Sat Feb 06, 2010
GUI's Lack Memory
GUI's have no memory. GUIs don't have the ability to retain the sequence of what you just did with them. When you click, and drop, and click, and drop, and type, and bring up, and close etc, there is no memory in the system of what you just did. How on earth can you figure out the long and convoluted series of actions you took with the GUI so six months down the road you can do it again? Then lets say you have to grind through a dozen of these complex sequences a week. How can you possibly remember all of them? Or even a few of them. GUI's are not easy. They are a pain in the brain. At least they are for me because I have a weak memory. Are computers really only for those people with great memories. come on!
--
GUI's could have traces so that you can repeat or at least re-read what you've done? You could go tho the trace page ad see what you have done and even copy it out and paste it into a user manual. We can do this.
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Posted by: Jon Grover | Feb 06, 10 | 6:37 pm
Sat Jan 30, 2010
GUI's hide the functions you need to use, in remote places
I have for years had trouble with GUI's. For those who don't know, a GUI is a graphic user interface and is what you nearly always see these days when you open a program. I have trouble with them. I have scoured the net looking for others with my particular difficulty and have found little comment and nothing organized. So I have decided it is time for someone to speak up. This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of articles on the trouble with GUI's. Mostly it will be rants about the difficulties. If I am successful, it will also include a few solutions to the problems I describe.
The things you need to know about are hidden behind GUI's and you have to go through one two three or more buttons, menus drop-downs etc to find them, if you can find them. When you look at a GUI all that is there at the start is a few buttons, links and menus in a grey (or sometimes colorful) screen. Grey does not convey much neither does color. So where do you look for the function you need. Well you have to start going through each menu, drop-down, button and link to find it. You are likely not to recognize it when you do. It often won't have the name you expect it to have. And it may be some obscure little check box off in the corner of some obscure screen, many levels deep in your search, by which time if you actually reach that screen you may be so tired of looking at screens or just tired in general that you don't have the mental energy left over to notice it as it goes by. The number of places to look for something often makes this a gargantuan task, and then once you've found it you have to go through the same process again for the next thing. Think of having to search a disordered library without an index for a single book by having to read the title page inside every book until you come to the right one. Then consider that there may be a closet that you don't know exists with even more books. This is what I face every day when I use GUI's.
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GUI's could have indexes. Web sites often do, or they use Google. We who build GUI's can do this too.
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Posted by: Jon Grover | Jan 30, 10 | 7:36 pm
Sat Jan 23, 2010
Diagrams of World History 1765 BC to 2049 AD
I apologize for not writing for a while. My life has been a bit overwhelming the last couple months. I hope to start writing on a more regular basis now.
Here is a diagram of history from 1765 BC to 1935 AD. Each character is 14 years. During declines, maybe you get a revolution possibility once the previous has finally died out. The down stroke is unstoppable until forced to reverse by a decision point 2 levels up, this also drags lower level down strokes up.
