@T: ALWAYS THE TWAIN

Well, the revelatory incidents that happen to us are (more often than not) random, serendipitous and disrupt our previous constructs. Earlier today when I went in search of some iPhone codes I happened across some interesting sites and content:

• Artificial Intelligence – Natural Language Processing – Multiple formats – Christopher Manning, Stanford
• Artificial Intelligence – Machine Learning – YouTube – iTunes –Multiple formats – Andrew Ng, Stanford
• Computer Science 1 – Feed – UCLA
• Discrete Mathematical Structures YouTube – Kamala Krithivasan, IIT
• Introduction to Computer Science: Programming Abstractions- YouTube – iTunes - Multiple formats – Julie Zelenski, Stanford
• Introduction to Computer Science: Programming Paradigms -YouTube – iTunes - Multiple formats – Jerry Cain, Stanford
• Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming – YouTube – Deepak Gupta, IIT
• iPhone Application Development (Spring 2009)- iTunes – Stanford
• Multimedia Systems - iTunes – Surendar Chandra, Notre Dame
• Operating Systems and System Programming – iTunes – Feed – Multiple professors, UC Berkeley
• Operating Systems Principles – iTunes – Surendar Chandra, Notre Dame
• Principles of Digital Communications I - YouTube – iTunes – Profs Gallagher and Zheng, MIT
• The Future of the Internet – iTunes – Ramesh Johari, Stanford

The first thing which is noticeable is that these lectures are provided FOR FREE by US institutions, notably ones where the alumni include the founders of Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Paypal, eBay and the other major Internet brands. Somewhat struck by this (and following a link from a site full of code from Applestore apps), I ended up at Harvard’s summer school website:

Then I decided to check what MIT has to offer:

This also made me wonder whether their UK counterparts offer similar summer school courses on computing or Internet entrepreneurship:

So…….whilst Ivy League schools organize summer schools and FREE ONLINE SEMINARS wherein adult professionals can hone their knowhow about computing (potentially with participation counting towards actual exam credits) the UK’s elite institutions don’t seem to provide these. For example, whilst Cambridge offers a wide range of humanities subjects like Egyptology and Landscape History it doesn’t offer any of the types of computing courses listed above from the likes of Harvard, MIT, Stanford and UC Berkeley.

Another notable differentiation is in the fee structure. A computing summer school course at Harvard costs US$2,580 for a (4 credits) course. The Entrepreneurial summer school fee at London Business School is GBP6,000 and the focus is on the business plan rather than the computing architecture or design of the start-up.

Hmmn……..maybe the two approaches to computer education (even at summer school level) explain why and how the US produces  the founders of Google, Facebook, eBay, etc. — i.e., THE CULTURE IS CONDUCIVE.

Now, let’s do some twaining here. I hope readers will recall my model for Consciousness which I included in the ‘Global Brain’ knol a while ago:

Perhaps in computing terms (particularly their ability to create the Googles etc.), the Americans are more conscious than the Brits because they have a better developed and enlarged culture of computing that originates from their education provision and comprehensive methods of digital distribution in the first place? Just as Americana culture has also proliferated via the movies, television and apps? Naturally, the Brits could present the case that they have better communication and creativity since it is where Monty Python wordplay, the Swinging Sixties and great Shakespearean prose sparked………………….

Hmmn…..and maybe it’s the Italians who can most claim the cognisance part of any global online consciousness since their word “cognoscenti” inspired the words “digerati” and “technorati”? Command/control would most likely be the contribution of the efficient Germans. Coherence the Chinese because of their natural ying-yang dynamics. Now let’s say collaboration is a Scandinavian trait whilst consideration has its origins from Greek-Indian-Arab philosophy.

Voilà, global consciousness and how each educational contribution from each continent potentially fits in……..(in Twain’s brain, that is) — LOL.

Anyway, over the next few days I’ll be in code bunker benefiting from the Ivy League professors’ wisdoms about mobile languages and architecture.

The Global Brain: interconnections

Over the next fortnight I’ll be writing about the main constituents of the Global Brain and publishing that here as well as on Google Knol (http://knol.google.com/k/the-global-brain-singularity-and-360/31fjy9fjsu1x2/19#).

Topics which will be covered in the full posting (release date: 26 November 2008) include:

(i.) origins of the Global Brain and associated concepts

(ii.) historical context of collective human intelligence

(iii.) major schools of thought on the Singularity

(iv.) key proponents and detractors such as Ray Kurzweil, Vernor Vinge, Stephen Hawkings, Richard Dawkins, Pierre Levy, Peter Thiel/Mark Zuckerberg, and Anthony Berglas

(v.) relationships with Moore’s Law, Aasimov’s science fiction, William Gibson’s Neuromancer and other creative efforts

(vi.) consciousness paradigms from Confucius to Clay Shirky

(vii.) current and theoretical technological models on achieving the Singularity

(viii.) economic implications and GAIA revolutions

(ix.) gender and cultural identity within the Global Brain matrix

(x.) human existence and potential neural saturation post-Singularity

As part of this piece, I’m currently reading ‘How the body shapes the way we think’ by Rolf Pfeifer and Josh Bongard, published by MIT Press Books.