Starship Congress 2017: Alan Kay, "Preparations for Communicating with Aliens" (2017)
From Viewpoints Intelligent Archive
[Music]
this my friends
attendees of Starship Congress 2017
managers introduce to you Alan
[Applause]
Allen where are you where are you today
London in case you don't know
Alan Kay is one of the cofounders of the Xerox PARC
Research Centre it's world-famous in
founded in 1970 as a division
of Xerox Corporation Park has been in large
part responsible for us for such developments
things you may have heard of as laser printing
Ethernet the modern personal computer
graphical user interface and
and it goes on object oriented
programming right so Alan
did a amazing talk I'm I don't know if it
his TED talk or another one maybe one for Google and he
said he had this line he said if you want to be a millionaire
do something better than ever
something and do it better than other people but if you want to be a billionaire
do something that's never been done well
connected with me because I said oh that's like building
a starship and so I contacted Alan and by
the grace of good he's with us here today
Alan give you the floor
so that says if
you want to make a trillion matters start
a new industry this
is where silicon falls short they've forgotten
that that's what happened in seventies
and they're still working on the industry that was created
that right now both
to do the investment so create
a new industry so they're
basically stuck in just making millions and billions
but if they
had things you can't balance things but changing
the entire context
about if I can share
they try
Thomas
so
when I think of some tips
I accept -
inspired
snow if you will we
science
fiction story by rather common
foundation
under
yours right now so
there'll be fun to show a man
decided
years about
preparations for communications with but
turn the sound back because it's
okay so
and some of you will recognize
the man ornament
yourself
first our first to
actually just write the rest
of this map and that through it but then I realized
it would be a couple
fighters was and
I wasn't sure I could actually make
a good to talk about
some of the issues back
to negate with elegance and
first and here's with
this novella by
ratifying lenders first partnership
founded in 1941 so
I did not see that one it's just one year old in
1941
in
1950 tenure as layman for
10 cents you could get this
little slim paper that from
dad with the first
two stories in it I got that when
I was 11 and that just for the hell of it I'd
look to see whether inflation has been since then and still
Arquette would cost 94 cents today
and I think
most people in the room will have certainly
read this story for those
who haven't it's a
winner of the Flyers before Lord of
the Flies idea there's a mutiny I've heard
this generational stanchion and
the story is
a few hundred years after
this mutiny and they
and his Neolithic
when maybe bronze of each
civilization in this
stash that has sprung
up with ledger and
everything not to answer poverty
that has to tie and
nobody knows that there's not a ship
just think it's
this
story really fascinating [Music]
with my mind that got me
looking into that packaging says
energy because it was a glimpse
of human beings
as completely
malleable to new forms
culture and particularly that of the atomistic forms of
culture as we look back
and this time rocks that help
this enough resolution so you can see a theme here we
are at 2017
and it's interesting that in
1929 was only 88
years happy first
pound convinced evidence that our
universe was larger than the Milky Way found
were actually
galaxies when the quality of
evidence that is massive
so that was just eight
years ago Highland
stories but just twelve years after that
1931 and
of course they were going to prop the mass totally which
is I forget
something
that we now
know that it has planets you know know
but discussing it did
and the data is
supposed if
it's moons is 102
years thinking
about aliens
any
electromagnetic radiation except
tonight and I'm the
first commercial broadcast
station in the US was Katie Calgary
which worked over
20 seconds nineteen twenty three or twenty four
we
interesting lady until World War two
webinar and so forth
relativity we've had
100th anniversary that general
relativity I understand massive mechanics
but real quantum mechanics they
wouldn't happen until
about nineteen twenty five so it's less your
computer they were here
at London 2000 where
arguably the first usefully
programmed computer at said by
Maurice Wilkes was 1938
and so just
an idea that there's bath across the batboat
at mark recently the turret that
appear as we know that today we will instead that
the lifetime
accompli within my
lifetime and much of it has happened within
your lifetime and
this will span you back
together is just about fair ears
my mitochondria
DNA we've been on the planet
for humans have
been on the planet without 200,000 years
400 years is that what this one
the 200,000 years
we've been on the planet most of those 200,000 years
