reading and waiting
I know you're waiting... I'm coming, I swear.
Chatbot to Chatbot
I Chat, Therefore I Am... | Technology | DISCOVER Magazine
Can a smooth-talking robot initiate good conversation, generate witty responses, and reveal profound thoughts? See what happens when two chatbots speak to each other.
Here's a great excerpt:
A: Do you dream?J: Yes, I dream.
A: It goes without saying. Do you remember your dreams?
J: I remember them vividly.
A: What do you remember about it?
J: I think I shouldn’t flirt with a robot.
Soul of a New Mobile Machine
Technology Review: Part I: Soul of a New Mobile Machine
My new phone is on the cover of the current issue of MIT's Technology Review!
Boundary Stones of DC
Boundary Stones of Washington, D.C.
In 1791 and 1792, Andrew Ellicott and his surveying team placed 40 boundary stones around the perimeter of the District of Columbia, one at each mile of the original diamond shape. They laid the first stone, the south corner stone, at Jones Point on April 15, 1791, under the guidance of Benjamin Banneker. According to legend, "Banneker fixed the position of the first stone by lying on his back to find the exact starting point for the survey ... and plotting six stars as they crossed his spot at a particular time of night."
Totally interesting. Anyone interested in scoping out a stone or two?
Now That the Semester is Done
Now that the semester is done, I really feel a weight lifted from my shoulders. I've smiled more in the last three days than I have in the last three weeks. My younger sister will graduate this month from University of Delaware, beating me out for the title of first of our clan to have a Bachelor's. The tinge of defeat is swallowed by my admiration and pride.
So we both look towards the academic future. Her course is clearer and (at my last update) will take a turn towards medical sociology. My plans are slightly more esoteric; I haven't even found a title that accurately describes. I've thought about it a lot in the last week, however, and have summed up my ambitions to a simple statement: I'm interested in the study of communication and in providing culturally sensitive means for the communication process.
What does that mean? Well, we communicate in almost as many ways as there are people in the world. We express ourselves through words, gestures, sounds--even silence. We receive communication generally through three vehicles: visual, aural, and tacit feedback. As we funnel all those expressions through cultural filters and into those lonely three channels, there's lots of room for misinterpretation, ambiguity and inefficiency. Is it possible through anthropology and technology to develop some type of universal (cosmic?) compiler that translates with accuracy? Can I beat my message with a village drum to collaborate with your research stored on a computer? Can that collaboration be accessed real-time by someone who only speaks a southern African clicking language? How much loss can be avoided?
I believe that technology in its current manifestation is a "culture eraser," a machine that standardizes everything but inhibits diversity and dynamics. I want to help it through its metamorphosis, reaching a place where input depends upon what is natural to you. I want to help develop a sustainable world that retains culture without restricting progress. This covers computer science, anthropology, futurology, international affairs, urban planning, communication... the list goes on and on.
I'll be honest and say that I'm not sure where to begin on such a convoluted endeavor, but I think the effort, if fruitful, would be greatly appreciated.
Suburbia's Last Stand
Creative Generalist: Suburbia's Last Stand
Cities, I feel, offer one of the most vivid and directly relatable examples of why diversity, mixing, randomness and human interaction are generally all good things, not variables to minimize. Places that rely on only one or two industries or that foster very little in the way of cross-cultural interaction limit themselves creatively and often bore themselves in the process. It may be tidy, efficient and cheap - like a shopping at a Wal-Mart - but it's hardly an enriching experience.
Seoul is the only real city
Seoul is the only real city ｫ Speedbird
Now don't get me wrong: I love New York, and I'm happy and proud to call it my home. But you really can't compare its tepid comings and goings to life in this surging metropolis of eighteen million, hunkered down on the banks of the Han River.
It's true, folks, it's true. I've never heard it described that way, but, from my initial reaction, describing urban Korea as "a culture that believes it has a future" is the most accurate I've heard yet.
In contrast... the US? Do we believe we have a future, or do we believe that we are the future? Are there ramifications to that slight difference in philosophy?
