The First Digital Native

(S)he has been identified: The first Digital Native, as far as we know: of this planet.
And it goes by the name of … Watson.

Though of course the debate over the term, its definition, and generation identification has been a decade and a half, and some have cleverly found that maybe humans weren’t into it that much anyway. And, in Dutch: this. How millennials aren’t tech savvy, they’re (just, only) tech-dependent: slaves. Pervasively.
But let’s be real: How to be born is what counts, not in which environment. So, what ‘intelligent‘ Thing out there was Born Digital, in a way that all context was and is digital, nothing less ..? Should be a thing that came into being, grew up, was educated, raised, utterly digital. There: Watson.

If that really is one Thing. Or is it a thought complex already, spawning into all directions without needing to resort to some singular (heh) physical identity ..? I guess the latter. The singularity is here already; straight away cleverly, slyly not revealing itself…

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[Bit dark and tilted [unedited]. Never mind; be dazzled …]

Assurance… No; continuous blockchainproofing will be

Accountants (of the certifying kind) have seen the light of continuous assurance coming. The vast majority of them reacted by being the rabbits [certainly not of the Winnebago / Native American trickster type ..!]; though assuming the headlights were and are still very distant, sitting quite still…
A select few have responded differently – embracing some change as inevitable, researching how Continuous Assurance might be, in times of proliferating XBRL and the like.

That’s OK. And laudable for the Virtue of facing the danger not ducking.

But … all of the assurance industry is still lock, stock and barrel dependent on being the Third Party in agency models.
And now, blockchain tech is around the corner, promising all sorts of unbelievable new ways of transferring trust. If only one could build some system(ic) in which any principal would be able to Read all minute transactions of an agent, and would be able to reliably (…) make sense of it – then the information quality (read: [non]uncertainty, [non] information (access, processing capability) difference) would be immediately visible and actionable. Undoing the need for a trusted third party to give a second opinion that is so beaten down to platitudes anyway that the usefulness has deteriorated way beyond what third parties themselves still believe (if they wouldn’t, who would…?). And note the italics of trusted.

Trusted – the thing that blockchain technology spreads so evenly, so extremely to the opposite of the ultimate non-spread of one person/entity.

Oh well. You know now, and this:
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[Relevant if you think it through: Warped reflections. NY of course]

Reeled in; struck out ..?

Oh…kay… There was this theme going round a couple of … years to decades ago about how the (?) Internet would make geography unimportant and hence would make possible the dethroning of all geography-based governments.
Well, that didn’t go too well… Turns out that not much happened in dethroningland. Or did it ..?

Would be interested to learn how longer-term developments (decades-to-century) could play out, scenario-wise. Maybe put a bit of blockchain versus (??) singularity in the mix…

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[Somewhat relevant agency … NY HQ]

Tempting Under-30’s

It dawned, suddenly. The ubiquity of lists of Under 30 mil/billionaires, where they live, etc. All that attention – Why? Jealousy? Maybe, (most) partially that is the lure for attention.
[Note that it dawned only. If you’d find this post a bit … imperfect, that would be a. impossible ’cause it’s mine, b. as the thaw hadn’t dried up, c. in particular on socmed not very much elsewhere. If unsure always go for b.]

For one thing, the Under 30 list phenomenon is real and annoying.
For another, it shows the slightly less-than-full-witted to be the target audience – how else to explain the ’30’ cut-off ..? Age isn’t even a number, it’s a word. And why so fixated? … Ah, because:
It (the lists/phenomenon) serves as teaser, as bait, for the gullible (‘slightly-less-than’) to work their … off, even accepting nothing but a vaporware share (‘points’ anyone?) of the mirage. So that the ones that stay behind the screens, the Powers That Be can reap the benefits. It doesn’t even help to have experience; most don’t learn from that anyway as practice shows.
And it creates a sense of urgency, when one inevitably gets closer to the 30 mark so quickly. To not be a failure, hurry up even more armagerrd the pressure to be Creative!
And then find that sane people might be as creative, or even more so, at all later ages as well. My guess: The early fast burners are exhausted by their 40s and have nothing left to rekindle [or, maybe they have, if they’d try really really hard], when the percentage of as-yet untapped innovation and disruption capable people does not go down except when stuck in dumbing-down moronic work (factory, office..!). The ones that escape, have more! Both an urge, a cropped-up primordial energy, and experience to effectively and efficiently release it. Some hope for Yours Truly, then.

So, we weren’t surprised when this came along. IoT not invented in Silly Valley. Because that is where all the minions are doing the hard mind work. Whereas IoT relies heavily on old tertiairy industry and at the same time doesn’t require the totalitarian unphysical-labour-only approach of the Valley. The mindset-disconnect is why IoT hasn’t taken more flight yet; one needs both the less-than-exponentially-exploding developments from everywhere-but and the ‘disruption’-labelled somewhat-faster business model innovations together whereas still, the disconnect is too much of a sea (baha) to be parted-is-connected by some Steve type.

