All posts by Axonn Echysttas

Mentatul.

Amazon Is Well on Track to Become a Fully Robotized Retailer

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Amazon’s latest forays into robotics have left me thoroughly impressed. Take a look at this awesome presentation of one of the company’s most modern order fulfillment centers:

http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/06/technology/amazon-warehouse-robots/^

Now combine this with the company’s obvious direction of turning into a delivery behemoth. Amazon is rather coy about this aspect, but why else would it be buying up planes^ and making airport^ investments^? This is only the beginning I believe. I see the company making use of robotic planes and a massive fleet of self-driving trucks in the near future.

I don’t really think that delivery via aerial drones will make it past the marketing gimmick stage. At most, it will perhaps become some sort of exclusive service – expensive and inefficient, at least for the customer. In any case, Amazon is well positioned to become a “full stack retailer” – a seller that controls the entire distribution chain. And there are signs that “retailer” is not enough.

Given the company’s (mostly) successful ventures with producing television and electronics, I wouldn’t be surprised if it begins buying up farms in becoming a full stack grocer as well. Then, I would expect Amazon to bring its robotics expertise into automated farming. There already have been plenty of experiments in that field.

Last but not least, check out this fully automated experimental grocery shop where there are no human employees (to see at least):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrmMk1Myrxc^

To be honest though, I’m not so sure if I like this last one. This fully robotic retail world might rob some people of even the little human interaction they get when they go into a shop. We might be taking some things a bit too far. But then again, shops might soon entirely cease to exist. I’m quite sure Amazon’s vision of the future is to remove all “wasted” shelf space and move everything online. And for those who wish to actually see the groceries they’ll buy, there’ll probably be a virtual reality shop in some years.

I am also slightly worried about the privacy aspects of some of the company’s ventures. Not only about these shops where electronic eyes watch everybody, but also cloud services such as Alexa^ that create and memorize accurate snapshots of the customer’s preferences and even personality. It’s a well-known strategy to bait people into accepting various losses of rights under the guise of introducing “much-needed features”. But let’s wish for the best and have faith in society’s ability to self-regulate and evolve.

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Bomfunk MC’s – Freestyler

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The Freestyler was jamming from speakers around the world just before the turn of the millennium. This groovy masterpiece comes from the land of the Finns. It climbed sky-high in the charts back in the day and for good reason. The song is a solid body-mover featuring excellent production values and infectious hooks. It’s one of those “oldies but goldies”.

YouTube (decent quality):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymNFyxvIdaM^

For Spotify Users (high quality):

https://open.spotify.com/track/47xLbuUdmD03ATrke934S1^

For Deezer Users (high quality):

http://www.deezer.com/track/5363024^

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Taking People out of Their Boxes

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Here’s a touching, beautiful video about how to understand and appreciate a multicultural society:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD8tjhVO1Tc^

Even though this is a commercial for a Danish TV channel, it is simply too good not to share. I wish that the spirit of this message will spread far and wide and those that see only the bad parts of multiculturalism will connect to its positive aspects. There is endless potential in the richness of diversity.

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Deep Forest – Will You Be Ready

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Deep Forest is known for its interesting blend of electronic music and folk elements from around the world. This song, however, is a departure of sorts from the usual ethnic electronica. There’s a rock feel to it, but only enough to make it stand out.

To be sure, Deep Forest has been true to its style and the melody takes the listener through a fascinating array of interwoven arrangements. Through it all shines her beautiful voice, imparting mysterious words, challenging the mind.

“An eye for an eye, will only make this world go blind
Another lie for a lie, we’ll be wiping out mankind

[…]

Will you still sing out in ecstasy
To know that while you live
Only love can see deep down inside
Will you be ready
Will you be strong?
Throw the love away”

YouTube (decent quality):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXvJWPtKa64^

For Spotify Users (high quality):

http://open.spotify.com/track/3GXZeoDQgmWUbzh80efVmx^

For Deezer Users (high quality):

http://www.deezer.com/track/13160669^

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.

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Quantum Supersampling

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It’s been quite some time since the last major breakthrough in computer graphics. For the past few decades, graphics quality has been steadily improving, but this has been mainly due advances in semiconductor technology and secondly due to software evolution. Little has changed when it comes to the way images can be efficiently rendered. Ray-tracing^ has been around for a while but it is too computationally-intensive to match rasterisation^.

At long last, an evolutionary leap might soon be upon us thanks to quantum computing. There are myriad applications for this emerging branch of technology, but one of the most interesting I’ve learned about lately is this fascinating proposal called quantum super-sampling. It’s a process combining ray-tracing with quantum computation. Here’s a (long) video presentation describing the process, by the author himself:

https://vimeo.com/180284417^

Eric Johnston is quite well known in the computer graphics world. Seeing such a proposal from him fills me with enthusiasm. It might take a decade or more for this technology to become mainstream, but when it happens – when, not if – we will witness a major improvement in graphics rendering, possibly leading to real-life quality video games and experiences.