================================================================================ADVANCE ===========================>|<================== DECLINE ================>|<========= AMBIGUOUS =========>|<================================ ADVANCE ================================>
| | | |167 | | | | |
|<------------------------ heroic age ------------------------->|<------ philosophic age ------>|<- Roman age ->|<------- canonic age --------->|<------------------------- dark age -------------------------->|<- enlightenment/renaissance ->|<-federal age->||
| | | | | | | | |
1765 1653 1541 1428 1316 1204 1092 980 868 756 643 BC 531 419 363 307 251 195 139 83 27 30.5 87 143 199 255 311 367 423 479 535 591 647 703 759 816 873 928 984 1040 1152 1264 1376 1488 1601 1713 69 1825 81 1937 2049
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
#..__ | _.#._ + _#_ | # | | + _#_ | + | _.#._ | _#_ | # | #
| ''--..__ Egypt | Mesopotamia _.-' | '-._ | Greece _- | -_ | Rome/|\ | | | Germany _- | -_ | | | Arabia _.-' | '-._ | Spain_- | -_ Britain/| USA/|
| ''--..__ | _.-' | '-._ | _- | -_ | / | \ | | | _- | -_ | | | _.-' | '-._ | _- | -_ | / | | /|
| ''--..__ | _.-' | '-._ | _- | -_| / | \| | | _- | -_| | | _.-' | '-._ | _- | -_| / | | / |
| ''-+..__ _.-' David + '+._ _- | +_ / | + | + _- | +_ + | _.-' | '+._ _- | +_ / | | / |
| | ''--._.-' | | '-_- | | -/ | |\ | | _- | | -_ | | _.-' | | '-_- | | -/ | |/ |
| | _.-' ''--..__ | | _- '-._ | | / -_ | | \ | Jesus_- | | -_ | | _.-' | | _- '-._ | | / -_ | |/ |
| | _.-' ''--..__ | |_- '-._ | |/ -_| | \| |_- | | -_| | _.-' | |_- '-._ | |/ -_| | |
| _.+' ''-+..__ _+ '+._ + +_ | + _+ _.+._ | +_ _.+' | _+ '+._ + +_ | |
| _.-' | | ''--..___- | | '+._/| | -_| |\ _- | _.-' | '-._ | | -_ _.-' | | _- | | '-._/| | -/| |
| _.-' | | _-''-+..__ | /'+._ | -_ | \_- | _.-' | '|._ | -__.-' | | _- | | /'|._ | /|_ |
| Moses _.-' | | _- | ''--..__ | / | '-._ |167| -_|_-\ | _.-' | | '-._ | _.-'-_ | | _- | | / | '-._ | / | -_|
| _.?'_ | <- decision points (?) -> + _?_ =====+===============+=> ? ==+=====>'+ ? ==> # \ _.+' + ? ==+=====>'#' -_ | | _?_ =====+===============+=> ? ==+=====>'+ ? | +
| _.-' '-._ | | _- -_ | | / \ -|..__ |/ \|._ | _.-\ | | / \ | | -_ | | _- -_ | | / \ | |/ \| |
| _.-' '-._ | | _- -_ | | / \ | ''-+/ \| '-' \ | | / \ | | -_ | | _- -_ | | / \ | |/ \| |
| _.-' '-._ | |_- -_| |/ \| | | | \| |/ \| | -_| |_- -_| |/ \| | | |
--+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+---------------+---------------#-------+-------#---+---+-------+-------+-------#---+---+---+---+---------------+-------------------------------+---------------+---------------+-------+-------+---+---+-------+
| | '-._ _- | | -_ /| |\ /| |\ | |\ /| |\ | | -_ _- | | -_ /| |\ /| |\ |
| | '-._ _- | | -_ / | | \ /| |\ | | \ / | | \ | | -_ _- | | -_ / | | \ /| |\ |
| | '-._ _- | | -_ / | | \ / | | \ | | \ / | | \ | | -_ _- | | -_ / | | \ / | | \ |
| | '-._ _- | | -_ / | | \ / | | \ | | \ / | | \ | | -_ _- | | -_ / | | \ / | | \ |
| | '-._ | | -/ | | / | | \| | \ / | | \ | | -_ _- | | -/ | | / | | \|
| | _- '-._ | | / -_ | | /\ | | \| | \ / | | \ | | -_ _- | | / -_ | | /\ | | \|
| | _- '-._ | | / -_| | / \| | | | \ / | | \| | -_ _- | | / -_| | / \| | |
| | R 'X | R X | R X | X | R | | X | R | | R X | R X | X
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ! | | |
1765 1653 1541 1428 1316 1204 1092 980 924 868 812 756 699 643 587 531 475 419 363 307 251 195 139 83 27 30.5 87 143 199 255 311 367 423 479 535 591 647 703 759 816 873 928 984 1040 1152 1264 1376 1488 1601 1713 69 1825 81 1937 2049
And here is a diagram of history from 1881 to 2042. The future is of course merely a continuation of trends and not a certainty. Each character is 21 months.
