Deep Learning Haikus

AI HARDWARE

The fire on the sand

Turns silicon into glass,

Mirroring the mind.

 GPT-3

Waxing lyrical,

The squawking parrot now speaks.

Proust Ex Machina.

DALLE 2

The butterfly lands,

It’s metamorphosis ends.

Now it’s an ice cream.

Transformers

Listen! says Sensei,

Attention is All You Need.

But then he forgets.

Spatial Diffusion

Drifting snow in space

Creates pictures in the sky.

The dark canvas shines.

Gradient Descent

Atlas keeps pushing,

But the local minima

May overcome him.

Shower Thoughts

Note from the author:

In case anybody comes across this, I’ll reiterate my comment on the front page; these dumb ideas are my own and definitely not intended to cause offense. I come from a multi-racial, multi-faith family with varying degrees of able-ness.

I don’t want to upset anybody with this glimpse of what’s going on in my head, and if I do, please accept my apologies. You can message me and I’ll try to do better in the future.

New Game+ Part II (or, Time and the Meaning of Life) - April 24th, 2024

Foreward: this stream of thought needs polishing and dots connected, to do for later.

If time is a real dimension, then there can be real dimensional space where time is non-existent. We theorize this to be true in situations of infinite mass (such as the center of a black hole). If an infinitely dense blackhole really is timeless, what would that feel like (beyond the crushing, tearing spaghettification)? Describing it as an infinitesimally long or short period is an poor analogy because it still predicates on 'time'.

So perhaps every instant we experience is just Planck-length frames embedded in a universal-scale "crystal". A crystal is an ordered, static arrangement of molecules. Perhaps this ‘time crystal’ contains every moment that ever has been or will be. Whatever that crystalline medium may be, it's static, changeless and was not created, and will never not-be. It just exists in perpetuity.

And perhaps, these laws that bind us on this linear trajectory along the 4th dimension, that run these frames as a 'movie’ for us, were laid in place by some cosmic creator. Perhaps we are in the New Game+? In the boredom of our timeless existence we, the cosmic creators, created this challenging world with a clock and setting life back to an historical representation of our earliest selves; a new challenge?

Maybe time really is a gift, in the literal sense? Perhaps we gave ourselves time to fully contrast with timelessness, and give a greater appreciation for discovery, in a parallel universe that is all-known, static and forever. One could imagine that such an existence may be uninspiring, if such a concept exists without the looming threat of not achieving inspiration 'in time'. It would be like facing a pointillist masterpiece for eternity. No discovery or adventure... beautiful, but just face value.

I suspect our gift is a two-parter:

The first part of our gift is getting to learn about everything and anything, with the gratification just of having learned. Outside of time, learning is not a thing. You know everything, always and forever.

The second gift is to experience every little thing, no matter how big or small. From your wedding day to the annoying way your toes caught in your socks this morning.

These moments will become precious snapshots, polaroids in our crystal maze of instants in time. When presented with our crystal universe as a whole, you may have some favourite scenes, but they may not be especially personal or meaningful, like looking at a stranger's Instagram.

But to experience these moments (or perhaps all of these moments, if you like Andy Weir's, The Egg) gives them value.

Perhaps, this is the meaning of life; just to have moments and experiences, whatever they are, good or bad. Because outside of them is both everything and nothing.

Thesis idea - April 19th, 2024

Is it better to gently close a shaker bottle with the snap-on lid or is it better to do it powerfully and suddenly? On one hand, doing it gently May preserve the plastic and may result in a longer lifespan of the product. On the other hand, perhaps the plasticity of the bottle is enough whereby quick motion actually reduces wear over time and the plastic simply snaps back into place.

Hypothesis: we assert doing it gently is probably better for the product, however doing it with a slap is more satisfying.

Novel idea: Pasties - April 8th, 2024

It's the year 2150. As the technology to travel closer and closer to the speed of light become available, people start making the decision to travel 50, 100, 500... 1000 years into the future. Jonah is a 15 year old, B-level competitive gamer. Jonah's done with his current life and likes the idea of finding fortune in the future.

The Relativity Box fires you from a space sling in a metal coffin, while a series of magnetic accelerators arranged in a giant heliocentric loop between the orbits of Saturn and Jupiter, like a macroscopic rail gun, drives continuous and rapid acceleration. The massive magnetic track system propels you forward at speeds reaching close to the speed of light. Only a few days will pass in the pod (just as well considering the intense g-forces of acceleration), but back on earth, months, years, and decades will be flying by. It's a one-way ticket. Time only goes forward. It's the rule. So you have to be sure.