we haven't done and said
you're thinking about
aliens let
me just do it
okay so
to think about it just the idea
[Music]
contacting aliens taking
MSB through electromagnetic radiation
if you look to the right part
of that you'll see the name there
was one of the million dollars who
has lucid
perhaps
a metric indicating
over yourself distances distances
nobody knows whether the
is a propagation
velocity for a chemical net
looking at it there has to be another way of
looking at it doesn't have
to be the back to the arresting 100
idea here the city
of sanctions actually made
that are behind them
were done
it is on top first science
fiction so
that as as master that equals even
some of the assumptions that happen they
maybe
should agreement our
rigorous insight that is there was the
equation of the Jordan Foundation and the sixties
set up by this man
heartless inhabits
and wick are
two years after the set up the
funding agency like the
Jordan fanfiction do
what he called bad computer synthesis
you articulated this dirty
62 computers
were destined to become interactive intellectual amplifiers
for everyone in the world universally network worldwide
then no matter
what people ask them you just say this
and then say well we're
gonna hire find the smartest
and then
some of the principles at this jordan
foundation very important
visions and set of components
and Carnac and romantic from people
have projects that the people
and the best people
weren't
years of age
most people who are under research
and the problem with that is yet
so a nice sideline
to Arkham it's today
this this
in 1963 he
revered to the members and affiliates at the intergalactic
computer network that
you might ask that's what doing
this talk over and
we succeed in making intergalactic
Network that her main problem will be learning to communicate with
us
Internet and the internet
was here today because this man funded
the development for about 15 years
to do a variety of packet
switching biologically
organized networks and
who started getting something like
what Internet content in the mid seventies
specific ideas
first if
you say something enough for
instance if you stand to the entire Earth
you have people separating
in art and culture and distance
goals that
might be hard for the neck to
find common ground and communication
as
identifying things that people
think they have in common and the language is
a kind of a smart way pointing at things that
are in our thought Club so
Rick was three things it was to keep people
to people and of course local people
with how do organizations
of people communicate and
secondly he was thinking about how we
communicate with computers this was back in 60s
and weren't any you have Dewey's back
then
it was clear what was a high computers
cloud well you could see
appear in the insect if a computer was not anything
that he water to
be able to or could think about so computers were
really alien and certainly
you can either wear whatever you've got I've
seen so computers and you're going to have a lot of people this
is a communication and
finally we have this what
can computers say to each other the computers are different
all kinds of common
just added a fourth one here
which is
saying
baby society that that's the common ground how to get
the common ground and
so people the people
the language has the
pot being
specific trying to describe
something like an animal that has a mane and it
has hooves that eats grass and
so forth both people might
they're talking about aborts that
in fact one of them
could be talking about zebra that's
a joke at the medical
community extending that joke if
said that was interested I have to talk so
this doesn't even work out people are talking
to that to each other people
on computers and Jews
at the community park with
the idea of actually
taking a visual
reading whether is in the computer star
cloud and put it directly on the screen so
this is making a medical literal and
literally allow people to point
to what the precedent are to
indicate and this was such a powerful idea
that particular there
interface you
can deal with things a lot more powerful and dynamic than
words or sentences
future
always media
communication over other kinds with
a computer that help it
so really any communication
between two people with the computer and help them
be able to discuss
a tricky
structure press bridge
the blackest impossible normal
words and language
and these are us were paper
that you're interested to find this on the Internet
all the computers
as the person whose
computer search a head-start sister
that and I
we wanted mediate
communications between computers and people
with computing we
mediate Asians determinants
and people using computers and this
omething that is actually been left out almost entirely
science fiction literature
did you have communication between
computers and computers event
we have to that was common ground and we
did this for the internet bad
but you know connector a little embryo
DNA remember the Cambrian explosion
