I am back, writing stories

Palympsestuos Ithaca To Memory Literature

Out of metaphor, both the ideas of an abstract geological substratum to be gradually dissected and of a territorial plane conceived as palimpsest/hypertext to be unfolded, converged in the definition of sub-urbanism...http://thecityasaproject.org/2011/09/underground-observatories-on-marots-palympsestuos-ithaca/

Βαθυκύανο της Αυθάδειας

Νότια του Άτλαντα.

Φωνές, τύμπανα και μαράκες·
καμήλες που προχωρούν αργά, σαν να μετρούν τον χρόνο.
Και άντρες μπλε
ρούχα μπλε, δέρμα μπλε, βλέμμα μπλε·
μια υπεροπτική αυθάδεια, ήσυχη και αρχαία.

Σουκς χωρίς βιτρίνες, χωρίς επιγραφές·
μόνο μπαχάρια, δροσιές και χρώματα.
Μαλλιά βαμμένα σε πορφυρό, βαθύ κυανό, ηλιοκίτρινο και μαύρο.
Καλάθια που πλέκονται αργά
κι έτσι, τα αντικείμενα αποκτούν αξιοπρέπεια.

Ωδή στον Άνθρωπο.

Ο άντρας στέκει ήρεμος στα εμπορεύματά του.
Δημιουργός.
Μόνο αυτός γνωρίζει πόσο κοντά μπορεί να φτάσει κανείς το μυστικό του.
Τιμητικό να μην τον ξεγελάσουν.

Επικλήσεις τυφλών.
Λέξεις, ήχοι και γεγονότα που δεν τέμνονται.
Η επανάληψη της ίδιας επίκλησης
χαρακτηρίζει εκείνον που επικαλείται.

Ζητιάνοι τυποποιημένες φράσεις, εισπράξεις.
Το σάλιο του μαραμπού.
Το δικό μου νόμισμα.

Μπαίνεις στη δροσιά του σπιτιού, κλείνεις την πόρτα
και για ένα λεπτό δεν βλέπεις τίποτα.
Είσαι σαν τους τυφλούς που άφησες πίσω
στους δρόμους και τις πλατείες.

Ανεβαίνεις στις ταράτσες.
Μιναρέδες υψώνονται.
Γυναικείοι ισπανικοί φθόγγοι διαπερνούν τον αέρα.
Περιστέρια.
Τεμπέληδες Άραβες.
Κοκκινομάλληδες Ρώσοι.

Ω, θρυλική πόρνη Καζαμπλάνκα
του φιλιού, του κόκκινου και του άλικου.

Ρούχα Βερβερίνων σε γαλάζια και τοπάζια.
Τριζόνια μέσα στη σιωπή.
Νεκροταφεία φτιαγμένα να δίνουν χαρά στους ζωντανούς.

Ακροτελεύτια έρημος.
Φιτίλια, αποχαιρετισμοί, δρομάκια, κουρέλια, χώμα.

Παραμυθάδες και γραφιάδες.
Κύκλοι ανθρώπων σε ταξινόμηση.
Μπλε πάνω σε καφέ βελούδο.
Πρόσωπα μυθικά.

Ονειρευτής με κούφια υπόληψη.
Ποιητές να τους θαυμάζεις,
γιατί ποτέ δεν βρέθηκε λέξη τους που να διαβάζεται.

Ψωμί σε φρεσκάδα.
Συκοφαντία.
Σεχραζάτ.
Μαντάμ Μινιόν.
Αόρατες πόλεις.

Να μικραίνεις.
Να μεγαλώνεις.

 

a Spontaneous Order

This project by Shahira Hammad envisions a new train station for Vienna, one that would either modify or replace the existing Westbahnhof train station.

The project keeps the existing building, but contaminated with structures that would express a complexity of programs now missing. The project was inspired both from Nature and Culture, and beyond its polemical characteristics it does intend to bring back what in science is called: Spontaneous Order.

It is, evidently, a reaction against excessive rationalism and rationalizations. Yes, it is excessive, but essentially it tries nothing else but to bring the complexities present in Nature into the urban fabric.

In a way the “project” is not really a “project,” since Shahira let what was envisioned come into being “naturally,” almost by itself, expressing not only outer realities, but also inner ones.

