Monthly Archives: March 2015

Fresh Water. Essential for human Survival or a Commodity for Profit.

30 Monday Mar 2015

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The most valuable commodity in the world today, is not oil, not natural gas, not even some type of renewable energy. It’s water—clean, safe, fresh water and it is being privatized for short-term profit. 

A gift of nature, or a valuable commodity? A human right, or a luxury for the privileged few? Will the agricultural sector or industrial sector be the main consumer of this precious resource? Whatever the answers to these and many more questions, one thing is clear:

That water will be one of the defining issues of the coming decade, not the internet, not the current conflicts, not poverty or Inequality, nor climate change, or the far of distant stars. 

SAVE THE PLANET, WHEN WE DON’T KNOW HOW TO SAVE OURSELVES. 

Some estimates say that 768 million people still have no access to fresh water.

Water isn’t traded on commodity exchanges yet but you would wrong to think that the most valuable commodity more valuable than oil will remain so.

These days we hear that sustainable development is the only way forward. There will be no sustainable development while the water issues remain unsolved.

It is our responsibility that fresh water does not become a commodity to be exploited for short-term profit to pump out billions in profit.

The Oil Industry wastes 2 million gallons each day in California Fracking.

Across the world Nestlé is pushing to privatize and control water resources. In 2000 at the world Water Forum Nestlé successfully lobbied to stop water being declared a universal right. Profits over people and corporate rights over human rights.

There is now a hunting season on local water resources by multinational corporations looking to control them. This means billions in profits with us paying 2000 times more for drinking water because it comes in a plastic bottle.

Safe water will become a privilege only affordable for the wealthy.

What are our Out of Date World Organisations doing to safeguard the human right to water other than more verbal diarrhea. (They are discussing the goals)

The World Water Forum which is described as a mouthpiece for transnational companies and the World Bank are falsely claiming to head the global governance of water. (See Below)

Water is essential for human survival and well-being and important to many sectors of the economy. However, resources are irregularly distributed in space and time, and they are under pressure due to human activity. Today, freshwater is used unsustainable in the majority of the regions of the world.

Everyone is demanding more of everything, more houses, more cars and more water. And we are talking of a world where temperatures are forecasted to rise by two to three degrees Celsius, maybe more. The situation is already dire.

China’s energy needs alone will grow by 100 percent by 2050. Since 1990, half the rivers in China have disappeared.

 

Globally, water pollution is increasing.  Around 60 percent of the worlds nation’s groundwater resources are already polluted.  In developing countries, an estimated 90% of waste water is discharged directly into rivers and streams without treatment.

At present, most water policy is still driven by short-term economic and political concerns that do not take into account science and good stewardship. State-of-the-art solutions and more funding, along with more data on water resources, are needed especially in developing nations.

Here are some hard facts.

Fragmentation of river systems due to dams is the single greatest threat to freshwater ecosystems’ health.

There are an estimated 800,000 dams worldwide, including around 45,000 large dams (over 15 metres high) and 1,000 mega-dams over 100 meters high. Over 60% of the world’s 227 largest rivers have been fragmented by dams, diversions and canals . An estimated 60 to 80 million people have been displaced by dams and nearly 500 million people have had their lives and livelihoods negatively affected.

Some 20 percent of the world’s aquifers are facing over-exploitation, and degradation of wetlands is affecting the capacity of ecosystems to purify water supplies.

People use 54% of the planet’s “blue water” (water that flows through rivers, lakes, and groundwater). Estimates suggest that this may increase to 70% by 2025.

2.3 billion people live in river basins which are under water stress, where less than 1,700 cubic meters of water is available for each person per year. If current consumption patterns continue, at least 3.5 billion people will live in water-stressed river basins in 2025 – half the world’s projected population.

Our Freshwater Living Planet Index (which tracks changes in populations of 714 species of fish, birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians found in temperate and tropical lakes, rivers and wetlands) showed populations of freshwater species fell by 35% between 1970 and 2007 – a larger decline than in marine and land ecosystems. In tropical regions the decline was almost 70%.

Around 10,000 of the world’s 25,000 known fish species live in fresh water. An average of 300 new freshwater fish species are discovered every year.

Wetlands around the world provide goods and services to people worth an estimated US$70 billion a year.

Climate change is predicted to have a whole range of impacts on water resources. Variation in temperature and rainfall may affect water availability, increase the frequency and severity of floods and droughts, and disrupt ecosystems that maintain water quality.

Over the last 50 years, the frequency of severe flooding and the damage it causes have increased, in part due to the degradation of freshwater ecosystems.

In parts of the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, over half of wetlands were destroyed in the 20th century, and many more were degraded across the rest of the world.

Water running into sink

 

Freshwater is a highly valuable resource for a large number of competing demands, including drinking water, irrigation, hydroelectricity, waste disposal, industrial processes, transport and recreation, as well as ecosystem functions and services.

There is only one direction for water prices at the moment, and that’s up.

The United Nations estimates that by 2050 more than two billion people in 48 countries will lack sufficient water.

Approximately 97 percent to 98 percent of the water on planet Earth is saltwater (the estimates vary slightly depending on the source). Much of the remaining freshwater is frozen in glaciers or the polar ice caps. Lakes, rivers and groundwater account for about 1 percent of the world’s potentially usable freshwater.

95 percent of the world’s cities continue to dump raw sewage into rivers and other freshwater supplies, making them unsafe for human consumption.

Agriculture is responsible for 87 % of the total water used globally. Fresh water is crucial to human society – not just for drinking, but also for farming, washing and many other activities. It is expected to become increasingly scarce in the future, and this is partly due to climate change. Approximately 98% of our water is salty and only 2% is fresh. Of that 2%, almost 70% is snow and ice, 30% is groundwater, less than 0.5% is surface water (lakes, rivers, etc) and less than 0.05% is in the atmosphere.

Climate change will have several effects on these proportions on a global scale. The main one is that warming causes polar ice to melt into the sea, which turns fresh water into sea water, although this has little direct effect on water supply.

The direct impact of climate change is not the only reason.

The increasing global population means more demand for agriculture, greater use of water for irrigation and more water pollution. Rising affluence in some countries means a larger number of people living water-intensive lifestyles, including watering of gardens, cleaning cars and using washing machines and dishwashers.

Rapidly developing economies also result in more industry and in many cases this comes without modern technology for water saving and pollution control. Therefore concerns about climate change must be viewed alongside management of pollution and demand for water.

If we allow poverty related to water to exist in other countries, then we can expect jealousies between nations to rise, and we can expect acts of vengeance from those who are jealous. It is already a source of conflict in some parts of the world such as the Indus River, which runs between India and Pakistan. Another one would be, in fact, in Iraq, where the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, rising in Turkey, flow into Syria, then into Iraq. And, in fact, much of Iraq’s water supply is from Turkey.

Fresh Water is why Palestinian must strive for a one nation-state solution with Israel.  It is why we must stop oil exploration in the Arctic.

By the middle of the 21st century, 2 billion to 7 billion people will be severely short of water. The WHO estimates that more than 5 million people die each year from diseases caused by unsafe drinking water. By 2030, global demand for water will outstrip supply by 40 percent, a surefire recipe for war.

It takes some 5000 liters of water to produce 1 kg of rice.

General Electric Chairman Jeffrey Immelt said the scarcity of clean water around the world will more than double GE’s revenue from water purification and treatment by 2010—to a total of $5 billion.

Saudi Arabia is expected to invest more than $80 billion in desalinization plants and sewer facilities by 2025 to meet the needs of its growing population.

While China is home to 20 percent of the world’s people, only 7 percent of the planet’s freshwater supply is located there.  Asian countries will have severe water problems by the year 2025. (demand is increasing)(supply is decreasing)

In France agricultural production is exempt from the Polluter – pays -principle and that it continues to deteriorate the quality of groundwater with impunity.

The state of the world’s fresh water warns that decreasing water supplies could lead to epidemics and international conflict.  Over the next 20 years, the average global supply of water per person is expected to drop by one-third.

What does the future hold? 

How can water resources be managed sustainable while meeting an ever-increasing demand?

We always have the same amount of water.

The six billion people of Planet Earth use nearly 30% of the world’s total accessible renewal supply of water. By 2025, that value may reach 70%. Yet billions of people lack basic water services, and millions die each year from water-related diseases.

And you Wonder why we have terrorism.

Water is a basis of international conflict.

Basic human needs for water should be fully acknowledged as a top international priority. Education and research will be essential to providing the knowledge, skills and technology needed to combat fresh water scarcity in the future.

 

The World Water Forum is a large-scale international conference that is held every three years since 1997 in cooperation with the public, private sectors, academia, and industries.

It was first launched in an effort to facilitate international discussions on global water challenges.

The last Forum attracted more than 35,000 participants in Marseille 2012.

This Council is made up of.

