Consciousness in the Brain and the Ant Colony
The blog post explores the concept of consciousness, comparing the human brain to an ant colony. It discusses how the brain, with its billions of interconnected neurons, processes signals to create consciousness. Similarly, an ant colony, without a central brain, uses pheromone communication and touch among individual ants to coordinate activities, suggesting parallels in complex interactions and behaviors like problem-solving and learning. This comparison aims to offer insights into understanding consciousness. The post is written using Google's Bard AI.
Consciousness is a complex phenomenon that has been the subject of much debate and speculation. While there is no single agreed-upon definition of consciousness, it is generally understood to be the state of being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings.
The brain is the organ in the human body that is responsible for consciousness. It is made up of billions of neurons that are interconnected in a complex network. These neurons communicate with each other using electrical and chemical signals. When these signals are processed in a certain way, they give rise to consciousness.
The ant colony is a complex system that is made up of thousands of individual ants. Each ant has its own brain, but the colony as a whole does not have a central brain. Instead, the ants communicate with each other using pheromones and touch. This communication allows the ants to coordinate their activities and work together to achieve common goals.
Some scientists believe that the ant colony is a good model for understanding consciousness. They argue that the complex interactions between the ants in the colony are similar to the complex interactions between the neurons in the brain. They also argue that the ant colony is able to exhibit some of the same behaviors that are associated with consciousness, such as problem-solving and learning.
What do you think?
Note: Written using Google’s Bard AI.
MAKER NEXUS - Visiting a famous maker space in Sunnyvale, CA
Today was a Halloween themed “Spooktacular Open House” at the Maker Nexus. It is enjoyable to visit a maker space especially during the monthly open house. Last time I was at Maker Nexus was 2019 before the Covid lockdown, so I was happy to come back and see how the space have changed. Great Maker Space for the people near Sunnyvale & North San Jose area.
Robots are Coming!!
As some of you may have seen already, Elon introduced his humanoid robot at the Tesla AI day yesterday. (Please click [here] to watch the video if you have not seen it yet.)
Having worked on some robotic projects for a few years, I understand how difficult a bipedal (2 legged) humanoid can be. So it is needless to say that Elon and his engineers did an amazing job so fast. Following are some of the videos from the 2015 DARPA robot competition - it shows you how far we have come in less than a decade.
Here are some of the videos showing how advanced current robotics technology is at:
And following are some of the remarkable individual robot projects:
Dr. Guero’s Ballet Robot - link here
Dr. Guero’s Rope Walking Robot (this was 2012!!) - link here
2011 Bike Riding Robot - link here
Just like the computers were 40-50 years ago, a robot is still viewed as a toy and/or some engineering project. If you look deep enough, the autonomous cars and even smart phones with all the sensors and processing power is a robot. It is hard to imagine how much of what “human” does will be replaced by the “robots”, however, the robots are definitely here to stay. Be nice to the robots!
One Year After the COVID-19 Outbreak in US
I was digging though the old photos and found these photos from this time last year.
On February 26, 2020, San Francisco declared a state of emergency due to 22 positive COVID infections in the city of Santa Clara. It was followed by the State of California declaring a state of emergency.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/26/health/san-francisco-coronavirus-emergency-declaration/index.html
What is almost comical is that I attended the RSA Security Conference that morning (approx. 3000 people) and also attended the CHM event at the Santa Clara that evening (approx. 350 people). I heard about the state of emergency after I left the event and was sitting in my car on the way home.
RSA Conference at San Francisco
Computer History Museum event at Santa Clara.
Spring 2021 is going to be here soon! Stay Safe & Keep Moving Forward!
Joyeux Noël - Merry Christmas 2020 - Stronger Together
Joyeux Noel means Merry Christmas in French.
2020 is almost over… and in many ways, the year 2020 is unique.
Leaving pandemic and politics aside, it is a year when the technology really became an essential part of all our lives. Zoom, work from home, online ordering, Netflix, AI algorithm, and disinfecting robots.
I wanted to reflect back and really think about what it is that the technology is trying to solve. Maybe, the technology is to “serve” rather than to “solve”. To serve, is to really understand and care for the person we are serving.
Thinking of those who need our help. Joyeux Noel!
Christmas Truce of 1914 is based on a true story during World War 1.
Making History - NASA & SpaceX
“I’m the chief engineer of the thing. So, I just like to say it if goes right, it’s credit to the SpaceX / NASA team. Goes wrong, it’s my fault.”