============================================= ADVANCE ==============================================
industrial age ------------------>|<----- holocaust age --------->||<- j ->||
| | | | |
1881 1909 1937 1951 1965 1979 1993 00 2007 14 2021 28 2035 42 2049
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| _.#._ + _#_ + # | |
| _.-' | '-._ | _- | -_ | /| | |
| _.-' | '-._ | _- | -_ | / | | |
| _.-' | '-._ | _- | -_| / | | |
| _.-' | '+._ _- | +_ / | | |
| _.-' | | '-_- | | -/ | | |
| _.-' | | _- '-._ | | / -_ | | |
| _.-' | |_- '-._ | |/ -_| | |
_.+' | _+ '+._ + +_ | + _.+
| | _- | | '-._/| | -_| | _.-'
| | _- | | /'|._ | | _.-'
| | _- | | / | '-._ | _.-'-_|
| | _?_ =====+=============> | ? ==+=====>'#'_ | +_
| | _- -_ | | / \ | | '-._ | -_
| | _- -_ | | / \ | | | '-._ -_
| |_- -_| |/ \| | | | '-._
--+---------------+---------------#-------+-------+-------+-------#---+---+---+---#-+-+-+-#+++#+##+
| _- | | -_ /| |\ | | |
| _- | | -_ / | | \ | | |
| _- | | -_ / | | \ | | |
| _- | | -_ / | + \ | | |
| _- | | -/ | | \ | | |
| _- | | / -_ | | \ | | |
| _- | | / -_| | \| | |
| ! | | ! X + ! X | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
1881 1909 1937 1951 1965 1979 1993 00 2007 14 2021 28 2035 42 2049
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Posted by: Jon Grover | Jan 23, 10 | 6:27 pm
Sat Aug 01, 2009
What is an Endeme Set?
An endeme set is a list of characteristics which when combined or ordered, result in an emergent property. An endeme is a particular ordering of these characteristics therefore having a particular emergent property. Endemes and endeme sets are often coded with a different letter for each characteristic. Endemes and endeme sets occupy a conceptual space between bit-wise enumerations which unlike endeme sets may not be ordered, and words which unlike endemes may use the same letter more than once. In other words an endeme is a permutation of letters in a particular coded endeme set context which results in an emergent property. Endeme sets can be described in a particular format which shows both which letter applies to each characteristic and which other letters might have been used. Here is an example:
A fantasy humanoid species endeme set
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV| characteristic opposite description
----------------------+
A] -M- |A. Aquatic vs mountains how much lives in or under water
[B]C- |B. Brave/courageous vs cautious how much does not hide
[C] -H- |C. Centauroid vs humanoid number of appendages
A-[D] -S-U-|D. Delving/underground vs aerial enclosedness of environment
[E] -RS- |E. Equestrian/steeds vs walking prevalence of riding
-E[F] -R- |F. Freedom vs enslavable desire for freedom
-B--E[G] |G. Good vs evil level/amount of goodness
-F[H] |H. Hostile vs friendly initial/long term reactions
[I] -S- |I. Intelligent/smart vs not smart level of intelligence
[J]-MN- |J. Jungle/natural vs material preference for things of nature
[K] -P- |K. Killing vs peaceful tendency/effectiveness at killing
[L] -S- |L. Large vs small size of species members
A- [M] |M. Magical vs antimagic amount of use of magic
-B- [N] |N. Noble vs base refinement vs earthiness
-B- -LN[O] |O. Ocean-going/boats vs land based how much do they use boats
-M- [P] |P. Patrilineal vs matrilineal how much male or female oriented
-C- [Q] |Q. Quick tempered vs cool/reserve quickness or reactins to emotion
-G- [R]ST-|R. Robust/short/wide vs gracile/tall robustness of features
[S] |S. Social vs solitary how much they live in groups
-N- -S[T] |T. Traveling/nomadic vs sedentary how much they will travel
A-C- [U]|U. Urban/cities vs agrarian preference for built up areas
-C- -H- [V|V. Vegetarian/herbivour vs carnivourous vegetable/meat balance
----------------------+
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV|
Endemes are coded little endian, so the characteristics on the left are strongest (and when they have opposites on the right their opposites are strongest). Here are some particular endemes for some particular species:
Fantasy humanoid species endemes
- fairie
- MVF.TJQE.IGBONSUA-CHPR-KDL
- elf
- FNI.SJVM.GBEKPOLD-CUAT-HQR
- dwarf
- DRB.KSFU.QGIPHNLT-CVMA-OJE
- hobbit
- DSP.GIJB.FVRETNUQ-COHK-LMA
- human
- SOK.TBLI.EUPAFRGQ-CVNH-JMD
- ogre
- KLQ.HJRB.DFPMUTSA-CIGO-ENV
- centaur
- LCT.BFIQ.RJKSPVGH-NMOU-AED
- mermaid
- AJF.MQTG.IBNSLEKU-DHRV-OPC
The punctuation accentuates which characteristics are high, above average, average, below average, and low. It also helps when an endeme is also only partially filled. Often the top three characteristics are the most important and 'define' the endeme, so they need to be ordered with especial care.
