2016.01.12 13:00 - "How deep is your pile of must-reads?"

Bruce Mowbray was the gaurdian for this session and is responsible for edits.

 

Riddle Sideways: Hey Bruce

 Bruce: Heya, Riddle.

 Riddle Sideways: Hey Elan

 Riddle Sideways: missed ya last week

 Bruce: Elan has gone underground....

 Riddle Sideways: came in too late

 Bruce: Well, I came for 15 minutes, but no one else was here... so I left.

 Bruce: Sorry I missed you, too.

 Riddle Sideways: figured that

 Bruce: Heya, Elan.

 Riddle Sideways: Elan surfaced

 Elan: Hi, Bruce.  Hi, Riddle.

 Elan: Yep.

 Bruce: We're having a howling snow storm right now.. with temps falling down into the single digits tonight.

 Elan: brrrr.

 Riddle Sideways: ooooo too cold

 Bruce: Yes.

 Riddle Sideways: after the nice warm that you have been having

 Bruce: Yes.

 Bruce: Out here on the farm, those winds have little to block them, so it's quite chilly.

 Riddle Sideways: watched the Minn. NFL game this weekend

 Bruce: Oh yes.  How was that?  I missed it.

 Riddle Sideways: and they kept wishing for it to get up to zero

 Bruce: (was watching Bengals/Steelers)

 Bruce: oh my.

 Elan ponders upgrading to warm-blooded model.

 Riddle Sideways: or running anti-freeze

 Bruce: I'm taking a philosophy course in artificial intelligence - through MIT.

 Riddle Sideways: nice

 Elan: Good idea.

 Bruce: Yes, I started it yesterday...

 Bruce: so far, just the usual stuff, though. . .  Chinese Room, etc.

 Riddle Sideways: oh need to find a link

 Bruce: kk.  I can wait.

 Riddle Sideways: you probably already saw it

 Riddle Sideways: Kara  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W7WE1oP7d4

 Bruce: My course:  MITx: 24.09x Minds and Machines

 Elan: Kara!

 Elan's heart throbs.

 Riddle Sideways: hahaha

 Riddle Sideways: thought you would 'love' it

 Elan: Yes, I DO!

 Elan: oh my. . . . (watches video of Kara….)

 Riddle Sideways: maybe what Aph was researching?

 

 PaB Bell

 

 Riddle Sideways: looks like a great course

 Bruce: "Now sing something in Japanese" ----  she's way ahead of you, Elan.

 Elan: SOLD???

 Elan: Yikes!

 Riddle Sideways: sings "That's right the women are smarter ..."

 Bruce: :)

 Bruce ponders "her" -- and others.

 Elan: What was the name of the robot in EX MACHINA?

 Elan: I've forgotten....

 Bruce: Yikes!

 Riddle Sideways: speaking of her

 Bruce listens.

 Riddle Sideways: found that the new favorite cold weather shirt

 Riddle Sideways: shirt's pocket holds cell phone at just the right height

 Riddle Sideways: for camera to look out

 Bruce: hmmmm.

 Elan: Is the camera hidden from view, then?

 Riddle Sideways: like in 'her', he had her camera in his shirt pocket

 Riddle Sideways: not so hidden

 Elan: (excellent animation in the Kara vid, by the way -- but a sad story)

 Bruce: Oh yes, I remember that.

 Bruce: Samantha was an operating system -- with a camera, to be sure.

 Elan nods.

 Riddle Sideways: ah yes

 Riddle Sideways: like Watson

 Bruce nods.

 Riddle Sideways: multi-user server racks

 Elan: The MIT course that Bruce is taking mentions Watson early on...

 Bruce nods, yes, Elan.

 Riddle Sideways: multiple users getting medical advise from Watson

 Bruce: Wow.

 Bruce: So Watson has gone to work as a doctor?

 Riddle Sideways: carrying on diagnostic chats with Watson

 Riddle Sideways: yes

 Bruce: Wow.

 Riddle Sideways: and some other knowledge big data arenas

 Bruce: Does Watson give its patients a percentage chance of "knowing for sure" with each diagnosis?

 Riddle Sideways: IBM is selling rent/use time

 Elan listens carefully.

