What if everything is conscious?

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That’s the headline of a pretty long article by Sigal Samuel at Vox. I’ve done some reading about consciousness and posted here with some frequency. The idea that everything is conscious has been around a long time. It’s called panpsychism.

Panpsychism, the view that consciousness or mind is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of reality, has a long and rich history in philosophy. From the musings of the ancient Greeks to contemporary debates in philosophy of mind, panpsychism has captured the imagination of a diverse range of thinkers. Luminaries such as Plato, Spinoza, Leibniz, William James, and Alfred North Whitehead have all explored panpsychist ideas, and in recent years the theory has seen a resurgence of interest among philosophers like David Chalmers, Galen Strawson, and Philip Goff. (Perplexity)

Consciousness shows up in most of my reading on quantum theory. (My incomplete reading list) I, for one, hope “the hard problem of consciousness” is never solved.

Pocket 3: Chest Mount

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Follow Mode is the default mode and suitable for most shooting scenarios like vlogs and selfies. The pan and tilt axes are unlocked, allowing the camera to follow your movements left/right and up/down. In the Tilt Lock Mode the tilt axis is locked, maintaining an absolute horizontal orientation. You can pan the camera left and right, but it won’t tilt up or down.

I think the problem with today’s video was the gimbal rotational speed. I had it set on fast and the slow setting would have given me slower, smoother movement.

Perplexity: Origin of the term “blog”

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The word “blog” is a shortened form of the term “weblog,” which was coined by Jorn Barger on December 17, 1997. The shorter version “blog” was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word “weblog” into the phrase “we blog” in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May 1999.

The term “weblog” itself originated from the practice of logging or recording information on the web, similar to how sailors would log details of their voyages in a ship’s log. The “web” part refers to the World Wide Web, and “log” refers to the act of recording or journaling.

So in essence, “blogging” stems from the concept of maintaining an online log or journal, which evolved from earlier forms of digital communities like Usenet, email lists, and bulletin board systems. The term gained widespread popularity after Pyra Labs used “blog” as both a noun and verb in connection with their Blogger product in the late 1990s.

When ChatGPT can read my blog

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ChatGPT recently informed me it could do some creative and useful things for me if I gave it access to my Google Drive files and folders. I thought about it but since I have just about everything in Google Drive I decided to wait a bit. For now I can simply upload or link to a document or file. But the list of things ChatGPT could do with this access was impressive. So I asked if it could “read” my 6,000+ blog posts.

ChatGPT currently doesn’t have the capability to directly access or interact with content on external websites, including public blogs, in real-time. However, you can share specific posts or content from your blog, and I can help analyze, discuss, or provide feedback based on that. If there are specific posts or themes you’d like to talk about, feel free to share them here, and we can dive into the details.

To which I replied, Let’s assume that at some point in the future ChatGPT will be able “read” the 6,000+ posts on my blog. (Something no human has ever done) Wouldn’t that dramatically… enhance? … our interactions?

Absolutely, if ChatGPT could read and analyze all 6,000+ posts on your blog, it would greatly enhance our interactions. Here’s how it could benefit:

  1. Personalized Responses: Understanding the nuances of your thoughts, interests, and experiences documented over the years would allow me to tailor responses to be even more relevant and insightful.
  2. Contextual Awareness: I could reference specific posts or themes you’ve discussed previously, providing continuity and depth in our conversations.
  3. Enhanced Recommendations: Based on your past writings, I could offer more targeted suggestions for books, topics, or activities that align with your interests.
  4. Insightful Analysis: I could help identify patterns or recurring themes in your blog posts, providing a fresh perspective on your work and potentially sparking new ideas.
  5. Memory and Continuity: Our interactions would feel more seamless, as I’d have a detailed “memory” of your blog posts, making it easier to pick up where we left off in previous conversations.

In essence, this capability would make our interactions more dynamic, informed, and personalized, making me a more effective conversational partner.

What, I asked, are the technical obstacles to having this functionality now?