  • 15 heads of State, of governments and European Commissioners.
  • 145 represented countries.
  • 112 Ministers, Vice-Ministers and Secretaries of State.
  • 176 national delegations and international organisations taking part in the Ministerial Declaration.
  • More than 750 elected officials among which 250 mayors and 250 parliamentarians.
  • More than 500 sponsored persons.
  • 3,500 NGOs and civil society representatives.
  • More than 2,600 children and youth.

Like all our Unfunded World Organisations it is an other gossip shop that lacks financial clout to make a differences.

There is only one way we can guard our Fresh Water we must Buy It.

Which can be achieved by Placing a World Aid Commission on all High Frequency Trading, on all Foreign Exchange transactions ( over $20,000) and on all Sovereign Wealth Funds Acquisition.

We than can create Drought Banks, that give Farmers an allocation of water.  He must then decide what is the best return he can get from that amount of water on his property.  It might be a big wheat crop or a small cotton crop.  It doesn’t matter.  The water is the fixed in the equation, not the type of crop.

Drought in China: Chongqing Municipality

folsom lake

Foot Note:

Just in case you think that all of this is Hog Wash:

Here are over 80 organizations (community, academic, governmental, funding, and more) working on water and sanitation issues in multiple countries around the world.

Technologies are actually available but most of them are too expensive or far to time consuming to implement simultaneously with ongoing progress and changes.

Even within the European Union an estimated 20 to 30 million people do not have access to safe sanitation, and little action has so far been undertaken to address this problem.

The question is not whether we can afford it but can we afford not to do it?

For example, what is the cost of no action? Water is already under severe pressure and this will only increase with climate change. We cannot afford to lose the services and benefits that a healthy aquatic ecosystem provides. We need clean water in sufficient quantities for our living and for economic activities. In order to keep that, we need a determined action to protect water resources.

The global population is likely to reach 9.1 billion in 2050, if not sooner. While this alone has potentially dire consequences in terms of pressures on natural resources, especially water,  Climate change sets its own agenda,

The world is changing faster than ever and becoming more and more complex.

Uncertainties about water availability and demand are increasing, as are the associated risks to development and well-being of people, societies and the environment. Unless we can generate the awareness and political will to react now, the crises we are experiencing now are likely to escalate and the odds of meeting our developmental goals will degenerate. This is why the most recent economic crisis could be seen as an opportunity; it provides an occasion for reflecting on a desired collective future.

For once we might act as one to the benefit of all. The future of the planet and the human race both depend on it.

Water is a common heritage of humanity and of future generations and must be protected as a public trust in law and practice. Water belongs to the Earth and other species. Water might teach us how to live together. How to tread more lightly on the earth — in peace and respect with one another.

Just in case you want the whole picture.

Click to access WWDR4%20Volume%201-Managing%20Water%20under%20Uncertainty%20and%20Risk.pdf

 https://youtu.be/sQZd2_1q2F0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Our collective Destiny.

27 Friday Mar 2015

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There is no doubting that the influence of technology will go beyond new equipment and faster communications and that Science and technology are in danger of out running our morality.

The evolution of technology has morphed the relationship between consumer and creator forever. But life exists in individual moments and it is up to us to make sure those moments are vital to technology.  Each of us has meaning, and it is us that bring these moments to life not the other way around.

This for me defines the dangers of Technology. There is a danger that we will end up starved for wisdom and individual wonder distorting the values of civilization.

Sharing may well be the mechanism that propels culture forward, but individualism driven by knowledge is what counts. Therefore we should be wary of falling into the trap of futurism. There may be a temptation to follow technological determinism, that is the idea that technology provides a logical sequence of development that pervades society regardless of its effects.

So it is necessary to study the relationship of science, technology, innovation and government. We need to stay attuned to the power dynamics at play.

Ultimately as we continue to develop and our technological capabilities even the stars will be open to our explorations.

Will humanity be prepared for the greatest discoveries of the history of our civilization?  No

Will we find other intelligent civilizations far older and incredibly superior than our technological capabilities and collective wisdom?  Yes

Our collective destiny could end with speculation on the values, ethics and consciousness of these civilizations and lessons they may hold for the future of humanity.

Recently I have concentrating on the effects of what Technology could do to Society and how we will behave or change as its influence grows.

We are already living in a world few could have imagined 50 years ago. In a new economy—powered by technology, fueled by information, without a sustainable Life-Plan.

As technology continues to spread, questions emerge:

What are we losing as a society? What is the effect on social relations? Work, after all, is more than just a job or paycheck. It is where we meet friends, share ideas, and build a common sense of purpose and a social network.

What happens if we all become Google Slaves. (see previous post) Is it creating an Hip-pro activity world designed by us that will not work. With voice mail, e-mail, and computer networks, how do we preserve the human network and the social interaction that work has helped to facilitate? What takes its place?

As I have said there may well be a strong link between technology adoption by society and its culture. But technology is never purely beneficial. It has negative and positive effects, There is a need to distinguish between desirable sustainable development and economic growth.

While it is not possible to foretell the future, it is useful to examine present trends and determine their possible consequences.

The use of computers and the Internet in workplaces is become more pervasive as work and skills are being redefined and reorganized.

The demands of the future will require increased efforts to include these workers who have been left behind and have not shared in our prosperity.

It will also require successfully integrating millions of immigrants into the workplace.

If we’re not careful, our technological evolution will take us toward not a singularity but a sofalarity.

The problem with technological evolution is that it is under our control and, unfortunately, we don’t always make the best decisions.

Does Technology want what life wants: Increasing efficiency; Increasing opportunity; Increasing emergence; Increasing complexity; Increasing diversity; Increasing specialization; Increasing ubiquity; Increasing freedom; Increasing mutualism; Increasing beauty; Increasing sentience; Increasing structure; Increasing evolvability. I think not.

Technological evolution has a different motive force. It is self-evolution, and it is therefore driven by what we want as opposed to what is adaptive. In a market economy, it is even more complex: for most of us, our technological identities are determined by what companies decide to sell based on what they believe we, as consumers, will pay for.

When it comes to technologies, we mainly want to make things easy. We are at a time of great creativity, of great potential for change for better or worse.

Technology is not the only cause of these changes, but scientists have made clear that it is a driving factor.

It is already dispensing death by algorithms.

Assuming that we really are evolving as we wear or inhabit more technological prosthetics—like ever-smarter phones, helpful glasses, and brainy cars—here’s the big question:

Will that type of evolution take us in desirable directions, as we usually assume biological evolution does?

The technology industry, which does so much to define us, has a duty to cater to our more complete selves rather than just our narrow interests. It has both the opportunity and the means to reach for something higher. And, as consumers, we should remember that our collective demands drive our destiny as a species, and define the post human condition.  Both Google and Apple would do well to keep this in mind.

All of these factors have contributed to rising inequality. The development of a hierarchy of knowledge, a prejudiced vision towards a desired future rather than recognition of more plausible realities.

We all want a future defined not by an evolution toward super intelligence but by the absence of discomforts.

In general, humans have a tendency to always choose the easiest option without
stopping to think that maybe, to think another perspective would open other
possibilities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google is a business – and like all businesses, its bottom line is the bottom line.

27 Friday Mar 2015

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The power of Google is considerable, and wielded in many different ways.

Few companies have had as large an impact on our daily lives as Google. The company is everywhere, powering our access to information and how we connect to others.

It has grown to set the world’s standard of information and how it’s managed.

Google is not Life:  It’s hidden algorithms have the power to make or break reputations and fortunes, to shape public debates, and to change our view of the world.

Google’s immense resources mean that it can wield its power in many more ways than a mere internet monopoly. Lobbying, both open and hidden, is a big deal – the amount of effort put into shaping the reform of the data protection regime so it suits Google better has been colossal.

It has infiltrated our daily routines with its products and services including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and even financial organization solutions. Through these devices and offerings, Google has influenced culture in a way that very few companies throughout history have.

The company can learn even more about people who use G Mail, the social networking site Orkut, or another of Google’s popular personalized services.

Google’s determination to change the way we access and use information is epitomized through their technological innovations.

Most recently, Google Glass, a groundbreaking technology, combines Google’s software services with day-to-day application. This product introduced the world to the possibility of wearable technology, as users are fed a constant stream of digital information via a mini screen that is fixed on a pair of glasses.

How they set their algorithms, how they index the web, what they include and exclude, what they rate highly – and what they rate as insignificant – matters in ways that are often hugely underestimated.

If you think that Google is are a purely neutral organisation, providing a service to the planet it is a very naive assumption. Google has a critical role to play in how technology functions, how businesses function – and in how the media functions., not how we function.

The question is whether the company is acquiring too much power over our lives – invading our privacy, shaping our preferences, and controlling how we learn about and understand the world around us.

“Searching” is no longer a neutral tool, but has become a social force in itself.

“A log of your search history is as close to a printout of your brain as we’ve ever had.” For this reason we should be wary of its power, before you end up doomed to join Google Slavery and become a genuine SELF E. 

