Erich Stauffer

Category: Technology

  • The Acceleration of Artificial Intelligence

    Sometime over the last 20 years artificial intelligence has gone from something we laughed about and feared in movies to something that people are now devoting their lives to and view it as a salvation for (or the destruction of) mankind.

    Stock photo representing artificial intelligence by Adobe.
    Stock photo representing artificial intelligence by Adobe.

    Tim Urban at Wait but Why has already written a tome on “The AI Revolution” (Part 1 and 2), which is a very good primer on AI. For a slightly longer read, consider Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. This post is neither.

    This post is meant to describe the acceleration of artificial intelligence development as seen through various news updates and published papers. In the process I hope to convey to you, the reader, how close we are to artificial general intelligence (AGI).

    What is Artificial Intelligence?

    For this post, we are limiting the topic to AGI, which Tim Urban describes as, “a computer that is as smart as a human across the board—a machine that can perform any intellectual task that a human being can.” The problem is that we may not have a good way of quantifying AGI. It’s as if once we’ve achieved any new threshold in AI, humans tend to move the bar higher.

    Once there is a program in existence that does the job, you are inclined to think it’s merely a formula and that isn’t thinking. The very success of me producing a program which exhibits thinking causes you to deny that that can be thinking.” -Dr. Richard W. Hamming (1915-1998) in a lecture from “The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn: Artificial Intelligence – Part I” (April 7, 1995)

    Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler echo this sentiment in their book, Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World, which covers artificial intelligence as “exponential technology”. It’s not just this human bias that hides artificial intelligence’s acceleration, sometimes AI gets written about by other names such as “natural computing”:

    Researchers at UCLA and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan have developed a method to fabricate a self-organized complex device called an atomic switch network that is in many ways similar to a brain or other natural or cognitive computing device…The device we have created is capable of rapidly generating self-organization in a small chip with high speed…Experiments demonstrated that the atomic switch network exhibits emergent behavior…has the potential to process information at very high rates…We plan to move towards a hybrid morphic system using the best of conventional computation with our brain-like device capabilities…This would be a radical step in the real development of AI.” –Scientists develop atomic-scale hardware to implement natural computing, May 13, 2015 by Lisa Zyga

    “Emergent behavior” is when a number of simple entities (agents) operate in an environment, forming more complex behaviors as a collective. This is similar to cellular automata that Stephan Wolfram describes in A New Kind of Science.

    “RMIT University researchers have mimicked the way the human brain processes information with the development of an electronic long-term memory cell. Researchers at the MicroNano Research Facility (MNRF) have built the one of the world’s first electronic multi-state memory cell which mirrors the brain’s ability to simultaneously process and store multiple strands of information. The development brings them closer to imitating key electronic aspects of the human brain — a vital step towards creating a bionic brain.” –Nano memory cell can mimic the brain’s long-term memory, May 12, 2015

    Sometimes, narrow AI technology is created that works in ways that the creator did not intend or does not understand. “He can’t really explain all the reasons it does what it does. It’s started making decisions on its own,” which is a quote from George Hotz in “The First Person to Hack the iPhone Built a Self-Driving Car. In His Garage; George Hotz is taking on Google and Tesla by himself” by Ashlee Vance.

    “He’d devoured the cutting-edge AI research and decided the technology wasn’t that hard to master. Hotz took a job at Vicarious, a highflying AI startup, in January to get a firsthand look at the top work in the field, and this confirmed his suspicions. “I understand the state-of-the-art papers,” he says. “The math is simple. For the first time in my life, I’m like, ‘I know everything there is to know.’” -George Hotz

    The Economics of Artificial Intelligence

    And then there is the economic aspect of AI. More narrow AI such as those used in driverless cars may have the need to buy gas (or electricity) and get maintenance. It can even make money for it’s owner by making deliveries or driving people around.

    The self-driving car then, calculating it has approximately 3.5 hours before it will be required by one of its owners again, logs in to Uber and makes itself available for a 3-hour block as a self-driving resource. It is immediately called out to a pickup, and after 3 hours has earned $180 in fees, which it puts away in its wallet.” -“The Death of Bank Products has been greatly under-exaggerated” by Brett King, an excerpt from the book, Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane.

    What happens when AI starts making money, needs it’s own bank account and credit cards, and needs to be able to make transactions on it’s own? With artificial intelligence, that future is sooner than you might think.

