W. Daniel Hillis
Encyclopedia
William Daniel "Danny" Hillis (born September 25, 1956, in Baltimore, Maryland
) is an American
inventor, entrepreneur
, and author
. He co-founded Thinking Machines Corporation, a company that developed the Connection Machine
, a parallel
supercomputer designed by Hillis at MIT. He is also co-founder of the Long Now Foundation
, Applied Minds
, Metaweb
, and author of The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work
.
in 1956. His father, William Hillis, was a US Air Force epidemiologist studying hepatitis
in Africa
and relocated with his family through Rwanda
, Burundi
, Zaire
, and Kenya
. He spent a brief part of his childhood in Calcutta, India when his father was a visiting faculty at ISI, Calcutta
. During these years the young Hillis was home schooled by his mother Aryge Briggs Hillis, a biostatistician, and developed an early appreciation for mathematics
and biology
. His younger brother is David Hillis
, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Texas at Austin
, and his sister is Argye E. Hillis, a professor of neurology
at Johns Hopkins University
.
degree in mathematics, followed in 1981 with an MS
degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), specializing in robotics
.
During this time Hillis worked at the MIT Logo Laboratory developing computer hardware and software for children. He designed computer-oriented toys and games for the Milton Bradley Company
, and co-founded Terrapin Software – a producer of computer software for elementary schools. He also built a digital computer composed of Tinkertoys that is on display at the Museum of Science, Boston
.
Hillis' major research, however, was into parallel computing
. Hillis designed the Connection Machine
, a parallel supercomputer; in 1983 Hillis co-founded Thinking Machines Corporation to produce and market supercomputers based on this design. In 1988, continuing this research, Hillis received a PhD
in EECS
from MIT under doctoral adviser Gerald Jay Sussman
.
design into commercial parallel supercomputers, and to explore computational pathways to building artificial intelligence
. Hillis' ambitions are represented by the company's motto: "We're building a machine that will be proud of us," and Hillis' parallel architecture was to be the main component for this task:
In 1996, after a stint at the MIT Media Lab
, Hillis joined Disney full time in the newly created role of Disney Fellow. Later, he accepted the position of Vice President, Research and Development of Walt Disney Imagineering
, the research and development division of The Walt Disney Company
, which Hillis claimed was an early ambition of his:
At Disney, Hillis developed new technologies as well as business strategies for Disney's theme parks, television, motion pictures, Internet and consumer products businesses. He also designed new theme park rides, a full sized walking robot dinosaur and various micro mechanical devices.
, the manager of the Imagineering group. Together, Ferren and Hillis founded Applied Minds
, a company aimed at providing technology and consulting services to firms in an array of industries. In July 2005, Hillis and others from Applied Minds initiated Metaweb Technologies
to develop a semantic data storage infrastructure for the internet, and Freebase
, an "open, shared database of the world's knowledge". Hillis, together with Dr. David B. Agus, created a subsidiary of Applied Minds called Applied Proteomics Inc which designed and prototyped a machine that automates the process of measuring proteomics
for cancer research.
This clock became the Clock of the Long Now
, a name invented by the songwriter and composer, Brian Eno
. Hillis wrote an article for Wired magazine suggesting a clock that would last over 10,000 years. The project led directly to the founding of the Long Now Foundation
in 1996 by Hillis and others, including Stewart Brand
, Brian Eno
, Esther Dyson
, and Mitch Kapor
.
This is not so different from Marvin Minsky
's Society of Mind theory, which holds that mind is a collection of agents, each one taking care of a particular aspect of intelligence, and communicating with one another, exchanging information as required.
Some artificial intelligence theorists have other opinions – that it's not the underlying computational mode that’s crucial, but rather particular algorithms (of reasoning, memory, perception, etc.). Others argue that the right combination of "little things" is needed to give rise to the overall emergent patterns of coordinated activity that constitute real intelligence.
Hillis is one of a small number of people who have made a serious attempt to create such a "thinking machine" and his ambitions are clear:
book "The Pattern on the Stone" attempts to explain concepts from computer science
for laymen using simple language, metaphor and analogy. It moves from Boolean algebra through topics such as information theory
, parallel computing
, cryptography
, algorithms, heuristics, Turing machines, and promising technologies such as quantum computing and emergent systems
.
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
inventor, entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
, and 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:...
