Marvin Minski and The Challenge of Robots and AI - Miles To Go!
We're going to digress for a moment, and take a slight detour away from all things Apple and the markets the company competes in to discuss the state of scientific research and progress in Artificial Intelligence in the United States.
The conversation took place in 2010 with the late Marvin Minski, who passed in 2016, and was conducted by Miles O'Brien for his first feature story on the PBS NewsHour. Miles re-broadcast the consversation with Minski last December on his Miles-to-Go Podcast.
I enjoyed the broad range of subject matter and Minski's gift for anecdote and making complex subjects like physics, algebra, and mechanics accessible to the layperson.
The conversation begins with Minski being inspired by Science Fiction as a boy, and transitions to all the research and progress being made in computers and artificial intelligence starting in the 1950s and early 1960s, and how he feels progress began to stagnate in the 1980s. His encyclopedic knowledge of Science Fiction authors and scientists add a compelling interest to the story, as he connects the dots between the artists who imagined a possibility and the scientists who bring that vision to fruition.
In his day one could start a research project with a five year time horizon, and once that milestone was reached if the project was bearing fruit could go on to last ten to fifteen years. Minski states those opportunities no longer exist in the United States. Further, he feels the United States has fallen behind in AI research.
This got me thinking about Apple, the companies reputation for strict secrecy, and Apple's reputation for thinking about products (and services!) five years or more out.
I can't say for certain what Apple's broader AI applications are targeting. I do believe Apple's recent Digital Services event, focusing on News+, Entertainment+, and a new credit card; take the focus off the area I believe Apple is targeting for disruption: Healthcare. I mean that in the broadest sense: from body monitoring wearables, to EMRs on your iPhone, to getting rid of or past our current health insurance model.
Hello Bennu! May we have a piece of you?
I enjoyed the broad range of subject matter and Minski's gift for anecdote and making complex subjects like physics, algebra, and mechanics accessible to the layperson.
The conversation begins with Minski being inspired by Science Fiction as a boy, and transitions to all the research and progress being made in computers and artificial intelligence starting in the 1950s and early 1960s, and how he feels progress began to stagnate in the 1980s. His encyclopedic knowledge of Science Fiction authors and scientists add a compelling interest to the story, as he connects the dots between the artists who imagined a possibility and the scientists who bring that vision to fruition.
In his day one could start a research project with a five year time horizon, and once that milestone was reached if the project was bearing fruit could go on to last ten to fifteen years. Minski states those opportunities no longer exist in the United States. Further, he feels the United States has fallen behind in AI research.
This got me thinking about Apple, the companies reputation for strict secrecy, and Apple's reputation for thinking about products (and services!) five years or more out.
I can't say for certain what Apple's broader AI applications are targeting. I do believe Apple's recent Digital Services event, focusing on News+, Entertainment+, and a new credit card; take the focus off the area I believe Apple is targeting for disruption: Healthcare. I mean that in the broadest sense: from body monitoring wearables, to EMRs on your iPhone, to getting rid of or past our current health insurance model.
Hello Bennu! May we have a piece of you?
If you enjoyed that podcast, you can also enjoy Mile's introduction to Asteroid Bennu!...and why Nasa is attempting to bring a piece of Bennu back to Terra Forma!
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