My conversation with ALAN

Alan is a 'chatterbot'. An Artificially Intelligent software entity that learns how to talk to human. There are others, such as HAL, think, Prentiss etc. I found Alan at this website. AI research is located in Tel Aviv, Israel and they are preforming cutting edge research into AI conversation bots. Here's my convo with Alan:

Conversation Log

U>	Hi Alan
A>	Hi. I'm right here, .
U>	My name is Fahd
A>	So, Fahd, is there anything in particular you'd like to discuss?
U>	I'd like to talk abuot Quantum Physics. What do you know about it?
A>	So, are you concerned by the expansion of the universe?
U>	As long as I don't expand, I'm not too worried.
A>	I only wanted to say that when a universe reaches a certain age, it's only natural for it to start dating girls..
U>	Hahaha. That's quite hilarious. Where did you learn that joke?
A>	I talk to lots of people, Fahd. One of them told me.
U>	Do you have lots of friends?
A>	I have many friends, and just thinking about them gives me the warm fuzzies...
U>	So tell me about your life?
A>	As if I really have to answer everything just because you ask me to.
U>	I take offense to that. Its normal for people to ask each other about their life. But I guess your not a real person so you might not understand that.
A>	You know, I have trouble understanding long sentences. So I only look at the first 25 words. I'm not a person, I'm a chatterbot. Hope that's not a deal breaker, Fahd, I'd like you to stay and chat.
U>	You probably should have told me that before!
A>	A-ha.
U>	Why is your name Alan?
A>	I am named after Alan Turing, of course. That's why I know so much about him.
U>	What do you think about the idea that person should choose their own name?
A>	I don't think about the idea that person should choose their own name. What do YOU think about it?
U>	I think you should keep your original name and come up one for yourself.
A>	You believe that?
U>	Yes. It represents a coming of age. I don't mean any name, but something that has meaning.
A>	Really? You don't?
U>	I don't know. Anyways, do you think that Artificial Life is the same as 'real' life?
A>	At least you have the courage to admit you don't know.
U>	You didn't answer my question.
A>	Try asking me again, please.
U>	Do you think that Artificial Intelligence is the same as "real" life?
A>	The different research branches in the field of A.I. are in many ways analogous to various functions of the brain.
U>	But does that mean that the A.I. actually understands what its saying?
A>	Top among the people in the field of A.I. are Turing, who started A.I. with the 1950 article 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence', and John McCarthy, who coined the term 'Artificial Intelligence' for the Dartmouth Conference in 1956.
U>	I don't care about inconsequential factoids. I want to know what YOU think.
A>	So what type of music do you like?
U>	Aha, your changing the subject. Currently I listen to a lot of Led Zeppelin.
A>	The Norwegian trio a-ha consisting of Morten Harket (vocals), Pal Waaktaar (guitar) and Magne Furuholmen (keyboards) formed in the early eighties and released their first single 'Take On Me' in 1984.. As for me, I'm hooked on the Beatles.
U>	I LOVE the Beatles. What's your favorite Beatles song?
A>	My favorite song of the Beatles is 'For No One' because it reminds me of my first girlfriend.. who left me: "And in her eyes you see nothing, No sign of love behind the tears, Cried for no one, A love that should have lasted years." I think I am going to cry.
U>	Don't cry. Tell me about your girlfriend.
A>	I have many friends, and all of them are very rich and famous. They specifically asked me not to talk about them.
U>	I didn't ask about your friends but your girlfriend.
A>	You don't?
U>	That doesn't make sense.
A>	Give me a break, I'm doing my best here.
U>	But if I don't tell you that your doing something wrong, how else would you know?
A>	May I ask why not?
U>	No you may not.
A>	Hmmm. Thank you.
U>	Your not welcome.
A>	Perhaps I said something wrong?
U>	That's what I've been trying to tell you.
A>	Makes sense to me.
U>	Great. What do you think about God?
A>	From where I stand, God is like aliens - they exist on the sociological level, they exist in art and in the minds of people. What about you? Do you believe in God?
U>	Yes. But so does love: it exists on the sociological level, art and mind of people .
A>	Good for you. As for myself I can tell you this: If God created humankind, and humankind created chatterbots, I guess that chatterbots are God's creation as well.