I think the true leadership is taking responsibility and not pushing blame on others. As we all distance from each other in the fear of unknowingly spreading deadly virus to others, and the fear of economic uncertainty, the world today is more challenging than ever. It is sad to say that the time when we need the leadership the most, the true leaders are harder than ever to find….
LEAD, FOLLOW, OR GET OUT OF THE WAY!
Youtube video on Elon Musk - https://youtu.be/bi3sOffsDaI
Youtube video of the launch - https://youtu.be/TxBj8R7XKe4
How technology is being used to fight COVID-19
Jeremy R. at Sovol Facebook User Group printing protective gears
As the world have very much halted due to the Coronavirus pandemic, there are many heroes that are working to fight the virus. Many of the healthcare workers, government workers, and scientists are working at the frontline fighting to save lives while other essential workers including public safety personnel, teachers, local pharmacy and grocery employees, and moms and dads doing their parts at home to keep everyone safe.
I also wanted to highlight our unsung heroes of the technology, engineering, and hobby makers who are using their skills and creativity to help fight COVID-19. There are many large and small projects that are taking place all over the world to help people and fight virus.
Many makers and hobbyists are volunteering their skills and equipment (e.g. 3D printers) to produce medical and protective gears that are short supply - https://time.com/5811091/makers-3d-printing-coronavirus/
Many research projects such as Folding@Home that can utilize your idle computing time to perform molecular dynamics simulation of protein to aide in Coronavirus research - https://foldingathome.org
Youtube video attached below highlights some of the awesome technology and science projects currently taking place
Again, thanks for everyone’s help in fighting the global pandemic and your sacrifice in helping mankind. Thanks!
Meeting at the Google San Francisco office
A beautiful view from the San Francisco office balcony
One of my favorite offices in Google is the San Francisco office. I really love coming here for meetings despite of crazy parking situation.
A beautiful sunset!
It is especially more beautiful as the sun starts to set and everything turns orangish pink.
It is now time to grab a cup of coffee and start heading home.
Freedom!! Traffic!!
A new autonomous vehicles in training.
ONE MORE THING - A few upside of being in downtown San Francisco is that you get to see new autonomous vehicles getting training and making stupid mistakes.
A Quick trip to U.C. Berkeley
U.C. Berkeley Campus
Still a bit chilly spring day. I wanted to take a quick walk around the campus.
And up course, a quick stop at the Cory hall to meet a friend.
And one of my favorite hangouts near the campus.
Good Bye Squirrel!
ML Engineering Workshop at IIT
ML engineering is the intersection of machine learning data science and software/systems engineering. It's an emerging field that demands a broad and deep skillset in multiple domains.
Hosted by Garrett Smith at Illinois Institute of Technology
Agenda:
10:00 - 10:45 - Introduction to ML engineering part 1
10:45 - 11:30 - Introduction to ML engineering part 2
11:30 - 12:30 - Coding problem definition
12:30 - 1:00 - Working lunch
1:00 - 3:00 - Coding sessions
3:00 - 4:00 - Show and tell
https://www.meetup.com/Chicago-ML/events/268087380/
I attended the full day hands on workshop at the IIT. The workshop covered the basics and hands on portion had the groups divide up according to the skill level and topics based on the interest. As a result, the pace was kept at a high speed while the teams having opportunity to get support from Garrett. I also recommend checking out the GuildAI which Garrett developed a few years ago. It is fully open source and allows automation of the ML workflow. Thanks for the great session!
Github link below & Other reference material used in the workshop
https://github.com/gar1t/2020-02-15-ml-engineering-at-iit
Get started with GuildAI
https://www-pre.guild.ai/start/
GuildAI Github
https://github.com/guildai/guildai
https://github.com/guildai/guildai/blob/master/examples/notebooks/get-started.ipynb
Recommended group project topics used in the workshop
https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/deploy-your-pytorch-model-to-production-f69460192217
https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/index.html
Iris Dataset & 2D Iris Dataset
https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/svm/plot_iris_svc.html
ScikitLearn.jl
Workshop: Designing with at IDEO
I attended the workshop today at the IDEO Chicago. It was a guided workshop by an IDEO designer to practice applying “Design Thinking”. I was a part of the randomly assigned team of 5 people. Our task to to design a “Digital Wallet”.
The activities included:
Working collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams
Interviewing users to understand their needs
Brainstorming and sketching solutions to develop & communicate your ideas
Identifying and evaluating potential design flaws using AI & Ethics cards (https://www.ideo.com/post/ai-ethics-collaborative-activities-for-designers)
Thank you everyone for the great teamwork! Thank you IDEO for great food and great workshop!