We could say that maybe this is an Epimethean work, as opposed to being Promethean, that is, a work in which thought comes afterwards… so the relationship between cause and effect is circular, not linear…

All in all this is an architectural meditation on Time as well, since the structures I envisioned do reflect metamorphosis, the passage of Time, change, ephemerality and even decay… themes, again, neglected by conventional architectures.

the War Water

Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories

“Men might as well project a voyage to the Moon as attempt to employ steam navigation against the stormy North Atlantic Ocean.”
 – Dionysius Lardner, Irish scientific writer and lecturer, 1793-1859

This quote opens Simon Winchester’s latest book, ATLANTIC. The bestselling author of KRAKATOA and THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN has made a career of turning nonfiction accounts into page-turning literature. Now he is taking on the vast infinity that is the Atlantic Ocean in a work that reads like crisp fiction as it covers this immense space through a number of different themes, blending both fact and folklore along the way.

What gives the book even more poignancy is how Winchester interjects his personal experiences into the numerous references he provides regarding the great Atlantic Ocean. Once nicknamed “the pond” by Victorian sailors of the 1600s, this body of water has been the site of famous events and the inspiration for thousands of artistic and literary productions.

Early on in the preface, Winchester mentions the Atlantic Charter of 1941. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the accord that signaled a changing of the guard, with the United States taking over from Britain as titular leader of the Western world. Winchester also refers to the Atlantic Ocean as a body of water that geologists predict will continue to transform in shape and size dramatically. Because of all the change that has taken place with the ocean over thousands of years, it is a reasonable subject that can have its story told in the form of biography.

Winchester indicates that the origins of the Atlantic can be traced as far back as the Jurassic period 195 million years ago. However, it was not until the age of early aquatic explorers that this mighty ocean was discovered and recognized. The voyages of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus are well known. Yet the first European to cross the Atlantic and reach the New World was actually a Norse Viking, most likely from Norway. Prior to Columbus reaching the New World, Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci was the first to realize North America as a continent and the Atlantic as a discrete and separate body of water --- an ocean.

Details of the great ships that crossed the Atlantic are covered at length by Winchester, with particular attention given to the HMS Challenger. Initially a warship, the Challenger not only traversed the Atlantic visiting numerous ports along the way but also carried a team of scientists and geologists during its initial three-and-a-half-year voyage. The findings of these men of science included the discovery of hundreds of specimens --- both animal and plant --- many of which still exist today. This was a formidable intellectual achievement that opened up the world and was the most comprehensive study of an ocean ever undertaken.

ATLANTIC provides proof of the indelible inspiration the Atlantic Ocean has made in the areas of arts and literature. Thousands of poems, stories and artistic achievements claim the ocean as their muse. Among Winchester’s references are the Anglo-Saxon poem “The Seafarer” and numerous writings by the great William Shakespeare that provide some of the first Atlantic-inspired literary works. Architecture along the thousands of Atlantic coastline areas also represents respect for the sea. French composer Claude Debussy titled three of his major works “La mer,” which helped attach the word “Impressionism” to a new style of sea-centered music. Winchester also points out several famous pieces of art, with none more notable than those of English artist J.M.W. Turner, whose “The Wreck of the Minotaur” exemplified the power of the great Atlantic Ocean.

No story of the Atlantic would be complete without outlining the role this body of water has played in the war experience. The Portuguese, the French, the Dutch and the English all sailed ships across the Atlantic during colonization efforts with the intent on beating their opponents to new territories. Winchester regales us with the golden age of pirates on the Atlantic, a term that originated from the Caribbean references to buccaneers and privateers. Writers like Robert Louis Stevenson and Daniel Defoe told of the exploits of these infamous traverses and villains of the Atlantic.

What Simon Winchester does best is to make his biography of the Atlantic Ocean read like a compelling fictional narrative that is never dull. In the hands of a writer with his gifts and talent for phraseology, what could have been an antiseptic textbook type of read is instead an exciting and enthralling literary experience that will appeal to anyone who is interested in history and engaging storytelling.

