Minding the Planet

Artificial Stupidity: The Next Big Thing

There has been a lot of hype about artificial intelligence over the years. And recently it seems there has been a resurgence in interest in this topic in the media. But artificial intelligence scares me. And frankly, I don't need it. My human intelligence is quite good, thank you very much. And as far as trusting computers to make intelligent decisions on my behalf, I'm skeptical to say the least. I don't need or want artificial intelligence.

No, what I really need is artificial stupidity.

I need software that will automate all the stupid things I presently have to waste far too much of my valuable time on. I need something to do all the stupid tasks -- like organizing email, filing documents, organizing folders, remembering things, coordinating schedules, finding things that are of interest, filtering out things that are not of interest, responding to routine messages, re-organizing things, linking things, tracking things, researching prices and deals, and the many other rote information tasks I deal with every day.

The human brain is the result of millions of years of evolution. It's already the most intelligent thing on this planet. Why are we wasting so much of our brainpower on tasks that don't require intelligence? The next revolution in software and the Web is not going to be artificial intelligence, it's going to be creating artificial stupidity: systems that can do a really good job at the stupid stuff, so we have more time to use our intelligence for higher level thinking.

The next wave of software and the Web will be about making software and the Web smarter. But when we say "smarter" we don't mean smart like a human is smart, we mean "smarter at doing the stupid things that humans aren't good at." In fact humans are really bad at doing relatively simple, "stupid" things -- tasks that don't require much intelligence at all.

For example, organizing. We are terrible organizers. We are lazy, messy, inconsistent, and we make all kinds of errors by accident. We are terrible at tagging and linking as well, it turns out. We are terrible at coordinating or tracking multiple things at once because we are easily overloaded and we can really only do one thing well at a time. These kinds of tasks are just not what our brains are good at. That's what computers are for - or should be for at least.

Humans are really good at higher level cognition: complex thinking, decisionmaking, learning, teaching, inventing, expressing, exploring, planning, reasoning, sensemaking, and problem solving -- but we are just terrible at managing email, or making sense of the Web. Let's play to our strengths and use computers to compensate for our weaknesses.

I think it's time we stop talking about artificial intelligence -- which nobody really needs, and fewer will ever trust. Instead we should be working on artificial stupidity. Sometimes the less lofty goals are the ones that turn out to be most useful in the end.

Fun With CoolWhip: The Twine Crunchies Video

The Crunchies are done. At Radar Networks we are really honored to have our product, Twine.com, nominated as a finalist for Best Technology Innovation of 2007. It was very cool to see our Twine logo up there on stage next to Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn and so many other incredible companies -- especially considering we were the only company that was still in closed Beta in the awards (and yes, we are coming out of closed beta in March, so get ready!).

Meanwhile, one of things that made the Crunchies fun was that every company was asked to submit a video. Not all companies did, and not all of them were that creative. Some however were really funny, including ours. Here is a link to the "director's cut" of the Twine Crunchies video for 2007. Enjoy!!!

ps. For those who don't live in the USA... CoolWhip is a synthetic dessert topping we have here in the States. Imagine whipped cream, made out of some kind of industrial byproduct. It actually tastes pretty good, whatever it is. And it has almost no calories -- possibly because there is nothing in that is actually digestible by humans. It's really a wonderful technological innovation. Thus our choice.

The Honor of a Lifetime!

This made my day: I've been selected as one of the "sexiest men in IT" by a panel of judges including a tech blogger and her daughter. FINALLY someone is objectifying me!!! Usually everyone just likes the real me, the brains, the inner beauty, the person I am etc. But to be honest, what I always really wanted was to just be called hot and objectified dammit! And so winning this esteemed title was quite a cathartic moment. Thank you judges -- both of you -- who voted for me, it is an honor that I will treasure always.

The State of our Country: Newscaster Refuses to Read Paris Hilton Story; Burns Script on Camera

This is quite an amazing video clip -- a news anchorwoman on MSNBC took a heroic stand and refused, on air, to lead with more news about Paris Hilton, despite her fellow anchormen and her producers trying to force her to. They actually almost get into a scuffle as she tries to burn the story with her lighter on camera! You've got to watch this. Mika Brzezinski has just proved she is perhaps the only major network journalist in America with a spine. She should get an award for this. Where do I sign up to join the Mika Brzezinski fan club?