happened about half a million
years ago Banerjee
primarily meant from single
celled animals to metastatic body plants
and there was an enormous explosion of
species of many many different times
so
to make an internet you have to have a product plan
because percentage high using computers
as banners and talking them together to make a kind
of a larger entity
tcp/ip which is usually about twenty
thousand lines of C code but can be a
couple hundred lines of code language
math we need to put on every
machine and this one are
an internet that has temporarily announced
today and I
require any central control to keep it stable
so this was very much
side these machines but
the problem with getting computations to
act this way where
you have much stronger parents than just said
that packets are went up there's still a bit
of an axonal problem other parts of it that's all
that's relevant to the site you're
communicating with aliens so sick of simple case
you different
computers at different manufacturers with operating
systems of these three different operating systems
many
apps that we images
the star turns their pastors
and desktop shape Photoshop
so forth enemies eventually
want to be able to print out predator then
the right hand side we have many different printers
these printers also have different processors
that sometimes will have a certain
operating system that often die
their network so
they're going to have VIP personality
code there I think we can see that
there are so many degrees of freedom you
might want to put on a page that
try to have
a printer understand a description
of every single one
of these is m2
I've got that description
in the worldís system
not a great idea sending a sending
a topical is actually about where you do this
and we realize this the
first time around it
o
a predator really wanted
to do with us to think about that
we do when we have to communicate complicated
things on range with vetoes when said no perhaps
and send an ambassador who sent
a person who could negotiate meaning and
can carry the determining
an ambassador a
process the process
can be represented by terror that has to be executed that
the other
deepened pioneer
for every single one of these Thanks
instead
meant a little nether little piece of compatibility
code here and that compatibility
code grant a virtual processing
unit out of software and the
whole thing together makes virtual machine
that virtual machine that can
handle the processes that are being sent to it and we
can do that for enemies
machines the
standard virtual machines at the back of the virtual
machine can just be said those software and
then we
produce compatible
kinds of processes that are
programs and I will
send up red and
the reason this works out better than trying to send
the destructors like XML is
that you can make a universal
programming language
they're very very small description
and because it's universal have
to change the very function so you get the spec
where you have nice balance between
that has to
be now on the left-hand side which
was something that
has to be bad and resolution-independent parents
the screens are different resolutions
vendors are all different resolutions you
basically on the left-hand side do not want to have to know where printer
so that standeth
when he process steps to the planter and
it can find out what the printer is and then
it can do the dynamic math to
do the scale and so forth okay
so that's an example
that thing
that said the ambassador was
another one
so we go back
to
the classic
dos language of 1960s
where he's he's excused
because computers were dressed as a man in the 1960
letters that
he bootstrapping up from
a few centons of the starting with
things that if
creatures who could do
anything will find out that members there's
a few years ago
longer than
suspect takes into account meant
with the things that happened since then cuz
the fact that still is basically
send an object diagrams
you know instead of thinking
about hey we should just send a computer that's
the number one thing we should boot strap that's the other
event so don't want to do that
now just to give you an example
and let's take a couple
of these situations
to send a process and you have an imperative
none of them is in the process when the Deepak's
to the web today so if we
go back into
the seventies there were three
during those computers -
yeah I'll tell which
was 1973
it was the thing that eventually became
Macintosh but the
first computer and
the second
and then a computer towards the
end of the 70s North the Dorado
and
now
software that Steve Jobs a
and visited 1979 got
thrown away by Xerox they
threw away the dispatch and
one of the stats was
retrieved and
I
file was found that
was pretty much the small talk that
that Steve Jobs at seeing that
about 40 years ago
this file is organized in an interesting
way the system
itself this is real object-oriented
programming so there's like an internet a vendor
connecting you know communicating virtual computers
and every
