Author Archives: Phil Bowermaster

Competing Competing Strategies

Randal A. Koene at Kurzweil AI has written an intriguing essay in which he argues that the current competitive strategy of humanity as a species — which is defined by genes competing for reproduction — is bound to be supplanted by a new competitive strategy driven by information patterns:

Pattern survival in humans is currently being driven by gene-survival, even though the evolution of humans is itself merely a byproduct of the competition for gene survival (ref. R. Dawkins, 1976). So how can one motivate pattern survival without gene survival? How can one separate the desire to procreate thought characteristics that support specific memes from the desire to procreate genes in humans?

Humans have been moving towards an interest in pattern survival ever since they began to think about thinking, and since they began to explore the experience of self-awareness. We see the early consequences of this shift in the remembrance of those who have contributed memes in science, art, and the history of our species. The shift is accentuated today by organized efforts aiming specifically to accomplish the necessary transition.

The difference between then and now, or rather between now and when the real shift to patterns as the primary competitive driver begins, is this: up to this point, we, the pattern-spreaders have ourselves been driven by genetic competition. At some point in the future, we will be able to capture and transmit the pattern that is us. When that occurs, genetic competition gets left behind once and for all — and the future will be about competing patterns; that is, competing entities not dependent on any particular substrate.

Secrets of a Mind-Gamer

In one year’s time, Joshua Foer went from being a guy with an average memory to being the holder of the US record for speed-memorization of a deck of cards. Along the way he learned that great memory feats are routinely performed by people with average memories, and that such feats have less to do with keen intelligence than they do with developing one’s spatial memory and, interestingly, creativity.

His new book, Secrets of a Mind-Gamer was recently excerpted in the New York Times. Here are a few tidbits:

Today we have books, photographs, computers and an entire superstructure of external devices to help us store our memories outside our brains, but it wasn’t so long ago that culture depended on individual memories. A trained memory was not just a handy tool but also a fundamental facet of any worldly mind. It was considered a form of character-building, a way of developing the cardinal virtue of prudence and, by extension, ethics. Only through memorizing, the thinking went, could ideas be incorporated into your psyche and their values absorbed.

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To our memorybound predecessors, the goal of training your memory was not to become a “living book” but rather a “living concordance,” writes the historian Mary Carruthers, a walking index of everything read or learned that was considered worthwhile. And this required building an organizational scheme for accessing that information.

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What distinguishes a great mnemonist, I learned, is the ability to create lavish images on the fly, to paint in the mind a scene so unlike any other it cannot be forgotten. And to do it quickly. Many competitive mnemonists argue that their skills are less a feat of memory than of creativity. For example, one of the most popular techniques used to memorize playing cards involves associating every card with an image of a celebrity performing some sort of a ludicrous — and therefore memorable — action on a mundane object.

In a week which has seen so much (I think entirely justified) celebration of the mental accomplishments of a machine, itprovides a bit of perspective to be reminded what truly amazing feats our own minds are capable of performing.

FastForward Radio Better Living through Gadgets

Phil and Stephen talk about universal translators, artificial leaves, 3-D printers, Jeopardy-playing robots and other astounding gadgets that are making our world a different — and better — place.

Listen to internet radio with The Speculist on Blog Talk Radio

Should I Learn Calculus?

Cover of Calculus for Dummies

I got as far as pre-Calc in high school and then never followed up, in college or elsewhere.

Is it a good idea?

I’m of the opinion that we should all be trying as best we can to continue to learn throughout our lives, to take on new challenges, and in particular to hone our understanding of science, technology, and related fields.

I bought Calculus for Dummies a while back but never got very far with it — maybe it’s just that the title is too absurd for words. I mean, what could be more ridiculous — Rocket Science for Dummies?

But yesterday over on TR I was writing about the Education Bubble and the subject of the Khan Academy came up.

I spent some time scrolling around the site. It’s amazing, the classes that are available there. And suddenly I feel that I’m out of excuses.

