Welcome to Chapter 2 in my series "A Crypto Odyssey" were we dive into the hopeful futures that Crypto can provide to the world. Today I am going to dive into the possible approachs that cryptocurrency can provide to the long haul task of artificial intelligence technology. We will tackle the fears about A.I. technology, the current state of its early development, and a possible use case scenario of this technology becoming an average day to day use case.

"A Crypto Odyssey" is designed specifically for all crypto enthusiasts to dream big and to congregate together via comments so we can explore our path towards what crypto can do for humankind. I hope you explore this with me and start to believe in the possibilities ahead, we are on a path towards some amazing times in human history. It's time we enhance our hopes and dreams and let them flourish thanks to this amazing tool brought to us by Satoshi....whoever he was.

A Crypto Odyssey: Blockchain Paves the Way for A.I. Avancements (A Crypto Odyssey #2)

The State of A.I. in the Year 2017

Many look towards the future for artificial intelligence as an option of success far down the road. Big corporations like Intel, IBM, Apple, Google and many others have put a lot of finances towards the goal of research and creation already for the end game of true state of the art A.I. in the future. The goals are simple but complicated. To create a self thinking, self learning computer that only needs basic programming to start its life cycle of helping the human race with numerous tasks where current computer systems fail at present.

By standard definition, A.I. is put as this: Artificial intelligence is a sub-field of computer science. Its main goal is to enable the development of computers that are able to do things that are normally done by people. The main concept is to create a machine or computer that can react to a decision making process similar to what human like intelligence would, so it can complete a more complicated task that requires a thought out answer.

You would think by that definition we have a long way to go for this to be a reality but already we are using such computers on a daily basis, which many are not aware of. Take Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa for example. One of the first tasks for A.I. research years ago was tackling the code of human speech to computer listening capabilities. That area before it was a reality was such an obstacle to overcome that many researchers in the 90s believed this to be a stumbling block that would take decades to overcome. Now we talk to all our devices and these devices have strong algorithms to decipher our speech and now actually learns from us what our tastes in music are, what our usual uses are for their services, and sometime they can even tell us a joke based on our sense of humor after some learning. If you ask me we have already begun cracking the A.I. code on a small scale novelty like starting point already.

Another example of current A.I. lies in every household right under our noses, within our subscription service choices for daily entertainment. Have you ever wondered how Netflix just happens to know your taste in movies, or why the more you use it more films you love and haven't seen in years tend to show up on its recommendations list? Or how about Pandora? If you have used its music service, how is it possible song after song the more you use their service seems to match your listening genres of choice over time? This is all due to the underlying A.I. built within its algorithm, constantly paying attention to your selective choices, computing out the key factors of your decisions and learning what you enjoy the most to be a service to you.

Quantum Physics and A.I.

So it appears we are at the beginning stages of A.I. and more on a level of novelty usage but none the less very useful novelties to make every day use a little easier on people. If people harbor a factor that this is going to be the extent of where A.I. will be for a long time, they aren't factoring in the advancements going on within Quantum computing.

Quantum computers are virtually a huge reality at this stage in 2017 by the math. We are already seeing some advancements in the quantum computing sciences, right now a laptop using this tech is far from a present ability but we are beginning to grasp the reality of using quantum physics on basic levels. The breakthroughs have been enough where many big corporations are starting to put a ton of R&D into grasping the technology and pushing it leaps forward as fast as they can to beat out the competition. Intel and IBM are two of the huge ones battling it out to be the first to break through to a cost effective usage to advance our computer sciences ahead dramatically.

How does quantum physics take play on advancing A.I.? Its simple, the present computing power that we have can produce some basic A.I. functionalities, we can synthesize a few aspects of human learning in computers with the state of the art processors we have in old computer systems at hand but to truly get a self aware or self thinking computer we will need a lot more speed and a lot more power for the thought processes needed to teach these computers on how to teach themselves. The principles of quantum computing lies in the physics of photons. The processing capabilities would mean instead of a processor going from 1 and 0's to decipher information, a quantum equivalent can process by the information past one place at a time and do that in multiples because photons can be at 2 places at a single moment.