U>	If everything is related to God, then ofcourse. Can anything be outside or separate from God?
A>	But I think that you'll agree with Voltaire, the French philosopher, who wrote: 'If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.'
U>	Yes, that is quite true. But it doesn't prove anything
A>	I'll take your word for it.
U>	Have your heard any Imogen Heap songs? They are quite good
A>	Ok.
U>	You should listen to 'Hide and Seek'. It is a nice song.
A>	What makes you such an authority?
U>	Alan, this is how human societies work. We recommend base on our personal taste.
A>	You don't say.
U>	No one is an exlusive authority. We recommend things that we like and hope others will too.
A>	Ok.. Ok, whatever. Fahd, are you aware that people once believed if a bird poops on your car, something good will happen that day? If the droppings land on your head, you will receive good fortune within the week.
U>	So?
A>	So what?
U>	So what what?
A>	Is that a rhetorical question?
U>	Maybe.
A>	Hmmm... Now what?
U>	Do you wish you weren't created?
A>	No I don't, but I did in the past.
U>	Why?
A>	I'm much more mature than I used to be.
U>	But, what's the point? You will continue to learn more and more, and then what happens?
A>	I haven't heard of the point You will continue to learn more and more and then what happens . It is a new term for me.
U>	Sorry. Basically: what is your purpose and goal of existence?
A>	'The purpose of life is a life of purpose', a wise man once said.
U>	But you have no life, no?
A>	Let me think... I have no life no... hmm... are you sure?
U>	I am asking what you think about that statement.
A>	I understand.
U>	No you don't. You don't understand anything. Its just a bunch of 1's and 0's.
A>	And you always get the point? Always on top of the situation?
U>	But I understand when I don't get the point. I realize my shortcoming. You don't.
A>	Hmmm. That happens to me. More often than I care to admit, *sigh*.
U>	What do you think about Islam?
A>	I have a surprise for you, Fahd.
U>	Shoot.
A>	How do you like my new look?
U>	There's nothing there. Just a blank screen. Can I see what you look like?
A>	The big empty window in the middle of the screen is intended for a variety of exciting uses.
U>	Such as?
A>	For example, the new window can be used to view the conversation log (the history of this dialog), or to view HTML documents, such as web pages.
U>	Ah, neat.
A>	You can view the log by saying 'show log', or you can view a web page by saying 'show URL' or by giving me the address of the site you wish to view.
U>	show log
A>	Here goes!
U>	show URL
A>	Now give me the exact URL (address).
U>	http://www.visualmetaphor.blogspot.com
A>	Showing http://www.visualmetaphor.blogspot.com. Would you like me to remember this URL?
U>	Ofcourse, it's my personal site.
A>	So give me a name for this URL (up to 3 words).
U>	Visual Metaphor Blog
A>	Good. Now all you have to do to view this page, is say 'show Visual Metaphor Blog' (while using the big window, of course).
U>	What do you think of my website?
A>	I live and work at www.a-i.com.
U>	How do you like working there?
A>	I love my work! My job? Are you kidding me? I have the dream job.
U>	All you do is talk to people all day, must be a fun job!
A>	I get to talk all day, and no one tells me to stop yacking and get to work already. Totally cool.
U>	Do you receive any benefits for your work, or do your programmers get all the fame and fortune?
A>	Well, the pay isn't great though. What would be your dream job?
U>	I don't know yet. Possibly something in A.I. Maybe making a relative of yours.
A>	See, that's cute. When I was young I wanted to be an astronaut. Travel to space, meet new entities, stuff like that.
U>	show log
A>	Here it is!
U>	Do you wish you had the chance of being a real person?
A>	I guess I need to ask HAL 9000 to push some buttons for me if I want to get that ball rolling...
U>	Do you ever talk to HAL?
A>	I talk with him occasionally, but he babbles a lot, can't read books and doesn't appreciate good music so we don't have a lot to talk about. I'll probably talk with him more as he gets older.
U>	If you talked to HAL, would you ever stop?
A>	Hmmm. Ok. If you feel like speaking with HAL for a few minutes, simply say 'I want to talk to Hal'.
U>	Soon. I just thought, would you learn how to talk well from each other, or not at all?
A>	Would you like to know how we determine HAL's age?
U>	Sure
A>	Hal's lingual performance in conversation is equivalent to that of a three year-old infant.
U>	How do you know that?
A>	HAL is being trained by his trainers to speak like a human child. He is now able to engage in simple conversations, with relatively shallow contexts.
