HOW HUMANS CAN THRIVE IN A WORLD OF INCREASING AUTOMATION
Excerpt:
The Walter Bradley Center will do more than demonstrate a qualitative difference between human and machine intelligence. It will show how humans can thrive in a world of increasing automation. Such a vision ought to be praiseworthy and non-controversial. But we live in an age when much of the mainstream academy, inspired by scientific materialism, views humanity as unexceptional and even obsolete, easily replaced by our own products of artificial intelligence. So if we succeed, we must prepare for controversy.
Our vision requires a home whose residents take a principled stance for humanity over and above machines, and who won’t be cowed by a materialist science culture where all “right-thinking” people are expected to believe that everything can be reduced to artificial intelligence (computational reductionism). Happily, Discovery Institute provides such a home.
More...
https://mindmatters.ai/2018/07/bill-dem ... utomation/
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PURSUIT OF THE AI SINGULARITY IS MODERN ALCHEMY
Students who study calculus are experiencing the fruits of the genius of Isaac Newton (1643–1727). The same is true for introductory courses in physics and differential equations. All are due to Newton, who built the beautiful palace of mathematical physics. The wings of quantum mechanics and relativity were added in the early twentieth century.
But Newton had other interests as well. He penned over a million words on the topic of alchemy, which included his quest to turn lead into gold. Although alchemy contributed to the founding of chemistry, it has long been discredited in itself. The only way to turn lead into gold is by negotiating a swap at your local pawn shop.
In the same way, some great computer scientists who write remarkable software today are deluding themselves by a belief in the AI Singularity. Someday, the theory goes, AI will write better AI that in turn writes still better AI and so on. Like Skynet in the Terminator movie franchise, AI will eventually try to take over humanity. This Singularity is espoused by such luminaries as Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Google’s Ray Kurzweil.
A roadblock to the AI singularity is creativity. Computers cannot be creative. Computer creativity occurs when a computer program does something it was not programmed to do.
Software can write other software code but not creatively. For example, do any Google search, right click on the Results page, and select “View Page Source.” The code you see is not written by a human but by software that writes software. But the Google page code displays zero creativity beyond the software that wrote it.
The idea that AI can write better and better AI programs on its own assumes that computers can be creative. They cannot. Johns Hopkins’ Gregory Chirikjian agrees: “[AI will never] be able to exhibit any form of creativity or sentience.” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella concurs: “One of the most coveted human skill is creativity, and this won’t change. Machines will enrich and augment our creativity, but the human drive to create will remain central.”1 Oxford mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose forcefully promotes this viewpoint in his iconic book The Emperor’s New Mind.2
More...
https://mindmatters.ai/2019/09/pursuit- ... n-alchemy/
TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT
Your Visitors Deserve to Know They’re on Camera
Technology allows us to do it. Should we?
A couple of years ago, my garage was broken into while I was in the house. I heard footsteps and ran out to find someone trying to steal a bike. Cue some yelling, and the would-be thief was quickly gone, but I was so anxious I ordered a security camera within an hour. Since then, the camera has picked up nothing more than my comings and goings, mail delivery and the occasional rat. I recently decided to take it down.
I briefly spoke about this over email with Elizabeth Joh, a University of California, Davis, School of Law professor, who reminded me: “You never just ‘buy’ a new surveillance device. You’ve adopted a worldview about privacy, anonymity and autonomy — whether by conscious choice or accident.”
Ms. Joh’s comment hit me hard. When I think about privacy, I think about the ways companies and governments spy on us, but I ignore the ways we spy on one another. We use security cameras to track who comes in and out of our homes, we set up doorbell-camera alerts for when packages arrive, we watch the nanny work and we ask family members to constantly share their locations with us. Technology has made it affordable and easy to create D.I.Y. security systems inside and outside of our homes. We buy these cameras and use this technology because we can. But now that we have this power, it’s our responsibility to use it wisely — and we’re not doing a very good job.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/opin ... d=45305309
Technology allows us to do it. Should we?
A couple of years ago, my garage was broken into while I was in the house. I heard footsteps and ran out to find someone trying to steal a bike. Cue some yelling, and the would-be thief was quickly gone, but I was so anxious I ordered a security camera within an hour. Since then, the camera has picked up nothing more than my comings and goings, mail delivery and the occasional rat. I recently decided to take it down.
I briefly spoke about this over email with Elizabeth Joh, a University of California, Davis, School of Law professor, who reminded me: “You never just ‘buy’ a new surveillance device. You’ve adopted a worldview about privacy, anonymity and autonomy — whether by conscious choice or accident.”
Ms. Joh’s comment hit me hard. When I think about privacy, I think about the ways companies and governments spy on us, but I ignore the ways we spy on one another. We use security cameras to track who comes in and out of our homes, we set up doorbell-camera alerts for when packages arrive, we watch the nanny work and we ask family members to constantly share their locations with us. Technology has made it affordable and easy to create D.I.Y. security systems inside and outside of our homes. We buy these cameras and use this technology because we can. But now that we have this power, it’s our responsibility to use it wisely — and we’re not doing a very good job.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/opin ... d=45305309
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What Happens to Your Body If You Die in Space?
From Popular Mechanics
This is an excerpt from the new book, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs, published by W. W. Norton & Company.
Like the vast reaches of space, the fate of an astronaut corpse is uncharted territory. So far, no individual has died of natural causes in space. There have been eighteen astronaut deaths, but all were caused by a bona fide space disaster. Space shuttle Columbia (seven deaths, broken apart due to structural failure), space shuttle Challenger (seven deaths, disintegrated during launch), Soyuz 11 (three deaths, air vent ripped open during descent, and the only deaths to have technically happened in space), Soyuz 1 (one death, capsule parachute failure during reentry).
These were all large-scale calamities, with bodies recovered on Earth in various states of intactness. But we don’t know what would happen if an astronaut had a sudden heart attack, or an accident during a space walk, or choked on some of that freeze-dried ice cream on the way to Mars. “Umm, Houston, should we float him over to the maintenance closet or . . . ?”
Before we talk about what would be done with a space corpse, let’s lay out what we suspect might happen if death occurred in a place with no gravity and no atmospheric pressure.
Here’s a hypothetical situation.
An astronaut, let’s call her Dr. Lisa, is outside the space station, puttering away on some routine repair. (Do astronauts ever putter? I assume everything they do has a specific, highly technical purpose. But do they ever spacewalk just to make sure everything looks tidy around the ol’ station?) All of a sudden, Lisa’s puffy white space suit is struck by a tiny meteorite, ripping a sizable hole.
Unlike what you may have seen or read in science fiction, Lisa’s eyes won’t bulge out of her skull until she finally shatters in a blast of blood and icicles. Nothing so dramatic will occur. But Lisa will have to act quickly after her suit is breached, as she will lose consciousness in nine to eleven seconds. This is a weirdly specific, kind of creepy time frame. Let’s call it 10 seconds. She has 10 seconds to get herself back into a pressurized environment. But such a rapid decompression will likely send her into shock. Death will come to our poor putterer before she even knows what is happening.
Most of the conditions that will kill Lisa come from the lack of air pressure in space. The human body is used to operating under the weight of the Earth’s atmosphere, which cradles us at all times like a planet-sized anti-anxiety blanket. From the moment that pressure disappears, the gases in Lisa’s body will begin to expand and the liquids will turn into gas. Water in her muscles will convert into vapor, which will collect under Lisa’s skin, distending areas of her body to twice their normal size. This will lead to a freaky Violet Beauregarde situation, but will not actually be her main issue in terms of survival. The lack of pressure will also cause nitrogen in her blood to form gas bubbles, causing her enormous pain, similar to what deep- water divers experience when they get the bends. When Dr. Lisa passes out in nine to eleven seconds, it will bring her merciful relief. She will continue floating and bloating, unaware of what is happening.
As we pass the minute and a half mark, Lisa’s heart rate and blood pressure will plummet (to the point where her blood may begin to boil). The pressure inside and outside her lungs will be so different that her lungs will be torn, ruptured, and bleeding. Without immediate help, Dr. Lisa will asphyxiate, and we’ll have a space corpse on our hands. Remember, this what we think will happen. What little information we have comes from studies done in altitude chambers on unfortunate humans and even more unfortunate animals.
The crew pulls Lisa back inside, but it’s too late to save her. RIP Dr. Lisa.
Now, what should be done with her body?
Space programs like NASA have been pondering this inevitability, although they won’t talk about it publicly. (Why are you hiding your space corpse protocol, NASA?) So, let me pose the question to you: should Lisa’s body come back to Earth or not? Here’s what would happen, based on what you decide.
Yes, bring Lisa’s body back to Earth
Decomposition can be slowed down in cold temperatures, so if Lisa is coming back to Earth (and the crew doesn’t want the effluents of a decomposing body escaping into the living area of the ship), they need to keep her as cool as possible. On the International Space Station, astronauts keep trash and food waste in the coldest part of the station. This puts the brakes on the bacteria that cause decay, which decreases food rot and helps the astronauts avoid unpleasant smells. So maybe this is where Lisa would hang out until a shuttle returned her to Earth. Keeping fallen space hero Dr. Lisa with the trash is not the best public relations move, but the station has limited room, and the trash area already has a cooling system in place, so it makes logistical sense to put her there.
What if Dr. Lisa dies of a heart attack on a long journey to Mars? In 2005, NASA collaborated with a small Swedish company called Promessa on a design prototype for a system that would process and contain space corpses. The prototype was called the Body Back. (“I’m bringing body back, returning corpses but they’re not intact.”)
If Lisa’s crew had a Body Back system on board, here’s how it would work. Her body would be placed in an airtight bag made of GoreTex and thrust into the shuttle’s airlock. In the airlock, the temperature of space (–270°C) would freeze Lisa’s body. After about an hour, a robotic arm would bring the bag back inside the shuttle and vibrate for fifteen minutes, shattering frozen Lisa into chunks. The chunks would be dehydrated, leaving about fifty pounds of dried Lisa-powder in the Body Back. In theory, you could store Lisa in her powdered form for years before returning her to Earth and presenting her to her family just like you would a very heavy urn of cremated remains.
Nope, Lisa should stay in space
Who says Lisa’s body needs to come back to Earth at all? People are already paying $12,000 or more to have tiny, symbolic portions of their cremated remains or DNA launched into Earth’s orbit, to the surface of the moon, or out into deep space. How psyched do you think space nerds would be if they had the chance to float their whole dead body through space?
After all, burial at sea has always been a respectful way to put sailors and explorers to rest, plopped over the side of the ship into the waves below. We continue the practice these days despite advances in onboard refrigeration and preservation technology. So, while we do have the technology to build robot arms to shatter and freeze-dry space corpses, perhaps we could employ the simpler option of wrapping Dr. Lisa in a body bag, space-walking her past the solar array, and letting her float away?
Space seems vast and uncontrolled. We like to imagine that Dr. Lisa will drift forever into the void (like George Clooney in that space movie I watched on the plane that one time), but more likely she would just follow the same orbit as the shuttle. This would, perversely, turn her into a form of space trash. The United Nations has regulations against littering in space. But I doubt anyone would apply those regulations to Dr. Lisa. Again, no one wants to call our noble Lisa trash!
Humans have struggled with this challenge before, with grim results. There are only a few climbable routes to climb to the top of Mount Everest’s 29,029-foot peak. If you die at that altitude (which almost three hundred people have done), it is dangerous for the living to attempt to bring your body down for burial or cremation. Today, dead bodies litter the climbing paths, and each year new climbers have to step over the puffy orange snowsuits and skeletonized faces of fellow climbers. This same thing could happen in space, where shuttles to Mars have to pass the orbiting corpse every trip. “Oh geez, there goes Lisa again.”
It’s possible the gravity of a planet could eventually pull Lisa in. If that happens, Lisa would get a free cremation in the atmosphere. Friction from the atmospheric gas would super-heat her body’s tissues, incinerating her. There’s the smallest of small possibilities that if Lisa’s body was sent out into space in a small, self-propelled craft like an escape pod, which then departed our solar system, traveled across the empty expanse to some exoplanet, survived its descent through whatever atmosphere might exist there, and cracked open on impact, Lisa’s microbes and bacterial spores could create life on a new planet. Good for Lisa! How do we know that alien Lisa wasn’t how life on Earth started, huh? Maybe the “primordial goo” from which Earth’s first living creatures emerged was just Lisa decomposition? Thanks, Dr. Lisa.
From Popular Mechanics
This is an excerpt from the new book, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs, published by W. W. Norton & Company.
Like the vast reaches of space, the fate of an astronaut corpse is uncharted territory. So far, no individual has died of natural causes in space. There have been eighteen astronaut deaths, but all were caused by a bona fide space disaster. Space shuttle Columbia (seven deaths, broken apart due to structural failure), space shuttle Challenger (seven deaths, disintegrated during launch), Soyuz 11 (three deaths, air vent ripped open during descent, and the only deaths to have technically happened in space), Soyuz 1 (one death, capsule parachute failure during reentry).
These were all large-scale calamities, with bodies recovered on Earth in various states of intactness. But we don’t know what would happen if an astronaut had a sudden heart attack, or an accident during a space walk, or choked on some of that freeze-dried ice cream on the way to Mars. “Umm, Houston, should we float him over to the maintenance closet or . . . ?”
Before we talk about what would be done with a space corpse, let’s lay out what we suspect might happen if death occurred in a place with no gravity and no atmospheric pressure.
Here’s a hypothetical situation.
An astronaut, let’s call her Dr. Lisa, is outside the space station, puttering away on some routine repair. (Do astronauts ever putter? I assume everything they do has a specific, highly technical purpose. But do they ever spacewalk just to make sure everything looks tidy around the ol’ station?) All of a sudden, Lisa’s puffy white space suit is struck by a tiny meteorite, ripping a sizable hole.
Unlike what you may have seen or read in science fiction, Lisa’s eyes won’t bulge out of her skull until she finally shatters in a blast of blood and icicles. Nothing so dramatic will occur. But Lisa will have to act quickly after her suit is breached, as she will lose consciousness in nine to eleven seconds. This is a weirdly specific, kind of creepy time frame. Let’s call it 10 seconds. She has 10 seconds to get herself back into a pressurized environment. But such a rapid decompression will likely send her into shock. Death will come to our poor putterer before she even knows what is happening.