Endeme sets allow for controllable ambiguity and randomness. For example, a random endeme can create a new species as an emergent property:
FAM.TEIC.TPHRVBJQ-GONK-LDS new species
This new species loves freedom, lives in the water, is magical, travels, rides things, is intelligent and has 6 limbs. It is also very small, lives in coral, alone, is somewhat malicious, despises boats and is nonetheless fairly peaceful.
Interpreting this I have decided that it has the tail of a lobster and a couple pairs of its legs, and the arms of a human. It is about the size of a very large lobster, and has the tendency to attack shipping. It rides sharks, rays and large fish, caries a small trident and can adhere itself to the hull of a ship and transform things within its cargo from outside the hull. It can also zap things. It has gills and antennae. It lives in warm seas inside coral mansions or in harbors.
It sometimes takes years to develop a good endeme set. It has to be both compact in its length and perfect in its application and excellent in its ability to combine its elements. By perfect, I mean its combinations cover what it needs to cover and its combinations do not generate bunches of 'invalid' results.
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Posted by: Jon Grover | Aug 01, 09 | 1:06 pm
Wed Jul 29, 2009
Separate the Information Desired from the Information Storage Format
Separate what is desired information from the format. Right now what information is desired is embedded in the data format.
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Posted by: Jon Grover | Jul 29, 09 | 6:24 pm
Wed Jun 03, 2009
'Natural' artificial intelligence
What if artificial intelligence was a natural outgrowth of the work we do all the time? what would happen would be that UI's would be programmed looser and looser over the years, slowly able to handle more and more variable input. It would be the natural way we organize software. Instead of making software tighter and tighter with validation rules and strong typing, the typing and validation would become more relaxed, there would be fewer and fewer types, or maybe as many types but they (types) would become more and more
complex and powerful.
It would start with parsers to handle numbers and dates in different formats, simple commands in many guises. For example, programs would allow 'bye', 'logout', 'quit', 'log out' and other forms of the program closing command. It would continue with richly embedded characterizations of words so that different programmers would add characterizations and use the ones they needed. Ways would be discovered to merge things rather than having them precisely separate.
Major projects would get going to use this foundation of variability tolerance to give programs an idea of what was going on, then after a while there would be projects focusing on various computer cognition design models. Various different models of cognition would be tried and the few that really worked well would be expanded on. People would expect some level of actual intelligence from programs. It wouldn't be human intelligence, it would be very much stronger in some areas and very much weaker in others. Artificial intelligence would be a day to day thing.
So why has this not happened? Well, for one thing, we as programmers want everything nailed down very tight, with specific objects, validation rules, and strong typing. second, we don't have a standardized way of merging concepts. For another most software is proprietary so the base of intelligence artifacts that would have been built up over the years is prevent. Another problem is no standardized way to combine intelligence artifacts.
The endeme data structure would solve some of these problems. It allows both definition of meanings and matchability between meanings. An endeme is a partcular instance of a combinable orderable list of meanings. For example the list of your three favorite colors in order is an endeme and color and shape are endeme sets. Figuring out how to stack endemes and relate endemes of different endeme sets is something I am still working on, but if thousands of programmers had been working with them for the last 30 years we would have figured it out.