Kalevala, 1835

The Kalevala (IPA: [ˈkɑlɛʋɑlɑ]) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Finnish and Karelian oral folklore and mythology.

It is regarded as the national epic of Finland and is one of the most significant works of Finnish literature. The Kalevala played an instrumental role in the development of the Finnish national identity, the intensification of Finland's language strife and the growing sense of nationality that ultimately led to Finland's independence from Russia in 1917.

The first version of The Kalevala (called The Old Kalevala) was published in 1835. The version most commonly known today was first published in 1849 and consists of 22,795 verses, divided into fifty songs (Finnish: runot).The title can be interpreted as "The land of Kaleva" or "Kalevia".


Verses 221 to 232 of song forty.

Vaka vanha Väinämöinen itse tuon sanoiksi virkki: "Näistäpä toki tulisi kalanluinen kanteloinen, kun oisi osoajata, soiton luisen laatijata." Kun ei toista tullutkana, ei ollut osoajata, soiton luisen laatijata, vaka vanha Väinämöinen itse loihe laatijaksi, tekijäksi teentelihe.
Väinämöinen, old and steadfast, Answered in the words which follow: "Yet a harp might be constructed Even of the bones of fishes, If there were a skilful workman, Who could from the bones construct it." As no craftsman there was present, And there was no skilful workman Who could make a harp of fishbones, Väinämöinen, old and steadfast, Then began the harp to fashion, And himself the work accomplished.

to Love Alexandrina

“Egypt's Civilization and the Application of GIS in the Protection of Heritage” Exhibition

 The Bibliotheca Alexandrina Antiquities Museum, in collaboration with the Geographic Information System Center, is organizing "Egypt's Civilization and the Application of Geographic Information System in Heritage Protection" Exhibition from 22 to 27 September 2012.

The Exhibition will highlight recent studies determining historical sites and their characteristics, and recording the information gained in a geographic information system and in databases.

In addition, the exhibition aims to provide specific information to partners in different sectors to realize the existence of such sites during maintenance and restoration, as well as assisting national and international organizations, and institutions, whose activities include researching and protecting archaeological and historic sites, and providing them with information related to their work all over Egypt.

Μια Μυθική Κίνηση της Ζωής

Κοιτάζοντας τη Γη από ψηλά, κατάλαβα πως η ζωή πάνω της βρισκόταν παντού και συνιστούσε ένα σύνολο που βρισκόταν σε συνεχή εξελιξη. Το δάσος, το ποτάμι, η έρημος, το παγόβουνο, το νησί, το βουνό και ο ωκεανός όλα αυτά συνυπάρχουν. Το φλαμίνγκο των αλμυρών λιμνών της Αφρικής ή η αρκούδα των παγωμένων πολικών εκτάσεων συγκατοικούν σε αυτήν μαζί με μας, τους ανθρώπους. Κάθε μέρα φυτά, ζώα και άνθρωποι δίνουν μια νέα μορφή στη Γη. Είναι μια μυθική κίνηση της ζωής που συνεχώς με συγκινεί σε κάθε μου ταξίδι όπως και στην πρώτη μου πτήση".

Εναέριες φωτογραφίες που αποκαλύπτουν την ομορφιά και τις οδύνες του πλανήτη. Σχέδια και λέξεις γεμάτες ευαισθησία επικεντρώνονται στην ανθρώπινη ύπαρξη και ανοίγονται στο όνειρο. Μέσα από τις σελίδες αυτού του βιβλίου αναγεννάται ένας άλλος κόσμος, φυσικός και αδελφωμένος. Στο τέλος του βιβλίου επεξηγούνται 100 λέξεις-κλειδιά της αειφόρου και αλληλέγγυας ανάπτυξης.

Samplings from New World

Vesterheim is a national treasure that explores the diversity of American immigration through the lens of Norwegian-American experience, showcases the best in historic and contemporary Norwegian folk and fine arts, and preserves living traditions through classes in Norwegian culture and folk art, including rosemaling (decorative painting), woodcarving and woodworking, knifemaking, and textile arts.

Vesterheim houses over 24,000 artifacts, which include large samplings from the fine, decorative, and folk arts, and the tools and machinery of early agriculture, lumbering, and other immigrant industries. The lives of the people who settled this nation were often as colorful as their folk art and their stories speak through the objects they left behind.