Most of the conditions that will kill Lisa come from the lack of air pressure in space. The human body is used to operating under the weight of the Earth’s atmosphere, which cradles us at all times like a planet-sized anti-anxiety blanket. From the moment that pressure disappears, the gases in Lisa’s body will begin to expand and the liquids will turn into gas. Water in her muscles will convert into vapor, which will collect under Lisa’s skin, distending areas of her body to twice their normal size. This will lead to a freaky Violet Beauregarde situation, but will not actually be her main issue in terms of survival. The lack of pressure will also cause nitrogen in her blood to form gas bubbles, causing her enormous pain, similar to what deep- water divers experience when they get the bends. When Dr. Lisa passes out in nine to eleven seconds, it will bring her merciful relief. She will continue floating and bloating, unaware of what is happening.
As we pass the minute and a half mark, Lisa’s heart rate and blood pressure will plummet (to the point where her blood may begin to boil). The pressure inside and outside her lungs will be so different that her lungs will be torn, ruptured, and bleeding. Without immediate help, Dr. Lisa will asphyxiate, and we’ll have a space corpse on our hands. Remember, this what we think will happen. What little information we have comes from studies done in altitude chambers on unfortunate humans and even more unfortunate animals.
The crew pulls Lisa back inside, but it’s too late to save her. RIP Dr. Lisa.
Now, what should be done with her body?
Space programs like NASA have been pondering this inevitability, although they won’t talk about it publicly. (Why are you hiding your space corpse protocol, NASA?) So, let me pose the question to you: should Lisa’s body come back to Earth or not? Here’s what would happen, based on what you decide.
Yes, bring Lisa’s body back to Earth
Decomposition can be slowed down in cold temperatures, so if Lisa is coming back to Earth (and the crew doesn’t want the effluents of a decomposing body escaping into the living area of the ship), they need to keep her as cool as possible. On the International Space Station, astronauts keep trash and food waste in the coldest part of the station. This puts the brakes on the bacteria that cause decay, which decreases food rot and helps the astronauts avoid unpleasant smells. So maybe this is where Lisa would hang out until a shuttle returned her to Earth. Keeping fallen space hero Dr. Lisa with the trash is not the best public relations move, but the station has limited room, and the trash area already has a cooling system in place, so it makes logistical sense to put her there.
What if Dr. Lisa dies of a heart attack on a long journey to Mars? In 2005, NASA collaborated with a small Swedish company called Promessa on a design prototype for a system that would process and contain space corpses. The prototype was called the Body Back. (“I’m bringing body back, returning corpses but they’re not intact.”)
If Lisa’s crew had a Body Back system on board, here’s how it would work. Her body would be placed in an airtight bag made of GoreTex and thrust into the shuttle’s airlock. In the airlock, the temperature of space (–270°C) would freeze Lisa’s body. After about an hour, a robotic arm would bring the bag back inside the shuttle and vibrate for fifteen minutes, shattering frozen Lisa into chunks. The chunks would be dehydrated, leaving about fifty pounds of dried Lisa-powder in the Body Back. In theory, you could store Lisa in her powdered form for years before returning her to Earth and presenting her to her family just like you would a very heavy urn of cremated remains.
Nope, Lisa should stay in space
Who says Lisa’s body needs to come back to Earth at all? People are already paying $12,000 or more to have tiny, symbolic portions of their cremated remains or DNA launched into Earth’s orbit, to the surface of the moon, or out into deep space. How psyched do you think space nerds would be if they had the chance to float their whole dead body through space?
After all, burial at sea has always been a respectful way to put sailors and explorers to rest, plopped over the side of the ship into the waves below. We continue the practice these days despite advances in onboard refrigeration and preservation technology. So, while we do have the technology to build robot arms to shatter and freeze-dry space corpses, perhaps we could employ the simpler option of wrapping Dr. Lisa in a body bag, space-walking her past the solar array, and letting her float away?
Space seems vast and uncontrolled. We like to imagine that Dr. Lisa will drift forever into the void (like George Clooney in that space movie I watched on the plane that one time), but more likely she would just follow the same orbit as the shuttle. This would, perversely, turn her into a form of space trash. The United Nations has regulations against littering in space. But I doubt anyone would apply those regulations to Dr. Lisa. Again, no one wants to call our noble Lisa trash!
Humans have struggled with this challenge before, with grim results. There are only a few climbable routes to climb to the top of Mount Everest’s 29,029-foot peak. If you die at that altitude (which almost three hundred people have done), it is dangerous for the living to attempt to bring your body down for burial or cremation. Today, dead bodies litter the climbing paths, and each year new climbers have to step over the puffy orange snowsuits and skeletonized faces of fellow climbers. This same thing could happen in space, where shuttles to Mars have to pass the orbiting corpse every trip. “Oh geez, there goes Lisa again.”
It’s possible the gravity of a planet could eventually pull Lisa in. If that happens, Lisa would get a free cremation in the atmosphere. Friction from the atmospheric gas would super-heat her body’s tissues, incinerating her. There’s the smallest of small possibilities that if Lisa’s body was sent out into space in a small, self-propelled craft like an escape pod, which then departed our solar system, traveled across the empty expanse to some exoplanet, survived its descent through whatever atmosphere might exist there, and cracked open on impact, Lisa’s microbes and bacterial spores could create life on a new planet. Good for Lisa! How do we know that alien Lisa wasn’t how life on Earth started, huh? Maybe the “primordial goo” from which Earth’s first living creatures emerged was just Lisa decomposition? Thanks, Dr. Lisa.
You’re in a Police Lineup, Right Now
Face-recognition technology is the new norm. You may think, “I’ve got nothing to hide,” but we all should be concerned.
Video by Taige Jensen and Leah Varjacques
Face recognition technology is being used to unlock phones, clear customs, identify immigrants and solve crimes. In the Video Op-Ed above, Clare Garvie demands the United States government hit pause on face recognition. She argues that while this convenient technology may seem benign to those who feel they have nothing to hide, face recognition is something we should all fear. Police databases now feature the faces of nearly half of Americans — most of whom have no idea their image is there. The invasive technology violates citizens’ constitutional rights and is subject to an alarming level of manipulation and bias.
Our privacy, our right to anonymity in public and our right to free speech are in danger. Congress must declare a national moratorium on the use of face-recognition technology until legal restrictions limiting its use and scope can be developed. Without restrictions on face recognition, America’s future is closer to a Chinese-style surveillance state than we’d like to think.
Watch video at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Face-recognition technology is the new norm. You may think, “I’ve got nothing to hide,” but we all should be concerned.
Video by Taige Jensen and Leah Varjacques
Face recognition technology is being used to unlock phones, clear customs, identify immigrants and solve crimes. In the Video Op-Ed above, Clare Garvie demands the United States government hit pause on face recognition. She argues that while this convenient technology may seem benign to those who feel they have nothing to hide, face recognition is something we should all fear. Police databases now feature the faces of nearly half of Americans — most of whom have no idea their image is there. The invasive technology violates citizens’ constitutional rights and is subject to an alarming level of manipulation and bias.
Our privacy, our right to anonymity in public and our right to free speech are in danger. Congress must declare a national moratorium on the use of face-recognition technology until legal restrictions limiting its use and scope can be developed. Without restrictions on face recognition, America’s future is closer to a Chinese-style surveillance state than we’d like to think.
Watch video at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Are We Ready for Satellites That See Our Every Move?
We should consider the ethical implications of satellites that can identify us, and our license plates, from space.
When President Trump tweeted an image of Iran’s Imam Khomeini Space Center in August, amateur satellite trackers were shocked by the image’s high resolution. After some sleuthing, they concluded it came from USA 224, a highly classified satellite launched in 2011 by the National Reconnaissance Office and believed to be part of the multibillion-dollar KH-11 program. Not only did the satellite’s size, location and orbit match the vantage point of the image, but only such a state-of-the-art satellite could possibly capture details like the clear Persian writing on the launchpad’s edge.
That the technology to clearly see something as small as a coffee mug — or smaller — could already exist, or be developed very soon, should not be taken lightly. The commercial satellite imagery business has grown tremendously over the past decade, with over 700 Earth observational satellites now in orbit, and imagery resolution keeps improving. We must consider the longer-term implications of having commercial high-resolution satellite image of this quality and what will happen when we can identify individuals or license plates from space — because that’s not far-off. We are not ready for the ethical boundaries this invasion of privacy will cross.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/opin ... d=45305309
We should consider the ethical implications of satellites that can identify us, and our license plates, from space.
When President Trump tweeted an image of Iran’s Imam Khomeini Space Center in August, amateur satellite trackers were shocked by the image’s high resolution. After some sleuthing, they concluded it came from USA 224, a highly classified satellite launched in 2011 by the National Reconnaissance Office and believed to be part of the multibillion-dollar KH-11 program. Not only did the satellite’s size, location and orbit match the vantage point of the image, but only such a state-of-the-art satellite could possibly capture details like the clear Persian writing on the launchpad’s edge.
That the technology to clearly see something as small as a coffee mug — or smaller — could already exist, or be developed very soon, should not be taken lightly. The commercial satellite imagery business has grown tremendously over the past decade, with over 700 Earth observational satellites now in orbit, and imagery resolution keeps improving. We must consider the longer-term implications of having commercial high-resolution satellite image of this quality and what will happen when we can identify individuals or license plates from space — because that’s not far-off. We are not ready for the ethical boundaries this invasion of privacy will cross.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/opin ... d=45305309
3D-printed organs could help us heal faster and live longer
Researchers made waves last year by successfully implanting new jaws in rats
Three-dimensional printing is a hot technology right now, but scientists have struggled to use it to solve a pressing problem: helping people heal. Healing wounds is a tall order for even the best bioprinters - creating materials that can meet the body’s needs for repair and regeneration and also get printed is no small feat. But experiments keep coming closer to making it work, putting the exciting possibility of a 3D-printed transplant future squarely in scientists’ sights.
More....
https://massivesci.com/articles/3d-prin ... C+together
******
Artificial intelligence isn’t very intelligent and won’t be any time soon
For all of the recent advances in artificial intelligence, machines still struggle with common sense
Many think we’ll see human-level artificial intelligence in the next 10 years. Industry continues to boast smarter tech like personalized assistants or self-driving cars. And in computer science, new and powerful tools embolden researchers to assert that we are nearing the goal in the quest for human-level artificial intelligence.
But history and current limitations should temper these expectations. Despite the hype, despite progress, we are far from machines that think like you and me.
Last year Google unveiled Duplex — a Pixel smartphone assistant which can call and make reservations for you. When asked to schedule an appointment, say at a hair salon, Duplex makes the phone call. What follows is a terse but realistic conversation including scheduling and service negotiation.
Duplex is just a drop in the ocean of new tech. Self-driving cars, drone delivery systems, and intelligent personal assistants are products of a recent shift in artificial intelligence research that has revolutionized how machines learn from data.
The shift comes from the insurgence of “deep learning,” a method for training machines with hundreds, thousands, or even millions of artificial neurons. These artificial neurons are crudely inspired from those in our brains. Think of them as knobs. If each knob is turned in just the right way, the machine can do different things. With enough data, we can learn how to adjust each knob in the machine to allow them to recognize objects, use language, or perhaps anything else a human could do.
Previously, a clever programmer would “teach” the machine these skills instead of a machine learning them on its own. Infamously, this was involved in both the success and demise of IBM’s chess playing machine Deep Blue, which beat the chess grandmaster and then world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. Deep Blue’s programmers gained insights from expert chess players and programmed them into Deep Blue. This strategy worked well enough to beat a grandmaster, but failed as a general approach towards building intelligence outside chess playing. Chess has clear rules. It’s simple enough that you can encode the knowledge you want the machine to have. But most problems aren’t like this.
More...
https://massivesci.com/articles/artific ... C+together
Researchers made waves last year by successfully implanting new jaws in rats
Three-dimensional printing is a hot technology right now, but scientists have struggled to use it to solve a pressing problem: helping people heal. Healing wounds is a tall order for even the best bioprinters - creating materials that can meet the body’s needs for repair and regeneration and also get printed is no small feat. But experiments keep coming closer to making it work, putting the exciting possibility of a 3D-printed transplant future squarely in scientists’ sights.
More....
https://massivesci.com/articles/3d-prin ... C+together
******
Artificial intelligence isn’t very intelligent and won’t be any time soon
For all of the recent advances in artificial intelligence, machines still struggle with common sense
Many think we’ll see human-level artificial intelligence in the next 10 years. Industry continues to boast smarter tech like personalized assistants or self-driving cars. And in computer science, new and powerful tools embolden researchers to assert that we are nearing the goal in the quest for human-level artificial intelligence.
But history and current limitations should temper these expectations. Despite the hype, despite progress, we are far from machines that think like you and me.
Last year Google unveiled Duplex — a Pixel smartphone assistant which can call and make reservations for you. When asked to schedule an appointment, say at a hair salon, Duplex makes the phone call. What follows is a terse but realistic conversation including scheduling and service negotiation.
Duplex is just a drop in the ocean of new tech. Self-driving cars, drone delivery systems, and intelligent personal assistants are products of a recent shift in artificial intelligence research that has revolutionized how machines learn from data.
The shift comes from the insurgence of “deep learning,” a method for training machines with hundreds, thousands, or even millions of artificial neurons. These artificial neurons are crudely inspired from those in our brains. Think of them as knobs. If each knob is turned in just the right way, the machine can do different things. With enough data, we can learn how to adjust each knob in the machine to allow them to recognize objects, use language, or perhaps anything else a human could do.
Previously, a clever programmer would “teach” the machine these skills instead of a machine learning them on its own. Infamously, this was involved in both the success and demise of IBM’s chess playing machine Deep Blue, which beat the chess grandmaster and then world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. Deep Blue’s programmers gained insights from expert chess players and programmed them into Deep Blue. This strategy worked well enough to beat a grandmaster, but failed as a general approach towards building intelligence outside chess playing. Chess has clear rules. It’s simple enough that you can encode the knowledge you want the machine to have. But most problems aren’t like this.
More...
https://massivesci.com/articles/artific ... C+together
Digital Detoxification - International Internet Day - 2019
Today, on the International Internet Day, we celebrate the power of digital communication and how it connects us with the rest of the world. However, let us also become cognizant about some of the best practices to ensure that we remain in control of the technology rather than technology overpowering us. Renowned psychologist, Dr. Neha Somani shares her insights on effective ways to practice a “Digital Detoxification”
Dear Neha,
I am 33 year old mom to a 9 month old baby. Although I am not working and do not require to check on my phone call or e-mails all the time, I realize I am always on my phone. I have begun to feel extremely guilty for that. Even when he is awake, I use my mobile to read random articles that pop up on my feed, check whatsapp and forward messages on my family and friends groups. I frequently log on to Facebook and Instagram. I have this weird feeling that if I don’t stay abreast with what’s going on around me… politically, technologically or socially I will be totally cut off from the rest of the world. I was working initially and now I am a Stay-at-home-Mom. I don’t want to turn into a typical housewife. Please suggest a way out. Sometimes I am not able to focus on my little child who is clinging on to me.
