Well, you would run into many of the same decisions we already face about how much to limit automated uploads of data if you wanted to turn it into a live programming platform. You can certainly already use DBpedia and Wikidata to get datasets for many cool demonstrations of functional programming though. Yes, I suspect we are just at the learning to walk stage of programming in the big picture. My favorite examples of AI these days are when computers do large mathematical optimization tasks. I was most impressed by a paper last year that optimized the placement and configuration of coal power plants and more farmland to reduce transport related CO2 emissions by 50% for the entire US. The paper was called "Nationwide energy supply chain analysis for hybrid feedstock processes with significant CO2 emissions reduction". A free early version was published here: http://www.nt.ntnu.no/users/skoge/prost/proceedings/cpc8-focapo-2012/data/p… And to think how nice it would be if the customized optimization techniques they developed were merged into the code associated with those Wikipedia articles for everyone to easily use. The reason that task impresses me so much is that if a computer at Pixar draws a nice picture it is just matching what the artists could already partially see in their heads and if Siri on the iPhone tells me a good restaurant to visit it is just doing what a person that lives in the area could do, but if a computer redesigns the entire energy infrastructure for a country I have no idea what the solution will look like in advance. There is a lot of smart information out there if people are willing to look for it. How can the singularity get them to stop listening to the bad information? I think things like Wikipedia are definitely helping us all get gradually smarter though, so I'm optimistic. From: dacuetu(a)gmail.com Date: Mon, 8 Jul 2013 19:32:37 -0400 To: wikidata-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikidata-l] Accelerating software innovation with Wikidata and improved Wikicode Wikidata seems like a good platform for functional computing, it "just" needs Lisp-like lists (which would be an expansion of queries/tree-searches) and processing capabilities. What you say it is also true, it would be ahead of the times, because high-level computing languages never expanded as much as imperative languages (probably because the processing power and the need was not there yet). Wikidata as an AI... how far away is that singularity? :) Micru

Micru

Hi Scott, I'm personally very interested in the future of online education, and I appreciate your enthusiasm about the subject. However, I wonder if your energy would be more productive if it was directed to an older project. Have you heard of Wikiversity? It is already multilingual and doesn't have advertisements from hosting on Wikia. However, even though I knew about Wikiversity when I was still in high school, I've actually been surprised at how little I've used it over the years. I think it is trying to solve a problem that I never encountered. I think learning is one of the easiest things to do on the internet, and it has been even easier in the post-Wikipedia era now that so much of the most important information has been well summarized, consistently formatted, and heavily linked. If I check my YouTube subscriptions right now, I get free, full-length lectures in my feed from Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Yale, UCLA, Technion, UPenn, IIT Bangalore, and Cornell. I remember when MIT OpenCourseWare first came out, and it's been incredible to see how e-learning has flourished since then. I have over a hundred YouTube channels that are primarily educational. My needs are met if I know what I'm looking for or if I just want to be surprised by some current, stimulating educational content. The software library initiative we have been discussing in this thread would be a hybrid of a wiki and a regular source control system typically used in open source projects. Like I said, I can still think of several reasons why it might not work, but I keep finding myself thinking a few times every week that maybe we should try. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 17:58:38 -0700 From: worlduniversityandschool(a)gmail.com To: wikidata-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikidata-l] Accelerating software innovation with Wikidata and improved Wikicode Hi Michael and Wikidatans, I just created a beginning, wiki Software Library at World University and School - see Software Libraries: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Software_Libraries for the initial resources - and added links to this in the following WUaS, wiki subjects - see the WUaS Computer Science wiki subject page for this and related links - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Computer_Science#World_University_and… Educational Software: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software - Library Resources: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Library_Resources - Programming: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Programming . WUaS, which is like Wikipedia with MIT OCW, plans to develop in all 7,105+ languages and 204+ countries, - for open, wiki teaching and learning, in addition to free, C.C., MIT OCW-centric, university degrees, beginning in the U.N. languages after English - so not only will this extensible WUaS Software Libraries find form in all languages and countries, but WUaS's plans to move to Wikidata will make this a database. MIT-centric WUaS students will eventually add to, and develop, these libraries greatly I suspect. Best regards, Scott On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 10:19 AM, Michael Hale <hale.michael.jr(a)live.com>wrote;wrote: I completely agree that wiki-projects are exemplary organic growth models compared to the way plans are made by Congress. I certainly support using information technology to move governments toward more direct and efficient forms of democracy. I would love to see things like income tax levels determined in real-time based on the average preferences of everyone's e-government web preferences. Many people still don't have internet access though. I think when a person comes up with a plan they typically consider 2 or 3 factors in a qualitative manner in their mental model of the system and disregard other side effects as insignificant. That paper used a model with 10 or so factors in a quantitative manner. There are many things it leaves out, but such plans are still useful as counterweights in policy arguments against ideas that are extreme in other directions. Regardless, a person couldn't design by hand the circuit layout of the processors that are currently in our computers and phones, and the number of problems that are too big for our brains that computers are helping us with is expanding. If we had a way to design computational models in a wiki manner then we could just add the irrigation and insect migration effects to the model to gauge its sustainability, then other people could make each part of the model more accurate, etc. I think it would help us find real solutions to many problems in a much faster way than listening to political speeches or exchanging paragraphs of imprecise human language on social networking sites. Wikidata and improved Wikicode about into a walk stage days are transport processes with published http://www.nt.ntnu.no/users/skoge/prost/proceedings/cpc8-focapo-2012/data/p… techniques Wikipedia me so matching Siri on the solution there if to stop optimistic. Wikidata and "just" queries/tree-searches) be ahead as much the need _______________________________________________ Wikidata-l mailing list Wikidata-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata-l -- - Scott MacLeod - Founder & President - Tel. 415 480 4577 - P.O. Box 442, (86 Ridgecrest Road), Canyon, CA 94516 - http://scottmacleod.com/worlduniversityandschool.htm - worldunivandsch(a)scottmacleod.com - World University and School - like Wikipedia with MIT OpenCourseWare - is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt, educational organization. _______________________________________________ Wikidata-l mailing list Wikidata-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata-l _______________________________________________ Wikidata-l mailing list Wikidata-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata-l