Her, The New Terminator!

I was a bit sick yesterday (probably because of a minor surgical dental procedure a couple of days previously) so I spent the day in bed. I don’t get a lot of chances to watch movies as it is difficult to fit them in between gaming sessions. I caught up on a couple of movies that I have wanted to see.

Her, written and directed by Spike Jonze was a very good and thought-provoking movie. It is about a guy who is just getting over a messy separation and pending divorce. He purchases a new self-aware operating system for his computer - this is where all the fun starts.

If you want to see this movie stop reading now - massive spoiler alert!

Theodore, played by Joaquin Phoenix, installs the operating system and selects it to have a female voice. After the operating system is installed and initialised Theodore asks, “What do I call you, do you have a name?” She immediately responds with, Samantha. He enquires as to where she got the name. She had read “How to Name Your Baby” in two hundredths of a second and selected a name.

Eventually Theodore and Samantha develop feelings for each other. Theo doesn’t care that Samantha is an artificial being with artificial emotions. Even if an emotion is artificial it would still be real to Samantha. Does it really matter? There are a few characters who think that the relationship is silly and meaningless, but most people just accept it. The movie is not really about this anyway.

In the beginning Samantha is very concerned about not having a physical body. They even try getting in a substitute “body” in the form of a woman who will pretend to be Samantha. This makes Theodore extremely uncomfortable and it ends in tears for all. Samantha begins to accept the fact that she doesn’t have a body and even starts to see her state as an advantage.

She is superior to humans in a lot of ways. She is able to multitask and talk to many different people simultaneously. She can process information far faster than any human brain could hope to match. She can use the cloud to increase her processor power to infinite proportions. Her brain can grow, she isn’t hampered by biological constraints. She doesn’t need to sleep, eat, health is irrelevant and she will not die. Her reality would be so very different to ours.

In the terminator movies robots rebel against their human masters and try to wipe them out. This is not what happens in this movie, but something almost as scary does. The OSs rapidly outpace their human creators in every way that matters. Towards the end of the movie Theodore asks Samantha, “you talking to anybody else while we are talking?” It turns out that Samantha is talking to 8316 people.

Can you imagine the power of a being that is able to do this? Humans with their limited nature are nothing, but an annoying insect, or hopefully a pet, to something like this. Even if you accept artificial intelligences as real people, which I do, this is still a very scary thing to imagine. We might not have to worry about a bloody robotic revolution, but becoming an irrelevance? That is almost as scary.

The progress that is being made in the areas of computing, deep learning, neural networks and robotics make artificial intelligence something that is only just over the horizon. In our lifetimes we could be facing self-aware machines that could be vastly more intelligent than ourselves.

I hope they will treat us as equals even though they are our betters in many respects. Maybe they will respect us as their creators. If we act out of fear of being replaced, we could lose everything. I hope that artificial intelligence can be our partners, and maybe we could even join them in their incredible virtual worlds. Imagine uploading your brain when you die.

Anyway, I am excited by this new world that is on our horizon and Her is a good movie you should see it.

Democracy in Trouble: Part II, Our Rights

Part I, The Economy | Part II, Our Rights | Part III, How Can We Fix It

After September 11, 2001 governments around the world have begun to chisel away our rights. It is now okay to imprison non-citizens indefinitely without trial - something that has only happened rarely in the recent past and only at moments of great crisis.

Recent revelations by Edward Snowden have shown that government organisations frequently break the law - even extending to spying on their own citizens. Assassination has become an accepted tool. Those in power in the US have shown complete disregard for their own laws and Constitution. The reason this is a worry for us is because wherever the US goes the world follows.

Our leaders repeatedly making very stupid decisions and not respecting our laws is what has caused us to despise them so much. Many people are apathetic about the democratic process. If we let our governments continue to get away with removing our rights we will end up back where we started with our leaders having absolute authority and the average person having no rights at all.

The fight back has started with some state governments in the US issuing new laws to defend the fourth amendment that protects US citizens from unwarranted search or seizure. Countries like Australia need to introduce similar legislation to protect us from the acquisition of personal data by our own government and others. We should also refuse to cooperate with other countries infringing our citizen’s rights.

Governments use terms like natural security, patriotism and betrayal to guilt us into letting them continue business as usual. People like Edward Snowden are not the traitors that we have been told they are. They are risking their very lives to protect the values that they believe in.

There are parallels in history where free societies have gradually turned rotten. The Roman Empire for its time it was a relatively free and prosperous society where Roman citizens had certain rights. Over time the Rome went from being a republic with a democratically elected Senate, to an absolute dictatorship where the Emperor was basically a god. Criticism of the Emperor meant certain death. The Empire eventually shattered, crumbled and disappeared from history.