Yours sincerely,
A Hopeless Mobile Addict.
A few days back, someone wrote an email to me seeking help for her mobile addiction. Being a Mother and a occasionally-working and mostly-stay-at-home-mom myself, I could totally relate to the woman writing this to me and somewhere deep down the line In too hold myself guilty for sneaking into my phone every now and then, at the pretext of checking emails or whatsapps from clients. Well, I am Guilty as charged. Are you too?
Well, Social Media is a blessing. It connects us to our loved ones across continents. It helps us keep a tab on what’s happening in each other other’s lives, it helps us maintain and re-kindle friendships and also meet some amazing people online. It opens doorways of opportunities to reach out and make your presence felt in the professional world.
No wonder, we find ourselves scrolling through our Facebook feed while watching TV, checking Instagram and Twitter while answering nature’s call. We are glued to Netflix and Amazon Prime late into night and end up complaining that we have not rested well.
More...
https://the.ismaili/india/digital-detox ... rce=Direct
Today, on the International Internet Day, we celebrate the power of digital communication and how it connects us with the rest of the world. However, let us also become cognizant about some of the best practices to ensure that we remain in control of the technology rather than technology overpowering us. Renowned psychologist, Dr. Neha Somani shares her insights on effective ways to practice a “Digital Detoxification”
Dear Neha,
I am 33 year old mom to a 9 month old baby. Although I am not working and do not require to check on my phone call or e-mails all the time, I realize I am always on my phone. I have begun to feel extremely guilty for that. Even when he is awake, I use my mobile to read random articles that pop up on my feed, check whatsapp and forward messages on my family and friends groups. I frequently log on to Facebook and Instagram. I have this weird feeling that if I don’t stay abreast with what’s going on around me… politically, technologically or socially I will be totally cut off from the rest of the world. I was working initially and now I am a Stay-at-home-Mom. I don’t want to turn into a typical housewife. Please suggest a way out. Sometimes I am not able to focus on my little child who is clinging on to me.
Yours sincerely,
A Hopeless Mobile Addict.
A few days back, someone wrote an email to me seeking help for her mobile addiction. Being a Mother and a occasionally-working and mostly-stay-at-home-mom myself, I could totally relate to the woman writing this to me and somewhere deep down the line In too hold myself guilty for sneaking into my phone every now and then, at the pretext of checking emails or whatsapps from clients. Well, I am Guilty as charged. Are you too?
Well, Social Media is a blessing. It connects us to our loved ones across continents. It helps us keep a tab on what’s happening in each other other’s lives, it helps us maintain and re-kindle friendships and also meet some amazing people online. It opens doorways of opportunities to reach out and make your presence felt in the professional world.
No wonder, we find ourselves scrolling through our Facebook feed while watching TV, checking Instagram and Twitter while answering nature’s call. We are glued to Netflix and Amazon Prime late into night and end up complaining that we have not rested well.
More...
https://the.ismaili/india/digital-detox ... rce=Direct
Modern genetics will improve health and usher in “designer” children
It may also provoke an ethical storm
Sometime next year, if all goes to plan, a gay male couple in California will have a child. The child in question will have been conceived by in vitro fertilisation. In this case a group of eggs from a female donor are now being fertilised by sperm from both fathers (half from one, half from the other). Of the resulting embryos, the couple will choose one to be implanted in a surrogate mother. An uplifting tale of the times, then, but hardly a newsworthy event. Except that it is.
Where the story becomes newsworthy is around the word “choose”. For the parents, in conjunction with a firm called Genomic Prediction, will pick the lucky embryo based on a genetically estimated risk of disease. Such pre-implantation testing is already used in some places, in cases where there is a chance of parents passing on a condition, such as Tay-Sachs disease, that is caused by a single faulty gene. Genomic Prediction is, however, offering something more wide-ranging. It is screening embryos for almost 1m single-nucleotide polymorphisms (snps). These are places where individual genomes routinely differ from one another at the level of an individual genetic letter. Individual snp differences between people rarely have much effect. But add them up and they can raise or lower by quite a lot the likelihood of someone suffering a particular disease. Generate several embryos and snp-test them, then, and you can pick out those that you think will grow up to be the healthiest.
More...
https://www.economist.com/science-and-t ... a/341210/n
It may also provoke an ethical storm
Sometime next year, if all goes to plan, a gay male couple in California will have a child. The child in question will have been conceived by in vitro fertilisation. In this case a group of eggs from a female donor are now being fertilised by sperm from both fathers (half from one, half from the other). Of the resulting embryos, the couple will choose one to be implanted in a surrogate mother. An uplifting tale of the times, then, but hardly a newsworthy event. Except that it is.
Where the story becomes newsworthy is around the word “choose”. For the parents, in conjunction with a firm called Genomic Prediction, will pick the lucky embryo based on a genetically estimated risk of disease. Such pre-implantation testing is already used in some places, in cases where there is a chance of parents passing on a condition, such as Tay-Sachs disease, that is caused by a single faulty gene. Genomic Prediction is, however, offering something more wide-ranging. It is screening embryos for almost 1m single-nucleotide polymorphisms (snps). These are places where individual genomes routinely differ from one another at the level of an individual genetic letter. Individual snp differences between people rarely have much effect. But add them up and they can raise or lower by quite a lot the likelihood of someone suffering a particular disease. Generate several embryos and snp-test them, then, and you can pick out those that you think will grow up to be the healthiest.
More...
https://www.economist.com/science-and-t ... a/341210/n
I Invented the World Wide Web. Here’s How We Can Fix It.
I wanted the web to serve humanity. It’s not too late to live up to that promise.
My parents were mathematicians. My mother helped code one of the first stored-program computers — the Manchester Mark 1. They taught me that when you program a computer, what you can do is limited only by your imagination. That excitement for experimentation and change helped me build the World Wide Web.
I had hoped that 30 years from its creation, we would be using the web foremost for the purpose of serving humanity. Projects like Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap and the world of open source software are the kinds of constructive tools that I hoped would flow from the web.
However, the reality is much more complex. Communities are being ripped apart as prejudice, hate and disinformation are peddled online. Scammers use the web to steal identities, stalkers use it to harass and intimidate their victims, and bad actors subvert democracy using clever digital tactics. The use of targeted political ads in the United States’ 2020 presidential campaign and in elections elsewhere threatens once again to undermine voters’ understanding and choices.
We’re at a tipping point. How we respond to this abuse will determine whether the web lives up to its potential as a global force for good or leads us into a digital dystopia.
The web needs radical intervention from all those who have power over its future: governments that can legislate and regulate; companies that design products; civil society groups and activists who hold the powerful to account; and every single web user who interacts with others online.
We have to overcome the stalemate that has characterized previous attempts to solve the problems facing the web. Governments must stop blaming platforms for inaction, and companies must become more constructive in shaping future regulation — not just opposing it.
I’m introducing a new approach to overcome that stalemate — the Contract for the Web.
The Contract for the Web is a global plan of action created over the past year by activists, academics, companies, governments and citizens from across the world to make sure our online world is safe, empowering and genuinely for everyone.
The contract outlines steps to prevent the deliberate misuse of the web and our information. For example, it calls on governments to publish public data registries, so that they are no longer able to conceal from their own citizens how their data is being used. If governments are sharing our data with private companies — or buying data broker lists from them — we have a right to know and take action.
The contract sets out ways to improve system design to eradicate incentives that reward clickbait or the spread of disinformation. Targeted political advertising is giving political parties the ability to subvert the debate. We need platforms to open their black boxes and clearly explain how they’re minimizing or eliminating risks their products pose to society. In my view, governments should impose an immediate ban on targeted political advertising to restore trust in our public discourse.
Crucially, the contract also contains concrete actions to tackle the negative — even if unintended — consequences of platform design. For example, why on an exercise app should women have to worry that their precise jogging routes are shared by default with other users? Perhaps because they were designed by people not thinking about the safety needs of women. We need a tremendously more diverse work force in our technology industries to make sure their products serve all groups. And companies should release reports that meaningfully demonstrate their progress toward those diversity goals.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/24/opin ... 3053091125
I wanted the web to serve humanity. It’s not too late to live up to that promise.
My parents were mathematicians. My mother helped code one of the first stored-program computers — the Manchester Mark 1. They taught me that when you program a computer, what you can do is limited only by your imagination. That excitement for experimentation and change helped me build the World Wide Web.
I had hoped that 30 years from its creation, we would be using the web foremost for the purpose of serving humanity. Projects like Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap and the world of open source software are the kinds of constructive tools that I hoped would flow from the web.
However, the reality is much more complex. Communities are being ripped apart as prejudice, hate and disinformation are peddled online. Scammers use the web to steal identities, stalkers use it to harass and intimidate their victims, and bad actors subvert democracy using clever digital tactics. The use of targeted political ads in the United States’ 2020 presidential campaign and in elections elsewhere threatens once again to undermine voters’ understanding and choices.
We’re at a tipping point. How we respond to this abuse will determine whether the web lives up to its potential as a global force for good or leads us into a digital dystopia.
The web needs radical intervention from all those who have power over its future: governments that can legislate and regulate; companies that design products; civil society groups and activists who hold the powerful to account; and every single web user who interacts with others online.
We have to overcome the stalemate that has characterized previous attempts to solve the problems facing the web. Governments must stop blaming platforms for inaction, and companies must become more constructive in shaping future regulation — not just opposing it.
I’m introducing a new approach to overcome that stalemate — the Contract for the Web.
The Contract for the Web is a global plan of action created over the past year by activists, academics, companies, governments and citizens from across the world to make sure our online world is safe, empowering and genuinely for everyone.
The contract outlines steps to prevent the deliberate misuse of the web and our information. For example, it calls on governments to publish public data registries, so that they are no longer able to conceal from their own citizens how their data is being used. If governments are sharing our data with private companies — or buying data broker lists from them — we have a right to know and take action.
The contract sets out ways to improve system design to eradicate incentives that reward clickbait or the spread of disinformation. Targeted political advertising is giving political parties the ability to subvert the debate. We need platforms to open their black boxes and clearly explain how they’re minimizing or eliminating risks their products pose to society. In my view, governments should impose an immediate ban on targeted political advertising to restore trust in our public discourse.
Crucially, the contract also contains concrete actions to tackle the negative — even if unintended — consequences of platform design. For example, why on an exercise app should women have to worry that their precise jogging routes are shared by default with other users? Perhaps because they were designed by people not thinking about the safety needs of women. We need a tremendously more diverse work force in our technology industries to make sure their products serve all groups. And companies should release reports that meaningfully demonstrate their progress toward those diversity goals.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/24/opin ... 3053091125
China Uses DNA to Map Faces, With Help From the West
Beijing’s pursuit of control over a Muslim ethnic group pushes the rules of science and raises questions about consent.
TUMXUK, China — In a dusty city in the Xinjiang region on China’s western frontier, the authorities are testing the rules of science.
With a million or more ethnic Uighurs and others from predominantly Muslim minority groups swept up in detentions across Xinjiang, officials in Tumxuk have gathered blood samples from hundreds of Uighurs — part of a mass DNA collection effort dogged by questions about consent and how the data will be used.
In Tumxuk, at least, there is a partial answer: Chinese scientists are trying to find a way to use a DNA sample to create an image of a person’s face.
The technology, which is also being developed in the United States and elsewhere, is in the early stages of development and can produce rough pictures good enough only to narrow a manhunt or perhaps eliminate suspects. But given the crackdown in Xinjiang, experts on ethics in science worry that China is building a tool that could be used to justify and intensify racial profiling and other state discrimination against Uighurs.
In the long term, experts say, it may even be possible for the Communist government to feed images produced from a DNA sample into the mass surveillance and facial recognition systems that it is building, tightening its grip on society by improving its ability to track dissidents and protesters as well as criminals.
Some of this research is taking place in labs run by China’s Ministry of Public Security, and at least two Chinese scientists working with the ministry on the technology have received funding from respected institutions in Europe. International scientific journals have published their findings without examining the origin of the DNA used in the studies or vetting the ethical questions raised by collecting such samples in Xinjiang.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/busi ... 3053091203
Beijing’s pursuit of control over a Muslim ethnic group pushes the rules of science and raises questions about consent.
TUMXUK, China — In a dusty city in the Xinjiang region on China’s western frontier, the authorities are testing the rules of science.
With a million or more ethnic Uighurs and others from predominantly Muslim minority groups swept up in detentions across Xinjiang, officials in Tumxuk have gathered blood samples from hundreds of Uighurs — part of a mass DNA collection effort dogged by questions about consent and how the data will be used.
In Tumxuk, at least, there is a partial answer: Chinese scientists are trying to find a way to use a DNA sample to create an image of a person’s face.
The technology, which is also being developed in the United States and elsewhere, is in the early stages of development and can produce rough pictures good enough only to narrow a manhunt or perhaps eliminate suspects. But given the crackdown in Xinjiang, experts on ethics in science worry that China is building a tool that could be used to justify and intensify racial profiling and other state discrimination against Uighurs.
In the long term, experts say, it may even be possible for the Communist government to feed images produced from a DNA sample into the mass surveillance and facial recognition systems that it is building, tightening its grip on society by improving its ability to track dissidents and protesters as well as criminals.
Some of this research is taking place in labs run by China’s Ministry of Public Security, and at least two Chinese scientists working with the ministry on the technology have received funding from respected institutions in Europe. International scientific journals have published their findings without examining the origin of the DNA used in the studies or vetting the ethical questions raised by collecting such samples in Xinjiang.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/busi ... 3053091203
When a DNA Test Says You’re a Younger Man, Who Lives 5,000 Miles Away
After a bone marrow transplant, a man with leukemia found that his donor’s DNA traveled to unexpected parts of his body. A crime lab is now studying the case.
Three months after his bone marrow transplant, Chris Long of Reno, Nev., learned that the DNA in his blood had changed. It had all been replaced by the DNA of his donor, a German man he had exchanged just a handful of messages with.
He’d been encouraged to test his blood by a colleague at the Sheriff’s Office, where he worked. She had an inkling this might happen. It’s the goal of the procedure, after all: Weak blood is replaced by healthy blood, and with it, the DNA it contains.
But four years after his lifesaving procedure, it was not only Mr. Long’s blood that was affected. Swabs of his lips and cheeks contained his DNA — but also that of his donor. Even more surprising to Mr. Long and other colleagues at the crime lab, all of the DNA in his semen belonged to his donor. “I thought that it was pretty incredible that I can disappear and someone else can appear,” he said.
