Lightning
Despite what the announcement for this talk said, this is my fourth annual address to this fine institution.
2008: Why you should have a website
I introduced RDFa as a new technology: Now adopted by Yahoo, Google, US and UK governments, Drupal, Facebook, Newsweek, just to name a few. Bestbuy in the US reports that it improved their Google rank tremendously, gave a 30% increase in traffic, and a 15% increase in click-throughs.
2009: Never is a long time
Linux: I quoted "Linux will outship Windows on new PCs in 2009". That was before Microsoft created Windows 7 Starter, but Android is of course Linux.
USB stick prices: After the downturn, USB stick prices stopped declining. However, the decline has started again, and two weeks ago, prices dropped below €1/GB for the first time in the Netherlands (for 8GB and 16GB sticks)
2010: The Ten Euro Computer. "Google OS is coming: return of the thin client."
There's a style of computer problem solving called backtracking.
There are several possible variants: Serial, Parallel, find one solution, find all, heuristic.
This method can solve an amazing range of problems.
HOW TO RETURN (route, state) path.to aim:
IF state = aim:
RETURN ("success", route with state)
IF state in route OR NOT safe state:
RETURN failure
PUT route with state IN new.route
FOR option IN possible.from state:
PUT (new.route, state altered.for option) path.to aim IN result, route
IF result = "success":
RETURN ("success", route)
RETURN ("failure", {})
In an article I wrote, I used this to solve the Farmer and the Produce problem, the Two Jugs problem, and even the Towers of Hanoi (just for two disks, it found 12 solutions!), but it will also solve the Eight Queens problem, Sudoku, and many others.
Backtracking is comparable to how evolution works
The 3 requirements for evolution:
In early evolution, the only source of variation was mutation, and mutation is only rarely successful, more likely leading to deleterious effects.
Once sex evolved, there was more source of variation.
Which explains the success of sex.
Death is evolution's backtracking, well - death without offspring.
(Later we will see how the definition of offspring has changed).
The environment changes (and therefore redefines success)
This is how species happen.
It is interesting to consider that since cats and dogs have a common ancestor, that common ancestor had two children, one of which was the first cat, and one that was the first dog.
An obvious example of the effect of the environment is camouflage.
But: Kingfishers, wasps
Беля́ев
(Belyaev) bred foxes, selecting only for tameness. This had the
surprising side-effect of changing how they looked as well:
You can see the accretion of successful genes as a form of learning, or a form of memory (and similar to the 'route' in the backtracking program earlier).
Vitamins vs Calories
Sugar, Fat
Sex is fun
Age differences in couples.
After Sex, true memory was a major development, and allowed learning behaviours.
Hypnosis experiments show that you may not always be aware of the reasons you do things. You may rationalise them differently to the 'true' reason. [Example from Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! "All the time you're saying to yourself, "I could do that, but I won't"--which is just another way of saying that you can't."]
Some think that there may not even be conscious free will, but that we always rationalise after the action.
Water
Heights
Fire: Most animals flee from fire
Flashing red light story
TV vs hearth
Screens, e-ink
Long hair
Shaved armpits
Anything affected by genes
Evolution with planning, true memories
Having ideas is now just as important as having babies
"The wheel is an extension of the foot, the book is an extension of the eye; clothing, an extension of the skin, electric circuitry, an extension of the central nervous system"
Using memes, not genes.
Repair: Glasses, medicine, hospitals, deafness
Abilities: Houses, cars, planes, boats
Location: Satnav - we were the last generation of people who could get lost; weather radar.
The computer is being used in so many ways to extend our abilities, I can see no other possibility than to regard it as part of our extended phenotype.
Often people don't understand its true effects.
Take a piece of paper, divide it in two, and write this year's date in one half:
Now divide the other half in two vertically, and write the date 18 months ago in one half:
Now divide the remaining space in half, and write the date 18 months earlier (or in other words 3 years ago) in one half:
Repeat until your pen is thicker than the space you have to divide in two:
This demonstrates that your current computer is more powerful than all other computers you have had put together.
(You can use this diagram to demonstrate other things too).
(The slides are online)