my entire system is on this file including calling
it operating system and utilities the
deployment system and everything was on this
single file and the run on
these three machines and
some of the other machines it hadn't been to
a processing unit of they're just mentioned and
Frances Tanana the note-taker
the only care the men take
a Batman the
viewer the BPU and all the rest a slant
pocket there's none of these for the altar and one
of these for the driver and so when you
run a system that comes to you off
a final set Tina was Iowa
talked about personality could and
you'd be off and running doing identical
NOx emissions
today if
we wanted ran the
system today
what
we had to do was to get that fire and
put it on modern laptop and write
a new piece of personality these are machines
aren't allowed in or get the hot to run the BP
and then I would manifest this specific
on the past that that I had just
such a thing
let me see if I can get
it to come up here the here it is
this the system
that's what I
will here's
what Steve Jobs saw was
the overlapping windows that
tech said it is
multi programming browser
this system had a characteristic
Naza like
that etc etc so
this entire system is
running
as it did that there and with the
actual same same bits
they took that back
here okay Sam so get
he idea so that's how we'll send a processor that's
so now now it's sticking with the good about
sending snare talk there's
some other processes in the future
and here
we have to take
into account that nobody the tyranny
of the stuff works and
so the question is how it's my piece
of personality would you describe
but here's a campaign you haven't taught me to
clarify see it but this is a one-page
document the despair very
simple computer so simple that anybody
today faculty students anybody
can make a plan in an afternoon you
some see your job or any programming
language without
you know their afternoons
these guys these
guys then again they ran
the entire system of brilliant what
the past is
actually unrideable because
it's been detached a bit socket system
from your system rather than anything like
that just self it here is how send
archives in future
so I have
some little description there that this
thing this
process here just the question it assumes
that maybe see monkey around as I've
said you said that something like English Ruby
maybe maybe not who knows what
will happen so we should really think about
a deeper
place and again we might
is there maybe mark
pesky ones here's a truly great book it's
worthwhile turning just because of is a great
book we're in the master plan that said
that any plan for math it's a wonderful
book and that it does not require muted no any particular
math because
this a well written but it
requires a bit of a mathematical Turner by
that this is not a subject that has
not really been talked about matching
computed and since the sixties but
it's all about how can we make
various kinds of universal
computing machines here is a
relatively smash the Turing machine
possible make them a lot smarter than this
Shannon or challenger make
them it just has two states
that we're
addressing whether Minsky talks about
some minimal computers you can bet for instance
years man that only has three instructions
that manages a memory
word or register subtract
them from some Network register
take a chocolate if the register is 0 or
do some new program location call
Q and you can see I
think that this could be made into two instructions because
they're the last could be subtract that
from just where advantage to cute perhaps
the results the circles so it can make something very
very small on the operation
result there
are many many schemes
represented when a computer memory
this is a good ole ization scheme so
if you make a computer memory
IO prime numbers then the
value of each is exponent
so the sort of dependence
to the location
I preserve on the computer and n
would be that
three
the next location in the computer and
and the exponent of M is the value
and that word and so forth so the
many different ways of getting a computer
directly at arithmetic without having
to go to gates and decide
something will it not okay
and I think something like the habits
required because I
think what
we want to do to send something
to aliens is to send them something like that smells
on fire and make fun of it be
the simplest quickest
boot to something
that we want the vpu
that's the tool and the rest of the system in that
system should be now cost
an artificial general intelligence
that can potentiate with
the elements
so we looked at the top three books they
recommend there's a paper that wish Atlantic
that he probably rented out which is
about testing
encoding scheme
and unsuspecting humans to see if
they can recognize that there are not words
that they're equal science maybe erasure
lectrons
protons other
kinds of pure number constants
that might be there psychotherapy
can look right this is the
most comprehensive zero
artificial intelligence on the planet
the one that has the most
