Category Archives: Modern day life.

THE BEADY EYE ASK’S: WHEN THIS BRIXIT MAYHEM IS ALL OVER. THERE WILL BE QUESTIONS GALORE AS TO HOW IT ALL HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE. ANOTHER FACE BOOK VICTORY.

13 Thursday Dec 2018

Posted by in #whatif.com, 2018: The Year of Disconnection., Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Big Data., Brexit., Democracy, Facebook, HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Life., Modern Day Communication., Modern Day Democracy., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Politics., Populism., Reality., Social Media, Sustaniability, Technology, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The world to day., Twitter, Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Leaders, World Organisations., World Politics

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(Seven-minute read)

Facebook is more powerful than a nation-state.

Facebook is in the business of exploiting your data.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of the erosion of democracy"

Platforms like Facebook enable people’s data to be used in ways that take power away from voters and give it to data-analyzing campaigners.

Unfortunately, it seems that none of us sees this. We don’t hold media technology firms accountable for degrading our public conversations.

With only months to go before Britain exits the European Union, the English government is in meltdown oblivious to what is happening in the world beyond and how it connects to Britain

All eyes are transfixed on the EU exit sign.

Critically, both for the EU and England it’s what happened on Social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook that will remain the biggest question of all after Brexit.

Both Twitter and Facebook have become a giant funnel not just for dark ads, but for dark money that evades election finance laws and the control of money spent during elections is the very basis of our electoral laws.

If we are now failing to recognise the above we are failing to appreciate how social media is breaking our democracy.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of the erosion of democracy"

While we all are all burying our heads in the sand of smartphone it is obvious that Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter are the perfect cover for something far more chilling controlling the expression of public opinion in the political debate.

Although Twitter and Facebook are categorised as social networking services, in fact, they are as different as chalk and cheese. And, of the two, Twitter is more important in one respect: its impact on the arena in which societies discuss their political issues.

Twitter also has the capacity to turn “ordinary” people into broadcasters, a development whose implications we are only just beginning to digest. Yellow Jackets, Brixiters who form the conclusion are perhaps three hundred miles distant from those who hear the arguments?

Technologies such as Twitter, which offer real-time tracking of public opinion, are the visible foundations of the Arab Spring, Donald Trump’s election, Brexit and the Yellowjackets.

Democracy and the rule of law are been subverted in plain sight.

If you look at the USA Twitter is the de facto newswire for the planet, which means that a company that can regulate expressions of opinion might be very powerful indeed.

And that should make us nervous.

So is there anything that can be done?

No much unless we pass laws regulating these platforms and make them responsible for what is posted on their platforms.

One of the most striking aspects of the epoch-making Brexit is (as with the Syrian War the Iraq, and Yemen war) is the way many MPs cited the emailed opposition of their constituents to armed intervention as a reason for voting against the proposed action.

Thus, it is evident that we are all increasingly embracing the importance of social media and its value in modern human communication.

However, this trend can only be assumed as the beginning of an envisioned well connected and digital adept world.

So recent history has evidenced that Social Media is a potent tool with transformational abilities to shape and influence the way in which people communicate and share information.

One of the qualities that define Social Media is its ability to transcend beyond borders, without observing spatial distance that exists between and amongst the geographies.

In addition, social media connects individuals on a semi-personal level, while allowing instantaneous feedback and dialogue.

But, this does not rule out the possible abuse of such innocent yet powerful platforms of communications.

Different sectors ranging from government to business also embeds and encourages the embracement of social media platforms into their processes in order to enhance organisational efficiency.

We might be gradually realising the significance of social media for democratic benefits that it is seen as an agent of public discourse and a driver of public participation and freedom of speech amid political and democratic uncertainty.

It might be rising the political and democratic consciousness but the power of social media in the political and democratic dispensation cannot be underestimated.

Is social media damaging democracy? Yes, but we can also use social media to save democracy.

We have to stop governments from colluding with an omniscient surveillance superpower but use it as their eyes to see the inequalities we all live in.

THERE IS NOT THE TIME FOR COUNTRIES TO BE MOVING TO ID ISOLATION IF WE ARE TO HARNESS TECHNOLOGY TO SERVE THE WORLD.

Just as there is nothing inevitable about democratic survival, neither is the demise of democracy guaranteed.

These changes are especially likely to go unnoticed when popularly elected leaders twist laws to their advantage or frame attacks on checks and balances as populist reforms limiting the power of elites.

Civil society must reclaim its rightful place by demanding genuine participation in governance, including decisions on peace initiatives, environmental protection and trade and investment agreements.

A large part of humanity still doesn’t have it. Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of the erosion of democracy"

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: ” THE TIME WILL COME WHEN WE REALIZE THAT WE ARE NOT ABLE TO EAT MONEY.”

28 Wednesday Nov 2018

Posted by in Capitalism, Climate Change., Environment, Fourth Industrial Revolution., Humanity., Life., Modern day life., Natural World Disasters, Our Common Values., Paris Climate Change Conference 2015, Reality., Sustaniability, Technology, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., Wealth., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Leaders, World Politics

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WE SHOULD BE ALL FAMILIAR WITH THE ABOVE QUOTATION.

It is a “Native American saying”.

“Canada, the most affluent of countries, operates on a depletion economy which leaves destruction in its wake. Your people are driven by a terrible sense of deficiency. When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money.”

