Turing 2012

Turing 2012: International Conference on Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Sciences was held at De La Salle University on March 27-28, 2012. I did attend the conference and it made me realize that I am joining the centenary of Alan Mathison Turing's birth. The conference had the aim of highlighting the significance and influences made by the existence and life of the late Alan Turing.

Among the speakers is the philosopher David Chalmers. Sir David put forth the idea of Singularity. Singularity is a potential state of mankind. What is it? I do not have an iota of credibility to talk about it as it entails a profound discussion of several underlying concepts, theories and hypotheses. Weak Artificial Infelligence, Strong Artificial Intelligence, AI+, AI++, Defeaters, etc. have to be understood as well. Mention was made of More's law on computer power: It used to be that the speed/power of computers doubles every two years, then it became every eighteen months, then every year, then every six months... The change tends towards an asymptotic behavior towards zero. That's when singularity is attained at which time every mind gets uploaded...

In Computer Science, the Turing Machine is a must understand topic. A barometer for soil ability via the computer of A problem is posited by the Turing's Thesis., the general idea of which is - any problem that can be modeled by the Turing Machine is computable. Dr. Arnulfo Azcarraga, who Happened to be the best professor I ever had, delivered a concise but sufficient lecture on the Turing Machine coupled with his analysis, based on written accounts, on whether or not, Turing was referring to the human being as the machine component of the Turing Machine...

The Unwanted Raffle Draw

Living is playing the game of life. When somebody dies, it is because his or her game has to end.

By tradition in the Philippines, relatives and friends dole out cash donations to families with a member who just passed away. (For the natives Benguet, such donation is referred to as "UPO")

Some people may not know that when they list their names in the logbook of donations when somebody dies, they are submitting an entry to a raffle draw which they do not want to join. Supported by the theory of randomness, you could be picked as the next to go from that logbook.

Of course, it's just a joke. Don't quit from the habit of donating. It's a part of living a meaningful life.

Joke out of an unfortunate Experience

While money laundering is a hot issue in the country due to an ongoing publicized trial of a high ranking official, I did my laundry forgetting that I have some cash in the pocket of one of the pants. While my laundry was in the drying area, demonic looters came for a harvest. So sad, my Levis pants a jacket and an RRJ pants with 2.5K in its pocket went into the hands of thieves.

One of my friends who heard my story wittingly put humor into the experience. He said, the thieves would come back and would charge me of money laundering...