This song is the very definition of epic. It’s a finale of divine proportions, mightily constructed through a crescendo of sweeping orchestra of strings, synths and beyond-majestic choirs.
And yes, this was created for Deus Ex – Human Revolution^, a must-play video game, one of the best games of 2010s.
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Everything that is currently sold as Artificial Intelligence is in fact, statistics. Sure, it’s a very advanced (and capable!) form of statistics called Big Data^, but still, it’s just statistics. Machine Learning is entirely human-written algorithms that chew data.
The so called “AI” is, unfortunately for us, not intelligent at all^ – and I say unfortunately not because I know AI won’t be hostile towards us (at least not by intent^), but rather because the current form of “AI” is defined and shaped by the hands of humans, who are experts at wiping each other out.
In any case, Machine Learning is powerful.
Electricity costs is one example of how corporations get an edge over each other using Machine Learning:
This is, of course, a nice win for Google. Now let’s see when the technology will make life better for the rest of the planet, not only for the corporation’s shareholders (and partners).
Another clever use of Machine Learning is materials research:
Of course, ML is also becoming instrumental in medicine. That’s one of the most interesting fields for ML since there’s heaps of interesting data just lying to be put to (hopefully) good use:
But all this is still using good old transistors. And transistors might soon look like a horse & carriage compared to what quantum computers will be capable of (even though the two will no doubt have synergies fueling their co-existence for a while):
Sure, quantum computers won’t immediately be used to run Crysis^, but they are clearly set to allow an even greater leap in computational power than the one we already experienced during the past 66 years of transistor-based computation^.
And it’s not just about computational power, but also security & speed. Here’s an article about quantum communication:
So what will happen when we reach, and then dive deep into quantum supremacy and bring all our Big Data tech to that depth? I once read an article that said “A.I. still needs us — to build quantum computers”. Here, I found it:
And here’s a bonus article: a leaked internal Google video shows a creepy vision of how data could be used to direct human decision-making. And keep in mind that this was on Google’s design table already several years ago:
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With its almost ritualistic mood, this 90s big beat electro masterpiece exhibits some amazing use of percussion, meshed together with a highly energetic and uplifting soundscape. Stand up, close your eyes and move your body.
This song comes from one awesome album (“The Fat of the Land”). I strongly recommend giving a spin to the entire thing.
This Weekly Song entry has been brought from the FaceBook archive of Weekly Song^. This exploration was originally started through a FaceBook page, about 13 months prior to launching Mentatul. Slowly but surely, the entire FaceBook archive will be brought here.
[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/04020-ProdigyTheFatOfTheLand-Climbatize-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’The Prodigy – Climbatize’ desc=’With its almost ritualistic mood, this 90s big beat electro masterpiece exhibits some amazing use of percussion, meshed together with a highly energetic and uplifting soundscape.’]
[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/03955-TomHodgeNothingLessNothingMore-Thumb.png’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Tom Hodge – Nothing Less Nothing More (Eivor) ‘ desc=’… and sometimes life throws you one of these…’]
Blog Entry: Unlike most articles on Mentatul, this post details a personal experience, hence, it is posted underneath the Blog^ category.
“There may be said to be two classes of people in the world; those who constantly divide the people of the world into two classes, and those who do not.”
The game of life has countless species, tribes and actors, mixing and dancing through an infinity of stages(*). Given this complexity, truth is a multi-dimensional riddle that changes its definition and solution from one perspective to another, and from one target to the other.
Technology advances, ethical standards change, cultures collapse, civilizations emerge, species die out and new ones appear. History is written by the winners. A heretic yesterday, a hero today, a villain tomorrow.
And this game of life can be so intoxicating, one can get (almost) hopelessly lost chasing reflections in Indra’s net^. But along the way, things happen, and the illusion breaks apart. It is during one such moment when I truly understood and integrated how wrong I was. It was as if living “I know that I know nothing”^.
Up until not long ago, I had negative thoughts about many politicians. I disliked many corporations. I despised advertisement and cultural programming through mass-media and the mainstream entertainment industry. Now, after many Mentatul articles, I feel I’m finally able to admit how wrong I was to let myself clouded by negative emotions when, in fact, it was all part of the diversity of life. Everything and everybody has a right to exist, and we may thank their existence for they give shape to the values that we hold dear.
From this day forward, I shall write from a state of accepting the complexity of the game of life. I’ve made just enough mistakes to realize politicians make mistakes. I was deluded often enough to now understand that businessmen sometimes are deluded.
The worst politician was once an innocent baby. The vilest corporation was once a hopeful startup. Things get blown out of proportion mostly because the game of life this civilization is apparently engaged in playing^ seems to thrive on brutal separation. Don’t get me wrong (even if I am wrong :D), it’s good to have sides in any game. Unfortunately, picking the “wrong” side in the current civilization can be a very miserable affair.
This may be due to the survival instinct, but if so, I feel that it is time to overcome it. We’re fine, damn it! We’ve survived. Time to invest energy in something else. For example, evolving our civilization towards a more interesting game of life.
And when I say “evolving”, I don’t mean it in the very direct way trans-humanists^ see it. It’s more like a more vague and gradual process which is more akin to Wu-wei than a focused, concentrated effort (which I feel will only lead to more destruction, pretty much in the lines of our past centuries of “beating nature into submission”, a task we’ve been “good” at but are starting to feel the backlash from).
