My Youtube Channel

Hey all, here's the link to my Youtube channel.  I will be posting mostly math videos, but I may also post other stuff.

Book review: Superintelligence

Superintelligence is written by Nick Bostrom.  This is about construction of a general artificial intelligence and the reality that this is likely going to be an existential threat to humanity when it happens.  Bostrom seems to be convinced that this will happen although the timeframe may well be 100 years as constructing a general artificial intelligence is still quite a difficult task.  Personally, I have been trying to construct an argument using Gödel's incompleteness theorems to argue that a general artificial intelligence is really not constructable.  Nonetheless, Bostrom describes a number of different paths that are currently being pursued that will get us to the same place.
The book is a tour de force of ideas and vocabulary.  I've not learned so many new words since reading George Will's columns.  If I had actually bought myself a copy rather than borrow it from the local library, I would have ended up circling some sentence every 2 or 3 pages with the note that it would be a good undergraduate thesis topic.
There are just a couple of spots where it feels like the subject matter has been massaged to appear more academic than it is (for example the analogy with horses), but overall, this shows that there is a significant amount of thinking that has gone into many of these topics and Bostrom does a superb job of summarizing the thinking and the issues.
Surprisingly, for a four year old book on the subject of AI, it doesn't really seem out of date.  I am sure that it will start to appear aged in another 5 or 10 years, but I don't think that the real problems (the control problem, perverse instantiation, etc.) will be any different then than now.
I would highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in the field of computer science and especially to anyone who thinks that the current automated assistants (e.g. Alexa, Siri, "hey google", etc.) are the first step to Nirvana.

Book Review: Lexicon

After reading Jennifer Government, I ended up playing on nationstates.org for a little while.  It is an interesting contraption to play around with but not being terribly social, I got bored and let my nation "Oregano-stan" die.  Anyway, I noted that the site was advertising Barry's book Lexicon and so I got it out of the library and decided to read it.  I do think that Barry's writing style is not far off from Neal Stephenson and William Gibson although his plots are less intricate and his writing is less about the technology and more about political philosophy.
I enjoyed the book although figuring out that certain parts of the story are happening years apart was annoying to figure out.  The mechanic of mind control through specific words is an interesting one although I feel that it means that the mind must be linear and hackable to an extent that just does not seem right.  The grain of truth is that there is a way to influence people through presentation of ideas whether you call it dialogue, advertising or propaganda, but there it is.
I would recommend the book, especially if you enjoy science fiction.  Just a minor quibble is that the opening scene takes place in PDX Airport and well, the descriptions are just all wrong.

Book Review: Collected Short Stories of Philip K. Dick

So I have read The collected stories of Philip K. Dick. Vol. 1 : the King of the Elves [1947-1952] which includes Paycheck which had been made into a similarly titled Hollywood movie.  I very much enjoyed the collection which did have some mixture between Star Trek-like stories about spaceships, stories about fascism and stories regarding the exploration of effects of technology other than space travel.
Clearly Dick had been concerned regarding the rise of fascism during World War II as a number of the stories reflected elements of history much like the novel Man in the High Castle.  At this time, the totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union was starting to rise to power but I don't think that the level of deprivation of human rights was yet completely evident.  I expect that later volumes will play on the totalitarian themes more strongly.
If you consider the predictions about technology that Dick made, comparing it to what has happened in the roughly 60 years since the writing adds a layer of interest to reading this book.  For some things, technology ended up going in very different and unforeseeable directions.  The spaceship stuff is still very much science fiction.  But some of the musings on robots are very relevant given that we are just on the cusp of self-driving cars and other similar AI enhanced systems.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who generally enjoys science fiction.

Executive Order 13817: Strategic Minerals

What the Executive Order Says

Executive Order (EO) 13817 is entitled "A Federal Strategy To Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals" and was issued on December 20, 2017.  It has 5 sections.

Section 1

This section lays out the background about issues with certain critical minerals; some of which are present in the USA but are not being mined.  The argument presented states that in some cases, mining companies will not endeavor to mine because of too much regulation which would make the mining operation unprofitable.

Section 2

This section defines what a critical mineral is.  It directs the Secretary of the Interior to publish a list of critical minerals in the Federal Register within 60 days.

Section 3

This section defines actions to be taken.  Subsections (a) and (b) are throwaway comments.  Subsection (c) commits to providing electronic access to all government topographical data.  I would like to be sure that this access is given to all and not just mining companies.  Subsection (d) beats on that same drum of deregulation that the administration has been pounding on since the beginning.

