Artificial Intelligence

This post is part of the "First Few Old Blog Posts" archive.
You could expect a certain lack of coherency/maturity from these posts.

Note from author: 
None of this text is guaranteed to be true or considered a fact as the field of study has a considerable margin for error. This is just an approach at calculated assumptions to better understand the beginning of AI and how it functions and propogates behind the scenes. There is a high chance that some lines here can be proven WRONG as per standards

Allright then , Artificial Intelligence -
What it means in the simplest level:
The ability to make a decision by oneself based on a combination of circumstances , advantage , consequences and personal favours

Aim:
To simulate the human thinking process whose characteristic features are to be parallel and seemingly random

And thus we arrive to-
The root of Artificial Intelligence:
Random. Just being randomly random. The key to AI is to implement this randomness which is similar to the random thoughts of the human mind

Level 1 - Random choice between 2 options :
Technical - 0 , 1
Application - Yes , No


Level 2 - Random choice between finite options :
Technical - A , B , C , D , E , F
Application - Red , Blue , Black


Level 3 - Make an independent decision
Technical - Corrupt Memory. Decision to proceed
Application - Someone unknown to you , throws a punch at your face all of a sudden. Response to that action



Artificial Intelligence at its maximum will be capable of distinguishable characteristics of a human. Keeping secrets , having dreams , emotion etc. Although it is technically impossible for a machine to feel emotion , an imitation is what could be achieved.

The ultimate evolution will take place when the AI will be powerful enough to develop AI by itself. The potential of development then will be massive. But with every shred of success , comes a significant amount of danger. Machines , if out of control , could end up wiping out the whole of the human race with the mental capabilities of a human. Alas , with the opportunity of a gigantic scientific evolution comes the potential of the  Armageddon.

Levels of AI simulation:


Level 1 - 100% random
No relation of output with input and output generated would probably have been the same if another input was given


Level 2 - Imitation at reality
Not what we call REAL AI. But behaves into making you believe that it is. Just an imitation of intelligent talk.
Dis-functions when you try smart conversation


Level 3 - REAL AI
Behaves in every way that matters , as another human would with Level 3 of the random levels.


Level 4 - FULL AI
Processing and non redundant capabilities of a machine combined with the mental superiority of humans would be able to create AI by itself and will be a master at perfection.

OCD Boon or Bane?

This post is part of the "First Few Old Blog Posts" archive.
You could expect a certain lack of coherency/maturity from these posts.

I was rifling through a Wikipedia article about René Descartes , supposedly a great patron of mathematics and philosophy when all of a sudden I remembered about something called OCD which I always wanted to know more about. I don't know why I thought of it at that time , but the next thing I knew , I was on Wikipedia again. This time staring at a different title:

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Also known as Obsessive Compulsive Syndrome , this is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety, or by a combination of such obsessions and compulsions. In short this means that people having OCD often have random/unwanted thoughts/habits (this is common even among other people) , but they feel uncomfortable or anxious unless they carry out their compulsion.
I read on and realized that the description of the symptoms was quite precise , if not exact , with what I did
I never really thought before that I actually had a disorder of such sort. One major symptom of to always keep things arranged and organized in a systematic order. That made sense like nothing ever did. I opened my school bag and stared at the books inside. Not only were they arranged according to height , but also subject-wise. To accept what I had seen and to admit that I functioned a bit differently from others took me some time.

At first , when I started writing this , I originally titled it as 'God isn't really funny'. Seriously , if you look at it , I have the weirdest combination of abilities and disorders. Who the hell will like it they've been informed that they have the ability to learn and cope with new concepts/environments really fast , but on the other hand , they will also have OCD. So that means you'll get the hang of Java in only an hour but you'll take days to write a good enough project on it. Oh yeah , I may have forgotten to mention this - OCD doesn't seem to have any effect while you're learning or understanding new principles. But it haunts you in full measure when you apply them. In this case I consider myself quite lucky that this is one of the only drawbacks to what I have to endure. The main disadvantage is supposed to be that it will be hard to ignore irrational thoughts and anxiety and uncomfort will be felt unless the compulsion is carried out. I don't know if I'm just "used" to this uncomfort but I don't seem to have any problem at all at discarding irrational thought. If the thought , however is completely sane or will deal no harm , then I don't see any reason not to carry it out.

