AS part of our Summer Specials, shows designed to allow us to get out of the studio and enjoy some of this rain, we are currently broadcasting A Gift From Talking God The Story of the Navajo-Churro Sheep, under special arrangement with producers PETER BLYSTONE, MARGARET CHANLER of Blystone Films over local Flagstaff cable 59. Since this documentary is still in commercial talks and festival schedules we are not archiving this presentation. Peter gave us a couple documentaries for last year's hiatus as well: A Game With The Gods: Ancient Ballcourts of the Southwest and Like the Moosni Turtle ~ The Comcaac can Endure
For all you daydreamers and outside thinkers...on July 3rd we will present our 2nd Summer Special: The Art of Science ~ an interview with Flagstaff's newest celebrity resident; English computer scientist Steve Grand, author of Creation: Life and how to make it and Growing up with Lucy: How to Build an Android in Twenty Easy StepsSteve is perhaps best known as the creater of Creatures, a pioneering work in A.I. He is recently relocated here to Flagstaff, where he intends further A.I. work ~
Some quotes about Steve Grand gathered for a Machines Like Us interview in 2007;
"Very occasionally somebody from outside academia comes along and shows us academics how to do something we've been working on for years. Steve Grand showed us how to build a universe of evolving creatures, without the prevailing academic biases."
~ Rodney Brooks, Director, Artificial Intelligent Laboratory, MIT.
"Steve Grand is the creator of what I think is the nearest approach to artificial life so far.... He illuminates more than just the properties of life; his originality extends to matter itself and the very nature of reality."
~ Richard Dawkins, author, evolutionary biologist, Oxford University.
"When Steve Grand set out to create norns and the world they lived in, he made some inspired guesses that went against a lot of received wisdom. My favorite was his decision to model about two levels deeper than most AIniks would have recommended -- for reasons of economy. (Hey, if you’re modeling a grazing cow, you’re not going to model every blade of grass -- you’re going to just have this renewable resource of undifferentiated stuff, right? Wrong.) If you do it right, as Steve did, your “uneconomical” modeling efforts pay for themselves many times over in providing foundations for realistic side-effects and multiple functions. And there’s a deeper point: hyper-idealized, oversimplified models often yield results that are just plain wrong. So my maxim, thanks to Steve, is: Always model more than you think you need."
~ Daniel Dennett, philosopher, co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tuffs University.
"Steve and I have appeared together in TV documentaries over the years and have met at conferences. If someone asked me to describe him in a few adjectives, I would say: ideosyncratic, visionary, courageous."
~ Hugo de Garis, Head, Artificial Intelligence Group, International School of Software, WUHAN University, China.
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