On Friendship
I started my yesterday at 6 am, getting to work early in order to leave before noon. I walked from work to a rental car office who was an hour late in providing me the car I reserved. I headed to Fru's job, grabbed some CDs from her car, and drove the two of us to Manhattan, through traffic, in about four hours. And then, about 2 hours later, I drove us back home.
Why? In a word, friendship.
When we lived in Korea, Fru had a few students who took her out and about while I was gone for business. They gradually integrated into our social activities became good friends. One in particular was the group organizer, planning girl outings, taking the teachers' group for social outings, even recruiting students to join her in attending my religion class. An ambitious girl, she was offered a job in Seoul and moved away within days. We met with her on our last night in Korea and promised to stay in touch.
Her current company gives her occasional traveling opportunities, and this time she ended up at a trade convention in NYC. DC to New York is roughly the distance from Daegu to Seoul, so we decided to visit her this weekend. Unfortunately, plans changed, and she now was leaving Friday night, just before midnight. We adjusted our plans.
Car, tolls, parking, gas, meal; was it really worth it for 120 minutes with a friend? We say yes. The value of friendship should be greater than the requirements of maintenance. We'll most likely do this again when friends from Seattle and South Africa show up at our doorstep at some point this week (another change of plans; so we currently don't know when they'll arrive).
Unfortunately, an adherence to friendship of this intensity I've never seen in America. Every relationship of this level was either built in Korea or with people who have had the Korean experience. Those friends coming this week were fellow teachers in Korea (and not nearby, frequently associated friends), and the two other people who I can qualify with this kind of relationship are married to each other and were instrumental in our going to Asia.
I haven't decided yet whether the dominant factor in this friendship development is the high value of networks in Korean culture or the accommodating(commiserating?) bond that expatriates share. In either case, it's a factor that is nearly absent in American culture. It's hard enough getting my family to take a 90-mile trip to see me here, let alone friends in other regions of the country.
If there's any redeeming value to our lack of emphasis on maintaining personal relationships I'd love to hear about them.
Megahouse
The Megahouse system organizes the reservoir of empty rooms in a city and makes them available to users based on particular space and time needs—from hours to months. With Megahouse, the boundaries between private and public space are shifted as users walk between the many rooms of a “house” that are dispersed and embedded throughout the entire city.
Using the Journeyman Tradition to Fight Cultural Insensitivity
Crunch time.
While I squirm, here's another something I wrote suggesting a solution to cultural sensitivity. My professor suggested that it might be publishable with some adjustments; I wonder if I'm ruining the chance by placing it here?
On a bus, headed from Changuinola, Panama, to San Jose, Costa Rica, it became painfully aware why I don't care for American company when traveling abroad. A handful of U.S. youths sat behind my wife and I, chattering away about their spring break journey. Crossing the border into my mother's country, they recalled their stay in the small border town of Sixaola by renaming it "Sex in the wrong hole-a." Particularly distasteful, one of the ladies in the party loudly proclaimed, "I'd rather have unprotected sex with a dirty, unknown man than stay in that place again." I noted to my wife that this person was basically saying she would sell her body rather than live any life other than one of privilege. No doubt this privilege was funding her education, paid for their vacation, and would bail them out if anyone within earshot and less tolerant was as weary of their complaining as I.
A week later, I read a passage from a Hans Christian Andersen tale that reminded me of that ordeal:
"...what is far more advantageous abroad than all the preparations you can make at home, is said in a few words--give up all intercourse with your own country-people! Nowadays every one travels! Paris is not now further from us than Hamburg was some thirty years ago. When I was in Paris I found there sixteen or seventeen of my countrymen. O, how they kept together! Eleven of them dwelt in the same hotel: they drank coffee together, walked out together, went to the restaurateur's together, and took together half a bench in the theatre. That is the most foolish thing a person can do! I consider travelling useful for every one, from the prince to the travelling journeyman... The creative artist, the poet, the engineer, and the physician must travel... [but] those who cost the most generally are of the least use, and bring the country the least honor! I, thank God! paid for my journey myself, and am therefore free to speak my opinion!"(Andersen)
Paying for myself and the travels of my spouse, I echoed the sentiments of the fictional character Cousin Joachim. Would these students have been so ungrateful they were traveling individually? What if they had to work for their lodging? When they got home, would they utilize the events of their travels to enrich their daily lives and rituals? If not, the trip would largely be a waste. They could have saved a lot of money by visiting their closest beach.
