Cosmic And Robotic

By

Ian Beardsley

copyright 2017 By Entity Books

ISBN: 978-1-387-41109-2
Monsters, Robots, And Rights

Ian Beardsley
Monsters, Robots, And Rights

1
Mary Shelley, with her book Frankenstein (1818) has transformed me as a per-
son, which is indeed the purpose of literature, it is just that dierent writers con-
nect with dierent people. As a scientist who has discovered the connection of
natural life to artificial intelligence, her work has become pivotal to setting my
frame of mind. I have discovered the following,

Where we see on the left hand side of the equation the elements central to artifi-
cial intelligence and, on the right side the primordial precursors to natural life,
the amino acids which are the building blocks of natural life, and the com-
pounds of DNA responsible for the instructions of natural life.
It is at this point that we realize that getting carried away with the grandeur of our discov-
ery unchecked by a sense of human values, can result in a monster that can hinder hu-
man progress as opposed to favoring it. Mary Shelly has her character, Victor Franken-
stein saying,

I paused, examining and analyzing all of the minutiae of causation as exemplified in the
change from life to death, and death to life, until from the midst of the darkness a sudden
light broke in upon me a light so brilliant and wondrous, yet so simple, that while I be-
came dizzy with the immensity of the prospect of which it illustrated, I was surprised that
among so many men of genius, who had directed their inquiries toward the same science
that I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret

After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the
cause of generation and life; nay more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation
upon lifeless matter.

But in retrospect, the same scientist says:

I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inani-
mate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I desired it with an ardor that
far exceeded moderation, but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished,
and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.
With this I see the warning in the creation of monsters. The term robot was invented
by Karl Capek and first appeared in his 1921 play, R.U.R. (Rossums Universal Ro-
bots). In this work, his robots were not electronic artificial intelligence, but biological
artificial intelligence, supposed soulless servants to humanity. But not to his character
Helena, who comes to visit Rossum to tell him she feels the robots have a soul, and
therefore feel the pain of their enslavement that she wants them to be freed. Kapek
used the idea of his robots to object to the enslavement of humanity by the rich, and
their justification for it by suggesting the poor dont have a soul.

This brings us to The Rights of Man, (1940) by H.G. Wells, a work that became pivotal
to the United Nations formation of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He
wrote,

Since a man comes into this world through no fault of his own, since he is a joint inheri-
tor of the accumulations of the past, and since those accumulations are more than su-
cient to satisfy the claims that are here made on his behalf, it follows:

1) That every man without distinction of race or color is entitled to nourishment,

housing, covering, medical care and attention sucient to realize his full possibilities of
physical and mental development and to keep him in a state of health from his birth to
death

In the work he makes clear that when he says Man he means man and woman. Today
we use the word Humankind in place of Mankind. But they have alway meant the same
thing.
But now in 2017 that we face the prospect of making artificial intelligence, robots, that
are self-aware, that is are living beings, we have to ask if they have rights as well. Given
they do not require food, are stronger, and can think faster than humans, we come to
the realization that if they are given rights, they could destroy us. To solve this conun-
drum, Isaac Asimov, in his 1950 Book I, Robot, explores this issue introducing for the
first time The Laws of Robotics. They are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human be-
ing to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such or-
ders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not
conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Lets see how these law work as they unfold in his stories. In I, Robot, a robot comes to
believe that in handling a space station that the graphs and dials from which it receives
its orders are his creator, which he calls The Master, because humans beings being infe-
rior to robots, could not have created him, something superior, so he kicks humans out
of the control room and tells them he will not longer take orders from them, but rather
from the Master. The dialogue goes like this,
He turned to Powell. What are we going to do now?

Powell felt tired but uplifted. Nothing. Hes just shown that he can run the station
perfectly. Ive never seen an electron storm handled so well.

But nothings solved. You heard what he said of the Master. We cant,

Look, Mike, he follows the instructions of the Master by means of dials, instru-
ments, and graphs. Thats all we ever followed. As a matter of fact, it accounts for
his refusal to obey us. Obedience is the Second Law. No harm to humans is the
first. How can he keep humans from harm whether he knows it or not? Why, by
keeping the energy beam stable. He knows he can keep it more stable than we
can, since he insists hes the superior being, so he must keep us out of the control
room. Its inevitable if you consider the Laws of Robotics.

