Bill Hibbard
Encyclopedia
Bill Hibbard is a scientist
at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
Space Science and Engineering Center
working on visualization
and machine intelligence. He is principal author
of the Vis5D
, Cave5D
and VisAD
open source
visualization systems. Vis5D was the first open source 3-D visualization system and is the leading system for animated 3-D visualization of weather simulations. Cave5D is the most widely used software system for scientific visualization in immersive virtual reality. VisAD is the leading visualization system written in Java.
. He describes how new technologies of life and mind will develop during the twenty first century and can bring great benefits to humans. He warns that these technologies also threaten to bring radical inequality to human society, and that this threat must be resisted by educating the public about these technologies and building a widespread political movement to protect general human interests. His book makes the case that humans will create machines with much greater than human intelligence during the twenty first century. It argues that reinforcement learning
is essential to intelligence and that the reinforcement values necessary for this learning are just what we call emotions. The book also explains how super-intelligent machines can be a great benefit or a great threat to humans, and says that designing machines with the emotion of love
for all humans is the key to getting the benefit and avoiding the threat. The book also discusses the prospect of humans themselves becoming super-intelligent.
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
Space Science and Engineering Center
Space Science and Engineering Center
The Space Science and Engineering Center is a research and development center with primary focus on geophysical research and technology to enhance understanding of the atmosphere of Earth, the other planets in our Solar System, and the cosmos...
working on visualization
Scientific visualization
Scientific visualization is an interdisciplinary branch of science according to Friendly "primarily concerned with the visualization of three-dimensional phenomena , where the emphasis is on realistic renderings of volumes, surfaces, illumination sources, and so forth, perhaps...
and machine intelligence. He is principal author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of the Vis5D
Vis5D
Vis5D is a 3-D visualization system used primarily for animated 3-D visualization of weather simulations. It was the first system to produce fully interactive animated 3-D displays of time-dynamic volumetric data sets and the first open source 3-D visualization system.-Design:Vis5D was created in...
, Cave5D
Cave5D
Cave5D is an adaptation of Vis5D to the CAVE for immersive virtual reality.-Bibliography:* W. Hibbard, J. Anderson, I. Foster, B. Paul, R. Jacob, C. Schafer, and M. Tyree, Exploring Coupled Atmosphere-Ocean Models Using Vis5D, Int. J. of Supercomputer Applications 10, no. 2, 1996,...
and VisAD
VisAD
VisAD is a Java component library for interactive and collaborative visualization and analysis of numerical data. It combines a flexible data model and distributed objects to support sharing of data, visualizations and user interfaces between different data sources, different computers and...
open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
visualization systems. Vis5D was the first open source 3-D visualization system and is the leading system for animated 3-D visualization of weather simulations. Cave5D is the most widely used software system for scientific visualization in immersive virtual reality. VisAD is the leading visualization system written in Java.
Writings on artificial intelligence
Bill Hibbard is also author of the book Super-Intelligent Machines and several articles about the Technological SingularityTechnological singularity
Technological singularity refers to the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. Since the capabilities of such an intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, the occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as...
. He describes how new technologies of life and mind will develop during the twenty first century and can bring great benefits to humans. He warns that these technologies also threaten to bring radical inequality to human society, and that this threat must be resisted by educating the public about these technologies and building a widespread political movement to protect general human interests. His book makes the case that humans will create machines with much greater than human intelligence during the twenty first century. It argues that reinforcement learning
Reinforcement learning
Inspired by behaviorist psychology, reinforcement learning is an area of machine learning in computer science, concerned with how an agent ought to take actions in an environment so as to maximize some notion of cumulative reward...
is essential to intelligence and that the reinforcement values necessary for this learning are just what we call emotions. The book also explains how super-intelligent machines can be a great benefit or a great threat to humans, and says that designing machines with the emotion of love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
for all humans is the key to getting the benefit and avoiding the threat. The book also discusses the prospect of humans themselves becoming super-intelligent.