Mr. Long had become a chimera, the technical term for the rare person with two sets of DNA. The word takes its name from a fire-breathing creature in Greek mythology composed of lion, goat and serpent parts. Doctors and forensic scientists have long known that certain medical procedures turn people into chimeras, but where exactly a donor’s DNA shows up — beyond blood — has rarely been studied with criminal applications in mind.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/07/us/d ... 3053091208
After a bone marrow transplant, a man with leukemia found that his donor’s DNA traveled to unexpected parts of his body. A crime lab is now studying the case.
Three months after his bone marrow transplant, Chris Long of Reno, Nev., learned that the DNA in his blood had changed. It had all been replaced by the DNA of his donor, a German man he had exchanged just a handful of messages with.
He’d been encouraged to test his blood by a colleague at the Sheriff’s Office, where he worked. She had an inkling this might happen. It’s the goal of the procedure, after all: Weak blood is replaced by healthy blood, and with it, the DNA it contains.
But four years after his lifesaving procedure, it was not only Mr. Long’s blood that was affected. Swabs of his lips and cheeks contained his DNA — but also that of his donor. Even more surprising to Mr. Long and other colleagues at the crime lab, all of the DNA in his semen belonged to his donor. “I thought that it was pretty incredible that I can disappear and someone else can appear,” he said.
Mr. Long had become a chimera, the technical term for the rare person with two sets of DNA. The word takes its name from a fire-breathing creature in Greek mythology composed of lion, goat and serpent parts. Doctors and forensic scientists have long known that certain medical procedures turn people into chimeras, but where exactly a donor’s DNA shows up — beyond blood — has rarely been studied with criminal applications in mind.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/07/us/d ... 3053091208
Total Surveillance Is Not What America Signed Up For
IT IS A FEDERAL CRIME to open a piece of junk mail that’s addressed to someone else. Listening to someone else’s phone call without a court order can also be a federal crime.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the location data served up by mobile phones is also covered by constitutional protections. The government can’t request it without a warrant.
But the private sector doesn’t need a warrant to get hold of your data. There’s little to prevent companies from tracking the precise movements of hundreds of millions of Americans and selling copies of that dataset to anyone who can pay the price.
The incongruity between the robust legal regime around legacy methods of privacy invasion and the paucity of regulation around more comprehensive and intrusive modern technologies has come into sharp relief in an investigation into the location data industry by Times Opinion. The investigation, which builds on work last year by The Times’s newsroom, was based on a dataset provided to Times Opinion by sources alarmed by the power of the tracking industry. The largest such file known to have been examined by journalists, it reveals more than 50 billion location pings from the phones of more than 12 million Americans across several major cities.
By analyzing these pings, our journalists were able to track the movements of President Trump’s Secret Service guards and of senior Pentagon officials. They could follow protesters to their homes and stalk high-school students across Los Angeles. In most cases, it was child’s play for them to connect a supposedly anonymous data trail to a name and an address — to a real live human being.
Your smartphone can broadcast your exact location thousands of times per day, through hundreds of apps, instantaneously to dozens of different companies. Each of those companies has the power to follow individual mobile phones wherever they go, in near-real time.
That’s not a glitch in the system. It is the system.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/201 ... 3053091222
IT IS A FEDERAL CRIME to open a piece of junk mail that’s addressed to someone else. Listening to someone else’s phone call without a court order can also be a federal crime.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the location data served up by mobile phones is also covered by constitutional protections. The government can’t request it without a warrant.
But the private sector doesn’t need a warrant to get hold of your data. There’s little to prevent companies from tracking the precise movements of hundreds of millions of Americans and selling copies of that dataset to anyone who can pay the price.
The incongruity between the robust legal regime around legacy methods of privacy invasion and the paucity of regulation around more comprehensive and intrusive modern technologies has come into sharp relief in an investigation into the location data industry by Times Opinion. The investigation, which builds on work last year by The Times’s newsroom, was based on a dataset provided to Times Opinion by sources alarmed by the power of the tracking industry. The largest such file known to have been examined by journalists, it reveals more than 50 billion location pings from the phones of more than 12 million Americans across several major cities.
By analyzing these pings, our journalists were able to track the movements of President Trump’s Secret Service guards and of senior Pentagon officials. They could follow protesters to their homes and stalk high-school students across Los Angeles. In most cases, it was child’s play for them to connect a supposedly anonymous data trail to a name and an address — to a real live human being.
Your smartphone can broadcast your exact location thousands of times per day, through hundreds of apps, instantaneously to dozens of different companies. Each of those companies has the power to follow individual mobile phones wherever they go, in near-real time.
That’s not a glitch in the system. It is the system.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/201 ... 3053091222
A.I. Is Learning to Read Mammograms
Computers that are trained to recognize patterns and interpret images may outperform humans at finding cancer on X-rays.
Artificial intelligence can help doctors do a better job of finding breast cancer on mammograms, researchers from Google and medical centers in the United States and Britain are reporting in the journal Nature.
The new system for reading mammograms, which are X-rays of the breast, is still being studied and is not yet available for widespread use. It is just one of Google’s ventures into medicine. Computers can be trained to recognize patterns and interpret images, and the company has already created algorithms to help detect lung cancers on CT scans, diagnose eye disease in people with diabetes and find cancer on microscope slides.
“This paper will help move things along quite a bit,” said Dr. Constance Lehman, director of breast imaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who was not involved in the study. “There are challenges to their methods. But having Google at this level is a very good thing.”
Tested on images where the diagnosis was already known, the new system performed better than radiologists. On scans from the United States, the system produced a 9.4 percent reduction in false negatives, in which a mammogram is mistakenly read as normal and a cancer is missed. It also provided a lowering of 5.7 percent in false positives, where the scan is incorrectly judged abnormal but there is no cancer.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/01/heal ... 3053090102
Computers that are trained to recognize patterns and interpret images may outperform humans at finding cancer on X-rays.
Artificial intelligence can help doctors do a better job of finding breast cancer on mammograms, researchers from Google and medical centers in the United States and Britain are reporting in the journal Nature.
The new system for reading mammograms, which are X-rays of the breast, is still being studied and is not yet available for widespread use. It is just one of Google’s ventures into medicine. Computers can be trained to recognize patterns and interpret images, and the company has already created algorithms to help detect lung cancers on CT scans, diagnose eye disease in people with diabetes and find cancer on microscope slides.
“This paper will help move things along quite a bit,” said Dr. Constance Lehman, director of breast imaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who was not involved in the study. “There are challenges to their methods. But having Google at this level is a very good thing.”
Tested on images where the diagnosis was already known, the new system performed better than radiologists. On scans from the United States, the system produced a 9.4 percent reduction in false negatives, in which a mammogram is mistakenly read as normal and a cancer is missed. It also provided a lowering of 5.7 percent in false positives, where the scan is incorrectly judged abnormal but there is no cancer.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/01/heal ... 3053090102
A.I. Comes to the Operating Room
Images made by lasers and read by computers can help speed up the diagnosis of brain tumors during surgery.
Using laser imaging and artificial intelligence, researchers were able to diagnose brain tumors in under 150 seconds. The dark ovals are tumor cells, among nerve fibers that appear as white streaks, indicating a malignant tumor called a diffuse glioma. Credit...Michigan Medicine
Brain surgeons are bringing artificial intelligence and new imaging techniques into the operating room, to diagnose tumors as accurately as pathologists, and much faster, according to a report in the journal Nature Medicine.
The new approach streamlines the standard practice of analyzing tissue samples while the patient is still on the operating table, to help guide brain surgery and later treatment.
The traditional method, which requires sending the tissue to a lab, freezing and staining it, then peering at it through a microscope, takes 20 to 30 minutes or longer. The new technique takes two and a half minutes. Like the old method, it requires that tissue be removed from the brain, but uses lasers to create images and a computer to read them in the operating room.
“Although we often have clues based on preoperative M.R.I., establishing diagnosis is a primary goal of almost all brain tumor operations, whether we’re removing a tumor or just taking a biopsy,” said Dr. Daniel A. Orringer, a neurosurgeon at N.Y.U. Langone Health and the senior author of the report.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/heal ... 0920200107
Images made by lasers and read by computers can help speed up the diagnosis of brain tumors during surgery.
Using laser imaging and artificial intelligence, researchers were able to diagnose brain tumors in under 150 seconds. The dark ovals are tumor cells, among nerve fibers that appear as white streaks, indicating a malignant tumor called a diffuse glioma. Credit...Michigan Medicine
Brain surgeons are bringing artificial intelligence and new imaging techniques into the operating room, to diagnose tumors as accurately as pathologists, and much faster, according to a report in the journal Nature Medicine.
The new approach streamlines the standard practice of analyzing tissue samples while the patient is still on the operating table, to help guide brain surgery and later treatment.
The traditional method, which requires sending the tissue to a lab, freezing and staining it, then peering at it through a microscope, takes 20 to 30 minutes or longer. The new technique takes two and a half minutes. Like the old method, it requires that tissue be removed from the brain, but uses lasers to create images and a computer to read them in the operating room.
“Although we often have clues based on preoperative M.R.I., establishing diagnosis is a primary goal of almost all brain tumor operations, whether we’re removing a tumor or just taking a biopsy,” said Dr. Daniel A. Orringer, a neurosurgeon at N.Y.U. Langone Health and the senior author of the report.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/heal ... 0920200107
The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It
A little-known start-up helps law enforcement match photos of unknown people to their online images — and “might lead to a dystopian future or something,” a backer says.
Until recently, Hoan Ton-That’s greatest hits included an obscure iPhone game and an app that let people put Donald Trump’s distinctive yellow hair on their own photos.
Then Mr. Ton-That — an Australian techie and onetime model — did something momentous: He invented a tool that could end your ability to walk down the street anonymously, and provided it to hundreds of law enforcement agencies, ranging from local cops in Florida to the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security.
His tiny company, Clearview AI, devised a groundbreaking facial recognition app. You take a picture of a person, upload it and get to see public photos of that person, along with links to where those photos appeared. The system — whose backbone is a database of more than three billion images that Clearview claims to have scraped from Facebook, YouTube, Venmo and millions of other websites — goes far beyond anything ever constructed by the United States government or Silicon Valley giants.
Federal and state law enforcement officers said that while they had only limited knowledge of how Clearview works and who is behind it, they had used its app to help solve shoplifting, identity theft, credit card fraud, murder and child sexual exploitation cases.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/tech ... 3053090119
A little-known start-up helps law enforcement match photos of unknown people to their online images — and “might lead to a dystopian future or something,” a backer says.
Until recently, Hoan Ton-That’s greatest hits included an obscure iPhone game and an app that let people put Donald Trump’s distinctive yellow hair on their own photos.
Then Mr. Ton-That — an Australian techie and onetime model — did something momentous: He invented a tool that could end your ability to walk down the street anonymously, and provided it to hundreds of law enforcement agencies, ranging from local cops in Florida to the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security.
His tiny company, Clearview AI, devised a groundbreaking facial recognition app. You take a picture of a person, upload it and get to see public photos of that person, along with links to where those photos appeared. The system — whose backbone is a database of more than three billion images that Clearview claims to have scraped from Facebook, YouTube, Venmo and millions of other websites — goes far beyond anything ever constructed by the United States government or Silicon Valley giants.
Federal and state law enforcement officers said that while they had only limited knowledge of how Clearview works and who is behind it, they had used its app to help solve shoplifting, identity theft, credit card fraud, murder and child sexual exploitation cases.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/tech ... 3053090119
You Are Now Remotely Controlled
Surveillance capitalists control the science and the scientists, the secrets and the truth.
Excerpt:
These conversations are occurring now, and there are many indications that lawmakers are ready to join and to lead. This third decade is likely to decide our fate. Will we make the digital future better, or will it make us worse? Will it be a place that we can call home?
Epistemic inequality is not based on what we can earn but rather on what we can learn. It is defined as unequal access to learning imposed by private commercial mechanisms of information capture, production, analysis and sales. It is best exemplified in the fast-growing abyss between what we know and what is known about us.
Twentieth-century industrial society was organized around the “division of labor,” and it followed that the struggle for economic equality would shape the politics of that time. Our digital century shifts society’s coordinates from a division of labor to a “division of learning,” and it follows that the struggle over access to knowledge and the power conferred by such knowledge will shape the politics of our time.
The new centrality of epistemic inequality signals a power shift from the ownership of the means of production, which defined the politics of the 20th century, to the ownership of the production of meaning. The challenges of epistemic justice and epistemic rights in this new era are summarized in three essential questions about knowledge, authority and power: Who knows? Who decides who knows? Who decides who decides who knows?
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/24/opin ... ogin-email
Surveillance capitalists control the science and the scientists, the secrets and the truth.
Excerpt:
These conversations are occurring now, and there are many indications that lawmakers are ready to join and to lead. This third decade is likely to decide our fate. Will we make the digital future better, or will it make us worse? Will it be a place that we can call home?
Epistemic inequality is not based on what we can earn but rather on what we can learn. It is defined as unequal access to learning imposed by private commercial mechanisms of information capture, production, analysis and sales. It is best exemplified in the fast-growing abyss between what we know and what is known about us.
Twentieth-century industrial society was organized around the “division of labor,” and it followed that the struggle for economic equality would shape the politics of that time. Our digital century shifts society’s coordinates from a division of labor to a “division of learning,” and it follows that the struggle over access to knowledge and the power conferred by such knowledge will shape the politics of our time.
The new centrality of epistemic inequality signals a power shift from the ownership of the means of production, which defined the politics of the 20th century, to the ownership of the production of meaning. The challenges of epistemic justice and epistemic rights in this new era are summarized in three essential questions about knowledge, authority and power: Who knows? Who decides who knows? Who decides who decides who knows?
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/24/opin ... ogin-email
Technologies transforming the world: Part one
We have seen rapid technological progress in the last decade. Society has made advancements in energy efficiency, image recognition, and natural language processing, among many other fields. These technological advancements suggest substantial changes to come for our society in the months and years ahead.
In a speech made in Houston upon being awarded the Huffington Prize in October 2019, Princess Zahra said, “There are things that are happening in our world in medicine, communications, and technology, which are going to have such profound impacts on not only the way we live as human beings but on the way that we interact and we learn.”
Although it is difficult to know exactly what the future holds, it is helpful to think about such changes in the world as two countervailing forces. The first is a displacement effect. As a result of technological progress, machines will be able to perform tasks that were previously performed by labour. The second effect goes in the opposite direction: as a result of new technologies, humans can perform new tasks. This is sometimes called a reinstatement effect. For example, as a result of advances in genetic testing, there is a new task of providing information to families with risk of inherited conditions. This task is performed by genetic counsellors, a new occupation which requires competencies in science, communication, and ethics.
This two-part article describes the rapidly-developing technologies being regarded as potentially transformative. These have appeared as cover stories in Nature and Science, two of the top scientific journals, over the last decade.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence
Imagine a computer that has the ability to learn with experience, rather than being programmed. Machine learning is the field that gives computers this nearly humanlike capability. It fits into the broader concept of artificial intelligence, or using technology to carry out tasks that normally require human reasoning.
One of the fields most directly impacted by machine learning and artificial intelligence is medicine. A machine learning algorithm developed at Carnegie Mellon University can now predict the likelihood of a heart attack with 80 percent accuracy.
The CRISPR technique enables researchers to edit DNA sequences and alter gene function.
The CRISPR technique enables researchers to edit DNA sequences and alter gene function.
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
Machine learning can also potentially enhance the efficiency of transportation, particularly with the development of self-driving cars. In the long-term, increased advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence could allow society to regain countless hours of productivity, freeing up humans to engage in tasks that involve more creativity or empathy.
CRISPR
Parents may soon be given the choice to edit the genome of a future child and consciously select their qualities. Scientists have made this feat nearly possible with the gene-editing technique of CRISPR. Using a protein that works like a pair of DNA scissors, this technique enables researchers to edit DNA sequences, alter gene function, and change a person’s resulting traits. CRISPR has the powerful ability to correct genetic diseases, such as sickle-cell anemia, although it comes with its fair share of ethical concerns.
Geographic information systems
Spreadsheets aren’t always the easiest way to identify patterns in data, such as local, national, and international criminal rate activity. Some data can be more easily interpreted when displayed in the form of a map. Geographic information systems (GIS) allow us to visualise data by analysing its spatial location, which is why GIS is often synonymous with “spatial data.”
The applications of GIS permeate many fields; epidemiologists use it to study the spread of global disease, telecommunications providers can use it to determine placements of cell towers, and consumer goods manufacturers use it to track social media activity.
Quantum computing
On 23 October 2019, Google’s researchers completed a calculation that even their largest supercomputers weren’t predicted to finish in under 10,000 years. The time it took to make the calculation was also only 3 minutes and 20 seconds. This is just one example of the power of quantum computing, an efficient technology for processing complex datasets in an efficient way.
Fracking diverts from using renewable, cleaner sources of energy and contributes to increased use of fossil fuels.
Fracking diverts from using renewable, cleaner sources of energy and contributes to increased use of fossil fuels.
PHOTO: CHRIS LEBOUTILLIER
Quantum machines are predicted to have a powerful impact on advancing artificial intelligence, yet they also have the power to threaten the established order. Quantum computing is also thought to help create climate simulations for predicting the effects of climate change, thanks to their ability to manipulate many variables. Quantum computing could also advance the field of medicine by enabling simulations of protein folding, one of the most complex problems in biochemistry. Diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are caused by misfolded proteins, and quantum computing simulations could virtually map out drug treatments that lead to medical breakthroughs.
Fracking
Have you ever wondered just how fossil fuels in the ground are extracted to get natural gas for your stove, or oil for your car? Fracking is one drilling technology used to extract oil and natural gas from underground. Fracking involves injecting liquid at high pressure into rocks underground in order to make small fractures through which natural gas and oil can flow.
The practice is controvertial, and has received widespread criticism from environmental campaigners and journalists, who suggest that any economic benefits are outweighed by long-term negative impacts to the environment, including water contamination, noise and air pollution, increased seismic risk, and the resulting hazards to public health.
Amin Sewani, a senior energy industry professional with BP, described some of the short-term advantages of fracking in today’s society, saying that it “has resulted in several positive impacts such as employment generation, energy security due to domestic production, higher revenues from taxes for governments, lower prices for the users of these resources, and reduced pollution via displacement of more carbon intensive alternates like coal.”
However, fracking also diverts from using renewable, cleaner sources of energy and contributes to increased use of fossil fuels. For these reasons, the practice is under international scrutiny, is restricted in some regions of the world, and completely banned in others.
---
Sarah Bana is a postdoctoral associate at MIT's Initiative on the Digital Economy and Noor Pirani is a student at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.
https://the.ismaili/our-stories/technol ... d-part-one
We have seen rapid technological progress in the last decade. Society has made advancements in energy efficiency, image recognition, and natural language processing, among many other fields. These technological advancements suggest substantial changes to come for our society in the months and years ahead.
In a speech made in Houston upon being awarded the Huffington Prize in October 2019, Princess Zahra said, “There are things that are happening in our world in medicine, communications, and technology, which are going to have such profound impacts on not only the way we live as human beings but on the way that we interact and we learn.”
Although it is difficult to know exactly what the future holds, it is helpful to think about such changes in the world as two countervailing forces. The first is a displacement effect. As a result of technological progress, machines will be able to perform tasks that were previously performed by labour. The second effect goes in the opposite direction: as a result of new technologies, humans can perform new tasks. This is sometimes called a reinstatement effect. For example, as a result of advances in genetic testing, there is a new task of providing information to families with risk of inherited conditions. This task is performed by genetic counsellors, a new occupation which requires competencies in science, communication, and ethics.
This two-part article describes the rapidly-developing technologies being regarded as potentially transformative. These have appeared as cover stories in Nature and Science, two of the top scientific journals, over the last decade.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence
Imagine a computer that has the ability to learn with experience, rather than being programmed. Machine learning is the field that gives computers this nearly humanlike capability. It fits into the broader concept of artificial intelligence, or using technology to carry out tasks that normally require human reasoning.
One of the fields most directly impacted by machine learning and artificial intelligence is medicine. A machine learning algorithm developed at Carnegie Mellon University can now predict the likelihood of a heart attack with 80 percent accuracy.
The CRISPR technique enables researchers to edit DNA sequences and alter gene function.
The CRISPR technique enables researchers to edit DNA sequences and alter gene function.
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
Machine learning can also potentially enhance the efficiency of transportation, particularly with the development of self-driving cars. In the long-term, increased advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence could allow society to regain countless hours of productivity, freeing up humans to engage in tasks that involve more creativity or empathy.
CRISPR
Parents may soon be given the choice to edit the genome of a future child and consciously select their qualities. Scientists have made this feat nearly possible with the gene-editing technique of CRISPR. Using a protein that works like a pair of DNA scissors, this technique enables researchers to edit DNA sequences, alter gene function, and change a person’s resulting traits. CRISPR has the powerful ability to correct genetic diseases, such as sickle-cell anemia, although it comes with its fair share of ethical concerns.
Geographic information systems
Spreadsheets aren’t always the easiest way to identify patterns in data, such as local, national, and international criminal rate activity. Some data can be more easily interpreted when displayed in the form of a map. Geographic information systems (GIS) allow us to visualise data by analysing its spatial location, which is why GIS is often synonymous with “spatial data.”
The applications of GIS permeate many fields; epidemiologists use it to study the spread of global disease, telecommunications providers can use it to determine placements of cell towers, and consumer goods manufacturers use it to track social media activity.
Quantum computing
On 23 October 2019, Google’s researchers completed a calculation that even their largest supercomputers weren’t predicted to finish in under 10,000 years. The time it took to make the calculation was also only 3 minutes and 20 seconds. This is just one example of the power of quantum computing, an efficient technology for processing complex datasets in an efficient way.
Fracking diverts from using renewable, cleaner sources of energy and contributes to increased use of fossil fuels.
Fracking diverts from using renewable, cleaner sources of energy and contributes to increased use of fossil fuels.
PHOTO: CHRIS LEBOUTILLIER
Quantum machines are predicted to have a powerful impact on advancing artificial intelligence, yet they also have the power to threaten the established order. Quantum computing is also thought to help create climate simulations for predicting the effects of climate change, thanks to their ability to manipulate many variables. Quantum computing could also advance the field of medicine by enabling simulations of protein folding, one of the most complex problems in biochemistry. Diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are caused by misfolded proteins, and quantum computing simulations could virtually map out drug treatments that lead to medical breakthroughs.
Fracking
Have you ever wondered just how fossil fuels in the ground are extracted to get natural gas for your stove, or oil for your car? Fracking is one drilling technology used to extract oil and natural gas from underground. Fracking involves injecting liquid at high pressure into rocks underground in order to make small fractures through which natural gas and oil can flow.
The practice is controvertial, and has received widespread criticism from environmental campaigners and journalists, who suggest that any economic benefits are outweighed by long-term negative impacts to the environment, including water contamination, noise and air pollution, increased seismic risk, and the resulting hazards to public health.
Amin Sewani, a senior energy industry professional with BP, described some of the short-term advantages of fracking in today’s society, saying that it “has resulted in several positive impacts such as employment generation, energy security due to domestic production, higher revenues from taxes for governments, lower prices for the users of these resources, and reduced pollution via displacement of more carbon intensive alternates like coal.”
However, fracking also diverts from using renewable, cleaner sources of energy and contributes to increased use of fossil fuels. For these reasons, the practice is under international scrutiny, is restricted in some regions of the world, and completely banned in others.
---
Sarah Bana is a postdoctoral associate at MIT's Initiative on the Digital Economy and Noor Pirani is a student at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.
https://the.ismaili/our-stories/technol ... d-part-one
Technologies transforming the world: Part two
In part one, we observed five rapidly-developing technologies being regarded as potentially transformative. Here we take a look at four more innovations having a significant impact on the world of today and tomorrow.
In a speech made at the Academy of Sciences in Portugal in 2009, Mawlana Hazar Imam spoke of the need to harness new knowledge, saying, “If these are the subjects which are necessary today, what are the subjects which will be necessary tomorrow? Is the developing world going to continue in this deficit of knowledge? Or are we going to enable it to move forwards into new areas of knowledge? My conviction is that we have to help these countries move into new areas of knowledge. And therefore, I think of areas such as the space sciences, such as the neurosciences. There are so many new areas of inquiry which, unless we make an effort to share globally, we will continue to have vast populations around the world who will continue in this knowledge deficit.”
This two-part article describes the rapidly-developing technologies being regarded as potentially transformative. These have appeared as cover stories in Nature and Science, two of the top scientific journals, over the last decade.
Robotics
The future of robots has endless possibilities. Robots can be used in self-driving cars, security and defense, and even cooking. The main purpose of robotics is to develop machines that can nearly substitute for humans; they can replicate basic actions like walking, lifting, and cognition.
mars-67522_960_720.jpg
The Mars Rover: An example of robotics used in space exploration.
Imagine a robot that can execute a complex surgery, or a robot that completes household chores like doing laundry or preparing meals. Though costly, the use of robots in daily life, as well as in major industries, has the potential to enhance efficiency and productivity. It can even relieve humans from dangerous jobs like disarming explosives or working in nuclear plants.
An increase in the use of robots could also significantly impact the human labour force, potentially increasing unemployment and aggravating income inequality.
Internet-of-Things
Imagine if all the devices you used, from your coffee maker to your car, connected to the Internet and to each other. If your alarm clock woke you up at 6:30 AM, it could automatically connect to your coffee maker and start brewing your morning cup of coffee. If your car were connected to your house’s thermostat, it could signal when you were approaching home and make your house the perfect temperature once you set foot inside.
The Internet-of-Things extends Internet connectivity to everyday objects. It has the power to reduce energy wastage and enhance efficiency within our daily lives. At its core, the Internet-of-Things can be considered the equivalent of living in a “smart world.”
While it opens up a myriad of possibilities, the Internet-of-Things could also bring up issues in the long term. If lots of devices are connected to one another, a security breach could shut down the entire network of devices and limit functionality of daily life altogether. Issues of privacy and data sharing are also possible. Yet, if it worked correctly, the Internet-of-Things could also enhance accessibility, communication, transferring data, and automation with just the click of a switch.
Nanotechnology
To put it simply, nanotechnology is the study of extremely small particles — right down to the atomic or molecular level.
Huma Jafry, the founder and CEO of NanoInnovations based in Houston, Texas, described nanotechnology as “a platform technology that combines fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and computer science to develop real-world applications.”
postcard-from-nanoworld-002_keratynocytes.jpg
A nanotechnology image. Keratinocytes (skin cells) migrating towards each other across a scratch. As the leading edges meet, the cells form a cohesive sheet. By understanding the basic mechanics of skin regeneration, we can make advances in regenerative medicine.
A nanotechnology image. Keratinocytes (skin cells) migrating towards each other across a scratch. As the leading edges meet, the cells form a cohesive sheet. By understanding the basic mechanics of skin regeneration, we can make advances in regenerative medicine.
PHOTO: ANTHONY BULLOCK/KROTO RESEARCH INSTITUTE
The applications of nanotechnology have the capacity to impact our lives on a daily basis. For example, they can contribute to smaller, more powerful computers or faster, more accurate medical equipment. Jafry explained that healthcare is one of the fields that will be greatly advanced by nanotechnology. Imagine a “smart pill” that can be lodged in a patient’s stomach and, with a bluetooth connection, can adjust its drug dose based on the patient’s profile. It can also release multiple drugs at a time, reducing the number of pills a patient must intake in a day.
One can also imagine nanopatches, which contain thousands of microscopic silicon needles and can deliver vaccines when placed on the skin.
“This would in particular be helpful in the developing world where energy constraints prevent the transportation and refrigeration of vaccines,” described Jafry.
This technology also has the power to deliver multiple vaccines at the same time, particularly useful for newborn infants getting initial immunisations. The future of nanotechnology can make way for increased data generation, enhanced predictions of patient outcomes, and an increased focus on preemptively predicting and preventing ailments instead of reactively treating them.
Cloud computing
If you have used Google Drive or Apple iCloud, you’ve used cloud computing perhaps without knowing it. Cloud computing means storing information over the Internet, rather than on your computer’s hard drive, or local storage.
Cloud computing has the potential to share information without any limit; a YouTube video or Facebook live stream could go viral across the world in just a matter of seconds or minutes. Educational institutions have used cloud computing to allow students to access classes from all over the world.
Cloud technology has also permeated the healthcare industry and has been used as an efficient way to store patient records and allow patients to check their own treatment status. Cloud computing reduces costs of storage, is potentially unlimited in scale, and also offers flexibility for all consumers.
As we think about technological advances in our lives, it is important to supplement this thinking with potential applications in the developing world. These technologies could have transformational effects, and it is our responsibility to make sure that these are distributed fairly, and improve the quality of life of all populations.
https://the.ismaili/our-stories/technol ... -173435533
---
In part one, we observed five rapidly-developing technologies being regarded as potentially transformative. Here we take a look at four more innovations having a significant impact on the world of today and tomorrow.
In a speech made at the Academy of Sciences in Portugal in 2009, Mawlana Hazar Imam spoke of the need to harness new knowledge, saying, “If these are the subjects which are necessary today, what are the subjects which will be necessary tomorrow? Is the developing world going to continue in this deficit of knowledge? Or are we going to enable it to move forwards into new areas of knowledge? My conviction is that we have to help these countries move into new areas of knowledge. And therefore, I think of areas such as the space sciences, such as the neurosciences. There are so many new areas of inquiry which, unless we make an effort to share globally, we will continue to have vast populations around the world who will continue in this knowledge deficit.”
This two-part article describes the rapidly-developing technologies being regarded as potentially transformative. These have appeared as cover stories in Nature and Science, two of the top scientific journals, over the last decade.
Robotics
The future of robots has endless possibilities. Robots can be used in self-driving cars, security and defense, and even cooking. The main purpose of robotics is to develop machines that can nearly substitute for humans; they can replicate basic actions like walking, lifting, and cognition.
mars-67522_960_720.jpg
The Mars Rover: An example of robotics used in space exploration.
Imagine a robot that can execute a complex surgery, or a robot that completes household chores like doing laundry or preparing meals. Though costly, the use of robots in daily life, as well as in major industries, has the potential to enhance efficiency and productivity. It can even relieve humans from dangerous jobs like disarming explosives or working in nuclear plants.
An increase in the use of robots could also significantly impact the human labour force, potentially increasing unemployment and aggravating income inequality.
Internet-of-Things
Imagine if all the devices you used, from your coffee maker to your car, connected to the Internet and to each other. If your alarm clock woke you up at 6:30 AM, it could automatically connect to your coffee maker and start brewing your morning cup of coffee. If your car were connected to your house’s thermostat, it could signal when you were approaching home and make your house the perfect temperature once you set foot inside.
The Internet-of-Things extends Internet connectivity to everyday objects. It has the power to reduce energy wastage and enhance efficiency within our daily lives. At its core, the Internet-of-Things can be considered the equivalent of living in a “smart world.”
While it opens up a myriad of possibilities, the Internet-of-Things could also bring up issues in the long term. If lots of devices are connected to one another, a security breach could shut down the entire network of devices and limit functionality of daily life altogether. Issues of privacy and data sharing are also possible. Yet, if it worked correctly, the Internet-of-Things could also enhance accessibility, communication, transferring data, and automation with just the click of a switch.
Nanotechnology
To put it simply, nanotechnology is the study of extremely small particles — right down to the atomic or molecular level.
Huma Jafry, the founder and CEO of NanoInnovations based in Houston, Texas, described nanotechnology as “a platform technology that combines fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and computer science to develop real-world applications.”
postcard-from-nanoworld-002_keratynocytes.jpg
A nanotechnology image. Keratinocytes (skin cells) migrating towards each other across a scratch. As the leading edges meet, the cells form a cohesive sheet. By understanding the basic mechanics of skin regeneration, we can make advances in regenerative medicine.
A nanotechnology image. Keratinocytes (skin cells) migrating towards each other across a scratch. As the leading edges meet, the cells form a cohesive sheet. By understanding the basic mechanics of skin regeneration, we can make advances in regenerative medicine.
PHOTO: ANTHONY BULLOCK/KROTO RESEARCH INSTITUTE
The applications of nanotechnology have the capacity to impact our lives on a daily basis. For example, they can contribute to smaller, more powerful computers or faster, more accurate medical equipment. Jafry explained that healthcare is one of the fields that will be greatly advanced by nanotechnology. Imagine a “smart pill” that can be lodged in a patient’s stomach and, with a bluetooth connection, can adjust its drug dose based on the patient’s profile. It can also release multiple drugs at a time, reducing the number of pills a patient must intake in a day.
One can also imagine nanopatches, which contain thousands of microscopic silicon needles and can deliver vaccines when placed on the skin.
“This would in particular be helpful in the developing world where energy constraints prevent the transportation and refrigeration of vaccines,” described Jafry.
This technology also has the power to deliver multiple vaccines at the same time, particularly useful for newborn infants getting initial immunisations. The future of nanotechnology can make way for increased data generation, enhanced predictions of patient outcomes, and an increased focus on preemptively predicting and preventing ailments instead of reactively treating them.
Cloud computing
If you have used Google Drive or Apple iCloud, you’ve used cloud computing perhaps without knowing it. Cloud computing means storing information over the Internet, rather than on your computer’s hard drive, or local storage.
Cloud computing has the potential to share information without any limit; a YouTube video or Facebook live stream could go viral across the world in just a matter of seconds or minutes. Educational institutions have used cloud computing to allow students to access classes from all over the world.
Cloud technology has also permeated the healthcare industry and has been used as an efficient way to store patient records and allow patients to check their own treatment status. Cloud computing reduces costs of storage, is potentially unlimited in scale, and also offers flexibility for all consumers.
As we think about technological advances in our lives, it is important to supplement this thinking with potential applications in the developing world. These technologies could have transformational effects, and it is our responsibility to make sure that these are distributed fairly, and improve the quality of life of all populations.
https://the.ismaili/our-stories/technol ... -173435533
---
An Algorithm That Grants Freedom, or Takes It Away
Across the United States and Europe, software is making probation decisions and predicting whether teens will commit crime. Opponents want more human oversight.
Excerpt:
In Philadelphia, an algorithm created by a professor at the University of Pennsylvania has helped dictate the experience of probationers for at least five years.
The algorithm is one of many making decisions about people’s lives in the United States and Europe. Local authorities use so-called predictive algorithms to set police patrols, prison sentences and probation rules. In the Netherlands, an algorithm flagged welfare fraud risks. A British city rates which teenagers are most likely to become criminals.
Nearly every state in America has turned to this new sort of governance algorithm, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit dedicated to digital rights. Algorithm Watch, a watchdog in Berlin, has identified similar programs in at least 16 European countries.
As the practice spreads into new places and new parts of government, United Nations investigators, civil rights lawyers, labor unions and community organizers have been pushing back.
They are angered by a growing dependence on automated systems that are taking humans and transparency out of the process. It is often not clear how the systems are making their decisions. Is gender a factor? Age? ZIP code? It’s hard to say, since many states and countries have few rules requiring that algorithm-makers disclose their formulas.
They also worry that the biases — involving race, class and geography — of the people who create the algorithms are being baked into these systems, as ProPublica has reported. In San Jose, Calif., where an algorithm is used during arraignment hearings, an organization called Silicon Valley De-Bug interviews the family of each defendant, takes this personal information to each hearing and shares it with defenders as a kind of counterbalance to algorithms.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/tech ... ogin-email
Across the United States and Europe, software is making probation decisions and predicting whether teens will commit crime. Opponents want more human oversight.
Excerpt:
In Philadelphia, an algorithm created by a professor at the University of Pennsylvania has helped dictate the experience of probationers for at least five years.
The algorithm is one of many making decisions about people’s lives in the United States and Europe. Local authorities use so-called predictive algorithms to set police patrols, prison sentences and probation rules. In the Netherlands, an algorithm flagged welfare fraud risks. A British city rates which teenagers are most likely to become criminals.
Nearly every state in America has turned to this new sort of governance algorithm, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit dedicated to digital rights. Algorithm Watch, a watchdog in Berlin, has identified similar programs in at least 16 European countries.
As the practice spreads into new places and new parts of government, United Nations investigators, civil rights lawyers, labor unions and community organizers have been pushing back.
They are angered by a growing dependence on automated systems that are taking humans and transparency out of the process. It is often not clear how the systems are making their decisions. Is gender a factor? Age? ZIP code? It’s hard to say, since many states and countries have few rules requiring that algorithm-makers disclose their formulas.
They also worry that the biases — involving race, class and geography — of the people who create the algorithms are being baked into these systems, as ProPublica has reported. In San Jose, Calif., where an algorithm is used during arraignment hearings, an organization called Silicon Valley De-Bug interviews the family of each defendant, takes this personal information to each hearing and shares it with defenders as a kind of counterbalance to algorithms.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/tech ... ogin-email
A Growing Presence on the Farm: Robots
A new generation of autonomous robots is helping plant breeders shape the crops of tomorrow.
Not only can the TerraSentia navigate under dense crop canopies, it can make many observations about plant health and yield as it drives through fields.Credit...Institute for Genomic Biology/University of Illinois
FARMER CITY, Illinois — In a research field off Highway 54 last autumn, corn stalks shimmered in rows 40-feet deep. Girish Chowdhary, an agricultural engineer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, bent to place a small white robot at the edge of a row marked 103. The robot, named TerraSentia, resembled a souped up version of a lawn mower, with all-terrain wheels and a high-resolution camera on each side.
In much the same way that self-driving cars “see” their surroundings, TerraSentia navigates a field by sending out thousands of laser pulses to scan its environment. A few clicks on a tablet were all that were needed to orient the robot at the start of the row before it took off, squeaking slightly as it drove over ruts in the field.
“It’s going to measure the height of each plant,” Dr. Chowdhary said.
It would do that and more. The robot is designed to generate the most detailed portrait possible of a field, from the size and health of the plants, to the number and quality of ears each corn plant will produce by the end of the season, so that agronomists can breed even better crops in the future. In addition to plant height, TerraSentia can measure stem diameter, leaf-area index and “stand count” — the number of live grain- or fruit-producing plants — or all of those traits at once. And Dr. Chowdhary is working on adding even more traits, or phenotypes, to the list with the help of colleagues at EarthSense, a spinoff company that he created to manufacture more robots.
Traditionally, plant breeders have measured these phenotypes by hand, and used them to select plants with the very best characteristics for creating hybrids. The advent of DNA sequencing has helped, enabling breeders to isolate genes for some desirable traits, but it still takes a human to assess whether the genes isolated from the previous generation actually led to improvements in the next one.
Video, photos and more...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/scie ... 0920200218
A new generation of autonomous robots is helping plant breeders shape the crops of tomorrow.
Not only can the TerraSentia navigate under dense crop canopies, it can make many observations about plant health and yield as it drives through fields.Credit...Institute for Genomic Biology/University of Illinois
FARMER CITY, Illinois — In a research field off Highway 54 last autumn, corn stalks shimmered in rows 40-feet deep. Girish Chowdhary, an agricultural engineer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, bent to place a small white robot at the edge of a row marked 103. The robot, named TerraSentia, resembled a souped up version of a lawn mower, with all-terrain wheels and a high-resolution camera on each side.
In much the same way that self-driving cars “see” their surroundings, TerraSentia navigates a field by sending out thousands of laser pulses to scan its environment. A few clicks on a tablet were all that were needed to orient the robot at the start of the row before it took off, squeaking slightly as it drove over ruts in the field.
“It’s going to measure the height of each plant,” Dr. Chowdhary said.
It would do that and more. The robot is designed to generate the most detailed portrait possible of a field, from the size and health of the plants, to the number and quality of ears each corn plant will produce by the end of the season, so that agronomists can breed even better crops in the future. In addition to plant height, TerraSentia can measure stem diameter, leaf-area index and “stand count” — the number of live grain- or fruit-producing plants — or all of those traits at once. And Dr. Chowdhary is working on adding even more traits, or phenotypes, to the list with the help of colleagues at EarthSense, a spinoff company that he created to manufacture more robots.
Traditionally, plant breeders have measured these phenotypes by hand, and used them to select plants with the very best characteristics for creating hybrids. The advent of DNA sequencing has helped, enabling breeders to isolate genes for some desirable traits, but it still takes a human to assess whether the genes isolated from the previous generation actually led to improvements in the next one.
Video, photos and more...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/scie ... 0920200218
With an Internet of Animals, Scientists Aim to Track and Save Wildlife
Using tiny sensors and equipment aboard the space station, a project called ICARUS seeks to revolutionize animal tracking.
The International Space Station, orbiting some 240 miles above the planet, is about to join the effort to monitor the world’s wildlife — and to revolutionize the science of animal tracking.
A large antenna and other equipment aboard the orbiting outpost, installed by spacewalking Russian astronauts in 2018, are being tested and will become fully operational this summer. The system will relay a much wider range of data than previous tracking technologies, logging not just an animal’s location but also its physiology and environment. This will assist scientists, conservationists and others whose work requires close monitoring of wildlife on the move, and provide much more detailed information on the health of the world’s ecosystems.
The new approach, known as ICARUS — short for International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space — will also be able to track animals across far larger areas than other technologies. At the same time, ICARUS has shrunk the size of the transmitters that the animals wear and made them far cheaper to boot.
These changes will allow researchers to track flocks of birds as they migrate over long distances, for instance, instead of monitoring only one or two birds at a time, as well as far smaller creatures, including insects. And, as climate change and habitat destruction roil the planet, ICARUS will allow biologists and wildlife managers to quickly respond to changes in where and when species migrate.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/scie ... 778d3e6de3
Using tiny sensors and equipment aboard the space station, a project called ICARUS seeks to revolutionize animal tracking.
The International Space Station, orbiting some 240 miles above the planet, is about to join the effort to monitor the world’s wildlife — and to revolutionize the science of animal tracking.
A large antenna and other equipment aboard the orbiting outpost, installed by spacewalking Russian astronauts in 2018, are being tested and will become fully operational this summer. The system will relay a much wider range of data than previous tracking technologies, logging not just an animal’s location but also its physiology and environment. This will assist scientists, conservationists and others whose work requires close monitoring of wildlife on the move, and provide much more detailed information on the health of the world’s ecosystems.
The new approach, known as ICARUS — short for International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space — will also be able to track animals across far larger areas than other technologies. At the same time, ICARUS has shrunk the size of the transmitters that the animals wear and made them far cheaper to boot.
These changes will allow researchers to track flocks of birds as they migrate over long distances, for instance, instead of monitoring only one or two birds at a time, as well as far smaller creatures, including insects. And, as climate change and habitat destruction roil the planet, ICARUS will allow biologists and wildlife managers to quickly respond to changes in where and when species migrate.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/scie ... 778d3e6de3
Mirza Samnani (@MirzaSamnani) and Gollar working to defeat Covid-19 one patient at a time @AKDN
BY ISMAILIMAIL POSTED ON JULY 20, 2020
A big part of career satisfaction is being passionate about the job you do on a daily basis. But when you combine your professional skills with a cause that you care about deeply, and the chance to serve your country, you can bring that passion to a whole new level.
Meet Mirza Samnani and his robot “Gollar”. 23 years old Mirza lives in Mumbai, India, and he is passionate about building robots. He owns a company (Ignite research labs), which has won seven awards in just three years of existence. Mirza, a Mechatronics engineer, has built Lunar and Mars Rovers, underwater ROVs, and much more to conduct world-class research for space and underwater sciences in his young career.
India vs Covid-19: Mirza and Gollar to the rescue
As of today (July 20, 2020), India has reached a grim milestone of million Covid-19 cases. It is now third on the Johns Hopkins University tally of country cases, following the US and Brazil.
As India started to grapple with this pandemic earlier this year, Mirza couldn’t see himself sitting on the sidelines. He wanted to do something for his country. He wanted to use his experience for the betterment. His desire to serve his country led him to the idea of building his next invention, a robot “Gollar“, named after health officer Dr. Devendra Golhar, that could serve food and medicines for patients recovering from Covid-19, and also help the health care staff to maintain their distance.
Having made lunar and Underwater robots, and representing India at NASA, my advisor, and parents suggested that I should create something to help fight the pandemic. Given my experience working on Space projects before, I thought why not have bots do the work of nurses, ward boys and doctors increasing their isolation and safety. Mirza Samnani
According to Mirza’s calculations, this “cost effective” alternative also helps the hospitals keep the cost down by not spending as much on PPEs.
The bot is remotely operated with a range of up to 1 km. “Gollar” carries food, medicine, etc up to 30 kgs and disinfects surfaces. Optionally, it also has 2-way interaction for doctors to communicate with the patients. This reduces the use of PPEs, the risk of infection, biohazard wastes, and the robot is cost-effective to the extent that hospitals recover the cost of robots against the cost of PPEs in just 2 months, and then they run it at a profit against the cost of PPEs.
On July 7, 2020, Mirza’s hard work came to fruition. First ever robot built by Mirza and his team was deployed at M. A. Podar Hospital in Worli, Mumbai. Shri Aditya Uddhav Thackeray (Cabinet Minister of Tourism and Environment Government of Maharashtra) was present at the inauguration.
https://ismailimail.blog/2020/07/20/mir ... at-a-time/
BY ISMAILIMAIL POSTED ON JULY 20, 2020
A big part of career satisfaction is being passionate about the job you do on a daily basis. But when you combine your professional skills with a cause that you care about deeply, and the chance to serve your country, you can bring that passion to a whole new level.
Meet Mirza Samnani and his robot “Gollar”. 23 years old Mirza lives in Mumbai, India, and he is passionate about building robots. He owns a company (Ignite research labs), which has won seven awards in just three years of existence. Mirza, a Mechatronics engineer, has built Lunar and Mars Rovers, underwater ROVs, and much more to conduct world-class research for space and underwater sciences in his young career.
India vs Covid-19: Mirza and Gollar to the rescue
As of today (July 20, 2020), India has reached a grim milestone of million Covid-19 cases. It is now third on the Johns Hopkins University tally of country cases, following the US and Brazil.
As India started to grapple with this pandemic earlier this year, Mirza couldn’t see himself sitting on the sidelines. He wanted to do something for his country. He wanted to use his experience for the betterment. His desire to serve his country led him to the idea of building his next invention, a robot “Gollar“, named after health officer Dr. Devendra Golhar, that could serve food and medicines for patients recovering from Covid-19, and also help the health care staff to maintain their distance.
Having made lunar and Underwater robots, and representing India at NASA, my advisor, and parents suggested that I should create something to help fight the pandemic. Given my experience working on Space projects before, I thought why not have bots do the work of nurses, ward boys and doctors increasing their isolation and safety. Mirza Samnani
According to Mirza’s calculations, this “cost effective” alternative also helps the hospitals keep the cost down by not spending as much on PPEs.
The bot is remotely operated with a range of up to 1 km. “Gollar” carries food, medicine, etc up to 30 kgs and disinfects surfaces. Optionally, it also has 2-way interaction for doctors to communicate with the patients. This reduces the use of PPEs, the risk of infection, biohazard wastes, and the robot is cost-effective to the extent that hospitals recover the cost of robots against the cost of PPEs in just 2 months, and then they run it at a profit against the cost of PPEs.
On July 7, 2020, Mirza’s hard work came to fruition. First ever robot built by Mirza and his team was deployed at M. A. Podar Hospital in Worli, Mumbai. Shri Aditya Uddhav Thackeray (Cabinet Minister of Tourism and Environment Government of Maharashtra) was present at the inauguration.
https://ismailimail.blog/2020/07/20/mir ... at-a-time/
How Do You Know a Human Wrote This?
Machines are gaining the ability to write, and they are getting terrifyingly good at it.
I’ve never really worried that computers might be gunning for my job. To tell the truth, often, I pray for it. How much better would my life be — how much better would my editor’s life be, to say nothing of the poor readers — if I could ask an all-knowing machine to suggest the best way to start this column? It would surely beat my usual writing process, which involves clawing at my brain with a rusty pickax in the dim hope that a few flakes of wisdom and insight might, like dandruff, settle on the page.
See what I mean? A computer might have helped there. (Like dandruff? That’s what you’re going with, Farhad?) But we writers can be a cocky bunch. Writing is something of an inexplicable trick, and it feels, like telling a joke or making a soufflé, like an inviolably human endeavor.
I’ve never really worried that a computer might take my job because it’s never seemed remotely possible. Not infrequently, my phone thinks I meant to write the word “ducking.” A computer writing a newspaper column? That’ll be the day.
Well, writer friends, the day is nigh. This month, OpenAI, an artificial-intelligence research lab based in San Francisco, began allowing limited access to a piece of software that is at once amazing, spooky, humbling and more than a little terrifying.
OpenAI’s new software, called GPT-3, is by far the most powerful “language model” ever created. A language model is an artificial intelligence system that has been trained on an enormous corpus of text; with enough text and enough processing, the machine begins to learn probabilistic connections between words. More plainly: GPT-3 can read and write. And not badly, either.
Software like GPT-3 could be enormously useful. Machines that can understand and respond to humans in our own language could create more helpful digital assistants, more realistic video game characters, or virtual teachers personalized to every student’s learning style. Instead of writing code, one day you might create software just by telling machines what to do.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Machines are gaining the ability to write, and they are getting terrifyingly good at it.
I’ve never really worried that computers might be gunning for my job. To tell the truth, often, I pray for it. How much better would my life be — how much better would my editor’s life be, to say nothing of the poor readers — if I could ask an all-knowing machine to suggest the best way to start this column? It would surely beat my usual writing process, which involves clawing at my brain with a rusty pickax in the dim hope that a few flakes of wisdom and insight might, like dandruff, settle on the page.
See what I mean? A computer might have helped there. (Like dandruff? That’s what you’re going with, Farhad?) But we writers can be a cocky bunch. Writing is something of an inexplicable trick, and it feels, like telling a joke or making a soufflé, like an inviolably human endeavor.
I’ve never really worried that a computer might take my job because it’s never seemed remotely possible. Not infrequently, my phone thinks I meant to write the word “ducking.” A computer writing a newspaper column? That’ll be the day.
Well, writer friends, the day is nigh. This month, OpenAI, an artificial-intelligence research lab based in San Francisco, began allowing limited access to a piece of software that is at once amazing, spooky, humbling and more than a little terrifying.
OpenAI’s new software, called GPT-3, is by far the most powerful “language model” ever created. A language model is an artificial intelligence system that has been trained on an enormous corpus of text; with enough text and enough processing, the machine begins to learn probabilistic connections between words. More plainly: GPT-3 can read and write. And not badly, either.
Software like GPT-3 could be enormously useful. Machines that can understand and respond to humans in our own language could create more helpful digital assistants, more realistic video game characters, or virtual teachers personalized to every student’s learning style. Instead of writing code, one day you might create software just by telling machines what to do.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Singapore's Universal Studios deploys facial recognition for entry
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Visitors to Universal Studios in Singapore will now have to pass through facial recognition scanners to enter the park, in the city-state's latest foray with a technology that has stoked privacy concerns.
Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), which owns the sprawling area of tourist attractions, hotels and restaurants in which the park sits, said the scheme which started this month would help smooth access for guests.
"Facial recognition provides contactless verification of tickets and ticket holders, enabling our customers to enjoy our park experience in a more efficient and seamless manner," RWS said in an emailed statement.
Usage of facial recognition technology - which allows firms or authorities to match people picked up on cameras with those on databases - has risen globally in recent years, stirring worries about surveillance and how data collected will be used.
Digitally-connected Singapore has embarked on many projects that use the technology, including an ambitious scheme to put cameras on lamp-posts linked to facial recognition software.
Annual and season ticket holders of Singapore's Universal Studios no longer need physical passes, while guests using day passes will still need tickets for entry but can then exit and re-enter just using their facial image.
Facial recognition is an "essential" part of admission and is used for "operational improvement, safety and security", according to RWS, which last month axed staff as the COVID-19 pandemic batters Singapore's tourism industry.
RWS said it had implemented stringent security measures to safeguard guest information such as storing it on encrypted servers. It declined comment on which company was providing the facial recognition technology.
China's Universal Studios theme park due to open in Beijing next year also plans to use facial recognition technology, according to media reports.
(Reporting by John Geddie and Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Ed Davies)
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstor ... ailsignout
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Visitors to Universal Studios in Singapore will now have to pass through facial recognition scanners to enter the park, in the city-state's latest foray with a technology that has stoked privacy concerns.
Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), which owns the sprawling area of tourist attractions, hotels and restaurants in which the park sits, said the scheme which started this month would help smooth access for guests.
"Facial recognition provides contactless verification of tickets and ticket holders, enabling our customers to enjoy our park experience in a more efficient and seamless manner," RWS said in an emailed statement.
Usage of facial recognition technology - which allows firms or authorities to match people picked up on cameras with those on databases - has risen globally in recent years, stirring worries about surveillance and how data collected will be used.
Digitally-connected Singapore has embarked on many projects that use the technology, including an ambitious scheme to put cameras on lamp-posts linked to facial recognition software.
Annual and season ticket holders of Singapore's Universal Studios no longer need physical passes, while guests using day passes will still need tickets for entry but can then exit and re-enter just using their facial image.
Facial recognition is an "essential" part of admission and is used for "operational improvement, safety and security", according to RWS, which last month axed staff as the COVID-19 pandemic batters Singapore's tourism industry.
RWS said it had implemented stringent security measures to safeguard guest information such as storing it on encrypted servers. It declined comment on which company was providing the facial recognition technology.
China's Universal Studios theme park due to open in Beijing next year also plans to use facial recognition technology, according to media reports.
(Reporting by John Geddie and Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Ed Davies)
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstor ... ailsignout
Coronavirus and the acceleration of innovation
The current healthcare crisis is accelerating the pace of change, and new innovations that were expected to take a decade to develop are now being tested and marketed at a dizzying rate, which has consequences for almost all organisations and employees.
So says the investment firm Baillie Gifford, Tesla’s third-largest shareholder, in a recent Forbes article. This investor also owns shares in two flying taxi companies, indicating a new mode of transportation beyond electric cars and trucks.
One is reminded of a passage in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland:
“‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’
‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to’ said the Cat.”
The coronavirus is impacting the world in more ways than are obvious, and things may indeed seem as unfathomable as Alice discovered.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently acknowledged this acceleration, noting that “[…] we’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.” One can be tempted, seeing this rapid change, to also quote the White Queen from Alice in Wonderland: “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
The continuous closure of physical businesses has spurred all manner of online services. Companies that are agile, flexible, and innovative in reacting to the current crisis using digital platforms. are the ones likely to succeed in the future.
Photos and more...
https://the.ismaili/global/news/feature ... innovation
The current healthcare crisis is accelerating the pace of change, and new innovations that were expected to take a decade to develop are now being tested and marketed at a dizzying rate, which has consequences for almost all organisations and employees.
So says the investment firm Baillie Gifford, Tesla’s third-largest shareholder, in a recent Forbes article. This investor also owns shares in two flying taxi companies, indicating a new mode of transportation beyond electric cars and trucks.
One is reminded of a passage in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland:
“‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’
‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to’ said the Cat.”
The coronavirus is impacting the world in more ways than are obvious, and things may indeed seem as unfathomable as Alice discovered.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently acknowledged this acceleration, noting that “[…] we’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.” One can be tempted, seeing this rapid change, to also quote the White Queen from Alice in Wonderland: “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
The continuous closure of physical businesses has spurred all manner of online services. Companies that are agile, flexible, and innovative in reacting to the current crisis using digital platforms. are the ones likely to succeed in the future.
Photos and more...
https://the.ismaili/global/news/feature ... innovation
I Tried Microsoft’s Flight Simulator. The Earth Never Seemed So Real.
Microsoft’s latest version of Flight Simulator is so realistic that it suggests a new way of understanding the digital world.
I was flying recently from Los Angeles to Temuco, the largest city in the Araucanía region of Chile, when I got to thinking — as one inevitably does during globe-spanning flights — about the fallacy of maps.
In a way that is relatively novel in human history, people today are constantly bombarded with abstract representations of geography. Consider the red and blue of the polarized American electorate, the first-person view of a GPS navigator, and the blistering crimsons and oranges of global coronavirus hot spots.
One understands, intellectually, that maps are mere representations, and that they may conceal as much as they illuminate. In “real life,” states are neither red nor blue nor in any other way homogeneous; borders, in most places, do not exist other than in our minds, as the virus has made so tragically obvious. Yet when one experiences the world primarily through the mediated interfaces of our pocketable screens, such distinctions tend to fall away. We live inside this digital world; it’s as real as anything else.
Believe it or not, these insights occurred to me while playing a video game. Microsoft has just released a new version of Flight Simulator, an institution in the gaming world that made its debut in 1982, back in the primordial age of video games. The update was released this week, and Microsoft provided it to some journalists and Flight Sim enthusiasts as a preview version weeks ago. It’s meant to show off the what’s possible in computing — in particular, how the increasing fidelity of virtual worlds might alter how we understand the “real” one.
Of course, I was not actually flying from L.A. to Chile; the last time I took a real airplane trip was in January (to make matters worse, it was to Newark). Yet my in-game epiphanies about the misleading nature of maps and borders were quite real, and they are a testament to how unusually deep a digital experience Microsoft has created.
The tech giant has done something uncanny here: It has created a virtual representation of Earth so realistic that nearly all sense of abstraction falls away. What you are left with, instead, is the feeling of actually being there — in which “there” is just about anywhere, from London to Seattle to Patagonia and every point in between.
Everything in Flight Simulator is meant to be as close to the physical Earth as possible — the buildings, the airports, the avionics, the airplanes, and even the weather. If you set the game to fly a Boeing 787 Dreamliner from San Francisco to New York right now, you will experience wind of the same direction and intensity that a pilot taking off from San Francisco would feel right now. You will see other planes in the sky just where they are in the sky right now; you will see houses (maybe even yours) and other landmarks of the same size, scale and color as they exist in wood and steel. And you might, as you flit about the globe, feel the same sense of nervous terror and excitement that you did when traveling someplace new back in the Before Times, when we weren’t all grounded by contagion.