When one stands back from one’s self the above sums up the present state of our world.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "THE TIME WILL COME WHEN WE REALIZE THAT WE CANNOT EAT MONEY"

Present needs and present gains was the rule of action—which seems to be a sort of transmitted quality which we in our now enlightened time have not wholly outgrown, for even now a few men can be found who seem willing to destroy the last tree, the last fish and the last game bird and animal, and leave nothing for posterity, if thereby some money can be made.

We are unable to change as we have turned everything into commodities to make material profit or power.

WHY?

Because most are suffocating in a sea of debt, unable to extricate themselves from the shackles of an abhorrent situation inherently created by the consumptionism and consumerism that grips much of the world’s population.

We are, in effect, products of our own society, now being exploited by AI for profit.

What is needed is a World Conference of every nation to enshrine in law the protection of Clean Air, Freshwater, the protection of the environment and ecosystems that we all rely on for life on the planet.

The richer we are and the more we consume, the more self-centered and careless of the lives of others we appear to become.

Our erroneous belief that we are more concerned about manmade climate change than the people of other nations informs the sentiment, often voiced by the press and politicians, that there’s no point in acting if the rest of the world won’t play its part.

Only when the crisis causes or exacerbates an acute disaster – such as the floods – is there a flicker of anxiety, but that quickly dies away.

Sustaining interest in this great but slow-burning crisis of climate change is a challenge no one seems to have mastered.

For years we’ve been told that people cannot afford to care about the natural world until they become rich; that only economic growth can save the biosphere, that civilisation marches towards enlightenment about our impacts on the living planet.

The results suggest the opposite.

The more we consume, the less we feel. And maybe that doesn’t just apply to guilt.

Perhaps that’s the point of our otherwise-pointless hyperconsumption: it smothers feeling. It might also be the effect of the constant bombardment of advertising and marketing. They seek to replace our attachments to people and place with attachments to objects: attachments which the next round of advertising then breaks in the hope of attaching us to a different set of objects.

Even if you somehow put aside the direct, physical impacts of rising consumption, it’s hard to understand how anyone could imagine that economic growth is a formula for protecting the planet.

So what we seem to see here is the turning of a vicious circle.

The more harm we do, the less concerned about it we become. And the more hyperconsumerism destroys relationships, communities and the physical fabric of the Earth, the more we try to fill the void in our lives by buying more stuff.

This is an almost inevitable result of a society that has become restructured around shopping, fashion, celebrity and an obsession with money.

How we break the circle and wake people out of this dream world is the question that all those who love the living planet should address.

There is only one easy answers.

We must make Greed in all its forms of profit for profit sake pay. ( See previous Posts – A world Aid commission )

Agreement’s like the Paris Climate Change promises are not worth the paper there are written on without the necessary finance to create a change of mind.

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

 

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: NOW IS THE TIME TO CONSIDER THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY NOT ON THE JUST BEST-CASE OUTCOME BUT THE WORST-CASE OUTCOME.

30 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by in Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Big Data., Capitalism, Evolution, Fourth Industrial Revolution., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Life., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Reality., Social Media., Technology

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(Fifteen-minute read)

If you look at the news, it looks like the entire world will be run by artificial intelligence (AI) in just a decade or two.

Humans need increasingly smarter, machine-assisted ways to navigate the ever-growing mountain of scientific knowledge and to help researchers keep pace and come up with new and better theories and ideas.

However when it comes to A.I. (not to mention blockchain or genetic- engineering) most of us including A.I. itself still have no clue what the repercussions or benefits will be in the future.

In recent years more has been written about artificial intelligence in technology and business publications than ever before: the current wave of artificial intelligence innovations has caught the attention of virtually everyone, not in the least because of artificial intelligence fears.

Knowing the power of sudden shifts in human behaviour, essentially the main cause of what we call digital disruption and the digital transformations that occur as a consequence, people’s trust, values, beliefs and most of all actions are of extreme importance.

None of us is exempt from the impact.

There is one thing for certain we are all noticing how A.I. is changing our lives.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of a.i."With smartphones, I pad’s humans are far more willing than most people realize to form a relationship with AI software. It is going to impact every single industry and everything that we do.

On a bigger level, areas like sustainability, climate change, environmental issues — they are becoming more at the forefront of everybody’s minds as we move more into the 21st century and think about the huge challenges we need to tackle like population increases, urbanization, and energy,  climate change, the sustainability of our ecosystems. A. I. will bring along new challenges.

If not managed now it is going to increasing inequality and possibly unemployment as routine.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of the world run by A.I."

AI feeds on raw data and we are the willing participants. Even today’s relatively simple programs can exert a significant influence on people—for good or ill.

Data mining companies are wading through the emotional sludge of social media for profit.

As exciting as all this technology might be many questions remains.

Will we all end up in a world of total surveillance. The AI’s Pandora Box.

How is A.I. going to change our laws, our ethics?

Will A.I. improving our lives or not?

Whatever happens, these changes are currently being decided in our absence.

AS SPECIES WE HAVE POSITIONED OURSELVES OUTSIDE THE ENVIRONMENT POLLUTING THE ATMOSPHERE, OUR SEAS, OUR AIR, OUR FRESH WATER, AND WE ARE NOW IN THE PROCESS OF DOING EXACTLY THE SAME WITH A.I.

LOSSING CONTROL OF OUR OWN EVOLUTION.

Unfortunately, the commercial forces driving technology development are not always benevolent. The giant companies at the forefront of AI—across social media, search, and e-commerce—drive the value of their shares by increasing traffic, consumption, and addiction to their technology.

