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.