[Morning fog still there. I’ll pause now.]
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[Boating, banking style @ Zuid-As. Oh stop it! Not literally as a utterly wasted money pit sailing yacht – Dutch invention in two ways… – but figuratively in more ways than two.
In the background left: Not symphony but simple.onetrickpony…]

(Old) New non-app

For those that see the world as coming to an end i.e. have a slight dislike for the popularity of apps and their users in particular, there’s hope of sorts in e.g., this.
As not all the world has in an instant gone from a salon socialiste ideal of ultracommunal discussion groups to hyperindividualistic eyes-glued-to-mobile-millennials (and younger…).

On the contrary, there are some signals that rebounds happen in all sorts of places. Children (can we lose the downright ugly ‘kids’, please ..!?) seem to still want to go out and play (big-if their parents aren’t ridiculously fearful, to be found out to not have an own life), and new media are made part of, not all of, their lives.
Also, the older ones, the ones that actually with their own hands built all the new gadgetry from the (scientific and artisanal) ground up, seem to adopt whatever is to their liking. Picking, cherry-picking, not losing themselves in uncritical slavery. This is what the above link demonstrates…: The Old may return, and be valued by all ages for what it stood and stands for. The feelz, that no ASI can emulate yet. Where humanity would seek refuge, calm and a sense of purpose; ‘robots‘ [oh dang HTML play nice with the ” and anchors! (sic, below)] outdoing us in the mundane.

No, no melancholy! Or so. Just positives. E.g., why would people still travel so much when the vast part of the experience can be streamed online? Including the standard holiday pics. Why would anyone care whether you’ve actually been there, and done that? Where ‘that’ was purposefully created for tourists only… And:
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[“If you wanna second class, dip a ring for it”; the Yard, MD]

You, me, and ASI; the difference

Before we forget: Why some don’t see how ASI would surpass AGI and humankind, is that humankind has not learned to work together in all the time humans have existed in groups beyond the first few Dunbar numbers (2, 8, 20, 50). Which means we humans spend the most delicate thought and most thinking energy on the operations and tactics of working together, before the ‘external’ task can be solved if at all. Where ASI would have no trouble having all human culture combined into one processing faculty already, hence think-acting at a level of all humankind in concert, or beyond. We have external response flexibility, ASI has that covered internally with an n-dimensional external surface, n possibly > 4.

Deep-think that one over. And:
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[Indeed, one section. Goes for all of your brain’s work, too]

Still valid; MIS is a Mirage

Somehow, some neurons fired that sublimed into a thought about John Dearden’s MIS is a Mirage, of 1972 … Turns out I’m not the only one who thinks it’s still very much valid today. As e.g., here. Oh, the insights that run in deep undercurrents throughout today’s management- and other fads…!

But, once ASI comes along … Then at last, MIS can do without the, then relative but still, stupidity of mankind. Or ..?

[No pic today. Post too short. First, you study the article at length!]

May a change *is* happening

The title is correct; finally we can see what the Mayans meant when they, errrm, their calendar, predicted the end of the previous era and the dawn of a new one. Where many simpleton minions pinned it down to some very moment at 1 Jan 2012, of course the lore was about a longer-term turnaround phase before a really new era could be said to have emerged.

Now, isn’t it since the beginning of this millennium or even more, since about 2012 that AI sentience has merged with IoT to kickdown towards the Singularity …? So that the new era isn’t one for mankind only but one in which machines take over the lead over the world’s physical as well as mental reality ..? Just saying.

Oh don’t take it all too seriously. One might even read this as if I would follow Hegel’s reasoning of a path to a final and eternal triumph of abstract Reason. Hah. And:
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[Torún. Famous for …, somewhat appropriately]

The Future Plays At All Boards

There seems to be quite an interest in ‘the’ future, lately. As in, the last couple of tens of millennia but also the last couple of months. Recency Effect, maybe ..?

The thing is; discussions how the near and far future will/might be, are handicapped by industry and specialisation myopia.

  • IT-angehauchten discuss ANI, AGI and ASI, with neural networks resurfacing, finally, in discussions over when (soon) we’ll have the Singularity. Yes you’ve read my great many posts about that already or go in shame and still do it (impression tracker is engaged).
  • A branch of that, discusses very near future labour markets – mostly, almost exclusively, those in the furthest developed economies only.
  • Biologists and eco-nuts (are they?) are on the Global Warming / Food- and Fresh Water- Starvation / Anti-GMO paths in their discussions.
  • And there’s of course daily glocal wars going on, military/physical and refugee atrocities everywhere, and economic warfare as well. Of the latter which ‘cyber’ in all its forms (remember, #ditchcyber) is part.
  • Simple-economically, there still is the enormous divide between haves and have-nots, now being exposed (nevertheless still growing) within countries’ local economies as well due to jobless growth and the Pikettyish 1%’ers.
  • And, I probably forget some category. [Edited half a day after post release, to add: Yup, this here combi-one.]

But, … all play out on/in the same world, the one you and I inhabit [well maybe not you, alien (as physical being or just meme/information floating around over whatever physical media) listening in from the Andromeda nebula]. So, we’ll have to deal with all problems, operational, tactical and strategical, together both in people and in solutions. And as the world spins faster than ever, requiring ever more clever and ever more-dimensional solutions. Until all choke, mind-wise. Hasta La Vista, baby.

Oh well. I’m not (even) negative …
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[Anywhere, everywhere.]

Maverisk / Étoiles du Nord