My (half baked) proposal:
- 1. start using endemes,
- 2. companies allow combinable intelligence artifacts to be published,
- 3. Start big bases of word characterizations using endemes.
- 4. Figure out how to match, stack, translate and combine them
- 5. Companies allow and programmers use highly complex validators in UI's to process user input text.
- 6. Come up with more combinable artifacts besides just endemes.
- 7. Do some sort of artifical creativity wherever possible, even if it's just variable colors on a UI background
- 8. combine the sciences of fuzzy logic, probability, and endemes
Endemes are good for AI analysis and they are good for AC Artificial creativity.
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Posted by: Jon Grover | Jun 03, 09 | 12:35 pm
Sat May 09, 2009
Peak Years of Various Personal Technologies
Here are the peak years of various personal technologies according to my history theory:
5352 BC - peak of personal *farms?
2661 BC - peak of personal spears?
703 AD - peak of personal houses?
1377 AD - peak of personal books?
1713 AD - peak of personal *sailboats?
1881 AD - peak of personal guns
1965 AD - peak of personal cars
2007 AD - peak of personal computers
2028 AD - peak of personal *phones?
2038 AD - peak of personal AI's?
2043 AD - peak of personal nanobots?
Each of these peaks is in the exact center of various advancement ages.
The ages are: barbarian age, civilization age, dark age, enlightening ages, federal ages, generator ages, holocaust age, internet age, one world age, microbotic age, sleepless age respectively.
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Posted by: Jon Grover | May 09, 09 | 3:48 pm
Mon Mar 30, 2009
Name Your Top 9 Dragon Characteristics Poll
Come visit my new poll at
Dragon Characteristics at PollDaddy.com. This fits into artificial creativity how? Once I have a list of characteristics I can create random dragons from them. And this could be used for more serious polls. as I think of them. Thanks.
If you liked this, I have added a survey of
Elf Characteristics at Zoomerang.
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Posted by: Jon Grover | Mar 30, 09 | 5:56 pm
Wed Mar 18, 2009
Endemes are a Human to Computer Language
One thing artificial creativity needs is a good human to computer language.
Endemes are a vehicle for computers and humans to communicate. They are a potential mutual language for humans and computers. Of course, all computer languages and applications are mututal languages for humans and computers to communicate, but there is something special about endemes. They allow easier communication for both parties. Computers find applications too rigid to say very much or to have much control over. Humans find computer languages too technical and too primitive to be able to say much in them. A lot can be said with endemes, and computers find them simple enough to understand.
Now I need to figure out how to make endemes work with each other, so that humans can say more than a single word with them.
I am a programmer because I want to be able to talk to my computer. But it is still a dumb machine. It doesn't have the ability to talk to me back. Maybe if I built a computer brain based on endemes it could talk to me back. It might look a little like the endeme index I've been building, except that instead of the links in the index showing the best matching endemes in the list it would link to other endemes based on 'knowledge'.
But then I would have to build an 'index-like' structure that included more than just one endeme set. Ultimately it would have to manage and create its own endeme sets.
This is all possible but it's going to take some work.
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Posted by: Jon Grover | Mar 18, 09 | 12:23 pm
Sat Feb 28, 2009
Brief History of the last 287 thousand years
Here is a brief timeline of the last 287 thousand years focused on spiritual events.
years vectors spiritual hist. inventions and revolutions level
_________ ________ ________________ ________________________________________ ___
287-230K v4 Adam & Eve? language revolution 'I'
========= ======== ================ ======================================== N21
230-201K v1 penultimate ice age...
201-172K v2
172-144K v3
144-115K v4 Adam & Eve? team revolution
--------- -------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------- O22
115-100K v1
100-86K v2
86-72K BC v3
72-57K BC v4 Adam & Eve? technology revolution, Toba
--------- -------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------- M23
57-50K BC v1
50-43K BC v2
43-36K BC v3
36-29K BC v4 Adam & Eve? genetic integration revolution
--------- -------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------- L24
29-25K BC v1 genocide invented
25-22K BC v2
22-18K BC v3
18-14K BC v4 Noah full human & language(am) revs, Med. floods?