Take for example if you wanted to remove a link; a request is made, and then Google can decide to delete or not to delete – deletions being if the information is old or irrelevant – and if they choose not to, the requester can either take legal action or ask the data protection authority to adjudicated.

In previous post I have aired the opinion that Google wants to capture all knowledge and its distribution, thus becoming the power of the market place world-wide. 

Google mission statement:  “Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

With so much tracking power throughout the web, plus search, plus its toolbar and other services, Google can track ~70% of the Internet population.

It has the potential to vaporize the profits of any industry that traffic in bits and bytes and to shift the economics to the advantage of Google.

It could actually pose a national defense concern at some point simply by virtue of its singularly massive storehouse of data.

It is becoming the crude oil of the Information Economy.

Our lives are being mapped by the internet.

But is it wise to let the likes of Google decide what becomes of our culture’s collective memory? The place into which we appear to be pouring our culture for safekeeping. If we are putting all our eggs in one or two vast online baskets, shouldn’t we, the public, share a grip on the handle?

The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world…

Should we allow search engines like Google to controls not only the future but the past…

Google has successfully built a platform that monetizes the content of other people, first though search, and then through a contextual network. It controls 60%+ of all advertisements that flow in contextual networks.

It’s influence over the Internet spans far beyond search. It goes right into the heart of the Internet – content. Google is like a giant spider who has spread its net all across the Internet, and each time you get on that net, you give more power to that spider.

Google knows more and more about us, but right now there’s almost nothing we can do to find out exactly what it does with that information.

The challenge is how to do this without undermining an online application that, even its critics concede, is one of the greatest learning and labor-saving devices of our time.

Google agreed last year to limit the amount of time it keeps personalized user information to 18 months and to cut the life span of its cookies from 30 years to two.

In the past several years, Google has spent billions on companies, research and projects ranging from YouTube to wind power. It has acquired over 170 companies.

It has changed our language. It has changed our brains. It has taken over our cell phones. It has transformed the way we use e-mail. It’s changed how we collaborate. It has allowed us to travel the globe from our desks. It has influenced the news we read. It has turned users into commodities. It’s changed how everyone else sees YOU.

Google Earth view

Google’s Android operating system is also the most widely used smart phone software in the world, further emphasizing their technological dominance in mobile computing markets.

The role of search engines as intermediaries or data controllers is not understood.

Indeed Google’s power to control the process and set the agenda is lacking vision.

Despite the growing number of photographers who use Google in their works, it remains unclear how this technology will influence our perspective in photography—and perceptions of spatial reality—outside the virtual world.

A small step in the right direction.

Instead of Google promoting its Logo as a biennial supporter of St Patrick’s Day or

 

 

google logosgoogle logos

 

It could with its Logo highlight the Inequalities of the world.  The abuse of People Trafficking, Poverty, Corruption. Its Logo could become a rallying symbol for change. Would it do it. Of course not because it suffers from the very symptoms it has or is creating.  Exploitation of the weakest, the gullible, the naive, the lonely, the very people who need to be one bar closer to Humanity.    

Whatever your opinions are about Google, you can’t deny their influence on the world around us.

Ultimately, Google must grapple with the essential paradox it embodies.

As a corporation, it’s often a cipher, its intentions and methods concealed by algorithms that look impenetrable and impersonal. Yet the search engine and the blockbuster business built atop it utterly depend upon millions of people sharing through searches their most intimate desires, and upon thousands of businesses willing to open their data storehouses to feed Google’s voracious digital maw

” It’s about humans. “

Google may have to listen to the rest of us about what Google will become next.

Old expectations of privacy might be fading but if we are denied the right to reply or remove links it could well lose the head-to-head battle between it and Apple.

“Google nets $115,150 of revenue in one minute, and converts $23,509 of that into profit.

Apple in 60 seconds,makes a dizzying $328,965 in revenue. Translate that into profit, and it’s still an insanely high $71,288. Per second, Apple makes over $1100 in pure profit.

I know it is the fashion to say that most of recorded history is for the most part inaccurate and biased, but what is peculiar to our own age is the abandonment of the idea that history could be truthfully written or stored by Google.

 

 

Are we going to cure ourselves. How dare you second-guess me, I’m the doctor.

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

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I am asking this question because it wont be long before we will all have wearable Technology on our wrists.

They will know you better than you know yourself.

 

 

Monitoring you around the clock.  From birth to death, transferring the collected data to persons unborn thereby enhancing the value of their wrists remote oversight.

The prize for such wearable technologist will be slavery.

Its only around the corner when a glance at the smart phone app will let you know exactly what your four-legged friend is up to and whether you are in need of a service.

The real value of technology depends on human interaction from design to utility.

Just imagine wearing a device in the obvious place and it’ll measure your calories burned and thrusts per minute as well as suggest the correct tempo to work at.   (Your are too late it already exists)

What is on the horizon when it comes to Medicine and medical care.

Since data is the lifeblood of science, we’re going to get a lot smarter about some data leading to peer communities that will probably rely on a lot of technology and they’re going to have algorithms guiding their treatment or their path.

Already there are amazing advances on the horizon that will do everything from predicting depression using geo-location on smart phones to printing out organs.

The regulation of these applications moving forward has yet to be determined.

The medical community is just beginning to understand that these digital breadcrumbs called Bio Mechanics, (The measurement your heart rate and breathing patterns from beneath your sheets to tell how deep you’re sleeping and even when you initiated your shuteye in the first place, the correction of your posture, the measurement of perspiration, the sensing and skin temperature recording, the measurement of your pulse by using LEDs that highlight the speed of blood flowing through your capillaries) are all going to be liable to legal scrutiny.

If they are not there is going to be hell to play between interactive clothing design, smart textiles and wearable microelectronics.

Or will it be the users that determines whether wearable technology is a cost-driver, a cost-saver, quality controller, error creator, a great equalizer or disruptor and in doing so wearing the device will grant legal immunity to the producer of such technology.

It is this dichotomy—the ability to heal or harm that intrigues me.

From the operating room to the living room, phone applications are increasingly used by providers and patients alike for medicine care.

Take for instance Electronic medical records. (EMRs)

These digital records store the health information of millions of patients. EMRs can be a great money saver in medicine because they will  become more interoperable and move into the hands of patients or should I say on to the wrists.

The drawback is that IT systems don’t care if the guy went to the intensive care unit two hours later or was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 20 years later. Just give us the data and we will put it on his wrist.

Whether we like it or not  wearable tech will define humanity’s future.

Technology always changes social relationships so it stands to reason that the relationship of patient – doctor is also going to change.

All of these devices will spit out ridiculous amounts of data of all forms, so this big data world that we’re already in – is going to accelerate. Also we’re going to get a lot smarter about some pretty fundamental things, whether it’s genomics or self-diagnosis or how errors happen.

Then, because we’re putting all this power into the hands of so many people all around the world, it seems certain that the scale, pace, and scope of innovation are going to increase.

So why not cure ourselves.

The question of whether computers would ultimately replace the diagnostic work of clinicians, predictions by and large, has not pan out as yet.

When I see a flu symptom data set, that stops we getting a cold I might ware a wrists band.

When patients are reduced to templates, you can forget it. Hype shouldn’t be mistaken for justification.

Physicians use “the eyeball test” — their intuition, drawn from subtle cues that are not (currently) captured in the data — to make a clinical judgment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wearable war is only just starting.   There’s no better time to get familiar and get involved like the present.

It is all down to deep learning — is just blowing the doors off the competition.

It’s spread beyond the academic world with major players like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook creating their own research teams.

We should all be careful before we all become Google or Apple Slaves.

“OK, Glass, Google ‘What’s the correct dose of Temazepam?’” Likewise, the gadget could also document a patient visit, such as storing a photo of a skin rash or an audio recording of a conversation.

Would you feel comfortable if your physician examined you while wearing Google Glass? Or would you record your own doctor’s visit using Glass?

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The imparting and acquiring of knowledge. Is modern education spreading more ignorance than knowledge.

23 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by in Education

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Modern day education is aided with a variety of technology, computers, projectors, internet, and many more.

I am entirely certain that is fifty years or less from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools and universities today and wonder that we could have tolerated anything so primitive.  Why?

Because the greatest innovation in the world is the demand for equality of opportunity and that comes primarily through education which unfortunately these days is lacking the words “How” “Look ” “Understand”.

These three missing words in our world of Education are causes ignorance.

They can only be brought back as the backbone of Education if we stop educating for the Market Place and educate for ability to make yourself do the things you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.

The Internet provides abysmal knowledge at just a click of the mouse; there is no end to it. 93 percent of students search online rather than go to the library, and Wikipedia is the most used research resource.

There is no doubting that Technology has had an amazing impact on education in the last few years. The impact of Internet on education can be felt in homes, schools, colleges, universities.

However the Internet has proven to be a double-edged sword for education and we must now ask the question, are traditional higher education approaches fit for purpose for the modern world?

