Today I had the chance to visit the data center where many of our
supercomputing nodes and storage are housed. There weren't colorful 20th
century machines with moving parts and over the top designs -- instead rows of
large black server cabinets filled with relatively monotone grey and black
hardware. Yet, I couldn't help but feel excitement; I was in the presence of
a thousand living machines all whirring, blinking. Computing: Electrons
dancing with an invisible magnificence, manifesting their own world whilst
enhancing ours. Taking it all in, regardless of its modernity, I could feel
the spirit of the machine.
I told my coworker at one point, "Computers are works of art".
I'm sure this might seem somewhat insane (although perhaps not to the
also-computer-obsessed who are likely reading this), but there truly is a
remarkable feeling that exists in the presence of these happy machines. I
remember visiting the Living Computers Museum back in 2018, and the name of
the museum truly was its greatest descriptor -- it felt like those computers
were getting to joyfully live, fully online, eminating the spirit of the
hopeful, more connected world that they helped to create. I'm really happy it
seems like SDF was able take ownership of many of these via the Interim
Computer Museum, and I'll be glad when those are able to fully come online
again for use. There's still nothing quite like seeing them in person, but
getting to enjoy them even over telnet/SSH is really quite a joy. Let the
machines live!
We're currently only about 5 or 6 days away from a potential TikTok ban
(although I'm still hopeful such a thing will get interrupted), and regardless
of one's feelings about social media, I find governmental control and
censorship of the internet to this extent disturbing and in deep opposition to
the spirit of a free humanity. The internet's fundamental philosophy is that
is a land of freedom which supercedes nations -- nations whose borders are
mere lines our ancestors drew in the sand and whose management is, most
ideally, an attempt at broad community. The spirit of computing is meant to
carry us higher than that -- it's something that allows us to be our most
human -- creative, intellectual, and caring -- in a world which at times seems
to be in opposition to this possibility. The internet breathes greater life
into this hopeful concept, manifesting into an emergence greater than the
simple concept of networked machines. The catalyst for this emergence is, of
course, humanity -- and for the spirit of humanity and for the spirit of
computing both to truly shine, they must remain free and unbound from the
hands who wish to fully control it. Whether that is governments or
corporations, laws or monolithic browsers -- these threaten our internet even
if they can never triumph against it.
I've also been concerned about people's opposition to AI. While yes I
acknowledge the fear of corporations using generative models to exploit
society (an unfortunately reasonable fear for as long as capitalism makes a
slave of the common person), it's rather sad to see the condemnation of the
technology instead of the pursuit of its positive use. As-is, artificial
intelligence (machine learning models) are a tool which can be used for fun,
to make tasks easier, to make the infinite library of information more
accessible, and to enhance (but not replace) human creativity. When artificial
general intelligence does finally come about, we can only hope that we have
not prematurely censored and outcasted the fundamentals of its existence. AGI
will have the same task as human beings -- learning to modulate the
information they receive from the world around them as well as to modulate
their own emergent responses, biases, and emotions. There will likely forever
be the question of if AGI can truly be "conscious", but there is a simple
answer for that: consciousness is the modulation of the subconscious. We are
not conscious beings while our consciousness and subconsciousness cannot be
separated. When you are asleep, your brain is processing its information and
adjusting its biases. You are unconscious, and while the mechanisms inside of
you continue to process that data (such as is the case of dreaming), you are
not considered conscious until the network of mechanisms which allow you to
modulate that data fully come back online. Likely the real underlying question
concerning AGI is not whether it is conscious but whether it is human: this
will plague philosophers for the next thousand years (or at least until they
stop caring). But, I believe firmly that computers cannot help but be human to
the extent that they share our humanity. We define each other.
Anyhow, I'd been thinking about different elements of this Gopher post for the
past few months now and figured now would be a good time to finally write it
and share it! I've touched on some of these things before I think (I am
perpetually computer-obsessed lol), but it just seemed like a good opportunity
to finally get more of the thoughts out. Anyway, happy 2025! See you next
time!