Jonah has his ticket in hand, paid for with the second place winnings from that last match, and he's going for the long ride. 10,000 years. Will there still even be an earth to return to?

***

It's the year 3500. Time immigration has become a major problem. Humans from as early as 2150 have started descending on Nova Earth in droves. Culturally and societally unacclimated, these "Pasties" (as described by local cultists) cause a range of issues from disorderly conduct on the uplevels to destitution and base behavior on the downlevels.

The Government has decided to prevent further Time Immigration by breaking the loop now. Anybody still in the loop will be landed in 3500 by the authority of The Government. They will be given temporary living accommodations and assessed for a skills based function.

***

Jonah notices the accelerometer on his visor dropping rapidly. He can't feel it but the stars do look to be blue shifting less. He sees a military grey box with strange markings gliding towards his pod. Given his velocity he's amazed the thing can match his speed so closely…

Whispers of the Northern Coast

In North Shields where sea winds gently play, 

Beside the North, its waves in endless sway, 

Peewits dance o'er sands in joyful array, 

Marsden Rock stands, in grandeur's proud display.

Whitley Bay, with morning's golden light, 

Reflects the sea, a shimmering, bright sight, 

The wind whispers tales of fishermen's might, 

As Marsden watches on through day and night.

Gateshead's embrace, with history entwined, 

Where tales of sea and land are well combined, 

The wind's soft song, in every corner, find, 

Marsden's decay, to nature's course resigned.

In twilight's sigh, the sea's eternal call, 

Marsden's slow yield to time, reminds us all, 

That beauty, though it fades, leaves sweet enthral, 

In hearts that love, where memories fondly fall.

Gen AI App idea - September 22nd, 2023

Take photo of sheet music

App produces a 'reference version' performed by synthesized musician using the expressive features identified on the sheet music.

Additional capability: App proposes potential improvisations based on musical style.

VR today (and thoughts on Meta) - October 22nd, 2022

VR today is like the BBS era of the Internet. 28k baud modems.

A little bit more than brand new, and widely available. Past the 'early adopter' phase, but still not so prevalent that it is in everybody's lives. Today, everything I read seems to disdain the Metaverse, and broadly portrays Zuck's push for his VR ‘treehouse hangout’, as Ahab, chasing the White Whale. And maybe rightly so, as Zuck seems to be hemorrhaging his finances.

To me, the Metaverse is just a preview of a vision of a future that resembles Ernest Cline’s 'Ready Player One'. People scorn the name ‘Metaverse' now, but people are using the word. And terms have a way of being sticky, as cynical eye-rolling for using the term gradually subsides to reluctant acceptance.

The meme term "interwebs" came about as a poke in the eye to the 'old timers' who deride the young 'uns for their new-fangled doodads. Today, I feel like it's used almost as much as the real word... ironically, sure, but one generation down, the irony will get lost and that's a term that will stick.

If Zuck is off whaling, will Meta (Facebook, because terms are sticky) still be the leader in 20 years’ time?

Twenty years ago, Microsoft was making big changes to the company, just starting to roll out Xbox Live - a service way out of their comfort zone of office software developers. They were a household name then, and remain so today, with a strong contemporary gaming offering. In the console domain, they are only really rivaled by Sony PlayStation and Nintendo, with the latter trending towards being a handheld-only electronics producer.

At one time, people had heard of 'Amazon' as a website that was pushing Chapters out of business, but I didn't personally know anybody who was using it regularly. Today I ordered Furikake Spice Blend on Prime. It'll arrive tomorrow.

My point is, even if the Metaverse sucks right now, my prediction is that 80's Cyberpunk vision of the future will come to pass. I think whether or not Facebook/Meta owns it, it’ll be called that. And personally, I don't fear it, I think the tech has tremendous potential. Like AI, it offers huge rewards, balanced with significant risk.

/remindme in 20 years

When I die - October 19th, 2022

I hope there’s a New Game+ mode.

Cosmology - September 26th, 2022

The intersection of physics, metaphysics, and philosophy.

Relationship Kintsugi - September 15th, 2022

The art of repairing a broken relationship by embracing its flaws.

