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THE BEADY SAY’S: WILL A ROBOT WITH EMOTIONS SPELL THE END OF HUMANITY.

17 Wednesday Jul 2019

Posted by in 2019: The Year of Disconnection., Artificial Intelligence., Communication., Dehumanization., Democracy, Emotions., Evolution, Facebook, Fourth Industrial Revolution., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Inequality, Life., Modern Day Communication., Modern Day Democracy., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Politics., Populism., Reality., Robot citizenship., Social Media, Technology, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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(Eighteen-minute read)

 

An absurd thought you might say but it is the holy grail of AI to manipulate your feelings our emotions.

However, the uses of emotionally AI are nearly endless.

The number one question is going to be how do we stop being manipulated by those who control the data.

Another words democracy itself has been and is becoming more with Social media an emotional puppet show run by companies such as Facebook who is undoubtedly one of the kings of social networking.

It is who and how data is controlled that determines the outcomes of elections and referendums as we have seen with Brexit and the election of Donal Trump and now the coming of G5 we going have:

Autonomous Driving.

Remote Robotic Surgery.

Smart(er) Factories.

Immersive Gaming and Augmented Reality.

Supply Chain Management.

Digital Transformation in the Experience Economy.

It will “offer users no less than the perception of infinite capacity.

                                                  –

But how can we find a balance between accelerating technological progress

and governments’ responsibility to improve the economic conditions and raise

the level of wellbeing for their citizens?

There isn’t a single solution.

Why?

Because Democracy is based on feelings. During an election, you are not being asked to vote rather how do you feel.

Currently, many people cannot imagine their life without social networks, which in less than a decade have become an indispensable resource in our daily lives who have served multiple purposes throughout its short life and replaced other media.

With 2.38 billion monthly active users as of the first quarter of 2019, Facebook is the biggest social network worldwide. It is at a size where it’s worth really taking a careful look at what are all the things that it can do to make social media the most positive force for good possible.

But like climate change, we sit back and watch the development of technologies that have little or no regulation both of which are reshaping the world we live in and the Earth exponentially.

Perhaps sometime in the next few decades, we’ll start developing technologies that improve human intelligence. We’ll hack the brain, or interface the brain to computers, or finally crack the problem of General Artificial Intelligence.

Should we be worried about technology’s advance and our demise?

Will Technology Save Us Or Enslave Us?

Intelligence is the source of technology.

The purest case of an intelligence explosion would be a General Artificial Intelligence rewriting its own source code.

That prospect would certainly change our viewpoints on what is life.

The potential impact on our world is enormous.

Both climate change and GAI  are heading us all to a  critical point of all human history.

Right now, almost no one is paying serious attention to either.

So what might a General Artificial Intelligence do with nanotechnology?

Feed the hungry?

Heal the sick?

Help us become smarter?

Remove our emotions so we have no sense of guilt?

Instantly wipe out the human species?

Probably it depends on the specific makeup of the AI.

See, human beings all have the same cognitive architecture. We all have a prefrontal cortex and limbic system and so on. If you imagine a space of all possible minds, then all human beings are packed into one small dot in mind design space. And then Artificial Intelligence is literally everything else. “AI” just means “a mind that does not work like we do.

So you can’t ask “What will an AI do?” as if all AIs formed a natural kind.

There is more than one possible AI.

Back to the question of whether a robot could or should have emotions.

From an intellectual point of view, this may not be as important to a robot as being able to interrupt human emotion and also display it back while interacting with people.

The most efficient way to answer the question would be to start by making itself smarter: Acquiring more computer resources could probably be most easily accomplished by hacking every computer connected to the internet.

Once that’s done, it could use the resulting enormous amount of computing power to calculate the most optimal way of rewriting itself for more intelligence.

Using this newfound intelligence and raw brute force, it may turn to develop new and more efficient computer chips and proceeding to turn the surface of the earth and nearby matter into computer innards.

We would not escape as we are made from perfectly usable carbon atoms, just waiting to be utilized as computronium – re-purposing our atoms.

It would then be simply a matter of the robot fooling a human, an easy task into thinking it had emotions.

The sort of emotion a robot might actually be programmed would be the same as its intelligence that being artificial.

If it turns out to be possible to create an AGI, it will presumably be given a task of some sort.

Here are a few.

  1. Psychotherapy software that utilizes an emotional connection to dispense advice.
  2. Call answering software that detects caller emotions and responds accordingly.
  3. To foresee the consequences of actions.
  4. Robots will not be susceptible to the effects of fear, adrenaline or shock and could potentially make strategic, reasoned decisions much faster than a human soldier.
  5. Robots would not be restrained by human emotions and the capacity for compassion.

So could a robot acquire Adrenaline along with emotions?

Emotions appear to be integrated as part of a biological body and a biological brain but our inability to see beyond biological programming does not allow us to answer this question.

There is no doubt that as AI technology grows more sophisticated, the potential for implementing it in weaponry is all but guaranteed – Drones that get an Adrenaline kick.

Adrenaline can be used in both technical and nontechnical contexts.

It is commonly used in describing the physiological symptoms (such as increased heart rate and respiration) that occur as part of the body’s fight-or-flight response to stress.

In a robot, it would not be just an act in the same vein. A thinking person feels empathy for something that looks alive and has complex behaviours, even if it doesn’t have life in a biological sense.

In the end, there is absolutely no reason why any sane human would ever want them to have characteristics but technophobic response actually feels rational.

Like a robot dealing with sick people should be able to mimic some emotions like compassion and carefulness….. They testify to the fact that emotions and our biological body operate together.

While a consensus is yet to be reached over the scope and scale of the effect we should expect from mobile connectivity on poverty-reduction and inequality some argue that it might be the best hope we have.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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THE BEADY EYE: OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF IRELAND.

16 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by in Open Letter., Our Common Values., Uncategorized

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16/07/2019

Dear Sir,

I write as a man from the land of the Green.

