On the Edge #24
This issue is different from the usual On the Edge theme, sharing different angels of science and art in two parts.
Part 1: Entrepreneurship
last week I’ve been invited to Silicon Allee meetup and Startup Network Berlin, and the main topic was the future of crypto and current crypto-related startups.
Some founders seemed a bit disheartened or even considering pivoting out of crypto. My view is still that whatever happens to the Bitcoin price, is not going to define the future of a big industry like blockchain and I see this industry as far bigger than Bitcoin price. But honestly, there’s another different angel for me. I realized that Iran's intense situation had helped us develop a mindset that is now exceptionally valuable in times of global crisis.
Part 2: Stories
Stories are always interesting, for all of us. I’ve loved them since I was a kid and often think about them. But recently I found a more subtle connection between stories, intelligence, and AGI. And it happened on a night with other stories.
There’s a small Doner joint in my neighborhood. Last night I went there, ordered the regular sandwich, with garlic sauce and tomatoes. I started to eat on the counter there. But very gently, and calm and with care. It was a bit odd to be calm because of the busy street, people rushing into the metro station and for me it was after a long day; One of those days with all-day hunger, no breakfast or lunch.
For me, this wasn’t just eating dinner. I was careful about my mind and my body. I was listening to Hamid Hami. And little by little, I started to picture him behind a piano and singing slowly. And I was feeling his voice, the sadness of the lyrics, and the vibrations that music creates.
Then my mind jumped to Mohamad Rahmanian. An Iranian theatre director and screenplay writer. I was imagining Rahmanian that now looks and listens to Hami on the stage. I was imagining what Rahmanian might say and he probably thinks that Hami is such a talent, and maybe he was thinking to write a play with Hami’s voice.
Then I started to imagine the theatre, the feeling, the screen, and seats. Then I remembered a sentence from my previous roommate, Michael. Michael Stelzer, a German director, asked me one evening why we need go to the theatre? “Netflix is so much better! It has many more good movies from around the world, you don’t need to go outside in the cold weather, you don’t need a stranger beside you, and the laptop screen creates such amazing colors." Michael said.
And then my mind jumped again; To thinking about the diverse experiences we get from theatre to cinema and then to Netflix. We like all of them because it’s all a story. And we continue create new mediums: Stories in Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. We want to tell the stories of everyday life. Even though some people might not like these new mediums, we continue to invent more.
So again, I asked myself this question for the thousandth time: what do stories do for us? (besides entertainment)
I think it’s simple. And we all know the answer.
Our minds create stories as representatives of the complex world outside us. It helps us to understand the world especially when everything is hard to understand. It helps us get through the day.
But how do stories represent the world? It’s also simple.
Stories simplify. Then I notice that in a meaningful way, stories are very similar to the concept of embeddings in AI. It’s the exact definition of embeddings in AI.
An embedding is a relatively low-dimensional space into which you can translate high-dimensional vectors - Google Machine Learning Course
Embeddings, like stories, are not complete. They actually have been designed to be incomplete. To make things simple. We use large amounts of embeddings to train AI models. A representative of the outside world.
And stories, like embeddings, are not complete. They just encompass simple interactions, a timeline, and maybe some dialogues. Then we connect stories to our life, our understandings, our words, and our decisions.
Stories are the most powerful medium for knowledge. We had them before we had any book and we have them now on our phones.
Last night I also planned to go for a walk. To take a moment with me.
After these mind jumps, I started to wander in the streets.
Then my dearest person in the world texted me and recommended to watch the movie Babylon. I headed home and watched it and if you’ve seen it, you know that the whole idea of the movie is about stories and life.
But before watching the movie, and realizing that it randomly was about everything I was focused on, I found a bigger idea.
That there’s a real thing that connects us to others and the world outside us. It drives us to ask questions, to be curious, and to explore ideas that lead to new things. Most times it’s hard to ask those questions and they might even make us cry.
Embeddings, like stories, help an AI model to interact with the data that it hasn’t seen before. So if an AI model can connect to things bigger than itself why can’t we?
The least I can do is scientifically look at random things that keep happening.
Cooper: You're a scientist, Brand.
Brand: So listen to me when I say that love isn't something that we invented. It's... observable, powerful. It has to mean something.
Cooper: Love has meaning, yes. Social utility, social bonding, child rearing...
Brand: We love people who have died. Where's the social utility in that?
Cooper: None.
Brand: Maybe it means something more - something we can't yet understand. Maybe it's some evidence, some artifact of a higher dimension that we can't consciously perceive. I'm drawn across the universe to someone I haven't seen in a decade, who I know is probably dead. Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space. Maybe we should trust that, even if we can't understand it. All right Cooper. Yes. The tiniest possibility of seeing Wolf again excites me. That doesn't mean I'm wrong.
Cooper: Honestly, Amelia... it might.