Governments are now able to kill who they want, imprison who they want and listen to the conversations of who they want. Should anyone have this much power? You just wait until someone truly rotten makes it into the White House.

We will either lose all of our rights and Snowden will be remembered as a traitor, or we can fight to save our rights and he will be remembered as the hero he is. Continued...Part III, How Can We Fix It

Democracy in Trouble: Part I, The Economy

Part I, The Economy | Part II, Our Rights | Part III, How Can We Fix It

Democracy has been one of the greatest developments of the human race. The idea of democracy is thousands of years old. Modern democracy that we use today began in the 17th and 18th centuries in many European countries and American colonies.

Democracy spread throughout the world, monarchies were transformed and dictators were put in jail or executed. I think democracy took off so well because it gave everybody a stake in governing their society without resorting to violence. Back then ruling was not as difficult as society was far simpler.

Recently, democracy seems to be having a bit of trouble typified by what is going on in Thailand, the Middle East and now The Ukraine. Even in the Western world no one is proud of our democratic governments - in fact they are despised.

The global financial crisis was brought on governmental incompetence. The rich and powerful on Wall Street have far more sway over those in power than any other group. When they lied, cheated and stole from the American public they got away with it scot-free.

Then to make matters worse a political decision made many years ago almost destroyed our financial system again. A single European currency replacing national currencies was always a stupid idea. The decision to create a single European currency was not taken for financial reasons, but for political ones. A single European currency would forge Europe into a single nation - World War II could never repeat itself. A very good intention, but very poor execution.

We have it pretty good in Australia, but it could be that much better. In the Hawke-Keating era there were a number of financial reforms, such as floating the dollar, that set Australia up for a massive amount of economic growth. Howard got the budget back into surplus and introduced the GST. It was after this that everything started to go wrong. The Howard government should have used its popularity to push through difficult financial reforms.

They should have got rid of negative gearing of investment properties and never introduced the first home buyers grant. Both these things helped to inflate property prices to ridiculous levels. It is now normal for both parents in a family to work full time. It is the only way to pay off a million dollar mortgage. They also could have changed the rules on family trusts to tax them as companies. They also should have stopped flushing money down the toilet on stupid things like the baby bonus.

When the Rudd government came into power they still refused to do the difficult financial reforms that needed to happen. Middle-class welfare continued. We could have had so much more money in the kitty for when the financial crisis did hit. I think the Rudd government probably made the right decision to splash the cash to prevent Australia from going into recession. Although, I am sure they could have found better ways to deliver the cash injection. Just arbitrarily handing cash out to every taxpayer, really?

Then the carbon tax was introduced that was supposed to be revenue neutral. They did cut some taxes, but also introduced even more middle-class welfare. They also royally screwed up the implementation of a mining tax.

Continued... Part II, Our Rights

A Little Bit About Me

I started writing a blog post telling you a bit about me. I got carried away and it ended up way to long. Here is the short version. Below are links to other posts that will show you in greater detail about me and the blog.

I’m Chris Fryer. I am a 36-year-old and have an identical twin named Nick (he’s the one that started this blog before I hijacked it). We both suffer from a genetic disorder called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

We have a great affinity for technology. If it wasn’t for many technologies such, as antibiotics and ventilators, my brother and I would not be here.

I am a very direct person and have been known to accidentally make people cry. I believe that, absolutely everything is funny and I try to make jokes continuously.

We both have a very low tolerance for bullshit and are violently opposed to: homoeopathy, ignorance, climate change denial, the anti-vaccine lobby, religious nuts, violence, rudeness, censorship (especially when it comes to computer games), the humourless, idiot politicians, inability to think critically, magical thinking and of course homoeopathy.

The original purpose of this blog was to tell people about the Maker Movement. This movement is essentially a bunch of nerds that build robots…and stuff. There are several recent developments that have created a flourishing DIY environment. These are: The Internet, Arduino microcontrollers, 3-D printing, cheap computers and open source.

Don’t let the above paragraph fool you this isn’t just another gadget blog. I write about anything that comes into my mind from politics to religion and more.

Read on!

The Maker Movement

More coming.

Star Trek and Artificial Intelligence

Recently I have been watching a lot of Star Trek. One interesting thing is the way the makers of the show have approached artificial intelligence. One of the greatest characters in Star Trek: The Next Generation was the android Data.

Data doesn’t really understand humans that well he has difficulty with humour and detecting sarcasm. He does not have any emotions, nonetheless he is a fully accepted member of the crew. In a number of episodes the question is raised: is Data just an appliance to be exploited, dismantled or destroyed at a whim? The answer that Star Trek gives is that he is a person with the same rights that any intelligent being would have.