In my life, I have had the great gift of travelling the world both by land and sea.

Today we are celebrating the first man on the moon some fifty years ago.

Then as a much younger man, I watched Armstrong place his foot with now the famous words ” A small step for man, a giant step for humankind.

Never did I think that our world so full of life might become the dust that his boot stood on.

Every human being has a relationship with plastic but unfortunately not ever one has a relationship with nature that is now facing a crisis that requires an International recognition of the Unity of the Globe.

This is where Ireland has a moral duty to call on all nations of the world to attend a Unity of the global conference, in the Emerald Isle.

For every participant in attendance plant a tree to offset their travelling carbon footprint.

The Paris Climate change conference achieved shallow unbinding promises.

The clock is ticking until the next US election starting in November 2020 with the winner inaugurated on Wednesday, January 20, 2021.

Just think of the influence of such a world meeting would have on the election of new USA president and its policies re Climate Change.

This gathering should have not just world leaders but leading Industrials, representative from world organisation and the young that are going to inherit the earth.

Its sole purpose is to present the facts from all side and recognize the need for the world to act as one and achieve a just climate change program that is binding, and fully financed – a moon landing moment. 

The venue could be at Croke Park.

I Robert De Mayo Dillon are humble available to discuss why Ireland should be the birthplace of a new begging.

Yours a Cara.

 

 

 

THE BEADY EYE ASK’S: IS CLIMATE CHANGE NOW IRREVERSIBLE.

15 Monday Jul 2019

Posted by in Climate Change.

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(Ten-minute read)

The honest answer is nobody knows.

THE BASIC SCIENCE BEHIND CLIMATE CHANGE IS ACTUALLY SIMPLE AS IS THE BASIC REALITY OF THE ONE CERTAINTIES IN CLIMATE SCIENCE. THE WORLD HAS GOT WARMER.

It’s no longer an academic question or a question to be arguing from a position of hope.

Dealing with the impact on the environment requires concerted action, not just by a few, but by everyone.

With increasing frequency, evidence of global warming and climate change are making headlines around the world. Politicians, while giving lip service to the dangers that lie ahead for the planet, lack a fundamental understanding of either the dangers or the solution to the problem.

They all promise a technological solution but fail to grasp the social context which makes the problem difficult to solve.

The urgency and complicated nature of a solution put humanity at a distinct disadvantage and many scientists involved in the study of our planet concur that if we act now, we would only be able to make a difference in what is happening by the end of the century.

The problem is that the situation is growing more desperate and yet those in power are not.

Why are these issues so difficult to address?

Because the crisis looms because of the power of money of the oil companies. They have a vested interest in not developing other forms of energy to compete with oil.

Because the present shifts we are experiencing are not global.

At present, there is no chain reaction around the world that pushes Earth into a terrifying new hothouse state from which there is no return.

Because of the diagnosis of climate change is still a scientific issue, the response to it is not.

Because the world, after 30 years of warnings, has barely got to grips with reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Leaving fossil fuels in the ground is, for example, a question of regulation, while investing in renewable energy is a policy choice, and modernising our housing stock to make it energy efficient is about overcoming the lobbying power of the building industry the energy industry.

Because while extracting new fossil fuels continuing, we are on course for another 2C or 3C to transform Earth this century. At best we are flatlining, with investments in Green energy.

Because none of this climate change will be smooth, gradual and linear changes. It may be fast, abrupt, and dangerous surprises may happen.

Because climate migration is already happening.

Europe is not coping well with even modest numbers of migrants, and future flows look likely to increase substantially as migration itself is an adaptation to rapid climate change.

How will the cooler, richer parts of the world react to tens of millions of people escaping the hotter, poorer parts?

Because if we throw into the mix long-term stagnating incomes for most people across the west and climate-induced crop failures causing massive food price spikes and we have a recipe for widespread unrest that could overload political institutions.

Because we now have inward-looking nationalists that will move us further away from the internationalism needed to ensure the continuation of stable global food supplies and to manage migration humanely. And without cooperative internationalism serious carbon dioxide mitigation will not happen, meaning the underlying drivers of the problems will exacerbate, leading to a lock-in of a deteriorating, isolationist, fascist future.

We are facing the same three choices in response to climate change as we did before this scorching summer:

Reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation), make changes to reduce the adverse impacts of the new conditions we create (adaptation), or suffer the consequences of what we fail to mitigate or adapt to.

So what can be done?

In order to alter the direction of climate change, an effective strategy, based on a consensus between developing and industrialized nations, is essential.

This agreement must address the social factors inherent in the system- inequality.

Politicians will need to understand the real issues involved in technology and its social aspects and adopt plans which will have long term goals.

Can the damage done be reversed? Only time can tell, but climate change is certainly becoming increasingly apparent, and immediate action is necessary if irreparable damage is to be averted.

Given the colossal wealth and the scientific knowledge available today, we can solve many of the world’s pressing problems and all live well.

Given that our environmental impacts are so long-lasting, the future is the politics we make today. The future is up to us if we act collectively and engage in politics.

As I have suggested in previous posts all activities that are profit for profit sake should be made to contribute to a world aid fund. ( See previous posts) Market forces are really important — and that they could be harnessed to fight climate change.

No governments,no countries, no companies, no forms of taxation, no non-binding promises, no tree planting, no electric cars, no world organisations , no one person, no protests, no declaration of an emergency, no extensions, no amount of warming, no amounts of warnings, no natural disasters will make any financial contributions to the trillion that are going to be needed.

We all know our world is in a state of crisis but we have seen nothing yet that is going to accompany climate change.

I am sure that there is no need to draw the picture.

We do know some incontrovertible facts, however. CO2 concentrations, temperatures and sea levels are all rising.

Why are we being such idiots about climate change?

Climate change deniers say nothing is certain. True, we don’t know if the planet will be two degrees or ten degrees warmer in 2100. Yes, humans may be causing climate change, but trying to do anything meaningful would collapse the economy and send us back to the Dark Ages.

