David Song

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on the atlas — 9

highlights — 23

ChatGPT plugins will provide infinite choice without the Paradox of Choice.
Attention is All You Need - Not Boring by Packy McCormick
Presumably man's spirit should be elevated if he can better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems. He has built a civilization so complex that he needs to mechanize his records more fully if he is to push his experiment to its logical conclusion and not merely become bogged down part way there by overtaxing his limited memory. His excursions may be more enjoyable if he can reacquire the privilege of forgetting the manifold things he does not need to have immediately at hand, with some assurance that he can find them again if they prove important…
As We May Think
Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified. The lawyer has at his touch the associated opinions and decisions of his whole experience, and of the experience of friends and authorities. The patent attorney has on call the millions of issued patents, with familiar trails to every point of his client's interest. The physician, puzzled by a patient's reactions, strikes the trail established in studying an earlier similar case, and runs rapidly through analogous case histori…
As We May Think
d his trails do not fade. Several years later, his talk with a friend turns to the queer ways in which a people resist innovations, even of vital interest. He has an example, in the fact that the outraged Europeans still failed to adopt the Turkish bow. In fact he has a trail on it. A touch brings up the code book. Tapping a few keys projects the head of the trail. A lever runs through it at will, stopping at interesting items, going off on side excursions. It is an interesting trail, pertinent to the discussion. So he sets a reproducer in action, photographs the whole trail out, and passes it…
As We May Think
It affords an immediate step, however, to associative indexing, the basic idea of which is a provision whereby any item may be caused at will to select immediately and automatically another. This is the essential feature of the memex. The process of tying two items together is the important thing.
As We May Think
Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and, to coin one at random, "memex" will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.
As We May Think
The human mind does not work that way. It operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature.
As We May Think
Our ineptitude in getting at the record is largely caused by the artificiality of systems of indexing. When data of any sort are placed in storage, they are filed alphabetically or numerically, and information is found (when it is) by tracing it down from subclass to subclass. It can be in only one place, unless duplicates are used; one has to have rules as to which path will locate it, and the rules are cumbersome. Having found one item, moreover, one has to emerge from the system and re-enter on a new path.
As We May Think
One can consider rapid selection of this form, and distant projection for other purposes. To be able to key one sheet of a million before an operator in a second or two, with the possibility of then adding notes thereto, is suggestive in many ways. It might even be of use in libraries, but that is another story. At any rate, there are now some interesting combinations possible. One might, for example, speak to a microphone, in the manner described in connection with the speech controlled typewriter, and thus make his selections. It would certainly beat the usual file clerk.
As We May Think
So much for the manipulation of ideas and their insertion into the record. Thus far we seem to be worse off than before—for we can enormously extend the record; yet even in its present bulk we can hardly consult it. This is a much larger matter than merely the extraction of data for the purposes of scientific research; it involves the entire process by which man profits by his inheritance of acquired knowledge. The prime action of use is selection, and here we are halting indeed. There may be millions of fine thoughts, and the account of the experience on which they are based, all encased with…
As We May Think
A record if it is to be useful to science, must be continuously extended, it must be stored, and above all it must be consulted.
As We May Think
The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it.
As We May Think
Mendel's concept of the laws of genetics was lost to the world for a generation because his publication did not reach the few who were capable of grasping and extending it; and this sort of catastrophe is undoubtedly being repeated all about us, as truly significant attainments become lost in the mass of the inconsequential.
As We May Think
Professionally our methods of transmitting and reviewing the results of research are generations old and by now are totally inadequate for their purpose.
As We May Think
There is a growing mountain of research. But there is increased evidence that we are being bogged down today as specialization extends. The investigator is staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other workers—conclusions which he cannot find time to grasp, much less to remember, as they appear. Yet specialization becomes increasingly necessary for progress, and the effort to bridge between disciplines is correspondingly superficial.
As We May Think
Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals; it has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual.
As We May Think
What are the scientists to do next?
As We May Think
He urges that men of science should then turn to the massive task of making more accessible our bewildering store of knowledge. For years inventions have extended man's physical powers rather than the powers of his mind. Trip hammers that multiply the fists, microscopes that sharpen the eye, and engines of destruction and detection are new results, but not the end results, of modern science. Now, says Dr. Bush, instruments are at hand which, if properly developed, will give man access to and command over the inherited knowledge of the ages
As We May Think
r. Aversion to politics has left tech leaders ill equipped to deal with the political obstacles that stand in the way of their techno-optimistic dreams — such as persuading cities to fund the infrastructure to support driverless cars, or building consensus on climate change, without which clean fuel technology may be meaningless. America doesn’t need another “Science, the Endless Frontier.” But it does need a renewed resolve to take on some of the globe’s greatest challenges, and a recognition that both government and industry will have to adjust their priorities to do so.
Opinion | The Church of Techno-Optimism - The New York Times
But Silicon Valley does have a politics. It is neither liberal nor conservative. Nor is it libertarian, despite the dog-eared copies of Ayn Rand’s novels that you might find strewn about the cubicles of a start-up in Palo Alto. It is techno-optimism: the belief that technology and technologists are building the future and that the rest of the world, including government, needs to catch up
Opinion | The Church of Techno-Optimism - The New York Times
We can now make agents that, on the basis of natural language questions or instructions, can perform actions in a wide action space. The potential is not limited to CX or sales any particular business workflow. Any set of behaviors where an agent manipulates symbols in a computer can in principle be performed with this schema. And it looks an awful lot like AGI.
The Near Future of AI is Action-Driven - by John McDonnell
Imagine a customer service LLM able to do React-style chaining. We might give it actions SearchDocs for information about the service and policies, SearchClientFacts to look up particular facts about a client, PythonCode to run python programs, ManualEscalation to submit cases to a human for approval, MessageClient to send the client messages, and Finish to indicate completion.
The Near Future of AI is Action-Driven - by John McDonnell
ReAct takes three steps iteratively: Thought (about what is needed), Act (choice of action), and Observation (see the outcome of the action). The actions often make use of cognitive assets like search.
The Near Future of AI is Action-Driven - by John McDonnell