Chitambira's Blog

Respect ANY kind of experience

chitambira — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:09:24 +0000

……..had grown up with a serious headache, which was getting even worse as he grew. The pain was becoming unbearable and was fed up of taking loads of painkillers and trips to the local clinic.

The doctor said, ‘Joe, the good news is I can cure your headaches. The bad news is that it will require castration.

You have a very rare condition, which causes your testicles to press on your spine and the pressure creates one heck of a headache. The only way to relieve the pressure is to remove the testicles.

Joe was shocked and depressed. He wondered if he had anything to live for. He had no choice but to go under the knife. When he left the hospital, he was without a headache for the first time in 20 years, but he felt like he was missing an important part of himself. As he walked down the street, he realized that he felt like a different person. He could make a new beginning and live a new life. He saw a men’s clothing store and thought, ‘That’s what I need… A new suit.’

He entered the shop and told the salesman, ‘I’d like a new suit.’

The elderly tailor eyed him briefly and said, ‘Let’s see… size 44 long.’

Joe laughed, ‘That’s right, how did you know?’

‘Been in the business 60 years!’ the tailor said.

Joe tried on the suit, it fit perfectly.

As Joe admired himself in the mirror, the salesman asked, ‘How about a new shirt?

Joe thought for a moment and then said, ‘Sure.’

The salesman eyed Joe and said, ‘Let’s see, 34 sleeves and 16-1/2 neck.’

Joe was surprised, “That’s right, how did you know?’

‘Been in the business 60 years.’

Joe tried on the shirt and it fit perfectly.

Joe walked comfortably around the shop and the salesman asked, ‘How about some new underwear?’

Joe thought for a moment and said, ‘Sure.’

The salesman said, ‘Let’s see… size 36.

Joe laughed, ‘Ah ha! I got you! I’ve worn a size 34 since I was 18 years old.’

The salesman shook his head, ‘You can’t wear a size 34. A size 34 would press your testicles up against the base of your spine and give you one heck of a headache.’

Experience, what drives knowledge, technology and life.

chitambira — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:40:10 +0000

Its very important to point out that technology is a result of a need, a need to do thing simplerly, a need to improve the “quality” of life, a need to be “better”.
However, the process of bettening our life is riddled with ups and downs. Our efforts sometimes proves fruitless.
Being beings with lazy motor neurons but complex neural networks, our quest therefore is to use that ability and come up with ways to spare our lazy muscles.
Like the creation we made in our own image, the computer, everything about us is to do with memory. Our ability to recognise patterns, formations etc, which itself is wired withing the neural networks of our brains, is of paramout importance. We easily relate new learned patterns or occurances to the previous ones and helps us trend and draw references. This simply is described by one word called Experience.
We can therefore say advancement we do as humans, is driven by experience.
Experiences gathered over time, tagged with bad or good depending on previous outcomes, relationships drawn from those experiences, linked up together, conclusions (or rather future experience anticipation and certainity drawn) all recorded and thoroughly documented IS WHAT WE CALL KNOWLEDGE.

Now some experiences never pass through all the stages to eventually become knowledge. Such will remain experience and will usually die wit the passing of its host mind.

That brings me to another point, NEVER DESPISE ANY FORM OF KNOWLEDGE because nothing is as precious.

A certain young man………TBC

Experience

chitambira — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:43:26 +0000

Watch this space!!!

Of fiction and technology.

chitambira — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:32:22 +0000

Note: Written in reply to a colleague’s comments on movie “I Robot”
…..
You very well mentioned that anything material can be used for either good or evil(by human beings). However, you negelect to take into account that this movie is suggesting coming into existence of a new specie, which itself has power to USE matter, for either good or evil. You listed examples where human beings can use material to exploit. What you are failing to comprehent is the fact that, at a stage where we can build an intelligence capable of building upon and beyond this intelligence (Technological Singularity breakout), These intelligences could easily and quickly progress and sustain themselves without need for human intervention. At that point, it is fairly possible for them to be able to exploit human beings.