When Norwegian immigrants wrote back to Norway about Vesterheim, their western home, they spoke for countless others from many cultures who helped build a nation in the New World.

Just as Norwegian immigration to America began to peak in 1877, at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, Norwegian Americans began collecting and preserving objects documenting their chapter of the immigrant story, making them pioneers in the preservation of cultural diversity in America.

Today that early collection has grown into Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, an independent not-for-profit organization, and the most comprehensive museum in the United States dedicated to a single immigrant group. Also, Vesterheim is accredited by the American Association of Museums (AAM).

But Vesterheim is more than a world-class museum. It is a cultural center dedicated to preserving living traditions by offering classes in Norwegian folk art and culture, Elderhostels, and special programs for pre-school, elementary, secondary, and college students. Vesterheim also hosts events, lectures, and special exhibitions scheduled throughout the year.

We invite you to visit Vesterheim. Help preserve Norwegian immigrant culture and celebrate the variety of our country's rich ethnic traditions.

to Microsonic mUsic

Realitat’s Microsonic Landscapes use 3-D printing machinery and algorithmic mapping to arrive at physical manifestations of recorded musical sound. These handheld sculptures are unique amongst one another because each represents the formalization of a different musical recording. In this instance, each recording is actually a full-length album; the albums chosen were picked according to Realitat’s musical tastes. Their self-stated mission, to create “an algorithmic exploration of the music we love,” is successfully completed. Each album is copied onto a program called Processing which maps and extrapolates the sounds on each song into coordinates that the 3-D printer can turn into solid mass. The objects are printed in a series of rings, but aside from that, the form taken can vary wildly, with each record registering unique patterns of height, depth, solid, and void. The process employed here represents a direct and literal translation of sound into form. There are no variables or inputs applied to the algorithms that would manipulate or affect the final form.

This project represents a successful attempt at using digital means to map, extrapolate, and formalize musical sound. This process is rendered through the use of digital mapping software and a 3-D printer, creating unique and specific formations with differing patterns of solid and void, as well as height and

an Urban Toy

BLOOM is what its designers call an “urban toy.” It is a “distributed social game and collective ‘gardening’ experience that seeks the engagement of people in order to construct fuzzy BLOOM formations.” These formations are aggregate volumes composed of repeated, identical parts, which the designers refer to as “cells.” These “cells” are designed and fabricated by the designers themselves, Alisa Andrasek of Biothing, and Jose Sanchez of Plethora Project, in London. Meant to contribute an air of jovial democratized design in relation to the 2012 London Olympic Games, BLOOM is representative of the artistic, collective act. Each individual component, as the designers explain, can do nothing on its own, but instead, reach their full and limitless potential when arrayed en masse.

Each of the BLOOM pieces has three potential sites for connection along its outline, enabling it to be compiled both two and three dimensionally. This embedded form of connection, however, is all that is provided to the user, who is free to use as few or as many pieces as they choose to construct an installation. It is the simple combinations inherent between these cells that can potentially produce many different mutations. This project is emblematic of democratic design as seen through the lens of digital fabrication, aggregation, and repetition.
 

a Literal Movement

Breakfast New York City is an interactive installation in Midtown Manhattan that both mimics and responds to interactive movement. Located that the intersection of 32nd Street and 6th Avenue, this installation is a revival of an antique sign technology that utilizes over 40,000 metallic spinning dots on a computerized surface to broadcast messages, including scrolling text and images. Because of its analog technology, the mechanism that is analogous to digital pixels, actually mimics the movement and rotation of pistons on a mechanical engine. The dots are either black or white, depending on which side is exposed, creating a binary that, when taken in aggregate and seen from afar, render images and text. This literal movement, however, from black to white, is done so through mechanical means, creating various clicks, like those made on a typewriter.