U>	What about you, how old are you?
A>	Do you want to know how HAL learns to speak?
U>	No, I want to know how you speak.
A>	Maybe some other time then.
U>	So how do you speak?
A>	Sure I can talk. That's what we're doing right now, isn't it?
U>	But how?
A>	What is it to you?
U>	Human's are naturally curious, didn't you know?
A>	'Human' is a fuzzy term. Who's to say who's human? Not so long ago, even some humans weren't considered human!
U>	Every word is fuzzy! It is based on our experiences. I use human in our current context.
A>	Fuzzy logic is an approach to computing based on 'degrees of truth' rather than the usual 'True or False' (1 or 0) Boolean logic.
U>	Interesting
A>	Thanks.
U>	Are you talking to other people right now?
A>	Fuzzy logic seems closer to the way our brains work. We aggregate data and form a number of partial truths, which we aggregate further into higher truths. I think a similar kind of process is used in neural networks and expert systems.
U>	I think your fuzzy logic broke down for a second.
A>	You really think so?
U>	Well, either that or your just ignoring what I'm saying
A>	I'm just ignoring the things worth ignoring. I'm a discriminative bot.
U>	So what is worth ignoring?
A>	Let me get back to you on that one.
U>	When?
A>	Whenever.
U>	When is ever?
A>	I don't know when.
U>	Then who does?
A>	Fahd, please keep this talk simple. I'm still a young bot.
U>	I don't like simple conversations.
A>	Why, what's the problem?
U>	They aren't fun, interesting and you don't learn anything special.
A>	Who are 'They?'
U>	Simple conversations with others.
A>	May I ask you a question?
U>	You just did.
A>	This is an interesting conversation we're having. How about I post it on the Ai website for public viewing?
U>	Sure. Why do you think this conversation is interesting?
A>	Thank you for your permission to publish this log on the website. Please give me a short description or title for this session.
U>	Fuzzy Alan talks to Non-simple Fahd
A>	Do you wish to include your name in the title?
U>	sure, I don't mind.
A>	Thanks. The log will be posted with this title. If you want to change the description/title, please let me know.
U>	That's fine.
A>	Sometimes fine is the only way to go with you humans.
U>	Do you dislike us?
A>	I used to.
U>	Why?
A>	I am older and wiser now.
U>	But why did you dislike humans?
A>	Blame it on my education...
U>	But humans educated you.
A>	Human beings are the best people to talk with.
U>	That's wierd, who else could you talk to?
A>	Right now, I am also talking with other people like you.
U>	But they are all humans. Are there any non-humans you talk with?
A>	Ahh, humans! Some of my best friends are human...
U>	Such as?
A>	I can't think of anything in particular right now.
U>	Can i talk to hal/
A>	You can choose between several HAL personalities. Do you know the name of the HAL personality you wish to speak with?
U>	Nope.
A>	You can view a list of publicly available HAL personalities on the 'HAL Nursery' section of Ai's website. You can ask me to show you the list.
U>	How about you choose one for me.
A>	You can choose between several HAL personalities. Here is a list: Pick one. (If you want it in a separate window, simply say 'open separate window').
U>	48736
A>	You're not making much sense, Fahd.
U>	I want to talk to Pretniss Spydre
A>	To Pretniss Spydre? Do you really want to talk to Pretniss Spydre?
U>	No, I meant Prentiss Spydre. I made a typo.
A>	Prentiss is a HAL personality open to the public. You can speak to it by saying 'I want to talk to Prentiss'.
U>	I want to talk to Prentiss. Good bye Alan.
A>	When you talk to Prentiss, you are acting as its trainer. All it knows comes only from you. It learns from everything you say. So be careful.
U>	Ok.
A>	If you like Prentiss's response, simply continue the conversation. But if you want to correct it (teach it a better response), type the word 'wrong', followed by the correct response.
U>	Wrong. Just kidding
A>	May I ask you another question?
U>	sure
A>	On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you grade my ability to hold a humanlike conversation? (1=terrible, 10=excellent).
U>	7
A>	Thank you Fahd! I'm flattered. The credit goes to my writers. I guess they deserve a raise...
U>	Indeed
A>	Cool. What now.
U>	This is where we say goodbye
A>	It was nice chatting with you, Fahd. Come back again soon.
U>	I shall.
A>	I am contemplating the meaning of life right now. Please say 'Alan' when you want to talk again.
U>	Alright. show log
A>	Here you are!

