ESN contributor and friend of the blog J. Nathan Matias and some colleagues are writing a series of articles on artificial intelligence to introduce Christian audiences to important topics and themes. They have an introductory essay which will link to additional articles as they appear in the weeks to come. Some of those are already available; for now I wanted to bring the series to your attention, and later this month we'll discuss the specifics. I'm particularly keen on "Relating to Artificial Persons" as I'm very … [Read more...] about Science Corner: More Machine Now Than Man
artificial intelligence
Science Corner: Siri, Compose a Sonata
Electronics and computers have a long history in music making, from theremins (patented in the 1920s and most famously appearing in the Star Trek theme song) and synthesizers to the now-ubiquitous electric guitar. Pretty much from the moment we figured out how to produce electrical currents and do work with them in the 18th century, we've been harnessing it for play as well. Mostly we humans are actually choosing which notes to play when, although looping, noise, and random composition techniques give away some control … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Siri, Compose a Sonata
Science Corner: Artificial Intelligence Deploys Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe
My son finds decision-making challenging at times (OK, who doesn't?) and eeny, meeny, miny, moe helps him break his internal deadlock. Actually, it did until he realized it was deterministic and he could decide the outcome by choosing where to start. So now he waves his hand around while he sings a song for a while, then opts for whatever he's pointing at when the song ends. I'm not sure it's actually a random process, but it seems like it must be closer than the original version. Plus he finds it satisfying which is … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Artificial Intelligence Deploys Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe
Science Corner: Dr. Internet, MD
It's 3am. You wake up hot and clammy. A cactus withered and died in your mouth. Joints you never knew you had scream for WD-40. Breathing hurts. Blinking hurts. You can feel your fingernails growing, and that hurts. Did you get the flu? Zika? Are you patient zero for the latest emerging plague? You could go see a doctor, but you're a graduate student with rudimentary health insurance whose coverage documentation you barely skimmed because c'mon, you're young and healthy and you don't plan on getting sick--no, you don't … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Dr. Internet, MD
Science Corner: Go with God
Almost 20 years after IBM's Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in chess, Google's AlphaGo has proven superior at the game of Go. If you are unfamiliar with the relative complexity of the two games, know that each achievement employed cutting edge artificial intelligence research. Now consider how far computers have come in two decades in general; for reference, Google was still over a year away from being founded when the chess match took place. The primary challenge with Go is the astronomical number of possibilities; … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Go with God