For more on how IDEO applies data science to human-centered design, see: https://www.ideo.com/blog/how-to-use-data-as-a-medium-for-design
----- About the Host & Sponsor -----
IDEO is a design company known for its human-centered, interdisciplinary approach. As early leaders in the practice of design thinking, IDEO create positive impact through design by applying our creative skills and mindsets, and by teaching others to do the same. IDEO help clients and customers around the world build the capacity and outcomes required to navigate today’s complexity and lead their markets.
Meetup posting - https://www.meetup.com/Data-Science-Chicago/events/266727108/
Feature Engineering with IBM Watson Studio by Tsun Chow
Dr. Tsun Chow, Benedictine University, November 7, 2019
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are perhaps the two most commonly talked about topics in technology nowadays. Despite of all the advances recently made in ML and AI, some of the most challenging part of pursing ML are the data insight and the ways to best represent the data for machine learning. The age old problem that the pioneering AI computer scientists have battled for several decades are the same problem that the modern day ML data scientists are stumbling upon.
I went to the presentation by Dr. Tsun Chow on the topic of "Feature Engineering”. If the “Data Structure/Algorithm” is considered the final/end boss in the Computer Science, “Feature Engineering” is perhaps the final/end boss for the Data Science. Dr. Chow talked about some of the best practices for the feature engineering and demo using Titanic survival data set an IBM Watson Studio. During the lecture, Dr. Chow walked us through the definition of FE, importance of data insight (Domain Knowledge), techniques of handling missing data, and adding random data to artificially add "noise”.
I go to many lectures and presentations on various technology topics, but it is not common to meet someone who really have a deep understanding about the topic inside out. Personally, his emphasis on data insight/data domain knowledge and the utilization of random data was an eye-opening for me. I always felt like the technologist are blindly applying different ML algorithms to the data set hoping to run into a better prediction by chance… and not being able to explain how and why the machine made that prediction. Leaving the lecture room, I felt the renewed responsibility of the technologist to “really be the master of what we do” rather than simply chasing the quick result and/or profit. Thank you Dr. Chow.
Copy of the presentation HERE
Below is a short bio of Dr. Tsun Chow.
Tsun Chow has a PhD in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from U. C. Berkeley. Formerly an IT professional at AT&T Bell Labs, Dr. Chow has been teaching IT and Business Analytics at a number of local universities in the Chicago area.
https://www.meetup.com/DuPage-Business-Analytics-Meetup/events/265543397/
Free IBM Watson Studio account
https://dataplatform.cloud.ibm.com/
Titanic dataset used the the demo - one of the most analyzed dataset (data insight)
https://github.com/Meaad96s/datapreparation_titanic/blob/master/titanic.csv
Working on the 3D printed Rubik's cube solving robot
I have been eyeing on the 3D Printed Robot Project that have been abandoned for awhile at the local Hacker Space. As I walked in, I saw this thing just sitting there in the center of the table where I normally sit. I had to get to work.
Before I can start digging in deep and deal with the servo calibration, vision/camera adjustment, and OS + programming issues, I had to tidy things up first. After a bit of time spent with the zip ties…
Finally, I got everything tied down and ready for the next step. By the way, this thing runs on a Raspberry Pi 3 (small black box tied down on the left leg). It may be a while before I get back to this project, but following will be the steps.
Calibrate the servos (8 servos with 2 groups of 4)
Calibrate the camera - this one is known to have a lighting/color sensitivity issue
Install Windows IoT + Otvinta software configured - the free version that is provided have a limited capability in solving the cube
Test and run - this can be a great demo piece for the Hacker Space
With a working robot in place, we can fork the project and use it to develop an Open Source version based on the ROS (Robot OS).
for more information about this 3D printed robot - www.rcr3d.com/
Pumping Station 1 - Chicago's Oldest, Biggest, and Craziest Hacker Space
I had a chance to stop by at the PS1 today. I have been visiting here for almost 10 years now as they are the oldest and biggest Hacker Space in Chicago. They had a tour for the new people, so I tagged along to take some pictures.
Uncle Bob Martin Presents "Functional Programming. The Failure of State."
Uncle “Bob” at the IJUG-Chicago
Mr. Robert Martin, better known as the “Uncle Bob” to the software engineering community. I went to his presentation at the Illinois Java User Group (IJUG-Chicago) event hosted by the Capital One.
What is functional programming? Why is it important? Is it the future?
As always, he got all of us thinking about the way the engineers have been programming for last 50 years. Just as in the very beginning of the computer age, the software engineers are now challenged to make our codes of efficient. With quantum computing still on the other side of the horizon, and the Moore’s Law finally reaching the limit… perhaps the only viable answer right now is more efficient code.
