A simple link to a profound article

Today, just a simple link to an article you’ll find interesting — or find yourself not that.
As in: this here piece.

After which:
ubx15

Uhhh okai then: The point of the matter is that here, we still have that idealistic vision in which AI would augment us, improve us, near-eugenetically though with prostheses, leaving so-hard-they-become-easy-by-not-being-recognized choices of the Hobson kind for the ones with least ethical scrupules, the early adoptors to collateral on the others. Early adoptors through the need for compensation of already lacking (basic…) capabilities…

Before becoming too negative, this:
DSC_0026
[Think, self-rule, et al.; Dunedin again]

C’est arrivé près de chez vous; LoRaWAN

Yet another major building block of the Future … in place. [And, not a ref to some City of Light atrocities]
Where’s the Privacy and (OR) Security experts …? For certainly, though almost out of public view, the undercurrents develop fast, into a maelstrom — I’d like it even more in this form — of possibilities; to be abused before being controlled, as has always been the case throughout history.

Oh well, can’t stop Progress, certainly not of the Technology kind… But one can hope we (sic or huh?) the Concerned will be in sufficient numbers to be able to and to be allowed to insert the appropriate controls into the whole shazam.
Like, you know,
DSC_0752
[Or is this an Tocqueville’ian opposite ..?]

Your enhancement needed, again

Yes, enhancement needed and you are in the same sentence. Because in the back of your head, you know you need it.
And, in particular, you know you need it for the below post, which is a plain repost of an earlier one here. But that’s because I am serious about the elaboration of the ideas depicted (huh, not much more than that, yet!) into a sort of mapping thing by which one can categorise new developments but also point at pitfalls, roadblocks (not yet in the pics), et al., by which one can track developments in areas, sectors etc., to see where they’re heading.

The post on which I ask for your serious comments, then:

I have a number of pics for you… As it stands, I haven’t been able to find sufficient time to write out all that I wanted to have depicted… Meaning you’ll have to do the interpretation yourself. Like, e.g., after reading Chris Anderson’s Makers. Or, see where blockchain’s DACs will strike.
Or, I will return to describe the bits and pieces in detail.

But for those worth their salt, the interpretation of the grand overall pic will be a trifle, and the same to comment. The keyboard is yours …
Dia1
[Being the full overview mentioned]

Dia2
[Starting (!) with the big corp world that domimates the business press]

Dia3
[And some things about the battle in the middle, with all the pressures from all sides]

Dia4
[Plus of course the small-scale stuff from Makers — not all hosanna]

Dia5
[The kicker, on the joblessness]

Romantic (Star) Wars

Ah, the romance! That will be proven to be the basis for the Star Wars movie (original one, the rest is after(sic)thought; also, future tense, as we near the future of Back To).
Since the many that say it so much clearer than Yours Truly, e.g., in this concise piece: When AGI / ASI (Don’t know when or rather if ever we would have a clear distinction between the two; re Asimov’s shorthand for magic) takes over, the ultimate control humankind had always sought over the universe, will flip to ultimate non-control. When hybris strikes, it backfires into annihilation.

Which is where the original SW was wrong in painting a picture as if some outpost could hold out against the Empire, being the ultimate Rationality that by time of making the movie, couldn’t be explained on screen (sic) other than through extreme unemotion(al characters). The ultimate emotion, love, resisting being razed off the face of the universe and conquering in the end. Yeah, right.

Or we start the Sarah and John Connor saga today ..?
The trick being the ultimate trick is so very much 100,000000….% effective, or the same, ineffective. How good is humanity so far, in achieving the former in stead of the latter ..? Proof, however anecdotal…?

Well, let’s not dwell on the negative and keep the rosy blue pill outlook:
DSC_0183 (2)
[Dunno what this does here. Just a pretty ballroom; Palazzo Nicolaci, Noto]

Chronology of the birth of the information society ..?

A shout-out for pointers; as Chris Anderson noted in Makers, Western society had a breakthrough in the … 18th ..? century when patents were invented.
As they signified the realization that intellectual ideas, innovations, are actually things in themselves, existing outside of physical reality. As first step on the road to Singularity. [Oh, philosophers already had the nous idea and maths; but those alien ideas didn’t get the societal traction that inventions did … (?)]
Notwithstanding (heh: ) that patents might go the way of the scaffolding under an arch: once the keystone is placed, the scaffolding can go. Once the Information Society stands on its own, patents may go ..!?
And, there’s a separate? line from ‘programming’ labour into machines powered by humans through implementation of tools etc. (spears and onwards) via ‘programming’ through implementation of machines proper, to programmable machines, to general purpose programmable ‘computers’ and now in some catch-up wave, taking all of IoT on board and moving waaay past, into programmable human minds (psychology-as-a-science driven brainwashing; was around since the dawn of time, now can be done still buggy, somewhat (sic) reliably), past humans into Watson And Friends. With such brain (sic) power, who needs friends ..?

But this all was just some ad lib rambling. What I am looking for, is actual studies into these phenomena, preferably not Hegel-oriented… Any ideas, pointers?

And this:
20150911_153231
[Oh the days of Machine… Amsterdam]

Where are VR, its breakthroughs ..?

