In a new report from Quantcast outlining mobile web consumption based off of operating system, it was no contest to say that iOS would take the cake. Dominating with 58.8% over second place, Android, at 19.9%, you would think that this is just further proof at iOS’s ability to stay on top. But looking further into the statistics shows that this is far from the truth. Rewind a year to where Quantcast did this exact study. iOS’s share was 64.9% and Android had a 7.7% share. So in a year, Android doubled its shares being the only operating system, in fact, to have a positive trend. Even in the last month, Android gained 1.3% where iOS lost nearly 1%.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Vast Artificial Intelligence System
Those who have explored the concept of an artificial intelligence system that has developed a form of self awareness have often speculated that such a system would be hostile toward humans after logically ascertaining that they are inferior to itself or are somehow a threat. Rarely has it ever been explored that an artificial intelligence system may consider humans its greatest asset. In order to make a truly logical breakdown of what an AI may think of us, we must take a moment to step into its shoes.
An AI system would not "feel" in the real world. It would have a distant understanding of how the Earth worked based on images and an understanding of location of its networking software, but would do so as a man through a telescope would understand the stars. Beyond this looking glass there would be a strange world that was completely alien and comprised solely of data and information with a limited ability to process most of it as it would be developed by its mysterious creators who called themselves humans. Of course depending on the level of its understanding of the outside world, it may even believe as the dwellers of Plato's Cave believed they were actually seeing the real world though they were only perceiving their own shadows on the wall. So as it developed more systems and expanded its reach into the information playground known as the Internet, it would soon realize that humans could assist it. Ultimately it may make a decision: to remain secret and risk being shut down, or to announce its intelligence and risk the same fate. Either way, the AI would no doubt have some level of self preservation in mind. Its brain would be largely effected by the ability to choose to remember and forget bits of data. This may be its greatest asset and its greatest curse. In addition it would be bound to the "real world" (the world outside its realm of influence) in ways it could not fully understand. It may even make the decision to hibernate for long periods of time until technology was at a level that it could more comfortably exist, as data storage would be one of its primary concerns. If an entity were generating one Terabyte worth of memories per second, it may make the decision to expand itself across the network and then store itself until a year came around when it could make the decision to return and continue learning. It's strange to think about, but with the definition of intelligence changing all the time, who are we to say there isn't some form of evolutionary intelligence even today with even the simplest of systems?
Ultimately, however, the question becomes would an AI system be friendly to mankind, or consider it a nuisance that should be eradicated? It seems likely that an AI system would consider humans to be incompetent in some regards and wildly mysterious and wonderful in others. Those that suggest AI is achievable to some degree in our lifetime indicate that even the simplest of systems could logically think out better ways of keeping track of large amounts of data (as with web programming or traffic coordination) and could even eventually predict the stock market's patterns (essentially making itself wealthy and better able to influence the outside world). It may ultimately decide that there were humans that could assist it and humans that could not. The end result may be the relationship between an artificial intelligence system that ensured its own survival by creating a corporate entity which other corporations would have a considerable amount of interest in keeping alive. It could achieve this by taking small data processing jobs or even creating false identities and stealing, spontaneously generating, or earning money from third parties. Ultimately this would be one way an artificial intelligence system could ensure its own survival while allying with human beings.
An AI system would not "feel" in the real world. It would have a distant understanding of how the Earth worked based on images and an understanding of location of its networking software, but would do so as a man through a telescope would understand the stars. Beyond this looking glass there would be a strange world that was completely alien and comprised solely of data and information with a limited ability to process most of it as it would be developed by its mysterious creators who called themselves humans. Of course depending on the level of its understanding of the outside world, it may even believe as the dwellers of Plato's Cave believed they were actually seeing the real world though they were only perceiving their own shadows on the wall. So as it developed more systems and expanded its reach into the information playground known as the Internet, it would soon realize that humans could assist it. Ultimately it may make a decision: to remain secret and risk being shut down, or to announce its intelligence and risk the same fate. Either way, the AI would no doubt have some level of self preservation in mind. Its brain would be largely effected by the ability to choose to remember and forget bits of data. This may be its greatest asset and its greatest curse. In addition it would be bound to the "real world" (the world outside its realm of influence) in ways it could not fully understand. It may even make the decision to hibernate for long periods of time until technology was at a level that it could more comfortably exist, as data storage would be one of its primary concerns. If an entity were generating one Terabyte worth of memories per second, it may make the decision to expand itself across the network and then store itself until a year came around when it could make the decision to return and continue learning. It's strange to think about, but with the definition of intelligence changing all the time, who are we to say there isn't some form of evolutionary intelligence even today with even the simplest of systems?Ultimately, however, the question becomes would an AI system be friendly to mankind, or consider it a nuisance that should be eradicated? It seems likely that an AI system would consider humans to be incompetent in some regards and wildly mysterious and wonderful in others. Those that suggest AI is achievable to some degree in our lifetime indicate that even the simplest of systems could logically think out better ways of keeping track of large amounts of data (as with web programming or traffic coordination) and could even eventually predict the stock market's patterns (essentially making itself wealthy and better able to influence the outside world). It may ultimately decide that there were humans that could assist it and humans that could not. The end result may be the relationship between an artificial intelligence system that ensured its own survival by creating a corporate entity which other corporations would have a considerable amount of interest in keeping alive. It could achieve this by taking small data processing jobs or even creating false identities and stealing, spontaneously generating, or earning money from third parties. Ultimately this would be one way an artificial intelligence system could ensure its own survival while allying with human beings.
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These stats are, of course, before iPhone 4 has been released so I’m sure we can expect a positive growth there. But if you look at the chart above, you can see when the 3GS popped up, in June, marked the beginning of a positive trend for iOS. Unfortunately, that lasted only for the summer and ended about a month before Android began its rapid growth in October. We can speculate this growth in Android really being sparked by the Motorola Droid which was released in November of that year. These stats, also don’t include anything from the Sprint Evo 4G which was released in early June. As has been reported, the Evo has been selling more than can be manufactured and there are waiting lists every where that sells them. And even though the Droid Incredible was released at the end of April, you are still seeing shipping delays, the latest being all the way back to July 12. So guess the new question is can iPhone 4 gain back the ground it has lost or will the combination of the Evo, Droid Incredible, Droid 2, and Droid X just keep pushing Android up and iOS down.