Wolfram|Alpha Test Drive

Ok, Wolfram|Alpha – the computational knowledge engine – is up and running. Granted, I’ve seen three different versions of “site is currently under heavy load”. Do remember that there’s a large amount of on the fly computation and algorithm crunching behind each result. 

These are the queries I tested it with:

Where are you? gives a good result.

Where am I? gives the correct answer.

Who am I? gives the same answer.

sin(n/10) * 100 draws a nice chart.

What are you doing? is the first computed tweet.

What time is it? surprisingly gives nothing.

green, red – minimum result.

BMW presents stock information.

Weather in Lahti Wow!

Weather in Lahti June 2003 Double-Wow!

Neuron is not that interesting for Wolfram to have knowledge about.

Are you OK? opens a “Human Discourse” functionality which is under development. What will it be?

All in all, Wolfram|Alpha provides an interesting approach and implementation. It’s certainly one to follow and use.

However, I do get ”everything is a number or a taxonomy” feel from the data it contains. It mostly answers with numbers; even Madonna boils down to a straight line between two dates.

So, Wolfram|Alpha is the engine Douglas Adams wrote about. 

Google left, Wolfram|Alpha right.

I do not know why, but the system creates an impression of an autistic Rain Man recalling phone book numbers and curated minutia with precision. Whereas Google is the outgoing guy with all the fun; its bots gathering data from the web carelessly, and giving noisy, vague answers at times.

Radiohead – …

… Learnings from The “On How The Brain Functions” Experiment.

You, the web wanderer, are perhaps aware that a bit over one year ago I posted my research paper about theory of how the brain functions. I also built a blog around it so that you, the brain researcher, can comment it with witty references to tin-foil hats.

The current gain is zero remarks to tin-foil hats.

Seriously, though, I still stand behind the theory and see several strenghts in it. The question is: why I’m not building a working prototype as it only takes a few diodes, capacitors and coils to make it. Maybe it’s because I do not want to disturb the local neighbourhood with electromagnetic noise.  

And: I’d like to thank Joni Tuoreniemi and Paul Tudsbury for commenting it and creating conversation. Thank you!

Internet Singularity

Gary Flake runs Microsoft Live Labs, MS Research unit which is concentrated solely to the Internet.

His one-year-old presentation “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Imminent Internet Singularity” indicates the Road Ahead for Microsoft’s Internet strategy. 

When I hear the word “singularity”, it brings an image to my mind of all things united to one place, then Boom!!! - and a silence that lasts forever…

IMO Microsoft has been quite silent about Artificial Intelligence in the past. But now it seems that they are really starting to focus on that, utilizing the massive amount of data in the web and its feedback mechanisms.

A Dedicated Blog For Feedback Opened: Break This Theory

As an experiment I decided to open a dedicated blog for gathering feedback and comments for “On How The Brain Functions” article. So, take a deep breath and jump to here.

I wish You a Marvellous New Year 2007!

On How The Brain Functions – Scientific Paper Published

I hereby publish my scientific paper: “On How The Brain Functions”. 

The paper presents my view and theory on how the brain functions, intelligence and learning. It provides a possible and comprehensive solution taking several different disciplines into account. In my view, the science community will benefit from the article. It will inspire, challenge and fuel conversation.

“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science.”

Albert Einstein

You can get the article in PDF format here.