expired – Page 2 – Maverisk / Étoiles du Nord

Lament / Where have ‘Expert Systems’ gone ..?

Those were the days, when knowledge elicitation specialists had their hard time extracting the rules needed as feed for systems programming (sic; where the rules were turned into data, onto which data was let loose or the other way around — quite the Turing tape…), based on known and half-known, half-understood use cases avant la lettre.
Now are the days of Watson-class [aren’t Navy ships not named after the first of the class ..?] total(itarian) big data processing and slurping up the rules into neural net abstract systems somewhere out there in clouds of sorts. Yes these won out in the end; maybe not in the neuron simulation way but more like the expert system production rules and especially axioms of old. And take account of everything, from the mundane all the way to the deeply-buried and extremely-outlying exceptions. Everything.
Which wasn’t what experts were able to produce.

But, let’s check the wiki and reassure ourselves we have all that (functionality) covered in “the ‘new’ type of systems”, then mourn over the depth of research that was done in the Golden Years gone by. How much was achieved! How far back do we have to look to see the origins, in post-WWII earliest developments of ‘computers’, to see how much was already achieved with so unimaginable little! (esp. so little computing power and science-so-far)

Yes we do need to ensure many more science museums tell the story of early Lisp and page swapping. Explain the hardships endured by the pioneers, explorers of the unknown, of the Here Be Dragons of science (hard-core), of Mind. Maybe similar to the Dormouse. But certainly, we must lament the glory of past (human) performance.

Also,

[Is it old, or (still) new ..? Whatever, it’s prime quality. Spui, Amsterdam]

Popular; now (not) bring it to prep schools

Just for your info: this here overview of programming languages popularity.
Not an endorsement in any way nor the opposite. But … would we want to endorse this list RE kids learning to program in prep/elementary schools, or at middle / high school levels and up ..? Because the list changes so much … before they finish their school, some languages may hardly exist at all (contra: COBOL’s #41 on the list…).

What then ..? At least:

[Like programming, both Art and Craft; Stedelijk, Amsterdam]

Plusquote: Qua Quantification

Qua quantification, maximal isn’t the optimal that minimal is.

If quantification were good, or worth pursuing even anything more than a bit or minimally, Yoda would talk about hidden Markow chains not The Force.
Not all that can be counted, counts, and not all that counts, can be counted. Where ‘not all’ is to be read different than latter-day simpletonian, but as antediluvian ‘none’. Capice ..?

Many more arguments might go here. Suffice to say that ‘evidence-based’ science is a scam. Only those that are too stupid (let’s put it like it is) to ‘get’ the value of philosophy (and ethics etc.etc. as part of it), may not understand it. But as the vast masses don’t have a clue how their car works — chemical reactions within the pistons, anyone? how ’bout the programming of the cabling that controls it all? — but still use it, NO you not understanding does NOT mean it’s nonsense, in your case to the contrary.

To return to the positive of the Plusquote…: All may have a say in matters of society and the ‘control’ (quod non) of its infrastructure including all ‘critical’ sectors like energy, security and finance…

Oh that may be too much of a stretch but still…:

[OK, … quantify this … NO not even the qualifier Amsterdam is correct, it’s Dordrecht and even that doesn’t capture the picture…]

Local jargon

… Suddenly it struck me. In my usual rants against ‘governance’ as in many of my earlier blog posts, the non-existent airheaded formalities that stand in the way of real, not the deflated style of management, I forgot one piece:
The phrase makes sense only in (totalitarian [here I go again], calcifying) bureaucracies. There, the shuffling of empty labels has replaced actual management and ‘governance’ may be used as a placeholder (as said: empty, otherwise the label doesn’t apply fully) for the ‘management’ pastiche that is expected. Outside of those dinosaur organisations (heh, see this), no-one has any need, or place, or (need for) understanding of ‘governance’ and anything sycophanting towards it, will fail to achieve anything close to a positive contribution (though negative contributions, in stifle, overhead, disturbance of good business, may be wide spread). See a business/organisation dabbling in ‘governance’ babble, and you see failure ahead.

