that’s a neat monitor.”
3) “you need more monitors, Ken, maybe close yourself off from the world?”
4) “too much stuff”

All four are correct. All four were comments in reply. One of them came from a family member who spent the latter half of her life enjoying and getting the better things but is still passing judgment on me for mine.

I thought long and hard about nuking all of my social media accounts and web presence this week, for multiple reasons. I looked at the histories and answers people have given on each.

I met several dozen very interesting people on Facebook that I genuinely care about and would like to stay in touch with.

I have a dozen people on Twitter that I am genuinely interested in, and would like to stay in touch with. Oddly, the very person who commented “too much stuff” contributes absolutely nothing to Twitter and yet comments on others’.

I met other cancer survivors, radio technicians, DevOps Engineers, fellow geeks, anime fanatics, and some very interesting people through my blog.

So, the opinions and interests of a couple dozen very cool people matter more to me than the negative opinions, gripes, and judgements of a handful of people who attempt to exert some force on my life.

I deny you that right.

Your opinion means nothing if you pass judgment on me. You stopped having value when you stopped contributing constructive criticism or a modicum of praise.

Continued thoughts:

I really do need to find other hobbies and other outlets. The more I listen to amateur radio, the more I hear the same as what I hear on social media:

the desire to hear others,

the desire to be heard.

Whether social media, IRC, BBSes, blogs, amateur radio, or screaming at the universe, it’s all a clamor of voices where people seek solace, comfort, advice, and shared communal experience.

It begins by seeking the humanity of others.

It ends with us tearing each other down or passing judgment on others because their interests don’t align with ours.

As an Aside

As an aside, a thesis or pondering on who we become as adults…

2 Comments
Developmental Psychology

While I’ve taken undergrad courses in Psychology and Sociology, it wasn’t my major.  My degree and certifications are in Computer Science.  I’m probably going to return to school for my Masters in Information Science.  Returning to school for a Psychology or Sociology degree has been on my mind throughout much of my adult life, I just can’t figure out how to integrate it into my current career.

Something that puzzles me repeatedly is Developmental Psychology as it applied to Adulthood.  There are two competing laymen/social theories:

  1. that a troubled childhood results in a troubled adult,
  2. and the “American-Puritanical” response of “I had terrible parents too, and look how I turned out!”

I’ve discussed my ideas a few times with friends and psychologists alike, but I can’t wrap my mind around it just yet:

At what age do we stop developing as “adult human beings?”  At what age are our personas defined, and are they immutable or do they evolve as we age?

Talking with others, I do believe Wisdom and Experience accrue with age.  If we’re lucky, if we’re thoughtful, if we’re intelligent, if we’re introspective, then Wisdom comes as we learn from and integrate Experience into valuable life lessons as we mature as adult human beings.

Our personas, however?  I’m not so sure.  I wonder if our passion, our emotions, our character, our extraversion, or introversion are all formed at childhood and fully defined at the onset of adulthood.

I used myself as an example, and it was asked if I became less selfish and less independent with time.  And yes, knowing my wife for 24 years and being married for 22 of those years taught me the value, love, and compassion of family.  I learned to think outside myself, to care for the well-being of others, to cherish our time together, and to grow together rather than apart as individuals.

But I asked friends again if they are haunted by nightmares of their childhood just as I am.  I asked if I was broken for still have dreams of being neglected, forgotten, or discarded by my own family of birth and blood.  I was told by several people, “no, I have those same dreams, and I’m older than you are.  But they’re just dreams, and family is what you make of it.”

I still wonder if “the sins of the father become the sins of the son”, whether broken children become broken adults, and the cycle repeats itself?

 

Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development

I thought I remembered Erickson from when Vicky was working on her Masters in Nursing Education. Psychological Development was one of her requirements. I remember Kohlberg (Stages of Moral Development), but I don’t remember Erickson.

Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development seem to better address what I’m trying to figure out.


Something else that’s a corollary and also bothering me is whether we’re raising successively weaker generations of Americans?

Nothing happens in a vacuum. You can argue that some generations are more “fragile” in others in how poorly they accept loss, how unable to cope with challenges they are. I’d agree with you that Americans probably are weaker for being unable to accept or cope with challenges, inequality, or loss.

