The Two Intelligent Machines

By Hriday Siddharth | Published: November 23, 2013
man and the machine

man and the machine
courtesy : http://gracefulspoon.com/blog/tag/grasshopper/

Title:  TOWARDS A THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE MACHINE

Author : Nicholas Negroponte

Year: 1969

Towards a Theory of Architecture Machines is an argument presented by Nicolas Negroponte about the optimised solutions that can be achieved between man and the machine.

 The man and the machine…

In the opening part of his discussion the author tries to establish the point that the scale of the architectural projects will invariably define and decide the outcome and also the kind of challenges and situations that the designer will be encountering. The complexities of large-scale projects and the trivialness of problems in the small-scale works will restrict the exposure of the projects to the skills of the design profession. This is where the author believes the assistance of machines to the designers will help in the removal of drudgery from the work and the architect or designer can concentrate on innovations and optimisations.

The author emphasizes on a scenario where the machine is not only a mere tool to take away the repetitive tasks from the designers schedule but also an assistance in analyzing and mapping the vast amount of information and provides solutions. The use of this assistance from the machine also comes with a word of caution. The writer believes that if the machines are not evolving to make themselves more adoptable and relevant the results could end up in propagating bad architecture. The challenge here would be to understand if the machine could deduce response from a host of data.

The Learning and seeing machine…

As a continuation to his argument the author talks about an intelligent machines. He translates the process of architectural design if done by an architect and in a very metaphorical manner changes the various steps involved into various components that are required in an architectural machine. A Heuristic mechanism helps in streamlining the process of finding solutions. The rote apparatus memorizes the situations and stores there solutions for use if a similar situation arises. A conditional mechanism enforces and handles all the non-exceptional data. It responds to habituated situations without any effort saving both time and energy. The reward mechanism analysis the pros and cons and provided the designer with the optimized solutions. The forgetting convenience enables the machine to discard the obsolete and irrelevant data and keep evolving.

Illustrating further on the machines sensory aspect of vision the parallels are drawn equating vision with the interface between the machine and the information environment. The author here explains his analogy of the properties he believes are necessary in a machine to have the image of the designer and to be able to deliver the optimized solution. This is again a process of design analysis that is equated to the machine properties. The event, which can be a command or information received by the machine. The manifestation is the process of measuring and recording the information and data as per the set parameters. Representation is the ability of the machine to comprehend and map the received information for use if the others.

“Habits, not thoughts, assist the humans to surmount daily obstacles”…

In the discussion the writers stress in change of habits and practices to the more evolved technology in order to achieve the best and the most optimized solutions. Considering the fact that the article was written in 1969 it is actually understandable that the author could foresee the change that was going to happen or imagine the use and advances of technology in assisting human lives. With the changes and advances in technology that we come across everyday its can be believed that the part of author’s narrative where he envisions the machine as a thinking identity can indeed be a reality not in the very distant future. But the use of such assistance as would bring in the larger questions. If the machine starts to learn and deliver solutions and solve problems with who would like the authorship or the intellectual rights of the solutions, the man or the machine? The problem would also lie in understanding if the thinking ability of artificial intelligence of the machine can be trusted with providing the optimized solutions considering the fact that machines cannot be held accountable in case of a non-competence.

How far can the use of machines be stretched? Should the machines be assisting the human brain or allowed to partner the humans in obtaining optimised solutions?

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DELEUZE AND THE GENESIS OF FORM – Manuel de Landa

By sofiakcomt | Published: November 23, 2013

darren aron 2

 

The problem for Deleuze is that Western philosophy of conception of the matter is wrong, they believe that form has no forces on the inside they only come from the outside. The genesis of form and structure seem always to involve resources that go beyond the culpabilities of the material substratum. Read More »

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Nicholas Negroponte – Toward a theory of architecture machines

By alejandrogarcia | Published: November 23, 2013

usb_brain-1

 

In this text Negroponte talks to us about the idea of making an architectural machines, not only machines that can solve specific problems with step by step instructions where the result is unquestionably attributed to the designers creativity, but a machine that is cable of learning how to learn. This machine should be able to learn about architecture and have a dialogue between itself, man and other machines in order to produce an evolutionary system.

Read More »

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Emergence, chapter 2 : “Streets level” by Steven Johnson

By Chirana | Published: November 23, 2013

conflictdata5

Steven Johnson tries to analyze how to define emergence in some different scales. He tries to give example from the behavior of ants and its colonies, until the smallest scale of cells and DNA, and come back to bigger scale as city and its neighborhoods. Giving comparisons and similarities of how ants system works and characteristics of our cells and DNA are some-what interesting. Both of them have this emergence behavior as its nature way of living.

What is emergence, how to define logics in complex city, how interaction creates city, and what is the nature of complex system – those are the main ideas on what Johnson’s been writing from the beginning towards the end of the text.