A broader definition of learning is needed that better accounts for the intricate nature of learning in times of complex technological and social contexts.

What we’ve seen so far is nothing compared to the sea change that will be created by the Internet of Everything (IoE) in the coming decade.

The networked connections among people, processes, data and things will change not just how and where education is delivered, but will also redefine what students need to learn, and why.

People today generally agree that the purpose of education is to convey knowledge. But if all the world’s knowledge is instantaneously available online via smart phone or Google Glass, how does that affect what we need to teach in school?

Perhaps education will become less about acquiring knowledge, and more about how to analyze, evaluate, and use the unlimited information that is available to us.

Perhaps we will teach more critical thinking, collaboration, and social skills.

Perhaps we will not teach answers, but how to ask the right questions.

Regardless of gender, race, age, geographic location, language or any disability, the internet gives an equal chance to all to progress in the field of education.

Information Superhighway along with personal computers is fast transforming the world of Education.

Not only our planet but the whole universe has become accessible.

We are being fed with facts and knowledge. Not art, not books, but life itself is the true basis of teaching and learning.

Education is  producing a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.

Our Education Instituted were created in the era of the assembly line.  Built for an industrial era not for the Technological Revolution now taking place.

The very concept of what a university is, what academia is, has change.

Technological innovation is creating less uniformity in higher education.

These days or Tech experts believe market factors will push universities to expand online courses, create hybrid learning spaces, move toward ‘lifelong learning’ models and different credentialing structures by the year 2020.

But they disagree about how these whirlwind forces will influence education, for the better or the worse.

For a millennium, universities have been considered the main societal hub for knowledge and learning.

Universities have survived intact through the sweeping societal changes created by technology—the moveable-type printing press, the Industrial Revolution, the telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and computers. Like every thing else they are susceptible to tech disruption as other information-centric. (Industries such as the news media, magazines and journals, encyclopedias, music, motion pictures, and television.)

As a result the cost of university education is growing higher and higher which is totally unsustainable particularly in the light of the growing global demand for such education. For me it is the duty of the richer nations to educate its next generation for Free. This could be easily achieved by placing an education tax on all gambling.

(In the case of poorer nations it can only be achieved by capping Greed. ( see previous posts; 0.05% World Aid Commission on all High Frequency Trading, on all Sovereign Wealth Funds Acquisitions, and on all Foreign Exchange Transactions over $20,000.)

Students and parents, stretched by rising tuition costs, are increasingly challenging the affordability of a university degree as well as the diploma’s ultimate value as an employment credential.

As a result heightened inequalities may arise based upon instructional delivery formats.

The transmission of knowledge need no longer be tethered to a college campus.

The technical affordability of cloud-based computing, digital textbooks, mobile connectivity, high-quality streaming video, and “just-in time” information gathering have pushed vast amounts of knowledge to the “place less” Web and privately held, online instructional delivery firm.

Nonprofit learning organizations such as the Khan Academy, commercial providers of lecture series, online services such as iTunes U, and a host of specialized training centers that provide instruction and credentials for particular trades and professions.

All these can easily scale online instruction delivery more quickly than can brick-and-mortar institutions and will present themselves as challengers for-profit universities.

Requirements for graduation will be significantly shifted to customized outcomes leading to ‘customized’ education for people from different class backgrounds.

Significant numbers of learning activities will move to individualized, just-in-time learning approaches. There will be a transition to “hybrid” classes that combine online learning components with less-frequent on-campus, in-person class meetings. The technology will allow for more individualized, passion-based learning by the student, greater access to master teaching, and more opportunities for students to connect to others—mentors, peers, sources— for enhanced learning experiences.

There will be mass adoption of teleconferencing and distance learning to leverage expert resources. Distance learning.

As communications technologies improve and we learn how to use them better, the requirement for people to meet face-to-face for effective teaching and learning will diminish. The high cost of face to-face instruction, the improvement of AI will be major factors in individualizing education.

Research will increasingly be driven out from behind the high-premium-pay walls of academic journals and into the open, where scholars and the public can more easily benefit from government-funded and grant supported research projects.

While people will be accessing more resources in classrooms through the use of large screens, teleconferencing, and personal wireless smart devices, most universities will still mostly require in-person, on-campus attendance of students most of the time at courses featuring a lot of traditional lectures.

Most universities’ assessment of learning and their requirements for graduation will be about the same as they are now. Assessments will take into account more individually oriented outcomes and capacities that are relevant to subject mastery. Universities are not just portals where students access learning, they are places in which people develop as social beings.

In 2020, higher education will not be much different from the way it is today

The good man who can speak well will not be brought about by techno-based thinking. Teaching is not about holding on to huge amounts of information; it is more about giving direction to the thought in individual minds.

It is obvious that the Internet has and will continue to change the way we live. How it is changed, and how it will continue to do so is to be seen.

Around the world, millions of children are not in school: 57 million primary school children and 69 million secondary school children are denied a basic education.

I know that you do not have to be told that if we want to change this selfish chaotically world we have to strive for free education for all.

An education that emphases values.

The brain flourishes freely and ideas blossom marvelously when they are given an open sky and a broad horizon.

The most sought after skill today is creativity.

The future impact of AI (Artificial Intelligence)

20 Friday Mar 2015

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I was told the other day that I had not addressing the last and perhaps the most important issue concerning the effects of Technology that the human race will ever faced. The dire warnings that machines run by Artificial Intelligence will one day take over from humans.

What better day to post my views an diamond eclipse. The last time it happened was in 1935 and the next time is 2206.  

Now don’t get me wrong I like being human! I want humans to retain autonomy over machines! Judgments of virtue are judgments of a whole life rather than of one isolated action. The development of moral character may take a whole lifetime. But once it is firmly established, one will act consistently, predictably and appropriately in a variety of situations.

However we will need a new set of practices for value creation; where data slaves dare to stand up and call for a revolution … But it will be very difficult to turn back the wheel that has already been set in motion several decades ago.

What is artificial intelligence and what is the media talking about? What ever it is it is a long way off before Machines turn on us never mind emulating human behavior to the point of mimicking communication.

Are these technologies beneficial to our society or mere novelties among business and marketing professionals?

Medical facilities, police departments, and manufacturing plants have all been changed by AI but how?

So far this bond has been one-sided because the ability to generate, recognize and express emotions are a unique prerogative of living human beings, but if this intelligence or abstract attribute could be taught to machines, it would re-conceptualize the perception of machines.

So in this post should I focus on the truly remarkable achievements of the technology or dwell on the dangers of what could happen if machines reach a level of Sentient AI, in which self-aware machines reach human level intelligence.

Let’s start with present day.  Do you believe that if all computers are stopped for a day, complete civilization comes to a halt!

Fifty years ago, this might have been a science fiction, but today it is a reality.

We cannot predict because of the great potential of AI what we might achieve when this intelligence is magnified by the tools AI (may provide) however the eradication of disease and poverty are not unfathomable.

So it is valuable to investigate how to reap its benefits while avoiding potential pitfalls.

The potential benefits are huge, since everything that civilization has to offer is a product of human intelligence.

Presently, applications in advanced robotic appeared so real that one can believe a humanoid robot will be capable to interact or work side by side with people in a near future.

If so are we ready for the bio mechanical future revolution. ( Or as I would call it synthetic intelligence implants, because it is not natural intelligence.)

For the sake of the length of this post I will stick with AI.

This questions;  Will AI be a reality and many others are and should be the concern of the general public.

A time will soon come (brought about by the lack of education concerning rapidly advancing computer technology) when this question will need to be answered.  On the ethical use of such technology and its impact on intimate human relationships and society.

When is the best time to discuss the ethical uses of these technologies?  NOW.

If robots are ready to plug safely into society the question is no longer a questions for future generations to sort through, it must be decided, and soon.

As technology rapidly improves, it is inevitable that it should begin to take on elements of its creator and believe me there are many routes that Artificial intelligence can go. 

Its impact on society is only likely to increase.

For instance: Once we begin to mesh technology more closely with ourselves as humans we can begin to accept it as a part of ourselves and as a part of our society. Some say it could be curtain for Society.

memories-maya

As I have said in previous posts Technology is transforming our social, economic, and political institutions; our understanding of what it means to be human; and the distribution of power in the world.

 

The threat of AI equipped computer systems and machinery taking jobs away from humans is becoming a harsh reality. When and in what order should we expect various jobs to become automated ?

How will this affect the wages of less skilled workers, creatives, and different kinds of information workers? Some have argued that AI is likely to greatly increase the overall wealth of humanity as a whole. This is a total misconception as the rich will own the Data. Increased automation may push income distribution further towards a power law and the resulting disparity may fall disproportionately along lines of race, class, and gender.

Research anticipating the economic and societal impact of such disparity could be useful to start asking the questions.

How should the ability of AI systems to interpret the data obtained from surveillance cameras, phone lines, emails, etc., interact with the right to privacy?