As I read on , I was greeted by more revelations:
The article said that people diagnosed with OCD commonly share personality traits such as high attention to detail, avoidance of risk, careful planning, exaggerated sense of responsibility and a tendency to take time in making decisions.
And all this while I just thought that I was good at covering up my tracks. Ironic as it seems , I have almost never been caught for any offense I made till now. Makes sense now I guess. You will be quite surprised at how I would think about the hundred possible ways I could get caught and then take steps to eliminate them all. Always thinking a couple of steps ahead was my forte.
Within moments , I realized that I had more advantages than disadvantages at my disposal. Take the ability to learn fast and add careful planning and avoidance of flaws , and you will then have attempts at perfection. Only , it just takes twice the time.
At this stage , I would like to assert that the personality disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency is also known as Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. Although I feel that I have OCPD and not OCD , it is said that symptoms are very similar and since OCD is more widely known , I will stick to OCD for now.

Secondly , this 'careful planning and thinking' allows me to pull out my strengths even in the most hopeless of situations .OCD is probably the reason that I can outline these advantages in the first place. It allows me to first think what is helpful and what is not in particular circumstances and then do whatever necessary to gain the lead. All I have to do now is make sure that I play on my strengths and avoid falling into occasions which are to my disadvantage. If I can somehow make sure that over-thinking , mental pressure and time consumption are not limiting factors , then I will gain the upper hand.

Thirdly , I realized that OCD can come at one certain point of time from several factors. For example , if I start to feel mentally tired when I'm doing some hard thinking , then due to fear of getting too tired I can abandon thinking about it and divert thought to somewhere else. Just now , before I started typing out this paragraph, I started to feel a bit weary so I just took a round in my house thinking about this anime I was watching yesterday before I continued typing the rest out. So this means that if the task at hand proves to be uncomfortable or tiring , then I can choose to divert my concentration on something less trivial.

Alright , for those who are interested , lets step into my shoes and feel how it is to face OCD.
First , OCD can become seriously inconvenient while doing something will full concentration/dedication. In my case , that will be Programming. Writing a one file program is pretty easy (and fun) and will probably make no difference if any other person programmed it. The problem kicks in when the content increases (or the complexity of the logic). Usually  , you keep track of the features to implement in a program. Lets say I've got Login , Chat and a 'Users available list' left to implement while I am programming a Register feature. My mind constantly keeps telling me that you've got 3 more features to finish coding. My subconscious however , delves further into each feature. This tells my mind that I've got to make a prompt system for Login , A userbase to keep track of the users' records , a password checking protocol , keeping track of who logged in from where , etc . Then it goes into the next thing I was yet to do. My mind realizes that to implement Chat , I have to configure socket connection , make a working protocol to send , receive live messages , make sure every username is unique, etc.
This entire deduction builds up and finally gives the illusion that I've got millions of stuff left to do which finally results in headaches or feeling mentally fatigued. This illusion can be intimidating and while you're trying to remember every one of those features that you were going to implement , you miss out on concentration on the actual task at hand and this results in your work slowing down considerably. Unless I don't actually look back and realize that I've actually got just 3 simple features to complete , this mental stress continues.
This can also happen when you're try to read/understanding certain logical components which was programmed by  a person other than you. You're trying to figure out what programming in that particular fashion will result in . You're just trying to figure out what the output of his logic will be. Simultaneously though , your subconscious will question WHY he coded in that peculiar fashion. Although most of the components make sense only at the end of the program , till then you're constantly bombarded with questions like - "why hasnt he used that variable yet?" , "why did he use that specific datatype?" , "why didnt he do something simpler?". This again leads to mental fatigue and slow progress.

