Today, I had the opportunity to present a basic scripting workshop at the NMC Symposium on Creativity. One of many sessions offered during the week-long event, this mini-course was an effort to introduce some basic concepts of the Linden Scripting Language.

The participants might have been better served by a parade of scripted objects. Could have peppered that with discussion about the wide room for development in this new technology. A hands-on approach when teaching scripting requires a bit more practice than I have had at this point (none).

A fair amount of planning and preparation was accomplished, and last night it seemed as though everything was ready. A restful night and a pot of fresh roast later, and the games began.

The first hurdle was learning that a co-presenter did not have access to the event. Might just plan solo flights in the future. The second jump came during the opening survey, when questions revealed more scripting experience than I had anticipated. Oh, a handful of folks were very new to scripting, but more had already written or modified scripts, some being familiar with Javascript or Actionscript.

The amount of material I had planned was lengthy. The session was to last only 45 minutes, and could have lasted 90 (which was the originally scheduled length). But, that was not the difficulty. Presenters knew well enough in advance of the shortened time slots. I simply had no experience with such a program.

The scripts and scripted objects may have been sufficient; it was my delivery that was stunted. Lessons learned:

• Demonstrating an interaction (or effect) for the group is better than letting all present attempt the interaction independently. Then, the script behind the behavior can be examined.
• Do not try to orchestrate mass editing of scripts to begin with, working all at once as a group. First, modify a script by example with images illustrating changes, step by step. Then, let the group give it a go.

Turns out that I had much to learn. Trying to accomplish 25% too much, I was less productive by half.

Still, if I was the one who learned the most today, at least some learning took place.

Monitor and adjust.

I have been skirting the forest of Artificial Intelligence for quite some time; peeking through the foliage, occasionally pulling back a limb to examine the tangled shadows. Lately I have been darting under the branches to look for signs of a path; and, as this weblog is my trail of breadcrumbs, then I will pause to crumble up an entire loaf…

Eliezer Yudkowsky, co-founder of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, is sorting out the user requirements for a friendly artificial intelligence. A recent post in the SIAI weblog points to “Coherent Extrapolated Volition”, Yudkowsky ’s paper discussing the logical mechanisms of humanely ethical behavior.

Read: Nice robot.

Coherent extrapolated volition:

“As of May 2004, my take on Friendliness is that the initial dynamic should implement the coherent extrapolated volition of humankind.”

“In poetic terms, our coherent extrapolated volition is our wish if we knew more, thought faster, were more the people we wished we were, had grown up farther together; where the extrapolation converges rather than diverges, where our wishes cohere rather than interfere; extrapolated as we wish that extrapolated, interpreted as we wish that interpreted.”

Yudkowsky apparently contributes to the weblog at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, which is directed by Nick Bostrom, an Oxford philosopher known for his work on the anthropic principle. Bostrom chairs the World Transhumanist Association and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (whose front page sports a link to a video of Ray Kurzweil’s acceptance speech on being awarded the World Transhumanist Association’s H.G. Wells award as transhumanist of the year, bringing one nearly full circle).

Bostrom is Director of the newly created Oxford Future of Humanity Institute. According to the current Wikipedia entry, Bostrom suggests

“… if it is possible to simulate entire inhabited planets or even entire universes on a computer, and that such simulated people can be fully conscious, that the sheer number of such simulations likely to be produced by any sufficiently advanced civilization (taken together with his Strong Self-Sampling Assumption) makes it extremely likely that we are in fact currently living in such a simulation.”

Have you never stopped to wonder who made the rules?

With many brilliant folks juggling these ideas, there is some possibility of surviving the emergence of a superior AI, some hope of seeing the other side of the singularity. The question for me is…

Will we even know when it awakens?

Each time I see reference to myself (or my website) on the Internet I am pleasantly surprised.

A post in a recent Second Life educators mailing list mentions me, and links to a web page that describes my donation of an interactive tool for educators. The post and that web site are both from the hand of Milosun Czervik, founder of the ICT Library.

The ICT Library is a showcase of scripted tools for educators (SLURL). There are so many tools, from some of the most celebrated developers in SL, that anyone is sure to find something of value. The site was a must-see destination when I first entered Second Life. Having read the official guide (a good primer), I was prepared with the names of many locations in the grid.

ICT was on the short list.

As soon as I left Orientation Island, I visited ICT and found an overwhelming array of scripted objects. Most are open source objects, available at the touch of a button. I left ICT that day headed for a sandbox where I sat, prying into object after scripted object, until I was pecking out my first scripts.

There, in a public sandbox, I decided that one of my early projects would be offered to the ICT Library. Since Pollster was the first tool to find any real interest, it was an obvious choice.

Interestingly, during a demonstration at an ISTE show-n-tell, I was actually asked by Milosun to consider sharing some of my tools at ICT. He could not have known how ICT Library had helped me get started, though I am surely just one of his many virtual students.

I am pleased to have contributed, and even happier now to say…

Thank you, Milosun.