How will privacy risks interact with cyber security and cyber warfare?

We already have drones and it will not be long before we have a weapon that does everything on its own without human help.  These weapons will be a threat to civilians?  Can lethal autonomous weapons be made to comply with humanitarian law. No.

Sophisticated remote-controlled military robots are already in use with no tractability, that fire a weapon to AI algorithms is that not something to fear. We are programming them. If that’s not scary enough put a nuclear war head on one.

Smart weapons raises many questions on the price paid to develop these weapons; money which could be used to solve most of the world’s social problems such as poverty, hunger, etc.

http://www.military.com:80/video/ammunition-and-explosives/projectiles/iran-unveils-new-smart-weapons-system/1427781968001/

Of course none of this is going to change anything as we are incapable of making war against Poverty or Inequality. Why? Because human intelligence can be viewed as being as diverse as its population. However this type of analysis of Intelligence leads us to the individual and becomes useless.

Over the last decade, electronic tiny minuscule signals have fundamentally revolutionized the way we live. People are spending more hours per day with machines than humans and in the future, computers will evolve quicker than the human race.

Sorry I am diversifying.  Back to AI

An amazing a human-machine relationship is developing.

Fortuitously for us so far the possession of knowledge alone does not make a being or machine intelligent.

This is the problem when it comes to computer scientists and engineers understanding just how their work affects humans and human values.

So what role should computer scientists play in the law and ethics of AI development and use?  None. They are focus on getting software products to market, regardless of whether they instantiated interesting principles of intelligent systems that could also illuminate the human mind.

How should lawyers, ethicists, and policymakers engage the public on these issues?  Should such trade-offs be the subject of national standards?

Significant parts of the economy, including finance, insurance, actuarial, and many consumer markets, are already susceptible to disruption through the use of AI techniques to learn, model, and predict agent actions. These markets are identified by a combination of high complexity and high rewards for navigating that complexity. Artificial intelligence techniques can be applied to financial investing, especially in the areas of credit risk assessment and stock valuation.

In the future, we can expect that the techniques of artificial intelligence will be integrated into systems that simultaneously address investing activities.

The successes of industrial applications of AI, from manufacturing to information services, demonstrate a growing impact on the economy, although there is disagreement about the exact nature of this impact and on how to distinguish between the effects of AI and those of other information technologies.

Many economists and computer scientists agree that there is valuable research to be done on how to maximize the economic benefits of AI while mitigating adverse effects, which could include increased inequality and unemployment.

All that said; Artificial intelligence certainly has a place in the future of humanity.

The danger of machines taking over too much of human interaction and work, the human mind, is to far-fetched to my thinking.

There is no doubt that computers are being embedded in all of our life accessories like mobiles,watches, cars, even our bodies and brains.

These subsets of AI, such as data mining, neural networks, speech recognition and lip-reading, behavior recognition, and face recognition, to name a few, are becoming increasingly powerful—and indispensable—to human organizations.

The question of whether a human brain is necessary for thinking remains in Science Fiction Hollywood.  

No one has agreed on a concrete definition of artificial intelligence, largely because there is insignificant understanding as to what comprises intelligence.

Professor Jefferson’s Lister Oration for 1949, from which I quote sums up the problem for me.

“Not until a machine can write a sonnet or compose a concerto because of thoughts and emotions felt, and not by the chance fall of symbols, could we agree that machine equals brain-that is, not only write it but know that it had written it. No mechanism could feel (and not merely artificially signal, an easy contrivance) pleasure at its successes, grief when its valves fuse, be warmed by flattery, be made miserable by its mistakes, be charmed by sex, be angry or depressed when it cannot get what it wants.

Or a  machine which is under interrogation”What do you think of Picasso?” Be kind, resourceful, beautiful, friendly, have initiative, have a sense of humor, tell right from wrong, make mistakes, fall in love, enjoy strawberries and cream, make some one fall in love with it, learn from experience, use words properly, be the subject of its own thought, have as much diversity of behavior as a man, do something really new.

AI will remain valuable regardless of whether we’re able to build fully- functioning robots or human-esque brains.

AI, the harnessing of intelligence on the computer, will turn complex thought processes into fast computer simulations; it will be used to analyze past events and predict the future.

The ability of these systems to explain the reasoning process through back-traces and to handle levels of confidence and uncertainty provides an additional feature that conventional programming can’t handle.

Intelligence is defined as the ability to achieve goals through computational process. Although intelligence is only studied in humans, is it possible that machines may be more “intelligent” than those who created the machines in the first place?

Will computers reach human intelligence someday. They have already surpassed our calculation abilities and our speed of processing information.

There is no indication that microchip speed will not be multiplied in the future.

As with every innovative technology there are positive and negative externalities involved.

The Intelligent Robot-  Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Mankind?

No. This dream will remain elusive until machines attain the basic human virtue of common sense.

Our ability to take full advantage of the synergy between AI and big data will depend in part on our ability to manage and preserve privacy.

How we can ensure humans will be able to control AI once it achieves human-level intelligence? I would prefer humans maintain autonomy over technologies that could achieve sentience.

It is tempting to wonder what would happen if we spent more time focusing on helping each other directly, versus relying on machines to essentially grow brains for us.

We need to develop a science for understanding advanced Artificial Intelligence before we develop it further.

It’s just common sense. Intelligent machines won’t love you any more than your toaster does. Giving people a device that enhances intelligence may not be a terrific idea. What happens when a machine breaks the law?

Our AI systems must do what we want them to do. We ourselves don’t reason with precise truths. We don’t yet know really what consciousness is, what drives consciousness?

Why do we attend to only a portion of what we see and hear? It is obvious that given an event, observed by many, we each perceive it differently, and we take in differently. Do we each have individual filters that have to do with our own stories? Probably. But I think pondering this goes deeper. Is consciousness itself, somehow, directed? God forbid a machine is directing it.

John Cleese, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Describes AI

Being human, has to have a component of humanity to it. The nature of the mind and of memory, and how intelligence can be manifested in physical form is a joke when it comes to a Machine.

For the robots or technology that may surpass our intelligence in the near future, observe my fleshy middle-digit and hear me cry: “I wave my private parts at your Auntie! Your mother was a hamster and your father smells of elderberry!” —

Tell me how do you model thought?  Give me a machine that can read a simple children’s book, understand what the story is about, and explain it in its own words or ask reasonable questions about it.

That is it. I have tried artificial intelligence and I don’t like it.

Artificial Intelligence Technology is learning by itself. The claim that a machine cannot be the subject of its own thought can of course only be answered if it can be shown that the machine has some thought with some subject matter.

Where is this technology going to be? No one knows for sure, what we can only say for certainty is that this Artificial intelligence, and Machine Learning will transform all software and hardware, all industries and businesses. Roads, bridges, Cars, Homes, will be connected to it.

While today we do not possess the technology to achieve a truly sentient machine we cannot because of that speculate too deeply as to the results of such an achievement.

Only if intelligence ceases to be a sacred mystery to us, and we can control our destructive nature should any of us accept an Apple from the Adam of AI. 

One thing is for sure; We will sure need some kind of global governance in the interest of the individual. 

We are just in the beginning in terms of where these technologies will take us.  Mars and back.

WE CAN ALL BE PROUD. Four million Syrian refugees in 2015.

15 Sunday Mar 2015

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We are made to believe that we are all connected in an interconnected world.

But in fact we seem to be shackled to fear, misconceptions, false ideologies, material reward and held ransom to rules and laws laid down to safeguarded the interests of the few.

Syria’s civil war is the worst humanitarian disaster of our time. The number of innocent civilians suffering — more than ten million people are displaced, thus far — and the increasingly dire impact on neighboring countries can seem to overwhelming to understand.

So take a few minutes to understand the magnitude of this crisis.

Syria dayTHEY CAN TAKE A BOW. YOU ARE ALL DOING YOUR PART.

Nearly four years after it began, the full-blown civil war has killed more than 220,000 people, half of whom are believed to be civilians.

The U.N. estimates that over 7.2 million people are internally displaced — an increase of more than three million in just a year.

23 million is need urgent humanitarian assistance, whether they still remain in the country or have escaped across the borders.

In 2012, there were 100,000 refugees. By April 2013, there were 800,000. That doubled to 1.6 million in less than four months. There are now more than three million Syrians scattered throughout the region — an increasing number that will soon surpass Afghans as the world’s largest refugee population.

The worst exodus since the Rwandan genocide 20 years ago.
<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <span class="field-credit"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> Lisa Hoashi/Mercy Corps </span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> The majority of refugees — about 70 percent — live outside camps.

The UN is asking for $5 billion in humanitarian aid to help the millions affected by the Syria crisis.

In December 2014, the U.N. issued its largest ever appeal for a single crisis — according to their estimates, $8.4 billion is necessary to meet the needs of all those affected by the crisis, both inside and outside Syria, an increase from last year’s $6.5 billion.