Lets take an example more common and more applicable to people on a day to day basis.
Now , if you step into the room of a person suffering from OCD , you will see that every thing is arranged in one order or another. It may not make sense to you but it certainly makes sense to the person who arranged it in that fashion. Most likely , it will also be clean to the last speck. Now , you might think its not a big deal if you just pick up one of those books from that neat pile to read , you'll just put it back later. Now , if you happen to be close to the person , he will not mind. Else , he might tell you to keep that back down. In either case , he will certainly feel a tinge of annoyance. This is not because he thinks you will be careless with his belongings. He is mostly afraid that you will disturb the order in which it was originally arranged and he doesn't want to put everything back again.

To make things clear , let me state this. A person suffering from OCD is NOT aggressive or violent , or acts strange in public. He's just ignoring stupid thoughts in his mind and forming plans , slowly , but a completely perfect one , when done.

Also , everyone , yes EVERYONE has OCD in very negligible forms if they dont have it on a larger scale. Example of this : Whenever you set the TV volume or the computer's volume , most of us , always set it in multiples of 5 if say the volume ranges from 0 to 50. Although you may have set it to 33 once , you will , or at least tend to set it to 30 or 35.

SO , through this , we come to an end of another one of my blogs. God , I can't believe I ruined another one of my blogs with stupid random stuff about me. My promise to you - next time , I will post about a more general topic which will be way more interesting.

I probably bragged out a lot about myself in this blog. I did so with the sole motive that I want to know myself to the maximum. What I'm good at and what I'm not. So forgive me if I bored you too much with how great I am and stuff. I wrote this in a stretch so I'm scanning for typos and grammatical errors. Forgive me if you fall across one.

Alright , so did you like this blog? Do you think it was too long? Any inaccurate information? Do you think that I'm wrong and that I'm mistaking something else for OCD, and that I'm not really suffering from it? Want to share your experiences too? Any specific parts about this blog that you liked? Any other thing you might want to tell me?
Just leave a comment below or email me at arvind@enkrypt.in

Ciao

Quote: "Action is the real measure of intelligence." ~ Napoleon Hill
Another Quote: "I think , therefore I am" ~ Rene Descartes

This is my Blog. My first Blog.

This post is part of the "First Few Old Blog Posts" archive.
You could expect a certain lack of coherency/maturity from these posts.

When I was younger, I always thought of keeping a book where I could pour my thoughts into when I was in a pensive mood. Well I kept one for a few months too in my 2nd grade. I had lost it a long time ago. And never thought of doing it again. But these days, all I seem to do is think So, here's my blog which allows me to model my thoughts to present to you all and also to keep up with the latest trend of "blogging"

No. I'm not the writing type. You won't catch me carefully writing an essay just for lulz. If my homework demands it, then it would probably just see another one of those retarded writings which are not dissimilar to those of my classmates. Its not that I can't, in fact, i'm pretty sure my levels of creativity are above average, its just that whenever I try, I always feel like I can do better. Unfortunately, I never end up reaching the level of expectation I have for myself since I pay to much attention to even the slightest detail and carving all of them into symbols of perfection can be a bit tiring. So this blog also serves the purpose of allowing me to be creative without really giving much thought about how its presented.

Wow. You just read me rant about my childhood and essays, and you're still reading. You must really like me. Unfortunately, this first blog happens to be related about me and stuff, so since you've read this far, it wouldn't hurt to know more about me now would it?

Right, so I'm a programmer living at Bangalore,India , currently doing his ninth grade at high school. My interests would involve discussing/contemplating anything on the topic of computers, science (mainly physics or biophysics), or mostly Philosophy and Life in general. I am also inclined a bit towards religious symbology and history (Not Indian), this maybe because I've been reading Dan Brown again and again. Oh, i must have forgotten to mention - I read a lot. I just love to read. I've been reading different authors' works but when I read Angels and Demons, I knew that Dan Brown had hit me home. He was my perfect author. Nothing had inspired me more than his books had.

I haven't kept a blog before and I need to start this new habit, so it is hard to tell when I may post again. It can take from a day to a week and also maybe to a month. This post however was restricted to lame talk about me (and you read it all , you're awesome) , however hopefully , the next posts will be more enlightening and really get your attention far better.

Cheers.

Quote: "Genius always finds itself a century too early." ~ R W Emerson