lowbrow
sport
It’s all ‘Go’ for machine learning
Felled by the ruthless face of sport
MACHINE learning is becoming a very hot field at the moment and if, like everyone else, you’ve searched using Google lately then it’s already impacting on your life. Some recent successes of the field include the destruction of humanity’s finest “Go” player. The board game Go had been thought to be beyond computers because, as Wikipedia states: ”The number of possible games of Go far exceeds the number of atoms in the observable universe”. But machine learning is not about brute forcing every possible permutation in search of an optimal solution. It appears to allow computers to make inspired leaps to solutions we humans have never considered. In Canberra last month, scientists at ANU applied the same technique to the problem of using lasers to cool gases down to very close to absolute zero. The machine learning they applied discovered incredibly more efficient and fast ways to achieve their desired outcomes. They calculate that if it had merely simulated different permutations, it would have taken longer than the life of our universe to find its solutions. Basically, wherever a problem can be clearly
“Machine learning is a subfield of computer science that evolved from the study of pattern recognition and computational learning theory in artificial intelligence.” – Wikipedia
What if we asked the machines about a better way to organise our very societies to maximise happiness? Or to maximise wealth? stated, and large amounts of digitised data are available, machine learning has the potential to discover better ways of doing things. So here in Canberra there are super-cooled gas clouds owing their existence to machines that can far exceed our own capacity to learn and to reason. On Google your search and streetview results are being tempered by machinelearning systems and the big G is now building specialised computer chips to use the language of the system. There are, of course, seemingly endless applications and very smart people are already looking to harness them. You can buy machine-learning processing from Amazon right now, but you’ll need a postdoctoral degree to use it well. The financial markets in particular could get very peculiar very quickly. Trading houses are already technology leaders in networking switches to allow them to trade at high volumes ever faster. But what if we got a little more ambitious? What if we asked the machines about a better way to organise our very societies to
maximise happiness? Or to maximise wealth? Deciding what we really care about is going to be extremely important very soon now. When Google’s AlphaGo program beat world champion Lee Sedol by four games to one it produced moves never previously before known to the extensive world of Go scholarship. Currently our society is grounded in the teachings of a holy book over 2000 years old with some political theory largely cobbled together over 200 years ago. There are probably, almost certainly, better ways of doing things. The societies willing to embrace these new ways are going to bang the drums of their competitors. So while getting machines to think about how we structure our political economy is a scary idea, isn’t it scarier still to sit on our hands while competitors steal the head start? John Griffiths is the online editor of citynews.com.au
JOHN GRIFFITHS
briefly
Let’s build a Let’s build a better transport better transport network together network together
Dinner with a chef ONE of Australia’s most respected young chefs, James Viles, is the special guest at University House’s June 16 “Meet the Chef Dinner”, which features a two-course meal inspired by his new cookbook “Biota: Grow. Gather. Cook”. Owner of two-hatted Biota Dining in Bowral, Viles invites readers to celebrate food created from a balance of animal and plant life in the Southern Highlands. Tickets at $85 from 6125 5270 or via eventbrite.com.au
Clean and warm THIS month’s Up-Opping@Limestone is offering large stocks of clean, quality clothing, bric-a-brac, books, toys etcetera in the warm environment at Church of Christ, 88 Limestone Avenue, Ainslie,10am-2pm on Saturday, June 4.
Lots of local music
We need We needyour yourhelp help to to guide guidethe thefuture future of of transport in Canberra. transport in Canberra.
8 CityNews June 2-8, 2016
ORGANISERS of North CBR Music have partnered with the RUC Turner Bowls Club to host the second North CBR Music event, showcasing 12 local musicians each playing a short set. The Sunday, June 5 event is free and runs from 3pm to 6pm.
Garden gets a start THE John James Foundation has donated $10,000 to kick start the $125,000 building appeal for the planned AIDS Garden of Reflection at the Arboretum. The not-for-profit foundation supports volunteer medical programs and a range of medical education activities. Philippa Moss, executive director of the AIDS Action Council, said “The Garden will provide a special haven where visitors can remember and honour those lost to AIDS, reflect on their own lives and contribute to their understanding of HIV and AIDS.
SPORT can be brutal at times; I am not talking about the gladiatorial aspect of sports, more the ruthless nature. Success and failure can be measured in the smallest of margins; an Olympic dream can be realised in a matter of minutes or seconds. That dream can also be shattered in a moment as well. Canberra swimmer Ben Treffers had set his sights on making his first Olympic team in the 100-metre backstroke. His specialty was the 50 metres, but this is not an Olympic event. So his motivation for years of early morning training sessions was the prospect of securing a place in the team for Rio in the 100 metres. But it wasn’t to be. In the trials in Adelaide he needed to finish in the top two positions. He finished in fourth place in a time well outside his best. In the end, it came down to 53 seconds of his life and he just missed out. Champion Canberra rower Hannah Every-Hall had to survive an appeal from a rival Australian crew to make it through to the qualifying regatta in Lucerne in the first place. In Switzerland, she and partner Georgia Nesbitt finished fifth in the repêchage and didn’t make it through to the final in the women’s lightweight double sculls. The result meant that both Hannah and the boat didn’t qualify for the Olympics. In the end it came down to one race. At 38 years of age, Hannah has achieved plenty with a world title in the lightweight quad in 2002, followed by a fifth placing in the 2012 London Olympics. Duke Didier represented Australia in judo in Glasgow and he had placed his energy in securing a place in his first Olympic team. After a series of gruelling competitions, he finished outside the cut off in the world rankings needed to qualify for the Olympics. Hockey player Glenn Turner is fighting for a place in the Australian men’s team for the Olympics, but his chances hang by a thread. He has battled injury and was forced out of the team for the series against Great Britain in what would have been his first appearance for the Kookaburras this year. As athletes struggle to come to terms with the fine line between what is perceived to be success and failure they could do well to draw on the inspiration provided by wheelchair basketballer Tim Markcrow. In 2009, Tim was a 16-year-old student at Daramalan College when he suffered severe spinal injuries during a fall off a motorbike at Fairbairn. In his own words, he could have given up and spent his days on the couch, but that wasn’t in his psyche. He devoted himself to achieving in wheelchair basketball. Fast forward to 2016 and Tim is in line for selection in the Australian wheelchair basketball team for the Rio Paralympics. There is still a selection process to overcome, but to get to this point is an achievement in itself. It is something from which we can all draw inspiration.
TIM GAVEL