The book introduces the born of computer and Internet. I really loved the idea of collaboration between humans and machines. Although the book did not provide technical detail about how certain devices or machines work, it got me interested and I searched the answer online. The human history is changed and I do not think we can change it back. Even though the ideas and methods are rigorously expressed, the term evolution can still apply to this kind of change. It makes me wonder how the world is changing and how the future will be.

Followings are my reading Note from Innovators:

Wisdom from Eckert

You have to have a whole system that works

A good programmer from Gracer Hopper

translate scientific problems into mathematical equations and then into ordinary English

Book Author

“…the ability to draw ideas from multiple sources, add their own innovations, execute their vision by building a competent team, and have the most influence on the course of subsequent developments.”

innovation is usually a group effort, involving collaboration between visionaries and engineers, and that creativity comes from drawing on many sources

Von Neumann

(from Jennings) “…the ability to pick out, in a particular problem, the one crucial thing that’s important.”

Bob Talyer

“… I didn’t trust large central organizations. it was just in my nature to distrust them.”

Issues

Should intellectual property be shared freely and placed whenever possible into the public domain and open-sourced commons?

The original meaning of ‘hacker’

someone who applies ingenuity to create a clever result, called a ‘hack’

the essence of a ‘hack’ is that it is done quickly and is usually inelegant

Three aspects of hacker culture:

  1. created collaboratively
  2. free and open-source software
  3. based on the belief that computers should be personal and interactive

Wisdom from Vannevar Bush

“Advances in science when put to practical use mean more jobs, higher wages, shorter hours, more abundant crops, more leisure for recreation, for study, for learning how to live without the deadening drudgery which has been the burden of the common man for past ages.”

Wisdom from J.C.R Licklider

“The hope is that, in not too many years, human brains and computing machines will be coupled together very tightly and that the resulting partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought and process data in a way not approached by the information-handling machines we know today

Stewart Brand’s book Whole Eearth Catalog: Access to Tools

“A realm of intimate, personal power is developing-power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested.”

Wisdom from Tim Berners-Lee

“Once you’ve made something with wire an nails, when someone says a chip or circuit has a relay you feel confident using it because you know you could make one. Now kids get a MacBook and regard it as an appliance. They treat it like a refrigerator and expect it to be filled with good things, but they don’t know how it works. They don’t fully understand what I knew, and my parents knew, which was what you could do with a computer was limited only your imagination.”

A truth about innovation

new ideas occur when a lot of random notions churn together until they coalesce.

Wisdom from Jimmy Wales

“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.”

My question

What can we do to maximize the benefits created by technological innovations for humanity?

My observation

There are a lot of utterly nonsense in Chinese education. I have experienced Chinese education first-hand and talked with so many Chinese students so I understand their problems and I know there are many mind traps. For example, believing in superstitious power, “人品”, or something else.

It feels frustrating if you do not have recognition as you deserved but being reticent sometimes could be a better strategy.

In retrospect, I have been ignorant of science and technology for quite a time but now I feel an urge to learn the basic of the things I loved and interested.

There are a lot of things we are privileged to have but are under appreciation

Not so many people are interested in the history of digital revolution, but I think it is important for us who want to create future to learn from past.

Why some lectures are obsessed with the naming? Aren’t those names are man-made? What are the points in memorizing all those names?

So it turns out that web is not as flawless as it seems. Tim Berners-Lee is also a visionary and he understands how to tackle the problem despite of his dislike of magazines on web at first. The result is not always as you think it will turn out to be, but never stop trying.

Successful people seem all have a common trait - intense focus.

What we do in Deep Reinforcement learning could not be artificial intelligence but augmented human intellect.

From the book Ada Forever

“..the future belong to people who can best partner and collaborate with computers”

human-machine symbiosis.

  1. creativity is a collaborative process
  2. the digital age may seem revolutionary, but it was based on expanding the ideas handed down from previous generations
  3. best leadership com from teams that combined people with complementary styles
  4. “product people”
  5. Man is social animal - Aristotle
  6. poetical science (creativity)

这本书讲的是计算机和互联网的诞生。我特别喜欢书里人与机器协作的理念。虽然书里没有讲某些设备或机器具体是怎么工作的技术细节，但它勾起了我的兴趣，我就自己上网去找答案。人类的历史已经被改变了，我觉得我们也不可能再把它改回去。即使这些思想和方法都表达得很严谨，evolution 这个词依然可以用来形容这种变化。这让我不禁去想，世界正在如何变化，未来又会是什么样子。