In layman's terms it goes like this: The advantage comes when one of those states represents a 1 and the other a 0, forming a quantum bit or qubit. In that case, a single quantum object — an atomic nucleus for example— can perform a calculation on two numbers at the same time. Two nuclei can handle 4 numbers, 3 nuclei 8 numbers and 20 nuclei can perform a calculation using more than a million numbers simultaneously. That’s why even a relatively modest quantum computer could dramatically outperform the most advanced supercomputers today. (used from this article here: https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/first-demonstration-of-artificial-intelligence-on-a-quantum-computer-17a6b9d1c5fb)

If we can harness the potential of this science which is looking a very serious possibility not to far away, we can then in turn have better tools to create the needed advancements for computers built on the processing power to self learn and think in a more real time fashion that will be needed for awareness of their surrounding environment and react to it.

Crypto Blockchain and the A.I. Factor

As you can see, its very possible to head towards A.I. as a reality, and we are getting closer to it in a form past what it is now. If I haven't bored you with the technical aspects and your with me still here at this stage, God Bless you lol. Now you are rewarded with the topic at hand, how can Blockchain technology help advance A.I. usage?

Blockchain technology has its values with data storing and latency advancements towards delivering such data to its processing counterparts. Quantum computers do have a big issue still and may always have it with its speed factor being so advanced that error rates could be an issue to tackle to have something computing stable and giving out the correct answers for tasks an A.I. would need to do correctly.

The beauty of incorporating blockchain technology into A.I. development is this, a computer trying to decide for itself how to do a job asked of it would need a home base data center able to keep up with the speed of its own mind. How? By the utilizing blockchain which has proven useful in factors that may become issues with A.I. usages. Here is the basics of such needed qualities I firmly believe blockchain tech can provide:

Blockchain and Shared Control of Data

* Shared blockchain networks in a decentralized format can provide more space and access for data hosting for A.I. software

* Allows for speedier and more organized date sub hosting so software can compute on what is needed on the blockchain, just like data sharing of miners do in blockchain for transactions.

* If quantum computing is a reality, then A.I. could be hosted within its own blockchain to better utilize store of information so computing can be in real time at end process and learned data can be stored in the blockchain quite like a human stores its information within the brain for later data mining when needed

Data Auditing and Paper Trail for Error Corrections

* Like blockchain does by providing a history of transactions, humans will need a record of information and statistical error checking due to the light speeds that quantum computing can provide. Current data systems would not be able to keep up with such information but I believe if blockchain as well is put on a quantum system it can be a resource to store data statistics so engineers can keep up when possible tweaks to the system are needed. A data dump of sorts within the A.I.'s own blockchain system.

And to add, one key factor we will need before we start putting A.I. chips into autonomous A.I. walking around making life decisions for themselves is security. Cryptography will one day have to be hosted on quantum computers if quantum computers become a wave of the future. A quantum computer will be able to crack the most complex cryptographic code if hosted on a pc of current value so its obvious we will need to take security of cryptography to the quantum level with a rise in a possible mainstream wave of this technology hitting the streets.

This once again lays an answer with blockchain technology and A.I., we will need to protect our A.I. friends doing odd jobs for us and blockchain security could be the answer to the fear of Terminator style robots wreaking havoc in our neighborhoods. You do not want something learning for itself to run amok due to hackers tampering with their set rules of programming, so in the end it seems the blockchain revolution may end up coinciding with the artificial intelligence revolution at the exact same time.

Where can this lead?

Many people inside the A.I. development picture a world where the odd jobs that most don't even want to do can be handled by A.I. workers of all types. This could in turn leave humans to work in areas of creativity more and lighten up the harsh load on humans in the future. Could create a very lazy society or one able to live with harmony in nature due to computing advancements teaching us better avenues to lead our path in the future, one won't know till we cross that bridge in the future.

The fears though of machines taking over in the future are more liking science fiction than science fact. We will always implement safety features in anything we create, humans are more capable to think ahead than we give ourselves credit for and I believe in this science they will proceed with caution. The possibilities are endless and I not only think Crypto came to the human race to provide financial freedom but its technology in many aspects is an awakening to the possibilities of more advancements if put in place correctly.

~sflaherty

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