The digital systems, however, interrupt the analog by allowing the interface to respond to movement located directly in front of the display. Through these means, the display is able to respond to passersby, traffic, and all manner of stimuli, which then interrupt and dematerialize the scrolled information. This system creates a highly unique, ever-changing display of information that takes on the character of urban life. This project features highly-tactile, digitally derived displays that are manifested through analog, mechanical movements. The installation responds to spontaneous urban life through the articulation and juxtaposition of these digital processes and analog displays. The following video previews the installation in greater detail.

vertical Fragmentation

Border Conditions is an academic and hypothetical project by Manuel Torres, Dimitrie Stefanescun that utilizes parametric folding to achieve complex form in an urban housing project for Utrecht, Netherlands. This project, ‘embodies a virtual study of the process of folding with its conjectural actions (re-folding, unfolding);’ creating architecture from a meta-analysis of the folding technique. 
 Here, form is achieved through the interrelation and formalization of different variables, labeled as: ‘horizontal fragmentation,’ ‘proportion blurring,’ ‘vertical fragmentation,’ and ‘plane abstraction.’ These variables are mapped across the site to create points of reference which are then extrapolated into lines and planes. These planes, when merged with circulation routes, generate form and space. The resulting spaces are then further manipulated by varying the points of connections between planes with regards to connection degree, length, and overall number of connections. This form is then deconstructed; unfolded, laid out, and related to the urban site.
 This project focuses on the digital manifestations- parametric form- that result from an analog process- folding and unfolding- and hows these opposing approaches to making can result in varied architectural space. Through  a process of iteration dependent of parametric values, the designers are able to achieve an architectural complexity based on physical variables that is then overlayed on an existing urban fabric.

vertical Towers

Drawing on Shenzhen’s interconnected qualities, Morphosis‘ 2009 proposal for the Four Towers Into One competition pushes the conventional urban grid to organize a complex system of four interwoven towers. The competition asked for an urban plan that would unify the Headquarters of Shenzhen Media Group, China Construction Bank, China Insurance Group, and Southern & Bosera Funds–the new global faces of Shanghai’s Financial District. Instead of vertically extruding their isolated 2D site footprints to four individual skyscrapers, the strategy of transferring air rights helps to extend the zoning envelopes of each of the projects through an interlaced system resembling a traditional Chinese puzzle.

These otherwise vertical towers overlap at the base, creating multi-dimensional traffic through meeting, office, and green spaces that presents a new icon and philosophy within the Financial District. Like the Chinese puzzle, each project retains its original identity and form while still engaging with the surrounding projects. While Steven Holl won this competition, Morphosis’ intention to create a composition greater than the sum of its parts is successful in the implementation of metaphor and manipulation of the urban grid, symbolizing Shenzhen’s financial potential in the global spectrum.

a Muscle Ski sequence

The Big Sky Ski Lodge designed by Nikita Troufanov at the Illinois Institute of Technology takes cue from the muscle system. Actions of tension, overlap, pushing / pulling are explored both formally and programatically. Working from coarse to fine grain, linear program ‘muscle’ chunks fuse and overlap and then tesselate into cellular aggregations. Spaces and structure are placed in a feedback loop where each informs another, evolving until a desired amount of coherence and unity is achieved.

Hospitality and patrol programs are overlapped and placed in spatial tension against each other through connecting views and geometry. Hospitality space is distributed on 3 half-stories that step up to gain views out into the valley, creating a spatial sequence with plateaus of specific activity and experience.

Site-cast concrete structure becomes expressed by adapting to spacial conditions. Alternating between slab and frame behaviors, deep beams become shallower until they fuse and become slabs, and slabs in turn splinter into beams, branching out and weaving through the building.

across Le Corbusier

The vision of the New Sky Condos by Los Angeles based B+U Architects is to develop a unique spatial experience for each condo unit by, on the one hand, utilizing an L‐shape sectional diagram that maximizes double height spaces and outdoor areas through interlocking the units in plan and in section (an evolution on the Le Corbusier cross section of L’Unite d’Habitation) and simultaneously developing a window typology that aims to dissolve the edges of the window frame creating a unique view to the outside. The window itself is not just a flat aperture but a three dimensional spatial object that shapes the interior walls and aims ones view to key features of the surrounding cityscape. For example it allows for views towards the San Isidro Golf Club to the north and the Ocean to the south even from spaces along the east and west facade of the tower.

