Hi Michael and Wikidatans, I just created a beginning, wiki Software Library at World University and School - see Software Libraries: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Software_Libraries for the initial resources - and added links to this in the following WUaS, wiki subjects -
see the WUaS Computer Science wiki subject page for this and related links - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Computer_Science#World_University_and_School_Links- Educational Software: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software - Library Resources: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Library_Resources - Programming: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Programming . WUaS, which is like Wikipedia with MIT OCW, plans to develop in all 7,105+ languages and 204+ countries, - for open, wiki teaching and learning, in addition to free, C.C., MIT OCW-centric, university degrees, beginning in the U.N. languages after English - so not only will this extensible WUaS Software Libraries find form in all languages and countries, but WUaS's plans to move to Wikidata will make this a database. MIT-centric WUaS students will eventually add to, and develop, these libraries greatly I suspect. Best regards, Scott On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 10:19 AM, Michael Hale <[email protected]>wrote: > I completely agree that wiki-projects are exemplary organic growth models > compared to the way plans are made by Congress. I certainly support using > information technology to move governments toward more direct and efficient > forms of democracy. I would love to see things like income tax levels > determined in real-time based on the average preferences of everyone's > e-government web preferences. Many people still don't have internet access > though. I think when a person comes up with a plan they typically consider > 2 or 3 factors in a qualitative manner in their mental model of the system > and disregard other side effects as insignificant. That paper used a model > with 10 or so factors in a quantitative manner. There are many things it > leaves out, but such plans are still useful as counterweights in policy > arguments against ideas that are extreme in other directions. Regardless, a > person couldn't design by hand the circuit layout of the processors that > are currently in our computers and phones, and the number of problems that > are too big for our brains that computers are helping us with is expanding. > If we had a way to design computational models in a wiki manner then we > could just add the irrigation and insect migration effects to the model to > gauge its sustainability, then other people could make each part of the > model more accurate, etc. I think it would help us find real solutions to > many problems in a much faster way than listening to political speeches or > exchanging paragraphs of imprecise human language on social networking > sites. > > > Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2013 09:55:38 +0200 > > From: [email protected] > > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: Re: [Wikidata-l] Accelerating software innovation with Wikidata > and improved Wikicode > > > > Michael, > > The wonderful thing about organic growth models is that they are > > sometimes extremely energy efficient, and very hard for computers to > > compete with. If as you say such a "5-year-plan" to reduce CO2 > > emissions were executed, all sorts of other, unintended bad things > > would happen, such as plants and insects moving into areas of the > > country where the ecology is thrown off balance, traditional farming > > communities uprooted, rivers running dry for overuse by irrigation, > > and so on. There are just too many factors to consider. In the movie > > "Broken Flowers" with Bill Murray, one of the (many) funny themes in > > his visits to 20 ex-girlfriends is his rental of a Ford Focus and > > using pre-printed MapQuest maps to locate his girlfriends' homes. In > > one scene he drives along a wooded lane next to a cornfield called > > "Main Street". > > > > Back in 1806 after the Lewis&Clark expedition, the newly mapped > > "Louisiana Territory" was filled in with street names in Washington > > D.C. The "Westward Ho!" movement subsequently populated the area and > > all Indians were conveniently rounded up and moved to reservations. If > > you drive through parts of Nebraska, the Dakotas and Wyoming today, > > you will often come to some "Main Street" where planners calculated > > that a town should be settled, but this never happened. It was a good > > idea in theory to make money by selling land to people who would > > populate the land, but in practise the only successful farmers were > > the ones who settled on land in climates that they knew by experience > > how to farm. It is unknown how many people died in the badlands in the > > 19th century, but you can be sure that the planners in Washington had > > very little knowledge of what they were selling. > > > > But I like the way you think about using Wikidata to solve the bigger > > issues like global warming! > > Jane > > 2013/7/9, Michael Hale <[email protected]>: > > > Well, you would run into many of the same decisions we already face > about > > > how much to limit automated uploads of data if you wanted to turn it > into a > > > live programming platform. You can certainly already use DBpedia and > > > Wikidata to get datasets for many cool demonstrations of functional > > > programming though. Yes, I suspect we are just at the learning to walk > stage > > > of programming in the big picture. My favorite examples of AI these > days are > > > when computers do large mathematical optimization tasks. I was most > > > impressed by a paper last year that optimized the placement and > > > configuration of coal power plants and more farmland to reduce > transport > > > related CO2 emissions by 50% for the entire US. The paper was called > > > "Nationwide energy supply chain analysis for hybrid feedstock > processes with > > > significant CO2 emissions reduction". A free early version was > published > > > here: > > > > http://www.nt.ntnu.no/users/skoge/prost/proceedings/cpc8-focapo-2012/data/papers/092.pdf > > > And to think how nice it would be if the customized optimization > techniques > > > they developed were merged into the code associated with those > Wikipedia > > > articles for everyone to easily use. The reason that task impresses me > so > > > much is that if a computer at Pixar draws a nice picture it is just > matching > > > what the artists could already partially see in their heads and if > Siri on > > > the iPhone tells me a good restaurant to visit it is just doing what a > > > person that lives in the area could do, but if a computer redesigns the > > > entire energy infrastructure for a country I have no idea what the > solution > > > will look like in advance. There is a lot of smart information out > there if > > > people are willing to look for it. How can the singularity get them to > stop > > > listening to the bad information? I think things like Wikipedia are > > > definitely helping us all get gradually smarter though, so I'm > optimistic. > > > > > > > > > From: [email protected] > > > Date: Mon, 8 Jul 2013 19:32:37 -0400 > > > To: [email protected] > > > Subject: Re: [Wikidata-l] Accelerating software innovation with > Wikidata and > > > improved Wikicode > > > > > > Wikidata seems like a good platform for functional computing, it "just" > > > needs Lisp-like lists (which would be an expansion of > queries/tree-searches) > > > and processing capabilities. What you say it is also true, it would be > ahead > > > of the times, because high-level computing languages never expanded as > much > > > as imperative languages (probably because the processing power and the > need > > > was not there yet). > > > > > > > > > > > > Wikidata as an AI... how far away is that singularity? :) > > > > > > Micru > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikidata-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata-l > > _______________________________________________ > Wikidata-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata-l > > -- - Scott MacLeod - Founder & President - Tel. 415 480 4577 - P.O. Box 442, (86 Ridgecrest Road), Canyon, CA 94516 - http://scottmacleod.com/worlduniversityandschool.htm - [email protected] - World University and School - like Wikipedia with MIT OpenCourseWare - is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt, educational organization.
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