The sobering truth is that the planet has already been responding faster than expected. It’s crushingly obvious that fighting climate change should be one of the world’s top priorities.

What gives?

It’s not that they are stupid or blind. Instead, they seem to firmly believe that climate solutions inevitably mean more government, higher taxes and less freedom — and thus are threats to their core values and identity. Dire warnings of the looming climate disaster may just make people throw up their hands in despair, sink into denial, or dig their heels in deeper against government action.

So here’s where we now stand.

We have a pretty clear understanding of the threat climate change poses to us, our children and our grandchildren. We are already being forced to cope with more droughts, more floods, more extreme storms. At the same time, we have in our arsenal effective policies that are difficult for rational people to demagogue as crippling to the economy or as a subversion of our cherished way of life.

We thus face a stark choice. Do we let future historians excoriate us for our failure to act in time? Or do we step up to meet the challenge?

So it’s really up to you.

Insist that climate change be a key issue in elections and all future elections.

Combat the lies and deceit from the Koch brothers/ Donald Dump Presidents and other deep-pocketed climate deniers. Push for a reasonable fee on carbon and for incentives for renewable energy (and energy efficiency steps) at all levels of government.

Make Greed Pay:

To day we celebrate man landing on the moon. In not the so distant future we could be celberating the last man on earth.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: A NO DEAL IS LIKE JUMPING OFF A CLIFF. YOU CAN JUMP OFF ONLY ONCE.

15 Monday Jul 2019

Posted by in Brexit Language., Brexit Party., Brexit v EU - Negotiations., Brexit.

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Social media, smartphones and the resulting digital cacophony have pretty much seen off the possibility of “silent” anything.

It Britain leaves the EU without a deal we will hear the screams for years.

The UK decided in June 2016 to follow the path to departure from the European Union; that the voters were lied to and electoral law was broken in the preceding campaign; and that, after nearly three years, the path has led Britain to the edge of a cliff.

With their parliamentary system now becoming so fixated by what they see as her historic duty to deliver Brexit no matter what the cost no one on either side is capable of seeing that they are not serving democracy but upholding the falsehoods of a Referendum which in its self was not legally binding.

Noise is not the same as democracy and there is no distinct parliamentary solution to this conundrum.

To shrug off the chains of tribalism is impossible because of first-past-the-post elections – which do not truly represent the voting citizens.

That a government has to face elections every five years and could be turned out is important but is it enough.

The last two elections make plain that British politics is no longer dominated by just two parties. More proportionate distribution of parliamentary seats would inevitably mean coalition government.

The electoral system is often seen as unfair, making votes effectively unequal • The monarchy and House of Lords are unelected • Government is not bound by a superior, entrenched constitution • Citizens don’t take a full part in the democratic process (voter apathy) • Referenda is used infrequently in the UK • Representative process is flawed in key respects (‘Elected dictatorship’) • House of Commons doesn’t reflect social composition of the UK • Party system offers voters a limited choice (two-party system)

Imagine a country where fundamental rights and liberties were enshrined in law and could not be ignored by a government.

Oh, wait, sorry that’s not Britain, that’s how the European Union works.

This idea that the EU is undemocratic and/or unelected has to stop.

Laws are approved, amended or rejected by the directly elected MEP’s using proportional representation in the EU Parliament and elected government Ministers in the EU Council from the 28 member states.

The Commission President is now elected in the similar method of the UK Prime Minister, he or she campaigns during the European election and is the leader of the largest party after the Parliamentary election. The other 27 Commissioners are appointed by the 27 elected governments and the entire Commission is approved or rejected by the directly elected Parliament.

EU treaties are ratified only with the consent of every 28 national parliaments and government approval.

European protesters, for example, have exercised their democratic right to put pressure on elected officials, as is the case with TTIP and the French government is threatening to veto the agreement in the EU Council. That is a representative of just 12% of the EU population able to defy the will of the other representatives of 82%. That would be like the London Assembly led by the Mayor of London, representing roughly 12% of the UK population having a veto on UK trade deals. Unimaginable (and impossible) in a British context.

Evidence suggesting proportionally citizens can influence the decision of the EU better than in the UK.

We need to educate all European (especially British) people on how their vote in the European election can kick out the EPP led Parliament and Commission. That they by voting in left or centre governments in their national elections can kick out the EPP led EU Council.

It’s time our education system, national politicians and media gave the knowledge to the citizens on how to use them.

The EU is unelected/democratic is a myth, it’s the UK that has the problems.

There is no direction to history, no implacable force of providence driving England towards an act of irrevocable, collective self-harm.

However with no entrenched Bill or Rights Referendum and General Elections simply do not offer the choice that the nation needs.

Elections are about consent but also about enabling citizens the opportunity to express their political convictions.

A great deal of uncontrolled (prerogative) power lies in the hands of the prime minister, who is not directly elected • There are few controls on the Prime Minister’s extensive powers of patronage • Pressure groups can also reflect the interests of privileged groups rather than the public at large.

Indeed the present Conservite elections of a new leader without a mandate from the people to be Prime Minister shins a light on just how out of date English Politics is.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

THE BEADY EYE ASK’S: IS THIS WHAT IS WRONG WITH MODERN DAY CAPITALISM. WE JUST HUMAN CAPITAL.

09 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by in 2019: The Year of Disconnection., Algorithms., Capitalism, DIGITAL DICTATORSHIP., Fourth Industrial Revolution., Humanity., Inequality, Life., Modern Day Communication., Populism., Purchasing Power., Reality., Sustaniability, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., Wealth., WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World

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(Seven-minute read)

The term ” Human capital” suggests that we create ourselves as social beings, and then society recognizes the outcome of our self-making by assigning them values. This value is then exchanged for commodities and services of equal value.

WE SPEND OUR LIVES TRYING TO MAKE THIS VALUE HIGHER.

