tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post1628824414996420920..comments2024-02-26T00:36:28.362-08:00Comments on Epeus' epigone: If Google predicts your future, will it be a cliché?Kevin Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-58203695853569194412019-05-24T15:34:19.813-07:002019-05-24T15:34:19.813-07:00Grand Moff Darth Salt: mentioned this in Heh, true....<a href="https://twitter.com/BarnabyWalters" rel="nofollow">Grand Moff Darth Salt</a>: mentioned this in <a href="https://twitter.com/BarnabyWalters/status/1132051411309613059" rel="nofollow">Heh, true. I think by now a lot of people developed an intuition for ignoring the fluff writing described there in the same way we all learned to skip our eyes over banner ads. Definitely going to read that Orwell article! Seems… prescient.</a>. <br> <a href="https://twitter.com/BarnabyWalters/status/1132051411309613059" rel="nofollow">via twitter.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-26579888337336837342018-10-05T23:08:10.711-07:002018-10-05T23:08:10.711-07:00Robert Scoble: liked this. via plus.google.com<a href="https://profiles.google.com/111091089527727420853" rel="nofollow">Robert Scoble</a>: liked this. <br> <a href="https://plus.google.com/+KevinMarks/posts/VTngzovFGYg#liked-by-111091089527727420853" rel="nofollow">via plus.google.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-7615296191445584742018-10-05T23:07:54.745-07:002018-10-05T23:07:54.745-07:00John Panzer: If he really did ;) via plus.google....<a href="https://plus.google.com/115608553892438743738" rel="nofollow">John Panzer</a>: If he really did ;) <br> <a href="https://plus.google.com/+KevinMarks/posts/VTngzovFGYg#z134u1355znayb55e04ci3jzhkf3hzpgo2o%231329715246726000" rel="nofollow">via plus.google.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-43661095285094344622018-10-05T23:07:44.545-07:002018-10-05T23:07:44.545-07:00Justin Bacon: liked this. via plus.google.com<a href="https://profiles.google.com/102669639963533672714" rel="nofollow">Justin Bacon</a>: liked this. <br> <a href="https://plus.google.com/+KevinMarks/posts/VTngzovFGYg#liked-by-102669639963533672714" rel="nofollow">via plus.google.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-27683318227265243182018-10-05T23:07:16.815-07:002018-10-05T23:07:16.815-07:00Don Wood: Thanks for writing this. via plus.googl...<a href="https://plus.google.com/109965816087633671773" rel="nofollow">Don Wood</a>: Thanks for writing this. <br> <a href="https://plus.google.com/+KevinMarks/posts/VTngzovFGYg#z134u1355znayb55e04ci3jzhkf3hzpgo2o%231329712582733669" rel="nofollow">via plus.google.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-82334154822477093342018-10-05T23:07:05.601-07:002018-10-05T23:07:05.601-07:00Víctor R. Ruiz: liked this. via plus.google.com<a href="https://profiles.google.com/115241315008695484224" rel="nofollow">Víctor R. Ruiz</a>: liked this. <br> <a href="https://plus.google.com/+KevinMarks/posts/VTngzovFGYg#liked-by-115241315008695484224" rel="nofollow">via plus.google.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-82239101199240150222018-10-05T23:07:01.625-07:002018-10-05T23:07:01.625-07:00Don Wood: liked this. via plus.google.com<a href="https://profiles.google.com/109965816087633671773" rel="nofollow">Don Wood</a>: liked this. <br> <a href="https://plus.google.com/+KevinMarks/posts/VTngzovFGYg#liked-by-109965816087633671773" rel="nofollow">via plus.google.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-46040548983261418932018-10-05T23:06:58.624-07:002018-10-05T23:06:58.624-07:00Steve Quinn: liked this. via plus.google.com<a href="https://profiles.google.com/101825217033322650601" rel="nofollow">Steve Quinn</a>: liked this. <br> <a href="https://plus.google.com/+KevinMarks/posts/VTngzovFGYg#liked-by-101825217033322650601" rel="nofollow">via plus.google.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-53396251894052875482018-10-05T23:06:56.583-07:002018-10-05T23:06:56.583-07:00Rajasekhar Reddy Mettu: liked this. via plus.goog...<a href="https://profiles.google.com/114927550142325929366" rel="nofollow">Rajasekhar Reddy Mettu</a>: liked this. <br> <a href="https://plus.google.com/+KevinMarks/posts/VTngzovFGYg#liked-by-114927550142325929366" rel="nofollow">via plus.google.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-79259192433612253242016-03-29T09:04:36.779-07:002016-03-29T09:04:36.779-07:00Justin Bacon: mentioned this in This is new? see m...<a href="https://plus.google.com/102669639963533672714" rel="nofollow">Justin Bacon</a>: mentioned this in <a href="https://plus.google.com/+KevinMarks/posts/VTngzovFGYg" rel="nofollow">This is new? see my http://epe...