Welcome to the mind of a mental patient

aidos @ 2007-10-08T11:34:00

2007-10-08T03:36:04Z

So I've worked out what is wrong with me.

You know how some men are actually women in men's bodies?

Well I'm kind of similar. I am a plasticine man inside a real man's body. That is what is wrong with the world, I really should be in a plasticine world, however due to some mistake I came to existence in the real world in a man's body.

Now I've just got to invent a name for this disorder, and get it accepted by the DSMv4.

aidos @ 2007-10-03T16:38:00

2007-10-03T08:40:01Z

The way people talk publicly about Facebook, you'd think Jesus used it to invite his apostles to the Last Supper.

Join the campaign for no more boring conversations with people about facebook.

Membership is free! Punch someone who discusses facebook in public in the face to join!

As a membership reward you will get Aidos' respek.

aidos @ 2007-08-07T21:31:00

2007-08-07T13:31:08Z

Wow, this has got to be the most educational video I've ever seen..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr1ju6GoCsY

They should have taught us all of this using this video at school, then I may have paid attention!

aidos @ 2007-07-11T21:30:00

2007-07-11T14:23:23Z

If I write the word Heterogeneous one more time I am going to have to kill something.

Remember kiddies, every time Aidos writes Heterogeneous, god kills a kitten. Or was that when jesus masturbates? I can't remember.

What a bad way to start my PhD :-)

aidos @ 2007-06-30T17:45:00

2007-06-30T09:45:08Z

I though seeing the symphony orchestra in Sydney play the SMB theme was pretty fucking amasing, but man some geeks go to extremes...

The SMB theme, played using Tesla Coils:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX5V_9s0Gfw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Edestructoid%2Ecom%2F%3Fstart%3D154

If I could talk I'd tell you.

2007-05-02T13:05:30Z

I think I satisfactorily proved to myself that the past 5 months have been some elaborate prank organised by everyone in an attempt to get me back for all the bullshit things I've made you believe or do. This of course has been orchestrated by Stephanie, so Steph, I'll say thats 2 to you and 401 to me now.

You win.

One stubborn way to turn your back, this I've tried and now refuse.

2007-04-12T08:41:43Z

So last night, in an attempt to avoid having more suicidal dreams (which didn't work for the record) I tried to stay awake as late as possible and then sleep as little as possible.

I got to thinking about AI and the definition of consciousness. Anybody who has heard me rant on about what I want to do for my PhD topic is just going to groan and skip the rest of this ranting (I'm meant to be doing critical-path kind of work, but I can't be bothered working out why things don't work as documented), Please feel free, I won’t be offended, but you really are going to miss out on the mental-stream of a genius at work :-).

So it begins…

If it is theoretically possible to create artificial intelligence that demonstrates some rudimentary form of consciousness, is it therefore an act of murder to switch off the computer/pull its hardware apart? I agree that the murder metaphor is a little extreme, but let’s stick with it anyways for the sake of argument (my blog post / thought exercise, my rules).

So I got to wondering what defines consciousness. At what level down the evolutionary ladder does consciousness cease to exist? Or as a counter, what traits must be exhibited to define that something has a consciousness vs. something that does not? From a brief empirical (ha! I managed to use it!) study I performed, all people agree that amoeba do not have any level of consciousness, but when we start climbing that evolutionary ladder people seem to think that animals such as dogs do have a consciousness.

I decided, last night, that I would define consciousness by having some self-reference. An understanding of itself, in the context of it's environment (or group? or both?). Therefore if I make an Artificial Intelligence that has an understanding of itself in the context of a group (think swarms here) then surely that thing has some rudimentary consciousness? It probably also needs to have some understanding of other things around it, and perhaps an understanding of how those other things perceive it (think Carl Jung and his many layers of personality here). The AI more than likely has no understanding of itself outside of the swarm, so maybe the swarm itself has a consciousness, rather than the individual.

Therefore if I turn that swarm off somehow (killing its power, smashing it to bits) then I have destroyed that consciousness and have committed an act of murder. (if you kill a dog is it called murder? I’m not sure, I’m sure one of the hippies that I know could fill me in).