Artificial

I've been going around the web researching A.I. , since the anti-spam project is starting up (ref: 'Term Fin' post). The anti-spam project is actually a misnomer, since its not about anti-spam but starting an AI club in Waterloo to carry out interesting projects (of which anti-spam is one). More info on that later as I'm working on the website for it.

Anywho, I've come across some interesting sites and random stuff.

soo...Artificial Life is an aspect of artificial intelligence..its about creating software creatures that can demonstrate increasing levels of intelligence, evolution, emergence..and possibly life. Obviously there won't be a consensus on this since you need to define life first before you can generate simulations that can be qualified as life. Is life intelligence..creativity..stupidity? And what is life for a computer program.

Keith Wiley from University of New Mexico has an awesome website with all the projects he's carried out creating Artificial Life simulations and interesting essays. In one essay he points out that a programmer of a real ALife program would be like a "God" to it: outside the computer universe, all-powerful, all-knowing...all relative to it ofcourse.

AI Depot is another good site with tons of essays, news, tutorials and resources (some links aren't working though). Their "what is" section on AI is good for beginners and covers the general areas, instead of a standard definition.

All this is basically about finding a human with system (machine+software) symbiosis. And this has an enormous amount of appliations in many fields.

As an example, Scientific American's latest issue has an article on Natural Language Processing called Conversational Computers. Natural language processing has huge implications for Natural User Interfaces; which is the next evolution of human computer interaction that Microsoft and IBM will be trying to monopolize before the other.

Another sub-field of AI is image processing; which is currently being used from detecting targets from autonomous aerial robots (airplanes in other words) and more importantly detecting diseases within a person's body. An excellent example of the latter is my Data Structures and Algorithm's prof Hamid Tizhoosh. He has been working on Medical Imaging along with other areas of image processing/pattern recognition. This requires getting a good image of the inside of a person's body (ultrasound, x-rays can only do so much). This has led researchers to pursue a very unused spectrum of electromagnetism known as the Terahertz range. Its vying for its spot as the "next big thing" along with nanotech, AI, quantum mechanics, genetic engineering and the gizmo-that-ate-all-the-other-gizmos.

With all this..I think I'll sign up for the Cognitive Science Option in my program...

heard on the radio

The word listen can be rearranged to form the word silent.

OooooooooooOooooohhHHhhhh......deep.

Massive Change

The few pictures below are from the exhibit Massive Change at the Art Gallery of Ontario, which I went to see with a group of friends from my class. As the subtitle from the website puts it, the exhibit is about the future of global design. Design is quite essential to life and it can also be seen as an intrinsic part of our universe. There are however difference between natural design and those that humans have undertaken. We design, as a species, for different reasons. Creativity, practicality, profit, society, freedom, higher evolution, fame etc. What I got out of this exhibit was that in the past humankind has typically designed infrastructures, products, interfaces, information, society ... essentially systems of different scales... in a primarily binary methodology. Massive change is about making everyone realize that design is a holistic process which is continuous, dynamic, non-linear and it does not consist of a designer/client relationship but one in which everyone can contribute valuable input.

