Curating the Internet: Science and technology micro-summaries for September 5, 2019

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(Edited)
Authored by @remlaps

An argument that super-intelligent AI is already emerging around us; Counter-surveilling the credit card spies; Satellite images of Hurricane Dorian; Japanese logging camp uncovered in the Canadian forests; A Steem essay discussing the amazing pace of technological advancement
Straight from my RSS feed
Whatever gets my attention

Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.

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  1. Emergences - Here is the next installation in the edge.org Possible Minds series. This talk is from W. Daniel Hillis. As with previous talks, his presentation is followed by a panel discussion. Hillis echoes George Dyson's talk in the belief that independent AI will emerge, "in the wild", and that we won't necessarily be able to detect it until well after the fact. He adds that he believes that AI entities are already starting to emerge, in the sense that they are pursuing their own goals, not the goals of any particular stakeholder. He also argues that an entity can only be controlled if it's less complex than the entity that wants to do the controlling, and that modern AI systems no longer fit that criterion, so these entities are now uncontrollable. I have often thought along the lines of the Steem blockchain, our employer, as a pseudo-conscious entity that doles out rewards in accordance with its own set of goals, and all of this echoes speculation in the early 2000s that the Internet was becoming conscious. so maybe his viewpoint isn't so far fetched, especially in light of the @steem.dao. This edge.org series has also been covered here:


  2. The spy in your wallet: Credit cards have a privacy problem - In this article, Geoffrey Fowler describes his partially successful counter-surveillance effort against the credit card companies. He said that starting with a $0.29 purchase of a banana, data about his purchase likely flowed to advertisers, investors, banks, and retailers, all of whom would like to use this information to entice him into spending more money. To avoid this sort of tracking, the consumer basically needs to use cash for all purchases and forego rewards and loyalty points. The article closes with the following argument: "If a company wants our trust, it’s no longer good enough to say, 'We care about your privacy,' and point to some legalese. It’s time to come clean." h/t Bruce Schneier

  3. See What the Eye of Hurricane Dorian Looks Like From Space - Click the link for photos of Dorian, as a tropical storm, that were taken by the European Space Agency. By the time the storm hit the Bahamas, it was a Category 5 hurricane, and - according to the article - was responsible for at least 5 deaths. Current news reports on my radio have upped that number to 7.

  4. Hidden Japanese Settlement Found in Forests of British Columbia - Canada's anthropologist, Robert Muckle and students have published saying that they have excavated more than 1,000 items indicating that a Japanese logging camp was located in the woods of British Columbia’s North Shore mountains. After 14 years of excavation, he hasn't identified any artifacts newer than 1920s, but he believes the camp was active until about 1942, at which time the occupants were probably incarcerated or sent to road camps. Records show that Japanese business man, Eikichi Kagetsu, secured logging rights in the area starting in 1918. With racism and anti-immigrant sentiment at the time, Muckle suspects that life in Canada may have been unpleasant for the immigrant miners throughout the whole time that the camp was in operation. h/t RealClear Science

  5. STEEM The Incredible Pace Of Technology - In this essay, @taskmaster4450 points out some of the many technologies that are advancing from the realm of science fiction to the realm of engineering. Some of these include space tourism, drug development, and flying cars. The essay then argues that this will destroy some jobs and create others, but it will make new opportunities for people everywhere, especially since the entire world is expected to have Internet access by 2023, and cryptocurrency will bring all of those people into the global, digital economy. The essay argues that we can expect a repeated cycle where new opportunities make people more productive, and increased productivity creates new opportunities, saying, "The ability for billions to contribute while also profiting from what they create will greatly expand all of this. We saw it with video due to the advent of inexpensive camera technology plus a site like Youtube." (A 10% beneficiary setting has been applied to this post for @taskmaster4450)

    6. Addendum

  6. STEEM The General Slocum Disaster - a random glance at history - With the tragic fire on a diving vessel in California this week, I was reminded of my own post from a few months ago, and thought it was worth pointing it out again. As in the current tragedy, most of the General Slocum's crew managed to escape to safety, and most of the passengers didn't. One thing that we can learn from the General Slocum fire is that the community-impacts of the event may persist for a long period of time after the disaster, itself.

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While I find speculation about AI in the wild interesting, I find more compelling the little AI's in our pockets, on our computers, and in our various tools. Big AI could be transformative, but little AI already is. It's becoming as much an equalizer as the Colt .45 of the same name. It enables dilettantes to do work at a professional level, and allows decentralized means of production to allow folks to employ a variety of them without needing to become specialists in the various fields they involve.

Big AI could be a problem. Little AI is going to continue to make our world better every day.

Thanks!

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I agree. For now, it's just an interesting academic/philosophical discussion point. For all the speculation, a decade or two ago, that the Internet was becoming conscious, here we are in the future and in a practical sense it never really mattered if the speculation was right. But, I still think it's interesting to read and think about these ideas.

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