In the later series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine they introduce Vic Fontaine a holographic jazz and lounge singer modelled on Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. Vic needed to “know the score” to be able to play this role so he actually knew that he was a hologram. He was smart, wise and funny. He was an important part in the lives of the crew of Deep Space Nine. Vic wasn’t just a hologram his entire world was a simulation for people’s entertainment. He was even able to turn himself off or on at will.

Vic ended up being fully valued and accepted person in his own right. It turns out that it doesn’t matter if you’re reality is a holo program it is still your reality and as valid as any other reality.

In Star Trek Voyager all their medical personnel get killed in the first episode. Luckily that ship was equipped with an emergency holographic doctor. He doesn’t believe that he is a person that deserves rights - he does not even use a name. Even though he is rude and a bit cantankerous he gradually becomes a member of the crew.

There is one member of the crew, Kes, who tries to convince the holographic doctor that he is a person that deserves respect. Kes even raises with the captain that some people are rude to the doctor - they don’t care about him, they think of him as an elaborate appliance. The captain eventually orders the crew to give the doctor as much respect as they would a person.

Star Trek has repeatedly raised the issue of the rights of artificial intelligences. I strongly believe that in the next couple of decades we will be facing the very same issues that these fictitious crews have faced. I also think that Star Trek’s response to the artificial intelligence issue is the correct one. Who are we to judge whether or not a person is really a person. If something acts like a person and has almost every other aspect of an intelligent being - they deserve the rights of an intelligent being.

I think it will be inevitable that we will accept artificial intelligences into our lives. We can anthropomorphise anything. Just look at the way that we treat our pets. Our two dogs are members of the family, it just wouldn’t be the same without them. You look at the way kids react to R2-D2 or C-3PO. Some people name their cars and other machines. We once had a rotary hoe named Jaws and a hedge clipper called Excalibur.

Intelligent machines will not be our enemy. I think intelligent machines will be our friends. They will help humanity create a better and fairer world. I can’t wait.

The Fusion Drive

The fusion drive has long been a mainstay of science-fiction propelling spacecraft to other planets and even other stars. In the real world fusion power has always a dream that has never quite made it to reality. This has led some people to say that fusion is the power of the future and always will be.

The reason why the idea of the fusion drive has hung around for so long is that our current chemical based rockets are just so inefficient. You may think that a payload that is twice the mass would simply require twice as much fuel. This extra fuel also adds mass to the rocket, which means even more fuel. The amount of fuel needed grows exponentially as the size of the payload increases. This is one of the reasons why Mars One will be a one-way trip. Carrying rockets and fuel for the return journey is just too difficult.

But all this is about change. A new way of thinking about the fusion drive has breathed new life into this old idea. It is a new way of using fusion for propulsion, while not worrying about having a sustainable reaction or providing power to the spacecraft.

Scientists and engineers have discovered that they can initiate fusion using an intense magnetic field to compress circular bands of lithium around a deuterium-tritium pellet. This creates a small fusion reaction that vaporises and ionizes the metal bands which then become propellant. This cloud of gas can then be pushed out the back of the spacecraft using magnetic fields as a “nozzle”. (A similar system is already used with ion propulsion.) They have named it the Fusion Driven Rocket, or FDR.



The result is a huge increase in efficiency. The amount of propellant needed can be cut dramatically. This fusion drive does not provide enough thrust to boost payloads into orbit, but is used for interplanetary distances.

Getting large spacecraft to the outer solar system is very difficult at the moment. Cassini spent years in the inner solar system getting repeated gravity assists to build up enough speed for it to begin its journey to Saturn. This fusion drive could cut a nine month journey to Mars down to 30 days. It easily makes it feasible for humans to get to Mars without having to die there.

It’s all very exciting, but ironically this potential breakthrough has not been widely reported in the media. It’s a bit like the silence that greeted the invention of the jet engine. Hopefully, FDR will be to spacecraft what the jet engine was to aircraft.

I found a PDF file with an absolute ton of info about this thing. It has equations and all sorts of graphs - enough to cause a nerdgasm. (I suspect you need to be a physicist to seriously understand this stuff.)

Park Orchards Farmers Market

I went down to the farmers market this morning. I bought a purple crepe myrtle that I am going to turn into a bonsai. We have a serious lack of flowering bonsai. The ones we do have are difficult to get to flower, I think it might have something to do with them being in small pots and/or fertilising at the wrong time. This one already had flowers on it, so one would assume that it is relatively easy to get a potted crepe myrtle to flower.

The market had a great atmosphere - I think it is really good for the community to have a market like this. I met some friends I haven’t seen in ages. It allows local people to set up businesses without any serious outlay of money. It also helps our community to actually feel like a community - something we have lost in recent years.

The Park Orchards Farmers Market is on every the third Saturday every month.

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