Actually, now I have a completely new quandary. Should I take Calculus or something else?

Good News or Bad News?

Image by Robert S. Donovan via Flickr

Google just set a new record with 75,000 job applicants in a single week. Is this good news or bad news? Well, it ought to be good news for Google, anyhow, as they are planning to hire 6000 new employees in 2011 and these numbers say something about .

But what does it tell us about the economy? That there are still a lot of people out of work? That this much interest in getting on with a company like Google suggests that the job market might be re-energized?

The numbers aren’t terribly encouraging, when you think about it. 75,000 people apply in one week and yet Google is looking to hire less than 10% of that number for the entire year.

Over the past year we have pondered whether the jobs are ever coming back, and considered the possibility that even a strong economy — should one emerge, any time now, thanks — might be one that provides few or no new jobs. Google’s hiring wave, and the tidal wave of interest in those new jobs, could portend precisely that scenario.

I don’t like it when people spin what sounds like good news into bad news. And I don’t mean to do that. But unless we want to avoid the scenario described in Lights in the Tunnel, we’re going to have to start creating some new jobs.

A lot of new jobs.

Soon.

Limitless — Would You Take the Pill?

Saw a shorter version of this a couple of times during the Superbowl:

Limitless: Trailer – Watch more Movie Trailers

Intriguing premise — a guy takes a pill that turbo-charges his brain. It doesn’t look terribly realistic, but the appearance of a major transhumanist theme in popular culture is always an interesting thing to see.

The specific theme I’m thinking about is cognitive enhancement — smarter living through pharmacology, in this instance. However, the capabilities that Bradley Copper displays in the trailer bring us fairly close to another major theme: the emergence of greater-than-human-intelligence. When Cooper tells Deniro that he sees every scenario and that he will always be 50 steps ahead…

Could the Singularity arrive in the form of a pill?

Maybe so.

Now of course we can expect some highly predictable Hollywood stuff in Limitless.

There will be terrible side-effects. That much is clear from the trailer.
In the end, using the drug will not have been worth it.
The whole thing will probably be a parable about Hubris. (Why? Because everything always has to be a freaking parable about Hubris.) Deniro even says something about the abilities the pill provides being “unearned.” As if any of us ever “earned” our innate cognitive capabilities!

That’s all to be expected. At least they’re making a movie about cognitive enhancement. A movie that comes out in favor of cognitive enhancement? We’ll probably have to wait for that.

I happened to watch Good Will Hunting a few weeks ago, which stars Matt Damon in his break-out role as a working-class super-genius with a troubled past. A good movie, overall — I’d say it holds up. On the issue of whether intelligence is ”earned,” it agrees with me. At one point, Damon tells Minnie Driver that he doesn’t know why, but things that are very difficult for other people are ridiculously easy for him.

I remember thinking as I watched the movie how much I would like to be able to do what he does. To read tirelessly and effortlessly, and remember flawlessly, would be a great start — but to look at a problem and simply understand the solution. Or to be able to do this:

What I love most about that speech is that he tells the jerk what page he got his keen insight from. PWNED!

I would totally take the pill. Would you?

Why You Must Always Pay the Web Designer

The picture tells the whole story.

New Blog

Image representing Zapoint as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

I’ve launched a new blog today — well “launched” might be a bit of an exaggeration. I have one post and a blogroll up, and am working on getting things looking the way I want them to look.

Transparency Revolution is all about using social media to transform organizational development and career management. New topics for me, but not too far removed from some of the stuff we’ve done in the past here about the future economy, the future of work, etc.

This blog is produced in affiliation with Zapoint, where I will soon be joining the management team. You can follow TR tweets here.

Anyway, I’ll still be at the Speculist and FastForward Radio, so there should just be more Phil for everyone to enjoy. I’ll probably do some cross-posting where appropriate, but never assume!

Hope to see you all in both places.