However, most people, including the concept writers of some movies, have a misconception that such technology will be purely based on electro-technology. Their characters are therefore based on metalic robots with some incredulous electronic circuitry. This is primarily because of our limitations in distiquishing posibility and reality. This movie particularly illustrates how such intelligencies can progress and build their own prototypes which can simply evolve into hunmanoids. (a concept which is very possible considering advances in MNT)

Humanoids and fast cloning have potential to break the current integrity of human existence.

So the question is basically not FOR or AGAINST robots, but rather, should we build intelligences that are capable of making their own decisions? (irregardless of basis, eg. prescribed rules)

Well, that question does not need to be answered. The very existence of human being is coined around progression, ( just as in any from of life) and its quite safe to say that already and ever since, we are by default, obviously, irreversibly and irresistibly working towards that Technological Singularity.

Normaly this kind of talk leads me into discussing about other interesting topics like Religion and Technology, esp Technology and Christianity, but I will not be tempted just at this point to delve into that.

It is very possible, for any independent decision capable life form to use matter for iether good or evil. The biggest mistake is to take these new “species” as matter/material, ignoring that they actually become living creatures (from the word ‘creation’)

We already have proven what we knew all along, that we can copy and fabricate life artificially. How far can we be from artificially creating life?

On movies, another interesting watch will be Wall-E, although myred in the misconception i mentioned before. Both these movies speculate on what already is real. there is far more to it than this and nobody has ever dared to speculate on whats possible because honestly a alot of stuff that we understand right now is all possible. This means 92% of anything a human being dare to think of, is actually possible, but only that it could be possible in a far much different way that his original thought.

Many technological advancements todate have largely been inspired by science fiction (very true) because as humans, we tend to have our own image what we want ans aspire for (utopia) and also what we dread. Both these concepts start as fiction which may be potrayed in movies, but funny enough, we go on to progress towards both. It would have been great magic some 30yrs ago to put a cup of water in a box, close it press a button, wait for 2 minutes, retrieve the cup and serve a sizzling hot coffee.

Needless to say, however, we are all limited by our experiences, which limit our imaginations and ability to comprehend some simple facts of existence, which appear complex, yet can be unfold to the simplex form of existence, being …..

Life technology

chitambira — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:13:10 +0000

When we talk of life usually we tend to think along the likes of “breathe in, breathe out” and our schooled fellows rush to “check the pulse” However, I want to propose that life is beyond these outward manifestations.

We have all agreed that there is a lot of microscopic life all over (bacteria, fungi, viruses etc) and all these are living creatures although their breath and pulse we can not see by our “naked” eye.
So since I am not a biologist, I will hasten to say the core or basis of life are the ORGANICS which are:
Nitrogen
Hydrogen
Carbon (in its vastly various forms)
Oxygen
Phosphorus and (halogens and sulphur)

If we strip you of your clothes and onaments,only the above is what will be left. (before you disagree, read on, to see why we have some inorganics in our bodies — not original design)

Now a small lecture to the college drop-outs out there, The above elements can exist in vastly different forms, combinations, states etc etc and their form and combination are what makes different organisms unique. and this uniqueness, to us human beings, we have narrowed it down (so far) to the DNA, which itself consist of the above elements.

Currently all our semiconductor memories consist of transistors arranged in some fashion to give rise to some electronic “gates” which in turn form the memory cells. This itself is the analogical idea of how we (life capable creatures) store our information in form of DNA. Only now that in this case, the smaller units are the organic atoms themselves. the DNA represents a long term storage of information that can be passed from generation to generation. However, minor changes introduced by hackers (foreign processes — environment) may also be passed down and in turn altered in each generation, giving rise to EVOLUTION

So having the organics at your disposal, and the power to arange them in ANY way and form, means you can have the power to CREATE LIFE. Although it is debateble that the above organics depend on some inorganics like iron, calcium etc and also that we as human beings consist of bones which are rich in calcium, some have suggested that these elements were picked up from our outer environments and are not necessarily what we were mearnt to have.
We, in other words, were supposed to be having carbon bones (in form of diamond….. imagine diamond teeth) and there wasnt supposed to be any need for enzymes, our biological (or vampirical) processes were supposed to go smoothly without sophisticated tunings.