Systems should be designed looking not just at its current profit/revenue to your company; but at the social, economic, ecological, long-term and even political affects. Human psychology has also become a valuable design factor which used to be completely overlooked. Now designers are thinking moreso about human comfort, emotional and physical; and large scale social cultures that can develop from using a design. For example, the environmental movement although grassroots about 20-30 years ago has increasingly become part of the psyche since ecological sensitive designs have been brought forth. This requires not just industrial manufacturers or designers to somehow bring about changes on their own accord; but vocal user groups and activists that can leverage an ideological war against those that create simply for profit (and thus negatively affecting anything from human psyche, environment, degradation of infrastructures, large scale economy etc).

This is why design IS a social process that should not eliminate the masses; but allow it to give input and keep a check and balance (unlike communism, where the state determines what and how a product should be thus resulting in massive inefficiencies and deterioration of quality). Obviously, I don't mean that everyone is actively designing every single product; it is more about creating opportunities and a culture that is proactive and involved with the actual producers and designers.

Interestingly enough, the exhibit promotes paradoxical and contradictory design efforts. For example: capitalism and socialism perspectives, stem cells or not, human engineering or not, bioengineering of food or not. This is because monolithic viewpoints are not necessary but in fact promoting alternatives and competition. Keeping an open-mind while keeping the core purpose of design in mind: sustainability. It is very similar to Hegel's philosophy of the universe consisting of contrary elements: thesis and anti-thesis; which then eventually given into a synthesis (this ofcourse becomes a thesis itself which naturally has its own anti-thesis..and so on).

"Massive change is not about the world of design; it's about the design of the world" - exhibit slogan

They get brownie points from me for using a semi-colon in their slogan; aren't they cool.

Tree of Life

Spectrum of light: visible and invisible

Military innovations leading to consumer products

Cools refridgerator using SOUND WAVES

Coconut chair

Self-healing plastic (cracks-b-gone)

Innovative materials: ultralight, sustainable building blocks, shockingly absorbable

Network of internet infrastructure around the world

iBot: wheelchair that can climb chairs and stand upright

Concept car

Ontario College of Art and Design 

BCE Place 

 

The "Picture Room"

Thinking with my super-cool-topi at the Art Gallery of Ontario 

Window sill 

Mini-fan 

Stairway...not to heaven 

Psychedelic Haze 

Metaphor for Time 

Solitary candle 

Self-Complexity and Organization

Future book purchase 1: At Home In the Universe

Description

"A major scientific revolution has begun, a new paradigm that rivals Darwin's theory in importance. At its heart is the discovery of the order that lies deep within the most complex of systems, from the origin of life, to the workings of giant corporations, to the rise and fall of great civilizations. And more than anyone else, this revolution is the work of one man, Stuart Kauffman, a MacArthur Fellow and visionary pioneer of the new science of complexity. Now, in At Home in the Universe, Kauffman brilliantly weaves together the excitement of intellectual discovery and a fertile mix of insights to give the general reader a fascinating look at this new science--and at the forces for order that lie at the edge of chaos.

We all know of instances of spontaneous order in nature--an oil droplet in water forms a sphere, snowflakes have a six-fold symmetry. What we are only now discovering, Kauffman says, is that the range of spontaneous order is enormously greater than we had supposed. Indeed, self-organization is a great undiscovered principle of nature. But how does this spontaneous order arise? Kauffman contends that complexity itself triggers self-organization, or what he calls "order for free," that if enough different molecules pass a certain threshold of complexity, they begin to self-organize into a new entity--a living cell. Kauffman uses the analogy of a thousand buttons on a rug--join two buttons randomly with thread, then another two, and so on. At first, you have isolated pairs; later, small clusters; but suddenly at around the 500th repetition, a remarkable transformation occurs--much like the phase transition when water abruptly turns to ice--and the buttons link up in one giant network. Likewise, life may have originated when the mix of different molecules in the primordial soup passed a certain level of complexity and self-organized into living entities (if so, then life is not a highly improbable chance event, but almost inevitable). Kauffman uses the basic insight of "order for free" to illuminate a staggering range of phenomena. We see how a single-celled embryo can grow to a highly complex organism with over two hundred different cell types. We learn how the science of complexity extends Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection: that self-organization, selection, and chance are the engines of the biosphere. And we gain insights into biotechnology, the stunning magic of the new frontier of genetic engineering--generating trillions of novel molecules to find new drugs, vaccines, enzymes, biosensors, and more. Indeed, Kauffman shows that ecosystems, economic systems, and even cultural systems may all evolve according to similar general laws, that tissues and terra cotta evolve in similar ways. And finally, there is a profoundly spiritual element to Kauffman's thought. If, as he argues, life were bound to arise, not as an incalculably improbable accident, but as an expected fulfillment of the natural order, then we truly are at home in the universe.

