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Why the 'Star Trek Computer' Will Be Open Source and Apache Licensed
psykocrime writes "The crazy kids at Fogbeam Labs have a new blog post positing that there is a trend towards advanced projects in NLP, Information Retrieval, Big Data and the Semantic Web moving to the Apache Software Foundation. Considering that Apache UIMA is a key component of IBM Watson, is it wrong to believe that the organization behind Hadoop, OpenNLP, Jena, Stanbol, Mahout and Lucene will ultimately be the home of a real 'Star Trek Computer'? Quoting: 'When we talk about how the Star Trek computer had “access to all the data in the known Universe”, what we really mean is that it had access to something like the Semantic Web and the Linked Data cloud. Jena provides a programmatic environment for RDF, RDFS and OWL, SPARQL and includes a rule-based inference engine. ... In addition to supporting the natural language interface with the system, OpenNLP is a powerful library for extracting meaning (semantics) from unstructured data - specifically textual data in an unstructured (or semi structured) format. An example of unstructured data would be the blog post, an article in the New York Times, or a Wikipedia article. OpenNLP combined with Jena and other technologies, allows “The computer” to “read” the Web, extracting meaningful data and saving valid assertions for later use.'"
Speaking of the Star Trek computer, I'm continually disappointed that neither Siri nor Google Now can talk to me in Majel Barrett's voice.
I've spent more time than I care to remember moving content from:
http://www.shapeoko.com/forum
to
http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki
Why can't it be automated?
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
'When we talk about how the Star Trek computer had âoeaccess to all the data in the known Universeâ, what we really mean is that it had access to something like the Semantic Web and the Linked Data cloud.
The Enterprise computer was not hampered by being in another galaxy, nor was Voyager's computer hampered by being in the Delta Quadrant. They had local copies of all the data at all times.
LCARS any version will never be open sourced because Paramount/CBS will never release their rights to the design.
Now the original 23rd century design, which was all voice interface and blinky lights, would be neat, but pretty damn hard to implement until we can get a computer to "recognize speech" instead of "wreck a nice beach".
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
I believe that should be "Get. A fucking. Life, eh?"
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That was only a problem because you were trying to talk to a Klingon interface. Klingon computers interpret everything as targeting orders.
Paramount doesn't hold the rights. Gene Roddenberry made the LCARS interface open source long ago, for anyone to use in free projects.
CBS Studios Inc. claims to hold the copyright on LCARS. Google was sent a DMCA letter to remove the Android app called tricorder [8] since its use of the LCARS interface was un-licenced. The application was later re-uploaded under a different title, but it was removed again.
Silence is a state of mime.
And in a ironic twist, the algorithms used to manifest a cup of Earl Grey tea will be closed and patented.
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The original post about the takedown request can be found at http://web.archive.org/web/20111130013603/http://code.google.com/p/moonblink/wiki/Tricorder. It says in part,
It's far from clear that CBS has any copyright on LCARS, it's more that any entity like CBS with enough money to throw at the legal system can get away with claiming such, and random people just have to go along with it thanks to the way our legal system works.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
the natural language interface with the system, OpenNLP is a powerful library for extracting meaning (semantics) from unstructured data... An example of unstructured data would be the blog post, an article in the New York Times, or a Wikipedia article.
Warning: Other examples of "unstructured data" include 4chan and Conservapedia.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
LCARS was the coolest looking shitty UI anyways. Honestly. It only looked awesome because there was limitations on how detailed you could get a picture broadcasted in 480i. That and pastel colors on black made them stand out. When you get right down to it, TV is artful entertainment first and foremost. I seriously doubt LCARS was based on any recommendations by those in UI design. But then again, this was before the .COM rise in 1997.
Life is not for the lazy.
Or perhaps you remember the Dumarest stories, each of which had a Cyber with "the trained voice which contained no irritant factors" . . .
Seriously, there must be enough audio of Majel Barrett to synthesize a decent copy. Sounds like an open source Kickstarter to me.
From somebody who spent a few hours working a show with Gene Roddenberry before his ashes got the cosmic brush off... Having run film clips and sound for his famed "lecture" on Star Trek's past and how that changed our future, I thought he was nuts (1987).
Science Fiction has foreseen future events, but it is NOT an accurate representation of what is going to happen. So how on earth (or in space for that matter) can we tell what software will be used in the future for some yet to be designed hardware? Add to this that we are not even sure when or even if such a theoretical machine will ever exist and how can we figure any kind of useful debate will come from this?
Oh yea, this is star trek.. Home to the group that thinks some group of two bit "B" list actors are somehow for tellers of the future
Your argument from authority is unappealing. The components of a computing system similar to a fictitious one have been identified. The likelihood of their software licensing approach is being projected based upon current component licensing and development plans. We do not think the "B" list actors knew what the "techno-babble" they were spouting meant.
However, when we create devices that are similar to the fictitious devices, we can and will make comparisons. The Hypo-spay exists. Tablet Computers exist. Food replication systems are in development. 3D TV exists. We launched a rocket similar to Jules Verne's to the moon. Eventually the rockets we send to Mars and/or the Moon will land vertically Delta-V style, like Verne's rocket did (so they can take off again). Cars can apply brakes when proximity alarms go off -- Cars can even drive themselves now, like in Sleeper; They can parallel park too! Applications for Mars Colonization are being accepted...
Stop for a moment and think about current technologies. Now extrapolate a bit. Extrapolate a bit further. Write a story about it. Marvel as some of your ideas weren't actually bat-shit insane after all. Some are more accurate than others. I think you need to re-evaluate your life. The future they did not "predict", happened the way they said it would despite your claim to the contrary...
WARNING: Fatal exposure in 69 minutes!
I'm not usually one to "+1" something, let alone an AC, but this guy is right, really. If a computer in the context of this article doesn't speak with Majel Barrett's voice, it just won't sound right. That said, we don't need any kind of chip to do it - there is software out there that runs on commodity hardware that can sound like pretty much anyone, given adequate samples of that person's voice as a pattern to model against.
The real question is, what would Majel's estate, family, etc. have to say about it, if anything? Assuming there is still some such entity in existence, would they have the legal right to prevent the use of her voice? What about Paramount and/or CBS? Could they legally stop it?
So the Star Trek computer will had access to "All the data in the known Universe" ?
Will someone ever ask: "How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?"
Or will the question first be posed in 2061?
Tracy Johnson
Old fashioned text games hosted below:
http://empire.openmpe.com/
BT