From Creationism to Evolutionism Logogonies and Anthropodicies - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

From Creationism to Evolutionism

Logogonies and Anthropodicies François-René Rideau, TUNES Project LispNYC, 2014-10-14 http://fare.tunes.org/computing/evo2014-slides.pdf

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The Take Home Points

Stories have Consequences

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The Take Home Points

Stories have Consequences Greatest Stories: ?

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The Take Home Points

Stories have Consequences Greatest Stories: Origins

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The Take Home Points

Stories have Consequences Greatest Stories: Origins Improve your stories!

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Plan

Stories have Consequences Greatest Stories: Origins Improve your stories!

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• I. Stories have Consequences

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Stories

Best way humans communicate understanding

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Stories have

Best way humans communicate understanding Humans Act based on (mis)understanding

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Stories have Consequences

Best way humans communicate understanding Humans Act based on (mis)understanding Actions have Consequences

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Better Stories, Better Languages

What Would Alyssa P. Hacker Do? See this previous talk: http://fare.tunes.org/computing/bal2009.pdf

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• II. The Greatest Stories:

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• II. The Greatest Stories: Origins

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• II. The Greatest Stories: Origins

Superhero: Origins

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• II. The Greatest Stories: Origins

Superhero: Origins, rebooted

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• II. The Greatest Stories: Origins

Superhero: Origins, rebooted Universe: Cosmogony

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• II. The Greatest Stories: Origins

Superhero: Origins, rebooted Universe: Cosmogony Software: Logogony

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Logogony

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Logogony

Where does Software come from?

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Logogony

Where does Software come from? Uh, isn’t that obvious?

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Logogony

Where does Software come from? Uh, isn’t that obvious? The Programmer wrote it!

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Creationism

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Creationism

Belief that Software was created by a Programmer

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Creationism

Belief that Software was created by a Programmer I am NOT discussing Cosmogony

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Creationism

Belief that Software was created by a Programmer

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From Creationism to Evolutionism in Programming

From Über-God to Underdog The Programmer's Story

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Stories

Stories: Way humans understand the World

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The Take Home Points

Programming tools imply a story Stories we tell inspire corresponding tools Past progress can be told in terms of such stories Future progress can be imagined likewise Making the stories explicit is a great meta-tool... ... and it’s fun!

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Plan of the Talk

Tell stories Argue Relevance Discuss Future

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The Stories

Let’s start with the beginning, the simplest, most

• bvious story to explain how programs come into

existence:

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The Stories

Let’s start with the beginning, the simplest, most

• bvious story to explain how programs come into

existence: Creationism!

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First Story: Creationism

In the beginning the Machine was without form, and void... ...then the Programmer zapped Software into the Machine... ...and the Software was.

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Creationist Assumptions

The Programmer is a God above and beyond the Machine Programmer-God has perfect understanding of the Program Real software is a projection

• f His perfect platonic idea

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Creationist Tools

Paper & pen to write down the perfect program A switchboard to enter the perfect program.

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The Creationist Story

The basis for many a course in "Computer Science" Works great in small exercises...

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The Creationist Story

The basis for many a course in "Computer Science" Works great in small exercises... ... at least for a few clever students.

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Flaws in the Story

Software isn’t perfect Plenty of "bugs" happen Perfect ideas have imperfect implementation

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Flaws in the Story

Software isn’t perfect Plenty of "bugs" happen Perfect ideas have imperfect implementation We need to account for them in our story

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Flaws in the Story

And the simplest explanation is...

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The Devil

Some adverse entity introduces bugs, errors, mistakes, noise in the channel between God and Machine. To be blamed for imperfections in the Program.

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Deeds of the Devil

"Cosmic Rays", random Memory Corruption Errors when the program is input into the Machine Discrepancies b/w perfect idea and actual program

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Weapons Against the Devil

Blinkenlights to inspect the contents of memory Punch cards to record program communications Adhesive Tape to fix punch cards Assembler labels vs moving binary addresses

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Generalizing The Devil

An antagonist force can spice up any story (game developers in the audience won’t disagree) The devil is a good story mixin

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Anthropodicy

theodicy (Leibniz 1710): Trial of God Why does evil exist? What does that tell us about God?