Technology carries the philosophies of those that create it and the nature of capital markets may be pushing us toward AI hell-bent on influencing our behaviour toward these goals. Our tendency to become emotionally attached to chatbots will and could be exploited by companies seeking a profit.

We have seen how technology like social media can be powerful in changing human beliefs and behaviour. By focusing on building a bigger advertising business—entangling politics, trivia, and half-truths—you can bring about massive changes in society.

The big global player Google, Apple, Microsoft etc philosophy is based on profit.

They have systems specifically designed to form relationships with a human and will have much more power than governments, and our out of date world organisations.

AI will influence how we think, and how we treat others. 

If you can get users addicted to spending 30 hours a week with a “perfect” AI companion that doesn’t resist abuse, rather than a real, complicated human, A.I. will win.

With face recognition, iris id, blanket video surveillance, GPS tagging, every move will be watched and ultimately our lives.

In a world of surveillance, if there are no impediments applied by technologists, customers, investors or regulators rest assured we can kiss our butts goodbye. So we must begin to build rules into our systems, to make sure user behaviour moved in a positive direction.

We need to deliberately and consciously build AI that will improve the human condition—not just pursue the immediate financial gain of gazillions of addicted users. We need to consciously build systems that work for the benefit of humans and society.

In the future, having these really intelligent ways of surfacing information are going to move from ‘nice-to-haves’ to essentials. We cannot have addiction, clicks, and consumption as their primary goal.

AI is growing up and will be shaping the nature of humanity.

AI needs a mother.

Ultimately, training an AI platform — it is very much like moulding a child.

If you treat it the right way and teach it the right things, train it to know what’s right and wrong, it will inherently grow up to become a productive member of society that cares about people and the future. Just like any one of us.

We must think about AI as a tool for the augmentation of human thought and creation and make every effort not to turn the reigns of creativity or ethics over to the machines.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of A.I. world"

Why?

Because we humans seem to want to maintain the illusion that the AI truly cares about us.

Finding a way to address these issues on behalf of humanity will soon be one of the defining challenges for the coming decades.

Why?

Because trust barriers are decreasing, and as a result, dependence on AI-powered algorithms and machines is increasing.

There are no algorithms that try and explain what the A.I. ‘Thought’.

Why?  Because this would defeat the power of it.

When you live in a world where your computer is not just bound to a specific device but can be anywhere you want to put it, it means computers will have to react to humans much more intelligently than they do now.

As humans we value our being human. And one of the ‘holy grails’, as it has been cherished for ages, is our “intelligence”.

So, the question remains who defines these human values and how you prove alignment with such a human and personal/cultural given.

It might be that human values will forever remain somewhat mysterious. But to the extent that our values are revealed in our behaviour, you would hope to be able to prove that the machine will be able to “get” most of it.

We emphasize it as a way to distinguish ourselves from other beings. We fear superintelligence as we see it as a risk to what we believe sets us apart. We fear it because we don’t know what it will or might be and become.

At the same time, however, while we try to protect what many believe defines our being human for the future, we risk not understanding the benefits and challenges of what is today the fourth industrial revolution.

If we look at the bigger picture of AI for good, then it connects us with more purpose and meaning.

Whether it concerns the use of artificial intelligence, the use of personal data or anything else for that matter A.I. most serve us all equally. Because in today’s world, it’s not a man vs. machine, it’s a man with a machine vs. man without.

THERE IS NO POINT TO TECHNOLOGIES THAT ENRICH THE FEW.

From current A.I. debates, it’s clear that people are acting today, not in the future, debating about values and risks.  Let these debates and the rich diversity of human values remain human.

Unfortunately, human values are fickle at the best of times, and usually only become a value after the event.

It appears that the only thing we have in common in the world is our brains, lose them to A.I. and if this happens we might as well go back to the Stone Age.

One final point:

It seems that the developed world politics is shifting to identity politics how comical this is when one considers that we are selling not just our ID to A.I. but the identity of future generations.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: THE HISTORICAL DNA OF ENGLAND HISTORY IS REAPPEARING IN THE BREXIT NEGOTIATIONS.

20 Saturday Oct 2018

Posted by in Brexit v EU - Negotiations., Brexit., Fake News., History., Modern day life., Norther Ireland, Northern Ireland Border., Politics., Populism., Post - truth politics., Social Media, The Irish/ Northern Ireland border., Unanswered Questions., What needs to change in European Union.

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(Ten-minute read)

All of us are surrounded by history, whether we study it or not.

History lives in our social traditions, our holidays and ceremonies, our education, our religious beliefs and practices, our political and legal systems, even in our popular culture (movies and music frequently draw on historical events and people).

However now in the ever-changing technological world more than ever the passage of time usually shifts the answer to any historical questions.

It seems that everyone writes history, but it’s the winners who interpret it years later and mould a new retelling of what happened. However, I have always found that history in its written form never imparts a true picture of events other than confirming dates and places.

It is an incomplete picture you’ll always be reading something with some sort of bias.

This is never truer with the ongoing Brexit negotiations concerning the Irish border.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "the story of the british empire in pictures"

History is written according to the necessities and possibilities of current politics. But that does not mean that it is forever obscured or that any narrative is completely lost to history. Not at all.

History is in the eye of the beholder. The painful truth is, each source simply needs to be evaluated on its own merits.