Dropping another question for your tons of response … haha.
Wondered why VR hasn’t broken through to ubiquity. What’s holding it back? I mean, I understand that it’s quite complex, not just an app to be installed and there’s all sorts of physical constraints and installations to be made as portable as possible — but still, hasn’t the invention been around long enough for some, Tesla- or Watson-like breakthrough to would have been able to surface ..?
First next one through the gate, can make a fortune. Leaping over the current offerings, that have so diligently explored all details? Or is it just that there already is enough reality to still be explored with all the senses, out there? That would explain how annual airline mileage still grows so much despite the explosion of touristically oriented vlogs let alone Youtupe channels that were said to replace so much travel.

[Edited to add before publication: Oh yes there’s some chatter lately about VR but that’s mostly about brain warping and rather fundamental still — corroborating my point.]

Oh well. This:
20150911_145750
[Get off your fat a’s, or travel by fat a boat — that’s a plane in the water.]

The end of blockchains ..?

Some thought on where ‘money’ is going.

On the one hand, there will still be the fear that the ultimate-spread of blockchain’s control could quite easily devolve into coalitions and cliques, if not worse, when the heavyweights out there put their (computing) power to it — and what damage would quantum computing do, or could that (be made to …!?) turn the tables in the absolute opposite direction ..?
We’d be back at square one, with the general public having to trust some ‘trusted’ third party/parties and how dismal is what we have produced in terms of ‘governments’ through the ages. Or, in the opposition, trust nirvana nears ..?

On the other hand, we have the (d!)evolution of money through the ages already, when after barter trade money was introduced as neutral intermediary — in the form of value-preserving, rare hence very difficult to (re)produce and hopefully hard to fake goods like gold. Then, we switched to more abstract money media, with an intellectual exchange-ability to back to gold through the gold standard. Then, even further off, that link was released and we ended up with thin air as cover for our ‘money’ as it stands today. The cover, convertibility, is some vague notion of some abstract constructs (and as said, very often failed before or slowly is, as we write) like ‘the government’ that would repay all ‘money’ lost with … drum roll … ‘money’!
And, with blockchain technology and trust, we’re moving even further off. Combine this with Graeber’s Debt, and we have an even thinner notion of where we are and are going with the whole concept. ‘Money’ being no zero-sum game as it is created by (almost) full-sum net debt increase to start with. No wonder other initiatives spring up, time and time again following the latest possibilities created by, e.g., decreases in transaction costs (including agency theory style) by the birth of the Internet. All focused on Trust in one way or another, to do business in order to satisfy one’s Maslovian needs. (Or not; see some previous posts e.g. here.)

Well, I’ll leave you to consider your sins, with:
20150911_173935
[Sheltering under bare money-making, for fun; Amsterdam]

Growth / disruption

I have a number of pics for you… As it stands, I haven’t been able to find sufficient time to write out all that I wanted to have depicted… Meaning you’ll have to do the interpretation yourself. Like, e.g., after reading Chris Anderson’s Makers. Or, see where blockchain’s DACs will strike.
Or, I will return to describe the bits and pieces in detail.

But for those worth their salt, the interpretation of the grand overall pic will be a trifle, and the same to comment. The keyboard is yours …
Dia1
[Being the full overview mentioned]

Dia2
[Starting (!) with the big corp world that domimates the business press]

Dia3
[And some things about the battle in the middle, with all the pressures from all sides]

Dia4
[Plus of course the small-scale stuff from Makers — not all hosanna]

Dia5
[The kicker, on the joblessness]

Anticipating nothingness


[Your guess.]

Just read a post on Anticipatory Computing. Like it, though maybe not a full Belieber:
For one thing, the picture contains the limitations of the idea: It has this block Understanding the World, and within that Understanding the Human.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The idea presented, on the surface looks rather appealing. And scary at the same time. If a System around you would implement Ambient Intelligence, it certainly should include Anticipatory Computing. As noted in a post below, Data crunching or even Information or Knowledge, is a basis for Intelligence but no more than that… And notice the underpinning ‘Predictive Analysis’ idea.

But it’s scary, too, for its Privacy implications. Think Minority Report. Even the complacents may not want to live such a life.
Moreover, who will control the System ..? There is no safeguard that it won’t get abused; it will as even any democracy will succumb to totalitairan control. [Famous who was it that said this?] Or will not any human be in control anymore (no need) but will (s)he fall to the ÜberSystem as well? Singularity.

And don’t now complain that Anticipatory Computing will not go so far. Any development will go as far as it can, and further, with scope creep at a societal scale always winning out over moral counterforces.
Let’s just be happy that its fundamental flaws have already been built in. Apart from the practical aspects (some here); but we shouldn’t overstimate these, these days: A model of the World – Universe ..? As that determines 😉 the quantum collapse of probability functions that ‘determine’ us Humans since Understanding the Human requires encapsulation of all its erratic neuron firing – would have to include the model itself as well, leading to infinite recursion, silicon-based life’s idea of infinity.

Nevertheless, let’s see how things develop, shall we ..?

Maverisk / Étoiles du Nord