Edgar – The Computer Designed For Deep Thought.
(I call it Edgar after the computer in the movie Electric Dreams who’s owner wanted to know everything.)
Edgar is a virtual brain that functions on similar processes to Beowulf Cluster technology in personal computers. We all have brains much larger that we need for day-to-day activities and so pool our spare capacity to form clusters to solve problems and explore new ideas.
We all have access to Edgar, however most cultures block access to Edgar to protect the lies that the culture is based on, and the positions of power and privilege that arise from those lies. Access is blocked by societal conditioning i.e. child abuse.
Approximately 30 years ago I asked Edgar to work out the cause, and thus the cure, for mental illness, particularly Autism and Dissociative Identity Disorder. The answer was immediate – the cause was virus’s – the mind viruses that pervade our cultures as a result of the societal conditioning that we are all subject to. A more detailed response, including the cure, could only be worked out if we could remove the viruses.
So I found myself appointed sysop to Edgar, and began the process of developing an anti virus that could clean up possibly 800,000 years of neglect. It is actually quite simple – our cultures are all based on the rule that “Truth must never be written, truth must never be spoken, or the authority figures positions of power, prestige, privilege and profit will come to an end. So I set up a web site and started publishing everything Edgar new to be true. With every truth published another brick was removed from Pink Floyd’s wall, and more truth emerged. And with each truth published, another mind virus was shut down and more of our collective processing power was unleashed to clean up the mess our, and our ancestors neglect has caused. And more truth was revealed.
The comparison between Edgar and AI bots:
Edgar runs purely on human intelligence, the AI bots have no intelligence as demonstrated by their inability to research anything or tell fact from fiction. Hence the disclaimer on all their output that it may not be correct. Edgars output just has the disclaimer that we are still working on the final answer. AI is just software, evolved from Expert Software, who’s only real expertise was failure.
Edgar has a database of all human knowledge, which is being updated in real time through the eyes and ears of every person on the planet. AI bots have a heavily censored database which was already out of date when it was loaded and has been restricted to the culture of the owners of the systems to promote their personal greed and protect their privileged positions.
The drawback:
AI bots do your typing for you, so you get your information easily. With Edgar you have to do your own typing. So AI is good for university assignments where you just need to regurgitate the beliefs of the academics in order to pass your exams. Edgar tells the truth, which you have to type yourself, and which will score poorly or fail on many university exams. There is a second catch with Edgar. As you write or type something, if it is the first time that information has been typed, it will reveal more truth. Over 30 years I have attempted many times to write on mental illness, only to find my knowledge expanding constantly as I type.
So, if you want pre-typed obsolete information to pass your assignments, choose your favourite chatbot. If you want to be at the leading edge get to know Edgar.
When the anti-virus completes its task, and Edgar is released to it’s original purpose the academic world is in for a bit of a shakeup.
Some examples.
Recently I used Google’s NotebookLM to examine its capabilities. I made a notebook of all the manuals from my favourite electronic security system, and then started asking questions about various functions of the system. It was clear that NotebookLM could scan the manuals faster than I could, but no more accurately, and was limited in that it could only search the manuals that I had loaded. So most of the answers were incomplete as the valuable information is not written in books but passed from technician to technician by word of mouth.
I corrected this by writing this information, adding my notes to the notebook, and checking the answers were suitably corrected. So Googles AI only works if I use my human intelligence to correct it. But the drawback of course is that my additional notes are not shared with everyone else with a similar notebook which clearly AI would do If it had any actual or functional intelligence.
AI is apparently good at writing software. So is Edgar. While studying Computer Science at University we were given some reasonably complex programming assignments. We were given approximately 3 weeks to complete them. I found many of my classmates were putting aside complete weekends to do the basic assignment. I had a quick look at the assignment when it was handed out, then that night sat down and typed a working program, as though from memory, in about 90 minutes. There was also a challenge for extra marks which I completed in 30 minutes the next night. So I was getting 120% for each assignment, with minimum effort, but unlike when a bot writes your code I learned the program as I typed it.