# ai-bot AI (co)creators of storytelling ... they don't cry during sad stories, but they could tell when you will

<< “Wow,” you think. “Maybe machines will replace human storytellers, just like self-driving cars could take over the roads.” >>

<< Was it possible, [AA] team asked, that machines could identify common emotional arcs in video stories-the typical swings of fortune that have characters struggling through difficult times, triumphing over hardship, falling from grace, or declaring victory over evil? If so, could storytellers use this information to predict how audiences might respond? These questions have resonance for anyone involved in video storytelling, from amateurs posting on YouTube to studio executives. >>

AI in storytelling: Machines as cocreators. MIT. Dec. 11, 2017.  (via McKinsey & Company: Media & Entertainment).

https://www.media.mit.edu/articles/ai-in-storytelling-machines-as-cocreators/

Also

# s-ai: artists and machine intelligence interactions: the Ross' conjecture . Jun 13, 2016.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2016/06/s-ai-artists-and-machine-intelligence.html

# s-ai: A.I. Benjamin: "you'll sell your blood to live" ... Jun 11, 2016.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2016/06/s-ai-benjamin-sell-your-blood-to-live.html

# ai: artificial intelligence AlphaGo becomes its own teacher. Oct 23, 2017.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2017/10/ai-artificial-intelligence-alphago.html

# geo: strange waves from Mayotte

<< On the morning of November 11, just before 9:30 UT, a mysterious rumble rolled around the world. The seismic waves began roughly 15 miles off the shores of Mayotte, a French island sandwiched between Africa and the northern tip of Madagascar. The waves buzzed across Africa, ringing sensors in Zambia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. They traversed vast oceans, humming across Chile, New Zealand, Canada, and even Hawaii nearly 11,000 miles away. >>

<< Yet many features of the waves are remarkably weird-from their surprisingly monotone, low-frequency “ring” to their global spread. >>

Maya Wei-Haas. Strange waves rippled around the world, and nobody knows why. Nov28, 2018.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/11/strange-earthquake-waves-rippled-around-world-earth-geology/

# gst: predicting tornadoes 3 weeks in advance

<< While meteorologists and computer models do reasonably well in forecasting severe thunderstorm activity up to a week in advance, their forecasts are less reliable in the 2‐ to 5‐week time frame. >>

AA << develop a technique that can accurately forecast severe thunderstorm activity in this time frame by using knowledge of the current state of weather in the tropics (the Madden ‐ Julian Oscillation). >>

Anne Manning. Researchers rise to challenge of predicting hail, tornadoes three weeks in advance. Colorado State University. Nov 29, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-11-hail-tornadoes-weeks-advance.html

Cory F. Baggett, Kyle M. Nardi, et al.  Skillful Subseasonal Forecasts of Weekly Tornado and Hail Activity Using the Madden‐Julian Oscillation. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. Nov 12, 2018 doi: 10.1029/2018JD029059

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2018JD029059  

The Madden–Julian oscillation

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madden%E2%80%93Julian_oscillation

# acad: oops! a database of more than 18,000 retracted scientific papers and conference abstracts has been released

<< Nearly a decade ago, headlines highlighted a disturbing trend in science: The number of articles retracted by journals had increased 10-fold during the previous 10 years. >>

<<  It is not a perfect window into the world of retractions. Not all publishers, for instance, publicize or clearly label papers they have retracted, or explain why they did so. And determining which author is responsible for a paper's fatal flaws can be difficult. >>

Jeffrey Brainard, Jia You. What a massive database of retracted papers reveals about science publishing's 'death penalty'. Science. Oct. 25, 2018

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/what-massive-database-retracted-papers-reveals-about-science-publishing-s-death-penalty

Searchable database of more than 18,000 retracted papers and conference abstracts dating back to the 1970s

http://retractiondatabase.org/RetractionSearch.aspx?

the blog Retraction Watch, by Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus.

https://retractionwatch.com/

# game: cooperation and trust; cooperative behaviors (mediated by MDMA) without gullibility

<< Social decision-making is fundamental for successful functioning, and can be affected in psychiatric illness and by serotoninergic modulation. The Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) is the archetypal paradigm to model cooperation and trust. However, the effect of serotonergic enhancement is poorly characterised, and its influence on the effect of variations in opponent behaviour unknown. >>

<< MDMA [3,4-Methyl​ene dioxy​ methamphetamine ] increased cooperative behaviour when playing trustworthy opponents. Underlying this was a change in brain activity of regions linked to social cognition. [AA]  findings highlight the context-specific nature of MDMA's effect on social decision-making. >>

Anthony S Gabay, Matthew J Kempton, et al. MDMA increases cooperation and recruitment of social brain areas when playing trustworthy players in an iterated Prisoner's Dilemma. Journal of Neuroscience.  Nov 19,  2018, 1276-18. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1276-18.2018.

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2018/11/16/JNEUROSCI.1276-18.2018

MDMA makes people cooperative, but not gullible.  King's College London. Nov 19, 2018.

https://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2018-11-mdma-people-cooperative-gullible.html

MDMA  [3,4-Methyl​ene dioxy​ methamphetamine ]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA

# tech: terrestrial UFOs around us, by electroaerodynamics (ionic wind)

<< MIT engineers have built and flown the first-ever plane with no moving parts. Instead of propellers or turbines, the light aircraft is powered by an “ionic wind” - a silent but mighty flow of ions that is produced aboard the plane, and that generates enough thrust to propel the plane over a sustained, steady flight. >>

Jennifer Chu. MIT engineers fly first-ever plane with no moving parts.
The silent, lightweight aircraft doesn’t depend on fossil fuels or batteries. MIT News Office. Nov 21, 2018.

http://news.mit.edu/2018/first-ionic-wind-plane-no-moving-parts-1121

Haofeng Xu, Yiou He, et al.  Flight of an aeroplane with solid-state propulsion.  Nature. volume 563, pages 532–535 (2018).

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0707-9

# brain: about high creative abilities ...

<< Creative tasks range from what researchers call “little-c” creativity – making a website, crafting a birthday present or coming up with a funny joke – to “Big-C” creativity: writing a speech, composing a poem or designing a scientific experiment. >>

<< Recent evidence suggests that creativity involves a complex interplay between spontaneous and controlled thinking – the ability to both spontaneously brainstorm ideas and deliberately evaluate them to determine whether they’ll actually work. >>

AA << examined whether a person’s creative thinking ability can be explained, in part, by a connection between three brain networks. >>

Roger Beaty. New study reveals why some people are more creative than others. Harvard University. Jan 15, 2018.

https://theconversation.com/new-study-reveals-why-some-people-are-more-creative-than-others-90065

<< The findings thus reveal a whole-brain network associated with high-creative ability comprised of cortical hubs within default, salience, and executive systems-intrinsic functional networks that tend to work in opposition-suggesting that highly creative people are characterized by the ability to simultaneously engage these large-scale brain networks. >>

Roger E. Beaty, Yoed N. Kenett, et al. Robust prediction of individual creative ability from brain functional connectivity. PNAS Jan 30, 2018 115 (5) 1087-1092;  doi: 10.1073/pnas.1713532115.

http://www.pnas.org/content/115/5/1087