Who would fall in love with technology by looking at the code?
Who would understand gravity by looking at the formula?
So why would you enjoy great art & literature by looking at the letters?
Who would start dancing by looking at the notes?
AI-visualised books/content.
Immersive XR experiences.
Education beyond literacy.
Letters are just code, like notes are the code for music. It's about processing and interpreting information. As we move into the augmented age, cutting-edge AI is going to help us visualise data on a completely new level: with intuition and soon-to-be human-like consciousness.
Anyone who has seen the mind-boggling interpretation of the Bauhaus idea Das Totale Tanztheater- a congenial collaboration between Interactive Media Foundation, Artificial Rome and Einstürzende Neubauten -, got a glimpse of what to expect from digital superintelligence in the near future.
MOYO, a Swahili word for life force and magical power, is a non-commercial thought experiment based on the foundations of exponential technologies, as taught at Singularity University.The primary purpose of this moonshot idea is to ask imaginative questions in order to find new answers to one of humanity's global grand challenges: education.
More than 750 million people worldwide are illiterate. With the help of exponential technologies, we will be able to educate illiterates in a way that transcends the alphabet as a means of unlocking human knowledge.
The long-term goal is to provide fully immersive XR experiences beyond literacy. Below a rough phase model based on the 6 D's of Exponentials.
Phase 1: Non-fiction
AI learns to interpret the alphabet on a non-fiction level. Assembling stock imagery, motion and illustration to build a visual story with an automatic voice-over reading text. This will be comparable to the first phase of YouTube - poor results, predominantly fun stuff, space of potential, not yet to be taken seriously.
Phase 2: Deception
AI improves through deep learning (i.a. user feedback or learning from motion picture interpretation), the results are getting better, but the technology is not being used widely yet. Despite massive challenges such as decoding ‚fuzzy’ human language code, AI systems are progressing rapidly when it comes to understanding human language - and with the rise of quantum computing we will get there even faster.
Phase 3: Disruption
AI transcends the tipping point of a production quality beyond human level, outperforming the user-generated video paradigm on social media platforms. As we move into the new paradigm of Zero UI a.k.a. the screenless world, our digital experiences continue to merge with the real world via AR/IoT or nanobots in our bloodstreams. Devices like smartphones and computers will be available for free - supporting the efforts of projects like Loon to bring another 4 billion people online; free internet and free devices for large numbers of illiterate people.
Long-term perspective
Due to exponential improvements in both effectiveness and cost, MOYO will soon move from paid to free content (Demonetisation). Everyone around the globe will have access to AI-generated on-demand visualisations in the cloud -powered by 5G & beyond connectivity (Democratisation). Amazon runs MOYO as a white label service for people who prefer 'watching' books rather than reading them. And anyone who is connected via BCI or nanobots will be able to enjoy the fully immersive XR experience (Dematerialisation). However, tech will never replace but coexist with books.