 Bruce: Well, Watson won the million $ prize for IBM, you know.

 Bruce: (on Jeopardy).

 Riddle Sideways: Elan, it would be easier for you to look it up :)

 Elan: kk, will do.

 Riddle Sideways: yes, but had a requirement to answer in 3-seconds

 Riddle Sideways: and in the form of a question

 Bruce: oh yes.... I wonder if there's a time limit with medical diagnoses.

 Riddle Sideways: they removed those constraints

 Bruce: (unlike the time limits with REAL doctors?)

 Bruce: You know, it took my RL doc five days to diagnose my Legionnaire's Disease four years ago...

 Bruce: I'll bet WATSON could have done that in a few seconds.

 Riddle Sideways: neat huh

 Bruce: yeppers.

 Elan nods.

 Riddle Sideways: or the like the last page of current Wired mag

 Bruce: There are so many possible applications for a machine like Watson....

 Riddle Sideways wonders if that is online someplace

 Bruce: What was that page about, Riddle?

 Bruce: yes, I'd like to see it.

 Riddle Sideways: Wired always has a feature on the last page

 Riddle Sideways: this months was a flow chart

 Bruce: http://www.wired.com/category/magazine/

 Bruce: hmmmm ... listens

Riddle Sideways: looking

 

PaB Bell

 

 Elan: Find anything, Riddle?

 Riddle Sideways: no

 Riddle Sideways: brb, will go get mag

 Elan: Maybe Watson could look for us.

 Elan: kk.

 Bruce ponders to himself, "Good 'ol real life...."

 Elan: Wouldn't that be " ol' " Brucie?

 Bruce: yeah, perhaps so, Elan.

 Bruce: or " ol' "

 Elan: with the apostrophe replacing the letter "d", right?

 Bruce: Oh yeah.

 Bruce: OL'  it is.

 Elan hopes Riddle finds the WIRED page he's looking for....

 Riddle Sideways: darn!! can't find it

 Bruce: np.

 Riddle Sideways: maybe it was a dream

 Bruce: I can imagine a very nice flowchart.

 Riddle Sideways: alternate reality

 Riddle Sideways: this was funny

 Elan ponders dreaming of flowcharts.

Note:  Riddle mailed me a link to the flowchart later, and here it is:

https://xkcd.com/1619/

 Riddle Sideways: bedside reading pile is up to 9 inches

 Bruce: oh my.

 Riddle Sideways: blocking the reading lamp

 Riddle Sideways: time to act

 Bruce: :)

 Bruce: I read so many things at once that I can't keep track sometimes...

Riddle Sideways: how deep is your pile of must reads

 Bruce: Currently reading at least three books.

 Bruce: and multiple online articles from 3 Quarks, Science Daily, and other sources.

 Bruce: Reading two book by Nobel winner Wilcek --- (sp?)

 Riddle Sideways: TSK

 Bruce: His "A Beautiful Question" and his previous book on the same topic:  "Longing for Harmonies"

 Bruce: Yes, that one too!  TSK

 Bruce: and another book by Stim...

 Bruce: "Dragon's Play"

 Bruce: an EXCELLENT book, btw.

 Riddle Sideways: ooooo that would be good

 Bruce: It's really a delicious book.

 Riddle Sideways: eating it up?

 Bruce: the subtitle:

 Bruce: "A New Taoist Transmission of the Complete Experience of Human Life"

 Bruce: very similar to the Zen "10 Ox Pictures"

 Riddle Sideways: wow, that could be a tight book

 Bruce: but this time there are 12 images, and it's out of Taoism instead of Buddhism.

 Riddle Sideways: or not :)

 Bruce: It is excellently written... delightful.

 Bruce: and SOOOO easily accessible (the ideas, I mean).

 Bruce: published in... [let me check....]

 Bruce: published in 1991.

 Bruce: Shambala Press - Berkeley.

 Bruce: NO!  Wrong!

 Bruce: published by Great Circle Lifeworks - Berkeley.

 Elan: come on, Bruce.... Get it right, already!

 Riddle Sideways: giggles

Elan:  Human foibles amuse me.

Elan: and scare me.