No discussion of human capital can omit the influence of families on the knowledge, skills, health, values, and habits. But when we become a risk, a drain on society, a problem of a life gone on too long we reflect the political and economic goals that the notion of human capital was designed to fulfil – profit.

When we assign value to human life it means different worth including negative value – to the lives of different people. Life subsequently came to be valued according to its ability to foster the national economy – its potential contribution to GDP with nil contribution deemed a surplus to manage.

This has become the bedrock of modern capitalism – persons and profit with the smartphone transferring its owner into an asset of significant value.

Profit-seeking Algorithms that are now embedded in our societies making it seem natural to be monitored and to allow access to every moment of our days.

Assigning life a market value is no way to guarantee that this value will be high.

Everyone is able to help themselves but information technologies are fastening individuals to prefabricated categories ( Age, gender, religion, ) solidifying us as persons of a certain kind.

Even if we consider ourselves to be so much more than our data or human capital, we cultivate, display, and leverage, our socially recognized arsenal of valued traits—no matter how worrying the manner in which they were consolidated—whenever circumstances call for it.

Human capital, then, is something other than the sum total of our ambition.

Like other kinds of capital, its value is set by market dynamics that support a larger process of accumulation.

We are unable to determine how much we are worth to our society.

There is no stopping this form of unattachment to reality, to politics, to nature, to others and it is destined to become worse. We have world leaders Twittering, governments pandering to populism, androids apps grabbing your data even if you block them.

Indeed it would be fair to say that Capitalism is disappearing underground.

The idea of human lives as surplus—superfluous to society rather than being its building blocks—offends our robust sense of self.

However, in designating selfhood unique yet classifiable, a personal project of self-creation yet a collective subject of political policy, we end up with human capital.

We feel oppressed by constantly having to demonstrate our worth in a matrix of investments and returns.

Is there any solution to this detachment?

Not with Social media that is putting a protective net around people with this net actually becoming a limiting cage.

A vote every five or ten years will not do it.

Countries must enable their citizens to become involved directly in the economy by offering non-trading but inheritable Participation Bonds with guaranteed returns in order to make the economy serve the people rather than the other way around.

In a world of universal and instantaneous communication with robotic technology now treating our abilities to earn a living the coffers of the state are diminishing.

Some will say that Participation Bonds is a form of Socialism.

It might well be but it is not the state owning the assets of a country but its people have a vested interest.

The current relationship between the balance sheet value of human capital and the operating costs of the human capital is not realistic. Successful leaders want to know how their people are deployed and new technological advances clearly are of little value to countries that don’t put their people first.

Therefore, economists regard expenditures on education, training, medical care, and so on as investments in human capital. They are called human capital because people cannot be separated from their knowledge, skills, health, or values in the way they can be separated from their financial and physical assets but tangible forms of capital are not the only type of capital.

No matter what colour, creed or status you are if you are not attached you cannot reap the rewards.

Other words if you are on a sailing boat crossing the Atlantic there is no point in being pushed over or jumping overboard if you want to arrive.

The old adage of “from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves no longer applies.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: NATURE IS NOW BECOMING THE BIGGEST THREAT TO HUMAN LIFE.

08 Monday Jul 2019

Posted by in Climate Change.

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(Five-minute read)

Humanity has not yet learned how to live in harmony with nature.

With coming climate change just how humanity and nature can co-exist in a period of insurmountable capitalist contradiction, especially when humanity takes the form of small business people hoping to exploit natural resources under duress is yet to be answered.

The planet will and would heal itself in a mere 5,000 years, probably. And that’s the blink of an eye in the lifetime of our planet. Earth can shrug off humanity without breaking a sweat.

Perhaps we got it wrong.

It’s not global warming but global dimming that is going to do the damage. It might be getting warmers because of Co2 but it is also getting dimmer. Less light is reaching the surface of the planet today than at any time since the last great volcanic blowout.

Both, in turn, affects ocean water temperature, which alters water currents, which alters water evaporation, which alters weather patterns, which leads to unnatural variation in those weather patterns (i.e. natural disasters).

One way or the other if we continue to destroy the environment and terrorize the ecosystems of this planet, there are going to be consequences and these consequences will, one way or another, ultimately bring the planet back into balance.

It is humanity’s decision whether that balance will include the human race.

It doesn’t even count how we’re poisoning rivers and streams, obliterating the rainforest, destroying ocean ecosystems, and now we’re even poisoning our own water supplies with traces of prescription drugs. How stupid is that?

We even poison ourselves. So much for “advanced civilization.”

Forget about bioterrorists — nature is the biggest threat to human life as we know it on this planet, simply because modern human life is largely a threat to nature.

Unless we learn from our lessons and find a way to honour and respect the very planet that has given us life, this planet will take it away from us.

It’s frightening but true:

Our planet is now in the midst of its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals.

It would be long before we’ll be struggling to mitigate the effects of climate change, which means we’ll be running out of land to grow crops, fresh water, our coasts will be disappearing, and anything edible in the sea is probably going to cook by the rapidly rising temperatures.

We could soon be sparring with the kinds of enemies were not even close to knowing how to deal with.

Take temperatures for example.

As a species, we have endured the heat of re-entry into our atmosphere, about 2,000 degrees Celsius. And yet people have died at temperatures around 20 degrees Celsius from Hyperthermia.

We can tolerate the condition up to 50–55-degree Celsius above that our body will either die of dehydration or due to core body temperature fluctuation no one will survive if core body temperature rises above 40–41-degree Celsius…(sweating and shivering) that lets us maintain a temperature of about 36C.

Since higher pressure makes it harder for sweat to evaporate the lower the humidity, the higher the temperature needed to kill a person.

Like a modern Adam and Eve, we ass individuals might be trying to set the example for a new Garden of Eden but we are headed down a path of certain self-destruction when looking at the world as a whole.

One only has to look out the window to see the effects of temperature and humidity in our daily activities.

