The Hunt for Artificial Intelligence

I ran a 'series' of posts on the prospects and dilemmas of Artificial Intelligence a couple of months back and this past week, the BBC featured a Horizon documentary exploring how close we are to developing machines that think like us. In this clip, Marcus du Sautoy comments how robots have been programmed to learn like children and in the process develop their own independent spoken language. I still retain considerable ambivalence around a future of fully automated truly intelligent machines. This aspect is not explored, though the full programme, available here, makes for interesting viewing as we work towards that. 

Robots of War

I begin with an extract: 

Imagine the face of warfare with autonomous robotics: Instead of our soldiers returning home in flag-draped caskets to heartbroken families, autonomous robots—mobile machines that can make decisions, such as to fire upon a target, without human intervention—can replace the human soldier in an increasing range of dangerous missions: from tunneling through dark caves in search of terrorists, to securing urban streets rife with sniper fire, to patrolling the skies and waterways where there is little cover from attacks, to clearing roads and seas of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), to surveying damage from biochemical weapons, to guarding borders and buildings, to controlling potentially-hostile crowds, and even as the infantry frontlines.

These robots would be ‘smart’ enough to make decisions that only humans now can; and as conflicts increase in tempo and require much quicker information processing and responses, robots have a distinct advantage over the limited and fallible cognitive capabilities that we Homo sapiens have. Not only would robots expand the battlespace over difficult, larger areas of terrain, but they also represent a significant force-multiplier—each effectively doing the work of many human soldiers, while immune to sleep deprivation, fatigue, low morale, perceptual and communication challenges in the ‘fog of war’, and other performance-hindering conditions.

The extract above is taken from this report and it demonstrates that militarily, at least, there is a push to engage with new technologies. Given that Artificial Intelligence like many emerging technologies almost certainly has military patronage, is it feasible to ask if robots programmed to identify and 'fire' on the enemy combatants are one day developed to 'think' intelligently?

Whilst some of this sounds a little like Skynet from Terminator, I do have a serious question. Can we predict the future directions of 'intelligent' technologies? Are people always in 'control'  or could there be a type of artificial intelligence that eventually develops its own reasoning and consciousness and in the process choose break free of control?

Artifical Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is a topic that captures my interest and over the next few postings I hope to explore some of the ethical thoughts and issues around this. 

In particular what inspires these postings are Sebastian Thrun's keynote speech at TED last year in which he spoke about Google's driverless car. Thrun's conjecture is that driverless cars can be programmed to scan the entire environment around them and react accordingly, thus making them safer than human-driven cars.

Master/Machine

I like the idea of developing technologies to make the world safer, though in the next posting we will explore a little more about what it means to be 'safe', bearing in mind that 'pilotless' drones do not inspire ideas of safety for those living in the Pak-Afghan border regions. Admittedly, some of these drones are operated remotely and thus there is still a human-control element to them, but there is a pattern of military needs shaping advances in technology. For now, Sebastian Thrun makes a plausible case for going driverless:

Find out more on Sebastian Thrun's speech at TED last year.

Introduction to Cloud

High Speed Internet and security issues are important no doubt, but let's consider Cloud.

Cloud Computing refers to the use and access of multiple server-based computational resources via a digital network (WAN, Internet connection using the World Wide Web, etc). Cloud users may access the server resources using a computer, netbook, pad computer, smart phone, or other device. In cloud computing, applications are provided and managed by the cloud server and data is also stored remotely in the cloud configuration. Users do not download and install applications on their own device or computer; all processing and storage is maintained by the cloud server. The on-line services may be offered from a cloud provider.

The diagram illustrates the point:

Graphene

Last year, the pioneers of Graphene, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, University of Manchester, were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics. Graphene is being touted as the "miracle material" of the century for its versatile properties and it is believed that it could spell the end for silicon and change the future of computers and other devices forever.

What is Graphene?

• Graphene is largely taken from graphite composed of carbon atoms arranged in tightly bound hexagons just one atom thick
• Three million sheets of graphene on top of each other would be 1mm thick

It is said to be the strongest material ever measured ("Some 200 times stronger than structural steel," mechanical engineering Professor James Hone, Columbia University, "It would take an elephant, balanced on a pencil, to break through a sheet of graphene the thickness of cling film"), an improvement upon silicon and the most conductive material known. Its properties have sent the science world - and the media - into a spin.

The band structure of graphine was first theorised and calculated by PR Wallace in 1947, though for it to exist in the real world was thought impossible. Not surprisingly, some link the timing of this discovery to materials discovered at the Roswell "crash site".

Read more.

Android

Android developed by Android Inc., the Linux-based operating system that has had people excited since its emergence in 2005. The collaboration with Google and the Open Handset Alliance has seen Android become the world's best selling smartphone platform*. 

Google Inc. released the Android software under a free, open-source license and so the whole Android experience takes on the aspect of a wider, shared collaboration through developers who have written over 200,000 apps for the operating system so far. The great thing is its free.There's an entire open source community out there and if we're ever going to bridge the digital divide, surely open source will play a key factor. Go, Android, Go! 

*Android is also the operating system on my Samsung Galaxy S.

Educational Technology Debate

On my journey through the whole Crystal Maze of Educational Technology, I keep coming back to a few simple questions about what works, what is ethical and what are the costs. Some of these questions, perhaps remain open ended, but provide for genuine debate and what I feel would make for valuable areas of investigation for my upcoming research project.

The Educational Technology Debate (ETD) seeks to promote a substantive discussion of how low-cost information and communication technology (ICT) device initiatives for educational systems in developing countries are relevant to the very groups they purport to serve – the students, teachers, and their surrounding communities.

Emerging Technologies

Distance Education is the fastest-growing mode of formal and informal teaching, training and learning. Its many variants include e-learning, mobile learning, and immersive learning environments. The series presents recent research results and offers informative and accessible overviews, analyses, and explorations of current issues and the technologies and services used in distance education.

Here's a link to a download for new e-book edited by George Veletsianos, University of Texas. George, of course, has been my lecturer on the MA and a fair few of the postings here have been in response to discussions that I have had with him and comments that he has posted here.

Cyber Warfare 'Now a Reality'

Cyber warfare 'now a reality' with USA and Russia armed

According to The Telegraph, the Virtual Criminology Report released by technology security company, McAfee claims that cyber warfare is now moving from science fiction to fact. The US, France, Israel and China are among the countries known to have cyber weapon programmes, according to Paul Kurtz, the former White House adviser who complied the study based on interviews with more than 20 experts.

“McAfee began to warn of the global cyber arms race more than two years ago, but now we’re seeing increasing evidence that it’s become real,” said Dave Dealt, president of McAfee.“Now several nations around the world are actively engaged in cyber warlike preparations and attacks. Today, the weapons are not nuclear, but virtual, and everyone must adapt to these threats.”

The infrastructure of most developed nations is connected to the internet and vulnerable to hackers because of insufficient security controls, the report warns. The report identifies the following:

* Cyberwarfare is a Reality – Over the past year, the increase in politically motivated cyberattacks has raised alarm and caution, with targets including the White House, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Secret Service and Department of Defense in the U.S.
* Cyberweapons Are Targeting Critical Infrastructure – Attackers are not only building their cyberdefenses, but cyberoffenses, targeting infrastructure such as power grids, transportation, telecommunication, finance and water supplies, because damage can be done quickly and with little effort.
* Cyberwar is Undefined – Cyberwarfare entangles so many different actors in so many different ways that the rules of engagement are not clearly defined.

Another interesting piece of reading is this Rand report, on cyberdeterence prepared by Martin Libicki for the US Air Force. The blog cyberwarandlaw.com looks at many issues around cyber warfare. The front cover from Time Magazine links to a report from 1995, though this article from the same magazine states that 'fear of cyberwarfare' was the basis of Obama's visit to the country this month.

Technology and Peace

It is essential that educational initiatives are directed towards promoting peace within a humanitarian approach to education. (Veletsianos & Eliadou, 2009)

I'm inclined to strongly agree. The whole point of education, I believe, is to take us - the people - and to equip us with the understanding, knowledge, skills and literacy so that we can do our part in this, our shared world.

This is a personal belief, and one that I would hope that is shared by others. My current reading on the subject of peace and technology is of interest - if we miss the opportunity to use the tools around us - in this case, technology, to bring understanding, knowledge, skills and literacy to our shared world, we, ultimately, miss the opportunity for peace.

The academic research out there into the use of technology for peace is, on the whole, fairly limited, so perhaps, I hypothesise. But consider how much of the technology around us has been built or designed with conflict in mind - billions are spent on technologies that keeping the war machinery around the world in continuous operation. The internet has not necessarily joined us all up into one big happy family and of course, weapons technology is exactly that - technology designed to kill. Just think if the same sums of money for development and technology were applied to conflict resolution and sustainable peace.

Peace is Possible

There are some specific uses of technology for peace related outcomes - Peacemaker is a 2005 video game that engages the player in a negotiation for peace within a middle-east context. I've had a personal interest in the One Laptop Per Child programme - a project with that began with an aim to reach nearly two billion children in the developing world with a focus on empowerment. Whilst warblogs seem to run alongside the mainstream media, the antithesis form - peaceblogs are also in existence.

In the paper, Fostering Peace Via Adventure Learning, Veletsianos and Eliadou, return to some of the prime objectives of adventure learning and consider how collaborative learning, cultural exploration, exchange of ideas etc. serve as building blocks for understanding. The initiatives surrounding the technology therefore are important antecedents to peace.

The key, however, is an area that has been explored less by the academics, and that is the how the available technology can continue to foster a long term peace.

Images taken from http://www.kellynewcomer.com/peacemachine.xml

Poetry of the Afghans

For today's posting, I return to Google Books, once again. Poetry of the Afghans is an English Language anthology of Pashto poems from the sixteenth to nineteenth century featuring some great names such as Rahman Baba and Khushal Khan Khattak. From the 1867 collections compiled by Henry George Raverty.

Tor_Khan تور خان

Experience! Explore! Expand!

The reading around Adventure Learning brings up some very interesting points for discussion, but before I get onto those, let's consider the title of this posting.

Experience! Explore! Expand!

As an educator I'm fairly well placed to say that the whole process of learning should go beyond just the experience. Learners need the opportunity to explore a topic to gain deeper knowledge and to expand their understanding. It's quite appropriate therefore, that the motto Experience! Explore! Expand! appears on the GoNorth! website.

Adventure Learning projects, such as GoNorth! have a growing number of global subscribers - (about 3 million annual users, as of 2008), though the research literature surrounding the growth and impact of these programmes is remarkably small. My distance learning tutor, George Veletsianos has invited me to look at this and report back some intial findings. This is an area that is of interest to him, and having read some of the papers that he has co-authored on the subject, something that I feel is worthy of further exploration.

In a previous posting, I introduced some aspects of Adventure Learning. For this example, GoNorth! provides a good illustration - this is because educators have constructed a fully integrated K-12 curriculum with activities that run alongside the Arctic exploration mission. Typically with new technologies, how well Adventure Learning is integrated into classroom practice depends very much on teaching pedagogies and the confidence with which new technologies are taken up. Bearing in mind that most the examples come from the North American samples of their work, I shall look at four models for Adventure Learning integration identified by Veletsianos and Doering:

• Curriculum Based - using the Adventure Learning programme as is (by following the the project's own curriculum programme)
• Activities Based - by selecting key activities from the programme (both in a seemingly ad hoc, unstructured manner as well as a more structured activity approach)
• Standards Based - using the variety of material available through the programme to prepare students for state testing (i.e. tailoring the material to the students' needs)
• Media Based - this is similar to the activities based approach, but is based on a media-rich programme where students are encouraged to explore the media on offer

All aproaches generate their own discussion points, which I hope to explore in a further posting.

Language of the Afghans - پښتو

Much is made of the impressive collections of archives available on Google Books. Here, I share A Grammar of the Pukhto, Pushto, or Language of the Afgháns by Henry George Raverty from 1860.

Tor_Khan تور خان

History and Folklore

Sir Olaf Caroe's 1957 narrative on the Pashtoons digs into the historic and folkloric orgins of the Pashtoon people. It is sometimes held as the compendium of Pashtoon history and origin. The book, known as "The Pathans", reflects the language of its time and whilst other major events have occurred in the Pashtoon lands since the book was written, the contempt/admiration of the Pashtoons is something that continues till today.

Technology allows us to read these archives online - click on the picture above for the online reading option. Alternatively, download your PDF copy of the book here.

Tor_Khan تور خان

Masked Identity 2: Incognito in a Second Life

Behind the Mask

In my previous posting, I wrote that I was able to get beyond the mask without feeling that I need to get behind it. That said, there are times, when masks ARE very much divisive. I'm not talking about face coverings necessarily. A mask of untruths, never helps. Speaking on the phone, is only a partial conversation when you can't actually read the expressions of the other speaker. The written word is particularly notorious - masking out so many of the signals we get in a face-to-face communication situation. So much of what is sometimes meant can be left out, the danger being that we get a partial message that somehow becomes an official statement because it is written. And then there are social chat forums, like Second Life.

An Avatar in a Second Life

In Vedic philosophical traditions, an avatar is said to be an incarnation of a transmigrated soul. In other words, your alternative self (from the one that is or was). In the cyber-world, this usually means your online guise. In Second Life, your avatar can be created from a set of characteristics - you can define facial features, body type - dress style, gestures etc. Sounds like fun maybe, but scratch beyond the superficiality of it, then it is perhaps the ultimate in a communication behind a mask. I need convincing that it is actually healthy.

I've drifted away from the novelty that IRC chatrooms once held. Many internet providers won't go there anyway since chat rooms have fallen into a kind of disrepute for being associated with the darker corners of the internet. On a positive, I once did have a really interesting conversation with someone in Mexico City when we stumbled upon a chance meeting in a chatroom, but often I've found that lots of the 20-30 something chatrooms are where insults are traded and where you're bound to stumble across a nut. Maybe I should try a forum for gardeners*.