</a>. <br> <a href="https://plus.google.com/+KevinMarks/posts/VTngzovFGYg" rel="nofollow">via plus.google.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-56666423557755232582016-03-24T10:41:51.526-07:002016-03-24T10:41:51.526-07:00Don Wood: mentioned this in This is new? see my ht...<a href="https://plus.google.com/109965816087633671773" rel="nofollow">Don Wood</a>: mentioned this in <a href="https://plus.google.com/+KevinMarks/posts/VTngzovFGYg" rel="nofollow">This is new? see my http://epe...</a>. <br> <a href="https://plus.google.com/+KevinMarks/posts/VTngzovFGYg" rel="nofollow">via plus.google.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-70851091316369082992014-09-18T00:57:09.399-07:002014-09-18T00:57:09.399-07:00Greg Lloyd: favorited this. via twitter.com<a href="https://twitter.com/roundtrip" rel="nofollow">Greg Lloyd</a>: favorited this. <br> <a href="https://twitter.com/kevinmarks/status/512450731115171840" rel="nofollow">via twitter.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-25849095336318967732014-09-17T21:13:31.029-07:002014-09-17T21:13:31.029-07:00Glenn Lovell: @kevinmarks How true -- devastatingl...<a href="http://CinemaDope.com" rel="nofollow">Glenn Lovell</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/kevinmarks" rel="nofollow">@kevinmarks</a> How true -- devastatingly true ... <br> <a href="https://twitter.com/CinemaDope/status/512451742328291328" rel="nofollow">via twitter.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-11890272165187976822014-09-17T21:12:28.289-07:002014-09-17T21:12:28.289-07:00Glenn Lovell: retweeted this. via twitter.com<a href="http://CinemaDope.com" rel="nofollow">Glenn Lovell</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/CinemaDope/status/512451656118579200" rel="nofollow">retweeted this.</a> <br> <a href="https://twitter.com/CinemaDope/status/512451656118579200" rel="nofollow">via twitter.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-71928237268615751162014-09-17T21:10:52.197-07:002014-09-17T21:10:52.197-07:00Kevin Marks: @CinemaDope Tin Men is chillingly pre...<a href="http://kevinmarks.com" rel="nofollow">Kevin Marks</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/CinemaDope" rel="nofollow">@CinemaDope</a> Tin Men is chillingly prescient. Time for a new adaptation? <br> <a href="https://twitter.com/kevinmarks/status/512452054518730752" rel="nofollow">via twitter.com</a>Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-55714448329611537042010-09-09T00:21:21.220-07:002010-09-09T00:21:21.220-07:00There's another cognitive dimension to Instant...There's another cognitive dimension to Instant and Scribe: query commits may now happen at the level of the keystroke. These experiments only hint at where predictive text is going. Imagine a Google Instant Maps that slides, pans in, reorients, highlights landmarks, and suggests routes by process of elimination without your ever having left the search bar.<br /><br />Given all this, I wonder what becomes of the line between preview and commit. Will there still be a punctuating dimension to Enter, as in, "I'm finished my query"? Or perhaps Enter as way of marking off shallow from deep(er) interest in what you're seeing?<br /><br />Besides the style convergence effect Kevin speculates about, there are opportunity costs tied to each thought dropped or deferred as the autocompletion draws your attention away from querying, towards results. Not that such costs should always trouble us; word processing augmented with WYSIWYG, spell check, auto-save, etc. has if anything improved my writing by knocking down barriers between the interface and my intent. I would hate to go back.<br /><br />Personal note: I used the <a href="http://scribe.googlelabs.com/" rel="nofollow">Scribe bookmarklet</a> to write this post. Arrow key behaviour takes some getting used to. It would be hella meta if we all conducted this discussion with Scribe turned on.Jason Treithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18032439392851844044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-1129770170404257552010-09-08T19:31:13.856-07:002010-09-08T19:31:13.856-07:00"This has only got worse since then; in some ...<i>"This has only got worse since then; in some ways the computers programmed to write and evaluate prose are analogous to the computers programmed to securitize and trade mortagages - they are growing large enough to outweigh and destabilize the human activities that provides their reason to exist in the first place."