Discussing the past and theorising about its meaning have never been confined or restricted to classrooms, lecture theatres or archive rooms. History is open to all who take an interest in it, regardless of their experience or credentials.

Everyone is free to consider the past and form their own conclusions. But it also has one significant disadvantage: ‘popular history’ and ‘good history’ are rarely the same things. There is a considerable gulf between historical understanding in the public domain and the history written by historians.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "the story of the british empire in pictures"

This is never truer when it comes to the history of the British Empire.

A Top-down history of the wealthy and powerful: kings, aristocrats, politicians, business moguls, innovators and influential thinkers.

A profitable balance of trade, it was believed, would provide the wealth necessary to maintain and expand the empire.

A worldwide system of dependencies—colonies, protectorates, and other territories—that over a span of some three centuries was brought under the sovereignty of the crown of Great Britain and the administration of the British government.

In the early seventeenth century those colonies were expanded and the systematic colonization of Ulster in Ireland got underway. While Ireland won dominion status in 1921 after a brutal guerrilla war, achieved independence in 1949, although the northern province of Ulster remained (as it is today) a part of Great Britain.

In 1997 the last significant British colony, Hong Kong, was returned to Chinese sovereignty

Very few British people have a decent understanding of the British Empire, which leads to a significant contingent who pine for a return to those days. Given the number of atrocities committed by the British Empire, these people have to be either ignorant or evil, and it’s obviously the former. Typically they re-write their history for patriotic purposes or downplay its importance to try to forget past problems so when they are alerted to a predictable bad outcome from an action they become emotional and angry as they don’t have the knowledge to see the emerging patterns.

Little remains of British rule today across the globe, and it is mostly restricted to small island territories such as Bermuda and the Falkland Islands. However, a number of countries still have Queen Elizabeth as their head of state including New Zealand, Australia and Canada – a hangover of the Empire.

Apart from the second World War (which is shown on TV documentaries almost continuously), most of the present-day English know little of how England acquired its wealth.

It oversaw around 412 million inhabitants or around 23% of the world’s population at the time and its legacy can still be felt keenly today, for better or worse.

The empire was not acquired by sports like cricket, tennis, croaky, football, polo, billiards, bare-knuckle boxing, followed by pink gins, or Pims with strawberries, it was acquired by wars, robbery, piracy, drugs, slavery, tea, cotton, sugar, and mercantile trading companies such as the East India Company, a London based trade business.

When our attitude to the past becomes locked into one way of thinking we only deal with the thing that seems most true for now, having abandoned the idea of Truth.

After all, who could support the invention of concentration camps, leading the slave trade, mass starvation of the Indians and Irish, Celtic ethnocide, or institutionalised rape of Native Americans?

Knowing what you’ve done, as a nation, in the past couple of thousand years, why you’ve done it and what the result was is extremely valuable. WHEN IT COMES NOT TO JUST THE IRISH BORDER BUT TO ANY FUTURE DEALS it’s not how the empire shaded into an unquestioning belief that Britain could – and should – rule the world.

We should approach the past with an open mind about different groups and classes, and let the evidence convince us. We should strive to keep history and remembrance as separate as possible.

The issue nowadays is to some extent the need for good filters, pushing away information after centuries of seeking it.

The dream of the West has been that we will live together in knowledge, but with the advent of seemingly leaderless, non-hierarchical movements Artifical intelligence would probably steward the change better than government, which has fixed commitments.

Why?Résultat de recherche d'images pour "the story of the british empire in pictures"

Because we live in a world of continual change and situational thinking every understanding is open to change, a kind of a point of view that can be undermined by a non-expert with a persuasive argument.

It seems that does not matter if the discovery precedes its invention.

The end of hierarchy and a quest for ultimate understanding seems a long way off.

After hundreds of years of British occupation, it is certain that no Irish government will ever again as it did in 1800, surrender the rights of the Irish people as a separate nation. Like Hong Kong, Northern Ireland should be repatriated.

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

 

 

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: IT’S NOW OR NEVER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS.

11 Thursday Oct 2018

Posted by in Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Democracy, Evolution, Facebook, Google, Humanity., Modern day life., Privatization, Sustaniability, Technology, The cloud., The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World

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(Fifteen-minute read)

This is not a spectator sport:

It can be nearly impossible to credibly predict all the positive possibilities and negative implications for how we live, work, govern, and organize arising from the deployment of AI.

The fact that we are deeply uncertain about how technologies will evolve in the years and decades ahead makes human rights due diligence of AI very challenging. Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of human rights abuse"

The fact that the rapid development of AI raises challenges for securing access to remedy, which can be especially challenging when humans often can’t cognitively understand how a decision is made by AI systems:

The fact that Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is increasingly being used by businesses, governments, and other institutions to augment many fields of human endeavor.

The fact that Methodologies for implementing respect for human rights may need to integrate strategic tools such as strategic foresight, futures thinking, and scenario planning.

The fact that the global “platformization” of content (i.e., the rise of Video on Demand and online streaming platforms) shows us that guarantees of people’s access to the culture of their selection may now become beholden to digital intermediaries.

Proponents believe that the further development of AI creates new opportunities in health, education, and transportation, will generate wealth and strengthen economies and can be used to solve pressing social issues. However, the rapid growth of AI raises important questions about whether our current policies, legal systems, business due diligence practices, and methods to protect rights are fit for purpose.

The significant expansion of data collected and analyzed may also result in increasing the power of companies with ownership over this data and threaten our right to privacy.

