Everyday Junglist
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About me. You know how everyone says to be a successful writer you should focus in one or two areas. I continue to prove them correct.
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An AI Takes an IQ Test
If you wanted to measure something, but you could not define what that thing was, or how it worked, or what it did, what would you do? What if you “knew” the thing you were measuring existed, were absolutely sure of it, and completely believed that it was something very important? Moreover, all of your friends and family and every other person in the world thought the same way. They all truly believed this undefinable thing really existed and that it was something very, very important. How exactly would you measure it?
By Everyday Junglist5 years ago in Futurism
Artificial Neural Networks Are Not Modeled On the Structure/Function of the Human Brain
When someone has built something which was modeled on something else I think most people assume the something else that is being used as a model is well understood and well characterized. ANN’s are often pitched as being “modeled on the human brain” but only rarely as a “model of the human brain.” Neither is accurate though in my judgement the first is a larger offense against the accepted definitions of the word model (at least as it is defined for the biological sciences). These two main uses/definitions of the word model are 1. A representation of something, often idealised or modified to make it conceptually easier to understand, and 2. Something to be imitated. Clearly the way ANN’s are described is not as a representation of the human brain as a way of making it (the human brain) easier to understand. They are almost always sold as ‘imitations’ of the human brain. Specifically imitations of some of the functions of the human brain. Substitutes for the human brain or some functions of the human brain to put it another way. That they are poor substitutes is a topic for another post, but my quibble in this discussion is with the very idea of ‘imitation’ as it relates to the structure/functions of the human brain. It brings me right back to where I began, which is that in order to imitate something (to model it), one must know what the thing is one is imitating (modeling). I cannot imitate an ape if I have never seen an ape and do not know how it looks and acts. I can attempt to imitate it, but I will never even know if I have been successful in my attempts as I have no fixed reference against which to judge the accuracy of my imitation. In the case of ANN/brains it is not that no one has ever seen a brain, nor that we do not (sort of) know what it does, rather it is that the specific mechanisms and structures of the brain and how they relate to function are only theoretical. You can ‘model’ something on a theoretical system as much as you like, but the accuracy of your model as it relates to the actual thing can never be assessed. Therefore you are not justified in making any claims as to the performance of that thing as it relates to the performance of the actual thing.
By Everyday Junglist5 years ago in Futurism
Moroccan Hollywood Awaits Biggest Production Yet with Filming of the Musical Jason and the Arganauts Set to Begin Soon
The city of Ouarzazate or Warzazat, nicknamed The door of the desert, is abuzz with activity as filming of the Moroccan movie musical Jason and the Arganauts will begin any day now. Warzazat is no stranger to Hollywood style productions as the Ouarzazate area is a noted film-making location with Morocco’s biggest studios inviting many international companies to work here. Films such as Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), The Mummy (1999), Gladiator (2000), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Hanna (2011), were all shot on location in Warzazat, as was part of the TV series Game of Thrones.
By Everyday Junglist5 years ago in Beat
First Impressions
The age old cliche first impressions matter is no doubt true and arguably a truism. Particularly in business it is felt that first impressions are of the utmost importance, and not making a good one is said to be lethal to the potential for any future business relationship. The thing about first impressions that one needs to remember is that they are “first” and they are only “impressions.” Impressions are judgments, value judgements essentially. They are the opinion of one person at a very specific moment in time, and they are often based on the most superficial of attributes, the way a person looks or dresses or talks for instance. Being first they are also made in the absence of any specific information as to the actual content of the character of the person being judged. Thus they are almost always flawed, biased, and highly variable from person to person and situation to situation. And yet study after study shows they “matter.” How “matter” is defined is variable depending on the study and its focus, but in business it is most often defined as the desire to do further business with the other person at any time in the future. Therefore, even if we find the entire idea of spur of the moment value judgements based on superficial characteristics made in the absence of facts abhorrent (and I certainly hope most do) we must accept this small evil for the potential benefit it may bring us in terms of future business opportunity. Therefore, we work extremely hard to make a “good first impression” each chance we have to do so. The more important the outcome of the first interaction with another the harder we work to ensure all goes smoothly and our potential business partner is suitably impressed, or at least not turned off, at their first meeting with us be it in person or tele/web com or whatever. The same holds true in our daily lives and everyday social interactions. We strive to make a good first impression and try harder the more important we view the future potential of the relationship with the other person(s) to be.
By Everyday Junglist5 years ago in Humans
Anti-Science/Scientist Propaganda Continues to Grow
From the early days of the pandemic anti-science rhetoric has flooded the airwaves and webosphere. For the most part I have ignored the ugliness and remained on the sidelines, content in the belief that the vast majority of Americans recognized this stuff for what it was, complete and total bunk, motivated by fear and political inclinations more than genuine belief. However, as the pandemic has grinded on and on, the anti science rhetoric has continued to grow, and the level of sophistication of the arguments proffered by those with an anti-science/scientist agenda has grown along with it. When my dad (a retired engineer) began texting myself and my wife, both research scientists who have and are continuing to work on Covid-19 related projects (myself in diagnostics mostly and she in vaccine development), with wild conspiracy theory tinged messages I realized I could no longer sit this one out.