I’ll leave it there for you. With:

[For no apparent reason, a whopping crazy car park; Amsterdam]

Not your clients!

An outcry: Stop calling ‘clients’ what are just mass tools to make a profit (incl public sector…) for your actual clients…!

When, why, did the non-politically grossly in-correct usage of ‘clients’ come from, where not only the Facebooks of this world will serve you crumbs and deliver your value to others ..? Because all sorts, yes the dullest of dullest too or in particular, of public sector organisations fall prey to the emptiest of sympathies when they denote their fully captives as ‘clients’, or at best, ‘civilians’ as if they themselves are not the most average, mediocre, irrelevant of those denominiations themselves ..? ‘Clients’ of a social services organisation ARE NOT; apologies for the shout, they are captives, with no alternative to turn to (like actual clients could) but the actual client is some politician(s) that have just enough brains to be the last one standing / clinging to their seats while everyone of anything approaching intelligence even at great distance, will have left or have been pushed out by actually caring for the ‘clients’s interests.
‘Clients’ are just the mass fodder, nothing (sic) more despite all the efforts to paint a social, relating picture.
Get real. Stop the outright lying.

Oh well.

[Actual palace of the People; of course this is Pistoia]

Misquote: Eat this!

Let them eat cake

No. No, no, no, nonono. This wasn’t what Marie Antoinette said. She didn’t even say anything of the kind. Not even

Qu’ils mangent de la brioche

that Rousseau put in his memoires. And for those that suspect something akin was said by Merry Anthonia, there’s some more explanation of the miss in the quote here.

The more serious side of it all being that in its day, it might have been sound advice to eat brioche, for its nutritional value… If only the pesky 1% (rather even, 0,1%) like explained here, would have made that a challenge. … Very much like today’s USA … recognize and weep. And take heed of this.

Well, I’ll leave you to ponder, on a doughy note with:

[Casual dining; Het Loo]

De nieuwe KvK-registratie

Voor velen is het een klusje dat lastig is, maar er nu eenmaal bijhoort als onderdeel van ‘being in business’.
De registratie bij de Kamer van Koophandel. De basics, bij de enthousiaste start van bijvoorbeeld een zelfstandig bestaan. Het onderhoud, bij wisselingen in het verenigingsbestuur — en dan blijkt de KvK dermate relevant, dat men nog een natte handtekening vereist maar dan wel in het bekende veel te kleine rechthoekje te plaatsen waardoor de gezette handtekening welhaast per definitie niet klopt…! Hoe diep in het vorige millennium kan je achtergebleven zijn; dit toont wel aan dat de KvK welhaast niet nuttig meer kan zijn…

Maar nu is er in tijden van ‘cyber’ (#ditchcyber!) een alternatief of eerder, een vergelijkbare registratie: Bij de AP.
Jawel, de Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, zo genoemd omdat de verwarring met het begrip ‘privacy’ nog niet groot genoeg was wellicht, en hernoemd om weer een decennium opstarttijd te geven voordat effectiviteit kan worden verwacht en alsdan weer een nieuwe tijd aangebroken is die vraagt om een ‘andere’ instantie ..?
Want we hebben immers de Wet meldplicht datalekken… Met 700 registraties in de eerste twee maanden (rekening houdend met een volle eerste maand nieuwjaarsborrels, dus een week of vier) is wel duidelijk dat het een kwestie is van (aan)melden en verder gelukkig niets — tenzij men pech heeft niet politiek relevant te zijn en ‘dus’ najaagbaar …

Ach, overheid; leuker kunnen ze het niet maken, wel onmogelijker…?