========= ======== ================ ======================================== N25
14-13K BC v1 Tower of Babel?
13-11K BC v2
11-9K BC v3
8900-7148 v4 tribal, travel/trade net, society revolution
--------- -------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------- O26
7148-6251 v1 Japheth dominant...
6251-5353 v2
5353-4456 v3
4456-3559 v4 urban and nationhood revolutions
--------- -------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------- M27
3559-3111 v1 Ham dominant... material production invented
3111-2662 v2 Egypt United
2662-2213 v3 Great Pyramid
2213-1765 v4 Abraham time's arrow and surplus revolutions
--------- -------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------- L28
1765-1541 v1 Shem dominant... invasion and alphabet invented
1541-1316 v2 Exodus, Moses Joshua, Alphabet, Hammurabi?, Thera erupts
1316-1092 v3 Israel sins Hammurabi?
1092-868 v4 David, Solomon Troy falls?, prophesy, scripture revolutions
========= ======== ================ ======================================== N29
868-756 v1 Divided kingdom
756-643 v2 Israel deported Rome founded, Fall of Egypt & Israel
643-531 v3 Babylonian captivity, Thales, Buddha, Fall of Judah
531-419 v4 Socrates, Confucious, empire&philosophy revs
--------- -------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------- O30
419-363 v1 Plato
363-307 v2 Aristotle, Alexander the Great
307-251 v3 Pyrrhic Wars
251-195 v4 Punic Wars, Siege of Syracuse, no revolution
========= ======== ================ ======================================== N29
195-83 BC v1
83-30.5 v2 1st Christmas
30.5-143 v3 Jesus raised the church forms, New convenant
143-255 v4 The Christian revolution
--------- -------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------- L28
255-479 v1 Catholic church First schism, crisis of 3rd century
479-703 v2 Islam Invades Fall of Rome, Krakatoa caldera erupts
703-928 v3
928-1152 v4 Great Schism The zero revolution
========= ======== ================ ======================================== N29
1152-1264 v1 Invention of Science, universities founded
1264-1376 v2 Black Death
1376-1488 v3 Reformation printing press
1488-1601 v4 Jews expelled Discovery of America, colonial, balance revs
--------- -------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------- O30
1601-1657 v1 East India Companies, 30 yrs war
1657-1713 v2 World War 0 (1519-1714)
1713-1769 v3 Treaty of Utrecht, age of relative peace
1769-1825 v4 First Horseman (Napoleon?), Industry, federal, American revs
--------- -------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------- M31
1825-1853 v1 Academics reject mass production
1853-1881 v2 Academics reject Japanese industrial revolution
1881-1909 v3 Academics reject telephone, automobile
1909-1937 v4 Einstein WWI, relativity/physics/cosmology revolution
--------- -------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------- L32
1937-1951 v1 Second Horseman (Hitler,Stalin,WWII?), Computers, cold war
1951-1965 v2 Israel returns computer languages
1965-1979 v3 Israel survives personal computer
1979-1993 v4 Iranian, Usenet and Chinese Industrial revs
========= ======== ================ ======================================== N33
1993-2000 v1 Graphical web browser, intel agents?, info?
2000-2007 v2 911
2007-2014 v3 Third Horseman (Financial collapse?)
2014-2021 v4 Global system, ocean, agents, moon/space rev
--------- -------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------- O34
2021-2025 v1
2025-2028 v2
2028-2032 v3
2032-2035 v4 Fourth Horseman?
--------- -------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------- M35
2035-2039 v1v2
2039-2042 v3v4
--------- -------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------- L36
2042-2046 v1v2v3v4
--------- -------- ---------------- ------------------------------------ N37-L44
2046-2049 Tribulation & Apocalypse
--------- -------- ---------------- --------------------------------------- N45?
2049 v1 Millenial Kingdom
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Posted by: Jon Grover | Feb 28, 09 | 2:40 pm