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Anthropodicy

theodicy (Leibniz 1710): Trial of God Why does evil exist? What does that tell us about God? anthropodicy (Rideau 2014): Trial of Man Why do bugs exist? What does that tell us about Man?

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A Better Story Is Possible

Creationism is simple and obvious, but quickly shows its limits. And so... we may improve on it with our second story:

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Layered Creation

On the first day, God separated requirements from bugs On the second day, God drew a flow chart On the third day, God divided the program into routines

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Layered Creation (Continued)

On the fourth day, God wrote the program’s kernel On the fifth day, God coded the application On the sixth day, God finished the interface

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Layered Creation Assumptions

God still has a perfect eternal Program idea, but The Machine isn’t perfect. Programming the Machine isn’t instantaneous. And so...

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Layered Creation Assumptions

God still has a perfect eternal Program idea, but The Machine isn’t perfect. Programming the Machine isn’t instantaneous. And so... He does it in layers. Neat hierarchical layers.

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Layered Creation Concepts

Method: Top-down design Architecture: layered systems Prototyping: Flow chart diagrams Process: The waterfall process

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Layered Creation Automation

Algorithms: Divide and Conquer Layered languages: FORmula TRANslators

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Layered Creation with a Devil

The devil mixin applies. At each step, the devil introduces bugs. Even at the end of the process, there are still bugs. And so...

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Layered Creation with a Devil

The devil mixin applies. At each step, the devil introduces bugs. Even at the end of the process, there are still bugs. And so... Creation is re-iterated until bugs are gone.

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Iterated Creation

At first, God wrote a prototype: unicellular software Later, God released version 1 beta: fish, etc. Eventually, God released v1: dinosaur software Then God released v2, v3, etc.: layers of fossils At last God has now produced a stable version. Unless He’s working on next patch release.

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Iterated Creation aka...

As you no doubt noticed, this Layered Creation with a Devil,

• r Iterated Creation,

is best known as...

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Iterated Creation aka...

As you no doubt noticed, this Layered Creation with a Devil,

• r Iterated Creation,

is best known as... ... Intelligent Design!

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Intelligent Design (Retold)

God first creates simple software God improves with more elaborate releases Complex structures bootstrapped from simple ones Previous creations are discarded Parts remain as fossils

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Intelligent Design Assumptions

God is essentially Intelligent He designs software along hierarchical organization Design however is neither instantaneous nor perfect Iterations improve the design

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Intelligent Design Concepts

Method: Software Refinement Architecture: nested layers Prototyping: Modelling Tools Process: Design iterations

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Intelligent Design Automation

Scaffolding: Assemblers, Compilers, Compiler-Compilers, Build Systems... Service Layers: Kernels, Libraries, Daemons...

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Weapons Against The Devil

Loggers, tracers and steppers help locate bugs Editors add features and remove bugs (line-based) A bit of reviewing and testing (at the end of each iteration)

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The Intelligent Design Story

Official story amongst software professionals, probably because it boosts their ego: they feel intelligent and in control. Scales to largish programs... ... for well-organized teams of clever people.

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Upsides from Intelligent Design

Intelligent Design can handle greater programs Better understanding breeds better tools Tools are both mechanical and social

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Downer from Intelligent Design

The Programmer-God is less of an Über-God Better understanding also breeds Humility

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Downer from Intelligent Design

The Programmer-God is less of an Über-God Better understanding also breeds Humility The same will go for all of my stories

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Story Mixin: Polytheism

Multiple Gods cooperate in creating Software. Each has his own intents, actions, specialties.

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Interpretations of Polytheism

Multiple Gods Multiple roles of a same God God changes his mind with time

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Tools for Polytheism

Components: files, (hierarchical) directories Time-sharing: multiple users & processes Communication protocols b/w multiple machines Comments, docs convey intent from God to God Training, conferences, journals.