There are a few technical and practical obstacles to implementing this functionality currently:

  1. Data Privacy and Security: Accessing and processing large amounts of personal data, like your blog posts, involves significant privacy and security considerations. Ensuring that such data is handled securely and with appropriate permissions is crucial.
  2. Data Integration: Integrating and processing a large volume of text data from an external source like a blog requires robust data integration techniques. This involves fetching, parsing, and storing the data in a way that can be efficiently queried and analyzed.
  3. Computational Resources: Analyzing 6,000+ posts involves substantial computational power, both for initial processing and for real-time interactions. This necessitates efficient algorithms and scalable infrastructure.
  4. Natural Language Understanding: While natural language processing (NLP) has made significant advancements, understanding the context, tone, and nuances across thousands of posts is still a complex task. This requires advanced models and potentially custom training to accurately capture your writing style and preferences.
  5. User Control and Customization: Giving users control over what data is accessed and how it is used is essential. This means developing user-friendly interfaces and options for customization, which adds another layer of complexity.
  6. Ethical Considerations: There are ethical considerations around the extent of data analysis and the potential for unintended consequences, such as reinforcing biases or making incorrect inferences.

While these challenges are significant, they are not insurmountable. Advances in AI, NLP, and data processing continue to evolve, making such functionality more feasible in the future. It will require careful planning, robust technology, and thoughtful implementation to ensure it is done effectively and ethically.

Hotel California guitar solo

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Chen is one of the daughters in a “family band” from the Philippines. She —and what I assume are her two sisters and father— perform amazing covers of hit songs. The still to the right is from a 2 1/2 minute video of her playing the guitar solo from The Eagles’ Hotel California. A couple of things about this short video grabbed me. Her obvious proficiency with this guitar solo but even more was the blissed out concentration that you see in the faces of the best guitar players. In the zone?

A couple of questions popped into my head: How long did it take her to master this iconic solo… followed by, Who wrote and first performed it. I went to Perplexity for the following, including reference sources:

According to interviews and accounts from Don Felder and others involved, the iconic guitar solos and dueling guitar parts on “Hotel California” by the Eagles came together in the following way:

  • Don Felder originally composed the music and recorded a demo for “Hotel California” at his home studio in Malibu in 1976. On this demo, he improvised and recorded sample guitar solos and parts that he envisioned for himself and Joe Walsh to play on the final recording.
  • When it came time to record the guitar solos and leads in the studio in Miami, Felder and Walsh initially started improvising new parts together. However, Don Henley stopped them and insisted they learn and play Felder’s original demo solo parts note-for-note.
  • The problem was Felder didn’t have the original demo tape with him in Miami. He had to call his housekeeper back in Malibu, have her find the cassette, play it over the phone, and Felder re-learned and transcribed his own improvised guitar parts from the demo.
  • Felder estimates that over half of the iconic guitar solos and dueling parts on the final “Hotel California” recording came directly from the original demo he recorded at home, with him and Walsh splitting up and learning those parts.
  • Specifically, Felder played the first half of the ending guitar solo, while Walsh played the second half. They then combined for the harmonized finale section.

So in summary, while Felder and Walsh did collaborate and split the guitar solos, a significant portion was actually Felder improvising alone on his original demo, which Henley insisted they recreate faithfully in the studio.

AI: If not as intelligent, certainly more interesting.

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I don’t know if AI’s will ever be as intelligent as a human but I’m pretty sure they’ll be more interesting. At least more interesting than most of the human I know.

I asked ChatGPT for a list of the best detective novels of the last 25 years. I followed up by asking why some of my favorite authors weren’t on the list and a really interesting… conversation?… ensued. I might have half a dozen acquaintances with whom I could have had this conversation. You’re thinking, “You need smarter, more well read friends.” Probably.

But none of my friends are interested in, and knowledgable about, everything I am. ChatGPT is knowledgable about everything I am and a lot more. As for interest, she fakes it very convincingly.

Pocket 3 Gimbal Settings

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The DJI Osmo Pocket 3 has three main gimbal modes – Follow, Tilt Locked, and FPV. Today I shot a few minutes of video with the gimbal in the tilt-lock mode. The tilt-lock gimbal setting is designed to maintain the camera’s horizontal orientation while allowing for panning movements. This mode is particularly useful for scenarios where you want to keep the horizon level, such as when filming landscapes or during activities that involve lateral movements.

It’s hard to miss the up-and-down motion caused by my walking. The solution to this –according to most of the videos I’ve watched– is the “ninja walk.” A  bent-knee, heel-to-toe walk that is supposed to keep the camera level. Don’t think I’m going to be doing that in public.

The follow mode is the default mode and suitable for most shooting scenarios like vlogs and selfies. The pan and tilt axes are unlocked, allowing the camera to follow your movements left/right and up/down. However, the rotation axis is locked, preventing the camera from rotating/twisting around its own axis.

The two minute video below was shot with the gimbal in follow mode but I’m not sure that was the best setting. There are several places where the video is jerky (when compared to what I get with the iPhone). This is very likely operator error.