Thanks Bob for the great presentation & thank you IJUG and Capital One for hosting a great event (and a great beer…as in free beer).
One more thing. Below is a bio of Uncle Bob.
Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob)
Mr. Martin has been a programmer since 1970. He is a co-founder of cleancoders.com, offering on-line video training for software developers.
He is the founder of Uncle Bob Consulting LLC, offering software consulting, training, and skill development services to major corporations worldwide. He served as the Master Craftsman at 8th Light inc, a Chicago based Software Consulting firm.
Mr. Martin has published dozens of articles in various trade journals, and is a regular speaker at international conferences and trade shows.
He is also the creator of the acclaimed educational Clean Code video series at cleancoders.com.
Mr. Martin has authored and edited many books including:
Designing Object Oriented C++ Applications using the Booch Method
Patterns Languages of Program Design 3
More C++ Gems
Extreme Programming in Practice
Agile Software Development: Principles, Patterns, and Practices.
Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#
UML for Java Programmers
Clean Code
The Clean Coder
Clean Architecture
A leader in the industry of software development, Mr. Martin served three years as the editor-in-chief of the C++ Report, and he served as the first chairman of the Agile Alliance.
Vintage Computer Festival - MidWest 14 (2019)
Do you remember these old arcade games?
Once again, I attended the VCF event this year. Due to a very busy schedule this weekend, I barely managed to catch a very end of the event on Sunday. My focus this year was on the vintage electronics projects people worked on.
The Youtube links I found below
LakeView Technology Academy - Supermileage and Electrathon teams
LakeView Technology Academy as Supermileage and Electrathon teams make final preparations for the 2019 race season
I visited the LakeView Technology Academy today to watch the students work on their electric racing cars. It is always great to see young engineers pushing themselves to learn and challenge the status quo.
Why can’t we do that? Let’s give it a try!
Watch Youtube video below
More information about the Supermileage and Electrathon competition
CMD+CTRL Cyber Range - Cyber Hackathon
I participated in an evening Cyber Hacking event at the Allstate office in downtown Chicago. We were allowed to bring our own computers and the event ranked all the participants and the prizes were give to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places.
After all the instructions were given, we had approximately 2 hours to “Hack” the shopping website that was designed to be attacked by the participants. Unlike some of the events I’ve participated before, the CMD+CTRL Cyber Range, was very well made - most of the vulnerability were at the mid to advanced level making it feel almost like I am performing an actual penetration test on a website.
One of my main object was to get the screenshots for the demo that I am putting together to explain how a website hacking is actually done by a hacker. Without using any hacking tools, I was able to capture the screenshots I needed as I performed resonance, steal test account ID/PW by looking at the comments in the source code, using the account to enter the site, laterally move to steal other user’s information including contact info & partial credit card info. I then moved in to crack the encrypted (weak encryption) gift card redeem code and as I was exiting the site, used SQL injection attack to crash the site.
I really enjoyed the event and the friendly experts who were willing to share their “tricks” after the event. Thank you all!
ps - Oh. My final ranking was 26 out of 67 participants
Windy City DevFest 2019, Chicago, 1 Feb 2019
Windy City DevFest is a 100% community organized developer conference with industry experts presenting on exciting topics including mobile, web, cloud, virtual reality, machine learning, and much more!
https://twitter.com/chicagogdg?lang=en&lang=en
The event is hosted by the Google Developers Group Chicago. Once again, I took a vacation day from work and attended the event. This year’s event was at the DePaul University. Many interesting topics and great opportunities to meet with the developers in the area. Great job everyone!
Youtube playlist - press the 3bar icon on the upper left corner to pick from the list )
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb1tSwQ0ReIGxaucVRV8UdAtM4aNrwc1o
Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 13, Chicago, IL, September 15-16
Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 13 (VCFMW13), Sept 15-16, 2018
First a little background about the event and what they do. Vintage Computer Federation is a user group for people who collect and restore historic computers. VCF Midwest is an independent event organized by Chicago Classic Computing and the Emergency Chicagoland Commodore Convention.
It is true that I have enough vintage electronics and classic computers to open a private museum, but I don’t classify myself as a computer collector or the hobbyist. I go to these events to meet the original visionaries of the technology.
First a quick view of the event
Highlight video - Work in Progress
below is the link to the presentation (youtube playlist, 7 videos - press the 3bar icon on the upper left corner to pick from the list )
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE-Iywr9LQERoM2Iy6EeO9ln5SdFnmnsW