以下是我读《创新者》的读书笔记：

埃克特的智慧

你必须有一整套能运转起来的系统

格蕾丝·霍珀眼中的好程序员

能把科学问题翻译成数学方程，再翻译成普通的英语

本书作者

“……能够从多种来源汲取想法，加入自己的创新，通过组建一支能干的团队来实现自己的愿景，并对后续的发展进程产生最大影响的能力。”

创新通常是团队合作的结果，需要有远见者和工程师之间的协作，而创造力来自于对多种来源的汲取

冯·诺依曼

（詹宁斯评价）”……能够在一个具体问题中，挑出那一件最关键、最重要的事情的能力。”

鲍勃·泰勒

“……我不信任大型的中央集权组织。不信任它们就是我的天性。”

问题

知识产权是否应该被自由分享，并尽可能地放入公有领域和开源的公共资源中？

“黑客”的本义

指运用聪明才智创造出巧妙成果的人，这种成果被称为”hack”

“hack”的本质在于它完成得很快，而且通常不太优雅

黑客文化的三个方面：

  1. 协作创造
  2. 自由和开源软件
  3. 基于计算机应该是个人化和可交互的这一信念

范内瓦·布什的智慧

“科学的进步一旦付诸实际应用，就意味着更多的工作岗位、更高的工资、更短的工时、更丰富的作物、更多用于娱乐、学习的闲暇，以及学习如何生活而不必承受那种千百年来压在普通人身上、令人麻木的苦役。”

J.C.R. 利克莱德的智慧

“希望在不久的将来，人脑和计算机能够非常紧密地耦合在一起，由此形成的伙伴关系将能以人脑从未有过的方式思考，并以我们今天所知的信息处理机器所无法企及的方式处理数据

斯图尔特·布兰德的书《全球概览：获取工具》

“一个亲密的、个人力量的领域正在形成——个人自主教育、寻找灵感、塑造环境，并与任何感兴趣的人分享其冒险的力量。”

蒂姆·伯纳斯-李的智慧

“一旦你用电线和钉子做过东西，当有人说某个芯片或电路里有个继电器时，你就会很有底气地去用它，因为你知道自己也能做一个。现在的孩子拿到一台 MacBook，只把它当作一件家电。他们像对待冰箱一样对待它，期待里面装满好东西，却不知道它是怎么工作的。他们并不完全理解我所知道的、我父母也知道的那件事：你能用计算机做什么，只受限于你的想象力。”

关于创新的一个真相

新想法往往产生于许多零散的念头不断翻腾，直到最终融合在一起。

吉米·威尔士的智慧

“想象这样一个世界：地球上的每一个人都能免费获取全人类知识的总和。这就是我们正在做的事情。”

我的问题

我们能做些什么，让技术创新为人类带来的益处最大化？

我的观察

中国教育里有很多完全没有意义的东西。我亲身经历过中国教育，也和很多中国学生聊过，所以我理解他们的问题，也知道里面有很多思维陷阱。比如说，相信某种玄学力量，”人品”，或者别的什么东西。

如果没有得到自己应得的认可会让人很沮丧，但有时候保持沉默可能是更好的策略。

回想起来，我有很长一段时间对科学和技术一无所知，但现在我迫切地想去学习那些我热爱和感兴趣的东西的基础知识。

有很多东西我们有幸拥有，却没有好好珍惜

对数字革命历史感兴趣的人不多，但我认为，对于我们这些想要创造未来的人来说，从过去中学习是很重要的。

为什么有些讲座这么执着于名字？那些名字不都是人起的吗？把那些名字全背下来到底有什么意义？

原来网络并不像看上去那样完美无缺。蒂姆·伯纳斯-李也是一个有远见的人，尽管他一开始不喜欢网络上的杂志，但他懂得如何解决问题。结果并不总是如你所想的那样，但永远不要停止尝试。

成功的人似乎都有一个共同的特质——高度专注。

我们在深度强化学习中所做的，也许并不是人工智能，而是增强人类智能。

来自《永远的艾达》一书

“……未来属于那些最善于与计算机合作和协作的人”

人机共生。

  1. 创造力是一个协作的过程
  2. 数字时代看起来是革命性的，但它是建立在拓展前人传承下来的思想之上的
  3. 最好的领导力来自于把风格互补的人结合在一起的团队
  4. “产品人”
  5. 人是社会性动物——亚里士多德
  6. 诗意的科学（创造力）