Combined with the instant transfer of information that is made possible by quantum entanglement, this might mean that a powerful central server could render realistic graphics for a very large number of people. Perhaps us becoming capable of projecting universes might be proof that this Universe is a projection?

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Those Who Ride With Giants – The Mountain Seed

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This song falls firmly into the “musical journey” category. It builds up rather quickly and then takes the listener on a calm and dreamy ride. An echoed guitar rows us along towards another guitar that plays the role of the charming siren. Close your eyes and get lost at sea.

I would have thought this to be a journey song even if it wasn’t for the official video, which I must highly recommend. It’s a simple, touching and sincere story if I ever saw one.

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 Those Who Ride With Giants’ album :).

https://thosewhoridewithgiants.bandcamp.com/track/the-mountain-seed^

YouTube (beautiful, MUST-see video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQijOwrVXyg^

For Spotify Users (high quality):

https://open.spotify.com/track/6uwRfLoNw00mVSYJlbjnw0^

For Deezer Users (high quality):

http://www.deezer.com/track/79734908^

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About the Recent Changes on Mentatul

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How time flies. It’s been almost a year and a half since I launched^ Mentatul. So far, this proved itself to be a very beautiful adventure. The website started as a source for objective analysis of important contemporary issues combined with an assortment of subjective musings on art topics (so far, only music). Soon, I added the Recommendations^ category, where I share with readers various interesting or inspiring links that I stumble upon during my online journey.

However, like any long-term writing commitment, the project evolved. My urge for writing kept seeking new ways through which to express itself. About 9 months after the launch, in September 2016, I wrote the first satire^ article. Afterwards, in November I added two^ new^ categories based on real life adventures that I was fortunate to experience. I began 2017 by adding two^ more^ categories. Here’s a short description of all these recent changes.

Satire

I believe that sometimes laughter is the best way to highlight or even handle a problem. I find it very entertaining to write satire. The idea for the first article in the category – about Musk escaping to Mars^ – hit me so hard I just couldn’t resist publishing it. Every now and then some funky thought goes through my head and it’s so good to be able to laugh about it together with you.

Travel Log

I’ve been writing travel logs in Romanian for more than a decade but I haven’t published anything. A fascinating day in Scotland^ convinced me otherwise. Even though I published a satire article before the first travel log, this is the category that really opened the door for these recent changes on the website.

Life Fragments

Since I already started writing about some of my life via travel logs, I decided to share some funny or interesting things that happened during my days. The storyteller in me needed the exercise long before I launched my literature website (Michael Axonn^).

One of the “secret” goals I had with Mentatul was to diminish the strength of my inner critic. I’ve more than succeeded in doing this. Branching my writing into these new areas has been one of the things that helped a lot. Even though Mentatul now has two “log” categories, I still don’t consider this website to be a “blog” (it’s a writing project), but I won’t be insulted if you do :).

Parenting

I’ve always been fascinated by how much parenting can differ between cultures. It’s also one of the most polarizing topics ever. Now that I am a parent, it’s the perfect time to join the millions of writers that have spoken their mind about that which is the world’s most important responsibility – educating the next generation so that we may survive as a species. I actually started with an article that can be seen as “anti-advice”^.

Futurology

This category has been a long time coming. There’s sometimes a sea of ideas swirling in my head – I’m sure many readers know exactly how this feels. I actually had plans to launch individual websites with proposals and solutions surrounding topics such as the Internet of Things^ and Mixed Reality^. Alas, having a day job makes this quite difficult so, ultimately, I turned to Mentatul to publish all my ideas.

In all futurology articles, I invite readers to become participants and share their awesome ideas on various topics. Don’t worry about contributing amazing solutions with huge potential – unless you actually have the capital and tools to turn them into reality (patent applications or actual products). Otherwise, I think it’s better to bring these ideas out in the open, with your name next to them. I would actually be extremely happy if anybody is inspired by an idea of mine and turns it into something beautiful, credit or not.

It’s still just the beginning

Mentatul is not even two years old. But in this short time, I already see how the website has started to develop its “personality”. I don’t expect to see so many new categories added in such a short time again, but I might surprise myself.

For now, my focus will go into perfecting what is. I wish to write well and to offer a beautiful experience to those that visit. I hope that your stay here is enjoyable and, of course, I thank you for being here^.

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Mari Boine – Big Medicine (Bluetech Remix)

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Healing songs are rare jewels of creation. Bluetech took one and it intertwined ritualistic percussion and ghostly chanting textures into its structure. There are several other changes gleaming from the instrumental side. They all contribute to the creation of a mystical atmosphere while in the same time infusing the song with the unique ingredients that call to our body’s ancestral lust for pattern and rhythm. The result is yet another masterful creation from one of the best psybient music projects out there.

The original song is beautiful but – at least for my taste – this remix brings the originally sparse instrumental to perfection. Now, the music is a much more reliable vehicle for Mari’s voice. I’ve linked the original version too, since it may be preferred when in need of a quieter, acoustic journey.

Healing songs are worth seeking, and on Bluetech’s album “Love Songs to the Source” you can find more than one.