Sure, but thats not the point. We cant let him continue with this nitwit stu about
The Master.

Why not?

Because whoever heard of such a damned thing? How are we going to trust him
with the station, if he doesnt believe in Earth?

Can he handle the station?

Yes, but

Then whats the dierence what he believes!

The Story Of My Discovery

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 Copyright

Copyright 2017 by Entity Books

17
Projecting The Future

Ian Beardsley
Projecting The Future

1
In 2009 I came up with the idea that we could determine a growth rate constant
for the rate at which humanity develops. The idea was that since the star sys-
tem alpha centauri is about four light years away, is the closest star system to
us, has a star the same spectral type as the sun and is the third brightest star in
the sky while, the earth is the third planet from the sun that, if, we do a random
walk to alpha centauri, that the percent probability of landing on alpha centauri
in 10 random leaps of a light year each, was the percent development over a
given period of time for humanity. I just needed the timespan over which the de-
velopment occurred. I knew that timespan began in 1969, because that was
the year humans first set foot on the moon. I needed the end year and I chose
2009 because that is when we put telescopes into orbit that would see back to
the beginning of the Universe. That 40 year period of development gave a
growth rate constant of 0.0621. As it turned out 0.0621 is the novelty rating in
the McKenna Timewave for the year humans landed on the moon. The
McKenna time wave is a mathematical algorithm that purports to describe the
unfolding of the Universe through time.

The percent development over that time period was 11.718750 as run on the C
program that I wrote. My program then rounded that value to the nearest inte-
ger, which was 12%. This is interesting, because I have since written a pro-
gram on my hp 35s scientific calculator, and run the program for 12 hyperspa-
tial jumps instead of 10. I originally chose ten because, our number system is
base ten and we have ten fingers to count on. 12 hyperspatial jumps gives a
chance of landing at plus four of 12%. It is the same value, but you dont have
to round, and the growth rate constant is the same! I looked at 12 jumps be-
cause 12 is the smallest abundant number, which is to say it is small but is
evenly divisible by many numbers 1, 2, , 3, 4, 6, 12. So many numbers that,
1+2+3+4+6=16 which is greater than 12 itself.

Today (January 05, 2017), I have revisited my C program, modelfuture.c and,

honed it, by removing some curly brackets, which allow it to print out the re-
sults without printing out the calculations in-between to get those results. When
running the program for 10 jumps you have to jump left 3, right 7, to land at 4,
but, when running it for 12 jumps, you have to jump left 4, right 8, to land at 4.
Here is the refined program in C and, running it for 12 jumps:
Study summary:

1. We have a 70% chance of developing hyperdrive without destroying ourselves first.

2. We are 12% along the way in development of hyperdrive.

3. We will have hyperdrive in the year 2043, plus or minus.

Sierra Waters was handed the newly discovered document in 2042. Sierra Waters was a Paul
Levinson character in his book The Plot To Save Socrates. Her adventure was one to excel hu-
man development, in particular to attain hyperdrive technology for making a starship.

In Isaac Asimovs I, Robot, he has that a computer called The Brain will invent hyperdrive in
2044. My value of 2043 is right in-between these two assessments.

The growth rate constant 0.0621 is the same value for the novelty rating in the Mckenna Tim-
wave for the year humans first landed on the moon, 1969.
Doing The Calculation by Hand
 Copyright

Copyright 2017 by Entity Books

9
Gypsy Shamanism And The Uni-
verse

Ian Beardsley
Gypsy Shamanism And The
Universe

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 Section 1

Introduction

I wrote a short story last night, called Gypsy Shamanism and the Universe
about the AE-35 unit, which is the unit in the movie and book 2001: A Space
Odyssey that HAL reports will fail and discontinue communication to Earth. I
decided to read the passage dealing with the event in 2001 and HAL, the ship
computer, reports it will fail in within 72 hours. Strange, because Venus is the
source of 7.2 in my Neptune equation and represents failure, where Mars rep-
resents success.