Riddle Sideways: being correct is not as enjoyable as the trip

Bruce: For sure.

 Riddle Sideways: arriving at the answer is not as enjoyable as the path less taken

 Bruce: I've taken many such untrod paths.

 

 PaB Bell: 90

 

 Bruce: (being a hermit by nature....)

 Elan: I thought humans were herd animals . . . . Did I get that wrong?

 Bruce: Not really, Elan.

 PaB Bell: Shhhhhhhh! Quiet please.

 Bruce: It's sort of fascinating to watch my instincts when we have a weather event like this one...

 Elan: How so, Brucie?

 Bruce: Well, the herding instinct stuff comes out.

 Elan listens.

 Bruce: I mean, if there's a blizzard so bad that the power goes off,

 Bruce: and my car goes dead,

 Bruce: and stuff like that...

 Bruce: I'm all alone out here.

 Elan: So....?

 Riddle Sideways: so, you are always alone out there

 Bruce: Well, I just notice how my .... how can I explain it....?

 Bruce: Yes, my typist is alone.

 Riddle Sideways: herds things?

 Bruce: Five miles to the nearest town and half a mile to the nearest neighbor.

 Elan: Mmmm. Wonders what solitude would feel like...

 Bruce: Nothing to herd out here...

 Bruce: maybe space stations, star clusters, and the like.

 Riddle Sideways: then how would the herding stuff come out?

 Bruce: A flock of very LOUD wild geese flew over yesterday....

 Bruce: Elan said he thought humans were herding animals.

 Elan: Yes, aren't they?

 Riddle Sideways: some

 Bruce: More or less they are, Elan.

 Bruce: yes, some are; but a few are not.

 Elan shakes databases....

 Riddle Sideways: oooo, remember the video of the lightening strike

 Bruce: Oh yes.

 Bruce: That was an experience.

 Riddle Sideways: that was ...

 Bruce: I still have that vid somewhere....

 Riddle Sideways: scary, awesome, neat, wild, fun

 Bruce: The charge was so strong that it shut down the camera.

 Bruce: and left a white flash on the movie frame.

 Riddle Sideways: yes

 Elan: Brucie should have known better than to make a video of a lightning storm.

 Bruce: I watched the movie TWISTER last night, btw.

 Riddle Sideways: let's see, you were out there herding thunder clouds

 Bruce: Phony movie, but some very interesting effects.

 Bruce: Sort of like herding.

 Bruce: One of the great things about living in rural areas is enjoying - savoring - the natural environment in all its aspects,

 Riddle Sideways: this morning Eden was talking about doing a Digital Detox

 Bruce: Storms are especially enjoyable.

 Riddle Sideways: that would really kill you Elan

 Bruce: Really?

 Bruce: I wonder how that would go.

 Elan: Yikes!

 Bruce: Digital detox?

 Elan: Would that be like a prostate exam?

 Riddle Sideways: unplug for some days

 Bruce: FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE< ELAN!

 Bruce: ahhhh.

 Bruce: I got it.

 Riddle Sideways: but, Elan's image is better :)

 Elan: hmmm, that would do me in, I'm afraid.

 Riddle Sideways: You'd like come back all 'what day is it', dude

 Elan: Sort of like a blackout.

Bruce: or a power-out.

Bruce: My phone comes through the Internet now (VONAGE), so if there's a power outage, I cannot call out - can't even call 911.

Riddle Sideways: all your virtuals are gone

Bruce: Yeppers.

Bruce: That's REALLY being away from the herd, if you get my meaning.

Riddle Sideways: we still have one landline, but it has a powered cordless phone plugged into it

Bruce: But, if we want the outage fixed, the electric company requires us to call them to report outages, so it's a catch 22.

 

PaB Bell

 

Elan: I'm looking forward to that, Brucie  :)

Riddle Sideways: ok, make changes to Win10 registry to try and stop the SL graphics card crashes

 Elan: Need to re-charge now.  Thanks for reminding me.  Bye for now, folks.

 Riddle Sideways: now to go test SL

Bruce: RL phone ringing.. must go...

 Bruce: Bye!

 Riddle Sideways: you must have power then

 Riddle Sideways: have good phone experiences

 Riddle Sideways: bye