Yet that previous appeal was only funded less than 50 percent.

After four years of conflict, it is clear President Assad’s allies have been more determined to keep him in power than his enemies have been to remove him.

It is already clear that international divisions over the greatest crisis of the 21st century have contributed to its severity and longevity.

With China – which had also opposed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein – it vetoed a UN resolution condemning Syria.

The paralysing cold war-style battle lines that split the UN’s top table have not changed since.

There is little or no clear Arab demand for intervention.

Iraq and Algeria backed Assad while Saudi Arabia and Qatar encouraged the flow of money and weapons to rebel units, some linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, others to hardline Salafis.

Syria’s bloody stalemate thus seems destined to continue indefinitely beyond this anniversary.

So we are looking at another 10 years, or more, of conflict?

And what, in the meantime, is the best way to support people caught up inside Syria and in refugee communities?

Germany has provided 30,000 places. Norway and Sweden have taken 2,500 each.

In January 2014, Britain announced its own scheme to help the most vulnerable – victims of torture or rape, or suffering severe ill-health. So far, the scheme has helped exactly 143 people.

Here is the proud list March 2015.

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures unhcr"

Pledges received since 2013:   61,648

Visas granted under other forms of admission: 12,354

Resettlement submissions made to the USA: 10,715

TOTAL confirmed pledges to date: 84,717

Country Total confirmed pledges (persons) received since 2013

Argentina humanitarian visa program.

Australia 5,600 resettlement and Special Humanitarian Program.

Austria 1,500 humanitarian admission.

Belarus 20 resettlement.

Belgium 300 resettlement.

Brazil open-ended humanitarian visa program.

Canada 200 resettlement 1,100 private sponsorship 10,000 resettlement/private sponsorship.

Czech Republic 70 resettlement.

Denmark 390 resettlement.

Finland 850 resettlement.

France 1,000 humanitarian admission/resettlement.

Germany 20,000 humanitarian admission 10,000 individual sponsorship.

Hungary 30 resettlement.

Ireland 310 resettlement.

Italy 400 resettlement/ 50 private sponsorship.

Liechtenstein 25 resettlement.

Luxembourg 60 resettlement.

Netherlands 500 resettlement.

New Zealand 100 resettlement.

Norway 2,500 resettlement.

Poland 100 resettlement.

Portugal 23 resettlement 70 emergency scholarships for higher education.

Spain 130 resettlement.

Sweden 2,700 resettlement.

Switzerland 3,500 resettlement and humanitarian visas.

United Kingdom Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme.

United States of America open-ended resettlement.

Uruguay 120 resettlement.

TOTAL 61,648 + additional number to the United States of America  IN ADDITION…

Brazil has so far issued 6,053 humanitarian visas. Individuals admitted to Brazil under this program have the right to apply for refugee status.

Switzerland initiated a temporary extended family reunification program for Syrian refugees from September to November 2013. Under this program, 8,200 applications were received, and nearly 4,700 visas have been issued to date.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has so far accepted 143 Syrian refugees under the Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme (number of arrivals as at last quarterly published statistics).

Ireland has accepted 111 Syrian refugees under the Syrian Humanitarian Admission Program.

Since 2012, France has provided close to 1,400 asylum visas for Syrians, which enable them to travel to France for the purpose of applying for asylum.

UNHCR has so far submitted 10,715 Syrian refugees to the United States of America for resettlement consideration (as of 28 February 2015).

A number of scholarship programs have been created for Syrian students whose education has been interrupted by the conflict.

And you wonder Why we have ISIS.

All I can say is Bravo. That leaves 22,938,352.

“Our greatest motivations in life come from NOT knowing the future.”

14 Saturday Mar 2015

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“If you think we’re electronically dependent now, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

Wireless communications will dominate everything, everywhere.

“Humanity will change more in the next 20 years than in all of human history.”

From the web to wildlife, the economy to nanotechnology, politics to sport, even transforming what it means to be human.

In my last three post I addressed the subject of Society changes due to Technologies : The Internet, Big Data, and Smart Phones.  So it would seem remiss of me not to inform the sixteen years old of today what is in store for them when they are, lets say 65.

It’s hard to focus on the future when the present is changing so rapidly before our very eyes let alone what will happen in 50 years’ time.

I could predict that this and that is going to happen.

From the capturing and digitizing the entire information content of your brains to chips that will eventually may have the ability not just to store information, but to learn and remember, just as real brain cells do to create complete copies of our brains’ content.

I could draw up a list of WHAT IF’s:

Like: Like what if you could finding a method of copying and uploading human consciousness into a machine, or even a holographic virtual body — basically, a software replica of a person. Or what if Traditional pharmaceuticals is replaced by hyper-individualized medicines that are manufactured at the time they are ordered, or that most people will have stopped taking pills in favor of a new device that causes the body to manufacture it’s own cures.

I am sure they are (without looking) many sites that are doing exactly this; covering Science, Nature, Transport, Medical, and every other aspect of Life.

Happiness is a direction, not a place or perhaps it is dark matter yet to be discovered.

One way or the other it’s pretty clear that the future remains radically uncertain, and there’s not much we can do about it.

Living a public life is the new default.

It is not possible to live modern life without revealing personal information to governments and corporations. Few individuals will have the energy, interest, or resources to protect themselves from ‘data surveillance’; privacy will become a luxury.

It is also clear that there will be a need for a trusted infrastructure to be created in order to prevent massive fraud and massive public distrust in online transactions, and in online life, in general.

We will have to reinvent the entire Internet as we know it, shifting power from a few American tech companies to the individual who creates, and therefore owns, the data.

It is also clear that greed makes monsters of men and unless we put a harness on greed and make it serve the needs of humanity the next 50 and beyond will not be worth living.

We will need to create a personal dashboard, a safe haven, for every individual’s dossiers, transactions, money, and profiles.  In this dashboard, you could set your privacy and communications settings.

All of this will create a big struggle about the question: Who owns (my) data?

My statement:

There is no way the world’s varied cultures, with their different views about privacy, will be able to come to an agreement on how to address civil liberties issues on the global Internet.

In 2065, we will have a post-Facebook and post-Google world.

We will have new business models in which facilitating data is more lucrative than owning data. As I have said if we do not make this transition, we face a privacy and fraud nightmare in which our lives are dominated by a few global tech companies.

We will have new generations of psychoactive drugs and eventually emerge, cognitive technology is likely to really, really rock our world.

We will run out of resources. We will have Climate change. We will have wars, and massive inequality, we will get humans to the nearest stars, we will be using English if not in the same form.

We will be wearing smart cloths connected to the internet (and even have linked stuff inside their bodies), we will be walking into internet-connected rooms and down networked streets, driving in the connected cars and public transit, get food and other goods from smart refrigerators/toasters/ovens, move through spaces bristling with connected sensors, and monitor remote places via apps and cameras.

Hal Varian on the future of privacy

The backlash against this most egregious privacy invasions will bring a new equilibrium between consumers, governments, and businesses—and more-savvy citizens will get better at hiding things they do not want others to see.

However predicting how it will all shake out is just fantasy.

Governments trying to protect themselves and their cultures might split the global internet into divided mess of networks.

The situation will worsen as the Internet of Things arises and people’s homes, workplaces, and the objects around them will ‘tattle’ on them.

The incentives for businesses to monetize people’s data and governments to monitor behavior will become extremely potent.

On the other hand citizens and consumers will have more control thanks to new tools that give them the power to negotiate with corporations and work around governments. Individuals will be able to choose to share personal information in a tiered approach that offers varied levels of protection and access by others.

The constellation of economic and security complexities will get bigger and harder to manage, belittling micro religions and what it means to be ‘educated’ will be replaced by other capacities.

People will get used to this, adjust their norms, and accept more sharing and collection of data as a part of life—especially Millennials and the young people who follow them some will complain but most will not object or muster the energy to push back against this new reality in their lives.

Society’s definitions of ‘privacy’ and ‘freedom’ will have changed so much by 2025 that today’s meanings will no longer apply.

We will certainly leave nothing behind that survives long in the digital age other than a future of “unevenly distributed” one with more social fissures might arise, presenting hurdles to people who do not have the resources to afford the gadgetry or the skills and tech-literacy to navigate the more complicated environment of 2025 never mind 2065.

Over 50% of today’s Fortune 500 companies will have disappeared.

The terms of citizenship and social life will rapidly change.

70% of today’s occupations will likewise be replaced by automation, with most coming back in different forms in different industries, with over 50% structured as freelance projects rather than full-time jobs.

50% of traditional colleges will have collapsed, and India will have overtaken China as the most populous country in the world.

Advocacy groups, service providers, large e-commerce companies, Google/Amazon/Facebook/Twitter, secret services, security officers in companies and consultancies, and individual Internet users… will  also be very much involved with ongoing tension between these groups,

We’ll play games to solve problems.

There will be an extensive rise of anti-capitalism.