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Polytheism with Devils

Alternate groups of godly antagonists (crackers) Personalities of a schizophrenic God (mental disorder)

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Tools for Polytheism with Devils

Passwords, Access Rights, Backups, Checks. Errata, Pages intentionally left blank.

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A Third Story

Sooner or later Intelligent Design falls short. The end design of most software is just really bad. The development process is quite wasteful. The initial idea itself is often plain stupid. And so...

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A Third Story

To improve on Intelligent Design, we introduce our third story:

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Unintelligent Design

The Programmer-God iterates layered designs, but His iterated layers include lots of dead-ends; further designs often include regressions. His creations lack either elegance or efficiency.

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Unintelligent Design Assumptions

Not only is the program implementation imperfect, God doesn’t have a perfect idea of it to begin with. Neither ultimate goal nor means are clear to Him. Godly intelligence is a scarce resource. Errors might be a secondary antagonist effect, but Nonsense is a first-order protagonist defect.

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Unintelligent Design Concepts

Interactivity, to bounce ideas: command line, REPL, IDE Filtering, to eliminate nonsense: systematic sanity checks Usability, to avoid blunders: idiot-proof interfaces

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Unintelligent Design Automation

Online manuals, Interactive help Precise diagnostic from compilers Shallow checking: syntax errors, runtime assertions Simple semantic checking: Types, Contracts Deeper semantic checking: Model checking

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Unintelligent Design with Mixins

Polytheism: protect gods from each other’s failures, Isolate programs in separate processes Enforce checks and contracts within and between. Devil: testing becomes a systematic need; Happily, the Devil is just as stupid as God, and may be buried under heavy security features.

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The Unintelligent Design Story

The untold story behind much software engineering Ever present but never made so crudely explicit

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Downer from Unintelligent Design

The Programmer-God loses his respectability. From omniscient, he becomes stupid and ignorant: partial intelligence, narrow shallow mind, limited focus Worse, he suffers from mental disabilities: impatience, blindness, biases, false beliefs, neuroses, etc.

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Upsides from Unintelligent Design

No shortage of imaginable prosthetic devices to cope with Godly disabilities.

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Story Mixin: Lamarckism

Whichever way Software is or isn’t designed, Software Lamarckism focuses on Code change between iterations of software rather than successive states of the code.

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Tools from Lamarckism

File versioning, project revision control, configuration management Diffs, Patches, Merges

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Lamarcking the Devil Out

Review changes, not the whole code base everytime. Incremental building and testing.

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The Lamarckism Mixin

Now an accepted part of all non-trivial software development. Doesn’t include any proper explanation

• f how change happens.

A Change in Perspective that suggests new stories about the Evolution of Software.

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Evolutionism

Darwin’s famous theory applies to Software. But before we tackle his Natural Selection, let’s focus on simpler views of programs evolve And so... ... our fourth Story:

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Supernatural Selection

Changes made only demand limited understanding Some changes prove good, some prove bad The Programmer-God carefully selects the good His Supernatural Selection impresses a direction upon Evolution: Progress, at a steady pace.

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Supernatural Selection Assumptions

Programs may be deeper than God can fathom, but God can intelligently judge good from bad, promote the good and winnow the bad. God designs the fitness function.

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Supernatural Selection Concepts

Declarative programming: specify goals, not means Algorithms: heuristic search Prototyping: Rapid Development Method: experiment to quickly filter ideas

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Supernaturally Selecting the Devil Away

Formal specification of software intent Formal verification of suspicious software

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Polytheist Supernatural Selection

Many Gods Cooperate towards the selection Software modules: separate interface from implementation Forums for developer communities

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Polytheist Supernatural Filtering

Some Devils play against positive selection Software modules: monitor accesses, restrict capabilities Moderate Forums

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The Supernatural Selection Story

Supernatural Selection has traction in loose developer communities Culminates with the First Cybernetics

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First Cybernetics

Declarative programming Explicit knowledge representations Expert systems to solve complex problems

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Supernatural Selection Upsides

Combines understanding of natural dynamics of software itself with faith in the ultimate power of an intelligent and purposeful Programmer-God.