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It must have been 1989 or 1990 when I took a leave of absence from The University Of Ore-
gon, studying Spanish, Physics, and working at the state observatory in Oregon -- Pine
Mountain Observatoryto pursue flamenco in Spain.

The Moors, who carved caves into the hills for residence when they were building the Alham-
bra Castle on the hill facing them, abandoned them before the Gypsies, or Roma, had ar-
rived there in Granada Spain. The Gypsies were resourceful enough to stucco and tile the
abandoned caves, and take them up for homes.

Living in one such cave owned by a gypsy shaman, was really not a down and out situation,
as these homes had plumbing and gas cooking units that ran o bottles of propane. It was
really comparable to living in a Native American adobe home in New Mexico.

Of course living in such a place came with responsibilities, and that included watering its gar-
dens. The Shaman told me: Water the flowers, and, when you are done, roll up the hose
and put it in the cave, or it will get stolen. I had studied Castilian Spanish in college and as
such a hose is una manguera, but the Shaman called it una goma and goma translates
as rubber. Roll up the hose and put it away when you are done with it: good advice!

So, I water the flowers, rollup the hose and put it away. The Shaman comes to the cave the
next day and tells me I didnt roll up the hose and put it away, so it got stolen, and that I had
to buy him a new one.

He comes by the cave a few days later, wakes me up asks me to accompany him out of The
Sacromonte, to some place between there and the old Arabic city, Albaicin, to buy him a
new hose.

It wasnt a far walk at all, the equivalent of a few city blocks from the caves. We get to the
store, which was a counter facing the street, not one that you could enter. He says to the
man behind the counter, give me 5 meters of hose. The man behind the counter pulled o
five meters of hose from the spindle, and cut the hose to that length. He stated a value in pe-
setas, maybe 800, or so, (about eight dollars at the time) and the Shaman told me to give
that amount to the man behind the counter, who was Spanish. I paid the man, and we left.

I carried the hose, and the Shaman walked along side me until we arrived at his cave where I
was staying. We entered the cave stopped at the walk way between living room and kitchen,
and he said: follow me. We went through a tunnel that had about three chambers in the
cave, and entered one on our right as we were heading in, and we stopped and before me
was a collection of what I estimated to be fifteen rubber hoses sitting on ground. The Sha-
man told me to set the one I had just bought him on the floor with the others. I did, and we
left the chamber, and he left the cave, and I retreated to a couch in the cave living room.
 Section 2

The Antenna

Gypsies have a way of knowing things about a person, whether or not one discloses it to
them in words, and The Shaman was aware that I not only worked in Astronomy, but that
my work in astronomy involved knowing and doing electronics.

So, maybe a week or two after I had bought him a hose, he came to his cave where I was
staying, and asked me if I would be able to install an antenna for television at an apart-
ment where his nephew lived.

So this time I was not carrying a hose through The Sacromonte, but an antenna.

There were several of us on the patio, on a hill adjacent to the apartment of The Shamans
Nephew, installing an antenna for television reception.

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 Section 3

The Mission

I am now in Southern California, at the house of my mother, it is late at night, she is a

asleep, and I am about 24 years old and I decide to look out the window, east, across The
Atlantic, to Spain. Immediately I see the Shaman, in his living room, where I had eaten a
bowl of the Gypsy soup called Puchero, and I hear the word Antenna. I now realize when I
installed the antenna, I had become one, and was receiving messages from the Shaman.

The Shamans Children were flamenco guitarists, and I learned from them, to play the gui-
tar. I am now playing flamenco, with instructions from the shaman to put the gypsy space
program into my music. I realize I am not just any antenna, but the AE35 that malfunc-
tioned aboard The Discovery just before it arrived at the planet Jupiter in Arthur C. Clarkes
and Stanley Kubricks 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Shaman tells me, telepathically, that
this time the mission wont fail.

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 Section 4

God Is An Idea

I am watching Star Wars and see a spaceship, which is two oblong capsules flying con-
nected in tandem. The Gypsy Shaman says to me telepathically: Dios es una idea: son
dos. I understand that to mean God is an idea: there are two elements. So I go
through life basing my life on the number two.