humans live can reason
out that we do and then
in our Fitzpatrick was at MIT
did he started
at thinking about sending programs
just
sentences of watchin
that case is rather
goal is to get the earnings one
of those things to build a matter whether we should
expect get
have to figure this
out
but without better
but for the same
reason that scheme worked there with printers this
is this gets you a lot further
a lot faster
and if we have an encounter with
the audience and recent was
a
story from Hank
and the
problem with this is that just assume civilians
are really they're not like this I mean they had chemicals
but they make noises that made Marxist
and said I
think fiction writers
time for the evidence because they want the
readers to be able to have something
in the shared context so it ended
up the earth that's whether human or even this
raised for either a sentient
GB alien
could be a friend that could
be made out of radiation and could send for my
exhaust both of which going
much much too fast for our nervous
so it's just
impossible that to
be able to generally handle that Landon's
might might be about that we could do it with their own very
very little nervous systems and we're
that better than that rather than either so
I think of all such communications
whether we counted aliens on
a starship are also going to be mediated by computers
and we have huge and
with machines
then sending
things in the future all instance and
the require computer mediation
so we've come back to that guy
first thing after this week guys and
also after having seen some other science
fiction since 1949 Vanguard
is self-sustaining
so it must have it has something
about thousands
of small girls that have to be paid attention
has to be sensed has to be fixed in Arabic
work for hundreds and hundreds of years but
in fact it has a manifest their intelligence
at the tone Vanguard the
ship has no idea that there is a
mutiny and
semi-realistic savages living
on board
in 2009 there was they
are on the on the
ship how did that go -
humans complete the mission that have been told
mission was an important said I
was able to figure out that a mission
that got better we killed all the humans on board to
try to and
of course sister was against
the guy who was ransom and in science fiction about
where that
universe Isaac Asimov and
so he was ignored
2009 then
another story that was written back in
1945 had Bates that
the movie the gave us
and we find out that spells
to protect human civilizations from humans
but the key word here
is civilizations that is
quite capable and does that the humans are
that civilizations it's basically
a Supercop in
the in the movie now if your
entity which is darker
than that
answer
that has is this line you
misunderstood I said
I am the master so
what happened was that the humans
actually not it accredited
they were actually part of the scheme
match mattress it wasn't even that's a robot
so
I asked you here just to pick this
three ideas
here
I
go
so
they're smart people back
through 20,000 years that they had nothing to pick
with Iran cannot
design a nation a single engine for
any of his miracles with his every thought it
was not nearly as smart as Leonardo
was easily able to build engines and
bells a lot of cars every
was just down into the 19th century that
century had the knowledge and the
knowledge came because context
person dude
and the head of science at modern
engineering and by science so
the big deal
here is that a change
in the context changes
the
kinds of things we can eat makeup so
you think acknowledges cellular
context as goal and IQ it
was pretty much without you
yes people who
often wind up not learning
enough to be able to use
abilities in a constant way
and this happens for all kinds
of banking organizations so here's I
found the climate standing a little over
two and a half billion years ago
rganization
of that statement
assets very long time
and multiple body plan secondly
got invented probably
gradually along with but not in a way to
have a critical mass that lets the Cambrian
happen there's an explosion of that city
nervous systems that have been to Berea
the Cambrian and they've been
extension said we go back to our diagram
stand back with
for me that
became a scientist a fan
of science fiction basket and
propriety of
reasons
the curve
knowledge and outlet
over the last two hundred thousand
years it again has this incredible
to the once a couple of could have been
assets happened Greeks
didn't quite make me happen that we needed
the Greeks to do the Renaissance and
finally without a structure and
all of a sudden because look at human beings
as being creatures that
were primarily mutation all a
progression to culture
nature
still took off
practically when another
workable language within cultures
that embedded maybe sixty eighty thousand years ago
self-conscious event to people
recently and
self-conscious mummification and improvement
of the things that had a chance
used to do to Gina
and this is setting to think
about our story
going back to vampire we
