Swarm Creativity Blog

1. The Rosenkreuzer Dream The Three Manifestos and Their Promise In 1614, an anonymous text appeared in Kassel, Germany, that would shake the intellectual foundations of Europe. The Fama Fraternitatis described a secret brotherhood founded by one Christian Rosenkreutz — a man who had traveled to the East, learned the hidden arts of nature, and returned to establish an invisible college of enlightened minds. A year later, the Confessio Fraternitatis followed, and in 1616, the allegorical Chymische Hochzeit (Chemical Wedding) completed the trilogy. These were not merely occult curiosities. They landed in the middle of Europe’s most turbulent intellectual transition — the bridge between Renaissance magic and Enlightenment science. The manifestos spoke to Kepler’s generation, to physicians frustrated by Galenic dogma, to natural philosophers who sensed that the “ Book of Nature ” could be read if only one had the right eyes. The core promises of the Rosenkreuzer brotherhood were breat...

Making AI ethical might be impossible, but AI can make us more ethical! I don’t think it will ever be possible to guarantee that AI will behave fully ethical. Marvin Minsky once said: “Will robots inherit the earth? Yes, but they will be our children.” What he means is that because we made them, the robots will follow our ethical understanding and thus be ethically well-behaved - unfortunately there will always be unethical hackers, leading to unethical robots. Isaac Asimov defined the three law of robotics which say that (1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. (2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. (3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.  Looking at the military uses of AI, where both Russia and the US announced that they are working on self-guided missiles that use A...

What is “truth”?  Truth is highly subjective and depends on the individual context, likes, personality, and ethical values of a person. What is “truth” for you depends in whom you trust and in whom you believe. If you are a farmer and Republican voter of Donald Trump in the rust belt of the US, you believe China needs to be punished for ripping of the US and you trust the words of Donald Trump and are willing to sacrifice sales of your grain or pork to China for the greater good of your country. If you are a Chinese Communist party member, you believe the US is striving for World domination and is using whatever means available to subdue China, you trust the words of Xi Jinping and are willing to bring personal sacrifices for the greater good of the Chinese nation. The same split perception of what is “true” applies to many other issues, from the effectiveness or dangers of vaccines, miracle cures against the Coronavirus, to when the world was created (4.54 billion years ago accor...

In a public vote at the town hall meeting on May 4, 2015, the Swiss town of Duernten (population 7000) decided to return $250,000 to a worker, who had not filled out his tax declaration since 1995 due to dyslexia. In successively higher tax bills the tax authorities had overcharged Ernst Suter by $280,000, forcing him to sell land to pay taxes on money he had never made. As a worker in a butcher’s shop Suter made about 60,000 a year, which, by Swiss standards, is a fairly low salary. Based on information from the town administration, the tax office of the canton of Zurich had second guessed Suter’s income at about 300,000 per year, and sent him tax bills accordingly, which Suter always paid, nearly forcing him into bankruptcy more than once. Only when Suter ran totally dry, did the branch of the town government that has the task to collect late payments (called “Betreibungsamt”, office of payment enforcement in Switzerland) pass on the case to a custodian, who brought the whole traged...

Coolhunt Log #11 Monday, April 30, 2007 On Stage: Scott Cooper, MIT researcher with the Sloan School of Management, co-author of Coolhunting Peter Gloor, MIT researcher with the Sloan School of Management, co-author of Coolhunting Steve O'Keefe, moderator MODERATOR: Welcome to the Coolhunt. I'm your moderator, Steve O'Keefe, calling in today from our offices at the Bywater Tech Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, over a nice, clean land line. Hosts, where are you calling in from today. SCOTT: I'm Scott Cooper, and I'm calling in from my home office in Newton, Massachusetts -- right down the street, it turns out, from where TripAdvisor is headquartered. They were included in last Friday's coolhunt. MODERATOR: Yes, just after our hunt, Scott forwarded a link to another review of TripAdvisor. The review is on a blog Scott reads regularly called Read/WriteWeb: WEB: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/tripadvisor_the.php MODERATOR: The review was written by Sramana Mi...

Coolhunt Log #10 Friday, April 27, 2007 On Stage: Scott Cooper, MIT researcher with the Sloan School of Management, co-author of Coolhunting Steve O'Keefe, Professor of Internet Public Relations at Tulane University Rachelle Matherne, moderator MODERATOR: I'd like to remind everyone of the rules of the Coolhunt. We do at least one site review, one blog post, one comment on another blog, and try to make one personal connection via email or phone. Speakers, please introduce yourselves and tell us where you are dialing in from. SCOTT: Today, I'm calling from the Engineering Systems Division at MIT. STEVE: I'm here in my role as Tulane University professor, calling in from my home office in New Orleans, Louisiana. SCOTT: Part of the preparation for doing this daily call has resulted in finding some interesting things on the web. The weirdest thing I've seen lately was a blog by Alyssa Milano on the L.A. Dodgers. Apparently, she blogs every day for Go Blue, and she seems...