About ten years ago, frustrated with my existing home automation system, I decided to write some software myself. I wanted to keep the devices I already had, add the latest gadgets I fancied, and create reasonably complex scripts that would allow everything to work together.
Yes, there were some promising new technologies emerging, but each seemed to demand that I throw away what I already had, lock myself into yet another proprietary ecosystem, and still not offer much more than “when sensor 1 detects motion, switch on light 2.”
Having written compilers and interpreters in the distant past, I decided to create my own home automation scripting language. And so Homylon was born.
For years, it simply ran on my Macs, quietly doing exactly what I wanted. Of course, the thought of sharing it with the world crossed my mind more than once. But, to be fair, the whole thing had become far too complex and too large for one person to turn into something others could actually use.
But this year, two things happened.
First, my Patricia was diagnosed with cancer. We’ve been going through a long and demanding medical journey together, lasting about a year. We’re halfway through now, and I needed something to distract myself from time to time.
Second, I had already been experimenting with AI (have a look at my AI-written magazine, HuddleWorld.com), and the latest models have become really, really good.
Suddenly, thousands upon thousands of lines of code became manageable, maintainable, and expandable. What had seemed like an impossible one-man project was suddenly within reach.
And so, here we are!
Is it finished? Nooooo.
Does it work? Yesssss! :)
Enjoy!
Hoe blijven we de AI's de baas? Ik denk dat het de verkeerde vraag is en dat het antwoord op de juiste vraag ons beschaafder achterlaat.
Een tikfout van vóór mijn geboorte
Sommige lezers kennen mij misschien nog: de toen al half dove practice manager bij Capgemini, in de decennia rond de eeuwwisseling. Ik heb al sinds de jaren '80, onder andere aangedreven door Volmac Vleermuis, kunstmatige intelligentie hoog op mijn aandachtslijstje staan. Ik geniet nu iedere dag van een nieuw versie, nieuwe ideeën of vaak gewoon van het waarmaken wat er al jaren geleden is bedacht, wellicht in een ander jasje.
Mijn doofheid wordt veroorzaakt door DFNA9. Eén fout in één gen, het COCH-gen, dominant overerfelijk. Het werkt langzaam en onverbiddelijk: eerst de hoge tonen, dan de rest en onderweg neemt het ook je evenwichtsorgaan mee. Geen ongeluk, geen pech onderweg. Gewoon een tikfout die al in mij zat op de dag dat ik geboren werd.
Ik begin daarmee omdat ik de vraag "Hoe blijven we de AI's de baas?" daardoor anders hoor dan de meeste mensen en dat mag je gerust letterlijk nemen. Want precies de technologieën waar we blijkbaar bang voor zijn, is wat me mijn gesprekken teruggeeft. Live ondertiteling die met een halve seconde vertraging meeloopt was tien jaar geleden een dure menselijke schrijftolk. Nu is het software op mijn phone en AI-server thuis of in de cloud. Ik had ook kunnen kiezen voor de "robot-variant", een cochlear implant direct aangesloten op je gehoorzenuw. Ik vond het destijds nog niet goed genoeg. En de techniek die de genetische fout zélf kan repareren, CRISPR/Cas9, bestaat ook al. Ze is alleen in dit geval ook nog niet goed genoeg en beschikbaar voor mij en mijn familie.
Voor mij behoren deze 3 technologieën tot dezelfde familie: het zijn de technologieën die ons als biologisch wezen verder kunnen brengen dan de evolutie dat tot nu toe heeft gedaan: beter, robuuster, intelligenter. We zijn er wel blijkbaar bang voor.
Ik ben juist niet bang dat het te hard gaat. Ik vind dat het veel te langzaam gaat.
Talking about AI, almost 20 years ago I wrote this:
” Picture this ::: You wake up. A lot of people are staring at you. You wonder what's going on and try to say something. Regardless how hard you try, you can not make a sound. You want to raise your hand to your mouth to couch. Funny, no feeling of movement too.
You look into the mirror behind the people and see that they are around a 6 foot by 19 inch rack stuffed with equipment with a video camera on top. No you. Weird. The door opens and two guys come in with another huge 19 inch rack. The rack is put tightly next to the other one and two big plugs are connected. One of the people pushes a button and you can read the lips. She says: "Well, let's see what he can do now".
Hereby a first glimpse of my latest project. It's not finished yet but ready for a beta release.
A weekly online magazine. But updated hourly for stock prices, 8 times a day for news, 2 times for company analysis, daily for opinions, weekly for stories. The site is still mostly in English but a lot of articles are in Dutch and Spanish as well.
So that’s the advantage for online versus print but hey, what’s new?