have to compare with just
mission have been improved
society expanded
by the the speck but that
I'm barely been back in the forties the
part of an idea that Rothberg had in Star
Trek was that should be able to fix an achromatic
behavior to be able to pour out of crises
this is more interesting
point stories because they had some serious
policies that had to be done they weren't always
successful today
not that
wrote that story we
now have crystal and crystal
is allowing us to consciously
by the desire to
modify our genetic
materials even in
the face and neck
most American material actually works we
only understand that the
team making part which is a tiny part at
the actual DNA that's actually there
and said as
we can circle here we
will wind up being the aliens because
we will fix ourselves and maybe
maybe badly but
I think that the time that we can fire
off at the hangar to Proxima Centuri than
a hundred years and we were wound
up doing some serious behavior modifications
that
our only that communicate what
will we be as a species when
we take Old Earth our own evolution
thank
you very much and here's my
address if you have to an email
[Music]
check all right
we're Thank You Alan now that was amazing as definitely
high points of this amazing conference where
are you willing to take some questions
mark
yeah well we're gonna just work gonna make adjustments I
appreciate it so are there other questions
this is a question that
maybe just due to the semantics used but
if you are sending a essentially
an executable file to somebody else that
run and then it's going to upload your ambassador
AI how do you protect from malware
and at getting out of the the virtual machine
that it builds yeah
so basically this is done
with PostScript though okay the
PostScript was
to put it in a confined address
space these are a
man in general the doctor a good job policy to use but the
things that are called processes are tasks
on your personal
computer are buying the best doses
so the theory
is that they are spent over later
was to
execute
completely
Samantha would just point out that
was a that was openly about it better
not year was the theme the
program did not touch thanks anything of matter that
it
could execute to the full extent of its ability
job
providing an app at this basis
whenever that was a
60s
wouldn't that be nice to that pick
ha hi
Ellen thanks for the presentation I wanted to ask
Licklider is ARPA dream
and how far away you think we are from this or
have we crossed that point already with the Internet thank
you
I
just wanted to ask about Licklider
z-- her dream and weather and
weather how far away we are from this
reality or have we crossed the threshold already
happened
on
the way to their banner
this
kills
that funding
surgeon
there was
a massive effort to at
least finish off the words Mohinder betadine
inventions of that
type ng
molarity Engelbart
very
good 1968
which is 50 years of next year
and we'll see a bunch of families that have
done that and
the reason is is what happened as the
surface art Sparkle sets
[Music]
another question
okay
Alan I think one
more Phil come on over here
and thank
you for your presentation a quick question on what
your thoughts were with regards to moral code
building with artificial intelligence in future yeah
yeah the
biggest problem it is AI
veterans because
consistently show that people
will follow nowise
and so
now really eat up the oai for it to be dangerous
just need something that people will fire
because a team say janitors
Anthony this
Minister was
so these are either and being
society the chip even though we're
living than right now right in the middle of
it the
thing that was interesting to
me about
universe
that
defines our just wasn't
someone's a little bit
there the shorted with
the Three Laws of Robotics in
robotics the Jimenez
Santa Isaac are stories were
about loopholes there
were not anticipate where the robots gone after
thanking various entities
and
so he had our appreciation
our tracking systems
there are two feet that be
and service
there were partly about their
43050 you're doing when
you sent our principles that you have recommended
mechanisms for us
we
were very careful what we did with the consumer
Internet as the
existing the fastest to pass
on the message
true and with about ten billion dollars
think about that
that dioxin and
we transmission that the way is
by each individual family
certainly for the information that they're able to gather
facts and
is not easy to do it took the popular passes
the first version of did
not have the amethyst Mystics meaning
still about that I sit
through the Harrison and
that either evalu
about systems that your authority about systems
understand an existence
decades
o
all these ideas a
cautionary that first I think the
simplest facility was the
Norfolk bankers and alcohol most
of Europe evil perhaps honor
the system and
[Music]
all right any other questions
Alan I very much appreciate
of Icarus interstellar and stars of Congress thank
you very much Alan Kay
signing off