Artificial Stupidity: A function of Communal Intelligence

In last few years Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a commonly used term whether it’s fully grasped or not. Such is also true about the term Collective Intelligence (or slightly broader – Communal Intelligence. Although there is subtle but prominent difference).

Artificial Intelligence is used for machines & Artificial Stupidity is a term humorously used as contrary to AI.

HOWEVER, I INTEND TO USE THE TERM DIFFERENTLY IN A RATHER SERIOUS WAY!

As it’s commonly said, “Two minds are better than one but three are worse.” (I know, I am making a debatable statement here.)

Look at greatest ideas generated, huge successful corporations founded in the world. Most of these are the creations of either an individual or a duo. But the growth only happens when more minds are bought in to the idea.

This, of course, is a positive impact of a Collaborative Thinking. (Ps: Intelligence is not thinking)

While pondering on this topic and wondering how does this apply to “mob mentality”, it became clearer than ever to me that the thinking mostly depends on artificial triggers and one if them is “community or collectiveness”.

We have often seen that a relatively normal intelligent person is bound to make wrong decisions as the application of using the intelligence is highly dependent on the ambience the mind observes, i.e. surroundings. An agitated mind is likely to use intelligence quite differently than a calm mind.

The “state of mind” could be caused artificially and hence the word “Artificial Stupidity”.

Seemingly intelligent people act with stupidity when they identify themselves easily with their “alikes” and the result is “Artificial Stupidity”.

Will look at it more on this in next articles on this topic.

Thoughts, suggestions, disagreements, agreements are welcome!

Hobby Electronics Class Preview Seminar FREE

Orexian Foundation is pleased to announce a Hobby Electronics Class for Adults! In Quad Cities!

Know more about this new program!  Attend a FREE Introductory Seminar!

Register to attend the Free Introductory Seminar 
on Saturday 18th @ 9:30AM in Bettendorf, IA

Venue for the Seminar will be sent only to the registered participants. 

Spots Left: None

Registration in now open and will close until all the spots are filled or by end of the day Thursday Jan 9th by 5PM. In Bettendorf, IA!


Hobby Electronics ClassA Fun New Activity For Adult Learners!

What is Hobby Electronics Class?

Most of you have been heavily involved in different areas of engineering. Some of you are also involved as coaches for science fairs for your kids. And of course are learning a lot during the process. Some of you also have a desire about refreshing and/or learning something new. Orexian Foundation, is offering a structured learning class (basics & complex) on Hobby Electronics. This would not only help you grow your knowledge but will also provide inspiration for your kids as a role model. Learn basic and complex electronics, coding and create fun projects.

Purpose: Learn something new, have fun, tease your grey cells. Become experienced volunteers. 

Prerequisite: Enthusiasm for learning. You don’t need to be a formal degreed engineer as design of system needs all kinds of intellectual faculties. 

Schedule: One day 1 to 1.5 hours per week. 

What do you need? : Presence. All hardware, tools, computer will be provided. 

Cost: $100 per person per month. 

Style: Instructor led, self paced. 

Instructors: Experienced embedded designers in this area. 

Course Title: HobbyEL- 01 : Embedded Development Class for hobbyists!

Accreditation: None

Commencement: mid- January. 

Class size: Min 1 – Max 10 (two participants will learn in pair)

Course Outline:

  1. Basics of embedded design – IO & Processing, rate-monotonic task concept 
  2. Hardware design basics – sensors & actuators interfacing & signals. 
  3. Coding basics: C, Python (VB & C# for UI)
  4. Data management – embedded considerations – conversion, scaling, debouncing, filtering basics. 
  5. Building a small project. 
  6. Communication: Embedded data networks basics & advanced
  7. UI – Keyboard & simple display, tale-tell 
  8. System design: Functional Decomposition & architecture basics 
  9. Electro-Mechanical system application
  10. System of systems: Embedded considerations
  11. Integration & testing – How to debug embedded system – DMM, DSO
  12. Building a simple system – Multiple Choices
  13. Automation, Displays, Control, IoT, Vision etc
  14. Building a system of system: using OreCAR platform
  15. Introduction to Machine Learning, AI & Neural Network & Security

Register to attend the FREE Hobby Electronics Class Introductory Seminar & learn more about this class!

The Orange Connection

When I was working on foundation’s logo as well as a color scheme that will associate well with our mission & core of our existence. I tried several color palettes and finally settled on what I thought was pleasing yet elegant. The next step was to make sure how the meaning of this color associates with what we do. Of course, in the back of my mind it always had a cultural significance for me. Orange is a sacred color in some cultures. Its also the color of vibrance and birth. But I wanted more data before I decided. It took me almost a month to collect information and finalize. Here is the zest of “Meaning Of Orange Color”!

I was asked by a few of my friends when they saw our newsletters. Why does Orexian Foundation use Orange color so abundantly? And if there is a specific reason behind it. I smiled!

Orange, the blend of red and yellow, is a mixture of the energy associated with red and the happiness associated with yellow.

Orange is associated with meanings of joy, warmth, heat, sunshine, enthusiasm, creativity, success, encouragement, change, determination, health, stimulation, happiness, fun, enjoyment, balance, sexuality, freedom, expression, and fascination.

Orange is the color of joy and creativity. Orange promotes a sense of general wellness and emotional energy that should be shared, such as compassion, passion, and warmth. Orange will help a person recover from disappointments, a wounded heart, or a blow to one’s pride.