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Supernatural Selection Downsides

Programmer-God intelligence relegated to the metalevel

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Supernatural Selection Issue

But remember: the Programmer-God isn’t that intelligent! Even distinguishing good and evil is beyond Him. And so... just like Unintelligent Design followed Intelligent Design, we introduce our fifth story:

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Teleological Evolution

God may not master how Evolution works, he may lack omniscience or clairvoyance, but He intuitively guides Evolution towards Progress. The fittest programs survive, others die out.

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Teleological Evolution Assumptions

God possesses something, some unspeakable Quality, some ultimate meaning, some soul. The direction of progress may not be obvious beforehand, but progress is clearly recognizable after the fact. God can compute the fitness function, not understand it.

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Teleological Evolution Concepts

Randomized algorithms. Simulations. Statistical analysis. Probabilistic proofs. Programs fast enough in practice, whatever the theory says. Weak structures that compute, despite lack of programmer understanding.

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Second Wave of Cybernetics

Getting inspiration from existing life forms Genetic algorithms, connectionist neural networks Knowledge without an explicit representation Probabilistically Approximately Correct learning

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Polytheist Teleological Evolution

Communities gather not just developers, but also users. Distributed knowledge. Wisdom of crowds.

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Eventual Victory against the Devil

Regression test suites. Cryptographic checksums, signatures, zero-knowledge proofs. Distributed debugging by users. Users will eventually favor the better software.

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The Teleological Evolution Story

It’s Yesterday’s Next Big Thing.

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Teleological Evolution Upsides

Allows for solutions where problems overcome understanding Can create huge software distributions

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Teleological Evolution Downsides

Reasonable endeavor, while recognized, is de-emphasized. What remains when reason is gone is plain mysticism. And so... we can now discuss what Darwinism really is in our sixth story:

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Natural Selection

There is no God above and beyond the Machine, no supernatural reason or intent. Survival is its own tautological fitness function. Random haps and mishaps modify programs. In each niche memes survive that best acquire resources. Systematic statistical biases tautologically favor some memes above others.

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Natural Selection Assumptions

A tautology is something that is tautological. What survives and reproduces, survives and reproduces. What doesn’t survive and doesn’t reproduce, disappears. All kinds of resources are limited and competed for.

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Reality Strikes

Programmers are at the same level as Machines Natural Selection works at the level of human behavior Human productive time is the ultimate scarce resource Sure you're unique and different...

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Reality Strikes

Programmers are at the same level as Machines Natural Selection works at the level of human behavior Human productive time is the ultimate scarce resource Sure you're unique and different... Just like everyone else in this machine-eats-machine world.

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Polyatheism

Acquisition of programming resources matters most: time and focus of proficient programmers. Not just (un)speakable technical quality matters. Economic and social considerations trump technology. Legal and managerial aspects matter. The market is ultimately driven by economic costs.

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Natural Selection Concepts

Self-sustaining systems, evolving and competing. Hardware, software and wetware survive as ecosystems, forking and merging traditions of humans and machines. Systemantics: All big systems are born small, and keep working at all time while they grow Complexity costs: Keep it as simple as possible: ... But no simpler!

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The Devil is Human, too

Intentful opposing forces are human. Counter-measures: trust networks, economic or legal accountability. Race between noise and signal, noise reduction by competition b/w moderated forums.

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Third Wave of Cybernetics

Re-create artificial life by unguided evolution. Emerging behavior from interacting software agents.

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The Natural Selection Story

Sometimes mentioned, always hard to swallow. Most actually go by degenerate stories as above.

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Natural Selection Upsides

Down from their pedestal, haughty programmers can wrestle with muddy reality. Though no direct solution is offered, fake solutions are dispelled: illusions, vain obsessions, unearned authorities. Life is the ultimate judge, accept no substitutes.