HERE ARE A FEW OF PROBLEMS THAT ARE NOT DISCUSSED.

As the digital paradigm evolves, the pathway for human rights is likely to become more complicated, making appropriate regulation more important than ever. The realization of ESCR and the right to development centers on data democracies that are accountable.

Global policy discourses and frameworks around data have skewed the digital innovation tide in favor of developed countries… the global “platformization” of content… shows us that guarantees of people’s access to the culture of their selection may now become beholden to digital intermediaries.

Data and technological arrangements in the global South and North worryingly point to a wholesale private capture and consolidation of critical data regimes in the developing world: trade, agriculture, health, and education.

Not only does this leave citizens in developing countries vulnerable to acute privacy violations, but it also bears decisively on their economic, social and cultural rights (ESCRs). For example, in India, the acquisition of homegrown successes, such as Wal-Mart’s purchase of the domestic e-commerce unicorn, Flipkart, poses very serious outcomes for the livelihoods of small producers and traders.

Algorithm-based decision-making by companies could also perpetuate human bias and result in discriminatory outcomes, as they already have in some cases.

An algorithm is meant to complement and not necessarily displace human discernment, it is not hard to imagine a future where humanitarian assistance to refugees becomes predicated on their (technology proven) ability to viably assimilate and contribute to their host economies.

Could the trade-off for a smoother resettlement process be the exclusion of those that the algorithm will one day write off as “inadmissible” and “unsolvable”?

Technology-based decision-making also raises important questions on how the right to development will be realized.

Artificial intelligence is undermining society by promising unimaginable benefits without any intervention from governments or other world organizations.

As always we humans react to crises when it’s too late.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of human rights abuse"

Governments must create policies for effective data sharing between governments and the private sector for sectors that are of critical social importance.

More importantly, governments must create a data commons with independent oversight.

For example:

The municipality of Curitiba in Brazil, for instance, has taken the lead in passing local legislation that mandates anonymized data sharing between the local government and the ride aggregator Uber. The intention is to tap into Uber’s large and rich data sets towards better city planning and traffic management outcomes.

Governments must invest in the idea of “data as a public good” so it can work to enhance human rights.

Although nascent, experiments with models for managing big data repositories are increasing.  Such repositories can encourage domestically led innovation, with local start-ups and public agencies taking the lead in developing appropriate AI-based solutions for social problems.

These are pressing policy challenges, and such prediction models need to be closely and continuously tracked for possible social distortions and subject to institutional audit. The biases in AI is often the bias of humans. People will not rely on technology they do not trust.

Society needs to come together to consider these questions, explore solutions, and deploy AI that puts people first, protects human rights, and deserves the public’s trust.

Breakthroughs in technology—including artificial intelligence—can help fulfill the right to development, but digital technologies are not magic bullets; there is a strong role for governance.

The security of digital bits cannot be left to the cloud nor the internet of things, promoted by Amazon, Facebook, and Google with home hubs that can be hacked.

Civil society groups, governments, and others are rightly asking questions regarding the risks to human rights. In this age of global corporate presence and influence, we need to ensure that ordinary people and communities are able to stand up for their rights.

But the danger with artificial intelligence is greater than just our rights.

Everything that makes who we are comes from our brains. Without brain power, we would not have gone from flint arrowheads to the space station.

DESTROY THE BRAIN WITH AI AND WE DESTROY CREATIVITY.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BEADY EYE ASK’S: How do we make sure that the decisions made by an artificial intelligence are correct?

27 Thursday Sep 2018

Posted by in Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Big Data., Fourth Industrial Revolution., Google, Google it., Humanity., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Reality., Sustaniability, Technology, The cloud., The common good., The Future, The Internet., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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(Four-minute read)

WHEN IT COMES TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IT AMAZES ME HOW PASSIVE WE ALL ARE AT THE MOMENT, EXCEPTING IT’S ENTRANCE INTO OUR LIVES THROUGH THE BACK DOOR.

IF WE CONTINUE TO LEAVE ALGORITHMS AND HOW THEY WORK UNEXPLAINED THEY WILL UNCOUPLE US FROM REALITY. IF WE DON’T US HUMANS WILL BE LEFT WITH LITTLE OR NO AUTONOMY – AN UNREGULATED INTRUSION INTO PEOPLES LIVES.

It’s time we realize the pressure AI is putting on humanity. AI is by nature not conscious or moral: There can be no doubt that the development of artificial bits of intelligence raises ethical questions.

It is the engineers and other masters of algorithms who develop the principles and their boundaries, that need to be held to account.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of ethical ai"

It’s up to us to ensure that in the very conception of AI that is integrate upstream has inbuilt values of transparency, honesty, not just profit for profit sake.

We need to start asking ourselves seriously for what purpose will our data be used?

On which and whose power and what bases it will be used?

Are we heading for a digital dictatorship with all life choices decided by AI?

In order for the algorithms and smart solutions that are developed to be unbiased and discriminatory, the plurality of design teams is a key principle to keep in mind. Diversity must be at the heart of the issues of construction and the development of trust in AI. Integrating women, people from minorities or experts in the subject in question, helps ensure a technological world for all.

We must put the human in the heart of the machine, and democratize AI by making it accessible to all, and finally control the AI by ensuring the truth, security, and confidentiality of data and by regulating algorithms to ensure that they incorporate diversity and exceed its initial biases.