“There’s a wild melody
There’s a million harmonies
There’s a note with everyone
There’s a big medicine

Think we know what we need now
Think we got it figured out
Right inside of everyone
There’s a big medicine”

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 Bluetech’s album 🙂 (since this is where this song can be found).

https://interchill.bandcamp.com/track/big-medicine-bluetech-remix^

YouTube (decent quality):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwDB4_Uyra0^

For Spotify Users (high quality):

https://open.spotify.com/track/5nCk7XRpE5OQvLfKb6YCpU^

For Deezer Users (high quality):

http://www.deezer.com/track/12666604^

Original song:

YouTube (decent quality):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY9z4sSDCwg^

For Spotify Users (high quality):

https://open.spotify.com/track/5xhu3Tew14jvCMtB7TD78K^

For Deezer Users (high quality):

http://www.deezer.com/track/1147469^

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Catholic Church Releases “PopEye” Digital Guardian Angel

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Less than a month after introducing the SalveAtion Digital Assistant^ to the world, the Catholic Church is at it again. Wishing to expand its virtual economy, the Church has identified several key areas for improvement. Enter PopEye, a faithful’s most faithful guardian angel, designed to keep track of the user’s sins or lack thereof.

In case you haven’t been following the news, SalveAtion – launched three weeks ago – allows Catholics to purchase various Church services using a virtual currency called the innoCent. The currency can be gained by the faithful when they listen and share sermons or convert their friends to Catholicism. innoCents can also be purchased for real money. However, Vatican’s Business Intelligence division has noticed that shortly after SalveAtion went out of beta, purchases of innoCents took a nosedive. This is where PopEye comes in.

Here’s what father Luigi Banuti, archcoder of the application told us: “We sought ways through which to boost innoCent spending. Sin redemption was an obvious choice. When a sin is recorded it will be stored in the user’s Digital Purgatory database until it is redeemed via SalveAtion, our other application. To keep our subjects interested, PopEye will offer increasingly large rewards the more days a person has been sinless.”

We asked Luigi how will PopEye realize that a sin has been committed: “We have enlisted the help of machines for this most noble work, but there will be supervision by mystic volunteers. PopEye will be a faithful’s ever-watchful angel. It will use the smartphone’s camera and microphone to send us information that will help our subjects attain a sinless life.”

When asked about the privacy implications of all this, Luigi declared that true faithful have nothing to hide. Interestingly enough, the application has been growing in popularity. Christians seem to be happy to have their lives beamed directly to God’s representatives on Earth.

Even more interesting is the tiny press conference held just hours after PopEye launched. During the event, which has escaped the attention of only but the most inquisitive of journalists, the Vatican has announced a sweeping partnership with the Interpol and law enforcement organizations in many Catholic countries.

For its benefit, the Church will get access to criminal records and minor offenses (speeding tickets, parking violations, etc.) for all of its subjects, ready for easy conversion into sins that can later be redeemed via innoCents using the SalveAtion app. As part of the deal, law enforcement agencies will be provided with information that can help sinners be delivered sooner and more effectively than ever.

Vatican’s newly established Digital Deliverance department has provided us with the list of rewards that sinless faithful can expect to get the longer they last without committing a sin.

  • 1 day, “Sinner No More”, 2 daily innoCents.
  • 3 days, “Careful Faithful”, 4 daily innoCents.
  • 10 days, “Sinless Decathlon”, 10 daily innoCents.
  • 50 days, “Devotee”, 15 daily innoCents.
  • 100 days, “Watchful Faithful”, 20 daily innoCents.
  • 300 days, “Ardent Follower”, 40 daily innoCents.
  • 1000 days, “Micro Saint”, 100 daily innoCents.
  • 4000 days, “Most Faithful”, 150 daily innoCents.
  • 10000 days, “Mini Saint”, 200 daily innoCents.

Clarification: officials were adamant that we should emphasize the “Pope” in PopEye and capitalize the “E” so that this most sacred software work is not confused with the cartoon character. We’re not so sure if this is such a good idea since some readers might spell it as “pop eye” or “pope ye” rather than “pope eye”.

 

 

 

This text has been published in the “Satire” category for a good reason.

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Red Snapper – Keeping Pigs Together

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Experimentation is the key to progress. Music is also a subject of this simple property of intelligence. Like all forms of intelligent expression, music evolves through time, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. I like to think that this melody belongs to the first category.

It seriously caught my attention when, at around the 2 minutes mark, the song reaches its full speed in what is a panoramic show of force. Indeed, when listening to it, one may feel like being taken on a fast, dizzying flight across a landscape of wild sounds. My only complaint is that I felt like the ending is a bit over-done and might interfere a bit with the atmosphere that the artists have worked hard to create during the song.

YouTube (decent quality):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=damFjx6bnX4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=damFjx6bnX4^

For Spotify Users (high quality):

https://open.spotify.com/track/1w4xMh8oVSS5ylNtNYSwZX^

For Deezer Users (high quality):

http://www.deezer.com/track/29376271^

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