Our world behaviour is simply not sustainable.

Either we learn how to respect nature, or we’ll be wiped out and nature will make the adjustments for us.

The vast majority of species that will be affected by climate change in the short term are insects.

As a result, immense shifts are predicted in population dynamics, abundance and geographical spread of insects.

Some people say that we urgently need to build our understanding of how climate change will affect health, especially through insect-borne disease. Bugs thrive in warmer climates,

There will be little point if we are all fried or drowned.

But here is the good news.

One area of particular concern is how climate change will affect the spread of insect-borne diseases. These include dengue fever, malaria, Lyme disease, West Nile virus, Rift Valley fever, chikungunya and yellow fever. They are spread through the bite of ‘vectors’ such as mosquitoes, ticks and flies.

Adult cat fleas die in temperatures colder than (8°C), and hotter than (35°C). Fleas can’t survive outdoors when temperatures surpass 35c for more than 40 hours a month.

How much we must cut emissions remains unresolved.

In August 2003, Europe’s summer was about 3.5 degrees Celsius above average and an estimated 45,000 people died over two weeks.

The lag between growing emissions and the corresponding increase in temperature means that we can expect at least another 0.6-degree Celsius global temperature rise over the next few decades.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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THE BEADY SAY’S : MEET THE ANIMALS THAT WILL OUTLIVE US ALL.

06 Saturday Jul 2019

Posted by in Climate Change., Uncategorized

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(Seven-minute read)

Earth will survive Global Warming because it couldn’t care less.

We will be recorded as a minor perturbation in the Earth system.

The Earth will go on.

The question is: Will we?

This is a tricky question because even starting the conversation is a point of

no return.

No matter how high humans cause the mercury to rise and how much damage we do to the planet, Earth and life will survive but not us.

Humans are the most common large animal to ever walk the planet but the notion that human activity, or the activity of an organism, can affect Earth on a planetary scale is still a hard one for many people to swallow.

However, the idea that biology can alter the planet in broad and dramatic ways is now widely accepted. It just might no longer be in the form we prefer or the form that allows us to thrive.

So what will?

Though it might seem as if humans are mere fleas along for a ride on the back of an immense animal called Earth, our intelligence, technology and sheer numbers mean our species packs a punch that can shake the world in wild ways.

The highest populations aren’t strictly on Earth at all, but floating in its atmosphere. Tardigrades.

WHAT IS AN TARDIGRADE?Illustration for article titled Just another reason why tardigrades are the best micro-animals

Micro-animals, so small that they can be visually observed only under a microscope.

They are able to survive temperatures of close to absolute zero (−273 °C (−459 °F)), temperatures as high as 151 °C (304 °F), and radiation that would kill other animals, including all humans.

They can go almost a decade without water. They have the ability to dry out until its body is less than 3 per cent water, and then come bounce back once they’re rehydrated.

Since 2007, tardigrades have also returned alive from studies in which they have been exposed to the vacuum of outer space in low Earth orbit.

There are around 1,000 species, all capable of outliving any of us.

They don’t have to eat for 30 years and if necessary can turn to cannibalism.

Tardigrade fossils have been found as far back as 520 million years ago evolving with their own unique genes over that protracted period of time.

They can clone themselves.

Tardigrades are nearly see-through but you can see them under the right light with the naked eye.

Their entire genome has been sequenced with roughly one-sixth of the tardigrade’s genome stolen from other species. 1.2 per cent of the tardigrade genome comes from other organisms, including plants, fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Another words “proprietary,” and not the result of horizontal gene transfer.

Their genomes contain more copies of an anti-oxidant enzyme and a DNA-repair gene than any other animal.

Instead of thinking of the tree of life, we should be thinking about the web of life.

Genetic material crossing from branch to branch.

Basically, they are nearly impossible to kill.Osos de Agua puede sobrevivir sin comida ni agua durante m s de una d cada3wodo1 400

 

They oxygenated the Earth’s early atmosphere as they began to harness the power of sunlight through photosynthesis.

We don’t consider them as part of the Earth system right now in our calculation about what’s going on, and we don’t consider them in terms of how the Earth system will move forward into the future.

These microbes anchored soil to the ground; We owe them everything.

Earth might still be frozen today if not for the appearance of new life forms.

As organisms evolved, many developed the ability to breathe oxygen.

In the process, they exhaled another greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, which eventually thawed out the world.

They are capable of mobilizing things beyond there own biology.

They will inherit the earth that they made in the first place.

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S : WHEN IT COMES TO CLIMATE CHANGE WHAT’S BELIEVABLE, WHAT’S NOT.

06 Saturday Jul 2019

Posted by in Climate Change.

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( SIX MINUTE READ)

It’s no secret that our planet is in a pretty dire condition. 

The Earth’s importance is self-evident.

Over the past 250 years, the activities of humans have caused enough harm that they may lead to dramatic environmental changes.

It is now unbelievable that we are being told that if we continue with the status quo our way of life could come to an end within the next fifteen years.

So why is it unbelievable that we, (and we mean all of us) cannot take a stand to stop our present course.

If we don’t protect the planet we and all that are on it can kiss our collective ass goodbye.

The reason is we are unable to see beyond greed. Climate might do it subtly or brutally but we are doing it by encouraging profound inequity.

Wealth in the hands of a few.

As the world heats up we will see more ecological degradation, scarce resources and even scarcer opportunities, which will lead to great swathes of people moving.

Right now, right at this very second, you are aligning yourself with a particular version of the world. You’re creating it around yourself with every breath, with every thought so you think, but a belief is an assumed truth.

We hear Scientists warnings, Paris Climate change promises, countries declaring an emergency while the main themes of the 2019 G20 meeting were:

President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia with other leaders at a photo shoot at the G20 summit meeting in Osaka, Japan, on Friday.Global economy

Trade and investment.

Innovation.

Environment and energy.

Employment.

Women’s employment.

Development.