From the example of small scale such as ants and its colonies also cells and DNA, he clearly lays out the complexity of every individual but with pattern they organized themselves and become a smart colony, an organism. That is one of the root example of how local information can develop global wisdom. Johnson points out 5 fundamental principles for this bottom-up system ; 1. More is different: large quantity of ants can give a statistic average to emerge, comparing just one or two ants, 2. Ignorance is useful: an individual unique characteristic of ant can be beneficial to its colony, 3. Encourage random encounter: different information or situation can develop the colony, they will adapt in any condition also modify their behavior, 4. Look for patterns in the sign: every ants work with their pheromones, smelling other trails, creating pattern of living, 5. Pay attention to the neighbor: individual colony can’t survive with their own, they need to have other neighbor to get information and guide them.

Colony is also the same as neighborhood in human scale. Cities are made by mass of quantity of neighborhood. All the principles shown above can be (or should be) implemented in any neighborhood. Neighborhood itself is a formation of process. Interactions define the quality of a neighborhood. While interaction need a place, in city scale, he points out sidewalk as one of the main tool. Sidewalk become the role part of the place of flowing information between residents. It is the learning passage of every neighbors. It creates the “complex order” of the city, not to make citizens well-rounded.  We as the “citizens of sidewalk” have to define its quality. The strength of neighborhood, colonies, mega-organism, dependent on the type/ quality and numbers of the sidewalk. With that at starting point, we can work for the city process, being emergent intelligence, and that is we have the ability to store and retrieve information, also recognize and respond to patterns in human behavior.

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These analysis somehow open my eyes and mind on how from microscopic lens can give learning lesson towards macro lens. From small as cells can teach as big as cities. The point of emergence is that the whole is greater than sum of parts. I’m interested also on learning to study on how random behavior, random actions can create some pattern and become a whole system. How complex order can somehow create organized emergence city. And how local knowledge can create global situation. As we know that successful organism tend to live in “big city”, they have this emergence behavior, the ability to process data and use to change information in a more succeeded approach.

http://vimeo.com/4942286

Picture source :

http://www.edworlds.com/antz/toroids/angola/images/conflictdata4.jpg

Posted in Chirana Lemuel Sumendap, Digital Logics - Critical Readings | Comments closed

T4- Emergence, streets level – Steven Johnson

By wenshanfoo | Published: November 23, 2013

minimen-watermelondig

          ‘Human intelligence is only one measure to evolutionary success.’

          Steven Johnson brings us into emergence by looking at the swarm logic of the ants. In the ant colonies we can observe how abounding elements can construct a complex yet efficient system. The main aspect of the emergent system of the ant colonies is the local and adaptive action of the ants, from the local information they get from each other through their pheromones, which collectively lead to global behavior. It is a bottom up system which macro-intelligence is mainly derived from micro-knowledge of the constituents. Johnson concludes that such system has its complexity built up from various simple elements, and it is crucial that the simple elements are responsive to the right amount and quality of interaction with each other. From the principles that run the swarm logic Johnson explains how the cells in our body emerge from the embryo stage and eventually form a full organism and still develop overtime (in this case the cells interact through the cell junctions).

Cities behave based on the same principles, human as the constituents. We might not be conscious about us being the ‘brainless ants’ in the city, but the cities are shaped from the ‘swarm behavior’ of us. We, as herd animals, respond to the information we get from our surroundings, be it verbal or physical or atmospherical. Though we are conscious in decision making, in a long span of thousands of years those decisions contribute to a macro-development. We constitute the development of the city from the most fundamental interaction between people at the sidewalks, just as the ants exchange information through their pheromones, just as the cells detect each other through the cell junctions. It is the unspecialized intelligence from such interactions that builds up the strength of the city.

After all we are just as small as the ants, as tiny as the cells :)

Though ‘emergence’ is a phenomenon that gives an analysis of the nature of complex systems, I also see it as a possibility to improve the cities. With the convenience of automobile in the modern era, which means less use of sidewalks, the interaction between people has been reduced. This has resulted on the mallification of some cities nowadays, deserted sidewalks, public spaces being used for private retail shops, etc. By understanding that interaction is crucial for the emergent structure of a city we should start to enhance the quality and frequency of use of the public spaces and appreciate such platform that creates the opportunity to interact between people.

 

Possible topic

I have been very intrigued by the fact that many elements in this huge ecosystem share the same patterns and phenomenon to achieve an effective system. However we have been disconnecting us and our living spaces to the surrounding as the convenience of the technology often makes us behave unnaturally. I would like to research more on the patterns that we share with the other organisms and how we could improve our cities from learning from the most ‘normal’ nature.

 

picture source: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.lemondrop.com/media/2010/04/minimen-watermelondig.jpg

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