Within our country's borders, teens and young adults struggle to find themselves and quantify their identity. In a society that increasingly smothers our children with unmerited praise, access to anything they desire and positive reinforcements for mediocre efforts, these struggling youths have little incentive to dig deeply and find their solution with determination and resolve. They become spoiled cretins that run to and fro on funds that they had no part in generating; wondering how great it is to travel when, in fact, they have not stepped one foot out of their bubble of security. The benefit of travel has been lost.
Have we turned our children over to themselves for development? Are we as a society, let alone parents, not responsible for building character in those to whom we hope to turn over the responsibility of a nation? If we are successful in getting our kids through 12 years of education, have we done enough?
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a mere 26.8% of the total population 25 and over has a bachelor's degree or higher. While this number is impressive when considering how many people worldwide are able to attend higher education, it is frightening when we realize that the remaining 74.2% have, at 25 or older, not completed any type of training or certification that would require them to broaden their perspective or spend time in a culture other than their own. By our own acceptance of these numbers, we reinforce the chances that three out of four encounters a non-American person has with an American will be one that perpetuates the stereotype of the arrogant, ignorant American. While it would be impossible to mandate college level educations for all, there are ways in which we can actively work to improve this current trend.
One of our greatest developmental tools in the battle against these stereotypes is independent travel. Such travel--where individuals are responsible for generating funding of their journeys while traveling--would encourage self-reliance, adaptation to unfamiliar culture, and a more realistic understanding of the boundaries of human capability. An acquaintance from high school saved her money to buy a ticket to Spain. Upon arrival, she spent a month working a variety of jobs to make the fare required to reach a friend's house in London. Working there for three months, she flew to the Washington D.C. area, where she stayed with a fellow classmate. When we visited with her, it was easy to see that a half year of travel had given her a sense of confidence and competency that we could not match. This small girl left big impressions in our minds as she parted for the next leg of the journey, which ultimately took over a year.
The experiences that we receive from our journeys are just as important as the ones we experience in the classroom. In an interview regarding the journeyman programs of certain European countries, human resources expert Hedley Malloch agreed. "Travel not only broadens the mind," he noted, "it expands the skills base, humanity and cultural awareness. It is travel, rather than manners, that makes the man." (Boucher)
In medieval times, a journeyman went from place to place looking for work from skilled artisans in the field which he hoped to master. There was no proven path for success; no arrangements were made beforehand for work or accommodations. Yet because he had acquired some level of proficiency, his position was superior and quite different from an apprenticeship, where an unskilled trainee worked for a specific amount of time under a specific master to gain the elements of the trade. Many men from all types of trades followed this time-honored tradition that crossed cultures, languages, and cultures; those men and women who still do participate in these traditions have talents that often outshine their peers.
Apprenticeship is not uncommon to the United States. In fact, many companies actively utilized in-house apprenticeships programs until the recession of the 1980's. Yet the wandering craftsman--a journeyman--is an idea that can only loosely be compared here to the availability of jobs for a union-affiliated craftsman, and it has never really caught on like it has in countries like France. Perhaps, as Malloch and others have, the concept is not one that is easily applicable to our culture (Boucher).
But it does have benefits that we so desperately need, benefits that are commonplace in almost every other area of the world. Madhu Singh's studies of work and learning in the informal economies of the third world showed that most participants in these economies gained their experience not from formal education, but from these types of informal, unsynchronized methods of training. These methods were catalysts for the enterprising elements essential for self-employment (Singh, p.602, 603).
Making this type of opportunity more common in America would help to refine and distinguish young administrators and leaders with a realistic, practical perspective. It also provides an impermanent workforce that can provide flexibility in many sectors of our country's more formalized economy. Even if focusing solely on the various cultures within our nation, we encourage the type of cultural awareness which builds networks that unite an often polarized nation. The outcomes of such experiences are sought after, as is seen in the marketability of those who have participated in City Year and other AmeriCorps initiatives. Expanding to neighboring countries could strengthen diplomatic ties and also give an edge to those who participate, as it has for those in Peace Corps.
