Semantic Web Pattern

Shorter Alex Iskold:

Introduction: The Semantic Web means lots of things to lots of people, but it's important and real!

1. Top-down approaches to semantic extraction (e.g. Google) are very successful and hard to compete with, but bottom-up approaches are possible now!
   
2. RDF, Microformats, and meta-headers are used in narrow or limited applications, but we have choices!
   
3. No one has a compelling killer app for the Semantic Web, but enterprises will buy anything that sounds good!
   
4. APIs are available, so someone will build something cool any day now!
   
5. Semantic search progress is practically non-existant, but a lot of people are trying!
   
6. Since semantic search is a bust, more focused guess...I mean Semantic Extraction looks promising!
   
7. Semantic databases are not production-ready yet and don't scale, but people are really working hard on the infrastructure to be ready when they take off!
   

Conclusion: The Semantic Web was promised to be just around the corner a decade ago, but we're just in the early stages and it holds such promise and is just around the corner!

Yes, I see a pattern...

Python, Lua, Ruby, or Scheme for Game Prototype?

I had an interesting idea for a casual game and was planning on prototyping it, but now I'm stuck on choosing a programming language to do so. I've had luck with Python and Pygame before, but for some reason can't get it to work on Vista.

Both Lua and Ruby look promising with active game/SDL libraries, but I keep thinking that they won't meet the future needs of the game if I take it past the prototype stage. Lua's lack of an object-oriented model bugs me, but I think I could get around that. Performance is also a concern, though. Ruby is definitely getting better, but I also need to understand how far I can push Ruby's for dynamic class members, and the online docs aren't so hot. Also for either one I'll probably need to learn how to write extensions in C to implement some of my ideas.

I'd really like to pick Scheme, but the game support is poor for existing implementations, as is the final distribution model for those that aren't compile-to-C. I have a half-built Scheme implementation from a while ago that would be ideal, but then that's yet another distraction from really getting to the prototype.

I have a feeling I'll start with Ruby and move to something else as necessary. I initially avoided Ruby, but now that I'm taking a closer look it seems pretty good for this type of work.

Virtual Earth is not the goal

Rudy Rucker has an interesting and convincing post about the improbability of creating a mirror virtual Earth to replace the "real" one. Unfortunately, I think it conflates several issues and he's only right one of them--fortunately it's the his main point!

To get the main argument out of the way, he's absolutely correct that there's very little cost-benefit in simulating an exact duplicate of the Earth, and that such a simulation is probably doomed to failure because of cost, complexity, and theoretical physical limits.

However, that doesn't mean that the Earth won't end up as computronium anyway. I can easily see a chain of events whereby we create a virtual world (low fidelity and incomplete), load ourselves up into it, create new types of reality, and decide that the VR world is "better" along some cost-benefit axes and continue to convert all available matter. This means we can end of never creating a good simulation of Earth, but that we don't keep the old one around either.

I think Rudy is placing some value on the existing world such that, since we can't perfectly recreate it, we'll keep the old one around because it's so great. While I sympathize and love the Earth as it is, I think the whole point of the Sigularity is that we can't know the minds of post-singular beings and what value they will place on anything. It's very plausible that high-speed simulated worlds are more valuable--maybe even to the point of a necessity for Darwinian survival--that the slow-paced "real reality" is at best forgotten.

I don't think Stross speculates much on what post-singular beings do in computronium, but he does say it focuses more on completely new and complex forms of social interaction and economics. One need look no further than today's Web to see how little simulation is required to allow that to happen.

I'm not placing value judgements on these potential paths, but it's a safe bet that "matching nature" is not the value function that the post-singular beings will attempt to maximize.

Marc likes Obama

I respect Marc Andreessen, so I listen when Marc says he likes Obama. The last part of the post makes some good points:

First, Obama's organizational skills with the campaign should be a decent leading indicator of his ability to organize people in government. He's doing well so far, and this type of managing people is what the job of President is all about.

Second, he's experienced different cultures around the world, which gives him an excellent perspective in foreign matters. While this doesn't make him an instant expert on foreign policy, even my limited traveling in the U.S. and abroad tells me that this is an incredibly important factor that few presidential candidates have.

Feeling good

So, obviously I'm out of surgery now. I'm at home, feeling pretty good. The pain is minimal and I'm just resting. I can't allow the neck area to get wet for the next two weeks, so that will make bathing a challenge, but all things considered this is going pretty well. Now I just have to wait for the pathology report.

Rapidly approaching singularity

I've recently been following umair's Bubblegeneration/Collectivegeneration blogand his dour predictions for the economy (and our whole social-political-economic structure). It's pretty clear that he's right about the direction things are headed and the fundamentally corrupt DNA in current governmental and corporate practices.

However, I'm still trying to reconcile this with the explosive progress being made in new technology and social structures being led by an increasingly connected world online. It's hard not to feel that we're spawning new polical, social, and economic structures with more resilient DNA at an increasing pace.

Now, whether or not these forces balance out or one wins is too difficult to say at this time. One could claim that that's the inherent unpredictability of the Singularity. I, for one, am an optimist, and I believe that we'll settle out in a new equalibrium that will be better overall. Unfortunately, I also think we'll have to struggle through a period of volatility to get there, with a lot of disruption and some pretty bug losers as well as winners.