. He co-founded Thinking Machines Corporation, a company that developed the Connection Machine
Connection Machine
The Connection Machine was a series of supercomputers that grew out of Danny Hillis' research in the early 1980s at MIT on alternatives to the traditional von Neumann architecture of computation...
, a parallel
Parallel computing
Parallel computing is a form of computation in which many calculations are carried out simultaneously, operating on the principle that large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which are then solved concurrently . There are several different forms of parallel computing: bit-level,...
supercomputer designed by Hillis at MIT. He is also co-founder of the Long Now Foundation
Long Now Foundation
The Long Now Foundation, established in 1996, is a private organization that seeks to become the seed of a very long-term cultural institution. It aims to provide a counterpoint to what it views as today's "faster/cheaper" mindset and to promote "slower/better" thinking...
, Applied Minds
Applied Minds
Applied Minds, Llc. is a company founded in 2000 by ex-Disney Imagineers Danny Hillis and Bran Ferren that provides technology, design, R&D, and consulting services to multiple firms, including General Motors, Intel, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Herman Miller, Harris Corporation, Sony, and...
, Metaweb
Metaweb
Metaweb Technologies, Inc. was a United States company based in San Francisco that developed Freebase, described as an "open, shared database of the world's knowledge". The company was founded by Danny Hillis in July, 2005, and operated in stealth mode until 2007. Metaweb was acquired by Google in...
, and author of The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work
The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work
The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas that Make Computers Work is a book by W. Daniel Hillis, published in 1998 by Basic Books...
.
Early life
Daniel Hillis was born in Baltimore, MarylandMaryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
in 1956. His father, William Hillis, was a US Air Force epidemiologist studying hepatitis
Hepatitis
Hepatitis is a medical condition defined by the inflammation of the liver and characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. The name is from the Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation"...
in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and relocated with his family through Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, Burundi
Burundi
Burundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...
, Zaire
Zaire
The Republic of Zaire was the name of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo between 27 October 1971 and 17 May 1997. The name of Zaire derives from the , itself an adaptation of the Kongo word nzere or nzadi, or "the river that swallows all rivers".-Self-proclaimed Father of the Nation:In...
, and Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
. He spent a brief part of his childhood in Calcutta, India when his father was a visiting faculty at ISI, Calcutta
Indian Statistical Institute
Indian Statistical Institute is a public research institute and university in Kolkata's northern outskirt of Baranagar, India founded by Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in 1931...
. During these years the young Hillis was home schooled by his mother Aryge Briggs Hillis, a biostatistician, and developed an early appreciation for mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
. His younger brother is David Hillis
David Hillis
David Mark Hillis is an American evolutionary biologist, and the Alfred W. Roark Centennial Professor of Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is best known for his studies of molecular evolution, phylogeny, and vertebrate systematics...
, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
, and his sister is Argye E. Hillis, a professor of neurology
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
.
Education and research
In 1978 Hillis graduated from MIT with a BSBachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree in mathematics, followed in 1981 with an MS
Master of Science
A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...
degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), specializing in robotics
Robotics
Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
.
During this time Hillis worked at the MIT Logo Laboratory developing computer hardware and software for children. He designed computer-oriented toys and games for the Milton Bradley Company
Milton Bradley Company
The Milton Bradley Company is an American game company established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States, and in 1987, it purchased Selchow and Righter,...
, and co-founded Terrapin Software – a producer of computer software for elementary schools. He also built a digital computer composed of Tinkertoys that is on display at the Museum of Science, Boston
Museum of Science, Boston
The Museum of Science is a Boston, Massachusetts landmark, located in Science Park, a plot of land spanning the Charles River. Along with over 500 interactive exhibits, the Museum features a number of live presentations throughout the building every day, along with shows at the Charles Hayden...
.
Hillis' major research, however, was into parallel computing
Parallel computing
Parallel computing is a form of computation in which many calculations are carried out simultaneously, operating on the principle that large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which are then solved concurrently . There are several different forms of parallel computing: bit-level,...
. Hillis designed the Connection Machine
Connection Machine
The Connection Machine was a series of supercomputers that grew out of Danny Hillis' research in the early 1980s at MIT on alternatives to the traditional von Neumann architecture of computation...
