Automata is a website. I chose the name because it represents some special thing that I feel technology has gotten away from.

I intend on writing about anything orthogonal to my personal interests:

• Genetic Algorithms / Genetic Programming
• Capacity Planning / Queue Theory
• Solo Entrepreneurship
• Game AI / Programming Puzzles
• Psychology, particularly as it pertains to decision-making, behaviors and attention

Motivations

It seems that just a few generations ago we as humankind believed that technology would soon free us from our toil. As recently as the 1990s there was a theory that we'd only be working 20hrs or so each week, because developments in robotics and automation would make human labor redundant.

Looking around and taking just an anecdotal survey of the work landscape, I see something entirely different today. I see algorithms opposed to people trying to get by. I see this hyperparameter optimizing sludge, filling in every little statistical crevice to maximize some wealthy corporation's pockets. It's like some sort of fungus. Slowly, it fills up its surroundings in search of nutrients. Then, it spikes out its protoplasm and sucks it all out back to homebase.

What will happen when the fungus gets too large? What happens when humans aren't effective anymore? I'm not talking about this AI singularity you've heard about. I'm talking about plain old-fashioned robots doing repetitive work. When cars drive themselves, what will people who drove for a living do? When kitchen-bots cook any meal in a database in minutes, when solar panels power them all for free, when humans cost too much to exist, what happens then?

The sludge is growing even now.

Contact

I can be reached by opening an issue on my github.