Bob McGinley::J2Evolution

Alternate Reality Education

Another story about education and the use of new paradigms to teach information.  This is such a fascinating field to me because I tend to learn very well in these environments.  And I'm not sure if its because of the medium used to disseminate the information, or my tendency to be more interested in subjects I find intriguing, such as technology.

Alternative reality: UW prof touts computer game learning

Even though parents and educators increasingly see the value of computer game learning, the powers who drive education policy are either still too wedded to the type of learning that prepared students for the industrial age, or they think teaching with computer games is too radical to suggest at the moment - even if they know the digital world is creating a new paradigm for education.

A couple points here.  I grew up with our "industrial age" education system, and to be quite frank, looking back on it now I find it quite boring and stale.  Accurate and up to date information was incredibly difficult to find, and more research time was wasted flipping through stacks of books and dewey decimal indexes than actual learning.  When you did find a book on a subject of interest, it was more than likely outdated.

Some Nano News

First, from IBM's Stuart Parkin, a new type of computer memory using nanowires.  Nanowires are quantum strands that are just a few nanometers wide, but are of an undefined length.  Depending on the material used for the nanowires, the magnetic fields and electrical current applied, these nanowires can be used to store 100's of bits in a solid state environment, i.e., no spinning disk and vibrating read head. 

IBM Attempts to Reinvent Memory

Stuart Parkin, an experimental physicist at IBM's Almaden Research Center, in San Jose, CA, says that the memory, which would pack a hundred bits of data on a single nanowire, could potentially store 10 to 100 times more data than flash--the type of memory used in digital cameras and other small portable devices--while operating at much faster speeds. And because it's solid-state memory, it would be far sturdier than magnetic hard drives, which require mechanical devices to read and write data. "In principle, we could be cheaper than flash would be, denser than flash would be, and orders of magnitude faster," Parkin says. "And there's no wear-out mechanism, so it's totally reliable."

Artificial Intelligence aids real intelligence.

Saw this press release today about a company that is doing very well creating eLearning tools.  This type of education material is becoming more and more popular in the technology arena because its so affordable, and such a positive experience for its users.  And of course, I just love the creative side of this technology.

uMind Artificial Intelligence Software Poised to Take Over eLearning World

A result of 10 years of research and development, uMind will deliver two pioneering platforms that teach rather than simply deploy content. Harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence, uSim and uLearn estimate, control, and anticipate learner behavior. They build and modify the learning path in real-time and generate advanced pedagogical strategies according to the learner’s needs. They assist and guide the learner throughout the course and provide him with relevant, adapted feedback in real-time.

Oxytocin and Vasopressin

A few years ago I read Matt Ridley's book Genome and was instantly hooked on genetics and variability in our species.  Genome does a great job of covering the basics of genetics and explaining the some of the discoveries uncovered by the mapping of our 23 chromosomes in the Human Genome Project.  Genome considers the relationship of our genes to disease, intelligence, personality, and even language.  For an amateur genetic science buff like myself, this book was a real eye opener, and helped me form the structure of the evolutionary container.

During my recent vacation I took along another Matt Ridley book, The Agile Gene.  The Agile Gene departs a bit from the hard edge scientific data of Genome, and gets into the discussion of nature vs. nurture.  Ridley goes back to Darwin and William James to explain the earliest discussions of nature vs. nurture, and reminds us it wasn't that long ago that we debated whether a donkey embryo inserted into a horse for gestation would produce a horse, or a donkey.  It produces a donkey of course.

Back from Europe

Just got back from a 3 week long vacation in Italy and Greece.  I'll post more about some of the fantastic books I read while sitting on the beach.

Took some epic photos of all the places we visited while taking in the sites.  You'll probably see in some of these photos that I have weird thing for lines and angles.  My camera gear is a Nikon D-70, a 24-200mm lens, and a 200-400mm zoom.  I didn't use any filters other than a standard UV.

I'll be posting more through the week, so check back soon, and enjoy.  Send me a note if you want any originals.

 

Bob's Photos

Evolutionary algorithms now surpass human designers

I read this news article a while back, and I decided to save it till I had some more time to enjoy it.

Evolutionary algorithms now surpass human designers

Instead of pitting God against science, the emerging spat centres on evolutionary algorithms (EAs), which mimic the processes of natural selection and random mutation by "breeding", selecting and re-breeding possible designs to produce the fittest ones.

snip

Proponents of EAs say they could replace traditional methods in many fields from designing exotic new types of optical fibre and USB memory sticks to more aesthetic computer-generated art. Critics argue that the technique may lead to designs that can't be properly evaluated since no human understands which trade-offs were made and therefore where failure is likely.

A couple points about the article.  First off, I don't understand the constant reference to 'God' when discussing evolutionary evolution.  Evolution exists, just like gravity, just like air (ether).  You can argue about where it all started till your blue in the face.  It started, and it exists.  Get over it. 

Simulation and Bridges

As someone who studies and obsesses over traffic and roadways, I was really struck by the bridge collapse in Minnesota.  The bridge failed in a big way. 

We can see in this video that the bridge fails in the section over the river first.  Then the sections further away collapse, seemingly in a chain reaction.  I couldn't help but wonder why the sections weren't isolated, so that failure in one section would not collapse the others.  I'm not a bridge engineer or anything, it was just my first thought.  If I was a bridge engineer, I would design the bridge so that sections could fail independently, like the Bay Bridge did in the San Francisco earthquake.  Notice, the whole bridge didn't fall into the bay.

Then I thought about how simulations could have possibly assisted in detecting the structural failure.  Simulating structural fatigue on a scale like this is difficult to pinpoint accurately.  There are just too many variables to model to predict this kind of failure.  The only thing todays simulations can do is give a wide probability.  Then I read this:

Could Tiny Sensors Detect Bridge Crisis?

Hey, now I have some accurate, real-time date to work with.  This could be interesting.  What happens before a bridge collapses?  What are the signs?  Could we have known about the Minnesota bridge a week before it occurred?  Should every bridge have sensors? 

Creating the Conscience of the Machine

Been away for a while, but after getting some rest and visiting friends in family in Lake Tahoe last weekend, I'm ready to get back to blogging.

J. Storrs Hall investigates the future implication of artificial intelligence in his new book, Beyond AI.  While I have not yet read the book, my eye immediately caught the cover, an edited version of Queen's 1977 album cover for "News of the world".

This appears to be another of the those books trying to predict where AI is headed, and what great technologies we can expect once we figure out how to actually develop the AI.  Dr Storr takes a look at the medical aspects as they related to gene therapy, and the design of new proteins.

The book also goes into the subject of autogenous systems.  Systems that can extend themselves beyond the limitations of their creator.  This is a subject I have been fond of for some time now.  Can we write programs that can edit or recode themselves?

My obsession with Fractals

I have several obsessions actually.  My first computer business back in the early 90's was doing photo enhancement and restoration.  Of course back then it sometimes took an hour to mask an inch of image and move it to another image.

I really became intrigued with fractal images, and the views of infinite branching and dimension.  There is something about the representation of mathmatics in a colorful image using a symetrical form that just captures my imagination.  I can look at fractals all day.

Thanks to Brent Gilbert for letting my use his fractal here on my title banner.

Blogging at Terra Nova

I'll be a guest blogger over at Terra Nova this month.  TN is home to some of the world's top scholars on the science, business, and law of virtual worlds.  Lots of great opinions and discussion. 

Terra Nova