An October report from NASA discusses how in April, a century long dormancy of the volcano Talang on Sumatra was suddenly broken when smoke rose 1000 meters into the air and covered nearby villages in ashes. UN officials issued a call to all volcanologists to start monitoring Talang immediately.

But… there was already somebody watching. The title of the article, “A Growing Intelligence Around Earth” is enough to catch my attention — the content blows me away: The intelligent satellite Earth Observing 1 (EO1) had, without human intervention, noticed the event and started monitoring the activity all by itself. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

EO-1 is a new breed of satellite that can think for itself. “We programmed it to notice things that change (like the plume of a volcano) and take appropriate action,” Chien explains. EO-1 can re-organize its own priorities to study volcanic eruptions, flash-floods, forest fires, disintegrating sea-ice—in short, anything unexpected.

I don’t know if it’s the effect of adoring 2001: A Space Odyssey — but the mingling of space and artificial intelligence really turns me on, so to speak. Especially considering the viewpoint of the satellite — an overview of the Earth from above.

The idea is of course, as implied by the quotation above — very relevant to safety. Intelligent satellites monitoring natural disasters by birds-eye view have the potential to save millions of lives by spreading the message to relevant parties as they are happening. The article isn’t really clear on whether it can or will serve that purpose — just that it collects data.

Something funny to note regarding the article, the question “Is this real intelligence?” is directed to Steve Chien, leader of JPL’s Artificial Intelligence Group. I just recently wrote a blog entry on 5 reasons why people don’t take A.I. seriously — the doubt of A.I. being “real intelligence” was one of them.

Anyway, todays suggested reading: NASA’s article, A Growing Intelligence Around Earth