Awesome 2.0

Posted on by Max K Goff Posted in Big Data

I took a fiction writing course once during a hazy undergrad phase. One memorable story I recall, written by a classmate, featured a character named Awesome. That was before awesome was awesome. The character Awesome was ironically named. But the term, for me, took on a layered meaning from that point on.

This morning when I read Chanelle Henry’s “Is it too late to be awesome?” I wondered if awesome had jumped the shark. But this afternoon I saw what happened to Rafael Matsunaga’s Genetic Cars and I knew that awesome was just getting started.

Rafael is the personification of Awesome 2.0. A world-class Yo-Yo competitor, Rafael lives in Sao Paulo

Rafael: Yo-Yo Master

His HTML5 work, done for the fun of it, brought genetic algos to life in a way never done before. Because Rafael’s car mutations use client-side compute (javascript), the next natural step was distributed, which is exactly what PubNub did with gencar.co and the race got really interesting. Now a collection of systems test mutations, dramatically accelerating the adaptation rate and fitness.

Genetically Mutated Cars in JavaScript

Genetically Mutated Cars in JavaScript

Genetic algos have been (in my view) the red-headed step-children of machine learning. But now thanks to the inspiration of Rafael and engineering of PubNub, real-world stuff may begin to actually benefit from novel machine-discovered designs.

Holland and Koza, take note: With the inspired work of Rafael, Awesome 2.0 has your DNA all over it.

Microbots in Surgical Scrubs

Posted on by Max K Goff Posted in Borg

You may recall the hypothetical respirocyte from the turn of the century. The salad days of the Network Age were filled with promise — anything was possible then, as new companies like google and yahoo seemed to transcend old school biz rules. Alas, when the dot-com bubble burst, followed quickly by the mass confusion erupting post Bush v. Gore and then 9/11, giddy sci-fi hopes did succumb to a darker, fear-laden reality. Patriot Act, anyone?

The Respirocyte


But memories of that late-90s promise still linger … some of us did not forget. Nano-scale magic is a vital tread in the fabric of new hope; today the emergence of a real respirocyte is much closer than it was yesterday.

Enter surgical microbots.

Out of Zurich, the OctoMag magnetic manipulation system wirelessyly guides microbots where batteries are not possible. Minimally invasive eye surgery with magnets comes next.

The OctoMag System


We are not there today, and perhaps not next year, but before the end of the current decade, something like the respirocyte can be as real as flu shots are now. Despite the well organized anti-innovation efforts aligned to fundamentally transform healthcare in the United States, I remain an optimist where nano-scale disruptors are concerned. Zurich Minds, and others like them, will lead us, despite the blatant deceit of the actual flat-worlders now in command of the D.C. hegemony.

Seeing Data

Posted on by Max K Goff Posted in Big Data

Just came across this fabulous article by Marcus Woo … Seeing Data.

Big data, by definition, implies drinking in vast quantities of information that must necessarily be distilled down into a mixture which we humans can tractably consume and digest. There’s no point otherwise. Obviously we need more/better visualization tools to enable the process of digestion.

Seeing data is one obvious way. Between a quarter and a third of my neocortex is devoted to vision … far more than any other sense. I can consume far more data with my eyes than with my ears, or my nose, or my fingers.

The field of data visualization is keeping step with the processing innovations behind the big data/data science revolution. Angel List has a bunch — and for each of those, there’s probably a dozen more in one phase or another.

Seeing Data

Full immersion VR has to be the next phase beyond visualization … holodeck anyone?

Telekinesis Now

Posted on by Max K Goff Posted in Big Data

By sensing a disturbance in the force, as it were, Network Age telekinesis at home is soon upon us.

Through the analysis of ambient Wi-Fi signals a team at the University of Washington has developed code that senses very subtle changes in frequencies that occur when people move.

WiSee technology uses multiple antennas to focus on one user to detect the person’s gesture.

Throw some machine learning classifiers at it, and they now have a system that can identify nine different whole-body gestures, like pushing, pulling, punching and full-body bowling. No Xbox Kinect needed. Just the WiSee (pronounced ‘we see’) system embedded in your routers and you’re ready.

Nothing additional required beyond smarter routers. And think of the possibilities … the lights on/off magic of The Clapper is only the beginning. Thermostats, lights, gas fireplaces and appliances of all sorts are fair game. Not to mention, game interfaces too. Why not WiSee as the controller for Kinect-style games?

Looks like my wireless routers will need an upgrade soon. File this somewhere between the sublime and the ridiculous.

Hackers Spawn Web Supercomputer

Posted on by Max K Goff Posted in Big Data

Wired article worth the read: Hackers Spawn Web Supercomputer on Way to Chess World Record

There are several Network Age themes of note in this one article. Consider:

    – Education has fundamentally changed. Immersion is emerging as a best practice.