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 Section 5

Madrid

Once one has tasted Spain, that person longs to return. I land in Madrid, Northern Spain,
The Capitol. The Spaniards know my destination is Granada, Southern Spain, The Gypsy
Neighborhood called The Sacromonte, the caves, and immediately recognize I am under
the spell of a Gypsy Shaman, and what is more that I am The AE35 Antenna for The Gypsy
Space Program. Flamenco being flamenco, the Spaniards do not undo the spell, but repro-
gram the instructions for me, the AE35 Antenna, so that when I arrive back in the United
States, my flamenco will now state their idea of a space program. It was of course, fla-
menco being flamenco, an attempt to out-do the Gypsy space program.

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 Section 6

Nine-Fifths

I am back in the United States and I am at the house of my mother, it is night time again,
she is asleep, and I look out the window east, across the Atlantic, to Spain, and this time I
do not see the living room of the gypsy shaman, but the streets of Madrid at night, and all
the people, and the word Jupiter comes to mind and I am about to say of course, Jupiter,
and The Spanish interrupt and say Yes, you are right it is the largest planet in the solar
system, you are right to consider it, all else will flow from it.

I know ratios, in mathematics are the most interesting subject, like pi, the ratio of the cir-
cumference of a circle to its diameter, and the golden ratio, so I consider the ratio of the or-
bit of Saturn (the second largest planet in the solar system) to the orbit of Jupiter at their
closest approaches to The Sun, and find it is nine-fifths (nine compared to five) which di-
vided out is one point eight (1.8).

I then proceed to the next logical step: not ratios, but proportions. A ratio is this com-
pared to that, but a proportion is this is to that as this is to that. So the question is: Sat-
urn is to Jupiter as what is to what? Of course the answer is as Gold is to Silver. Gold is
divine; silver is next down on the list. Of course one does not compare a dozen oranges
to a half dozen apples, but a dozen of one to a dozen of the other, if one wants to extract
any kind of meaning. But atoms of gold and silver are not measured in dozens, but in
moles. So I compared a mole of gold to a mole of silver, and I said no way, it is nine-fifths,
and Saturn is indeed to Jupiter as Gold is to Silver.

I said to myself: How far does this go? The Shamans son once told me he was in love
with the moon. So I compared the radius of the sun, the distance from its center to its sur-
face to the lunar orbital radius, the distance from the center of the earth to the center of
the moon. It was Nine compared to Five again!

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 Section 7

Yin And Yang

I had found 9/5 was at the crux of the Universe, but for every yin there had to be a yang.
Nine fifths was one and eight-tenths of the way around a circle. The one took you back to
the beginning which left you with 8 tenths. Now go to eight tenths in the other direction, it
is 72 degrees of the 360 degrees in a circle. That is the separation between petals on a
five-petaled flower, a most popular arrangement. Indeed life is known to have five-fold
symmetry, the physical, like snowflakes, six-fold. Do the algorithm of five-fold symmetry in
reverse for six-fold symmetry, and you get the yang to the yin of nine-fifths is five-thirds.

Nine-fifths was in the elements gold to silver, Saturn to Jupiter, Sun to moon. Where was
five-thirds? Salt of course. The Salt Of The Earth is that which is good, just read Shake-
speares King Lear. Sodium is the metal component to table salt, Potassium is, aside
from being an important fertilizer, the substitute for Sodium, as a metal component to
make salt substitute. The molar mass of potassium to sodium is five to three, the yang to
the yin of nine-fifths, which is gold to silver. But multiply yin with yang, that is nine-fifths
with five-thirds, and you get 3, and the earth is the third planet from the sun.

I thought the crux of the universe must be the dierence between nine-fifths and five-
thirds. I subtracted the two and got two-fifteenths! Two compared to fifteen! I had
bought the Shaman his fifteenth rubber hose, and after he made me into the AE35 An-
tenna one of his first transmissions to me was: God Is An Idea: There Are Two Elements.

It is so obvious, the most abundant gas in the Earth Atmosphere is Nitrogen, chemical
group 15 and the Earth rotates through 15 degrees in one hour.

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Gold, Silver, Sun, Moon

10
 Copyright

Copyright 2017 by Entity Books

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