The meaning of the color orange is stimulating, vibrant, and flamboyant. While made up of red and yellow, it carries less aggression and fierceness than the color red due to its combination with the calming color yellow.

Studies show that the orange color can create physical effects such as increased hunger, heightened sense of activity, increased socialization, boost in aspiration, stimulated mental activity, increased oxygen supply to the brain, increased contentment, and enhanced assurance.

Orange also helps aid decision making, and enhances happiness, confidence, and understanding.

The color orange is a very hot color and often provides the sensation of heat. While orange is a common color associated with summer and the hot sun, often associated with being a main color of harvest and autumn due to the changing color of the leaves and pumpkins.

While orange does stimulate the appetite, it is a common color found in citrus fruit and is often associated with Vitamin C and a healthy diet. Orange is a popular color in restaurants to encourage the feeling of hunger and contentment.

The color orange has very high visibility and is often used to gain attention. It still gets your message noticed without the bold, in-your-face presence that the color red has.

Too much orange causes self-centered and self-serving qualities, including pride, arrogance, and lack of care for others. Too little orange causes loss of motivation, lower self-esteem, and loneliness.

“So we need to make sure, the orange doesn’t overpower our mission & what we stand for!”

Different shades, tints, and hues of orange have different meanings. For example, dark orange may represent deceit and distrust, while red-orange relates to passion, pleasure, desire, aggression, domination, and action, and a golden orange often stands for prestige, wisdom, illumination, wealth, and quality. A light orange or peach color tend to be more friendly and soothing.

Other meanings associated with the color orange:
• Orange is often associated with autumn leaves, pumpkins, and when used alongside the color black, Halloween. With the change in color of the autumn leaves, orange often represents the changing seasons. Because of it’s association with change, orange is often used as a transitional color or to represent a transition or change of some kind.
• Orange and blue work well together because they are complimentary colors. The orange and blue color palettes are commonly used for representations of play and summer fun, depicting both the hot, summer sun and the cool, refreshing water.
• Orange when combined with yellow conjures up feelings of heat and fire, as well as fresh fruit. When combined with the color green, the colors elicit feelings of adventure and tropical destinations.

Colors are the way we see & perceive the world! So to get the message across clearly & accurately its important we use right colors!

Source: Internet, Books, Websites! https://www.bourncreative.com
Hindu Culture & Teachings

S4F Workshop Session VI

The session 6 was around pulleys and electrical circuits. The task was to lift the weight with pulleys and rope attached to a motor. There was quite bit of struggle as it was difficult to attach rope to motor shaft. The lesson learned was something easy looking things are the most difficult. Irrespective, we did have fun. The younger group worked with kits to build simple machines (working models) of merry-go-rounds and windmills.

Interaction with Dr. Jose Armendariz!
Sports Medicine Director

Dr. Armendariz spoke with kids in the most interactive way and engaged them in the discussion & education on Sports Injuries In Children. Later on he actually demoed the kids with portable ultrasound. Kids were very happy to see images and handle the various joint models. It was fun learning from a Dr using state of art equipment.

Thank you Dr. Armendariz!

S4F Workshop Session V

Our 5th session was around Simple Machines. The kids learned Pulleys and Levers by constructing simple pulley systems and levers by balancing weights. They god to do measurements and deduce therefore how the pulleys & levers act. It was a great example of self learning!

Antakshari Team Registration Is Now Open

Antakshari 2019 Team Registration is open. The Tickets also available on-line for sale at introductory price until mid-August. After mid-August the prices will go up by $2 for Adult ticket & by $1 for Kids (5-12).

To register your team & buy tickets please visit:

Antakshari-2019

You can also directly go to the following link to buy tickets: Antakshari 2019 Tickets

We use third-party payment gateways PayPal or Stripe. We do not store your CC information on our website or in our database for security & privacy reasons.

Bollywood Beats Radio Project

Orexian Foundation Music4Fun is starting a new weekly program of 1hour Bollywood Beats in association with KALA 106.1 FM HD2.

As part of this program our RJs will bring to you old & new Bollywood Songs, community news as well as interviews of community members of QC as needed.

We hope to build a strong committed listener base and hopefully increase the time to cover other aspects of life such as science talks, cooking (culinary) & other arts talk shows.

S4F Workshop Session IV

We ended our 4th workshop session with a great finish. The topic was light. Although we covered only a few things such as reflection, refraction & prism diffraction.

Kids built Kaleidoscopes and enjoyed creating rainbow experiment in dark.

Today our senior participants helped their junior counterparts and it was nice to see how they helped each other.

The hole session was led by our youngest S4F team member Aditya who himself is a physics enthusiast and planning to do a physics major when he goes to college in couple years.

Here are the pics of the participants in action.

S4F Summer Workshop Session III

The problem was based on things they had learned in last 2 sessions. Circuits, Electromagnetism, Dominoes, constructing contraptions. The challenge this time was to break the tasks in to manageable chunks and divide it based on skill level. The facilitators’ job was to not prompt the kids with solutions but make sure their circuits look okay (before they are handed over the power source), the kids are involved and are working together.

The third session went really well. The theme was “Systems Thinking”. The kids of all ages (including our volunteers and staff) had a lot of fun. The group assignment this time was to answer the question in the sheet on Rube Goldberg machine and search for other types of contraptions. Kids were divided into different teams of varying age groups so all the age group kids can learn to work together, come up with division of labor based on skills. Also a recap was on what challenges they faced. Here are the pictures of what they did.