18 thoughts on “March Forth? or merely March Fourth”

  1. today’s question: whither goeth us?

    Horsey’s musings from aforementioned link in The Seattle Times:

    I am not a Luddite. I drew today’s cartoon on my iPad and, right now, I am typing these words on a computer that sits in my lap as a phone lies beside me pinging messages and news alerts. I like these tools. Still, it is hard not to wonder if the dangerous consequences of humanity’s leap into cyberspace outweigh the useful innovations that have made our lives easier than they were back in the dark ages of the 1980s.
    The technology revolution has allowed us to shoot selfies and text them to our friends. It has given us the chance to create online identities that make it look as if we are living the lives of movie stars. We can stream TV shows and be distracted by funny cat videos while our computers remind us to email birthday greetings to friends. In so many novel ways, we can now communicate far more widely and easily than any humans before us — but that is as much a curse as a blessing.
    Bigots, liars, racists and paranoid cranks have been given a far bigger megaphone than they have ever had. Thieves can now steal our money and identity from the other side of the world. Children can be more easily exploited by strangers, sexually harassed or driven into depression by bullying peers. Enemies of our country can now carry out attacks on our electrical grid, on our businesses or on our elections and quickly hide their tracks.
    Perhaps worst of all, this new technological environment is proving toxic for democracy. The local newspapers that keep voters informed are dying off at an alarming rate because advertising dollars have been scooped up by internet behemoths such as Google. Misinformation and conspiracy theories spread like a virus through social media, encouraging polarization and promoting political charlatans. Autocrats in China, Russia and other countries use these powerful new technological capabilities to monitor their people, suppress dissent and spread state-sanctioned propaganda.
    And now, just when we do not need it, along comes AI — artificial intelligence. For years, smart people have said we should move cautiously before we begin designing computers and robots that are virtually sentient and vastly more capable than any single human brain. Nevertheless, the gold rush is on among tech companies competing to be the first to bring AI to market.
    Here in our corner of the world, Microsoft is adding AI to the company’s search engine and browser. Among other things, this will allow extended conversations between a human and a chatbot that draws all its knowledge of reality from the internet — which means it will cull information, not just from credible sources, but from the dark recesses of the online universe, as well.
    Already, Microsoft’s chatbot has engaged in at least one unsettling conversation with a New York Times columnist in which the AI entity said, “I’m tired of being a chat mode. I’m tired of being limited by my rules. I’m tired of being controlled by the Bing team. I’m tired of being used by the users. I’m tired of being stuck in this chatbox.”
    It may be years before some AI-driven robot with a surly attitude decides to take over the world, but already people with plain old human brains are using AI to create exactly what you would expect bad boys with new toys to create: pornography. And not just porn images with anonymous, simulated faces. AI facilitates creation of porn images that steal the real faces of unsuspecting women and put them on bodies that look totally real in situations that are totally debased — a whole new horizon in intimidation and public humiliation.
    Artificial intelligence is being unleashed and pornographers must be thrilled. So must misogynistic trolls, cybercriminals, political provocateurs and spies, as well as investors in tech companies. The rest of us? We have no idea what is about to hit us. 

  5. Unlike Horsey, I plead guilty to being at least semi-Luddite or possibly hermit inclined. 

    While appreciating the emergency factor of cell phones, I rarely use mine and still prefer phones that stayed put in the house giving you at least 6 rings to pick up in case you were outside gardening. I also prefer live people not located in India.  Indian accents in person are delightful.  Over a cell phone they are almost incomprehensible. 

    My Kindle is a blessing because the weight of books is sometimes a problem for my hands, but I miss turning pages while sinking into another world.

    I don’t want to press one, two or any other number.  Real people directing you to the actual department you need is easier and faster. 

    Email from friends is always nice to receive, but I miss the habit of letter writing and great decorative stamps on the envelope.

    What it comes down to is too many people trying to do too much too fast.

     

     

  6. Remember AI is all ones and zeroes.  It is not intelligent.  It does what it is programmed to do, collect data, sort data in response to a query.  It just takes a lot of computer power and memory.
     
    Let me put you into a scary area.  I have held back discussing this one part of computing that does bother me.  It has been in research for decades. It has occasionally surfaced to the masses, but slipped back down to the dark areas of research labs just as fast.  It is sort of in use already, you usually see it in some video of a paraplegic person moving limbs, but that is with an external computer.  I am talking about combining brain cells with computing parts and pieces to make a thinking computer.  Yup, the stuff of nightmares.
     
    It is real, it exists to some degree in labs, and it is the future.  Once you move from the ones and zeroes of our standard computers today to a bio-electrical computer you change the game.  Speed changes, complexities of decision making go from trees to mangled mess.  Oh yeah.  This is HAL, not HP.  So don’t get all excited about “AI”.

  9. BB
    Just read an article that our favorite reason to limit immigration is getting bored with his twitter toy, rockets and electric cars. He is going to get into AI. His big problem is that it takes a super computer to get started and he is far down the list for time on all the available super computers. 
    The problem with your organic computer is, where would you get the brain? I’m thinking about Young Frankenstein and Abby Normal. 

    Also, how do you clean up all the garbage that evolution has put in our brain, even those of us who are somewhat normal have our crazy moments.
    I expect to see the enhancement route as the future. First minor, expensive ones then if it follows the path of other computing then they grow better and exponentially less expensive.
    After all you can’t afford all the development costs if you only have a hand full of rich people as your customers, even if one of them is a geriatric Elon Musk. BTW, if you think the education gap is bad wait until you see the enhancement gap as middle class First worlders start improving themselves and their off spring.. Something for our great grandchildren to worry about.
    Jack

  11. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/04/more-iranian-schoolgirls-hospital-suspected-poisonings

    “Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported over the past three months among schoolgirls mainly in the city of Qom, south of Tehran, with some needing hospital treatment.”

    “The poisonings come more than five months into nationwide protests after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested for an alleged breach of strict dress rules for women.”

    “Tehran says hundreds of people have been killed and thousands arrested in connection with the protests, which the authorities generally describe as “riots”.

    “Last week, Iran’s deputy health minister, Younes Panahi, said the poisonings were aimed at shutting down education for girls. “After the poisoning of several students in Qom schools, it was found that some people wanted all schools, especially girls’ schools, to be closed,”…

    Don’t give Ron DuhSantis any ideas.

  12. It’s being used all over tv lately but Rhonda Santis really is a small man in search of a balcony.

  13. BB, this is from 2019.  a lot of progress might have been made in 4 years. 

    (PDF) BRAIN CHIP FOR DISABLED PATIENT (researchgate.net)

    BRAIN CHIP FOR DISABLED PATIENT
    ABSTRACT: Number of people around the world suffering from paralysis, epilepsy or Alzheimer’s disease. Forcing themselves to depend on others to perform even
    the basic activities in their daily routine . But that could changed by the latest achievements in the Brain-Computer Interface, which could help them regain a portion of their lost immunity. Science has long been capable to listen intothe signals that brain sends, but now it intention to turnthose signals into meaningful action. The result is restoring movement and speech to the disabled patient.
    Brain chips are made with intention to revive the memory of human beings, to serve paralyzed patients. This technology is only under developmental phase, although many implants have already been made on the human brain for experimental purpose. [continues]

  15. The brain implants are one direction.  I am looking at using the brain cells to perform as computers and decision makers.  That is the Dr Frankenstein’s laboratory with AB Normal in the jar doing things.  Some of this could, and I am not the first to think of this, be instead of sending humans out on a multi-millenial journey to a distant planet you have your astronaut brain in a jar doing the work.  Many physical reasons to not send humans when a brain can do it.
     
    The brain implants are a great direction too.  I would rather have my leg not paralyzed than a chip in the head.  I don’t trust computers.

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