I also wondered (being the engineer that I freely admit I am too much of the time) whether the “fight of flight” mechanism present in almost all sentient beings forms a part of its consciousness. To have the “fight of flight” mechanism implies that the being has some understanding that it may die (why else would you run away? with no understanding of death, surely the being will continue on blindly totally disregarding the fact that it may soon cease to exist). So that implies that something has knowledge that it is in fact alive, and that certain decisions it makes may in fact cause it to die, if this is the case then doesn’t that make it conscious?

So to summarise, I have decided to define consciousness as having a self-reference and an understanding of death (basic proof that it therefore has life).

Surely it is therefore quite possible to create Artificial Intelligence that is alive (given my incredibly loose definition of life), and that any act I make to disable it starts to cross into the territory of personal ethics, and whether I am comfortable with killing that is alive, even though it is something I made.

Someone please stop me going to bed really late. Actually, just stop the stupid suicidal dreams and then I won’t need to worry about these things. Perhaps I should just do a PhD in the ethics of turning off a computer and really waste 4 years of my life.

Make me feel tiny if it makes you feel tall.

2007-04-11T15:51:15Z

A turd is still a turd, no matter how many precious stones you ate to make it.

I met her in a club down in old Soho where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Cherry Cola

2007-04-09T07:05:00Z

I don't know what is happening to me, but I keep having these insane dreams every time I fall asleep. For 24 and a bit years I've never been able to remember my dreams, but the past week or two I can't not remember them.

This afternoon (I woke up at 14:30) I had a dream that I was in a 50's movie, and my stereotypical 50's dad worked for the Dodge motor company, and we were at some sort of motor race and my adopted brother killed some guy who worked for our father. The guy was being a prick to me, and then this insane little fucker killed him. Then we all started speaking in Cantonese so people around us couldn't understand what we were saying while we tried to escape before anybody noticed.

The dream was quite cool, it was in black and white, but some parts of it were coloured, pretty much like a Frank Miller novel, just a hint of colour in places to add some atmosphere. Oh and the guy's death sequence was pretty cool.

I'm hoping I just projected myself into some bad daytime movie I may have seen once and not just making this stuff up because it bears no relevance to anything that has happened in my life whatsoever.

Although I slept for 14 hours last night, and for the first time in months I've woken up not feeling tired, I really wish these dreams would stop! I think I'm going a little crazy.

It turns out that wanting something doesn't make it real

2007-04-04T07:39:04Z

I keep having dreams in which I kill myself. They all involve my throat or neck in some way.

It started with me shooting myself in the throat with a gun, then slowly bleeding to death and having difficulty breathing. I would put my finger in the hole to talk and breathe (except the air kept rushing out the back of my neck, which was quite an odd sensation).

Then I slit my own throat with a knife.

Then last night I stabbed myself in the jugular with a pen.

I really have to stop threatning to punch people in the throat. Even if it really is the most awesome threat ever, I don't think my subconcious likes it very much.

I guess there has got to be a break in the monotony, but jesus when it rains how it pours.

2007-03-20T12:59:19Z

Come in Red Squirrel.

The chicken is in the pot.

Why did you give up on me so soon?

2007-03-18T23:56:04Z

So I've been injected with radiation in order to get my wrist issues sorted.

I am disappointed that I still haven't developed any super powers. When I go back for the second round of images I am going to have to take this up with the technician. I was hoping to get xray vision, or to be able to fly or even just shooting lasers out of my arse like Astroboy would be cool. Maybe I am asking too much, I'm already handsome and incredibly intelligent, a superpower really would just be unfair to all the single men out there.

I do however have to stay away from pregnant women. So this is a warning to all pregnant women out there, watch out, I've gone nuclear.

(What would be cool is that if they filled the building with pregnant women, and I had to escape from the building without going near any of them. Running the gauntlet of pregnant women if you will... Why don't they bring Gladiators back on the tv? That show was awesome!)

Things not worth writing home about...

