{"id":1931,"date":"2012-02-19T10:24:13","date_gmt":"2012-02-19T15:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=1931"},"modified":"2012-12-04T14:47:54","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T19:47:54","slug":"the-geek-goes-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/02\/the-geek-goes-on.html","title":{"rendered":"The Geek Goes On"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019m taking Sebastian Thrun\u2019s Programming a Robotic Car<\/a> class starting this week, so I was particularly excited for Peter Stone\u2019s talk \u201c Intersections of the Future: Using Fully Autonomous Vehicles<\/a>\u201d and boy oh boy did it not disappoint. \u00a0Behold the future:<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\nWhat I found particularly interesting about his system is that it depends on the human passanger not overriding the autodrive. \u00a0Most proposed regulation of autonomous cars assumes human intervention is the failsafe<\/em> instead of instant death, as it would be here.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s looking more and more likely I\u2019ll never need to learn to drive!<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Lab team\" src=\"https:\/\/simonkelk.adsl24.co.uk\/richardwilson\/html\/images\/RichardLabTeamPaddingtonHospital.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"431\" height=\"300\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/aaas.confex.com\/aaas\/2012\/webprogram\/Session5228.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"> George Sarton Memorial Lecture in the History and Philosophy of Science: Robert Smith, Making Science Big: From Little Science to Megaprojects<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nThere were some concerns raised in this talk about whether the cheapness of computing power lets people buy their way out of problems that it used to take serious thinking to solve. \u00a0I don\u2019t think I buy into this fear. \u00a0Knowing how<\/em> to brute force a solution takes a lot of serious abstract thinking.<\/p>\nThe more interesting facet of the talk was the possible mismatch of skills a scientist needs to have to work on big science today. \u00a0She needs to be a dedicated creative researcher but also needs to be an administrator and grant writer. \u00a0A problem best summarized (in a different field) by Sondheim, natch.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Putting It Together\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rJFz-ucuTvs?start=70&feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\nThis was all contrasted with the old patron system (or the gentleman of leisure as his own patron variant), but I wonder if that kind of structure might be on its way back. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/11\/14\/technology\/at-google-x-a-top-secret-lab-dreaming-up-the-future.html?sq=google%20x&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=all\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Google X<\/a>, the Singularity Institute and other groups seem to recruit brilliant people for passionate work\u00a0fueled\u00a0by eccentric, geeky billionaires.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"network\" src=\"https:\/\/sgfoocamp08.pbworks.com\/f\/Microsoft+Research+C%23UNG+Image+of+Usenet+Newsgroup+Reply+Social+Network.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"430\" height=\"311\"><\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/aaas.confex.com\/aaas\/2012\/webprogram\/Session4102.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Web Surveillance: Fighting Terrorism and Infectious Diseases<\/a> <\/strong> \n(moderated by Vint Cerf, squee!)<\/p>\nOk, I\u2019ll admit I enjoyed a lot of this panel in a fairly technical way, so I\u2019ll just share three fun methodology notes:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>One of the presenters was using news articles to predict epidemics faster than the clinical data came in (similar in spirit to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.org\/flutrends\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Google Flu Trends<\/a>). \u00a0To put it very simply, their algorithm parses news articles from all over the world and plots the frequency of flu mentions. \u00a0Once the frequency passes a critical value, it sends an alert to epidemiologists that an epidemic is in progress. \u00a0Here was the surprise: the trigger value isn\u2019t a constant, it increases over time,\u00a0recognizing, I guess, that news coverage can be a feedback look, amplifying the flu news even if cases aren\u2019t increasing. \u00a0To trigger an alert, the news has to essentially outrace its own normal frenzy.<\/li>\n<li>One paper depended on content analysis of the kinds of links Google and other search engines produced when they were fed certain keywords. \u00a0I wonder how salient this kind of study will be as, more and more, there\u2019s no canonical list of search results. \u00a0Google and others are trying to specialize and personalize. \u00a0In their ideal world, no one sees a list of results that\u2019s not shaped by your previous behavior. \u00a0Maybe researchers will go on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mturk.com\/mturk\/welcome\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Mechanical Turk<\/a> and try and get a sampling of personalized results.<\/li>\n<li>One study of how ideas move across social networks explained they were estimating \u201cthe hazard of becoming interested using survival analysis\u201d and I found I became dangerously enrapt.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"evolution philosophy cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/files.sharenator.com\/evolution_cartoon_More_funny_Evolution_pics-s580x362-51748-580.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"464\" height=\"290\"><\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/aaas.confex.com\/aaas\/2012\/webprogram\/Session4506.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Beyond Evolution: Religious Questions in Science Classrooms<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nThis one is getting its own post when I get home. \u00a0I had some strong opinions.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Day Two at AAAS Conference\u2026 Data to Knowledge to Action: Computational Science in a Global Knowledge Society I\u2019m taking Sebastian Thrun\u2019s Programming a Robotic Car class starting this week, so I was particularly excited for Peter Stone\u2019s talk \u201cIntersections of the Future: Using Fully Autonomous Vehicles\u201d and boy oh boy did it not disappoint. \u00a0Behold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[76,75],"class_list":["post-1931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aaas","tag-conferences"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>The Geek Goes On<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Day Two at AAAS Conference... 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