Our attempts so far are dismal:

The European Union’s new law giving people a “right to be forgotten,” is having exactly some of the effect its critics predicted:

The question to be answered by the EU Law is it censoring the internet, giving new tools that help the rich and powerful (and ordinary folk) hide negative information about them, and letting criminals make their histories disappear.

In fact, the ethical issues of AI question are it uses: For what purpose is the AI ​​and must it be used?  How to ensure that these technologies are not manipulated for purposes contrary to the values ​​they defend?

 What is needed is an AI shaped by everyone, NOT PROFIT HIDDEN IN THE

CLOUD.

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of ethics in business"

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: WE SHOULD NEVER UNDERESTMATE HUMAN STUPIDITY

20 Thursday Sep 2018

Posted by in 2018: The Year of Disconnection., Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Big Data., Capitalism, Climate Change., Environment, Evolution, Facebook, Fake News., Fourth Industrial Revolution., Google Knowledge., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Life., Modern day life., Natural World Disasters, Nuclear power., Our Common Values., Politics., Populism., Reality., Social Media, Sustaniability, Technology, The cloud., The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Internet., The Obvious., The world to day., Trade Agreements., Twitter, Unanswered Questions., War, Wealth., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Organisations.

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(Five-minute read)

You don’t need me to tell you that we are living through an era of tremendous transition and disruption and whether or not we are comfortable with AI may already be moot:

HOWEVER, THE THREE BIGGEST PROBLEMS FACING THE WORLD CLIMATE CHANGE, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE FORM OF PROFIT SEEKING ALGORITHMS, AND NUCLEAR WAR REMAIN VIRTUALLY IGNORED DUE TO OUR STUPIDITY. 

NONE OF THESE PROBLEMS CAN BE SOLVED BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE OR ON A NATION BY NATION APPROACH.

THEY ARE GLOBAL AND NEED GLOBAL COOPERATION TO BE SOLVED.

IT MAY BE HARD TO BUY INTO THESE PROBLEMS AFTER HAVING GROWING UP IN THE ERA OF INDUSTRY BUT UNFORTUNATELY GOVERNMENTS, WORLD INSTITUTIONS, AND BUSINESS AND US WILL FIND OURSELVES AT THE HELM OF THE PAST IF WE PERSIST WITH THE BELIEF THAT ECONOMIES, CONSUMPTION, AND PROFIT IS THE HOLY GRAIL OF OUR EXISTENCE.

Unfortunately, human stupidity is perhaps the most powerful force humanity has at its disposal to combat the direction we are going to- Extinction.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of stupidity"

WHEN IT COMES TO IDENTIFYING ITS EFFECTS THERE IS NO PROBLEM FINDING EXAMPLES IN THE PAST.

WE ARE NOW TRANSFERRING STUPITY INTO THE FUTURE IN THE FORM OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE THAT NO ONE UNDERSTANDS OR WILL BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND.

Remembering that there are no defenses against stupidity. The more pertinent question now is whether we can and ought to build trust in systems that can make decisions beyond human oversight that may have irreversible consequences.

In the internet era, technology is changing at an alarming rate. We, humans, are becoming increasingly reliant on the World Wide Web. This is leading to a decrease in the retention capacity of the human brain and an overall downfall in the intelligence quotient of Homo sapiens.

The only way a society can avoid being crushed by the burden of its idiots is if the non-stupid work even harder to offset the losses of their stupid brethren.

If we take a critical look at the three global problems starting with the current global position on climate change:

Reduce carbon emissions on a national promises bases – stupid.

The bottom line is, take action to cool your planet or the planet will take action and cool your life – forever.

The development of AI:

Turn a blind eye by continuing to feed human existence data into algorithms for profit and power thus concentrating both into the hands of a few Clouds- stupid.  

Nuclear Power:

Elect Facebook and Twitter leaders, while Social media feeds us personal recommendations and false News- stupid. 

IS IT TIME TO GET OUR HEAD OUT OF THE SAND AND DEMAND SOME GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE TO TACKLE THE GLOBAL PROBLEMS.

RATHER THAN TRADE WARS, PROMISES, NATIONAL ASPIRATIONS, PROFIT FOR PROFIT SAKE, WARS, INEQUALITY, WE COULD LOOK AFTER EACH OTHER AND THE EARTH WE ALL LIVE ON BY ENSURING THE AI SERVES US ALL EQUALLY NOT THE FEW. 

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of stupidity"

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: WITH THE FORTHCOMING EUROPEAN ELECTIONS IS IT NOT TIME FOR THE EU COMMISSION TO REXAMINE ITS SELF.

18 Tuesday Sep 2018

Posted by in Brexit v EU - Negotiations., Brexit., Communication., Democracy, European Commission., European Union., Humanity., Modern Day Democracy., Modern day life., Our Common Values., The common good., Unanswered Questions., What needs to change in European Union.

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(Six-minute read)

While the UK is wholly focused on Brexit negotiations, yesterday the 12th Sept Jean- Claude Junker gave his state of the Union speech.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of jean claude juncker"

It may have been a thoughtful and reflective speech, accompanied by concrete initiatives on trade, investment screening, cybersecurity, industry, and data IT DID LITTLE TO ADDRESS the wave of populist protest that can yet inflict serious damage on Europe.

The rise of populist or far-right parties in Germany, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Denmark and elsewhere threaten not only the stability of individual governments, but the cohesion of Europe itself, and its most sacred values of democracy and freedom.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures eu commission"

Already we can see that the EU is practically powerless to resist the erosion of civil liberties and the rule of law in eastern Europe, while the Conte-Salvini administration in Rome promises even more serious trouble on migration and the single currency.