The Future will be an eerie spot.

Predicting the Future is much like predicting the weather, the farther we move into the future, the less accurate our predictions become. So why do we make them?

So we don’t wake up one morning and get a shock.

Feel free to giving serious consideration to each of them and deriving your own conclusions for good or bad.

Constantly Connected Impacts Our Lives. After humans , the Smartphone

12 Thursday Mar 2015

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Right, this is the last post on the subject of what is shaping our technology driven Society.

We are living in a world that relies on data communications.

It is hard to think of any tool, any instrument, any object in history with which so many developed so close a relationship so quickly as we have with our phones.

The Mobil Phone/Cell phone/I phone what ever you wish to call it has evolved into the Smart Phone. > voice and text services, cameras, alarm clock, and radio, access to the internet> all of which will be on your wrist shortly > Apple Smart Watch.

1 in 4 people check it every 30 minutes, 1 in 5 every 10 minutes.

There are almost as many mobile subscriptions (6.8 billion) as there are people in the world (7.1 billion)

I start this post by saying there is no argument when it comes to positive benefits to Society, that the mobile phone has contributed more to the individual than the Internet or Big Data has done to date.

On the other hand I believe it has also contributed to : The mess we have on our hands, to spreading the inequalities of the world, to fueling terrorist Organisations, to spreading non-thrusts, to making today, now it’s tomorrow, and to leading us to expect more from Technology and Less from Each Other.   

The Mobil Phone has become an indispensable feature of technology that is rapidly changing the face of communication not only in the most remote areas of the world but also the family structures of the world.

Returning to an Individual and an overall view:

Mobile phones are helping under served populations access the critical skills and empowering information they need to make informed decisions for themselves and their families, and move toward economic self-sufficiency.

They have done more than all the Aid given to Africa and beyond. In fact they are being used to facilitate and promote economic development and growth.

They reduce search costs and increase information availability, which makes markets function more efficiently.

In terms of the diffusion of ideas and knowledge, mobile phones make available information about market prices and employment.

The people who are growing your food, making your clothes, and assembling your electronic devices are often poor, low-wage workers around the world who don’t have Internet access. The way we are able to connect with them is through mobile,” it provides workers with a voice — individually and collectively — by having an anonymous tool to provide feedback.

But we’re also learning that organizations — large, for-profit corporations and small, nonprofit social enterprises alike — are using mobile technology to operate better and smarter. Organizations are using mobile phones to gather real-time data that help them make informed business decisions and that yield social impacts.

But what effect are they having on Society as a whole.

Smart phones have brought a whole new meaning to the term multitasking.

Smart phones are changing the way that people interact with each other, allowing the users to be in a conversation without showing their personal expressions. As a result, we are beginning to lose the face-to-face contact that was such an important part of our lives in the past. The need to belong.

They provide farmers with information on market prices and weather reports, and they link micro and small entrepreneurs to markets and potential buyers. And, they provide mothers with important information to keep themselves and their children healthy.

Just look at

Taro Works, a mobile enabled tool with a cloud-based back-end. In non-tech lingo, this means field-based workers can gather and submit data through a mobile phone, providing real-time intelligence to their home offices. One organization using Taro Works is Honey Care Africa, a social enterprise that promotes sustainable beekeeping and economic development by providing micro finance, training, and other services to bee farmers.

Vision Spring is another social enterprise that uses Taro Works for better business and social impact. Vision Spring fights poverty by selling affordable eyeglasses to the poor, enabling them to work and learn. Why reading glasses? Studies of the economic impact of reading glasses in India showed a 35% increase in individual productivity and 20 percent increase in individual monthly income.

We knew there is great potential for mobile phones. But how to approach the issue of development using mobile technologies, remains contentious. In conjunction with Big Data, the Internet, their impact on economic development and growth are numerous.

There is no doubting their ability of time-saving capabilities/conveyance or getting assistance in an emergency. Therefore, smart phone is an important device which people cannot leave home without it.  A social necessity that we teens and adults, cannot be without, an addiction.

It would make uninteresting reading to list all the possibility of Mobil usages.

There are a few to high light how they are changing our world and could be used to change it further.

Before the appearance of the smart phone; it was impossible to shop online during lunch time without a PC or laptop. However, with the support of smart phones, shopping online in these days is as easy as making a phone call.

Services to transfer money can also help counter human trafficking, crime.

Services/Apps have changed the way healthcare is delivered globally, with the potential to provide individuals with an unprecedented amount of access to health resources.

Mobile phones eliminates the need for clients to spend time traveling to the physical banks, enabling greater access to capital, which facilitates investment and productivity.

Services to conduct Surveys, to Petition government. To impose Western ideals and culture upon other nations, resulting in a “practical elitism, but smart phones also emit radiation which some believe may be harmful to human health.

The growth of the cell phone industry itself, adding more jobs and creating more demand for products and services is another way in which mobile phones have contributed to economic growth.

Recent studies show that radiation from mobile phones are interfering with navigation system of bees and causing them to lose their way back to their hive.  As a result of this their colonies are collapsing.

Cell phones have led to social evils such as ‘sexting’, harassment and bullying of teens, in addition to creating less unity with families and friends.

Social interaction does not lead to greater concern for others, and in fact may have the opposite effect of reducing concern for others, leading to decreased pro social behavior. Eroding people’s ability to write sentences that communicate real meaning and inhibit the art of dialogue resulting in a negative impact on people’s interpersonal skills. The next generation (or so) is not going to ever be able to connect with another person, confront someone, or talk to someone face to face.

Trans formative tool for Science, Research, Surveys.

And how much about our lives and work and relationships is left to be completely transformed as a result? is anyone’s guess.

Conclusion: 

For me all three ( Internet, Big Data, Smart Phones) are all connected to each other.

You will see from previous posts that I advocate that the power of Mobil phones as a lobbing force is untapped.  It could be used to force the United nations to pass a people’s resolution to place a 0.05% aid commission on all electronic trading on the world stock exchanges. ( See previous posts.)

We hear more and more communication, but less and less to communicate.

Half human, half machine almost god, this new link in the evolution will continue its exploration beyond the enclosure of time and space. Fortunately there are, not that our smartphones are intelligent.

R. Laing  already wrote in 1967: “The machines have become more and more able to communicate with each other as humans.

If we want a world that is more equal, access to information should be universal – it should not be limited to the privileged groups in a society, but available to all of us including the impoverished.

So what will be their future applications.  Feel free to add to my list.

Brain training.

iPod Finger, Smart Phone Finger, insurance will become big business.

Increase literacy.

 

Suddenly my smartphone vibrates mystique.

“The digital revolution is over, the digital won!  Because the more you consume, the more it abounds. The more stores, the more it circulates. The more you distribute, the more it flows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cell phones can also be used to deliver important information about health and to

 

 

 

Where has the Present gone?

06 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by in Technology

≈ Comments Off on Where has the Present gone?

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We are the first humans to live in the future.

In my last post ” You are not a Gadget. Yet ” I attempted to outline how society is being reinvented by the internet, our connected devices – the internet of things.

You might not agree that they are having an effect. If not, you need to wake up.

As in all moments of major technological change, people, companies, and institutions feel the depth of the change, but they are often overwhelmed by it, out of sheer ignorance of its effects.

The Internet, as all technologies, does not produce effects by itself it is the storage of Data that will shape the future. 

Big Data is used almost anywhere these days; A vast subject- from news articles to professional magazines, from tweets to YouTube videos and blog discussions, impacting across virtually all academic disciplines.

Every minute of your existence is being stored and this vast storage is the most relevant subject of our times. DATA NOW STREAM from our daily life:

Today, machines seem to get better every day at digesting vast gulps of information from phones and credit cards and televisions and computers; from the infrastructure of cities; from sensor-equipped buildings, trains, buses, planes, bridges, and factories, you name it —

And they remain as emotionally inert as ever.       But for how long.

It is estimated that if all the data used in the world today were written to CD-ROMs and the CD-ROMs piled up in a single stack, the stack would stretch all the way from the Earth to the Moon and a quarter of the way back again.

The data flow so fast that the total accumulation of the past two years—a zettabyte—dwarfs the prior record of human civilization.

A report by the International Data Corporation in 2010 estimated that by the year 2020 there will be 35 Zettabytes (ZB) of digital data created per year.

All of what we do today leaves a digital trail:

Every bit of that information is being stored—but by whom? for what?

The US alone is home to 898 exabytes (1 EB = 1 billion gigabytes)—nearly a third of the global total.

Kilobyte     1,000 bytes

Megabyte  1,000,000 bytes

Gigabyte  1,000,000,000 bytes

Terabyte  1,000,000,000,000 bytes

Petabyte   1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes

Exabyte    1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes

Zettabyte   1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes

Yottabyte    1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes

Just in case you have no concept of a byte.  A byte is a sequence of 8 bits (enough to represent one alphanumeric character) processed as a single unit of information. A single letter or character would use one byte of memory (8 bits), two characters would use two bytes (16 bits).

