saul2600

and a damned fine show it was. yngwie would be proud of the intensity of the last few moments... if not the entire set.

sounds like a plan, just tell me what time to meet you at the grind

man, i wish i knew what you were talking about. i'm pretty good at faking conversations, but you blew by me. i appriciate the advantages of recording to tape, but i have no idea how it works.

oh... i see! it's a counter for how many times i comment on my own damned post! duh. ah well, hopefully i will see some soprano's and some reasonable human types tonight, and forget all the ennui of late.

and there is plenty of that to forget.

This weekend is the Ilya show at the Rocket Bar.

http://rocketbar.net/shows.html

fair question. indeed, excellent querie. entirely too much in responce follows:

Sunday night, june 29.
(cue spooky d'n'b music, as in "pi")

Symmetry.
pick any number from 1 -> 1,000
let's say, 12.

reverse the digits, then add it to the original number:
12+21 = 33.
palindrome.

try another number: 118
118+811 = 929
ok... another: 217.
217+712 = 929
and another: 516
516+615 = 1131 (not quite a palindrome... so, let's reiterate)
1131+1311 = 2442 , another palindrome.

very few numbers below 100,000 break this symmetry.

hypothesis: numbers are the descriptive poetry of nature. numbers and thier complements create an aesthetically pure, symmetrical unity. order within the disorder.

an infinite number of things at which to marvel.

that could be the root of my waxing cognitive. 'tis healthier to ruminate on such subjects as consciousness, philology or mathematics than to feel the aloneness of the night.

[Edited on Jun 30, 2003]

thanks for the kind words sir, but where have you been, we've missed you?

ah, the Fierce Invalids comment... it's not a scary movie, but just a tom robbins book... i figured since you listed him in your book section, that i could get away with the reference. indeed, i did loan it to my friend, and haven't heard her talk about it once. long story, that one.

i guess it comes down to someone's ability to empathize with a character in a film or book... if they can't do that, wether the writing is bad, the subject uninteresting, or thier own inherant inability to empathize, they could never appreciate Blair Witch as a spookey-assed movie, or Fierce Invalids as a good book... despite the many uncanny parallels that the book offers with her and my life thus far. ah well.

good luck with the apartment/room mate thing!

see ya tonight dude

and some day, if i'm really lucky, a meteorite will strike the earth, darkening the sky and much of humanity will be wiped out... but all of the dorks who were boy scouts, and amatuer physicists will then dominate the earth, for we will be able to make fire, radios and particle accelerators! then chicks will dig us.

that's it.

oh, yeah... see you guys tonight!

yuck man! that sucks! sorry

ahhh... just saw Fractal's set again... much better now... much better...

we'll discuss the compressor later, i may want to actually start from scratch on a compressor stompbox modeled after the DBX 160xt

You're quite welcome for the backrub.

And you know, I thought the same thing about the Submit button just yesterday afternoon....

yes! zwei remarken von eine SG... und sie sind so traumlich... kann ich schlaffen jetzt...




[Edited on Jun 11, 2003]

Sheesh, you know some smart people.

What's your thesis on? Grad or undergrad degree?

Thanks for askin' Shalome!

ok, it's a wierd triple major undergrad degree, and one of the requirements is to bang out a capstone thesis combining two of the majors... i chose mathematics and philosophy... 6 years ago.

anyway, it's on a new-ish form of artificial intelligence. you see, i am left completely unsatisfied with conventional AI in that the programming is trying to emulate the input/output data set of humans... you know, if a program can communicate with you in a convincingly human way, it must be intelligent.

balderdash, i say! if we are not even sure what "intelligence" is, let alone consciousness, then the only way to be reasonably sure that a construct has these qualities is to model absolutely every causal element. for instance, each nueron must be represented with several hundred parameters (how it is electrically charged, how large it is, how healthy it is, its chemical qualities... etc...), then this single element must be compared to a real nueron. if, finally, the responce to similair stimuli is the virtually identical between the real and the modelled neuron, then the next step can be taken.

connect each modelled nueron in the same manner that its real counterparts are connected. then give the whole thing some stimulus, and watch it go. of course, there will be little intelligible output at first (think of a newborn's brain). but, after some time, with the appropriate stimuli...

anyway... i guess the whole point is: mathematically model the brain, and the "mind" will emerge as a consequence. trying to model the mind, without a sufficiently complex brain analog, and it would all be smoke and mirrors.