    – Javascript (specifically Node.js) is starting to get its props. There’s even an AWS SDK for Node now.

    – Although Java on a Hadoop cluster is de rigueur for enterprise Big Data stuff, the Smidge work by the young team at the Hack Reactor might be the tipping point Node fans have been waiting for.

    – SETI-at-Home was cited as a genesis engine! Yea!

Students and instructors from San Francisco’s Hack Reactor, a crash course in computer programming: (from left to right) Tim Sze, Shawn Drost, Carey J. Winslow, Ruan Pethiyagoda, John S. Dvorak, Cameron Boehmer, Nathan Houle. Photo: Hack Reactor


Kudos to the team at Hack Reactor and the folks behind Hack Reactor itself! I suspect that Node along with Javascript will be masked by more “developer friendly” interfaces as we nudge further toward Node … like CoffeeScript and Meteor, along with a cacophony of others.

Hey Smidge team: github?

Bio Hack

Posted on by Max K Goff Posted in Big Data, Data Science, Platforms & Tools

After the winter holidays in 2012 I played CMU’s Eterna for several weeks, often for hours at a stretch. My addiction lasted about 6 weeks or so, as I recall. Eterna isn’t a game, really, although the ranking system did tickle my competitive instincts. In that sense, it’s a bit like a sport. From early January through mid-February of that year I devoted almost all my free hours to the online folding of RNA, a sport that is quite challenging and often fun.

As I recall, I managed to achieve a ranking of around 150 out of the 150 thousand players world-wide, which was quite a feat as far as I was concerned. At that level I found myself in the company of professional biologists and researchers, many of whom, I am sure were playing as much for fun as anything else. But having very little knowledge of biology, trusting only on my pattern-matching instincts and tireless devotion to the game, I entered those lofty ranks. As with all addictions I’ve experienced so far, I soon came to the point when I realized I had to make a change — so cold turkey I went. I logged into the site today in prep for this posting and found my ranking had (naturally) eroded since my last folding badge. I am now #355 (and still falling, I am sure) of the 153,145 folks who have ever deigned to contribute to CMU’s RNA folding experiment.

Lest you think this post is all just self-congratulatory tripe, let me get to the point — two points, actually:

1. The age of gamification is upon us.
2. Biology as software is coming fast.

Gamificaiton, as you probably know, is the use of game dynamics to influence behavior or produce desired results. Eterna’s game dynamics were a key component that hooked me, as I am quite sure was the case for others. The folding process itself is intrinsically rewarding (and frustrating), but the sports-like ranking — the competition with others — plus the merit badges (yes, they have badges) made all the difference.

Gamified applications in finance, biological research, physical fitness, and education are ascending. Perhaps a fad? Maybe not. It may very well be that as automation and ephemeralization continue, and the need for human labor erodes, games become a safe harbor for human energies. In a world where humans are no longer required to produce the goods and services humans require, what are we to do with our time? Education, entertainment, and games come to mind. It may be that the age of gamification has only just begun.

The economic implications are best left for another post. Biology as software is what I really wanted to talk about.

I downloaded a free Genome Compiler this week. Seriously. Haven’t had a chance to play with it yet, but the very idea of it is somewhat shocking. Want to design and produce some synthetic DNA? No problem. Genome CompilerThe era of at-home bioengineering is here. The next step, of course, is a genomic 3D printer to interface with the Genome Compiler, and the possibilities are literally endless — the ramifications are well beyond the scope of this article.

Orthogonally related to this Bio Hack theme is the fact that first ever high-res images of molecules actually look like their traditional textbook representations.

Almost as clear as a textbook diagram.

If RNA folding based simply on pattern matching instincts allow one to produce results that are competitive with professional biologists, it’s not a stretch to imagine the same might be true of molecular design. All that’s required is a gamified interface.

A couple of other tangents … first, I have been very curious about transcranial electrical stimulation. The idea of zapping my brain with a measured direct current is darkly compelling and a little funny, so I’ve kept an eye on some of the research. Well, I am happy to report that there is finally a transcranial direct current stimulation device for home use, and I am tempted to buy one. The intended use is for gaming, of course. But increasing one’s brain plasticity is always a good idea, no matter what. If you do happen buy one and survive, please let me know if it produces the desired results.

Transcranial Direct Current Brain Stimulation At Home

Transcranial Direct Current Brain Stimulation At Home

Just it case, there’s always the possibility of growing new brain cells with infrared light.

Let the games begin! 🙂

When Will AI Be Created?

