the whole as something apart from the sum
Goals
To critically assess …
- How a plasticine like Res might transform the world as computers have
- Whether Res is a metaphor for creativity or enjoyable ingenuity
- To what extent life with smart devices is interacting with other intelligences
- Whether artificial intelligence is already on the ladder of tech evolution
- To what extent being responsive is a measure of consciousness
- How evolution affects the question we ask and answers we understand
Res
I have a suitcase of souped-up plasticine
that takes the shape and function of almost anything.
A shirt, a shoe, a key, or convertible.
Makes a great gift and the stuff is durable.
A million uses and moulds with ease.
Make a wish as you touch the stuff and squeeze.
It’s great to simulate household goods,
but not so great when it comes to food.
Fine for motion, but fails nutrition.
Can’t be a campfire, can’t do the combustion.
A dud as a bomb, dead as a battery,
but as a solar cycle the ride’s satisfactory.
Res did not come from out of nowhere,
this miracle that shapes easy as water.
It’s a product of desire for a better future,
but constant reminder of our distance from nature.
What would you make of this slick shape shifter,
what whims of form would your squeeze offer?
Combine mine with others for a house-like structure
or morph into stuff that packs itself up after?
Res is rex, the next tech king.
A Latin matter, means stuff or thing.
It’s stuff that becomes most any thing,
my suitcase of souped-up plasticine.
What do you Think?
- Computers transformed our world. Now you have the next great thing — Res. What are the limits of Res? With enough Res, what wouldn’t you need?
- Albert Einstein is attributed with the saying: creativity is intelligence having fun. Could Res be a metaphor for creativity?
Bike Rides You
My house consists of wood and stone.
There are some toys ( though I live alone ),
like the bike with battery. A riot of fun.
Silent and swift down paths unknown.
This might, you’d think, limit progress,
not knowing which route to ensure success.
But another toy ( the one I like best )
is this little thingy called a G P S.
I like to get lost and have it rescue me back.
It’s artificially smart with smarts that I lack.
I borrow its brains. Together we’re a team,
with human for muscle and mind of machine.
What do you Think?
- I don’t live alone anymore. But did I even then since I was living with smart gadgets?
- Maybe AI singularity isn’t going to be a bang, but a whisper that’s already here. Does Alexa listen to you?
I Think, I am
The ground beneath you and the sky above,
beasts of the forest and the chillin’ thereof.
Atoms and planets and the stars at night.
If it walks or swims or even takes flight.
It appears as whole, it seems to be one.
More than its parts, yet greater than none.
Similar bits are what nature favours.
They interact, at least with their neighbours.
Geese will gather and fly in formation.
Planets form by self-organization.
Towns arise from economic exchange.
Diamonds are crystals so neatly arranged.
Internal harmonic brings parts into sync,
like fireflies when the whole field blinks.
Or human cycles in tune with each other
by pheromones or signals we’ve yet to discover.
Hives, herds, swarms, flocks, schools of fish.
Emerging in turn, to flounder or flourish.
Emerging to represent internally,
that which we all experience externally.
Patterns inside that roughly correspond
to their world within and the world beyond.
Experiencing experience, itself self-aware,
conscious of being and being somewhere.
Greater complexity, finer in clarity.
Deeper in awareness, higher in verity.
Able to label and categorize.
Construe it, intuit, and rationalize.
The mind of an ant at the hiker’s boot
is how the hiker stands in Gaia’s pursuit.
From Gaia to galaxy or structures we can’t see,
consciousness beyond any descriptive degree.
To the universe itself and its invention of time.
The illusion of movement, though each moment’s prime.
As most complex, it cannot not be conscious.
And its consciousness is it-self existence.
If there could be an ultimate complexity,
it must conceive of itself by necessity.
So that there is an omega mind is a must,
whose complex reality is its consciousness.
What is always was, there never was nothing.
I think, I am; always was, yet becoming.
What do you Think?
- Suppose, by harmonics, parts are brought into ever greater complexity. Consciousness arises, but in different degrees according to complexity. Are all things that are responsive in some sense conscious?
- Greater complexity, greater acuity? Are there questions we cannot yet answer because we have not evolved the minds to solve?