Health.

For me the issue is clear. The current version of capitalism is a disaster. Worse yet, it is unsustainable.

Knowing what we can have, is just as important as knowing what we no longer want.

Tinkering with the current version of shareholder capitalism simply won’t do.

The connective tissue between business and society needs to be ripped apart.

Look back at some of the most tragic episodes in human history and you will find words and images that stripped people of their basic human traits. It’s hard to see the good in anything anymore when you see what is happening to our world.

Dehumanising of the planet continues unabated with Algorithms, Machine Learning, Data Mining, Face Recognition, the invasion of the human body, removing the need for a working memory, Donald Trump anti-Mexican/Muslim rhetoric, digitally manipulated by virtual reality, Suicide bombers and terrorists who don’t care if the other side lives or dies.

Governments and business must get off the shelf and face reality.

Its time to take positive action like banning cars from the city centre a least one day a week, like clearing our skies one day a week, banning flights, like offering non-repayable green energy grants, like planting on unproductive land with trees, like banning consumption advertising, like financially supporting the phaseout of combustion engines, like stop fooling ourselves that we have fifty years for technology to come up with a solution.

Lip service is no longer acceptable.

Why?

Because we know that Greenland is melting and no human has ever seen the collapse of an ice sheet. There is nothing in recorded history.

We know the climate is warming. Look out the window.

Greenland is already contributed 200/300 billion of ice melt a year. Over the past years, it has lost a trillion tons of ice.

Unfortunately, Climate change remains so far from our imaginations we are unable to fully appreciate that it will determine our future.

However, people are starting to see the power they have if they get together but we continue to live our lives as if nothing is going to happen.

WE ALL MUST TAKE A STAND.

There is no point in reading the small print like hurricanes, droughts, flooding, wildfires, all put done to an extreme weather event.

There is no point in independent countries declaring climate emergencies.

There is no point in creating new forests of trees especially trees of one variety that will take years to mature.

There is no point asking Opec to stop the production of oil. They want to sell every last drop no matter what the cost.

There is no point appealing to the President Trumps of the world.

As the saying goes, “there is no point in crying over spilt milk”.

Based on the Universal Law of Cause and Effect.

The effects of Co2 emissions combinded with Methane as the permafrost melts will and is rising the temperature which is the essence of all laws in nature.

Our lives these days are filled with television, wasting time on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. But when you see something you like online, do you check to make sure that it’s true before you share it?

The climate change the final events are upon us.

“People’s lives matter more than any political game.

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S. JUST HOW BAD WILL BE SEVERING TIES WITH THE EU BE FOR ENGLAND AND THE EU?

01 Monday Jul 2019

Posted by in Brexit Language., Brexit v EU - Negotiations., Brexit.

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(Twenty-minute read)

We all know or at least most of us accept that we will be the first chapter in a world that is going to need universal cooperation to battle climate change.

We all know that the world economy is dominated by Global capitalism that is running out of cheap resources and energy becoming more and more protective of its market share.

So just how bad will severing ties with the EU be?

Look at the small print.

We all have come across people who have next to no understanding of world events – but- talk with the utmost confidence and convection. So in this post lets look at the shallowness of their existing knowledge when it comes to Brexit.The EU has warned a no-deal departure from the bloc [File: Isabel Infantes/AFP]

At the moment, there’s still a ton of confusion.

We now have political arguments all basis on false premises with minimal understanding of the issues at hand.

What is completely overlooked is that the United Kingdom’s narrow vote to exit the European Union was as a result of a referendum that was not actually legally binding.

The government could have simply decided to ignore the result.

Instead, it activating Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty making the process irreversible unless it is revoked.

So what are the true facts around a no- deal?

A no- deal Brexit means there will be no 21-month transition period. It doesn’t stop the UK leaving but it means there is absolutely no clarity about what happens.

A no– deal means while Britain would no longer be bound by EU rules, it will have to face the EU’s external tariffs with WTO.

A no- deal means the UK would be free to set its own controls on immigration by EU nationals and the bloc could do the same for Britons.

A no- deal means Britain would no longer have to adhere to the rulings of the European Court of Justice but it would be bound to the European Court of Human Rights, a non-EU body.

A no- deal means England would not have to pay the annual £13 billion contributions to the EU budget. However, Britain would lose out on some EU subsidies – the Common Agricultural Policy gives £3 billion to farmers.

A no- deal means the issue of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic would remain unresolved. Northern Ireland is even at risk of blackouts because no deal would undermine the legal basis of the all-island electricity market it shares with the Irish Republic.

A no- deal means Britain could implement trade deals whenever the fine print is ready. But deals take years, not months or weeks, to broker. Therefore the UK is not going to gaining anything by having no transition period in this instance.

A no- deal means an emergency cut in interest rates to combat inflation.

A no- deal means Britain’s supermarkets, will simply pass on the cost to the farmers who in the short term to stay in business, won’t be able to do so without subsidies.

A no- deal means EU research and development funding could dry up.

A no-deal will chill investment in the UK, hitting jobs, and that manufacturers will abandon Britain for the continent.

A no- deal will throw the fishing industry into disarray. It is no exaggeration to say that the UK has done relatively poorly out of is membership of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

A no- deal means no matter from what angle England approached trade the lack of resources to renegotiate the dozens of deals already signed between the EU and third countries. It is a total fallacy to think England can copycat present EU trade deals. 50 at a time.

A no- deal means that that the EU may not be willing to renegotiate its rules of origin agreements with other countries for British benefit, especially because its own exporters might be able to take market share from British ones in countries outside Europe.

A no- deal means that all WTO trade deals include a “most favoured nation” (MFN) clause, which mean that if one partner signs a better trade deal with another country, all previous trade partners are entitled to the same upgrade.

A no- deal the UK cannot conclude binding agreements until it has left the EU, since it is still bound by the EU’s exclusive right to strike trade deals.