    It’s theoretically possible to write an autonomous self-funded application on Ethereum that earns money to pay for its own execution, or rather its own existence. It might create value by enabling new kinds of markets, for example. Artificial intelligence might help optimize the value it delivers to ensure its own survival. In this case, it’s not just the network that’s unstoppable, but an autonomous agent operating within the network. Cue Skynet joke.” -“Ethereum: Rise of the World Computer” by Rick Seeger.

    Skynet may not be a joke. The United States military is increasingly looking into how artificial intelligence can help supplement drones and fighter jets on the battlefield.

    One new project … is called Avatar, and calls for the Pentagon to pair high-tech “fifth-generation” fighter jets like the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with unmanned versions of older jets like the F-16 Fighting Falcon or F/A-18 Hornet, which would be flown without a pilot for the first time. The Avatar effort was previously called Skyborg by SCO and is known as “the Loyal Wingman” concept in the Air Force, Roper said. The program will require unmanned fighters to act with enough autonomy that the pilot in the manned jet doesn’t have to direct them all the time.” – by Dan Lamothe

    Why are Smart People So Afraid of AI?

    You may have read that Elon Musk is weary of an AGI becoming an artificial super intelligence, which according to Nick Bostrom, could happen minutes to weeks after AGI is established. Elon Musk has read Nick Bostrom’s work and it’s part of why he’s helped create Open AI, a collaborative effort to create an open-source AI.

    The hope with Open AI is to reduce the risk that one person, company, or country could create and control an AI that could cause unintended (or intended) negative consequences. But what types of negative consequences?

    The Paperclip Maximizer

    The “paperclip maximizer” is a thought experiment showing how an artificial general intelligence, even one designed competently and without malice, could ultimately destroy humanity. The thought experiment shows that AIs with apparently innocuous values could pose an existential threat.

    An extremely powerful optimizer (a highly intelligent agent) could seek goals that are completely alien to ours (as humans), and as a side-effect destroy us by consuming resources essential to our survival. I thought it would have been better to use red staplers, but that’s just me. 🙂

    The Rise of Artificial Intelligence

    When I was 14 I called to get a ‘free’ magazine subscription in the mail. The operator asked me what I was interested in and I said ‘artificial intelligence’. Immediately, an unknown man on the line bust out laughing, but quickly contained himself. No one is laughing now.

  • How to Get More Followers on Peach: 5 Ways

    Peach is one of the newest and hottest social media apps, but how do you get more followers on Peach?

    How to Get More Followers on Peach

    1. Post more often

    Peach has a “friend-of-friends” feed that allows you to see what some friends of friends are posting. Appearing regularly in this feed is a great way to build up your friend list. To do that, post often.

    Why? Because each new posts brings you to the top of your friend-of-friends feed, the more friends you have, the bigger your extended network. That will likely be your biggest driver of new friends to your Peach account.

    2. Use your other social media accounts

    You probably already have an existing audience on other social media platforms to help build your Peach following. You can use those other social media platforms to ask people to follow you.

    People are looking for people to follow right now. Now is the time to build your following. This could be the next Vine. Remember to accept the people who add you and interact with everyone.

    3. Create great content

    Like any social media account, you want to create content that people actually want to see, but to get people to follow you, create exclusive content as a way to drive people from platforms like Twitter and Snapchat into Peach.

    Ideas for exclusive content could be insider photos or information that you only share on Peach or even a contest or giveaway to give people a reason to follow you there and interact with you. That brings us to engagement.

    4. Be engaged with your followers

    Like Facebook, users have “friends” on Peach and you must be friends with someone to “like” or comment on their posts. Users can also interact with each other via a multi-faceted interaction menu, similar to Facebook’s old Poke feature, friends can wave, boop and send cake to each other.

    5. Break content up into smaller chunks

    Peach encourages the easy sharing of video, images, gifs and even user-created drawings. The real differentiating factor in the app are Slack-like commands called “Magic Words”. One thing you can do to boost engagement is to break content up into 2–3 short posts instead of one longer one.

    If you have a longer post, try breaking up your posts into 2–3 sections. This lets you appear more times in the feed and thus fuels the “friend-of-friends” feed mentioned in point number 1: Post more often. Happy Peaching!