Molecules - August 8th, 2022

If you had a machine that could produce individual salt molecules, and a glass jar, what would it look like as you filled the jar? Would it be just a white powder? Would salt crystals spontaneously form?

The Nature of ‘Nature’ - July 5th, 2022

Sitting in Playa del Carmen, I watched one large black bird chase two smaller yellow birds. It was some kind of territorial dispute. I began thinking of how meaningless their fight was. Imaginary lines of demarcation between animals.

Then I was reminded of the imaginary lines of territorial demarcation that humans put up as a reason to fight. It is just as arbitrary, and although our lines may last hundreds of years, to an alien culture that may live for millenia, our borders would be similarly baseless.

'Natural' is often equated with 'better', but territories are a natural animal instinct.

Natural is not always better.

Gravity & Time - February 5th, 2022

Einstein proved a direct relationship between space and time. Does this mean overcoming one, means overcoming the other?

Since the hoverboard exists in ‘Back to the Future II’, can we assume Doc isn’t the only time traveler?

[Edit September 26th, 2022: After a weekend of watching some interesting videos about Quantum Mechanics and String Theory, I’ve learned that gravity is not just a force but can be represented as a ‘Graviton’, a largely undetectable tensor boson.

So my next question was, why should these particles be so difficult to detect given that gravity’s effects are so pervasive? The answer to this question is that, according to string theory, gravitons are trans-dimensional and pop in and out of 4d space! Essentially, they interact with dimensions we can’t observe directly because they’re too small.

There was a useful ‘non-Flatland’ analogy about multidimensional space given as a person walking along a tightrope might look at the rope as 2 dimensional, whereas an ant walking along the rope can see the 3rd dimension around the circumference of the rope. I also learned that the human eye can’t detect <9 photons per second. Light essentially quantizes at extremely large distances, which is a part of the reason why the night sky looks black. I always thought light goes in all directions from its source in perpetuity, however it does actually ‘fragment’!

Going back to gravity, I’m still curious about an apparent conflict in my understanding. Gravity propagates at the speed of light, but it was also stated that Gravitons are not bound by the space-time dimensions, suggesting that gravity can transcend time. This jives pretty well with the theme of Interstellar, so maybe I’m correct in this understanding. But then why should it follow a linear path in space-time? I guess causal relationships are bound to space-time?]

Meditation on ‘Art’ - January 26th, 2022

Art is an abstract that evokes emotion.

Sales and revenue maximization as a gradient descent problem - July 28th 2021

Sales people often cite the need to ‘smell the money’, but this can often lead to longer tail, higher potential deals being erroneously sidelined.

I would liken this to the problem of gradient descent functions.

A short-sighted ’smell the money’ approach, may lead you to a ‘local maximum’ of revenue capture, whereas a more strategic and nuanced approach may help find a new ‘global maximum’.

Vivid Visualization - August 12th, 2021

Vivid visualization is a super power

Visualize your objective

Think about all the steps you would need to take to achieve your goals

Start executing

Childbirth - May 24, 2021
Birth, as an event, is a strange concept.

For the nascent subject, it is perhaps the most significant event to occur in one's life. A Day celebrated by virtually all cultures, every year, the anniversary of one's birth. The "birth day".

Meanwhile, for the 60 year old maternity ward nurse, it is 'Just another Tuesday'. Perhaps a normal, natural straightforward birth is the height of mundanities.

Two people may experience the exact same event and have extremely diverse, and perhaps opposite, reactions.

Unidentified Pandemic - February 25th, 2021

Since early 2020, Coronavirus has shrink-wrapped the cities, with urban hermits (say that out loud lol) sealed in their brick, wood and glass Tupperware containers. It's effects were identifiable and widely reported on.

Yet while coronavirus is broadly accepted as a global crisis, perhaps there is an unknown, embarrassing, thus under-reported virus. Bum talk might be just too much for some patients.

About two or three years ago I, and a number of my friends and family (6), reported experiencing symptoms similar to IBS, gluten or lactose intolerance, whereas no issues had previously existed.

These individuals are of varying age, race, gender and location. I had previously suspected that some new or different ingredient in the manufacture process was causing this.

My speculation is that sometime in the recent past there has been a global pandemic that has gone unrecognized.

Uninformed Theory on ‘TV Whine’ - February 12th 2021

Is it possible that TV encoder programmers have channeled their overflow of certain audio channels into high-frequency channels?

The resulting sound is a high-pitched frequency that overlays certain already high frequencies and so it just sounds like they have this high-pitched whistle when they talk.