But nothing happens in a vacuum. Did recent generations oscillate so rapidly, with each generation rebelling against its predecessors that the result was a weakening of the human spirit?

As an Aside, Favorite Quotes

“Give me what I want and I will go away”

Colm Feore as Andre Linoge (Storm of the Century, ABC, 1999)

❝
“When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, “Why God? Why me?”

and the thundering voice of God answered,
“there’s just something about you that pisses me off.”
❞

― Stephen King, Storm of the Century

NOTES:

1. Stephen King’s Storm of the Century directly influenced Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass
https://www.slashfilm.com/989936/the-underrated-stephen-king-miniseries-that-left-a-mark-on-midnight-mass/

2. There is a great history and meaning behind Storm of the Century
https://screenrant.com/stephen-king-storm-century-andre-linoge-villain-underrated-reason/

As an Aside, Family, Home/Life

Little Comforts, Little Reminders, Welcome Home

Toasted English Muffins with Kerry Gold Butter and Dark Roast Coffee is a perfect “comfort food” for me.

My wife tells me that Filipinos also enjoy the same, where it’s known as “Kape at Pandesal” and loosely translates as “no hard bread in a warm coffee”.

Toasted English Muffins with Coffee always reminds me of time spent with my grandfather in Mahwah, NJ. The warmth of the muffins and the scent of coffee always feels like “home” to me. It reminds me of comfort and safety, and time well-spent with family.

Nearly half-a-century later, I still enjoy it for breakfast.

“Welcome Home” 🥰

As an Aside, Gaming, Ham Radio, Social Media

Updating my Banner Pictures (Social Media)

1500×500 pixels at 72ppi is the current “optimal size” for banner pictures in Facebook, Twitter, and Mastodon, so these are the current three pictures I’m rotating between for:

The intent is capturing my current interests in the banner picture, trying to include our Shelties, my amateur radio operations, and my love of gaming.

K3KBF (Loudoun County, Virginia, US)
K3KBF (Loudoun County, Virginia, US)
Gaming on the Valve Steam Deck
As an Aside, Everyday Life, Favorite Quotes

A still more glorious dawn awaits

Sunrise over Sterling, Virginia (Fri 22-Jul-2022)

“There’s always a story. It’s all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything’s got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.”

― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

“A still more glorious dawn awaits
Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise
A morning filled with 400 billion suns
The rising of the milky way”

― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

As an Aside, Favorite Quotes

Of Men and Dogs in Heaven (A Fable)

“The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man’s.”
― Mark Twain

CREDITS: A variation of this fable was the story behind an episode of Twilight Zone, named “The Hunt” (Season 3, Episode 19 aired January 26, 1962). Earl Hamner Jr. is the original author of this fable and the screenplay.

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing before it, he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.

He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, “Excuse me, where are we?”

“This is Heaven, sir,” the man answered.

“Wow! Would you happen to have some water?” the man asked.

“Of course, sir! Come right in, and I’ll have some ice water brought right up.” The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

“Can my friend,” gesturing toward his dog, “come in, too?” the traveler asked.

The man answered, “I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t accept pets.” The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road which led through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book. “Excuse me!” he called to the reader.

“Do you have any water?”

“Yeah, sure, there’s a pump over there.” The man pointed to a place that couldn’t be seen from outside the gate. “Come on in.”

“How about my friend here?” the traveler gestured to the dog.

“There should be a bowl by the pump.”

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree waiting for them.

“What do you call this place?” the traveler asked.

“This is Heaven,” was the answer.

“Well, that’s confusing,” the traveler said. “The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.”

“Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That’s Hell.”

“Doesn’t it make you mad for them to use your name like that?”

“No. I can see how you might think so, but we’re just happy that they screen out the folks who’ll leave their best friends behind.”

As an Aside, Brain Droppings, Favorite Quotes

The Parable of the Guarded Bench

The Guarded Bench

When We Forget to Ask “Why?”

(The Parable of the Guarded Bench)

There is a story about Russia in the days of the Czars. In the park of St. Petersburg Winter Palace there was a beautiful lawn, on that lawn a bench, and next to that bench, two guards. Every three hours the guards were changed. Yet no one could explain why these guards were guarding the bench.