    You can follow me on peach @erichstauffer. See you there.

  • On Facebook Acquisitions, Predicting the Future, and Messaging

    In the book, How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery, I learned that people aren’t very good at predicting the future, but they are okay at predicting the next thing. Our brains just aren’t wired to take 2 steps at once, but we can make 1 step + 1 more step fairly easily. Because this explanation sounds dumb, you know that it’s true. Let me give you an example from the book:

    Hand a person a box of tacks, a book of matches, and a candle. Ask them to mount the candle on the wall.

    Most people first start by making a shelf of tacks on the wall and then attempting to mount the candle on the shelf. Once they realize the box is empty and they see the shelf they think: I can use the box as a shelf and they correctly mount the box to the shelf with the tacks and put the candle in the box.

    Facebook bought Oculus Rift. Facebook bought Whatsapp.

    Months later we are just now seeing how those first steps are leading to the next steps. Oculus Rift lets people experience virtual worlds with other, real people in real-time. Whatsapp is a messenger platform. Facebook is a social media platform, which also features a heavy game element and already had Messenger. Messaging is already a bigger platform worldwide than social media and is set to grow. Gaming platforms like Steam, Xbox Live, and Battle.net are likely where Facebook is headed with their VR set, but I’m guessing they will have a live-meeting aspect as well.

    I’m rambling now. I don’t know anything. Here’s what I know:

    When I was young I used to have a third place to call my own. It was called “The Blue Lounge“. When that was threatened, I built an outdoor Blue Lounge. When that was taken away, I kept looking. I kept looking for a place that I could meet my friends and have a conversation. I dreamed of a day where I could virtually sit in a room with people just like I could back in the Blue Lounge. Now that day may be approaching.

    But what about coffee?

    I hear you. Get coffee together when you can. We’re not animals. Get out of your storage shed, onto your motorbike, and get down to The Raft to be with other people now and again. It’s good for you – and you just might save the world.

  • How Will Tablets Affect My Kids?

    How Will Tablets Affect My Kids?

    I wondered if I was making the right decision. I didn’t know. Amazon was having a Prime Day. There were going to be sales. My wife said she wanted tablets for the kids. I bought 3.

    What effect would it have on the family? Would they ever talk to me again? How would we keep them from breaking them? How would we keep them safe online? I didn’t know.

    I’m an IT guy, but I wasn’t looking forward to setting up 3 tablets at once (one Mini iPad and 2 Kindle Fire HDs for Kids). I didn’t setup any of them. My wife did it. That was nice.

    What’s changed? My oldest daughter now texts me throughout the day. She asks me weird questions like, “How we will survive when the inventors starve us?” and “How was your day?”

    My second oldest daughter Skypes with her friend in Chicago and sets the tablet next to the computer while she’s playing Minecraft. She already has a webcam. I’m not sure why she does this.

    Kindle Fire HD Kids ReviewMy oldest son likes downloading books and games to read. Books, movies, and TV shows are included in Amazon Prime on the Kindle Fire HD for Kids and parental controls are great.

    Longer movies can be downloaded to view offline while in the car, but we limit their time on the tablets and have them locked via a pin code. We can also set it to turn off at a certain time of night.

    When I came home from work today, the kids were sitting around the dinner table eating pizza and my oldest son showed me his favorite game: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Nice.

    I have no delusions about them somehow becoming smarter or more tech savvy from having the devices, but I have noticed it’s dramatically changed how they interact with the world.

    My son takes pictures with his Fire and shows me a slideshow. I get to see the world from his point of view and see the pride he has in presenting me his work. “That’s the best one!” he says.

    They still greet me when I come home and hug me before they go to bed, but they also come over just to ask me to unlock their tablet (versus asking me for my phone when I get home).

    When I was growing up we had Nintendo and VHS tapes. This is the same thing, replaced instead by apps and instant video streamed over the Internet. Ok, it’s actually quite different.

    Discuss on Hacker News.

  • How to Send and Receive Other Email in Gmail

    The easiest way to use Gmail with your organization is to buy Google Apps, but sometimes that’s not possible. However, there is still a way to use Gmail with your company email address.

    How do I get my email in my Gmail account?

