Websensors: The first major Dapp powered by iExec that utilizes machine learning
Websensors is the first distributed machine learning app which can be part of an exocortex
iExec is a project which I mentioned many times on Steemit. In fact I may have been the first fairly high profile Steemian to mention iExec and I hope those who remember my posts who decided to acquire the RLC token have held on. If you hold the iExec token you can now learn from this article some of the practical utility the token offers and that value iExec is bringing to the ecosystem. At first I thought iExec was off to a slow start and there are still some challenges (private smart contracts are required).
What is Websensors?
Before we can have a functioning exocortex we have to think one of the primary limitations. One of those limitations is the problem of how do we get information from the outside world (sensory information) into the world accessible to the machine intelligence? Oracles are a means of inputting the results of external events into a form which is computable by machine intelligence.
Why iExec?
iExec is the first functioning decentralized network allowing for cloud AI. Cloud AI is allowed by iExec because in essence iExec is a distributed cloud computing network. At the current time anyone with a computer can join the public worker pool and sell computation resources to this distributed cloud computing network. These contributors are rewarded in RLC and this provides the initial value of the RLC token which is required to purchase cloud resources. So instead of relying on Amazon AWS (centralized) or Digital Ocean (centralized) it will be possible to rely on a decentralized version of these products (iExec).
In my opinion iExec is like a potential gold mine. At the current prices people do not recognize the utility value of the RLC token but in theory this token could be used for example to run masternodes. Imagine in the near future where your masternode is run on the decentralized cloud where you can no that it will run for as long as your tokens can afford to keep it running? This could be extremely useful if these masternodes turn out to be profit generators for those who hold the private keys and due to the nature of smart contracts it might be possible to distribute ownership of a masternode in such a way that the profits generated are fairly distributed to the private key holders (this could be any number of people and or organizations).
Because the decentralized computation resources are provided and because computation is like the land of digital space then the rest is a matter of adding value to that land. In a sense masternodes are like real estate which pay the owners rent. The applications for computation are nearly limitless and this also allows for distributed access to machine intelligence via the iExec network.
The only thing missing? The profitable/useful Dapps which drive demand for the RLC token. Websensors is one of the first of these sorts of Dapps that I've seen that I could use to make better decisions. Anything which can improve my decision making can improve my life. any technology which can save me time or reduce my errors is going to be valuable in my opinion. Websensors does have it's challenges but even if it only partially works it can save time and that adds value.
How does Websensors fit into the personal exocortex agenda?
As many of you know I am a supporter of the idea that we all have the right to build and run our own personal exocortex just as we have personal computers. A personal exocortex in the current very primitive implementation can be found if we look at Huginn as the example. I encourage anyone with technical expertise to play with Huginn. Huginn was introduced to me by a friend of mine who goes by Dr Who/Virtual Adept. Here is his video presentation:
Websensors may be of benefit to users of Huginn because it could make the agents of Huginn potentially more capable. I do see some problems with applying AI to the problem of sensing because AI can be cooled. I do think hackers or people who understand AI will be able to trick websensors unless there is some mechanism (probably human intervention) to correct the AI when it is being tricked. That being said in cases where we can trust the sources of the external information then we can by that trust in the source also trust the result from the AI.
- I think Websensors compliments Huginn.
- I think Websensors saves time for human beings which makes it instantly valuable.
- I think Websensors does have challenges (hackers and others probably can fake out these sensors but I do think thse challenges can be defeated by adding human discernment).
- I think anything which improves decision making capacity adds value to the ecosystem.
- I think attention is scarce and Websensors potentially saves time by automating the pattern recognition that humans usually do but this does require training the sensors.
- Overall, this in my opinion encourages me to hold iExec tokens (RLC) for the very long term because I think useful Dapps are coming. Those useful Dapps may provide many advantages not just for trading crypto but for trading stocks, making business decisions, etc.
I had these poins power, which proved to me nothing right.
I think Websensors compliments Huginn.
I think Websensors saves time for human beings which makes it instantly valuable.
I think Websensors does have challenges (hackers and others probably can fake out these sensors but I do think thse challenges can be defeated by adding human discernment).
I think anything which improves decision making capacity adds value to the ecosystem.
I think attention is scarce and Websensors potentially saves time by automating the pattern recognition that humans usually do but this does require training the sensors.
Overall, this in my opinion encourages me to hold iExec tokens (RLC) for the very long term because I think useful Dapps are coming. Those useful Dapps may provide many advantages not just for trading crypto but for trading stocks, making business decisions, etc.