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Namaskāra!

I am Victor Shepelev

a.k.a @zverok
from Kharkiv, Ukraine
working at VerbIT.ai
open source author and Ruby mentor
SciRuby maintainer
(also poet)

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Understanding the world

With Ruby!

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Let’s start with some questions

Where in the world is Bengaluru?
When was the “3 Idiots” movie first released?
Show me the picture of Bengal Tiger

No, seriously. How you do this in Ruby?

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You do something like this

Find some appropriate API
Find the Ruby gem for this API
Use this gem in your app

Is it so?..

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What those questions may imply

Where in the world is Bengaluru?

What time is there?
What currency is there, what’s it rate to USD?
How far is it from %myplace%?
What’s the weather there?

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So you end up like this

Multiple APIs with different semantics
Multiple gems with they own semantics

(Or no gem at all)

Miriad of incompatible data types

Their own classes, OpenStructs, raw hashes...

Should it be this way?

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What we really want: an easy and idiomatic access to entire world’s common-sense knowledge

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Why?..

Assisted intelligence
Making sense of complicated data
Input data for experiments, demos and play
Because we (should) can!

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Face the Reality

gem install reality --pre

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require 'reality'

require 'reality/miracles'

bengaluru = Reality.wikipedia.get('Bengaluru')

# => #<Reality::Entity wikipedia:en://Bangalore>

bengaluru.describe

# ...

# official_name: Bengaluru

# coordinates: 12°58'0"N 77°34'0"E

# subdivision_type: Country

# subdivision_name: <wikipedia:en://India>

# area_total_km2: 709km²

# elevation_m: 920m

# population_total: 12,339,447people

# ...

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bengaluru.coordinates.timezone.now

# => 2018-02-08 15:50:01

bengaluru.subdivision_name

# => #<Reality::Link wikipedia:en://India>

india = bengaluru.subdivision_name

india.currency_code

# => #<Reality::Currency Indian Rupee (₹, INR)>

india.currency_code.rate_to('USD')

# => 0.015555

kharkiv = Reality.wikipedia.get('Kharkiv')

bengaluru.coordinates.distance(kharkiv)

# => #<Reality::Measure 5,561 km>

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Reality.open_weather_map.query(at: bengaluru).first.describe

# #<Reality::Entity openweathermap://6695236>

# temp: 27.53°C

# pressure: 1,013hPa

# humidity: 44%

# temp_min: 27°C

# temp_max: 28°C

# wind_speed: 2.1m/s

# sunrise: 2018-02-08 06:44:26 +0530

# sunset: 2018-02-08 18:23:32 +0530

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idiots = Reality.wikipedia.get('3 Idiots')

idiots['meta.wikidata']

# => #<Reality::Link wikidata://Q229633>

idiots_wd = idiots['meta.wikidata'].load

idiots_wd.describe

# director: <wikidata://Q3418007 (Rajkumar Hirani)>

# cast member: <wikidata://Q9557 (Aamir Khan)>, ...

# instance of: <wikidata://Q11424 (film)>

# genre: <wikidata://Q859369 (comedy-drama)>

# ...

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aamir = idiots_wd.cast_member.first

# => #<Reality::Link wikidata://Q9557 (Aamir Khan)>

Reality.wikidata.query(cast_member: aamir).all

#<Reality::Link wikidata://Q58619 (Akele Hum Akele Tum)>,

#<Reality::Link wikidata://Q229633 (3 Idiots)>,

#<Reality::Link wikidata://Q283481 (Andaz Apna Apna)>,

#<Reality::Link wikidata://Q283555 (Talaash)>,

#<Reality::Link wikidata://Q369413 (Mann)>,

# ...

Reality.open_street_map

.query(around: aamir.place_of_birth,

aerodrome: 'international', radius: 30_000).first

# => #<Reality::Link osm://way(22826676) (Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport)>

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How reality is built^*

* because gem names are mostly for puns, right?..

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A bit of history

Heavily inspired by Wolfram Language
Spring 2015: first experiments
November 2015: Ruby Association Grant
March 2016: first public release
2016-2017: lot of redesigning...
Feb 2018: prerelease of new version
Spring 2018: new version

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What is it now

A set of describers (external services)
...returning entities (Hash on steroids)
plus rich value types

...all playing together!

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Describer: schemaless DB

Reality.commons.query(category: 'Panthera tigris tigris')

.first

# => #<Reality::Link commons://File:A Royal Bengal Tiger.jpg>

tiger = Reality.commons.get('File:A Royal Bengal Tiger.jpg')

# => #<Reality::Entity commons://File:A Royal Bengal Tiger.jpg>

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Entity: schemaless object

tiger.uri

# => "commons://File:A Royal Bengal Tiger.jpg"

tiger.observations.map(&:variable)

# => ["meta.title", "meta.url", "meta.image", "meta.thumb"]

tiger['meta.image']

# => "https://upload.wikimedia.org/..._Bengal_Tiger.jpg"

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Rich value types

Link (id of entity that could be loaded)
Geo coordinates, numbers with units, timezones, currencies...
Based of reliable existing gems when possible

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Beyond the Reality

The part where you can join!

slightly

known

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More describers!

Big open data sources: TheMovieDB, MusicBrainz, Worldbank
Scientific data from NASA and many others
Local governmental & non-profit open data
Social networks: Twitter, Facebook, whatever
Your ideas?

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Spread the impact!

Usage examples and case studies
Extract independently useful parts
...

Reality is just a playground!

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here = Reality.openstreetmap.query(name: 'Chancery Pavilion').first

Reality.openstreetmap

.query(around: here, radius: 1000, amenity: 'pub').all

#<Reality::Link osm://node(1835304318) (The Biere Club)>,

#<Reality::Link osm://node(2322740069) (Jimmy's)>,

#<Reality::Link osm://node(2694443988) (Plan B)>,

#<Reality::Link osm://node(2907543445) (Bootleggers)>,

#<Reality::Link osm://node(3458335906) (Bangalore Brew Works)>,

#<Reality::Link osm://node(4498096390) (Mojo Café pub & Bistro)>, #<Reality::Link osm://node(5168571696) (3 Page Bar and Restaurant)>

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That is it!

Stay in touch

github.com/molybdenum-99/reality
zverok.github.io

(with reality)

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