Mr. Juncker recognized these challenges but had few immediate proposals to turn the populist tide nor did he offer much evidence that the commission has all the answers.

These are not times for any European leader to talk airily about further losses of national power and sovereignty. The next commission president need not be a Eurosceptic – an absurd notion anyway – but he or she will need, somehow, to bring Europe closer to its disaffected citizens. The EU is not a sovereign nation. It can’t have a president, nor can it grant citizenship.

It’s only an organization, deluded enough to think it’s a country.

The social balance of the EU and the EU nations is crucial for the EU future. The effects of the economic and financial crisis are still causing great hardship in many parts of Europe.

If the commission is to learn anything from the departure of the UK it must improve the public perception of the Union.

We will and are living in a Union of unemployed people, many of them young people who feel sidelined. Until this situation has changed, it must be the number one concern,  to grant the Uk any agreement that is seeing as better than what exists for its remaining members will put the final nail in the coffin.

The UK is and was a hypocritical member seeking to get benefits for its businesses whilst, all too often, leaving its citizens out of the equation.

Brexit is inevitable. It is much too late to cancel Brexit.

The uncertainty about the future relationship is entirely due to the UK’s clueless incompetence and serial backtracking on previously agreed on things which PM May had SIGNED under.

The Brexit mess is 100% made in the UK.

At a time when and the desire to preserve access to EU capital for its banks, asset managers and insurers, many in the UK at least perceive the Commission’s proposed changes to strengthen rules around third country access as a direct attempt to ensure that the UK does not engage in a regulatory race to the bottom, once outside the EU.

THERE IS NO AGREEMENT TRADE OR OTHERWISE THAT A NEW PRIME MINISTER WILL NOT TRY TO CHANGE.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "PICTURES OF THE EU IN THE FUTURE"

It will fall to Mr. Juncker’s successor, from next summer, to lead Europe away from its real and present dangers Of falling into the nationalistic fairy traps.

The EU has for way too long been dominated by an international corporate capital much better at international cooperation than the civil society. In Brussels, the corporate business lobby is much better organized than small business, workers unions, and civil society movements.

HOWEVER, WE ARE STILL ON A LEARNING CURVE WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION.

In conclusion:

One of the greatest challenges to the EU is that it does not stand still for long, with social media and the advance of technology in order to stay standing it must involve its citizens with an equal share of its benefits both financial and otherwise.

To give Europeans a working interest in the Union here is a suggestion that could go a long way in achieving an active engagement of its citizens in its future development.

WHY NOT INTRODUCE A EUROPEAN TREASURY BOND.

EVERYONE CAN BE AFFORDED AN OPPORTUNITY TO INVEST IN ITS FUTURE.

20,000 new border guards to police the EU’s Mediterranean borders by 2020 is too late.

THE JURY IS STILL OUT ON THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE OF THE JCJ COMMISSION.

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S: DO YOU KNOW THE WORLD YOU LIVE ON

04 Tuesday Sep 2018

Posted by in 2018: The Year of Disconnection., Arms Trade., Artificial Intelligence., Capitalism, Climate Change., Education, Enegery, Environment, Evolution, Fourth Industrial Revolution., Fresh Water., G7., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Life., Modern day life., Natural World Disasters, Oil, Our Common Values., Politics., Populism., Post - truth politics., Reality., Space., Sustaniability, Technology, The cloud., The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., United Nations, War, Wealth., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Organisations., World Politics

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( A FIVE MINUTE READ)

 

7.6 BILLION OF US LIVE ON IT

BUT VERY FEW OF US KNOW WHAT IT IS WHERE IT IS OR WHAT WE ARE DOING ON IT OR TO IT. How Big Is Earth?

IT IS 6.378KM IN RADIUS, 6.6 SEXTILLION TONS IN WEIGHT, WITH A SURFACE AREA OF 197 MILLION SQ MILES MADE UP OF 71% WATER, 29% LAND OF WHICH 5% IS LIVABLE ON.

IT IS 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus 1%.

We humans speaking 7, O97 LANGUAGES of which 23 accounts for half the world’s population has been on it for a mere 0.004% of the Earth’s history.

humans on earth

IT HAS 15,000 BIRTHS PER HOUR. 360,000 PER DAY, 132 MILLION PER YEAR WITH 56 MILLION DEATH PER YEAR.

IT HAS 10.7 percent LIVING IN EXTREME POVERTY WITH 68.5 MILLION DISPLACE PEOPLE, OF WHICH 25.4 million are refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18 with 1% OF RICH PEOPLE owning half the world’s wealth.

 IT IS THE 5TH LARGEST PLANET IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM WITH ABOUT 10 BILLION WITH TONS OF CONCRETE POURED ON IT EVERY YEAR.

3% OF THE WORLD IS COVERED IN URBAN AREAS WITH 33 BILLION METERS OF ROADS.

After water concrete is the single most widely used material in the world – and it has a carbon footprint to match.

As you read this, there are more than 40 conflicts unfolding in countries around the world. Yet these are just the most visible look beyond them and there are plenty more.

Total world military expenditure rose to $1739 billion in 2017.

We can blame terrorism and the fear it inspires despite the statistically unimportant number of casualties it inflicts, or the contemporary media and the breathless cycle of “breaking news”, but the truth remains that the wars that seem to inspire the fanatics or have produced so many headlines in recent years prompt deep anxiety.

And with climate change and profit-seeking algorithms things are only going to get worse.

Surely the needs of humanity should always come first. While there are people on Earth who need help, they should be helped, rather than seeing money spent on sending robots onto other planets. Humanity is the number one priority; keeping the human race alive is a necessity.

But we cannot live without the other species we share the earth with. Okay, guess quickly: how many species do you think we share the earth with.

A trillion.

While that may (or may not) be true, the next sentence is spuriously precise: “Every hour three species disappear. Every day up to 150 species are lost.”

Even putting aside the apparent mathematical error in that claim (on the face of it, if three species are disappearing every hour, 72 would be lost every day) there is an obvious problem in generating any such number. No-one knows how many species exist. And if we don’t know a species exists, we won’t miss it when it’s gone.

BP claimed the earth has enough oil left for about 53 more years at current production levels

So far Nasa has spent trillions on trying to get off it.

Science may well give us good things.

We all know Velcro came from NASA.

But why bother spending all this money exploring space and finding out there was water on Mars at some point in the last few thousand years (we have water in Earth) when these same great minds could be applied to finding better ways to power humanity’s insatiable desire for energy, to feeding the starving millions around the globe, and generally making life down here better before looking up into the heavens.

It seems the authoritative powers have their heads way, way up in the clouds.

Earth first:

14 billion pounds (6B Kg.) of garbage are dumped into the ocean every year. Most of it is plastic. Americans make up 5% of the world’s population, and yet, produce 30% of the world’s waste and use 25% of the world’s resources.

More than 95 percent of the world’s population is breathing polluted, unsafe air.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of earth from space"

THIS IS THE EARTH YOU NOW LIVE ON SURROUNDED BY JUNK.

NOT THE EARTH ON YOUR SMARTPHONE NOR THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENT EARTH.

IF YOU WANT TO GROW UP ON THIS BEAUTIFUL PLANET LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD.

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S: ARE WE ALL BECOMING ALGORITHMICALLY BLIND.

02 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by in Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Big Data., Communication., Evolution., Facebook, Fourth Industrial Revolution., Google, HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Innovation., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Reality., Robot citizenship., Sustaniability, Technology, The cloud., The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The world to day., Twitter, Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Politics

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( A four-minute read)

We now live in a world where bite-sized chunks of mathematical data have become central to how we live our daily lives.

When programs pass into code and code passes into algorithms and then algorithms start to create new algorithms, it gets farther and farther from human agency.

The resulting software is being released into a code universe which no one can fully understand.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "PICTURES OF ALGORITHMS AT WORK"

The results so far are becoming more and more apparent, with the legality of these algorithms in the long term no longer fit for purpose given the size, complexity, and interdependence of the algorithm systems we increasingly rely on.

It won’t be long before they are writing themselves.

The present-day digital economy is affecting not just how we live but when and where we live. The era of digital transformation is everywhere and the next phase is just around the corner Privacy and cyber warfare.

Despite the wide-reaching impacts of AI, there is no mechanism or body that is charged with accessing its increasing impacts on day to day life.

Here I am not talking about whether it is ethical for Google to know where you are or where you are going but rather the lack of transparency on how this information is being used by governments etc.

IF INFORMATION IS TO BE SHARED WORLDWIDE IT HAS TO BE MADE DO SO BY ETHICAL LEGAL FRAMEWORKS.

THIS IS HAPPENING BUT ON A FRAGMENTED BASES.

WHAT WE ARE GOING TO END UP WITH IS AI REGULATIONS OF ONE COUNTRY CONFLICTING WITH THE OTHERS.

THE END RESULT WILL BE: AI TECHNOLOGIES FAILING TO OPERATE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT with the likely outcome that we will see AI technologies misappropriated, and misused.

THIS IS NOT A JOKE:

BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF EDUCATION AND AWARENESS ON THE ETHICAL AND SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF AI WE ARE WITNESSING THE CREATION OF VAST INEQUALITY IN A WORLD PLAGUED BY DISASSOCIATION AND PERSONALIZED NEWS BUBBLES.

Furthermore since AI is seen to have a global impact regardless of the specific geographical location it is employed – from Wall Street to the current global wars to whether you get medical help or a loan, if we are not careful it will allow individuals and the current Facebook’s, Twitter, Amazon, Google, of this world to use AI to suppress, oppress and control.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPONENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES CAN NOT BE LEFT TO SELF DEVELOPMENT.

NON OF THESE TECHNOLOGIES HAS AT THEIR HEART A WORLD ASPIRATION FOR PEACE-BUILDING, HUMAN RIGHTS, OR SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of algorithms at work"

THEY ARE DRIVEN BY PROFIT FOR PROFIT SAKE.

ALL OWNERS OF ANY SOFTWARE THAT DRIVES ANY PROGRAMS OR ALGORITHMS ASSOCIATED TO PROFIT SHOULD BE OBLIGED BY LAW TO DEPOSIT A COPY OF THE SAID PROGRAM IN A WORLD DEPOSITORY WHERE IT IS VETTED AGAINST OUR COMMON VALUES.

UNLESS WE DEVELOP AI POLICIES AND REGULATIONS IN A COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENT AI IS UNLIKELY TO FOSTER A SUSTAINABLE WORLD AND WILL INSTEAD REINFORCE NORMS OF COMPETITION.

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