    There are a couple of ways to do this. Your web host may have the option to forward your email to your Gmail address. Check with your company’s IT department to see if this is possible. If that is not possible, the next best option is to have Gmail check the email the way Outlook does using “POP”.

    Gmail SettingsHow do I add a POP email account in Gmail?

    In Gmail, click on the gear ‘settings’ icon and click on “Settings”. Click the tab “Accounts”. Click “Add another email address you own”. A pop up will appear, enter your email address “youremail@yourdomain.com” and click on Next Step. The way this is done varies by web host.

    In the following example, I will be using specific instructions for 1and1 webmail.

    Accounts and Import

    Under Username enter your email address “youremail@yourdomain.com”, enter the password you usually use for your email address. For 1and1 email use POP Server: pop.1and1.com and Port: 995, check the box “always use SSL” and check the “Label Incoming messages”, (Note: if you would like to keep a copy of your emails on your 1and1 server, check the box “Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server.”) and finally click on Add Account.

    Click finish, go back to your inbox, and wait for the confirmation code to be emailed to you. Since it is forwarded to your email, it will come to you. Copy the code and go back into your settings > accounts and add in the confirmation code. You will now also be able to “Send as” this new email. It will be an option in a drop-down menu when composing new emails.

    How would I put this on my cell phone?

    The simplest way is to check it via the Gmail app in your phone after you add it to your Gmail.

    How do we create a signature for it?

    For signatures, you have to setup the signatures in Gmail. In the General tab you can setup a different signature for each email account listed in Settings > Accounts.

    While the Gmail app on your phone won’t show the signature on the screen, it will attach the signature on send. When you go to send an email from your Gmail app in your phone, click your email address. A drop-down list will appear. Choose the email you want to send from and it will use that signature.

  • Information Systems

    A lot of organizations don’t realize how critical how information is stored, retrieved, and utilized.

    Information systems (IS) is the study of complementary networks of hardware and software that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create, and distribute data.

    The study, like Erich Stauffer, bridges business and computer science using the theoretical foundations of information and computation to study various business models and related algorithmic processes within a computer science discipline.

    Information systems are focused upon processing information within organizations, especially within business enterprises, and sharing the benefits with modern society.

    Computer Information Systems

    Computer Information Systems (CIS) – (also known as Management Information System) is a field studying computers and algorithmic processes, including their principles, their software and hardware designs, their applications, and their impact on society while IS emphasizes functionality over design.

    The history of information systems coincides with the history of computer science that began long before the modern discipline of computer science emerged in the twentieth century. Regarding the circulation of information and ideas, numerous legacy information systems still exist today that are continuously updated to promote ethnographic approaches, to ensure data integrity, and to improve the social effectiveness & efficiency of the whole process.

    There are various types of information systems, for example: transaction processing systems, office systems, decision support systems, knowledge management systems, database management systems, and office information systems. Critical to most information systems are information technologies, which are typically designed to enable humans to perform tasks for which the human brain is not well suited, such as: handling large amounts of information, performing complex calculations, and controlling many simultaneous processes.

    Management Information Systems

    A management information system (MIS) – (also known as Computer Information System) provides information that organizations need to manage themselves efficiently and effectively. Management information systems are not only computer systems as these systems encompass three primary components: technology, people (individuals, groups, or organizations), and data (information for decision making).

    Management information systems are distinct from other information systems, in that they are used to analyze and facilitate strategic and operational activities. Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the study of how individuals, groups, and organizations evaluate, design, implement, manage, and utilize systems to generate information to improve efficiency and effectiveness of decision making, including systems termed decision support systems, expert systems, and executive information systems.

    A management information system gives the business managers the information that they need to make decisions. Early business computers were used for simple operations such as tracking inventory, billing, sales, or payroll data, with little detail or structure. Over time, these computer applications became more complex, hardware storage capacities grew, and technologies improved for connecting previously isolated applications. As more data was stored and linked, managers sought greater abstraction as well as greater detail with the aim of creating significant management reports from the raw, stored data.

    Originally, the term “MIS” described applications providing managers with information about sales, inventories, and other data that would help in managing the enterprise. Over time, the term broadened to include: decision support systems, resource management and human resource management, enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise performance management (EPM), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), project management and database retrieval applications.