By Everyday Junglist5 years ago in Futurism
Learning About Deep Learning
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are some of the hottest topics right now and if it’s hot it’s got to be worth learning about, am I right? Get it, ‘learning’ about? Learning used to be something that only human beings and some non-human animals could do. Those days are over my friend, now even machines can learn! Read on if you want to ‘learn’ more. Oops, there I go again, LOL!
By Everyday Junglist5 years ago in Futurism
Greetings Subscriber
Dear subscriber #1, Thank you so much for choosing to subscribe to me. Even though I am not sure what exactly that means for either you the subscriber or me the subscribee I am sure great benefits will be upon us both. For myself, it is a major ego boost. I was beginning to think my writing was mostly just a waste of time. I was not gaining much interest or traction on Vocal despite publishing close to 100 articles in only 2 months here. This after I had published nearly 2500 in 5 years on my Medium blog until my most recent suspension. That first account suspension lasted a year so that 2500 number was actually just 4 years worth of writing. And yes, you read that correctly, I did say, "first suspension" and "most recent suspension". So two suspensions in five years, that has to be some sort of record, right? In any event that (plus $99) is what brought me here to the warm embrace of the fine folks at Vocal.media where in two months I have yet to accrue a single account suspension or permanent banning. In my defense I have had ten articles rejected for publication and one that was published for two days before being pulled by the editors for reasons unknown. I also currently have two articles that have been sitting "in review" for over a month. Clearly I am a fan favorite with the reviewing staff here. As you can see from my stats, I am most definitely not a fan favorite in a general sense. This continues my proud tradition of not being very popular as a writer, which builds upon my even prouder tradition of not being a very popular person.
By Everyday Junglist5 years ago in Humans
Sorry Vocal But Over a Month In Review is Simply Not Acceptable
There are currently two stories sitting in my "Your Stories" submitted section that are still "under review." One of these stories entitled "Subtitle Required - The Most Puzzling, Ridiculous, and Downright Stupid Publishing Rule on Vocal" has been in this story purgatory for over a month, while the other "On the Importance of Precision in Language - Misuse and Abuse of Language is Not Without Consequences" has been languishing for 23 days now. While I have little hope the first story will ever see the light of day on Vocal given how critical it is of the site overall, accurate and factual criticisms though they may be, I cannot for the life of me understand what problem Vocal might have with the second story and fully expect it to be published at some point. Both stories have already been published on a competing web publishing platform as an fyi.
By Everyday Junglist5 years ago in Journal
On the Importance of Precision in Language
“Many of us in the Deep Learning community know that the major models of Deep Learning, i.e. Convolutional Neural Nets, LSTM Recurrent Neural Nets or Neural networks in general have existed since the 90s. It is now that we have the data (thanks to the Internet) and the computational power that we are able to see Deep Learning making an impact on our daily lives.”
By Everyday Junglist5 years ago in Futurism
Subtitle Required
No matter how much I think about it, and it is actually way too much I cannot for the life of me imagine what potential justification there could be to require every article or story published on Vocal.media to have a subtitle. An article without one cannot even be submitted for screening by the censorship board (sorry I mean submitted for review to the moderators) without one. Can you imagine what the world would have been/be like if this were an ironclad rule of writing and literature and had been since the beginning of the written word? Luckily, you don't have to as I have imagined it for you below. Consider it a companion piece to my recent screed railing against the ridiculousness of a 600 word count minimum for poetry. Normally I would have ended this introductory section right there. Right at the period after the word poetry. However when I had completed the piece and did my now customary word count I realized I was only at 394 words. So, after yet another round of curses, head slaps, and sighs I had to think of a way to stuff more words into this crap fest of an article and this was the best I could come up with. Essentially what you are now currently reading are the train of thought ramblings of a mad man. In other words you are reading the words coming out of my head currently, totally unfiltered, exactly as I experience them in my head, at this very moment. Or, I guess, actually for you the reader, it will be at some later moment but hopefully you take my meaning. Now, can you imagine having to live with this person 24/7 365 days a year. Ouch, right. Welcome to my world. Do you think I have hit 600 words yet? I am gonna say no, probably another one hundred or so to go. See how I typed out the word one hundred instead of using the numerals one and zero and zero. Smart right? And then I did it again in the sentence right after the first one. I could have typed out the numerals as numerals each time but that would not have padded my word count in the same fashion as fully typing out the words that the numerals stand for, or is it the numerals that stand for the words? Hmmm. That's a weird thing to think about isn't it. Which stands for which? Wow. Got just a little off topic there. What was I talking about again? Who are you? Where am I? Gheesh wake up dummy. Oh right, I am here on Vocal.media writing some dumb article about some dumb policy and trying to pad the word count. Or something like that. And it is called stream of consciousness not train of thought you dumbass. Who is that talking? It's me dummy. Who? I gotta get out more...
By Everyday Junglist5 years ago in Journal