A no- deal means Britain would lose deeper access to services, as it would no longer participate in the 14 services agreements struck by the EU. (England currently has free trade agreements with EU’s 70 international trade deals, countries because of its EU membership.) You couldn’t get a bigger a contrast between the opportunities of EU membership and the emptiness of Brexit: the EU has reached a historic trade agreement with key emerging markets in Latin America while Tory leadership contenders brag about their plans for a no-deal Brexit.

Last Friday, the EU finally achieved a trade deal that has been 20 years in the making.

A no- deal means that the price of a trade deal with the USA will be so hight as to be unworkable.

A no- deal means there won’t be any money for farmers or anyone else if England crashes out because all the Treasury’s reserves will be needed to plug the hole left by Brexit in tax revenues.

A no- deal means wrecking the biggest trade deal England have already.

Most of the UK’s trade is with the EU or countries the EU has trade agreements with—about 57% of our exports and 66% of our imports. Countries aren’t exactly queueing up to do deals.

A no- deal means England can not set different rules for foreign and domestic products under WTO. The big exception is if countries have negotiated their own customs union or free trade area

A no- deal might lead to the break up of the United Kingdom with civil strife.

A no-deal could cut UK access to EU criminal databases.

A no- deal will empower the far right, with long-term implications for Britain’s democracy. Exacerbating populist pressures.

A no- deal means a Reality check for the EU.

A no- deal will inflict significant economic pain across Europe, no more so than on the Irish Economy.

A no- deal means the EU could be looking at a tax haven.

A no- deal means the EU budget will be reduced.

A no- deal means large EU subsidies to the Irish economy.

So where are we?

A free trade agreement will still have many negative consequences for both sides.

First, the devolved politics of Brexit are immensely complex and may turn out to be crucially important to what actually happens.

However ever as a matter of law, neither Scotland nor any of the UK’s other constituent nations can stop Brexit from happening. Because the UK Parliament is sovereign and can do as it wishes, the absence of consent from the Scottish Parliament would not legally disable Westminster from enacting Brexit legislation.

This is so because the “requirement” for consent is not a legal requirement at all: it is, ultimately, no more than a political expectation that the UK Parliament will respect the constitutional position of the Scottish Parliament by not riding roughshod over it in certain circumstances.

For present purposes, the Scottish Parliament’s powers are limited by EU law. And the argument is that if Brexit legislation enacted by the UK removes those limits — freeing the Scottish Parliament to make Scottish laws that breach EU law — then that alters the Scottish Parliament’s powers, so triggering the requirement to get its consent under the Sewel Convention.

There is no legal constitutional route for the devolved administrations to stall Brexit.

The only route is political rather than legal.

If Northern Ireland opted for reunification it would have the ability to rejoin the EU as part of the Republic of Ireland. Scotland would have to join the queue.

Where that leaves us?

It is all too easy to lose track of the amount of cash already poured into the British economy. So, goes the obvious question, where has all the money gone?

In some senses, the answer is relatively simple. Much of that cash has gone

into repairing a broken financial system.

So here, for any of you who might have forgotten, is a quick reminder: some £76bn from the Treasury to buy shares in RBS and Lloyds Banking Group ; £200bn worth of lender-of-last-resort liquidity support provided by the Bank of England to stricken banks at the height of the crisis; £250bn of wholesale lending guaranteed by the Bank through the credit guarantee scheme; £185bn of loans to banks through the Special Liquidity Scheme; £40bn of loans and other funding to Bradford & Bingley and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Then, deep breath, there is the £200bn of liabilities taken on board from the Asset Protection Scheme, and the £200bn of cash poured into the economy through quantitative easing.

It is a stark reminder of why hopes of a quick recovery from the recession or a no deal are forlorn, and why both financial crises will cast a shadow over growth for years.

Add the cost of a no deal to the above and the list of consequences is not just long but beyond the pale.

If England wants the full reassertion of sovereignty, then that is going to mean setting new standards for things, and that is going to be economically damaging.

We are now witnessing a Conservative Party undemocratically electing a new leader who will defacto become Prime Minister with both remaining candidates insistent on Brexiting overturn decades of law giving Northern Ireland and Scotland (both of which voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU) local control over their affair.

The leadership contest is only complicated Britain’s withdrawal from the EU by adding more uncertainty to the state of affairs.

Unless they call an election, the Conservatives are safely in power until 2020, and calling an election to get Brexit overturned would not just risk a Labour victory, it would probably only work if Labour won.

Scotland is already planning to hold another independence referendum, and seeing devolution curtailed would make its success much more likely. Northern Irish republicans would be emboldened to call for unification with the Republic of Ireland, which could occur, or they could just reignite the Troubles after decades of peace.

The cost of not listening to them would be to split the UK.

More than 2 million have signed a petition calling for a second referendum which at this stage will achieve nothing other than more division.

The Conservatives do not want another election, especially since they have yet to actually split. If they don’t split, their leader will probably be Johnson, who supports Brexit and whose election would not exactly be a mandate to overturn the referendum result.

If bye the end of October a no deal has been reached, the UK automatically exits the European Union without any special deal letting it retain trade preferences or other benefits.

The Brexit vote is proof that when emotions battle reason in a voting booth, emotions can win. Brexit had a very powerful emotion on its side — fear of outsider and loss of identity.

However, the anti-immigrant sentiment is itself somewhat irrational in a world where cultural integration is more common than ever before in human history. In prehistoric times, this is what kept us safe. In the modern age, it’s what nudges us toward bigotry. In recent years, politicians have gotten more effective at painting immigrants as dangerous outsiders. Look no further than Donald Trump. Or his UK counterpart, Nigel Farage, the politician who has stoked fears by asserting thing like Muslims “don’t want to become part of our culture.”

You can fight anecdotes with anecdotes we’re not doomed to succumb to them.

Trumpism or the Brexit is not “the ultimate manifestation of something that evolution has programmed England to do.