Well, not much. It’s a team of about 20 writers, each one with their own background, opinion, style and habits. Directed, redacted and supervised by Bob Huddle (me :). Only this time my team members are not human. They are robots. Enjoy ! :)
The political landscape that emerged in 2016-2017 now seems like a preview of what was to come. When Trump first entered the spotlight, his peculiarities – from his "tiny hands" to his Twitter tirades – were treated as comedy fodder. Today, after his presidency, a second defeat, and now his controversial return to power, these seem less amusing and more symptomatic of the broader political deterioration we've witnessed.
What started as a ripple in 2017 has become a wave. The "Trumpettes," as we called the European populist leaders who emulated his style, weren't just cover artists – they became headliners in their own right.
The popular narrative around space exploration often focuses on establishing colonies on Mars and the Moon, with figures like Elon Musk promoting these destinations as humanity's backup plan. However, a closer examination reveals that this approach may be misguided, both in its premises and its priorities. Instead, focusing on asteroid mining could offer greater benefits with lower costs and technical barriers.
The argument for Mars colonization often rests on the idea of preserving humanity in case of an Earth-based catastrophe. Yet this reasoning faces several critical flaws.
I have always been deeply fascinated by the phenomena of our universe. Solar and star systems, the Big Bang, black holes, dark energy and matter and especially the theories surrounding quantum fields and relativity intrigued me endlessly.
This fascination brought forth questions that constantly occupied my mind, such as: "What existed before the universe and what comes after?" "Why can’t we properly relate gravity to the other three fundamental forces?" "Why do we know so little about dark matter?" "Will we discover more elementary particles after the Higgs?" "What is spacetime and what happens if it ceases to exist?" — and many more.
These questions are no different from those that have puzzled renowned scientists for decades. Yet, after reading something by Penrose and with a nod to the inspiring TV-series "How the Universe Works", I felt that even his perspective did not present a fully holistic view. Something was still missing, leaving all the above questions unanswered.
I became ambitious. I wanted solutions and extensions of existing theories and although speculative and divergent from the mainstream consensus, still rooted in physics.
To explain the concept of the Omniverse, I propose the existence of a new fundamental and (fermionic) quantum field: the O-field. Unlike the quantum fields we know from modern physics, which exist only within the framework of spacetime, the O-field is more fundamental and omniversal. It exists everywhere — even in regions where spacetime itself does not. Key to its role is the generation of energy through differences in entropy within the field, a process that gives rise to what we perceive as dark energy.
Want to read the full story? Get it here: How The Omniverse Works as PDF or as EPUB here.
Enjoy!
Update: The first version calls the proposed O-particle an O-Quark. While this is an appealing term to most readers, it is misleading to physicists. By definition, a quark has color charge. The O-particle does not. So in the latest version of this booklet, the name of the particle has been changed to O-Fermion. A 1-minute scan and replace, but still it was a mistake. My bad.
Dear EU Leaders,
Donald Trump’s back, and he’s swinging harder than ever. His threat of 50% import tariffs on European goods by June 1, 2025, is a blatant attempt to bully the EU into submission. His playbook—trade wars, NATO ultimatums, and tech dominance—hasn’t changed, but the EU’s response must. The United States, under Trump’s erratic leadership, is no longer the indispensable ally it once claimed to be.
It’s a liability, a protectionist bully that underestimates Europe’s resolve. The upcoming NATO summit in the Netherlands is your chance to show Trump and his team that the EU can stand tall, independent, and unafraid. Here’s a bold, pragmatic strategy to slash Europe’s reliance on the U.S., neutralize Trump’s blackmail, and secure the EU’s economic, military, and geopolitical future. This isn’t about burning bridges—it’s about building a Europe that doesn’t bend to MAGA tantrums.
Read more: Time to Tell Trump: The EU Doesn’t Need You Anymore
With Brexit and Trump as the US president, countries like the UK and US have obviously chosen to go their own way. They don't want the consequences of globalization: free movement of goods, capital, services and people and most importantly like in case of the US, commit to global agreements like the Paris Accord. Instead, they want to make their "countries great again" whatever the consequences are for the rest of the world. Well, they believe that their greatness is automatically beneficial for the rest of the world.
At this very moment, the "rest of the world" does not agree. Leadership of Theresa May and Donald Trump in- and outside of their own countries is challenged by "the rest of the world" with awesome examples of Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel. May and Trump have shred the prime leadership positions of their countries in just a few months after hundreds of years of dominance and they will never get it back in this new world order with a strengthening EU, China, India and a few others. How foolish can anyone be?
Trump's America and a Brexit UK do not really feel like friends anymore. It's more like the former Eu president Tusk once said: "Who needs enimies when you have friends like this?"
Of course any country can do what it wants, it's just that their allies can also choose to spend their time, energy and (trade)money elsewhere when a relation is seriously jeopardized.
Millions and millions of people are hurt physically, emotionally, economically due to the voting and decisionmaking of two very influencial countries like the US and the UK. Personally, putting all emotions aside, it costs me dearly in stability and growth of my savings due to the turbulance of the stockmarkets as a result of the "moves" of Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson.