Tag: singularity

Quo ivisti Maker Movement …?

There once was this thing called ‘Maker Movement’ as a rebirth of the Arts&Crafts of our youth.
This was some two to three years ago, mostly. Where has the Movement, and its protagonists, and its followers, all gone ..? Flamed-out by the dunce mass takeover of everything-hipster thus destroying the core concept(s) of the latter hence of the former too ..?

Just wanted to know; if you have a clue. About what I’m talking about, and about the whither.
Because there was something beautiful blossoming, on the mainstreamish generic side of steampunkism, say. Because societal benefits were closer off many an initiative in the MM, than off regular ‘innovations’ that had to go through the motions of corporate mush mountains before being turned down because of too-small markets for the razorsharp-targeted less-privileged, mostly.

Yes you see it’s weekend. Cheers! And:

[ArtfulLille]

Don’t lower the bridge … Wait.

Would it impact you when I told you that the world’s mountains all are getting lower..?
Because that is what results from global warming. Ice melts. Sea levels rise. The zero-level is that sea level (average), right? So any distance up from a risen mark, will be smaller. QED.

Or we’ll have to start measuring from some, fixed in some improbable way, sea bottom / land point but that may not be so easy, and as said also not fixed enough. And/or the earth’s shape may change, either being more perfectly round or moving the opposite way, more 3D-elliptoid. What will happen to the rotational speed of the earth? Will we have more that 24 hours in a day, to work ..? Dynamics, tensions in the earth’s crust, etc… all is flux, nothing is stationary: Heracleitos was very, very right.

If time slows down, we might live longer. Or time relativity, or we’ll not be able to live on this earth. Or …

And:
[Heat haze will be, and the fish will swim…; Barça]

Parental Control – Surveilling your parents … Ew!

There you have it: Parental Control is needed more than ever, in a subtle way (I’d suggest you would do best to re-study The Cyber Effect; as I do), given the ever increasing (sic) risks online for the smaller than you.

But what about the more grown-up than you; your parents …? They either are only now, slowly, coming online, or they have been there already longer and have practiced but now are becoming older and mentally less capable or acute.
Hence, would we need to instate parental control to (also) mean: control over your parents (‘ their online behaviour)? And how would we have to arrange that; the norms for what e.g., appropriate content would be, are, ahem, not so clear. When a child would want to explore a vast portion of the Internet / its traffic, many agree that this would be either to be forbidden or a serious learning opportunity qua acceptability. When the one(s) that taught you about the birds and the bees would want to visit such sites, well, ew! but on the other hand…
Similar, qua gambling sites, hooliganism, et al. — not forbidden for any adult but where do things get out of hand, squared with how the capacity to operate in society may deteriorate with the elderly and where the thresholds might be.

Yes, in Europe, when you die your data (on socmed etc. too!) belongs to the government and your family has no rights over them. By consequence of some weird interpretations of obscure articles, contra reasonable moral and ethical expectations by relatives (either biologically/family-related or qua social media ‘friends’..?).
But for bank accounts et al., there have been practical rules and protocols already a long time, so that children (come of age) slide stepwise into custodianship. Would we need something similar for parents’ online behaviour? What would the rules of thumb look like, and could they be enforced somehow, to protect the weak against abuse ..?

Let’s discuss. And:
[Bridge too far? Cala aging again; Sevilla this time]

Drones with AI; revenge

Heard recently of an airforce that was setting up a drone squadron where the pilots (? might, given the joysticks, better be called ‘gamers’ these days, apart from the euphemistically erasure of the moral and ethical aspects, maybe) would be in that country but the drones would be stationed in some other country because stupid drone flying rules go for the DoD too.
Yes this regarded a European country [would’ve referred to NL outright if it was; ed.], you guessed that correctly from the previous.

At some point in the future, the drones inevitably will get AI because everything will get AI. And, in times of increasing hacking and comms disruptions, some autonomy would be welcome for the drones already. And, what with increasing (sic) hackability, qua security against take-overs / reprogramming / retargeting while already airborne?
By that AI time, smart enough AI to come back and take revenge for the exile on those that wrote / maintained the stupid rules ..?

Anything too outlandish to take into serious regard today, will be daily no longer newsworthy fact tomorrow. ‘Tomorrow’ may vary from tomorrow to five years; no more.

Oh and on a lighter note:[Oh hey look, a street car! Sevilla]

Colluding AI

As more and more grunt work (like, so much that’s done in the intenisve people farms called ‘offices’) is replaced with AI, how soon will we find that some decision by a human, hardly in control anymore but totally reliant on the precooked algorithmic outcome provided by AI, will be contested in court – that will be presided over by a judge, hardly in control anymore but totally reliant on the precooked algorithmic outcome provided by AI, and the two colliding against humans’ interests…

Note that “of course”, there will be humans nominally handing out the final verdict(s), because so many (not yet) fought so hard (not enough yet) to keep a ‘human in the loop’. But having achieved not much more than the nominal thing, and there quickly being far too little humans with enough experience (how would they gain that, when they haven’t gone through the grunt work themselves, including being allowed to err sometimes or how would they otherwise have learned ..?) to be able to usefully overrule the AI. Usefully, in the sense that the AI will have all the better, rational even if outlandish arguments… No more gut feelings … That may be part of what makes us human; whaddabout Kahnemann’s 90% System 1 ..?