[En daar komt nou ook niet echt tegenwind vandaan…]

Short on tape

The title being a mere reference to Turing machines. Since I wanted to bring up the subject of short-sightedness of those that do not understand the fundamental nature of the Church-Turing thesis and Halting Problem deeply enough.
Because they, symptomatically, consider that humans can solve the problems associated with it hence any machine that would think similarly enough or better than humans, would have overcome the problems by sheer thinkpower. But that is simply wrong. Humans do not overcome the problem, they work around its applications — another element of what makes us human, maybe. And there is no guarantee whatsoever, or rather to the contrary, that any ASI will be able to do the same, in all situations — because any true ASI will explode to cover all of the universe hence also all of its problem areas, right ..? [Reference to Kurzweil’s books and ideas not really necessary, are they?]
Gödel’s Incompleteness isn’t just something that can be solved! It is!, whether that’s fortunate or not. And a world ‘beyond’ such axiomatic issues, well… Wovon man nicht sprechen kann…

And Good versus Evil: Also not ‘solved’ by humans. And phenomenology — not something that the ultimate abstract of Hegelian Ratio can ‘solve’. And …

In similar vein (not?):

[The eternal fight between Good and Evil, ratio versus original Natural brute force, Yin versus (!)(?) Yang; Sevilla]

Mayans leaving the US

Would anyone have a pointer to the research that compares the Mayans’ demise with latter-day developments in the first world ..?

As one hears not too much lately, about that grand theory about the sudden disappearance of the Maya culture that suggested that one-percenter total disconnect with the other 99%, lead to the latter leaving the, no more capable of sustaining themselves in the least, überbureaucrats to litterally starve in their palaces.

Which might very well happen if the Powers That Be, e.g., the 1% of business and congress and the sycophants/lobbyists around those, would continue their disconnect now so amply demonstrated in, e.g., primaries on both sides of some spectrum (both actually being far right, maybe?), to name just an acute symptom.

So, are there any anthropologists out there studying that odd primitive (here, without the ”…) tribe of white men (sometimes, very sometimes, caught in the body of technically a woman) and comparing the parallells with said sad Untergang des Maya-landes ..?

Even when I wouldn’t know what the results could be. Do count on the ‘Now is different’ error of which the size cannot be overestimated. But also, very maybe, detect the slightest of pointers towards betterment of current-day societies. And ways to make us see the latter their value, hopefully — hope being what’s left when arguments are lacking.

On the positive side:

[Similar not same: small-time onepercenterville now a tourist attraction (hotel); Gabbiano, Toscane]

T.L.D. Richelieu

A.J. du Plessis, Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac, a.k.a. ‘Big R’ in quotes-land, was ahead of time to say “If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him”.

Surely, he meant to instate the ‘prove me’ idiocy that pervades the TLD prison found in so many organizations, where regular folks trying hardest to manage, aren’t allowed to because they first have to comply (completely, slave-style) with filing requirements that can only be read to deliver the above-mentioned six lines. If only it were the six lines! Books have to be filled with full proof of having followed each and every petty little rule, that like a spider web was only designed to catch the little bugs whereas the big ones just bumble through.
The joy really starts, for at least some — not the managers but the ‘auditors’ and other improductive on-lookers — when necessity (sic) calls for alternative execution and registration due to customer satisfaction requirements not aligning with the One-Size-fits-the-Universe design of ‘processes’. Where the accused has to deliver a guilty plea with perfect documentation, to a bigoted law. The latter qualification, because it runs counter to the ultimate and ulterior goal of the organization, proven by a deviation being necessary to serve the latter. In client requirement versus framework consistency, the former always should take precedence and the latter is a fallacy, also in view of the ever-faster changing external and internal world, but things are all too often the other way around.

So, “Here, we have followed to perfection a slight deviation from the once-planned process steps, in order to serve the customer better and hence raise profitability” is about all the six lines one needs…

I feel sorry for your loss of innocence (-disguise of evil spirit)… hence to sooth:

[Intensive human farming; squeeze till dry then dump]