Ángel Casas Pescador

Through Another Lens

- Introduction -
Posts

Neural Machine Translation

Artificial intelligence has seen a rise in popularity, over the past few years, due to the development of new architectures and increased availability of data.
It is my intent to begin a series of posts describing some of the biggest achievements of machine learning algorithms with the help of some famous examples. This posts are the work of a machine learning student with the strong intention and risk of entering the A.I. field. Being this my own subjective experience in the field mistakes are assured. So, in an attempt to learn from my mistakes it is my wish, for anyone who can comment about my posts, to point out this flaws or simply to give further information or personal thoughts. I apologize in advanced for the lengthy introduction and, while keeping this in mind, lets get started.

Great Pioneers

Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing


Two great minds of the 19-20th Century both were incredible mathematicians and presented the bases of Computer Science and programmable machines. They both produced the very first algorithms to be used by machines setting a milestone in the development of programmable machines. When I first learned about them I was blown away by the precision and clear understanding they had about algorithms and coding knowledge into a machine.
Alan Turing famously proposed what was later to be called as a Universal Turing machine, meaning a machine capable of working on one task but with the capacity to change its programming to work on a wide range of tasks(Theoretically any task which can be done by a human using pen and paper). I recommend reading The Essential Turing to have a clear understanding of his ideas for those of you who also love Artificial Intelligence.
In my next post I will continue to go deeper into the history of Machine Learning before moving on to some excellent projects from our recent days. -Participation and ideas to expand this series of posts are welcomed and greatly appreciated -
Work in Progress.

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Posts

Bitcoin Origins

Bitcoin is a new technological innovation providing a solution to a very old problem of how to transact something of value between two or more entities in private and with a mutually trusted means of exchange. Money, which has been a central part of our civilization and of our ability to interact with each other, is now becoming fully digitalized into the internet space. Everytime there has been a new form of transfering value available to broader and broader populations it has ushered in a new era of technological inoovations and an increase in prosperity of it's users. With Bitcoin we are seeing this same revolution happening again, but with this revolution we are being handed a technology which has a global scope we have never seen before. Lets think about some of the implications of this:

  • With a global audience you can now transfer value between any number of people anywhere in the world.
  • Permission is not needed from a third party to allow a transaction to take place, only the approval of both entities involved.
  • Your money can now be safely stored and accesed from anywhere in the world,which stops the risks from moving money across borders.
  • A completely deflationary commodity with a fixed number of units in existance is for the first time in our history a truly scarce commodity.

The full implications of this will only be clear in the future and for now our most important oportunity is to bring awareness and improvements into the Bitcoin ecosystem to allow everyone with a growing interest to understand and to have easy access to such a technological revolution. Before closing this post I want to provide a key set of ideas to keep in mind always when working and trying to understand this technology. Andreas Antonopoulos, a very prominent speaker in the Bitcoin space, has been very precise about this key ideas and serves as a great synthesis to what we will be covering in future posts:

  • Open: Available to anyone.
  • Borderless: Accessible from anywhere.
  • Decentralized: No single point of power concentration which can be exploited.
  • Censorship-resistant: Inaccesible to any form of control or suppression.
  • Neutral: Provides a useful service without any implications in political or moral landscapes.

As a closure to this first post I want to bring into your attention a detail about the original inventor of Bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym of the mind (or group of minds) behind the initial development of Bitcoin in 2009 and, to this date, remain anonymous and will probably remain that way for the forseeable future. In my next post titled BitcoinLiberal I will be going into a little more detail about how Bitcoin was concieved and its evolution during this ten years. Remember, any new technological innovation requires some initial time to be devoted towards understanding it so allow yourself to be puzzled by this amazing development without loosing track of its main usefulness which, in this global landscape of central banks and cyclical debt spiral, is to free every individual from the devaluation of their savings by central banks controling money printing through Quantitative Easing.

Please comment any suggestions or improvements I may have been unaware of and lets improve our understanding together!