    An MIS supports a business’ long range plans, providing reports based upon performance analysis in areas critical to those plans, with feedback loops that improve guidance for every aspect of the enterprise, including recruitment and training. MIS not only indicates how various aspects of a business are performing, but also why and where. MIS reports include near-real-time performance of cost centers and projects with detail sufficient for individual accountability.

  • How Distributed Power Production and Storage Is Changing

    We are witnessing a new paradigm in energy production and usage akin to the transition from gas lamps and candles to electric lightbulbs and public utilities. In the late 1800’s building owners installed coal-powered dynamos in basements to provide electricity to the tenants above. Tomorrow, solar power panels on rooftops will provide power for the people below. Two technologies are coalescing to lead to this outcome: advanced battery storage and solar power production. “A distributed energy future is coming.”

    Ramez Naam, computer scientist, futurist, and award-winning author, wrote in April, 2015, “Storage of electricity in large quantities is reaching an inflection point, poised to give a big boost to renewables, to disrupt business models across the electrical industry, and to tap into a market that will eventually top many of tens of billions of dollars per year, and trillions of dollars cumulatively over the coming decades…going from being a novelty, to being suddenly economically extremely sensible. That, in turn, is kicking off a virtuous cycle of new markets opening, new scale, further declining costs, and additional markets opening.”

    Batteries

    “Batteries serve as the connecting piece between multiple energy generation sources…Home batteries can recharge nightly during the lowest-demand, lowest-price periods. Then, during the day, a home might run solely from battery power and rooftop solar. If there is an excess of energy available on the battery, the homeowner might even sell some energy back to the grid. The homeowner’s electric vehicle (battery on wheels) also charges overnight, and could sell some excess energy back onto the grid during peak energy usage periods while plugged in at the office,” said Jeremy Welch, cofounder @WeChrg.

    In February of 2015, Bloomberg reported on Tesla’s plans for home batteries, stating, “Combining solar panels with large, efficient batteries could allow some homeowners to avoid buying electricity from utilities.” That doesn’t necessarily mean being “off the grid”. There are currently advantages and disadvantages to being on and off the grid.

    If your home is still connected to utilities, you are eligible for payment for any energy your home provides back to the grid, but when there is a power outage, your solar panels no longer feed your house. This is to protect line workers who may get shocked from your solar panels backflowing into the lines. However, if you have home batteries those will still work.

    Overall I see the trend going toward more solar and less fossil-fuels. The problem with big power plants is that a third of the energy is lost in transmission, but part of the reason we need transmission is because we don’t have good capacitors/batteries. By creating storage capacity at home, we can get power from a variety of sources and be less dependent on just one.

    This is one possible scenario: each home/business/car becomes a node like a host on a network. Power can be created and shared between nodes at a metered rate. Cars with solar panels might bring home power to add to their home when they get home. Houses soaking up solar all day might feed their car when they get home. Those still connected to a power company can share out unused power.

    “Battery storage and next-generation compressed air are right on the edge of the prices where it becomes profitable to arbitrage shifting electricity prices – filling up batteries with cheap power (from night time sources, abundant wind or solar, or other), and using that stored energy rather than peak priced electricity from natural gas peakers.This arbitrage can happen at either the grid edge (the home or business) or as part of the grid itself. Either way, it taps into a market of potentially 100s of thousands of MWh in the US alone,” said Ramez Naam.

    But how expensive will home batteries be? “A widely reported study at Nature Climate Change finds that, since 2005, electric vehicle battery costs have plunged faster than almost anyone projected, and are now below most forecasts for the year 2020…It’s now in the realm of possibility that we’ll see $100 / kwh lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles by 2020, with some speculating that Tesla’s ‘gigafactory’ will push into sufficient scale to achieve that.”

    Solar Power

    In Western Australia there are a lot of sunny days, so domestic rooftop solar systems are very commonplace now. In California, companies like SolarCity are installing solar panels and guaranteeing you’ll pay less to them than to your electricity provider.

    What utility companies fear is that there will be a tipping point where they the amount of people using solar panels during peak periods will begin to seriously impact their ability to be profitable. As more people go solar, the cost of non-solar is spread amongst the remaining non-solar users and therefore the price goes up. This will only accelerate the move to solar and exacerbate the problem.