So does this mean one is supposed to sit idly while greedy corporations destroy ecosystems? Of course not. But the way we go about enacting the next change in our civilization’s DNA will determine if we revert back to the bloodshed of revolution of if we are ready for the ecstasy of evolution.
There are many ways indeed of enacting peaceful change. If you have a job, start by reading Brave New Work^. It will awake you to the potential locked within our outdated way of working. If you want to contribute to evolution, start with “peace” and “empathy”. Realize that corporations are only as greedy as the stock market forces them to be^.
Most importantly, peaceful change is enacted by renouncing the obsession to control things. As the saying goes, “relax, nothing is under control”. And yet…
“Realizing that our inability to control life is not the same as having no way to navigate it, leads to freedom and liberation. Just because I can’t control the sea doesn’t mean I can’t learn how to swim in it.”
– Rami Shapiro
With less desire for control, I salute you. With more awareness of how wrong I was (and will perhaps continue to be, but hopefully less and less), I salute you. I salute you traveler, and thank you for your presence. Now, shall we proceed towards a beautiful Universe?
Fractal Wrongness
And despite the fact that I’ve been wrong all along, that doesn’t mean I’ll stop writing and being wrong :). It’s great to find new ways of being wrong every day! That’s how we learn.
Some additional notes about this post
When I wanted to find who is the author of the quote I started this post with, the first link I found was an article trying to locate the source^, which shows just how hard it is to sometimes pinpoint a wise saying. So, I guess that quote can already be considered a proverb.
I started the article by saying that “The game of life features countless species, tribes and actors, mixing and dancing through an infinity of stages.”
I’m particularly happy with this phrase, because of the word “stages”. The word “stage” has two main definitions^. The word matches what I wanted to say in a beautiful way. I originally meant to say “theatrical stages”, but the fact is that in the game of life, the species, tribes and actors all go through an infinity of evolutive stages as well. Even the stages go through stages :). Here’s to the hidden gems of the English language.
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A song of light and life, arising with the force of Universal vibration. A song of spirit and divinity, blessed with Kati’s pure-as-fire voice. A song that cannot be opposed, only joined.
“Now bring Light
Now bring Life
Now Light
Now Life”
You can listen to the melody for free, in good quality, on BandCamp, which is one of the best websites when it comes to supporting artists. You can also purchase the song (or album) from this same location. And in case you’re wondering, yes, I did purchase Ran’s album :).
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I launched this website 4 years ago, to the day. I probably have less readers than I had back then. Not even my wife reads this anymore. And this makes me very happy. There is no pressure to perform, almost no one to please. I can simply output whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like. The quality I strive to offer comes from a pure honesty to myself.
Slowly but surely, step by step, Mentatul becomes a wide collection of observations about humanity and ideas for social transformation. With it and through it, I get to grow as a writer and as a person. I am immensely grateful for having the opportunity to do this.
I don’t care about promoting any message. I don’t care about entertaining anybody or being right. The only thing I care about is writing to the best of my abilities, with an honest and healthy purpose: to do what I can to create a constructive, beautiful future.
I know that these words will reach exactly those that need to read them, when they need to read them. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to share a meaningful article to fellow beings who are ready to help our civilization take the next step.
That being said, the past year saw a further reduction in time spent writing here. This is because of my focus on family, which seriously reduced all available time. Then came a rebirthing of my career as a software engineer. But what affected Mentatul writing time the most was the serious prioritization of what has become my main creative venture, Nexus^, which is currently my absolute top priority in my free time.
The publishing of major articles has so far remained as before, bimonthly. What changed is that articles with recommandations are now bundled in bimonthly posts with a certain theme, thus reducing quite a bit of logistical & writing pressure. I also coded (via C#) a nice application for pre-formatting Weekly Song posts. This brought additional time savings.
I aim to keep the same frequency throughout 2020, even though aside from Nexus, a couple of promising additional side projects entered my life in the past 3 months. Two of them have a high potential for social impact, so I figured I might as well get in, experience and contribute to movements that I feel will be of great importance in the future.
I wish you all a beautiful decade!
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Amusing and playful (the video even more), this song will probably slot right in to the “happy dancing melodies” category of the 2010s’ musical history. It’s more catchy than an autumn flu!
“But the waves hit my head
To think someone’s in your bed
I get a little bit Genghis Khan
I don’t want you to get it on
With nobody else but me”
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As the synths rise slowly but surely, sweeping melodies emerge. Imagination is invited for a ride among the stars, aboard a dashing spacecraft. It’s a song about timing and atmosphere. It excels in both. A neon dawn indeed.
You can listen to the melody for free, in good quality, on BandCamp, which is one of the best websites when it comes to supporting artists. You can also purchase the song (or album) from this same location. And in case you’re wondering, yes, I did purchase Lazerhawk’s album :).
[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/03952-LazerhawkDreamRiderNeonDawn-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Lazerhawk – Neondawn’ desc=’As the synths rise slowly but surely, sweeping melodies emerge. Imagination is invited for a ride among the stars, aboard a dashing spacecraft.’]
Because being informed is just not enough anymore…