2007-03-13T13:38:50Z

Bondsac's Penis

aidos @ 2007-02-22T17:52:00

2007-02-22T08:52:18Z

Something I think all girls should read :-)

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/66795671.html

What I do for a living...

2007-02-20T02:01:35Z

I compose symphonies that only a computer can understand.

Take what you need to turn you on

2006-12-18T00:50:11Z

I'm Time's Person of the Year! Time to update my resume

Aidan Morgan
BEng (Software Engineering) Hons (Curtin)

Achievements:

2006 Time Magazine's Person of the Year

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html

Our genetic imperatives are mating and killing each other...

2006-12-15T04:33:51Z

(there's been a distinct lack of killing recently)

Yep, this one has happened to me, on more than one occasion...

I already forgot, what I thought I would say, but all I wanna do is get off..

2006-12-12T06:02:09Z

Happy 13th birthday to Doom, the first real* first person shooter. Thanks iD, you've made me waste countless hours of my life playing games. To think 13 years ago I was 11, and wasn't really a computer nerd. No wait, that's a lie, I've been a computer nerd for as long as I can remember....

*Yes I know Wolf3D came first, but Doom gave us much more of what we've come to expect from FPS games.

Well here we go again, you've found yourself a friend, that knows you well

2006-12-07T06:32:00Z

I said that mobile phones don't cause cancer, and here's is a longterm study proving me right..

http://jncicancerspectrum.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/jnci;98/23/1707

I'd like to say it again. I was right. A majority of people were wrong.

To those who were wrong, I'd like to point out the fact that I was right.

I am no philosoper, I am no poet. I'm just tryin to help you out.

2006-12-05T05:35:54Z

A Neural-Network's attempt at writing english sentances...

"The pig go. Go is to the fountain. The pig put foot. Grunt. Foot in what? ketchup. The dove fly. Fly is in sky. The dove drop something. The something on the pig. The pig disgusting. The pig rattle. Rattle with dove. The dove angry. The pig leave. The dove produce. Produce is chicken wing. With wing bark. No Quack."

I'm impressed. Soon enough it will be writing better than most current software engineering university graduates.

Well my girl takes her drinks with dust and rusty razor blades...

2006-11-29T06:34:50Z

Man, I thought I had invented this theory, but it turns out some guy beat me to it (Godwin's Law) in 1990. I'm still claiming independent discovery however.

It's been defined as a logical fallacy! woo!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum

Yet again someone somehwere takes credit for something I invented after they did.

aidos @ 2006-11-21T09:52:00

2006-11-21T09:52:22Z

Want a way to help the World Peace movement, but can't be arsed getting into a fight with policemen at a protest? (I was going to rant about peace protesters being the most violent people around, and how I couldn't give a crap about the guys the other day's cause because they decided smashing shit up was a good idea, but I'll save it for another day)

Then you should participate in this (the link is NSFW)...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/17/global_coming_together/

I wish I could buy back, the woman you stole.

2006-11-15T04:32:09Z

I got new business cards today. What am I to do with about 500 of my old ones?

So far I have considered:

Making a huge paper mache ballon.
Making a giant business-card blanket.
Making a suit jacket (like Bernard from Black Books and his tax receipts).

Anyone have any better suggestions (no Chelsea I'm not going to recycle them)?

aidos @ 2006-11-09T05:14:00

2006-11-09T05:14:45Z

me: ralphmonths (noun) = a conversion equation resulting in the amount of time it would take ralph to complete the work a normal programmer completes within a given time period. the equation varies based on phases of the moon, number of ball bearings scattered throughout room at any given moment, and inflated size of egg-shaped head.
co-worker: classic
co-worker: however, you got the part of speech wrong
co-worker: it's not a noun
me: you're right, it's a travesty

aidos @ 2006-10-31T07:12:00

2006-10-31T07:15:18Z

I've discovered "The Law of Constant Conservation of Organisational Misery", that is any action you take has no impact on the total amount of misery assoicated with the situation (think the law of constant conservation of mass, but on a more emotional level). Scott Adams has this down pat with his Dilbert cartoons I think.

Some are calling me cynnical, I would like to consider myself a realist with a perfectly healthy level of cynicism.