Posted on by Max K Goff Posted in Big Data

I found this article from the good folks at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute to be a good read. To save you the trouble, the bottom line is, nobody knows. Some folks say maybe by 2040. Others, sooner (Kurzweil), like around say maybe 2030. Others, later … maybe a lot later … as in, maybe never.

One of my favorite statements on the subject by one of my favorite modern thinkers (David Gelernter) was made during a debate between himself and Kurzweil on the subject at an MIT symposium held around 2007 or so. I’m paraphrasing here, but in response to Kurzweil’s assertion that a digitally-modeled human brain would necessarily give rise to true AI, Gelernter said, “No matter how well we model a rain storm, nobody gets wet.”

Whether or when general-purpose, human-competitive machines (with true AI) are ever created remains a matter of prognostication as much as science. But one thing is certain — the journey to AI is a mirror to a better understanding of ourselves.

My hunch is that AI won’t be “created” — but it might “evolve.” More on that later.

Quantum Hack

Posted on by Max K Goff Posted in Big Data, Data Science

NY Time Blog headline this morning: Google Buys a Quantum Computer

Teaming with NASA, they’re forming the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab (QAIL) to focus on machine learning. Better search will come, one supposes.

I missed the announcement of the first commercial quantum system earlier this year from D-Wave out of fabulous British Columbia. The first D-Wave is a 512 qubit giant with the caveat that instead of using the more conventional approach of using magnetic fields to produce superposition and entanglement of said qubits, the D-Wave system chills processing elements to near absolute zero, cranks up the algo in question (with near infinite possible outcomes) and the lowest energy state that emerges — the optimal outcome — is the winning answer.

D-Wave doesn’t list a price on their site. I suspect home use is a bit of a stretch in any event — the 512-qubit processor chip is housed inside a cryogenics system within a 10 square meter shielded room. Maybe it would fit in the basement.

Loads of applications are poised to benefit by this approach, including complex financial calculations and protein folding problems.

For my data science friends, D-Wave even has a developer portal. Check it out: D-Wave Developer Portal

I tried downloading their developer kit, but alas, for registered users only and no form to register exposed. We’ll see if an email to the info alias opens that door.

It might be a little early to start boning up on programming techniques for quantum systems in any event. But now that Google and NASA have bought in to the D-Wave approach, we will, no doubt, be seeing job board postings for quantum developers before the end of this decade.

Foundation and Empire

Posted on by Max K Goff Posted in Big Data, Data Science

Is it possible to predict global conflict? For those sired on Asimov’s work, the title of this post will be familiar. You may recall psychohistory, Isaac’s early-50s term for the mathematical mashup of history, sociology, and statistics used to make general predictions about large groups of people. To predict your personal fortunes, see either astrology or DNA analysis.

Here’s a question for you: Can the world’s largest events database could predict conflict?

Check out GDELT: Global Data on Events, Location and Tone

Using events-tagged data from 1979 through 2012, Jay Yonamine (Penn State PhD — Data Scientist) refactored a financial forecasting machine-learning algo to digest the data, which resulted in the accurate prediction of violence across Afghaistan’s 317 districts on a monthly basis from 2008 through 2012. In my world, that’s pretty awesome!

For those so inclined to play, the current (reduced) GDELT data set is downloadable — a mere 650Mb — not suitable for an AWS micro install, but perhaps something with a tad more girth would do the trick.

Brain Jack

Posted on by Max K Goff Posted in Big Data, Data Science

“I can imagine a cognitive prosthesis–some digital mnemonic device that extends my personal storage capacity in some way, but accessed directly via my own thoughts, as if it were an integral part of my own cognitive system.” — The Artisan and the Artilect, Part III

Scientific American recently recycled news from last year regarding the work at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Neurology team: a “neural prosthesis” that not only monitors but also now corrects “errant thoughts.” The original source of the buzz was the paper published by Samuel Deadwyler, et al., “A Hippocampal Cognitive Prosthesis: Multi-Input, Multi-Output Nonlinear Modeling and VLSI Implementation.”

Can someone please remind me why science is still behind paywalls? But I digress …

The obvious benefits — and threats — of Brain Jack technology dwarfs any Network Age fruits discovered to date. How long before human trials begin? Soon, I suspect. With the White House injecting $100 million to unlock the mysteries of the brain, the funds are available. And aren’t we all so very interested in knowing more about each other’s internal rubrics?

I see the world I see. We all do the same. We make a hundred thousand decisions every day. Some are conscious. Most are not. Now imagine post Brain Jack installation, and you’re aided — goaded without you even being aware of it — by a digital learning device that is ostensibly connected to other devices. Suddenly your life changes quite dramatically. You no longer make “errant” decisions.

The definition of “errant” is perhaps a point of contention, is it not?

Scared yet?

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