    It’s likely power utilities will get in the solar installation business, mimicking SolarCity’s model, and figure out the protocols for how cellular power networks are going to work in the future. That’s likely why they have invested (or attempted to invest) in ‘smart meters’ that can send power back and forth, turn appliances off/on, and monitor electricity usage inside the home/business better. This will enable the sharing of electricity between units in a power network more efficiently.

    However, solar has it’s drawbacks in extreme situations such as during a fire. Solar panels can be a hazard to firefighting operations because the sun doesn’t have a ‘disconnect’. A collapsed roof may bring a tangle of live electrical parts down into the building and create a hazard that persists long after the fire has been suppressed. For example, when disconnected solar panels are ‘open circuit’ the voltages will rise very rapidly. You can actually arc-weld with two fully illuminated 48V panels in parallel.

  • A Day in the Life without a Cell Phone

    I forgot my cell phone today. I left it at home by accident. This is a story about what happened next.

    When I was 16 I thought nothing of driving hours from home without a cell phone. This did not worry me.

    I don’t listen to the radio. Every morning I start out by listening to at least one chapter of the Bible.

    This morning I sat in silence. I kept thinking, “I should listen to a podcast,” and then, “Spotify.”

    I couldn’t listen to either. I couldn’t call anyone to bring me my phone. I just had to sit there and drive.

    When I got to work there were no automatic emails sent to alert my wife that I arrived. I had to email her myself.

    I sent out Google Hangout chat ‘texts’ to my friends to let them know I don’t have my phone and they could text me there.

    I could have brought in my Mac laptop and texted people through iMessage, but I did not. It’s awkward at work.

    My wife emailed me to say that I was missing calls. In one case it was a potential new client, but who knows?

    She said she would drive 45 minutes to give me my phone. I told her not to.

    People are crazy with the phones. -Jerry Seinfeld

    When I went to the bathroom, there was no phone to read. When I got back to my desk, all emails were a surprise.

    My wife emailed me to ask if I could send a friend some cash. I emailed her back to use my phone to do that.

    When I saw a rainbow, there was no camera in my pocket, but this didn’t upset me nearly as much as when I saw a cowboy riding three horses down a busy street during lunch.

    When I thought of something I needed to do, there was no way to email myself. I was only alone.

    When I got locked out of the office, there was no way for me to call someone to come open the door.

    I mentioned to my coworker what I was going through and he said, “That’s everyday for me.” He doesn’t have a smartphone.

    I planned on calling my brother today to ask about getting together with his family this Saturday. That didn’t happen. I sent him an email, but not sure if he checks that.

    This is the reason why modern shows and movies need to have actors lose their cell phones in order to make things more interesting. Cell phones just make everything easier.

  • The Interactive Fiction SMS Text Based App I Never Built

    I wondered if I could build a SMS/text-based interactive fiction (IF) app. This is a story of how I researched the problem, but ultimately failed to actually execute on making one.

    I didn’t know what I was looking for or even if it existed, but I had the desire to play a game via SMS (simple message service) text message that would allow me to unravel a mystery – something that would tell me a story throughout the day as long as I kept interacting with it.

    I was influenced by early childhood memories of reading “choose your own adventure” books and playing point-and-click adventure games like Shadowgate. In both cases the choices you made in the game affect the outcome and this interactivity with the story intrigued me (Note: I’ve written about games like Shadowgate before).

    Cavern of the Evil Wizard

    I did searches for “SMS games” and “text message games”, but couldn’t find anything. I eventually started searching for “text based games” which led me to discover the term “interactive fiction“. I immediately recognized it as the type of games portrayed in Tom Hanks’ Big (Cavern of the Evil Wizard) and the original Leisure Suit Larry.

    A friend of mine had the 1987 MS-DOS game, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards and we would have to hide from his parents to play the game. In the game, Larry is controlled by a text parser that can interpret typed commands like “talk to woman”. You never knew exactly what to say or how the game would react.

    It seemed the interactive fiction community was quite small by Internet standards as I kept running across one name: Andrew Plotkin, who also goes by Zarf. That lead me to download some IF apps on the iPhone and learn about some apps you can use to create your own IF games.

    I looked into Twillio for the SMS gateway, but eventually I learned enough to realize I didn’t really want to make my own IF game. Sometimes I do that. I think I want to do something, like making furniture, designing an app, or designing games, and then once I know how, I stop. That happens sometimes.

    Interactive Fiction Resources