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Natural Selection Downsides

If God exists, then ever since He created the world, He has just been relaxing, and enjoying the show. Evolution isn’t guided by God, it’s God’s Spectator Sport. Are you feeling small and alone in a cold wild world yet? And so...

• ur seventh story will bring you back some warmth:

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Perspective Change: Inside Evolution

If some God is observing, it's not you. You’re no observer outside the fray. You’re an animal thrown in the jungle.

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Inside Evolution Concepts

Focusing on available opportunities What now will make you most productive? You can sell but an exclusive resource — Starting with your own time, talent, trustworthiness.

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Inside Evolution Tools

Power of incentives: make cooperation mutually profitable Division of labor, specialization of tasks. Competing forms of software licenses, service agreements.

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Inside Evolution Enemies

Frauds will waste your time, spam you, scam you, etc. You must recognize friend from foe, signal from noise. Either keep on top of the race, or delegate ruthlessly.

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Software, Mortal vs Immortal

Centralization concentrates risk, makes it lethal Proprietary software is on a suspended death

• sentence. At any time, any surviving Proprietary

Software is superior. But Free Software survives long after the Proprietary one died. Should you avoid Proprietary Software? Maybe not, but know the price.

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The Inside Evolution Story

Adopted by Upstart Entrepreneurs — The Underdog. Spokesperson: Paul Graham?

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Inside Evolution Downsides

Certainly the game is rigged. Don’t let that stop you; if you don’t bet, you can’t win. — Robert Heinlein You can’t let nature decide, you’re part of the nature.

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Inside Evolution Upsides

This isn’t a soulless world — there is a soul: Yours. The world isn’t full of failures — It’s full of opportunities. You’re the entrepreneur of your own life.

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• III. Improve your stories!

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Paradigms Evolve!

From Naive Creationism to Inside view of Natural Selection, the paradigms evolve and our methods improve with them. Simpler methods are cheaper. If you can instantly create the software you need, do!

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Paradigms: What Relevance?

There is no such thing as philosophy-free science; there is only science whose philosophical baggage is taken on board without examination. — Daniel C. Dennett

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Paradigms: What Relevance?

There is no such thing as philosophy-free science; there is only science whose philosophical baggage is taken on board without examination. — Daniel C. Dennett A good story is to kill for

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Paradigms: What Relevance?

Discrepancy between Reality and Practice = Blind Spot Reality differing from Theory = Blind Spot you can’t identify Theory differing from Practice = Blind Spot you can identify

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What Next?

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What Next?

(plan)

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What Next?

Present Optimism: No Future Future Optimism: Singularity Mutation Opportunity: Bootstrapping Intelligence The Fast Lane: Internal Evolution

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Present Optimism: No Future

"We already know the best paradigm" Evolution is ended. We’re the perfect.

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Present Optimism: No Future

"We already know the best paradigm" Evolution is ended. We’re the perfect. Someday might be true, but today? Progress currently happens at breakneck rate.

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Future Optimism: The Singularity

"Progress follows a vertical asymptote" "AI will soon transcend these issues"

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Future Optimism: The Singularity

"Progress follows a vertical asymptote" "AI will soon transcend these issues" But what paradigm will the AI follow? The buck must stop somewhere.

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AIs can’t Escape Evolution

Survival applies to AIs too. Scarce Resources, Competition, Cooperation, Incentives... Praxeology applies to any system of intentful agents. e.g. Comparative Advantage: Humans and AIs will trade, not make war.

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So what?

The Future can’t be predicted. If I could tell you in detail, it’d be past, not future. But here are my best bets...

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Mutation Bias: Bootstrapping Intelligence

Understanding human intelligence Finite Quantum progresses Bootstrap higher expertise Evolving declarative metaprograms Programming as dialogue, not command

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Accelerating Change: Internal Evolution

External evolution: statically pick a meme, survive or die Internal evolution: dynamically adopt memes that survive Fast lane: gear yourself to emphasize internal evolution Avoid autism: evolve in a conversation with the world

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The End (for now)

Questions? Comments?

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