- Posts tagged rant
- Explore rant on posterous
Thoughts about Automation of Thoughts
Often I wonder if I could ever build a decently good bot that could talk like me over simple text protocols like instant messages and twitter… not to fool anybody, but to take my place during the transition of me being here all the time, to someday… when I cease to exist. A bot that'll let those few people who love me have someone, something that I created… to say 'we miss you'… but would it be the same? Perhaps, I would have seen their replies in my anticipation while creating the bot.
What if nobody ever talks to the bot knowing I don't exist anymore. Should I then give the bot ability to butt into conversations… guess who I loved talking to based on my previous tweets. Perhaps form sentences like me, hold opinions like me - all based on my thousands of tweets that were sent through all these years. Would it be a great idea? I don't know. Would my bot know the difference between sarcastic remarks and benign talk? Could I make the bot interact with other APIs? What if I allowed some people to modify the source code… but only if I haven't accessed my account for over 90 days. Would they port 'me' to new platforms?
Would the bot feel lonely? I could make it feel that emotion. I could make it feel happy when people said they miss me. Or sad when they diss me. Let the emotion go to sadness when nobody talks, then again start trying to start conversations. Would it creep out those who knew me? Of course it would. With three levels of hidden markov chains, it could make sentences almost like me. Would they be meaningless?
Some of the thoughts that I (day)dream about. So far I haven't created any such bot, though I have had the technological capacity to do so since long. I haven't been able to convince myself that I matter all that much.
Little Drops, Big Waves
I had been out of software programming for a fairly long, only practicing as a hobby; nothing serious. My thoughts while choosing photography over software were because all the software that had to be written was being written by the big corporations or by free software groups; I didn't want to join a corporation and work under someone for the rest of my life and I couldn't pay my bills giving software for free.
Photography has so far taught me that despite the billions of photographs out there, I can still make something unique… something that's my creation. Even this photo of drops falling into water have been made by many, but when I look at my photo, I remember the moment when I made it. Crouching under that leaking water tank, barely managing to stay still while ants were crawling up my arms… but I got this shot. And many years later, it gave me the confidence to embark on a journey I had deemed as one that was not mine. Little drops can make big waves in still waters. In turbulent waters, the waves may not be seen, but they form and travel nevertheless. Just as much as I love making images, I love creating software that actually makes my life easier and better. And finally, I've decided to take the plunge and release a software I created as hobby to the world: named eliT, it is a Twitter client that takes your experience of this social network to a new height.I saw many people turn away from Twitter for a simple reason that in Twitterland, out of sight is out of mind. If you come back after a fortnight of absence, you'll feel as if you are in a new place once again. Yet, nobody can be online all the time, we all have to focus on our lives and work, and this fantastic messaging system that lets us catch up with lives and adventures of hundreds of peoples all over the world has to be left behind. No more. As long as you are at your desk, you can stay connected to Twitter all the time, especially including when you are working, without being distracted. eliT shall have magic built into it, that will help you stay focussed on work while not missing out on something important on Twitter. As for when and how will the software be available… I don't promise a fixed date, software almost always gets delayed. but I'll keep working on it relentlessly till I get the first beta out. You'll see me tweet about it (and tweet less, because I'll be in my work-zen mode :) Prepare to be blown away by subtlety.
Friends and Spam