, a parallel supercomputer; in 1983 Hillis co-founded Thinking Machines Corporation to produce and market supercomputers based on this design. In 1988, continuing this research, Hillis received a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in EECS
EECS
EECS may refer to:* Electrical Engineering & Computer Science* European Energy Certificate System...
from MIT under doctoral adviser Gerald Jay Sussman
Gerald Jay Sussman
Gerald Jay Sussman is the Panasonic Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He received his S.B. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from MIT in 1968 and 1973 respectively. He has been involved in artificial intelligence research at MIT since 1964...
.
Thinking Machines
Hillis co-founded Thinking Machines Corporation in 1983 while doing his doctoral work at MIT. The company was to develop Hillis' Connection MachineConnection Machine
The Connection Machine was a series of supercomputers that grew out of Danny Hillis' research in the early 1980s at MIT on alternatives to the traditional von Neumann architecture of computation...
design into commercial parallel supercomputers, and to explore computational pathways to building artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
. Hillis' ambitions are represented by the company's motto: "We're building a machine that will be proud of us," and Hillis' parallel architecture was to be the main component for this task:
Clearly, the organizing principle of the brain is parallelism. It's using massive parallelism. The information is in the connection between a lot of very simple parallel units working together. So if we built a computer that was more along that system of organization, it would likely be able to do the same kinds of things the brain does.
Disney Imagineering
During 1994, however, Thinking Machines filed for bankruptcy and much of the company was sold. Hillis left Thinking Machines in 1995 to start a small consulting company, DHSH. One of DHSH's clients was The Walt Disney Company.In 1996, after a stint at the MIT Media Lab
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...
, Hillis joined Disney full time in the newly created role of Disney Fellow. Later, he accepted the position of Vice President, Research and Development of Walt Disney Imagineering
Walt Disney Imagineering
Walt Disney Imagineering is the design and development arm of the Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation and construction of Disney theme parks worldwide...
, the research and development division of The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
, which Hillis claimed was an early ambition of his:
I've wanted to work at Disney ever since I was a child... I remember listening to Walt Disney on television describing the 'Imagineers' who designed Disneyland. I decided then that someday I would be an Imagineer. Later, I became interested in a different kind of magic – the magic of computers. Now I finally have the perfect job – bringing computer magic into Disney.
At Disney, Hillis developed new technologies as well as business strategies for Disney's theme parks, television, motion pictures, Internet and consumer products businesses. He also designed new theme park rides, a full sized walking robot dinosaur and various micro mechanical devices.
Applied Minds
Hillis left Disney in 2000, taking with him Bran FerrenBran Ferren
Bran Ferren is a co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Applied Minds and is an American designer of movie and theater special effects.Bran Ferren is the former president of research and development of Walt Disney Imagineering, as well as the co-founder of Associates and Ferren, a visual effects...
, the manager of the Imagineering group. Together, Ferren and Hillis founded Applied Minds
Applied Minds
Applied Minds, Llc. is a company founded in 2000 by ex-Disney Imagineers Danny Hillis and Bran Ferren that provides technology, design, R&D, and consulting services to multiple firms, including General Motors, Intel, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Herman Miller, Harris Corporation, Sony, and...
, a company aimed at providing technology and consulting services to firms in an array of industries. In July 2005, Hillis and others from Applied Minds initiated Metaweb Technologies
Metaweb
Metaweb Technologies, Inc. was a United States company based in San Francisco that developed Freebase, described as an "open, shared database of the world's knowledge". The company was founded by Danny Hillis in July, 2005, and operated in stealth mode until 2007. Metaweb was acquired by Google in...
to develop a semantic data storage infrastructure for the internet, and Freebase
Freebase (database)
Freebase is a large collaborative knowledge base consisting of metadata composed mainly by its community members. It is an online collection of structured data harvested from many sources, including individual 'wiki' contributions. Freebase aims to create a global resource which allows people to...
, an "open, shared database of the world's knowledge". Hillis, together with Dr. David B. Agus, created a subsidiary of Applied Minds called Applied Proteomics Inc which designed and prototyped a machine that automates the process of measuring proteomics
Proteomics
Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins, particularly their structures and functions. Proteins are vital parts of living organisms, as they are the main components of the physiological metabolic pathways of cells. The term "proteomics" was first coined in 1997 to make an analogy with...
for cancer research.
The Long Now Foundation and the Clock of the Long Now
In 1993, with Thinking Machines facing its demise, Hillis wrote about long-term thinking and suggested a project to build a clock designed to function for millennia:
When I was a child, people used to talk about what would happen by the year 2000. Now, thirty years later, they still talk about what will happen by the year 2000. The future has been shrinking by one year per year for my entire life. I think it is time for us to start a long-term project that gets people thinking past the mental barrier of the MillenniumMillenniumA millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....