Flight Simulator is, technically, a video game, but little about it is explicitly designed to be fun. Though it does attract an avid community of enthusiasts, playing this game can be quite complicated and expensive. The best and most realistic experience requires an extremely powerful computer and lots of peripherals, which are meant to ape real airplane controllers. The game is currently so big and gangly that you’ll suffer through lengthy load times and more than a few bugs. (Microsoft says it’s aiming to fix these.)
But the new Flight Sim is more than a technical achievement or a marketing demo. I found it to be most compelling as a preview of a new kind of digital experience. In a way that I have never before felt from a piece of software, the game plunged me into sustained meditations on the permeability between the real world and the online one — and it offered me some hope of a more realistic kind of online life in the future.
At the moment, much of what happens online seems to be diverging from what happens offline. The digital world is, as we have seen, lousy with alternative facts and harebrained theories that have little bearing in fact. It often feels like society is being shaped by the algorithmically defined sensibilities of online echo chambers and anonymous bots and trolls rather than the nuanced ideas of living and breathing people.
It’s not just social media that distorts reality. As a lot of parents and kids have recently discovered, online education is an unsatisfactory simulacrum of a real world classroom. Today’s virtual office is convenient, but it’s flat and emotionless. The Zoom audience at the Democratic National Convention? It was gimmicky, I thought, with something crucial lost in the transition from a raucous convention hall to our webcammed living rooms.
The new Flight Sim suggests a different model of digital interaction, even if you have no interest in flying a plane. Until now, we have had to make do with abstract fictions online; from The Sims to Fortnite to the fake friends and tossed-off Likes of Facebook, our understanding of digital life is as a computer-generated realm stretched and shaped merely to approximate reality.
But now, computers can give us something different — a view of the world that is more real than the one we can see outside, a picture that illuminates our understanding of reality rather than hides it under abstractions.
I am not saying that such a view will cure all of society’s problems; but if we want to understand the world as it actually is, isn’t it better to use tools that depict it that way, rather than to delve deeper into the fakery of our present digital dystopia?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Microsoft’s latest version of Flight Simulator is so realistic that it suggests a new way of understanding the digital world.
I was flying recently from Los Angeles to Temuco, the largest city in the Araucanía region of Chile, when I got to thinking — as one inevitably does during globe-spanning flights — about the fallacy of maps.
In a way that is relatively novel in human history, people today are constantly bombarded with abstract representations of geography. Consider the red and blue of the polarized American electorate, the first-person view of a GPS navigator, and the blistering crimsons and oranges of global coronavirus hot spots.
One understands, intellectually, that maps are mere representations, and that they may conceal as much as they illuminate. In “real life,” states are neither red nor blue nor in any other way homogeneous; borders, in most places, do not exist other than in our minds, as the virus has made so tragically obvious. Yet when one experiences the world primarily through the mediated interfaces of our pocketable screens, such distinctions tend to fall away. We live inside this digital world; it’s as real as anything else.
Believe it or not, these insights occurred to me while playing a video game. Microsoft has just released a new version of Flight Simulator, an institution in the gaming world that made its debut in 1982, back in the primordial age of video games. The update was released this week, and Microsoft provided it to some journalists and Flight Sim enthusiasts as a preview version weeks ago. It’s meant to show off the what’s possible in computing — in particular, how the increasing fidelity of virtual worlds might alter how we understand the “real” one.
Of course, I was not actually flying from L.A. to Chile; the last time I took a real airplane trip was in January (to make matters worse, it was to Newark). Yet my in-game epiphanies about the misleading nature of maps and borders were quite real, and they are a testament to how unusually deep a digital experience Microsoft has created.
The tech giant has done something uncanny here: It has created a virtual representation of Earth so realistic that nearly all sense of abstraction falls away. What you are left with, instead, is the feeling of actually being there — in which “there” is just about anywhere, from London to Seattle to Patagonia and every point in between.
Everything in Flight Simulator is meant to be as close to the physical Earth as possible — the buildings, the airports, the avionics, the airplanes, and even the weather. If you set the game to fly a Boeing 787 Dreamliner from San Francisco to New York right now, you will experience wind of the same direction and intensity that a pilot taking off from San Francisco would feel right now. You will see other planes in the sky just where they are in the sky right now; you will see houses (maybe even yours) and other landmarks of the same size, scale and color as they exist in wood and steel. And you might, as you flit about the globe, feel the same sense of nervous terror and excitement that you did when traveling someplace new back in the Before Times, when we weren’t all grounded by contagion.
Flight Simulator is, technically, a video game, but little about it is explicitly designed to be fun. Though it does attract an avid community of enthusiasts, playing this game can be quite complicated and expensive. The best and most realistic experience requires an extremely powerful computer and lots of peripherals, which are meant to ape real airplane controllers. The game is currently so big and gangly that you’ll suffer through lengthy load times and more than a few bugs. (Microsoft says it’s aiming to fix these.)
But the new Flight Sim is more than a technical achievement or a marketing demo. I found it to be most compelling as a preview of a new kind of digital experience. In a way that I have never before felt from a piece of software, the game plunged me into sustained meditations on the permeability between the real world and the online one — and it offered me some hope of a more realistic kind of online life in the future.
At the moment, much of what happens online seems to be diverging from what happens offline. The digital world is, as we have seen, lousy with alternative facts and harebrained theories that have little bearing in fact. It often feels like society is being shaped by the algorithmically defined sensibilities of online echo chambers and anonymous bots and trolls rather than the nuanced ideas of living and breathing people.
It’s not just social media that distorts reality. As a lot of parents and kids have recently discovered, online education is an unsatisfactory simulacrum of a real world classroom. Today’s virtual office is convenient, but it’s flat and emotionless. The Zoom audience at the Democratic National Convention? It was gimmicky, I thought, with something crucial lost in the transition from a raucous convention hall to our webcammed living rooms.
The new Flight Sim suggests a different model of digital interaction, even if you have no interest in flying a plane. Until now, we have had to make do with abstract fictions online; from The Sims to Fortnite to the fake friends and tossed-off Likes of Facebook, our understanding of digital life is as a computer-generated realm stretched and shaped merely to approximate reality.
But now, computers can give us something different — a view of the world that is more real than the one we can see outside, a picture that illuminates our understanding of reality rather than hides it under abstractions.
I am not saying that such a view will cure all of society’s problems; but if we want to understand the world as it actually is, isn’t it better to use tools that depict it that way, rather than to delve deeper into the fakery of our present digital dystopia?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Tokyo Now Has Transparent Public Toilets. Let Us Explain.
Using “smart glass,” a Pritzker Prize-winning architect created colorful toilet stalls to allay fears about safety and hygiene. The toilets were set up in two public parks.
When occupied and locked properly, the tinted glass toilets in Tokyo become frosted and opaque. Credit...
HONG KONG — Public toilets around the globe have a reputation for being dark, dirty and dangerous. Tokyo recently unveiled new restrooms in two public parks that aim to address those concerns.
For one thing, they are brightly lit and colorful.
For another, they are transparent.
This way, the logic goes, those who need to use them can check out the cleanliness and safety of the stalls without having to walk inside or touch a thing.
Japan has long experimented with toilets, resulting in lids that open and close automatically and seats that warm up. But the new stalls — designed by Shigeru Ban, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect — are made out of an opacity-changing “smart glass” that is already used in offices and other buildings to provide privacy when needed.
The toilets were installed in Japan’s capital this month, coinciding with a nationwide campaign to phase out the city’s old-fashioned public toilets ahead of the now-delayed Summer Olympics. Set up in front of a cluster of trees in the Shibuya district, the stalls stand out like a Mondrian painting, bearing tinted walls with colors like mango, watermelon, lime, violet and teal.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Using “smart glass,” a Pritzker Prize-winning architect created colorful toilet stalls to allay fears about safety and hygiene. The toilets were set up in two public parks.
When occupied and locked properly, the tinted glass toilets in Tokyo become frosted and opaque. Credit...
HONG KONG — Public toilets around the globe have a reputation for being dark, dirty and dangerous. Tokyo recently unveiled new restrooms in two public parks that aim to address those concerns.
For one thing, they are brightly lit and colorful.
For another, they are transparent.
This way, the logic goes, those who need to use them can check out the cleanliness and safety of the stalls without having to walk inside or touch a thing.
Japan has long experimented with toilets, resulting in lids that open and close automatically and seats that warm up. But the new stalls — designed by Shigeru Ban, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect — are made out of an opacity-changing “smart glass” that is already used in offices and other buildings to provide privacy when needed.
The toilets were installed in Japan’s capital this month, coinciding with a nationwide campaign to phase out the city’s old-fashioned public toilets ahead of the now-delayed Summer Olympics. Set up in front of a cluster of trees in the Shibuya district, the stalls stand out like a Mondrian painting, bearing tinted walls with colors like mango, watermelon, lime, violet and teal.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Earth from space: The most impressive man-made wonders
Earth from space: The most impressive man-made wonders
Provided they get close enough, it probably wouldn’t take alien visitors long to detect the presence of humans on Earth. Many modern man-made structures—dams, canals, bridges, mines, highways, greenhouses and so on—are visible to the naked eye from space.
Several ancient sites, from walls and pyramids to mysterious landscaping, can also be seen from high above. Which of these works might impress aliens the most? Check out these contenders...
Watch slide show at:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/ea ... ut#image=1
Earth from space: The most impressive man-made wonders
Provided they get close enough, it probably wouldn’t take alien visitors long to detect the presence of humans on Earth. Many modern man-made structures—dams, canals, bridges, mines, highways, greenhouses and so on—are visible to the naked eye from space.
Several ancient sites, from walls and pyramids to mysterious landscaping, can also be seen from high above. Which of these works might impress aliens the most? Check out these contenders...
Watch slide show at:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/ea ... ut#image=1
The Mind Readers
The Brain Implants That Could Change Humanity
Brains are talking to computers, and computers to brains. Are our daydreams safe?
Watch the animation of patterns of brain activity during observation at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Jack Gallant never set out to create a mind-reading machine. His focus was more prosaic. A computational neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Gallant worked for years to improve our understanding of how brains encode information — what regions become active, for example, when a person sees a plane or an apple or a dog — and how that activity represents the object being viewed.
By the late 2000s, scientists could determine what kind of thing a person might be looking at from the way the brain lit up — a human face, say, or a cat. But Dr. Gallant and his colleagues went further. They figured out how to use machine learning to decipher not just the class of thing, but which exact image a subject was viewing. (Which photo of a cat, out of three options, for instance.)
One day, Dr. Gallant and his postdocs got to talking. In the same way that you can turn a speaker into a microphone by hooking it up backward, they wondered if they could reverse engineer the algorithm they’d developed so they could visualize, solely from brain activity, what a person was seeing.
The first phase of the project was to train the AI. For hours, Dr. Gallant and his colleagues showed volunteers in fMRI machines movie clips. By matching patterns of brain activation prompted by the moving images, the AI built a model of how the volunteers’ visual cortex, which parses information from the eyes, worked. Then came the next phase: translation. As they showed the volunteers movie clips, they asked the model what, given everything it now knew about their brains, it thought they might be looking at.
The experiment focused just on a subsection of the visual cortex. It didn’t capture what was happening elsewhere in the brain — how a person might feel about what she was seeing, for example, or what she might be fantasizing about as she watched. The endeavor was, in Dr. Gallant’s words, a primitive proof-of-concept.
And yet the results, published in 2011, are remarkable.
The reconstructed images move with a dreamlike fluidity. In their imperfection, they evoke expressionist art. (And a few reconstructed images seem downright wrong.) But where they succeed, they represent an astonishing achievement: A machine translating patterns of brain activity into a moving image understandable by other people — a machine that can read the brain.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/opin ... 778d3e6de3
The Brain Implants That Could Change Humanity
Brains are talking to computers, and computers to brains. Are our daydreams safe?
Watch the animation of patterns of brain activity during observation at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Jack Gallant never set out to create a mind-reading machine. His focus was more prosaic. A computational neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Gallant worked for years to improve our understanding of how brains encode information — what regions become active, for example, when a person sees a plane or an apple or a dog — and how that activity represents the object being viewed.
By the late 2000s, scientists could determine what kind of thing a person might be looking at from the way the brain lit up — a human face, say, or a cat. But Dr. Gallant and his colleagues went further. They figured out how to use machine learning to decipher not just the class of thing, but which exact image a subject was viewing. (Which photo of a cat, out of three options, for instance.)
One day, Dr. Gallant and his postdocs got to talking. In the same way that you can turn a speaker into a microphone by hooking it up backward, they wondered if they could reverse engineer the algorithm they’d developed so they could visualize, solely from brain activity, what a person was seeing.
The first phase of the project was to train the AI. For hours, Dr. Gallant and his colleagues showed volunteers in fMRI machines movie clips. By matching patterns of brain activation prompted by the moving images, the AI built a model of how the volunteers’ visual cortex, which parses information from the eyes, worked. Then came the next phase: translation. As they showed the volunteers movie clips, they asked the model what, given everything it now knew about their brains, it thought they might be looking at.
The experiment focused just on a subsection of the visual cortex. It didn’t capture what was happening elsewhere in the brain — how a person might feel about what she was seeing, for example, or what she might be fantasizing about as she watched. The endeavor was, in Dr. Gallant’s words, a primitive proof-of-concept.
And yet the results, published in 2011, are remarkable.
The reconstructed images move with a dreamlike fluidity. In their imperfection, they evoke expressionist art. (And a few reconstructed images seem downright wrong.) But where they succeed, they represent an astonishing achievement: A machine translating patterns of brain activity into a moving image understandable by other people — a machine that can read the brain.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/opin ... 778d3e6de3
These Genius Inventions Solve Problems We Didn’t Even Know We Had
Modern technology is constantly evolving and that means a lot of competition to have your inventions highlighted among an ocean of options. Beneath the shadow of large, popular companies, these inventions still shine bright.
We’re here to bring these lesser-known, equally ingenious inventions into the spotlight. From a strainer/cutting board hybrid to a touch-screen desk to rotating outlet extensions, these products solve problems that some of us forgot we even had. Here are inventions that’ll make you lament, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Slide show at:
https://www.postfun.com/surprising/geni ... -you-need/
Modern technology is constantly evolving and that means a lot of competition to have your inventions highlighted among an ocean of options. Beneath the shadow of large, popular companies, these inventions still shine bright.
We’re here to bring these lesser-known, equally ingenious inventions into the spotlight. From a strainer/cutting board hybrid to a touch-screen desk to rotating outlet extensions, these products solve problems that some of us forgot we even had. Here are inventions that’ll make you lament, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Slide show at:
https://www.postfun.com/surprising/geni ... -you-need/