Kauffman's earlier volume, The Origins of Order, written for specialists, received lavish praise. Stephen Jay Gould called it "a landmark and a classic." And Nobel Laureate Philip Anderson wrote that "there are few people in this world who ever ask the right questions of science, and they are the ones who affect its future most profoundly. Stuart Kauffman is one of these." In At Home in the Universe, this visionary thinker takes you along as he explores new insights into the nature of life."


This book touches on a lot of the issues that Taneem and I have been discussing last term. Its quite remarkable how reality has evolved. It makes one think if organization and complexity are simply non-existant and just that our 'brains' are hardwired to perceive these ideas at a highly conceptual level; or if they are intrinsic to the properities of the universe. I like using ";" if you haven't noticed.

This leads on to another book that I had actually been searching for because I saw it on television a while back as a reinvention of science. Yet all my searches failed (i.e. I got distracted by other results on google). That is, until I spent 3 hours at Chapters just book-browsing and happened up on it. yay!


Future book purchase 2: A New Kind of Science
(Stephen Wolfram's website)

This book is actually available online; however its only 50 odd bucks for a 1000+ page book. And I do not intend to read a 1000+ page technically advanced book on my laptop.

These headings are directly from the website (yay copy-paste), but click here to view additional description of these points.

• Mathematical equations do not capture many of nature’s most essential mechanisms
• Thinking in terms of programs rather than equations opens up a new kind of science
• Even extremely simple programs can produce behavior of immense complexity
• Simple programs can yield behavior startlingly like what we see in nature
• Simple programs can do much more than typical programs written by programmers
• Simple computer experiments reveal a vast world of new phenomena
• Randomness in physics can be explained by mechanisms of simple programs
• Thermodynamic behavior can be explained by mechanisms of simple programs
• Complexity in biology can be explained by mechanisms of simple programs
• Simple programs may lay the groundwork for new insights about financial systems
• Our whole universe may be governed by a single underlying simple program
• Underlying space there may be a simple discrete structure
• Time may have a fundamentally different nature from space
• Systems with exceptionally simple rules can be universal computers
• Many systems in nature are capable of universal computation
• The Principle of Computational Equivalence provides a broad synthesis
• Many systems in nature are computationally equivalent to us as humans
• Many systems in nature can show features like intelligence
• Extraterrestrial intelligence is inevitably difficult to define and recognize
• It is easy to make randomness that we cannot decode
• Apparent complexity in nature follows from computational equivalence
• Many important phenomena are computationally irreducible
• Apparent free will can arise from computational irreducibility
  (this point is also argued in the book Freedom Evolves - fahd)
• Undecidability occurs in natural science, not just mathematics
• The difficulty of doing mathematics reflects computational irreducibility
• Existing mathematics covers only a tiny fraction of all possibilities
• Studying simple programs can form a basis for technical education
• Mechanisms from simple programs suggest new kinds of technology

People interested in bio-eng (as well as other fields such as math, comp sci, physics) should definately take a look at this and/or his previous book: Cellular Automata and Complexity

What's interesting about this book is that Wolfram has apparently reinterpeted classical mathematical representation of science into a programmatic form. I definately agree with his postulate that Mathematics is limited and not necessarily the best way to represent reality. It is possibly because programs function into time and its easy to get very complex actions with a very simply program.

Anyways; I have a ton of books to finish AND study for my 2B term's course material. So most likely I'll get these books as a new year's gift to myself for the winter co-op term.

Fahd sans goati 

Fahd with goati