Many (maybe most of the) people are forced to make a compromise between doing what they feel is the most important, and what is the most practical job, whatever that means. Very often one ends up doing something which is not that bad, while it generates enough money to compensate for the inconvenience. For me this is unacceptable. I think that people are at their best when they can do what they really want.
After graduating from college I started doing research of artificial intelligence, the exact thing I had studied. I was lucky to be able to do what I want. When I was working in this firm, I didn't perceive it like "I get money for doing the work they want me to do". I felt like the money they were giving me enabled me to do what I wanted to do (which happened to be the same thing as what they wanted me to do... until the beginning of this year).
In January 2016 these conditions changed and three months later I was on my own. I continued doing the same things I had been doing the past two years - reading scientific articles, making up theories about how our mind works, programming models of the hypotheses and testing them out. Except nobody was paying me anymore.
I had to look for two things:
How to pay for the rent and food long term (I had savings to cover it for half a year)
How to get people to work with, because if I were to do the research on my own, there would be a big risk (some say it's certain) of getting lost
I was considering enrolling on a PhD study, but I realized that in Prague where I am living, there is not enough people in the academia interested in artificial general intelligence. And moving out of Czech Republic is something I currently don't wanna do. PhD was (barely) solving only the first of the two problems, so I just kept thinking and looking.
While exploring the options I discovered Steem. Since then it was a one big ride. Early mining, unsuccessful experiments with porting the code to GPU to accelerate mining, curating ever increasing number of new posts, disappointment from the July 4th payout and finally the mid-July tenfold increase of Steem's price.
So here I am, realizing that Steem might have just solved step 1 and what more - it might even provide enough money to support a few like minded people. This sounds little bit like the step 2!
This brings me to this idea of a project which has been sitting back in my brain for quite a long time, but the conditions had not been right for it to materialize. Until now. This project, I call it AI Squat, is based on these three ideas:
Flat sharing doesn't have to be just a way how to minimize costs, you can create supportive community whose members are independent, but naturally influencing another's ideas, and are open to collaboration (inspired by Tech Squat).
Search without objectives (see this great presentation) - if you create an unconstrained environment where novelty is supported, you can get improbable solutions to your problems.
Universal basic income - I will be covering the costs for the flat and for food.
I want to bring together creative smart individuals who don't want to waste their effort on unnecessary work
- this is why I am offering food, shelter, and workplace for free, so everybody can do what is the most important for them
I want to create a team which will work together and move forward
- this is why I am offering a share in this project
I want to promote risk taking in order to create an environment where new ideas can be born
I want to create a liberating environment where different ideas could meet and breed together
an environment where nothing is work, or everything is work (interesting read about flow)
What is the goal of the project?
the goal is to create wealth
- material wealth in order to bootstrap this project
- immaterial wealth for the benefit of all
- my personal goal is to understand life, intelligence and myself, and I am excited to meet other like-minded people
- my method is the research of artificial intelligence and using its results for self-improvement
Where is AI Squat located?
we don’t have the place yet, but we are actively looking for a flat in the center of Prague, Czech Republic. Our idea is to have one common room as a workplace plus everybody will have their own room for living
our search is not limited to ordinary flats, it could be an old industrial space which we could recreate for our purpose, as long as there is electricity, water, and heat
Who are you?
Who will be living in AI Squat?
me, @mor (my girlfriend studying AI and working as a junior researcher), and you, you, and you!
we are looking for people who resonate with this idea and would like to join us. The earlier you do, the more influence over the decisions you can have - about the location, about the other people, etc.
I love it! What should I do to join?
write a short description of your plan, what you would like to work on in AI Squat
try to sum up your goals, motivations, why you will be a good member of AI Squat
don’t be afraid to express yourself. We appreciate openness and originality
post this on Steemit with a tag aisquat
Why posting it on Steemit?
Steem community proved to be very open and thoughtful. You will receive a valuable feedback, interesting discussion might spring up
this project wouldn’t exist without Steem, we want to give something back
if you have any questions, ask in the comments, or send me an email
@mor (my girlfriend studying AI and working as a junior researcher), and you, you, and you!
@hr1