. I would like to propose a large (think StonehengeStonehengeStonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...
) mechanical clock, powered by seasonal temperature changes. It ticks once a year, bongs once a century, and the cuckoo comes out every millennium.
This clock became the Clock of the Long Now
Clock of the Long Now
The Clock of the Long Now, also called the 10,000-year clock, is a proposed mechanical clock designed to keep time for 10,000 years. The project to build it is part of the Long Now Foundation....
, a name invented by the songwriter and composer, Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
. Hillis wrote an article for Wired magazine suggesting a clock that would last over 10,000 years. The project led directly to the founding of the Long Now Foundation
Long Now Foundation
The Long Now Foundation, established in 1996, is a private organization that seeks to become the seed of a very long-term cultural institution. It aims to provide a counterpoint to what it views as today's "faster/cheaper" mindset and to promote "slower/better" thinking...
in 1996 by Hillis and others, including Stewart Brand
Stewart Brand
Stewart Brand is an American writer, best known as editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. He founded a number of organizations including The WELL, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation...
, Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, Esther Dyson
Esther Dyson
Esther Dyson is a former journalist and Wall Street technology analyst who is a leading angel investor, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and commentator focused on breakthrough innovation in healthcare, government transparency, digital technology, biotechnology, and space...
, and Mitch Kapor
Mitch Kapor
Mitchell David Kapor is the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3. He is also a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and was the first chair of the Mozilla Foundation...
.
Philosophy of mind
Hillis asserts that parallelism itself is approximately the main ingredient of intelligence; that there is not anything else required to make a mind result from a distributed network of processors. Hillis believes that
...intelligence is just a whole lot of little things, thousands of them. And what will happen is we'll learn about each one at a time, and as we do it, machines will be more and more like people. It will be a gradual process, and that's been happening.
This is not so different from Marvin Minsky
Marvin Minsky
Marvin Lee Minsky is an American cognitive scientist in the field of artificial intelligence , co-founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory, and author of several texts on AI and philosophy.-Biography:...
's Society of Mind theory, which holds that mind is a collection of agents, each one taking care of a particular aspect of intelligence, and communicating with one another, exchanging information as required.
Some artificial intelligence theorists have other opinions – that it's not the underlying computational mode that’s crucial, but rather particular algorithms (of reasoning, memory, perception, etc.). Others argue that the right combination of "little things" is needed to give rise to the overall emergent patterns of coordinated activity that constitute real intelligence.
Hillis is one of a small number of people who have made a serious attempt to create such a "thinking machine" and his ambitions are clear:
"I'd like to find a way for consciousness to transcend human flesh. Building a thinking machine is really a search for a kind of Earthly immortality. Something much more intelligent than we can exist. Making a thinking machine is my way to reach out to that."
"The Pattern on the Stone"
Hillis' 1998 popular sciencePopular science
Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is broad-ranging, often written by scientists as well as journalists, and is presented in many...
book "The Pattern on the Stone" attempts to explain concepts from computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
for laymen using simple language, metaphor and analogy. It moves from Boolean algebra through topics such as information theory
Information theory
Information theory is a branch of applied mathematics and electrical engineering involving the quantification of information. Information theory was developed by Claude E. Shannon to find fundamental limits on signal processing operations such as compressing data and on reliably storing and...
, parallel computing
Parallel computing
Parallel computing is a form of computation in which many calculations are carried out simultaneously, operating on the principle that large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which are then solved concurrently . There are several different forms of parallel computing: bit-level,...
, cryptography
Cryptography
Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...
, algorithms, heuristics, Turing machines, and promising technologies such as quantum computing and emergent systems
Emergence
In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems....
.
External links
- Metaweb Technologies, Inc., a spinoff of Applied Minds
- Original Goertzel bio
- Applied Minds, Inc.
- John Battelle's Searchblog: A Morning with Danny Hillis
- Hillis's Biography at The Long Now Foundation
- Hillis's Biography at Edge.org
- The Rise and Fall of Thinking Machines Corporation, Inc. Magazine, September 1995
- Video snippet of Hillis in 1993 Nova program discussing superstar physicist friend Richard Feynman and asking "Why does spaghetti break in three pieces?"
- 2002 Dan David Prize laureate