Anyway, like I said earlier about MNT (if you remember well) the first MNT fabrication factory will take in these organics (and some inorganics) as inputs and structurue the molecules in desired form to churn out building blocks for virtually anything

It will be like taking in motar, put it in a mould, compress, release the brick, put bricks together, build a sky scraper type of thing.

Well, to just finish off this post which might otherwise grow beyond original scope, let me just remind you that long time ago, the study of comets and meteors found out that these “rocks” contained the organics plus iron. These in themselves, if they hit a planet in another galaxy, can meet and combine with elements there to give rise to some “formation” which when affected by the environment there, can alter bit by bit, leading to some kind of “life” which can progress very rapidly or very slowly(humans) depending on the resources on that planet (fewer resources — greater/rapid progression)

[Remember a well nourished organism with not threat to its survival has no motivation to adapt, change form, mutate etc. as in case of viruses, just try to introduce a cure, you will have it try to cahnge its form to survive, and in the same vein, our common flu virus has survived decades because we have not been trying to fight it, and in turn it has not cahnged its form much. only recently when we try to cure this seasonal flu/cold with tamilfu, that we are seeing some new forms of this flu.]

So fewer resources challege this new life form’s existence, hence progression and rapid advancement. So what i am saying here???
YES, there could be aliens out there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Notes:
MNT is Molecular Nanotechnology.

The great Technological Scandal

chitambira — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:30:38 +0000

I will quickly describe my post now so that I dont disappoint those searching for gossip.
This is a scandal of all time perpetrated by our everyday scientists, media, governments, education etc. I am talking about the way in which we (all of us) have been brainwashed and hoodwinked into thinking that Any technologicla advancement is and will be based on “Electro-technology” or simply to some, “Semiconductor”.

Whilist by profession, I am an Electronic/Computer Engineer myself. I believe this area has been so much hyped that even our foetuses dream of silicon valley in the womb.

To illustrate what I am talking about, I want you to acknowledge that almost all techy stauff that we have right now, if driven by electricity. This was one giant leap towards our limitation. beyond that, evry cool gadget from cars to space shuttles all have some “circuit board” with integrated chips, a countless number of electronic components etc. Our envisaged technological boom is also coined around all this electro-technology.

Who ever said we should depend on semiconductor that much? This kind of technology is limited in many ways. For example, most of ity is limited to particular frequency ranges and this has impacted the way we communicate with anything from outer space. When we send astranauots into (adjacent space) its wrong to think of mars or moon as space! coz relatively its far too close to us as compared to the whole universe, let alon the galaxy. I know I have confused a lot, but I will be writing about The World, The Sky, The Earth, The Universe and The Galaxies very soon. All these are different.

Electro technology is subject to greater noise distortion, and most of all, it can not evelove on its own, meaning its not a living technology. Surely if, as doom prophets suggest, our robots take over the world, we can simply jamm them with one sweep of a signal of certain frequance or radiation that can fry all those transistors. So it means Singularity will not be based on electro-technology.

However, as clever as human species are, well endowed with the gift of exploiting… The major technologies which will be primary to our conquering of the galaxies, are already hinted. I give great salutation to our movie directors who go that extramile to think and suggest technologies for our schooled minds. (education puts limitations to our thinking) A dumb blonde can easily see themselves floating in the air, everyone drooling for them, hovering over everybody with great power to condem or to tame any men. A physics professor will dismiss that saying you cannot hover without wings its agains gravity bla bla. A psychologist will think they are crazy and all of us will just say….”well, its a blonde’s thinking…”

About movies, I wanted to give credit to writes of those vampire movies, For this is such the Geatest Technology which I am suggesting here. This is the kind of technology which in its unsaid form and possibly not what the creators ever thought of, gives us the ability to adapt, transform, and conquer the galaxies.