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Robert Walton writes of the adventure which his travel expeditions have brought him, and adeptly explores the emotions and processes which brought him to the choices he made. For him, the journey itself was the experience from which there was something to gain, and the destination was simply a milestone to mark his progression. If we could instill this same passion for learning, understanding and gaining perspective in the youth of today, we could only improve our situation.
Not everyone can place their kids in private schools or send them on expensive overseas excursions. If my traveling companions in Central America were any indication, doing so wouldn't even bring us to the answer. With a renewed support for independent travel and study, however, we can develop the mentality of the overwhelming majority of our nation that has not had that experience through higher education. We can revive a sense of adventure and independence that has sat largely dormant since the era of continental exploration. In doing so, we take great strides in building a cultural awareness that leaves a greater reputation in our global society.
21 Solutions to Save the World
Foreign Policy: 21 Solutions to Save the World
We live in an age of anxiety. People everywhere fear the next terrorist attack. Meanwhile, we slowly grow numb to Iraq’s endless string of kidnappings and suicide bombings. Between bird flu, tsunamis, and loose nukes, our list of fears is getting longer. So, we asked 21 leading thinkers: What is one solution that would make the world a better place? Here are their answers.
Peanuts, Crackerjack, Social Norms
This weekend Fru and I met up with friends and attended a baseball game at Camden Yards. I'm not a baseball fan in the loosest sense of the word, but I find watching a game at the stadium infinitely more interesting than seeing it on TV; the people-watching opportunity is excellent, and it's nice to get out into the fresh air once in a while.
One of the interesting aspects of stadium culture is vendor interaction. The vendor is an anomaly; very few places are left in America where you strap your goods to your person and wander around announcing your wares at the top of your lungs. Because of the concentrated audience that they cater to, they develop interesting means of transferring goods and cash. A hot dog may be held by a half-dozen people before reaching its recipient; I attended a Yankees game last fall where the peanuts vendor rifled bags to customers and then walked up to get the cash that would be passed to the end.
It says a lot that in a crowded area full of strangers we have developed a social norm where we trust each other with handling our food and giving the entirety of the money we send to its intended receiver. To what extent are we willing to rely on the cooperation of others to facilitate a successful outcome? Is this beneficial only in the bleacher section during the fourth inning, or could it potentially be translated into other applications outside of this setting? Would I be willing to have strangers touch my food before I receive it (think delivery)? Would I trust someone other than the billing company to take the money I intend for the bill (think cornerstore/supermarket bill services)?
The system's efficiency stood out to me as a family of four seated a few rows ahead of us ordered food. The mother was particularly indifferent to (uninformed of?) the system and insisted on stepping in front of, reaching over and across. When a gentleman reached for her cash to pass on, she hesitated before allowing him to facilitate. I think that, especially as we ascend economically, our level of trust in the common man has eroded to a level that we cannot comfortably depend upon each other. This is a loss for humanity in the long term.
Coda
For the past couple of days I've been playing around with Coda, the new all-in-one web development solution from Panic. I have a lot of admiration for the Panic team, and the idea of a simple, multi-faceted application intrigued me.
I have to admit, I don't do much webdev anymore. There were times where all I would do was code, code, code. Nothing serious, this was a long time ago so it was largely HTML and basic Javascript. I still remember saving up my nickels to buy that first Macromedia suite. Then I tried freelancing and got burned enough that I lost interest in anything even related to webdev. My skills rusted, and Dreamweaver made it so easy to go WYSIWYG that I found myself only switching to code to make minor tweaks whenever I did work on a website.
Coda has singlehandedly reinvigorated my interest in coding. As I wrap my head around its features, I can see how this app would handle most everything that I would need to do at my level of skill. In fact, this past week I've removed my Adobe and Macromedia apps (which I don't use all that much these days anyway) and used this application in exclusivity. Aside from finals and papers, this is the big reason I've not been updating for the last week or so--I've been coding, and man, am I out of shape. When I get back to form, you'll definitely see it in a less frankenstein version of Leftsider (along with a few other projects I've been brewing).
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