i Do, i Share and i Learn: January 2017

Saturday, January 28, 2017

The wonderful and terrifying implications of computers that can learn

Sunday, January 22, 2017

6 areas of artificial intelligence to watch closely

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

The plasure of finding things out

Richard Feynman - The Pleasure of Finding... by Mazanga_Von_Badman

Richard Feynman: Physics is fun to imagine

Books by Richard Feynman:

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman

Grady Booch: Enjoy the beauty of what you're doing but also take responsibility!

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

"I Think, Therefore I Am" IBM Fellow Grady Booch on Computing: The Human Experience

For anyone who is interested in Artificial Intelligence:

Monday, January 16, 2017

Next ten years: profession of IT Architect

"... we are doing things that change the way people live, work and love. That has a deep responsiblity for us relative to the human side of it. ...what we must deal with as IT Architects has a very delicious and wonderful technical side of things, but it also has a very human side to it as well. The question was posed to me... "how does one bridge the gap from being a true leader to becoming a thought leader?" As I pondered it a bit, I realized that's the wrong question in some ways, because the world does not need more and more thought leaders. there are plenty of people think deep and in great thoughts. What the world needs more of are people who can create those great thoughts, take the great thoughts of others and make them real. And I think of Steve Jobs, one of my heros, certainly made that manifest. It's not the thinkers, and we do need the thinkers, but we also need the doers, and that is what we are as IT architects. Becasue we are not just ones who sit in the ivory towersand pontificate what the world ought to be, but rather we are the ones who help make the world actually that way. So it is being doers that our challenges to be and being doers who are the ones who are cognizant of the privileges and responsibilities of doing what we do." - Grady Booch

Friday, January 13, 2017

Meet the inventor of the electronic spreadsheet

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

The mind behind Linux

"...my sister said that my biggest exceptional quality was that I would not let go.
...
...I am not a visionary. I do not have a five-year plan. I'm an engineer. And I think it's really -- I mean -- I'm perfectly happy with all the people who are walking around and just staring at the clouds and looking at the stars and saying, "I want to go there." But I'm looking at the ground, and I want to fix the pothole that's right in front of me before I fall in. This is the kind of person I am.
"

The next step in nanotechnology

Adventures in Twitter fiction

Monday, January 9, 2017

Liberal art education, natural science, engineering, computer science and social science

Liberal art education, natural science, engineering, computer science and social science

"A liberal arts education, as one might understandably mistake, isn’t about studying literature or history alone. As tempting as that might sound, a liberal arts education is an education created for a free citizen, for them to cultivate the wide-ranging, deeply intellectual skills that are required for being active citizens of a democracy.
You can become an engineer through a liberal arts education; you will simply be an engineer with knowledge and skills that go far beyond (broader) the technical knowledge of engineering....
...
“It’s not about learning what to think or do, it’s about learning how to think or do,”..You can know the prescribed solution to thousands of problems and know the existing knowledge in your field like the back of your hand, that’s what an excellent traditional education will give you. However, ...what would happen when tomorrow you’re faced with a new problem – one that isn’t in the guidebook now? “And that’s where a liberal arts curriculum that contains a problem-solving unit, training you extensively on skills like drawing analogies, reverse-engineering abstractions, solutions and identifying the right problem will help you,” ...
...

The beauty of what we'll never know

"...

So when we said goodbye that night, I realized he had also shown me the secret point of travel, which is to take a plunge, to go inwardly as well as outwardly to places you would never go otherwise, to venture into uncertainty, ambiguity, even fear.

At home, it's dangerously easy to assume we're on top of things. Out in the world, you are reminded every moment that you're not, and you can't get to the bottom of things, either.

3:25Everywhere, "People wish to be settled," Ralph Waldo Emerson reminded us, "but only insofar as we are unsettled is there any hope for us."...

I don't believe that ignorance is bliss. Science has unquestionably made our lives brighter and longer and healthier. And I am forever grateful to the teachers who showed me the laws of physics and pointed out that three times three makes nine. I can count that out on my fingers any time of night or day. But when a mathematician tells me that minus three times minus three makes nine, that's a kind of logic that almost feels like trust.

4:51The opposite of knowledge, in other words, isn't always ignorance. It can be wonder. Or mystery.Possibility. And in my life, I've found it's the things I don't know that have lifted me up and pushed me forwards much more than the things I do know. It's also the things I don't know that have often brought me closer to everybody around me....Knowledge is a priceless gift. But the illusion of knowledge can be more dangerous than ignorance.......transformation comes when I'm not in charge, when I don't know what's coming next, when I can't assume I am bigger than everything around me. And the same is true in love or in moments of crisis. Suddenly, we're back in that trishaw again and we're bumping off the broad, well-lit streets; and we're reminded, really, of the first law of travel and, therefore, of life: you're only as strong as your readiness to surrender.
In the end, perhaps, being human is much more important than being fully in the know."

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Technology trends for 2017

7 technology trends for 2017 globally

The boiling river of the Amazon

What really matters at the end of life

New York Times Article: One Man’s Quest to Change the Way We Die

Quotes from the BJ Miller's Ted Talk:

"So much of what we're talking about today is a shift in perspective.
...
We know, for example, from research what's most important to people who are closer to death: comfort; feeling unburdened and unburdening to those they love; existential peace; and a sense of wonderment and spirituality.
...
... Sensuous, aesthetic gratification, where in a moment, in an instant, we are rewarded for just being. So much of it comes down to loving our time by way of the senses, by way of the body -- the very thing doing the living and the dying.

...As long as we have our senses -- even just one -- we have at least the possibility of accessing what makes us feel human, connected. Imagine the ripples of this notion for the millions of people living and dying with dementia. Primal sensorial delights that say the things we don't have words for, impulses that make us stay present -- no need for a past or a future.

...So, if teasing unnecessary suffering out of the system was our first design cue, then tending to dignity by way of the senses, by way of the body -- the aesthetic realm -- is design cue number two. Now this gets us quickly to the third and final bit for today; namely, we need to lift our sights, to set our sights on well-being, so that life and health and healthcare can become about making life more wonderful, rather than just less horrible. Beneficence.
...
... you can always find a shock of beauty or meaning in what life you have left, like that snowball lasting for a perfect moment, all the while melting away. If we love such moments ferociously, then maybe we can learn to live well -- not in spite of death, but because of it. Let death be what takes us, not lack of imagination."

My daughter, my wife, our robot, and the quest for immortality

Friday, January 6, 2017

Artificial Intelligence - Deals and Trends

"I think advances in AI can save people's lives." - Mark Zukerberg, CEO, Facebook

"In the long run, I think we will evolve in computing from a mobile-first to an AI-first world." - Sander Pichal, CEO, Google Inc.

Definition of AI: a Branch of computer Science trying to get computers to exhibit intelligence.

Machine Learning is a range of techniques for computers to perform cognitive functions
Deep Learning (a type of Machine Learning that uses layers of neural networks) has been the most accurate and productive technique in AI research

Thursday, January 5, 2017

A Bunch of Free Radical Ideas for Getting a Job that Beat Applying

Teach girls bravery, not perfection

Are you a giver or a taker?

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Frame.io - Product Design Philosophy

Emery Wells, Founder and CEO of Frame.io, spoke at Design Driven NYC on December 13th, 2016. He discussed the product design philosophy at Frame.io, including the 3 key reasons he believes Frame.io was the recipient of an Apple Design Award.

Designing Invisible Software

Laney Caldwell, Product Manager at x.ai, spoke at Design Driven NYC on December 13th, 2016. She discussed some of the challenges designing invisible software such as x.ai, which is an artificial intelligence-powered personal assistant.