The silicon rival of this technology is the Cyborg movies which are a blend of human muscle and computer thinking. This is FAR away from the super technology that I am suggesting here.

Simply said, We have bee hoodwinked into thinking technology in terms of elcetrons, transistors, electronic or computer stuff. Only a few have had the guts to embark on the true journey to super technology. The few strides have been mad in form of:
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
NANOTECHNOLOGY
These are presently the only serious guys who realise that we can actually wire the galaxies or provide high speed links that can help in intergalactic communications.
Understanging the underpinnings of molecular biology will help us transform, replicate, hibernate (just like vampires) and possibly take form and adapt to environments out there.

Well, I wont say we are still dumb, given much work that has been done on genetics (with human clones walking on the earth today–FACT! but highly classified) The power of switching genes on and off is the core technology in engineering our self existance and persistance. As I can safely descride life as DNA (anything with dna is life) — so even a dead cow consist of life —you heard me!
Now couple that power, with effective, sleek molecular instruments (nanotechnology). Basic elements for nano instruments have already been illustrated, for example memory nano cells, molecular pistons etc. If you are still confused I suggest you read http://www.crnano.org/whatis.htm.
To show our obsession with semiconductor, most of the nano devices have been give corresponding semiconductor names, like “3D transistors, actuators etc”
Nanotechnology I am ralking about here is the art of engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. This is currently referes to as Molecular NanoTechnology (MNT)

Some who are smart enough to comprehent this technology, have refered to it as Magic: http://www.crnano.org/magic.htm
This is it guys and its coming soon. As always, whilist the core tech and basis is correct, the media and our schooled scientists are getting it all wrong in terms of approach. In most cases they just want to combine this with their welknown and well sung electro-tech. This is the greater hinderance to our advancement, where we always want to see the interface between our current knowledge and the newly discovered knowledge. If we fail to comprehent the new thing, we then disregard it as being “impossible”
We were schooled into a box and its now hard to think out of the box.

Technology

chitambira — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:25:04 +0000

Note : Technologies described here are most what philosophers refere to as the age of Singularity and some say there will be Technicism in all of human race. Howver, philosophers believe this to be a millenium to come, because they cannot comprehent technological changes within their own lifetimes. Most of our parents were born before the PC, before the Microwave, some before the television, before the cellphone, before the mission to Mars and of course before the Laser, BUT we continue to think “thats all enough, there will probably be no more”. If we were to wake up your great great grandmother from the dead today, she will be shell shocked (by everything, even pple stature) to the extend that she will opt to go back to death.

So what I am blogging here is nothing but the soon to be state of affair in our world. Dont fool yourself thinking we are now sophisticated and there is high tech already. These are just struggles (because before singularity, all is just struggling to improve our way of life)

Our grandsons, only just 12 years to come, will be laughing at us as we will be narating to them how we used to “type” using keyboards, and how we used to “press buttons”, how we used to “press pedals”, “do manual work”, etc. they would think “labourer robots” were created by God, much to the belief that some, even of my age, think all these machines we have to day were always there.

Technicism will lead the human race to thinks it has all always been there and will always be there. pple will quickly forget that these are human inventions (which can fail) and our reliance on them will be so great that some will die of hunger when the food processing robot goes bust (no jokes)

Anyway, speaking of singularity, do you realise that by then we will be having amny machines for different jobs (probably more than the number of pple, in europe that is) This will be even made worse by the fact that. we would already be having robots which are capable of building other robots from scratch. (Not mentioning the EXECbots, which will be loaded with updated firmware from the police dept. capable of executing all Law enforcement procedures, who knows what) Well the great drive of human power will be in mobility, there will be no 10hr trips in planes, not sleeper trains and roads will be for tourism. Magnetic levitation compact trains will offer 5576mph speeds, with personal propeller jets that can be used to tour a city (already there, I dont give links here!) and fast aerohybridcars (capable of road, sea,air)

