I See You

When developing the retinal biometric identifier, there was a stage where the electronics that connected the camera to the computer was called an Interface Control Unit (we used the acronym ICU). Acronyms were a big deal in electronics in the early eighties. As ideas for application of the invention grew, one could not help but to think of the health industry acronym ICU for Intensive Care unit. But after seeing James Cameron's Avatar and in the context of the invention disclosed in this blog ... another minds' eye link - I see you. More here than meets the eye, if you get my drift.



So I asked her, "What phrase do you think represented 'the arc of the story'?"

"The Turning Point", she replied referring to when the protagonist first realized the deep meaning of the conflict and his role in it. Two views from two genders and on deeper consideration he thought, pretty much the same thing.

Loosen' Up Brother

Wondering what an observer would think watching them that did not speak their language. The multi-rhythmic nature of their spontaneous verbal interaction punctuated with seizure like but nevertheless individual actions. About all they really had in common when the words stopped from time to time was a mouth wide open smile.

If there was anything that distinguished this group, it was that they were so different in applying their innate talent and excelling at doing so. And here they were, gathered around a table, laughing at each other as though each had honed a night club comedy act over a period of years.

The prescient phenomena not only continued, it gathered momentum. This gathering was another clear illustration. It is not so much that an event was preceded by a prediction as it was that the probability of the event was high given the subtle hints were available to those who knew how to see … the elegantly probable.

This was a pattern begging for encoding. Though he was having 'the time of his life", another part of him could not wait to get back to 'work'.

Storm Passes

WARNING: Very rough draft. Proceed at your own risk.

She will be 80 soon. Why open with that fact rather than the engaging conversation that dominated the spontaneous hour long first encounter? Because the generational divide is quite palpable, thank you.

Spanning, say, a century and more than half the globe, the discussion fit like a glove. Following morale being nearly trampled to oblivion by the stampede that lasted 24 hours, refreshing. Truly so. In the past, point resources on defeating the enemy. The enemy became stronger each time. The monster of the ID, death or worse.

How exactly did we get here? No, No. Don't repeat the history. Grok it. And do so for the wisdom the experience CAN impart.

One team member of few words known more by who gathers 'round him. Another, a living contrast of careful detailed articulation and prolonged silence. Yet a third, suspicious of those of lesser academic accomplishment but a leader borne of, apparently, an innate compassion.

The group, mostly old white guys who enjoy grey matter workouts. He of that gender was not at a loss to describe them. The other gender, fascinating. Do we share envy of the social mores of the other? It seems so.

Rock the Boat

Protect oneself from military and/or very large private interests? And what of the procurement of development resources? Issues addressed early in the current century regarding Intellectual Property and appearing to have application in the political arena. Many a good thing came from the city by the sea. He was honored that a deep thinker asked for his thought on subject.

"I had no idea that all of it was recorded with such detail." it summarized the real-time recognition process they were studying in personal terms. Congruency, relevance and the like compared with deterministic filing and classification. Error prone, yes. High resolution, very. Context dependent, absolutely. Better approach this one with something more robust than firepower.

His sensitivity to 'crazy making' had a decades old story. The hair-trigger defense mechanism that was at once his nemesis and savior reared its ugly head again. Better that it registers a false positive than to ignore that which could put him in peril again?

But to deny or ignore this pervasive meme in his mind gives it far too much destructive power, he admitted. So on this sunlit morning with nothing pressing he pored over the recent event memories.

Perhaps this 'kind' of emotional tumult was more prevalent in the population than he had assumed. Opportunity? Private meetings for shaking out the bugs based on insufficient sharing of related thoughts? A counterpoint to the concept of unquestioned openness.

They were used to his verbal fumbling, and the team was about to be tested again. "Oh well", he sighed quietly.

Friday, Early May

" … to get away from the intensity and -- by the way, I hate how this word is used -- focus. This is a working retreat, no agenda not even discovery. All we asked you to bring you would have to bring anyway." They laughed because they knew precisely what was meant.

Arriving in a late afternoon this time of year set a dramatic stage. The clouds just breaking up from a spring rain that seemed to make the new leaves glow. The sun just having set - red, light blue and a dark grey blue sky - opened for breaking bread.

The sounds of birds … they know what happens at water's edge. Many had tried to understand why coming to place such as this had such a profound effect.

"Well, right now I cannot think of thing I want to hide. I wonder why?". She just replied to virtually everyone in the party observing her as they were about to take their seat around the table. Just a matter of hours ago they were back at the consoles taking the work at hand a bit too seriously.

The first lull in the joyful conversation was a great set up, "I can't stand it anymore … waiting for the first one to break a rule" This time they laughed in unison. Further their laughter faded as if in response to a conductor". It had to be a segue to something.

Just then the first of the food arrived extending the anticipation while whetting the appetite. Some could understand their behavior in the context of extended family getting together. Others would relate to a happening that acted as a surrogate for what they had missed in childhood. Trust was deep and implicit.