</i><br /><br />RE: Stablity<br /><br />I'm a sailor and avocational boat builder, and for a while now the idea of free surface area keeps seeming like it means something in the way that ideas slosh around the internet, but I haven't been able to get much father than my own experience in a swamped boat, try to still still enough to not capsize, while still needing to move around enough to get the water out, and somehow sensing that this is sort of like all the information on the internet sloshing this way and that.<br /><br />I know, that's pretty unformed, but the idea that text algorithms could be as destabilizing as financial algorithms gives me that sloshing feeling again.Tony Comstockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06376376894244593929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-14002314394401000102010-09-07T22:37:48.080-07:002010-09-07T22:37:48.080-07:00Tony, yes, I remember Jaron Lanier saying a decade...Tony, yes, I remember Jaron Lanier <a href="http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lanier/lanier_index.html" rel="nofollow">saying a decade ago</a>:<br /><i>Turing's mistake was that he assumed that the only explanation for a successful computer entrant would be that the computer had become elevated in some way; by becoming smarter, more human. There is another, equally valid explanation of a winning computer, however, which is that the human had become less intelligent, less human-like.<br /><br />An official Turing Test is held every year, and while the substantial cash prize has not been claimed by a program as yet, it will certainly be won sometime in the coming years. My view is that this event is distracting everyone from the real Turing Tests that are already being won. Real, though miniature, Turing Tests are happening all the time, every day, whenever a person puts up with stupid computer software.<br /><br />For instance, in the United States, we organize our financial lives in order to look good to the pathetically simplistic computer programs that determine our credit ratings. We borrow money when we don't need to, for example, to feed the type of data to the programs that we know they are programmed to respond to favorably.<br /><br />In doing this, we make ourselves stupid in order to make the computer software seem smart. In fact we continue to trust the credit rating software even though there has been an epidemic of personal bankruptcies during a time of very low unemployment and great prosperity.<br /><br />We have caused the Turing test to be passed. There is no epistemological difference between artificial intelligence and the acceptance of badly designed computer software.</i><br /><br />This has only got worse since then; in some ways the computers programmed to write and evaluate prose are analogous to the computers programmed to securitize and trade mortagages - they are growing large enough to outweigh and destabilize the human activities that provides their reason to exist in the first place.Kevin Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18338939297948690534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-8435450497771509162010-09-07T22:26:10.230-07:002010-09-07T22:26:10.230-07:00Re: Tony above -- isn't it odd that we talk ab...Re: Tony above -- isn't it odd that we talk about the Turing Test as if it were a prize competition? Some of us talk about Scribe the same way -- as if the point were to get the sentence "right," to match (or avoid) the famous phrase, or the one that we're thinking of.<br /><br />It's Scribe's deafness to context that makes it alarming, unintentionally funny, and potentially interesting. On Twitter, Robin Sloan compared it to surrealism; this is a good reminder that when most of us try automatic writing, what we get is a string of uninteresting clichés.Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13026955797817424956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-11456282445142199342010-09-07T20:22:54.382-07:002010-09-07T20:22:54.382-07:00I think I just read Jaron Lanier saying somethign ...I think I just read Jaron Lanier saying somethign along the lines that we'll get our Turing Test winner by lowering the standard of what it means to be human.Tony Comstockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06376376894244593929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200930.post-16985901195093857302010-09-07T20:20:52.251-07:002010-09-07T20:20:52.251-07:00It is the unpredictable about humans that I like. ...It is the unpredictable about humans that I like. For example, I could not have predicted you would write this — and I think it's wonderful stuff at many levels.Alexis Madrigalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16144869980358579398noreply@blogger.com