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Posts

Check

- Work In Progress - Check App Image

Check is an attempt to answer an old question: How can I keep someone loved motivated to keep improving? The answer we want to bring into reality is by transfering value into every objective you set yourself, and getting rewarded by fulfilling it!

With this project I decided to implement Bitcoin as a source of payments while still including the more trusted systems such as PayPal. Bitcoin shows us how easy it can be to transfer money without any hustle or worries which prevalent systems like Credit Cards or PayPal bring such as problems with confirmations or withdrawal denials. Once you set up a Bitcoin wallet you are ready to start setting some objectives and choosing an appropiate reward for completing it.

If you are interested in finding out how this app works then you should probably check it out for yourself, here is the oficial link.

Books
Personal Selection
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. - Nick Bostrom
Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies is a 2014 book by the Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom from the University of Oxford.

It argues that if machine brains surpass human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could replace humans as the dominant lifeform on Earth.

Sufficiently intelligent machines could improve their own capabilities faster than human computer scientists, and the outcome could be an existential catastrophe for humans.

Bostrom's book has been translated into many languages and is available as an audiobook.

Source
Think Python - Allen B. Downey
Think Python - Allen B. Downey

Think Python is an introduction to Python programming for beginners.

It starts with basic concepts of programming, and is carefully designed to define all terms when they are first used and to develop each new concept in a logical progression.

Larger pieces, like recursion and object-oriented programming are divided into a sequence of smaller steps and introduced over the course of several chapters.

Mastering Bitcoin - Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas M. Antonopoulos

Want to join the technological revolution that's taking the world of finance by storm?

Mastering Bitcoin is your guide through the seemingly complex world of bitcoin, providing the requisite knowledge to help you participate in the internet of money.

Whether you're building the next killer app, investing in a startup, or simply curious about the technology, this practical book is essential reading.

Bitcoin, the first successful decentralized digital currency, is still in its infancy and it's already spawned a multi-billion dollar global economy.

This economy is open to anyone with the knowledge and passion to participate. Mastering Bitcoin provides you with the knowledge you need (passion not included).

Source
Eloquent Javascript - Marijn Haverbeke
Eloquent Javascript by Marijn Haverbeke

This is a book about JavaScript, programming, and the wonders of the digital.

Source
Surely you're joking Mr Feynman - Richard P. Feynman
Surely you're joking Mr Feynman -  Richard P. Feynman

Richard Feynman, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, thrived on outrageous adventures.

Here he recounts in his inimitable voice his experience trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek;

cracking the uncrackable safes guarding the most deeply held nuclear secrets; accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums; painting a naked female toreador.

In short, here is Feynman's life in all its eccentric—a combustible mixture of high intelligence, unlimited curiosity, and raging chutzpah.

Plant Intelligence and the Imagina Realm - Stephen Harrod Buhner
Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm - Stephen Harrod Buhner

In Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm, Stephen Harrod Buhner reveals that all life forms on Earth possess intelligence, language, a sense of I and not I, and the capacity to dream.

He shows that by consciously opening the doors of perception, we can reconnect with the living intelligences in Nature as kindred beings, become again wild scientists, nondomesticated explorers of a Gaian world just as Goethe, Barbara McClintock, James Lovelock, and others have done.

For as Einstein commented, “We cannot solve the problems facing us by using the same kind of thinking that created them.”

Source
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Ángel Casas Pescador

Currently working on improving my knowledge about Machine Learning and Deep Learning which makes this blog an informative and pedagogical experience.
To achieve this I have been enrolled in some specific Online Courses, related to the field of Artificial Intelligence.
This has lead me to achieve a small level of competence on this field of knowledge which I only wish to expand as I go on.
Being inclined from an early age to uncover the structure of how a computer works, this curiosity allows me to progressively achieve an articulated view of Computer Science.

Achievements: Successfully completed the following Courses:

Projects are a big part of advancing my understanding about any topic which is why I have placed all my works in a single page for easy access.