Attribution: GreenLightSearch

It used to pay to be a programmer who understands the algorithms that google uses. But as the google algorithm defeats edge cases**--and thereby gives the expectation that there is or will be no durable advantage--SEO experts will transition to become social media mavens (a completely different skillset). Google's algorithms simply needed to incorporate changes quickly. This isn't AI, but it shows a mainstream case of how ignorant algorithms can disrupt economic niches.

** google bombing, or generating text using images, or... other stuff.

I and two other #hacdc hackers are organizing a local learning-group on Artificial Intelligence. We will also cover Machine Learning (sometimes known as 'neat AI'), Natural Language Processing, and Genetic Algorithms. And frameworks and environments for doing all these things!

A few resources:

• Adapting a Capture the Flag game
• Breve 3D environment for AI dev
• NARG wiki

mailing list!

Why? Because it's the FUTURE man. As we abstract away what the definition of a 'problem' is, we get closer and closer to abstracting away programmers**.

We in the tech world like to think that it takes a village to solve hard tech problems. But the truth is, that most problems aren't tech problems, and sometimes number crunching is about having the bigger processor or the smarter algorithm. OR even more theoretically, the algorithm that improves the fastest... which is where Artificial Intelligence comes in.

** CAVEAT: y'all programmers probably don't need to freak-out quite yet. I don't regard this line of reasoning as an investable hypothesis... just a marginalized and disruptive edge to problems normal people don't have.

I recently gave a lightning talk on "The Cure for Cancer".

Here was the original concept outline: 1) History of medicine 'While I will tell you the cure for cancer today, I want you to think more deeply about what a cure really is. In reality we're raising issues about how we think about medicine. here's an old-timey chirgeon ... this is what medicine used to be. In the modern era ...

2) Cure for cancer Cancer = cells that replicate without end. The body has one good mechanism that stops this. [slide of car's kill switch] It is one of the most defining features of cellular anatomy. Your body ALWAYS retains the right to stop replication. [slide explaining difference between malignant and benign ... telomeres] Life-threatening cancers are cancers because they turn on ONE specific gene. There are all sorts of malignant genes you could turn on -- but cancer is defined by finding this gene, and running amok.

3) Biology vs Engineering Biologically we treat cancer by learning about the body's natural defenses, and reinforcing these, or by learning about cancer's natural weaknesses, and reinforcing these. Engineering-wise, it has been suggested that having a detonator switch in the body is a bad idea and we should take it out entirely. Yes, you would die within 10 years, BUT you could AGAIN re-engineer ... by re-seeding cells with longer telomeres every 9 years.

4) Bottomline: [slide showing different kinds of 'engineering' solutions for different untreatable conditions] This theoretical but definitive cure for cancer raises all kinds of uncomfortable issues and creates dependence on a centralized establishment for continuing life. But the scope of problem changes from theoretical understanding to active manipulation.

[slide of chirgeon => surgeon => bladerunner surgeon] The paradigm will shift during your lifetime.

Questions:

• What is the goal of health hacking?
• How much time/money am I willing to devote?
• What are the available areas for experimentation?
• What initiatives exist? What can you do?

I want a timeline. Nano has a timeline. Why can't health hacking? This is a more near-term 'industry', IMHO.

I don't really have good answers for these. Ping me at @jdar if you do.

My general interest in the area of health care is understanding how to make data available to hackers, given the enormous size of possible data, flexible format, importance of context for readings, and the rapidly changing consumer expectations/fears around privacy.

R. Mark Adams, PhD., a fellow at hacdc has a more nuanced way of thinking about the problem. slides interview Mp3

photo link (attr)

Twilio is a fun and lightweight API for doing things with phones and robots.

I have a couple of "big important serious" ideas for twilio, but right now I'm just playing with it.

Towards this 'non-goal' I remade the classic phone application of the answering-machine era: The Dial-A-Song.

Dial-A-Song was THE classic phone application of the answering machine era. The creative band They Might Be Giants used their a Brooklyn local phone number during the eighties and nineties to play some of their songs 'on demand.' While this original service was "always busy, often broken," with Twilio's API, we can create a service serving TMBG songs that surpasses the original Dial-a-Song in functionality and robustifiability, hopefully without losing its charm.

Ruby-script (uses sinatra)

Rails version(uses rails-template)

UPDATE

Documented notes from the event, including brainstorming session of Twilio-compatible web ideas.

My brother (@meark) and I grew up playing chess against each other. It was, at times, a bitter rivalry.

I decided to commemorate our cold-war days with a unique chessboard.

This was done with a pre-faced board, a triangle, the power of the Internet, 10 sets of salt-and-pepper shakers, some graphite paper, and a magic-paint marker, and two beers.

I wanted to make the black-and-white squares on this chessboard less-defined by using graphite, which would smudge over time, giving indistinct lighter-and-darker areas that roughly correspond to squares. My brother prevailed upon reason and practicality, and convinced me otherwise. Instead, a spray-ink was applied.

Appologies to the graphic designer to whom I owe credit for the mushroom cloud.

The only way it could be better would be some blinky lights.