We live in very exciting times, do you agree? One story worth watching is “One Laptop Per Child” (OLPC association). This project has recently released a low-cost laptop computer - complete with a hand-crank power supply - for children in developing countries. The cost per unit will be $100, low enough for governments and foundations to easily invest.

XO-1 (laptop)

A child in a remote village in South America will soon be able to open her laptop, crank the generator, and surf the Internet. Here is a labelled image of a working model, some videos about the project (first one from 60 Minutes on CBS), and the Wikipedia article about the XO-1 laptop. The project was started by Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of MIT’s Media Lab (a leading school in the field of emerging technology), who stepped down from some of his duties at MIT to serve in this program.

Inspired people doing inspiring work.

Extensive development in security for these units is well underway, it seems.

“Millions of identical, network-attached systems will be deployed into some remote parts of the world, where they will be managed by people who are not security experts. The systems will be obvious targets for theft, self-propagating malware, and the creation of botnets. …”The goal was to significantly raise the bar from the current, deeply unsatisfactory, state of desktop security.”

When may I buy one, or ten? Seriously, how do I get one of these?

Update:  Nicholas Negroponte’s presentation at TED: The vision behind One Laptop Per Child

Two hours spent wrapping a four minute video to demonstrate the use of bookmarklets, using the trial version of Camtasia screen capture video application. And, it is not yet finished; the video will receive several hyperlinks in the closing frame.

It is a new tool to me, so I am not surprised that it took so long; many knobs and dials…up the learning curve, again.

This technology puts the “potent” in potential. The production of a short series of videos should increase proficiency, and might develop style of presentation. Next may be a brief demonstration of a Wikipedia edit.

Newly focused attention on the 3D Web has given the impression that a confluence of activity is taking place. Every time I dive into the web since entering the grid of Second Life—surfing like I was when I started this weblog—I find more content than I can keep up with. Timely, pertinent stuff from many sources. Often and right in the middle of reading the longest of these pieces, I stop and think “I have scripting to do!”

Technology has been advancing rapidly since before me; but, what of the pace of the advance? What is time? How much of this document would you get through before you realized there was something else you could be doing to contribute to the metaverse?

Metaverse Roadmap: Pathways to the 3D Web

“What happens when video games meet Web 2.0? When virtual worlds meet geospatial maps of the planet? When simulations get real and life and business go virtual? When you use a virtual Earth to navigate the physical Earth, and your avatar becomes your online agent?”

Longfin Rest Area

Jumping with both feet. Azwaldo Villota now has a home. 4096 m² on the new mainland of Nautilus.

Stata Center at MIT

“Virtual Worlds: Where Business, Society, Technology & Policy Converge” - the metaverse conference at MIT. Is this what IT was like in the early nineties with the birth of the World Wide Web? Bob Sutor: posts the agenda with links to videos. My impression - given Mr. Sutor’s description before the event - was that the conference discussion would center on standards for implementing the many platforms that are likely to emerge. (How will Azwaldo Villota - my Second Life avatar - travel to an IBM grid, or the Pepsi-verse?).

Opening remarks by Frank Moss, the Director of the MIT Media Laboratory (who hosted the event), highlighted the potential for new technologies to allow us to connect “in many different dimensions” while also pointing out many of the challenges faced in bringing virtual worlds (VW) to the mainstream user. Joey Seiler of Virtual Worlds News posted notes during the conference. Good read, well done.

Most significant to me - perhaps - was that Mr. Moss went over the time alloted his opening slot. Where ideas seem to move at the speed of light, is time of little consequence?

What models of education will replace our current traditional system? Business needs educated candidates; lacking that they will need to do the training themselves…

How can I help?

Telemachus with Mentor

I continue to suspect that a SL service based on new user orientation has a market.This need was even noted in an article recently by a software industry pundit [anecdote from an IBM event at which SL was heavily promoted]:

“…attendee Melanie McKean, a development lead the Westfield Group insurance agency, had never heard of Second Life before the Rational conference, but IBM’s promotion of the realm piqued her curiosity.

“Having missed the conference’s keynotes, she created a Second Life account and hopped over to IBM’s Codestation to see if she could catch the presentations there — but after a fair bit of fiddling around, she still couldn’t figure out how to view the video. Her attempts to find a more experienced guide also ended in frustration.”

IBM Dives Deep Into Virtual Realms - By Stacy Cowley, CRN

Even after Help Island, new users - those who are in the grid to do business - are going to need help; reliable, commited (contracted?) help. An effective user orientation program would offer:

• engaging, web-based multimedia instruction in the “knobs and dials” of SL
• hosting of individually guided tours for first sessions
• group events serviced by “uniformed” staff (hired “mentors”)
• in world information/tutorial stations
• a group IM that is manned by someone, 24/7

How many people would it take to make an effective team of mentors. Would some need to be “on call?” How many would be needed to create an effective 24/7 monitor of a group IM channel? What resources would each mentor need at their fingertips? (Are additional resources made available to SL Mentors by LL?)
If that group IM was restricted to client avatars, a private help line could be established.

It would surprise me if there was not something like this already, in SL.