So you would want to be certified to think that Society as we know it is not a changing. 

The question is:  What is all of this information going to produce.

There is already an algorithm to detect when women were pregnant by tracking purchases of items such as unscented lotions—and offered special discounts and coupons to those valuable patrons. To plunder the Stock Exchange/Foreign Exchange. (See previous Posts)

Credit-card companies have found unusual associations in the course of mining data to evaluate the risk of default: people who buy anti-scuff pads for their furniture, for example, are highly likely to make their payments.

They are trained computers to identify deep patterns in vocal pitch, rhythm, and intensity; their software can scan a conversation between a woman and a child and determine if the woman is a mother, whether she is looking the child in the eye, whether she is angry or frustrated or joyful.

Other machines can measure sentiment by assessing the arrangement of our words, or by reading our gestures. Still others can do so from facial expressions.

Before you think about anything it has already being done. Good bye to the Present.

Big data is not just about helping an organization be more successful – to market more effectively or improve business operations. It reaches to far more socially significant issues as well. It is transforming science, engineering, medicine, healthcare, finance, business, and ultimately society itself.

The first full human genome sequence took five to 15 years to complete, and cost $1 billion to $3 billion. Now a genome sequence takes a little more than 24 hours and costs about $1,000.

NASA receives over 4 TB of new Earth Science data each day.

It Uses THE SHADOW Internet THAT’S 100 TIMES FASTER THAN GOOGLE FIBER.

Like me you problem never hear of it and will never get to use it.

Google's data centre in Douglas Country, Georgia: The amount of data held by the internet giant means there may soon need to be a new number created to measure the quantity

So what am I exactly trying to say here.

I suppose the best starting point is the Human Brain.

Your brain is home to around 100 billion neurons, all of which are perpetually establishing and breaking connections, known as synapses, with other neurons.

There are trillions of these connections throughout your brain helping orchestrate everything from movement, to learning, to establishing and recalling memories. Just to give you some perspective on the storage capacity of your brain: It has a storage capacity of some estimates come in as low as 1 terabyte, or approximately 1,000 gigabytes.

You can easily buy a 1 gigabyte USB drive for under £15. A gigabyte is 1000 megabytes, so that means you’ve got three brains right there.

For comparison, if your brain worked like a digital video recorder in a television, 2.5 petabytes would be enough to hold three million hours of TV shows. You would have to leave the TV running continuously for more than 300 years to use up all that storage.

Now consider this:

A sweet little external hard drive can give you an entire terabyte of memory for about £70. That’s 1000 gigabytes, and roughly 3333 human brains. So for £70 bucks, you could store 3333 people’s brains in your backpack.  Nice!

If you want to back up your brain and upload it to a cylon body, IBM’s “neurosynaptic” chips are the closest thing to a synthetic brain yet.

Also, consider this:

A typical 3-minute song takes up about 5 megabytes of space. So that means your brain, can hold about 60 songs.

A computer chip that emulates the human brain - and might one day replace it

Now don’t get me wrong I acknowledge that every major scientific revolution has been driven by one thing, and that is data.

Data is pouring in from every conceivable direction: from operational and transactional systems, from scanning and facilities management systems, from inbound and outbound customer contact points, from mobile media and the Web.

Organizations are inundated with data – terabytes and petabytes of it. According to IDC, “In 2011, the amount of information created and replicated will surpass 1.8 zettabytes (1.8 trillion gigabytes), growing by a factor of nine in just five years.

That’s nearly as many bits of information in the digital universe as stars in the physical universe.

I have nothing against the collection of Data nor with sharing the data, which ultimately could improve the lives of the millions of people who are generating it—and the societies in which they are living – to provide a beneficial impact on society as a whole.

The potential for doing good is perhaps nowhere greater than in public health and medicine, fields in which, “People are literally dying every day” simply because data are not being shared.

There are over 200 satellites in orbit continuously collecting data about the atmosphere and the land, ocean and ice surfaces of planet Earth which might save us from Climate Change.

Some of this data is held in transactional data stores – the byproduct of fast-growing online activity. Machine-to-machine interactions, such as metering, call detail records, environmental sensing and RFID systems, generate their own tidal waves of data.  All these forms of data are expanding, and that is coupled with fast-growing streams of unstructured and semi structured data from social media.“

The challenges facing big data today and going forward including, but not limited to: data capture and storage; search, sharing, and analytics; big data technologies; data visualization; architectures for massively parallel processing; data mining tools and techniques; machine learning algorithms for big data; cloud computing platforms; distributed file systems and databases; and scalable storage systems.

In bio medicine the Human Genome Project is determining the sequences of the three billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA.

Big Data is further expected to add more than €250 billion a year to the European public sector administration. Thus, the whole European Union could benefit from the cumulative financial and social impact of Big Data.

One clear example of Big Data is the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) (www.skatelescope.org) planned to be constructed in South Africa and Australia. When the SKA is completed in 2024 it will produce in excess of one exabyte of raw data per day (1 exabyte = 1018 bytes), which is more than the entire daily internet traffic at present.

Another example of Big Data is the Large Hadron Collider, at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), which has 150 million sensors and is creating 22 petabytes of data in 2012 (1 Petabyte = 1015 bytes).

Smart cities, data gathered by sensors integrated with transport data, financial transactions, location of users, social network interaction will provide an entirely new dimension to thinking about how cities function.

These three examples are only scratching the surface.

Google almost certainly has more data storage capacity than any other organization on Earth. Their biggest data centers cost half a billion to a billion dollars, so they can’t have more than 20 or so of those. These are the storage centers we know about.

  1. Berkeley County, South Carolina
  2. Council Bluffs, Iowa
  3. Atlanta, Georgia
  4. Mayes County, Oklahoma
  5. Lenoir, North Carolina
  6. The Dalles, Oregon
  7. Hong Kong
  8. Singapore
  9. Taiwan
  10. Hamina, Finland
  11. St Ghislain, Belgium
  12. Dublin, Ireland
  13. Quilicura, Chilie
  14. Eemshaven, Netherlands
  15. Groningen, Netherlands
  16. Budapest, Hungary
  17. Wrocław, Poland
  18. Reston, Virginia
  19. Additional sites near Atlanta, Georgia

In 2010, they were operating around a million servers, with close to 10 exabytes of active storage attached to running clusters. Google has a hard drive die every few minutes.

Let’s assume Google has a storage capacity of 15 exabytes, or 15,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes.

  • Amazon (They’re huge, but probably not as big as Google.)
  • Facebook (They’re on the right scale and growing fast, but still playing catch-up.)
  • Microsoft (They have a million servers, although no one seems sure why.)

However, it’s nothing compared to the ridiculous claims by some news reports about the NSA datacenter in Utah. This facility could hold “between an exabyte and a yottabyte” of data.Microsoft data center

Apple tends to make between three and five times as much revenue as Google does. Whether it is Apple or Google at the top of the heap, you cannot deny that they are both building platforms and business models that will shape the next decade in the tech industry.

Computing is definitely moving to the cloud, and Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are all in it to win it by manipulate us all.

Because the shifts in both the amount and potential of today’s data are so epic, businesses require more than simple, incremental advances in the way they manage information.

Public Sector Information (PSI) is the single largest source of information in Europe. Its estimated market value is €32 billion.

The value of Big Data to the UK economy alone, being £216 billion and 58,000
jobs in the next 5 years.

Data traffic is expected to grow to 10.8 Exabyte per month by 2016.

Could we have foreseen the mortgage meltdown, the financial institution crisis and the recession, if only we had gotten our arms around more data and done more to correlate it?

Could we trim millions of dollars in fraud from government programs and financial markets?

But big data wants more.

Not satisfied with seeing everything about everybody it wants to store your spoken words which for thousands and thousands of year were private and should remain private.

For us to allow or turn a blind eye to this kind of monitoring and storage would be the first steps to towards slavery.  

Such a move by Governments under the cloud of spotting terrorists plots is a form of terrorism on free speech.  All Smart Phone should be be encrypt to ensure the freedom of mankind.

So I will leave you with this.

Modern science demands the use and understanding of numerical methods.

Data is like an object approaching a fixed point. It is travelling at a constant speed, such that, after one second, the distance is halved: after 1.5 seconds, the distance is halved again; after 1.75 seconds, it is halved again and so on. So data will never actually reach the fixed point, because with each fraction of a second it only halves the distance remaining.  Both the Data and the distance can theoretically be split infinitely.

Big Data technologies to analyse and properly compare disperse and huge data sets would provide huge benefits in terms of discoveries in experimental sciences.

And you think you live in the Present- think again.

Exabytes, zettabytes and yottabytes definitely are on the horizon.

But tell me where is hindsight located? Only then we will be able to cut through the myths surrounding the key technology of our time.

No single person can make sense of what a billion other people are saying. The best way to Safeguard personal data is not to give it in the first place.