My Week Was Intense

VC interest in my startup, Radar Networks has suddenly ignited in the last two weeks. We were planning to wait before shopping our deal, but I guess the app speaks for itself. VC's have been coming over pretty much non-stop this week. I don't know who is telling them about us. But anyway, if you are one of the VC's I know, please don't be offended that you haven't heard from me yet -- we have not formally started  our B round yet.

Here's a funny story from today: One top Valley VC fund whose senior partner really "gets" the Web 3.0 opportunity sent one of his top associates to meet with us. After our demo, just as he was leaving, this associate tricked me into playing an impromptu match on our fusbol table. The catch: each goal in the game was worth a million dollars in pre-money valuation!!! I won't say who it is yet or what fund he's from (but I'll tell you if we end up doing a deal with them). It turns out this guy is pretty frikkin good at fusbol. He might be the fusbol equivalent of Paul Newman in the movie, "The Hustler." I should have picked up on this when he casually commented that he liked the brand of our table before the game. Duh! I mean he knows about fusbol table brands -- who knows that??? (Fortunately, for the purposes of the game, I set our pre-money valuation high enough to allow for some major cushion). Anyway we are going to have a rematch, maybe several. But first I have to do some serious practice. Maybe I should speak to my friend Barney Pell and get some tips for my game? I think he must be a fusbol pro. Ha ha!

Funny Cartoon -- Lisp, the Language of the Gods

Disclaimer: I used to code in Lisp and Scheme a long time back. Then I got interested in Java. But I don't code at all anymore. I leave that to people who are much smarter than me now :^)

Anyway this cartoon is funny -- and if you ever coded in Lisp or Scheme you'll also get the inside jokes.

You are truly an AI geek if it makes you laugh.

Instructional Video: How to Eat Sushi in Japan

Check out this fascinating video on the correct way to order and eat sushi in Japan. Very informative! I had no idea that all these years I had been doing it all wrong. How embarrassing!

Chinese Aircraft Maintenance -- Shocking Photos

Ever wonder how well your jet plane is maintained? Well check out these photos of the engines of a Chinese jet that was recently grounded in Germany due to um....well... you just have to see it and read the description...

Very Funny Instructional Video -- How To Poke Pole the Monkeyfaced Eel

My cousin, Jeremy (the reincarnation of Ernest Hemmingway, I am certain), lives out by Muir Beach, San Francisco. Today he and some manly-man friends are going fishing for "monkey faced eel." YUCK. But ok, anyway, they're the ones who have to eat the stuff. Now I'm not a fan of eel (can you tell?), and I'm also not a fan of fishing -- I think it's cruel (which is an admittedly hypocritical view, since I still eat fish and I suppose they have to come from somewhere. Oh well, too bad we don't have Soylent Green to eat yet.). But in any case, Jeremy, or "JD" as we all like to call him, is a serious flyfisherman and generally a hunter (not a gatherer) type -- so I guess the prospect of being washed out to sea on the rocks is a small price to pay for the chance of snagging a slimy sea snake, bludgeoning it to death or suffocating it, and then boiling it into some kind of savory eel-stew concoction or something. Jeremy has never actually hunted for monkeyfaced eel and all he knows about the subject he learned from the video below. That's gonna be entertaining. But it's probably going to be even more dramatic given that his innocent wife, Natasha -- who doesn't like to eat anything "cute" (fortunately, monkefaced eel are definitely NOT cute)-- will be standing onshore anxiously watching him risk his life to bring a kill back to cave-clan. Anyway the point of this is that he just sent me an instructional video on How to Poke Pole the Monkeyfaced Eel (click the link for the video of that title on the page this goes to) and it is hilarious. The guy in the video is deadpan serious but completely zany. And the editing is great. You've gotta watch this.

This Freaks Me Out... Self-Referential Formula Reproduces Itself...

Umm...... take a look at this formula's output.....

OK. That must be some kind of a cosmic joke.