Pilots (TEST2)

He grabbed each firmly and gently slid into place. A solo 'flight' to discover … Something did not feel correct. He waited for the ID link sequence to complete and used the handles to exit. Upon emerging he gazed at the crew. Apparently they had concluded the same thing in virtual synchrony. The experiment was not yet ready.

They needed a co-pilot genetically architected to complement the other with her own cockpit. The same careful organic design - similar in some respects, radically different in others.

---

Three months later ...

The first time he sat in the cockpit was to do a context switch without precedent. Designed from the very beginning to engage sensory familiarity, both natural and technological preserved conscious adaptation for the task at hand.

How gravitation distorted the elevation dimension. Subtle toward a 'center' and up to the limit of relevance. A careful summation of bi-lateral complementarity for yaw. And so on … The user interface design so much different than what was considered conventional for under-the-hood work.

Integrity Glue

Linking a personal history with a single person, while important to fairness and performance is just a small, albeit important, piece of the role identity plays in our society. I suggest that we have not known, and are just beginning to discover the value such a link - if robustly implemented - could play in the destiny of our species.

But what do I mean by robustly implemented? Consider the recent developments of societal connectivity. They are now mimicking the connectivity that gave rise to cognition and then consciousness in biological evolution.

Consider the role of personal identity in symbiosis, synergy, democracy etc. In each case, the performance of such activities is closely correlated with the integrity of identity.

For many decades identity was associated almost exclusively with security. As our artifacts became responsive to identity they became more useful for at least two reasons - 1) a one-to-one relationship with potentially powerful agency 2) the artifacts mitigated the effects of self-serving egos that could otherwise threaten effective agency.

It is beyond the scope of this piece to discuss identities of groups. Suffice it to say, if the primal elements of said groups are of high integrity the group's integrity potential increases … dramatically.

Identity Memes

"… It presumes the valuing mechanism is functioning well enough."

"That sounds reasonable. If I am understanding, what you are saying is the new one has caught and perhaps surpassed the old in several of the most important categories. That is a big deal … a very big deal".

Their collective astonishment was quite palpable. This aspiration of the project was more about application than discovery though still a mix of both. The mind boggling implications not just the stuff of great fiction. This was actionable, at least in the strategic planning sense.

In one map, each node connected a probe to the machine for a duration. Its purpose was to download accumulated wisdom and upload sensory data. Each probe as flexible as possible to serve a mission type. The mission type, in turn, as generic as global support would allow.

The epic meme battle was to get a major scheduled test in about 6 months. Its spontaneous manifestations were unfolding as they met. Meanwhile the identity meme would get a fresh new look, it was certain. When the pattern emerged on the system monitor, they simply could not look away. It nearly jumped from the display surface right out of background simulation and right into their laps.

Identity meme … it has a lifetime of missions. It is highly scalable. Very little about it can remain static though the few of its elements that are, need be very well understood. When the contribution of inductive recursion to team coherence became explicit rather than implicit …

Machine Assist

From nearly two decades of experience he was now considering the assembly of a message for machine translation. It would embody the indirect content with as little cultural assumption as possible. Inspired by a brief morning transaction with PM™ this experiment was mostly a hunch but based on early revelatory interpretations by the team.

"Simply observing what translates well and what does not is a filter that reveals suspect assumptions. If a given assumption is not self-contained, it will be necessary to keep broadening the considered context until a reasonable level of independence is reached."

Success visualization appeared plausible as expected. It was its vivid, specific detail that made it worthy of attention. He wanted to say the temporal dimension dominated but that was only true of the metaphorical instance (purely imaginary). Sequence, with a preferred motor vector was the frame instead. Implicit, the sensory vector reversed the sequence (for another time, he noted on the log).

To continue would be unwisely bold, he decided. The discovery was satisfying but inconclusive with respect to the next step. The only risk in a premature attempt was to dilute the subtle meaning. This decision was easy, indeed.

... detail - not

It felt like somebody was watching or perhaps listening. Spooky. He knew that it could not be the case as they had gone to great lengths to prevent that possibility. But the tingling of his skin and the vigilant attentiveness, unmistakable. Visceral confirmation that the task was nearing a successful completion.

That all of this could be accomplished through interaction with the network operating autonomously was the threshold they sought. He suspected that auto-differentiation of culture specific metaphors had generated the necessary meta-patterns.

To confirm this hypothesis was now at the top of the priorities list. Each time they looked at each other across the desk over the tops of the instrument displays now there was a sense that the time was coming soon when those artifacts would enhance presence rather than detracting from it.

No question, there were many who were still opposed, vehemently so. The idea that an artifact could serve such an important role in human community. He was, for the first time, starting to understand this rather than just accepting it.

There are strong ways to describe the opposition's rationale. And many had. As a result, he was pretty sure this was something to be finessed. The real opportunity was to change minds, not solidify long held superstitions. Two to three days … asynchronous … She smiled.