Category Archives: Essays

Group Minds are Happening

GROUP MINDS

The rise of generative AI and system like ChatGPT is going to enable a new type of collective intelligence that I have been writing about for almost 30 years. I call them “group minds”.

Group minds are collective intelligence assistants that extract, learn from, augment, and broker the relationships, communications, knowledge and intelligence of groups.… Read More “Group Minds are Happening”

Spiritual Machines are Not Possible

The Paradox of the Artificial Zen Master:

If we make an artificial Zen master, 
And it perfectly reproduces everything
that a real Zen master can say or do, 
Is it a Zen master?

My commentary:

No. To be an actual Zen master it would have to be sentient.… Read More “Spiritual Machines are Not Possible”

The Keeper of the Book: My Childhood Dream of the Future

When I was eight years old, I had a very unusual dream in which I saw many lifetimes of my future. In this dream I saw a very clear picture of what the world would go through for perhaps a century or two into the future.… Read More “The Keeper of the Book: My Childhood Dream of the Future”

An Interesting Pattern in the Prime Numbers: Parallax Compression

Early this year a software engineer, Shaun Gilchrist, reached out to me after reading a blog post of mine from many years ago, about my informal search for hidden patterns in the prime numbers.

The Ulam Spiral revealed non-random patterns, but they didn’t quite match up.Read More “An Interesting Pattern in the Prime Numbers: Parallax Compression”

Sun Stone

It’s mind blowing. An object I conceived of and had made, which was in my house, that I held in my hand, and once carried in my pocket, is now orbiting the sun for millions of years, near the asteroid belt, moving faster than a bullet, in a red Tesla Roadster.… Read More “Sun Stone”

The Next Step for Intelligent Virtual Assistants

When we talk about the future of artificial intelligence (AI), the discussion often focuses on the advancements and capabilities of the technology, or even the risks and opportunities inherent in the potential cultural implications. What we frequently overlook, however, is the future of AI as a business.… Read More “The Next Step for Intelligent Virtual Assistants”

Twitter is No Longer a Village

I’ve noticed a distinct change in how people use Twitter in the last year:

1. People are increasingly not using Twitter for actual two-way conversations or interactions. Instead it’s being used more for one-way “fire and forget” posting. People just post into the aether, without knowing or even caring if anyone actually reads their posts.… Read More “Twitter is No Longer a Village”

How Bottlenose Could Improve the Media and Enable Smarter Collective Intelligence

How Bottlenose Could Improve the Media and Enable Smarter Collective Intelligence

This article is part of a series of articles about the Bottlenose Public Beta launch.

Bottlenose – The Now Engine – The Web’s Collective Consciousness Just Got Smarter

How Bottlenose Could Improve the Media and Enable Smarter Collective Intelligence (you are here)

A New Window Into the Collective Consciousness

Bottlenose offers a new window into what the world is paying attention to right now, globally and locally.… Read More “How Bottlenose Could Improve the Media and Enable Smarter Collective Intelligence”

Bottlenose – The Now Engine – The Web’s Collective Consciousness Just Got Smarter

Recently, one of Twitter’s top search engineers tweeted that Twitter was set to “change search forever.” This proclamation sparked a hearty round of speculation and excitement about what was coming down the pipe for Twitter search.

The actual announcement featured the introduction of autocomplete and the ability to search within the subset of people on Twitter that you follow — both long-anticipated features.… Read More “Bottlenose – The Now Engine – The Web’s Collective Consciousness Just Got Smarter”

How I Got Into College (by Doing the Opposite of What I Should Have Done). An Essay.

Today I had an interesting phone call with an alumnus of my alma mater, Oberlin College. He called me for an informational interview, asking for some career advice. It was a good conversation. At one point, on a tangent, he asked me why I went to Oberlin?… Read More “How I Got Into College (by Doing the Opposite of What I Should Have Done). An Essay.”

My Father and Me. A Memoir. For Mayer Spivack (1936 – 2011)

My father, Mayer Spivack, passed away on February 12, 2011, in the Kaplan Family House, a beautiful hospice outside of Boston. He passed away, at the young age of 74, after a difficult year and a half battle with colon cancer.… Read More “My Father and Me. A Memoir. For Mayer Spivack (1936 – 2011)”