Section 4

This section asks for a report and lists specific items, consistent with section 3, that have to be reported on.  Given the national security implications of some of this, I would not be surprised if there is a need to have a classified version of this report generated.  Why advertise to the world where the weaknesses are?  Subsection (b) indicates that the implementation of this EO is to be done consistently with previous EO's such as 13771, 13783, 13807 and 12866.

Section 5

This section includes the necessary fine print to assure the constitutionality of the EO.

My Commentary

One of the standard lines of argument that is presented by authoritarian leaning figures is that security trumps all.  Anything that needs to be done in the name of securing the nation should be done because it is countering an existential threat and countering the threat is worth sacrificing ideals for since if the threat is successful, we won't be here any longer to practice the ideal we tried to save.  I see this argument in the part where it directs that streamlining and simplifying the permitting process should be done for enhancing access to critical, national security required, minerals.
The lessons of World War II include the reality that starving your opponent of critical resources does give one an edge in the fight.  We acknowledge this in the current foreign policy of sanctions against Iran and North Korea.  Because there is a need to keep secrets, real objective justification of the need for the kind of action that is included in this EO cannot be presented to the average person.  Therefore the administration is operating on trust and based on what they have done in the past, the argument for national security just seems more likely to be pretense than reality.  The questions is whether it is to advance the deconstruction of the administrative state or, rather, as a give-away to political allies in the mining industry.
The lessons of the environmental damage sustained by convenient disposal of industrial wastes and by-products that were learned in the 1970's came at a high cost to the communities affected and it was pretty clear that the people rejected these practices.  Are we going to have to re-learn these lessons over the next 5-10 years?

Presidential Memorandum on Space Exploration

On December 11, 2017, a Memorandum was issued entitled "Space Policy Directive-1: Reinvigorating America's Human Space Exploration Program."  The Memorandum is addressed to a large number of cabinet members.  This memorandum has 2 sections.

Section 1

This section indicates that the memorandum amends a previous 2010 Space Exploration Directive-4 to replace a vague sentence with some more specific goals.  I have not been able to find this referenced document on the internet, the closest is this.  The EO states that the USA will first focus on going back to the moon and then set sights on exploration further afield.

Section 2

This section directs that the memorandum be published in the Federal Register as well as the usual fine print to assure that the executive actions are not overstepping constitutional authority.

My Commentary

The long term goal of getting off this planet is one that I share.  For the survival of the species and many of the species on Earth at this time, it is going to become necessary, due to the limitations of resources on Earth, to be able to escape to the stars.  However, space exploration needs more than just noble words, it needs money, resources, public focus and inspiration which are all things that the current administration has not granted the Agencies that are supposed to carry out this work.  As such, this memorandum is just another bit of hypocrisy from the current administration.

Recent Presidential Documents (EO 13816 and others)

Here are some recently issued Presidential Documents.

Executive Orders

Executive Order 13816

Executive Order (EO) 13816 is entitled "Revising the Seal for the National Credit Union Administration" and was issued on December 8, 2017.  This executive order changes the seal of the NCUA which had been established under EO 11580.  The EO goes into some detail about the symbols and other things that appear on the seal.  I am bemused that an EO had to be issued for such a thing.

Proclamations

• Proclamation 9684: National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 2017, issued December 7, 2017 as required by law.
• Proclamation 9685: Human Rights Day, Bill of Rights Day, and Human Rights Week, 2017, issued December 8, 2017.  This proclamation states "We remember those suffering under the yolk[sic] of authoritarianism..." which leads me to believe authoritarianism, under the current administration, includes a breakfast buffet.
• Proclamation 9686: Wright Brothers Day, 2017, issued December 15, 2017 as required by law.

Determinations

• Determination 2018-1: Presidential Determination Pursuant to Section 1245(d)(4)(B) and (C) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, issued on November 15. 2017.  This is issued as a memo to the Secretaries of State, Treasury and Energy.  This is a repeat of Determination 2017-6 and continues the sanctions against Iran as per PL 112-81.
• Determination 2018-2: Suspension of Limitations Under the Jerusalem Embassy Act, issued on December 6, 2017.  This is also a repeat, in this case Determination 2017-07 as PL 104-45 requires that the exemptions are waived every 6 months.

Memoranda

Memorandum of December 8, 2017: Delaying Submission of the Small Business Administration Report Under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015.  This memorandum is addressed to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration.  In accordance with the act (PL 114-125), a report has to be generated within 180 days.  However, this memorandum is directing the Chief Counsel to delay the report until after negotiations are completed.