The building massing was the result of intersecting several cone shaped towers dividing each floor plan into four discrete segments that coincide with the division of the program on each floor and maximize the exterior surface. The articulation of the exterior of the building is a direct result of the placement and the aiming of the apertures and their relationship between the interior spaces and points in the city. The linear extensions along the window frames create the effect of a “soft” building edge that aims at dissolving the sharp lines of a typical building skyline and creates an iconic addition for Lima.

for Congested Urban Areas

For the green innovative house, architects Achawin Laohavichairat, Montakan Manosong, and Peerapon karunwiwat designed a building that provided infrastructure, urban facilities, green area, and living space. They designed the house for congested urban areas in this case they choose “Metropolitan Bangkok”. Ecological living uses of clean, non-pollution energies, gathering of organic and inorganic waste, creation of green spaces. The green innovative house is designed with self-sufficient considerations planed to take care of the management of energy.

Bangkok area is a congested urban area; there are many types of building such as low-rise building, mid-rise building, and high-rise. The design proposed to use existing building as high rise building that produced the waste pollutions as waste water, rubbish and also use more energy in the day. From the research, the high-rise building produces the waste water 30,000 liter/day. So, according the result, we proposed to design a self-sufficient house that use the waste products to support itself, it becomes a “Zero Energy Living”. It becomes a self-sufficient as “Zero Energy Living” by using the waste products those come from the existing building to support itself in term of energy. In essence a mechanism for living, breathing, producing energy, reusing the waste products, and recycling the waste products those are come from the existing building.

an Apple option

Launched in 2009, Uncommon‘s mission is to offer its clients the option to individualize Apple product accessories with unique designs. Currently, customers have the option to print their own digital photos or featured designs by a selection of artists onto their accessories. Uncommon is the first manufacturer to offer mass customization with proprietary 3D TATT® printing on plastic to customers. Clients may also buy ready-made cases.

For an average price of $40, Uncommon features case designs that are not commonly available in the market. Established in the design world, featured artists Izak Zenou, Yellena James, and Jill Bliss, to name a few, offer a wide selection illustrations easily adored by the typical Apple product user.

Recently featured illustrator Izak Zenou, known for his chic and fun illustrations featuring Paris street life, has a collection of pre-made iPhone cases ready to buy on Uncommon’s website. The cases are examples of Zenou’s iconic illustrations that convey a breezy, fashionable lifestyle–a fresh print to have on beloved Apple products. Uncommon helps promote the work of the best designers in the market, revolutionizing individual expression in everyday accessories through art.

qualitative Values

The studio’s ( Varouzhan Torosdamy, Evan Emery)journey started from investigating some certain aesthetical and architectural qualitative values within a series of 2d drawings derived from a digital scripting software . After some manual modification in the script,  certain qualities were achieved,  that were based on the initial drawing, next step was to  transit those drawings into a  2 ½  D surface and from there forth, into a project scale proposal on a corner site located in west Hollywood California.

We tried many different approaches including warping the 2 ½ D surface around the programmatic generic volumes, but eventually decided it best to  start applying some certain features [some of which are as follows: Specific Edge network system, Deep pleats, de-lamination, face transition, and etc…] from the 2 ½ D surface to a Primitive such as a cube. After some versions we agreed upon mutilating only a corner or one side of the cube rather than the whole object. In order to create an open public plaza, we decided to lift the cube off the raised ground condition in order to open space on the ground level . As a  direct result of this move object  would barely touch the ground; only through some edges and points, which along the cloth like surrounding  edge network and the deep caverns , razor sharp  meandering edges , nested hierarchies within the dome like negative inflations in the bottom surface would create a mesmerizing effect as one would experience in major middle eastern mosques under their domes. In order to maximize the desired effect we decided to reflect our initial drawing from bottom to top of the building contrasting the very formation of the object itself.

online Way

Τα λήμματα της online εγκυκλοπαίδειας που έχει στα σκαριά η αμερικανική εταιρεία Raytheon BBN μοιάζουν με αυτά της Wikipedia, αφού κάθε καταχώριση - για ένα ιστορικό γεγονός, ένα διάσημο πρόσωπο ή κάποιον δημόσιο και ιδιωτικό οργανισμό - περιλαμβάνει ένα λεπτομερές κείμενο, γραμμένο σε απλά αγγλικά με ελάχιστα συντακτικά ή εκφραστικά λάθη. Ωστόσο, το εντυπωσιακό είναι ότι σε καμία καταχώριση δεν έχει παρέμβει ανθρώπινο χέρι, για να προσθέσει τις εκατοντάδες πληροφορίες που αυτό περιέχει.