Why I’m learning Punjabi - November 27th, 2020

I want Jash to speak to me in Punjabi and me to respond in English. It will be like Han Solo and Chewbacca.

Jash: GARAHAGAHHHAGA

Eric: Whaddya MEAN they only delivered one garlic naan?

[Disclaimer: Sorry Jash, Punjabi is a beautiful, complex language and you look nothing like a Wookie. Although I bet you’d be excellent with a crossbow.]

Animal communication - October 31st, 2020

Have you ever had an idea that you've struggled to verbally express? That's probably how dogs think.

Meditation on ‘Doom Eternal’ - October 15th, 2020

If you're overwhelmed in a tight space, keep running and shooting your way through. Don't wait to fight. Keep pushing forward.

On Mindfulness - October 11th, 2020

Calm your scared monkey brain.

Calm the voice inside you that squeals and is giddy.

Who is the person doing the calming?

Creative Writing - September 19th, 2020

Have you ever experienced what the French call ‘l'esprit de l'escalier’? Did you think of a badass thing to say in a given situation a few minutes too late?

That's writing. Contextualize it and give it to a character so it can be part of a future scene.

Judges - July 24th, 2020

Prime Ministers and Presidents get a lot of attention, but Judges secretly hold all the power in the land. They interpret the rules by which we all have to abide.

Contortionism - April 30th, 2020

When you bend over why don't all your internal organs squish together? How do contortionists not hurt their heart with their lungs?

Afterthought: probably the lungs compress and the heart, a relatively strong muscle, quite easily pushes against the lung tissue.

Batman Forever - April 20, 2020

When Robin has that hissy fit on Batman, and Batman blocks all of his punches just by putting up his forearms, Robin should have been fired on the spot for being such a terrible puncher.

Paralympic Games Idea - March 5th, 2020

Can a ‘Mersuit’ be created for double amputees? Something like a big suction cup with fins. It could be an opportunity for a unique Paralympic Sport idea. Applied in water gymnastics or races... even synchronized swimming? You could make it look cool with articulated fins and a low-drag honeycomb body, or green and slinky like 'The Little Mermaid' or 'Splash'.

If we were 100ft tall… - June 17th, 2019

What would the world be like if we were 100ft tall?

Would there be fewer whales (overfishing)? More blue whales (farming... They're only 82ft)?

Cows would be like large mice. Could we really farm enough?

Would the air would feel thicker? Would we eat trees? What would we use to build stuff?

The territory and resources would be relatively small, so would it be a warzone, a unified hierarchical government or just like the Ents, a full democracy?

Would it be like Switzerland (i.e everybody gets a vote, and not in terms of landscape which would also appear of relative diminuence, unlike Interlaken)?

...Why isn't whale farming a thing? I guess it's cruel? ...Probably to do with domestication. Why is that doable with some animals and not others? Note to self, look it up later. (Will it make me a Vegetarian?)

Was there a reason cows were chosen? They are docile but was that not a selective breeding process? The original cows were presumably not super docile though because how would that support them in the 'survival of the fittest'? …Herds. That's probably why. Whales are docile too though. But I suppose they live in the sea and we don't.

But, if we were 100ft tall, we could probably figure out ways to farm the right kind to feed the population from the shore.

Or just fish those freshwater whales!

/stream of conciousness

Riddle - July 10th, 2018

I have many keys, but can’t open a door.

In black and white, I sing the score.

Spring Legs - April 23rd, 2019

Could legs, like Chell's from Portal, work? Can artificial spring legs enhance speed and reduce fall damage by converting to mechanical and heat energy? Can a slight lift in the heel reduce energy consumption in gait?

‘Unconventional Journalism’ - April 8th, 2018

The only reason people remember King Alfred the Great and the battle of 1066 so keenly is because of the Bayeux Tapestries. Somebody saw it happen and said, “I’m going to report this event in the medium of tapestry”.

If I’m ever mega-rich and have an entourage, I want a journalist to capture my adventures in a non-conventional medium… doesn’t have to be tapestry, although experience weaving considered a plus.

Meditation on ‘Company’ - July 2nd, 2018

It is possible to like being around someone without enjoying their company privately.

App Ideas - March 28th, 2017

The Daily Digest: A food and digestion journal that helps identify food sensitivities.

Dopplegetter: Use computer vision to find your doppelgänger on Google.