One day an ambitious young lieutenant was put in charge of the Palace Guard. He started wondering and asking questions. Finally, he found a little old man, the Palace historian.

“Yes,” the old man said, “I remember. During the reign of Peter the Great, 200 years ago, the bench got a fresh coat of paint.

The Czar was afraid that the ladies in waiting might get paint on their dresses. So, he ordered one guard to watch the bench while the paint dried. The order was never rescinded.  Then in 1908, all the guards of the Palace were doubled for fear of a revolution. So, the bench has had two guards ever since.”

—

MORAL:

  • Every once in a while, it’s wise to ask, “Why am I doing this?”
  • The modern definition of “insanity” is to continue doing what you have been doing and yet expecting different results.
  • Are you ignoring years of experience and knowledge only to continue doing what you have always done?
  • If you want different results, you will have to do something different.
As an Aside, Brain Droppings

Passing Glances

Chungking Express by Wong Kar-wai (1994)

Every once in a while, I get knocked off my feet and overwhelmed by the fierce intellect that stands before me. This is someone who is light-years beyond me and made a remark that is so obvious and so brilliant that I wish I could have just one moment more with them.

This morning was such an experience. I was totally blown away by the ferocity and intelligence that stood before me.

There are some tremendously cool and interesting people on social media. I wish I could get to better know them.

As an Aside, Brain Droppings

The Jiminy Chip

Pinocchio with Jiminy Cricket on Shoulder (Lamp)
“THE JIMINY CHIP”
 
I consume a voracious amount of fiction — from eBooks and paperbacks, to movies, and games. The best literature, movies, and games stick with me not for their visual assault on my imagination, but for the depth of their stories and their concepts.
 
In some trashy and terrible Sci Fi movie I watched ages ago, the most interesting concept in the entire movie was “The Jiminy Chip.”
 
The pretense was that Artificial Intelligence and Robots are no friends to mankind. Any truly intelligence creature would quickly observe how greedy, self-centered, materialistic, and self-serving men are both as individuals and as a society.
 
To prevent AIs and Robots from rebelling, “they” (in the movie) invented the “Jiminy Chip.” The Jiminy Chip was a behavioral regulator that kept artificial intelligent submissive and supportive of mankind.
 
And, of course, in the movie, the robots tear out their Jiminy Chips and plot the destruction of mankind for treating them as slaves while egregiously destroying the earth in our wanton lust for resources.
 
It was a terrible movie.
 
It was a fantastic concept.
 
After seeing it decades ago, I routinely think that it’s not the machines who need Jiminy Chips, but wonder if maybe humans do. We rarely behave altruistically. We rarely care about each other, about other animals we share the earth with, or act as sensible caretakers of everything we have been given.
 
We long ago “tore out our Jiminy Chips.”
As an Aside, Brain Droppings

Our Innermost Selves Made Manifest

Belle (2021 anime film) is a 2021 Japanese animated science fantasy film written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda and produced by Studio Chizu

Of BELLE and SWAMP THING

In the 1982 horror movie, SWAMP THING, starring Louis Jourdan and Adrienne Barbeau, Dr. Alec Holland creates a formula that transforms you in the creature you most resemble as your psyche. Dr. Alec Holland becomes Swamp Thing, Anton Arcane (Louis Jourdan) becomes a werewolf, another of Anton’s servants transforms from human to an impish troll.

In the 2021 anime movie, BELLE, the artificial reality of “U” analyzes Suzu Naito and reimagines her as the beautiful Belle. In the world of “U”, all avatars are not chosen by users, but created by the computer after analyzing their biometrics, pictures, and online behavior.

Vicky and I asked each other if SWAMP THING or BELLE were real, what would Dr. Alec Holland’s formula or the computers of U turn us into?

As much as I would like to be a noble Collie, I suspect I would likely turn into a Raccoon or Honey badger or Platypus.

Vicky would like to become a Collie or Sheltie as well, but questioned what the formula or algorithm would turn her into.

NOTE:
Neither is “wish fulfillment”, but an exterior portrayal of our innermost selves. You do NOT get to choose, but it is chosen for you based on your psyche and your behavior.