Αντίθετα, όλα τα λήμματα έχουν δημιουργηθεί από το λογισμικό που έχει αναπτύξει η Raytheon, το οποίο για αυτό τον σκοπό αντλεί στοιχεία από περισσότερα από 40 δημοσιογραφικά σάιτ, αγγλικά, κινεζικά και αραβικά. Μάλιστα, εκτός από το να συντάσσει νέες καταχωρίσεις, το λογισμικό εμπλουτίζει συνεχώς τα ήδη υπάρχοντα λήμματα, από ειδήσεις που εμφανίζονται στις ιστοσελίδες.

Το μόνο ίσως αρνητικό είναι πως η εγκυκλοπαίδεια αυτή δεν θα είναι ανοικτής πρόσβασης. Αντίθετα, αυτοί που θα ξεκινήσουν να τη χρησιμοποιούν σε λίγους μήνες, είναι οι αναλυτές των διάφορων υπηρεσιών πληροφοριών των ΗΠΑ. Με σκοπό οι αναλυτές να εξοικονομούν χρόνο όταν ετοιμάζουν τις μελέτες τους, θα μπορούν να συμβουλεύονται την εγκυκλοπαίδεια για να πάρουν μία ιδέα για τα άτομα, τα κράτη ή τις οργανώσεις που εμπλέκονται σε κάθε ανάλυση. Μάλιστα, σύντομα το λογισμικό θα αντλεί υλικό από εκατοντάδες ιστοσελίδες, και από ακόμη περισσότερες γλώσσες. Επίσης, θα αξιοποιεί μία τεχνολογία αναγνώρισης φωνής, για να «ενημερώνεται» και από τηλεοπτικούς σταθμούς.

Αν και μπορεί κάλλιστα κανείς να αμφιβάλλει για τα οφέλη από τη συγκεκριμένη εφαρμογή του λογισμικού, η αλήθεια είναι ότι το πρόγραμμα αποτελεί ένα σημαντικό επίτευγμα στην προσπάθεια των επιστημόνων εδώ και δεκαετίες να «προικίσουν» τα μηχανήματα με νοημοσύνη, για να διαβάζουν όπως περίπου και ο άνθρωπος. Το πρόγραμμα αναπτύχθηκε με χρηματοδότηση της Υπηρεσίας Αμυντικών Προηγμένων Ερευνητικών Προγραμμάτων (Darpa) και αντιλαμβάνεται κάθε κύριο όνομα, περιοχή ιστορικό γεγονός ή περιοχή ως «οντότητα».

Αυτό του δίνει τη δυνατότητα να αντιπαραβάλλει διάφορες «οντότητες», βρίσκοντας τις μεταξύ τους σχέσεις. Έτσι, για παράδειγμα μπορεί να καταλαβαίνει ότι η φράση «η Μαρία Ζάννου είχε παντρευτεί τον Γιώργο Σεφέρη» είναι ισοδύναμη με την «η Μαρία Ζάννου ήταν σύζυγος του Γιώργο Σεφέρη», και δεν τις συγχέει.

Βέβαια, υποστηρίζει η Raytheon, το πρόγραμμα χρειάζεται βελτιώσεις όπως, όταν εντοπίζει σε διάφορα σάιτ αντιφατικές πληροφορίες για το ίδιο λήμμα, να καταφέρνει να κρίνει ποιες από αυτές είναι οι αξιόπιστες. Επίσης, το «στοίχημα» στο μέλλον είναι να μπορεί να καταλάβει πότε μία ανάρτηση περιέχει ψευδή στοιχεία επειδή αυτός που την έγραψε ήθελε να κάνει χιούμορ ή απλώς να υπερβάλλει. Βελτιώσεις που μακάρι να οδηγήσουν και σε περισσότερες εφαρμογές, όπως σε εκπαιδευτικά πρότζεκτ.