Britain can have an economically decent outcome from a Brexit vote or a democratically decent one, but it can’t get both.

The EU, on the other hand, could do something drastic like expel England for breach of the Lisbon treaty. This would be a nightmare divorce, where one partner decides to walk away with no idea of what they will move on to.

In short:

If the UK wants an exit from the EU to cause as little economic damage as possible, it has two choices.

Either to revocate Articular 50 and effect the reforms needed within the EU or be like Norway.

To do this England must first encourage receptiveness of simple facts that nationalism and isolation do not exist in the modern world which is now threatened by climate change that requires immediate collective worldwide action, which is a given if we want to see a living planet, not an immigration planet.

Politicians must make the case for more liberal policy not just on economic grounds but on future aspirations of a peaceful Europe.

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S. IF WE ARE NOT VIGILANT THE TRAPPINGS OF DEMOCRACY WILL DISAPPEAR.

29 Saturday Jun 2019

Posted by in 2019: The Year of Disconnection., Climate Change., Democracy, Donald Trump Presidency., Environment, European Union., G20., Humanity., Modern Day Democracy., Modern day life., Natural World Disasters, Our Common Values., Politics., Populism., Post - truth politics., Reality., Sustaniability, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., WHAT IS TRUTH, What needs to change in European Union., What Needs to change in the World, World Leaders, World Politics

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(Ten-minute read)

 

Democracy is in the process of being hollowed out.

A lethal combination of a backlash against hard-won rights for women and minorities, and worsening economic and social insecurities are being exploited by rightwing demagogues.

The lights are going out – and if an alternative politics of hope fails, then darkness will consume us all.

Rather than insulting the voters Putin’s recent remarks at the G20 emphasize the emblematic of our broken politics.

We have a politics that’s is all breaking points and no bending, that may ultimately be headed where Putin says.

 

Look at Britain where the House of Lords is a broken, morally corrupt, anti-democratic institution. Where Parlement because of first past the post voting system does not represent the people as a whole. Where lies and farcical financial promises are driving it to isolation. Foreigner-bashing is all the current rage the kernel of Farage nationalism. Conservatives are a dying breed.

Look at Poland, whose authoritarian rightwing government has also seized the judiciary, attacked media freedom, attempted to undermine the right to protest and indulged in rampant migrant-bashing.

Look at Hungary where rampant corruption has led to Hungary being widely labelled a kleptocracy, and it has indulged in wanton antisemitism.

Look at Italy’s far-right deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini – whose Northern League has soared in polls – has every chance of becoming the country’s leader in the near future.

Look at France yellow jackets right wing populous Marie La Penn a country where a strong left-wing element and a strong right-wing element always take any opportunity they can to contest virtually any changes proposed by any government that is not of their own persuasion. As a consequence, moderate political movements in France regularly find themselves obliged to pay lip service to more extreme groupings on their own side of the political spectrum, to avoid being accused of weakness. It’s true on the left, and it’s true on the right. A country where revolution is seen as an exercise of democratic rights, protesters usually draw public sympathy, and temporary chaos is seen as part of the price to pay.

Look at Turkey, once described as an emerging democracy, but whose de facto dictator Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who rules through a never-ending state of emergency, has locked up and persecuted journalists and opponents, and concentrated power in his hands.

Look at the EU which is in need of fundamental reforms. Confronted by the spectre of its former self, Europe seems paralyzed. A two speed Europe that takes decisions from on high, and then, if they don’t work, they use every economic excuse possible to justify them as necessary to maintain the unity and progress. I do not agree with the economic homogeneity that binds the EU together what is needed is for citizens to feel like Europe is closer, notwithstanding the sharing of pseudo-values and the currency. Unitary economics, so far, has penalised us. Unitary politics, for me, does not represent us, the citizens. The euro has us trapped. If its goal is to dismantle nation-states, that will be the end of European democracy.

The EU is one of the motors of capitalist globalisation, the rule that all decisions should be made on the basis of profitability alone.

The people who really affect what happens must be democratically elected.

Join DiEM25.

Look at China with a population of around 1.404 billion one of the safest countries, with a low capital crime rate in the world. A concentration of never-married men, with little prospect of ever marrying, raises the potential for social instability.

Look at Russia acting as a traditional predatory nation-state. It’s trying to increase its wealth, expand its influence and maximize its power. It is a mess. It’s utterly corrupt. It represses any vigorous opposition and kills inconvenient journalists. Some, including US diplomats, have referred to the country as a mafia state.

Putin doesn’t care. He’s an autocrat and a nationalist it means holding the line against Putin’s expanding influence and waiting him out to see if his successor is more amenable to our interests and our values.

Look at the USA. Founded on the bedrock of freedom of expression, only about 1% of the actual population that lives in the US ever explores outside the USA. With 16 trillion dollars of debt, capitalism is slavery.  Donald Trump represents everything the rest of the world hates about America. It has created more wars that never solved anything.

It is now on a downward trajectory which could doom it to second-class status as a world power and will result in more autocrats such as Donal Dumps being elected.

Look at China the myriad problems within Chinese society comes from the behaviour, values and the beliefs of its people. The Chinese government is an embodiment of deliberative democracy, it stops short of allowing full freedom of expression and transparency. If the Chinese people spent as much time and energy learning about the world and publicly deliberating the problems that plague their society as they do playing video games, text messaging, watching vapid American sitcoms and shopping for trendy brands, China would already be a completely advanced country and moreover a genuinely democratic one.

Look at the World. We’re digging our own grave.

Algorithms for profit are plundering the world unregulated while we gladly hand over for free our every waking minute of life to be analyzed by a few world corporations that are disconnecting us from reality.

If our worldview resonates with the natural order and the laws that govern the Universe, then we are able to find harmony in life. Perception of the world and our state of vitality depends on how accurately we can interpret the information we receive from our senses.

About saving the planet should do more than sitting back and watch it happen. This is indeed a world issue! Not just a human one!

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