IP, HMI’s, OWN and VoW III

chitambira — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:43:25 +0000

Voice over Wireless (VoW) networks are inter links between different HMI’s. What this means is people will be able to send voice signals, commands, to other people in considerably separate geographical areas withoit the need for a telephone wire. Loosely speaking its more like the current cellphone technology, BUT in this case you will not need the handset (The HMI will have all that functionality – and of cause no need for texting) AND there won’t be need for base stations as the HMI’s will be capable of long range transmission more like the dot20 range (IEEE802.20). Actually it would be an improvement on it. People would be able to initiate conversations (not calls) with others in conferencing modes or one-to-one modes and visial dispalys can be provided by an Air Projected Screen (APS) which basically is similar to (bioscope -bhaisikopo) only different in that the projection is made against a thin film of air (no walls needed).

The APS will be the primary display almost many applications and it will be touch, motion and voice sensitive, which means it can be controlled by voice commands. Other displays which will server HD content for leisure will be the VRL’s (Virtual Reality Lenses) and these are a killer to all the current hype in HD plasma/LCD screens. They will be warable, with headphone speakers. The main attribute which will be a killer, is their networking capability. This means you can link up several headsets (for friend in US, UK, RSA etc) and start to watch the same movie in the comfort of your home. Futthermore, the headset will come with its correponding haptic chair, which means you experience all the movements as if you are actually IN the movie, for example if you are watching an earthquake movie, you will experienece all the movements (provided by the chair) and you will be totally immersed. (those who have visited the travelling fairs -goose fairs or amusement parks will know this effect). I will not also mention the skin electrodes which will come with the headset, … well… more electronices will be encoporated……

I think I need to give you the bigger picture, let me return soon with the actual electronics involved…….

I have got an idea!!

chitambira — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:51:11 +0000

I want to build an engine which uses carbon-dioxide as its fuel and produces oxygen and water as exhausts/waste. This engine will be used in industrial plants, cars, trains etc. (ben)

Oops!

chitambira — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:59:14 +0000

I just realised I am back to my old chair, I had crossed more than three timezones and at the other end was great pleasure for me. Thought it would continue for ever, but alas, reality had to dawn. Fear gripped me as I left the land which habours a long decayed cord, that which was once mine. Events and occurrences overtook my lone self and dictated the pace of things adding more to the already mounting confusion.

Decision making is a key concept in life (Almost every minute of you life you will be making a decision – when not asleep dummy!) and mine have been marred by emotions, fears and fantasy.

Not ever had I been afraid of death, I still am not, but not when one has received stern warnings against one thing you yearn for the most. Going ahead in that endeavor not only displays acute stubbornness, but also reduces warners to mere worthless spectators. Swimming in dangerous waters and diving for one treasured specie – freedom, who can foretell the sharks that are hibernating below?

Freedom! what is it? What happens when one’s freedom infringes the freedom of others? Such complex situations are the basis for nonlinear analysis of our physical world. One then wishes if similar tools could be used to solve nonlinear social phenomenon, lets recall Schroedinger into action.

Surely we perish because of lack of ……. But faith in what we do, is a good driver for success. We combine three Ultimate Senses (there are 3 not 6 senses in a human being of high intellect – if u have 6 then you are of low intellect) which are: Hope, Faith & Sight (in that special order)

You Hope for, Believe in, Confirm your belief. Note that Seeing is not Believing, but rather Believing is Seeing. You see what you believe in. If you believe that you are not good enough, then you wont see anything good enough out of yourself.

Such is the truth, but as a super specie, we continue to strive for betterment (leading to Singularity) and in that same quest, thus I speak out my dreams, my thots, my fantasies, my wishes and my idealogy. I am constatly flooded with awkward ideas in my small skulled mind and I struggle to contain them. What I have, I give unto you – Cheers