EFTA Document EFTA01777445

From: on behalf of Ben Goertzel Sent: Friday, May 20, 2011 10:36 AM To: Jeffrey Epstein Cc: Ben Goertzel Subject: Re: OpenCog Hong Kong project: next installment of funding needed ;p 240 505 6518 Ben On Friday, May 20, 2011, Jeffrey Epstein <jeevacation@gmail.com> wrote: > number to call?? > On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 9:10 PM, Ben Goertzel < > wrote: > Hi Jeffrey, > The OpenCog Hong Kong project that you funded with $20K last year is > progressing well, and is now in need of another $10K of funding to > keep it going. (Recall that the Hong Kong government funds 90% of the > project, and Novamente LLC's contribution is 10% -- some excellent > leverage.) > I had originally thought that the next funding for the project would > not be needed till August 2011, but it turns out I was misinformed, > and it's actually needed by the end of May! > So, please read this email & the attached insofar as you have time, > and let me know if you're game to donate the additional $10K. If not, > I will explore other options (like my personal credit cards, most > probably). I really can't afford $10K personally right now, and yet > it would be really stupid to let the project die partway through due > to lack of $10K, so.... > Progress on the project has been great, and Dr. Joel Pitt (a colleague > of mine from New Zealand) has relocated to Hong Kong to lead the > project. I'm currently earning a living on a consulting contract for > a US government agency, which pays me enough to live and requires very > little work, enabling me to spend a lot of time collaborating with the > Hong Kong guys. I can't move to HK and keep this US gov't contract, > but I can visit frequently. I was there for 5 weeks in April/May, and > will be there again for all of July. > I have attached to this email some information on the project > -- An overview and summary document, describing what the project goals > are and what we've done so far EFTA_R1_00093318 EFTA01777445 > -- A 2 year roadmap for OpenCog, summarizing what we intend to achieve > in the project by the end of 2012 (largely due to the Hong Kong > project, but also including some other stuff) > -- A long-term roadmap for OpenCog, which is much more speculative but > will remind you of my overall thinking on how this near-term work fits > into the path toward human-level (and beyond) AGI > -- a description of a demo we intend to build over the next few > months, as part of the Hong Kong project, to illustrate some of the Al > functionality achieved > If you have any questions about any of this (or anything else related) > I'm of course happy to talk, my cell is my Google Talk > is S my Skype is end you know my email > In other notes... > -- I recently finished a draft of "Building Better Minds" (my 900 page > book on how to build AGI) and it's under consideration by World > Scientific Press. Cassio (my Brazilian collaborator, whom you met) > is currently carefully editing the draft. I suppose it make most > sense for you to put in the time to read it after it's fully edited > and ready to be published, but I can send you the current draft if > you're interested. The references and figures are still messed up in > the current draft, and it needs more editing (which Cassio is doing) > but the contents are now fully in place ;-) > -- My Hong Kong collaborator Gino Yu and I are planning to put > together a proposal for an "AGI Research Center" at his university in > Hong Kong, with a cost of perhaps US $3M per year. The goal would be > to fund OpenCog and 2 other AGI projects there at a moderate level, > initially with a 4 year commitment. If time permits we'll put that > proposal together in June, and I can send it your way then if you're > curious. > -- You may be curious to know that I have a couple students in > Xiamen, China working on integrating some of Itamar Arel's DeSTIN > computer vision software (remember you met Itamar in Florida, with me > and Cassio) with OpenCog. Currently they're porting it to CUDA so it > can run on GPU supercomputers, which is needed to make it operate > scalably as is needed e.g. for robot vision. > I guess that's all for now. > If you ever get the urge to discuss AGI in person, let me know and we > can get together at your convenience ;) > Also, remember the AGI-11 conference is at the start of August on > Google's campus in Mountain View, if you feel like spending a couple 2 EFTA_R1_00093319 EFTA01777446 > days hearing weird AGI ideas ;) http://agi-conf.org/2011 > Thanks a lot, > Ben > -- > Ben Goertzel, PhD-- > The information contained in this communication is confidential, may > be attorney-client privileged, may constitute inside information, and > is intended only for the use of the addressee. It is the property of > Jeffrey Epstein Unauthorized use, disclosure or copying of this > communication or any part thereof is strictly prohibited and may be > unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please > notify us immediately by return e-mail or by e-mail to > jeevacation@gmail.com, and destroy this communication and all copies > thereof, including all attachments. copyright -all rights reserved Ben Goertzel, PhD CEO, Novamente LLC and Biomind LLC CTO, Genescient Corp Chairman, Humanity+ Adjunct Professor of Cognitive Science, Xiamen University, China Advisor, Singularity University and Singularity Institute "My humanity is a constant self-overcoming" -- Friedrich Nietzsche <?xml version=.0" encoding=TF-8"b <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//0T0 PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DT0s/Propertylist-1.0.dtd"> <plist version=.0"> <dict> <key>date-last-viewed</key> <integer>0</integer> <key>date-received</key> <integer>1305887759</integer> <key>flags</key> <integer>8623750145</integer> <key>gmail-label-ids</key> <array> <integer>22</integer> <integer>2</integer> </array> <key>remote-id</key> <string>1562194string> </dict> </plist> 3 EFTA_R1_00093320 EFTA01777447