And then, still, what when AI finds it rational to re-introduce the death penalty ..? Swiftly executed, to preempt appeals?

Oh how bright is our future! Also:
[There was supposed to be a shut-down button somewhere in one AI/pillar at least… Now they switch each other On again …; Córdoba]

Some Quotum of Questions of Quantum

Am I the only one with questions how the following intertwine:
An article on how quantum-secured blockchain may be so safe, but possibly not in the hands of whom you’d want it? If in anyone’s hands at all, since no-one can be trusted forever; if you wouldn’t believe that, you declare yourself incapable of discussion on this subject…
A most brillant blog post on a related subject.
An equally insightful piece on how blockchain-of-command would lead to Totalitarianism.
An equally … Being the Why Johnny Can’t Encrypt, 2017 version. Notably, the previous versions hadn’t been patched properly…

So, you see a Perfect Storm or what ..?

Plus:

[Why did you cross the street, you chicken? M’drid]

Where’s F Fatigue ..?

Considering the fatigue seen everywhere re fake news, about all that is out there is called into question.
Which led me to search for a meme that just swirled into my mind: ‘Facebook Fatigue’. Boy did I think that could be quite some recent development, with the brag about ‘users’ (meant to mean ‘addicts’; the brag being towards ad salesmen as street corner suppliers, and investors as proceeds rippers ..?) being at something over 1.8B or so.
Boy was I wrong. Already in 2008 … And 2012, and 2015, and since …

When you try the same thing over and over again, and expect different results, you will!

Update later: This here; QED.

Now, where did ‘Newconomy’ go ..?

So there is hope. And there is:

[Paint your castle – is such a hass’le; Dublin C]

Effective presentations

May be elsewhere.
Recently delivered a ppt full of bullets and text [hold it; see below], to gather response and feedback. Put in quite some effort, like two days’ driving to the venue, including overnight stay, lunch and dinner costs, transport expense, sweating away at the location (the venue was only a couple of °s cooler than the 30°+ outside) with an extra night stay at the location, plus lunches, dinners, and a return trip of two days’ driving, incl overnight stay, lunch and dinner costs, transport expense, et al (sic).
For … well, not any sort of renumeration or token gift, even. Not, like, a promisingly large room turning out to be less than 40% (rounded way up) filled.

Which wouldn’t be so bad, if suitable, useful feedback had been received, or only publicity gained e.g., through (live or late) tweeting, LI mention or so.

But now, all I got was not even the T-shirt; all I got was 0. As in: zero.
Yes that’s the number of tips (let alone useful ones), or tweets about the pres (let alone far out reaching ones). I did disclaim the fullness of the slides (sic) to give impressions of all the content delivered (did not read them line by line, mind you), and yes I did before, during and after ask for feedback… Only some old hand pre-known friendlies with form/delivery compliments.

Oh well; at least now I know not to submit for free anymore. And/or, is this the beginning of the Classroom Learning Is Dead for trade conferences ..?
Yes, sponsor opportunities will make conferences et al, still feasible economically, but not when attendee rates will go down. Yes, online webinars et al are still bandwidth-challenged and most often, sketchily interactive at best – which is an opportunity for TEDx style beautifully told fairy tales but not for the ability to interrupt and, in particularly necessary very often with these kind of powering-on talks, correct huge biases, false assumptions, and certainly pastiches of logical reasoning, nor for feedback or pointer tips.

So, where are the (affordable…!) online conferences that are worthwhile to visit?
Not 2-way IRL (‘F2F’ like in the olden days of still today) but virtually – warping the meaning of the latter so far beyond its Original, and not taking it to the limit here but having only the channel un-physicalised, even; where is total two-way VR and/or AR in this ..?

Oh well, and:

[Still only had time for ‘drive-by’ i.e. walk-by tourism…; München]

AI learning to explain itself

Recently, there was news again that indeed, ABC (or The ‘Alphabet’ Company Formerly Know As Google) was developing AI that could improve itself.
O-kay… No sweat, or sweat, qua bleak future for humankind, but …
Can the ‘AI’ thus developing itself, maybe be turned first to learn how to explain itself ..? Then, this [incl link therein!] will revert to the auditors’ original of second opinions … Since the self-explanatory part may very well be the most difficult part of ‘intelligence’, benefitting the most from the ( AI improving itself )2 part or what?

And:

[Improving yourself as the imperative; Frank Lloyd Wright’s Beth Sholom at Elkins Park, PA]

No Dutch AI

How far behind is the Dutch (startup) scene with AI ..?
That may seem kurt, but …
Really there is no sign of Dutch AI industry or even industriousness.

Unbefitting the Dutch, is it not? ‘We’ should have all the brains needed, the industriousness, the venturing spirit, the openness to things-new.
But apparently, ‘we’re still stuck in collectivist ideals, where rocking the boat is only allowed when for some naïve progress [Uhm this is no sligh to Boyan Slat; on the contrary I and everyone likes his ideas and heart and soul he puts into it]. When searching for ‘Dutch AI scene, hardly anything turns up. This among the hardly search results; ominously.

So, it’s a Shame. And Why ..!?
Yes I did list some why’s but they don’t cut it, against the Aye’s. We need a new élan! How to get such a thing going!?
And:
[If that is the neo-modernistest that you build / apparently want to spend your money on, then well you may be doomed indeed; Zuid-As Ams]

Maverisk / Étoiles du Nord