And maybe perhaps my opinions on Second Life are equally onesided. I suspect so. My avatar, Tor Nandahar**, is actually a cool guy, but he's picky. Really, having done the test drive, having walked the walk, having been patient and having given myself time to watch and learn, I'm not all that enamoured - I'm not speaking about the technology here, which I think has its plusses - but with the frustration of being in a public forum where all I want to do is "speak" with a couple of interesting people - fickle encounters do not please. In anycase, most folk in their artificially beautified form look a little too perfect (albeit in a surreal animated world) to be all that real anyway.

There are positives - island communities where beautiful avatars live in bliss and where people are there by invitation only. There are instances of educational use of Second Life, so I tried to float into an ESL forum. I thought it might be fun, but I found a strangely haunting Robinson Crusoe experience where I was the only one on the island. I was able to read the notices, but I did not find another soul there. The game-play aspects are interesting. Avatars can fly and you can earn Second Life credits (Linden Dollars) to spend. You can build your own islands have have your friends over to party.

Would I recommend? As a Virtual Learning Environment, maybe. Second Life is a helpful way to connect people from distant places, but only if the perfect cosmetic self is as important as having a meaningful human interaction.

* I miss my garden, and whilst I found some really helpful tips on USENET forums, I'm not sure most gardeners would not bother too much with beautified fantasies of themselves in a forum like Second Life
** based on my nom de plume, Tor_Khan

Wordle Art

Old hat for some, and even though I've come across this before, I've only just tested out the wonders of Wordle. It's a kind of WordArt. In this case, Wordle has been designed to link to randomised words from this blog. Pretty neat, n'est ce pas?

Life's a Journey ...

... and here are some of the places I'm connected to* ...

View Larger Map

... there are others, and we will revisit some time InshAllah ...

Tor_Khan تور خان

* in my first blog entry, I mentioned my thoughts on life being a journey and that I was a traveller on that journey...

2B or not 2B?

IYO txtng = NME or NBD?

Translation for those of us non-conversant with SMS-type speech: "In your opinion is texting the enemy or no big deal?"

2B or not 2B?

Let me begin with:
1. a fact,
2. a comment,
and then
3. an opinion.

1. Language changes by the people who use it.
2. Not all people like all the changes. (I h8 txt msgs, John Humphrys).
3. Academic and formal writing in is not yet about to give way to text messaging writing conventions. At least, I hope not, though I confess if this were to happen as in this reported example from New Zealand from USA Today, then it's possible that I may well join with the veteran BBC broadcaster, John Humphrys in his irritation (to put it mildly) of this emerging slanguage.

I posted a comment on the changes in spelling/writing conventions here. (Should give you an insight into what I think).

Spelling/writing conventions change over time; this has been particularly evident in English. I was at a spelling seminar once and the issue of SMS spelling/texting was featured and its role in redefining how people write and spell in formal and informal communications. In formal communication, people can get away with non-conventional spelling and writing rules in advertising, for example.

I haven't, I confess, quite got a grip on texting in short form when I'm sending messages, and find that I have developed my own fairly speedy texting skills using punctuation and regular spellings pretty much throughout. March, 2009

ICE (in case of emergencies), follow this link.

... learning from a distance ...

Last week I watched Curt Bonk's video responses to questions posed by Manchester University DTCE students. The final question - the one on motivation - was a question I had submitted.

My basic premise was that the success of distance learning courses was reliant on the higher motivation levels of driven adult learners. Of course, this is a "gut" feeling and the case would need to be either proven or disproven. I'd suggested as part of the question that distance learning courses could only most effectively target a narrow band of (motivated) adult learners and thereby the success of distance learning could only be judged favourably by the participation of this narrow demographic.

Distance Learning Revolution?

However, I must confess, that having emailed Curt to which he responded promptly (and gave me permission to use his image), and having considered his videocast, I'm not exactly any wiser about his opinion on the matter. My intrinsic belief is that when it comes to the question of the success of distance learning courses, the received "evidence" on this relies on the higher motivation levels of adult learners. I therefore tread with caution over the argument that distance e-learning will bring about a whole scale learning revolution for all* that I sometimes get the impression is a popular belief. There will, for the foreseeable future be the traditional requirement to meet needs for key sections of learners in classrooms in face-to-face settings.

I am interested that Curt Bonk was authoring a book on this very subject which he said was in response to popular requests for (another?) motivation manual.

*As a distance learning student, I am of course happy that I can follow a distance learning programme, as this is the type of setup that meets my needs at this time.

Shouting from the Mountaintop

As an educational advisor working in school improvement, I quote a contributor to Dr. Alec Couros's blog on Open Thinking. This is one of the most challenging aspects of our work here in the UAE.

Convincing teachers to stop teaching from the mountaintop and lead the students up the mountain is an on going challenge ... Our teachers need to constantly remind themselves to try new teaching methods and avail themselves of the tools.

Dave Hill, February 19th, 2009 at 3:25 pm