Category Archives: Where’s the Global Outrage.

THE BEADY ASK’S: IS IT TIME TO REMOVE THE IMMUNITY OF PROFIT SEEKING ALGORITHMS,THE WORLD BANK AND THE IMF.

01 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by in Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Fourth Industrial Revolution., GDP., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Our Common Values., Social Media, Sustaniability, Technology, The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., War., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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( A seven-minute read)

We all know that Social Media as it is called is having an effect on many if not all aspects of society both for good and bad.

TECHNOLOGY is now described as the third Industrial Revolution, with profit-seeking algorithms being the mercenary soldiers of the platforms on which Social media relies that are not only going to cause an algorithm war that will continue to unstabilize the world we live in.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "picture cyberwar"

An algorithm war will be the great oxymoron of our time.

Why will they cause a war? A digitally controlled systems war.

Because of originality.

At the moment it is vital that natural substances and public knowledge remain in the public domain so that we all have equal access to the collective humanity’s intelligence. Soon, however, we will not know who owns what, seed patenting, plants, medicines, and genetic materials, data, you name it and some algorithm will be controlling it.  The more a nation or group of people is dependent upon digital systems, the more vulnerable they will become.

If we are to have a planet where companies can roam the planet in search of ever cheaper means of making a profit with these algorithms we must demand a global minimum wage.

Algorithms are already addictive. Promoted by multinational corporations that are avoiding taxes by their home countries.

The most effective way to take back control is to establish a Cloud Strongroom where all software programmes, are registered to their origins and a copy of the original program is held for future reference, transparency, available to all.

There is no doubt about the impact of AI. What will be automated next?

AI is only one fish in a vast ocean of technological progress.

” You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.” Jobs.

Scientific data is piling up around us telling us that we are currently destroying what is left of the earth  >  deforestation, warming and acidification of oceans, CO2 emissions, melting ice caps, species extinction 100 to 1000 times faster than before the last Industrial Revolution, overfishing, soil degradation, over-exploitation of the earth ecosystem, running out of oil,  pollution of drinking water, breathable air etc.

The list is endless combining to what we call human progress – GDP.

When in reality what is need is to decouple GDP from material throughput.

Consumption in rich countries is outpacing CDP growth. Perhaps if we placed a moratorium on Advertising for a few years we might reduce consumption and release us from the tyranny of growth at any cost.

If we peel back the false promises of technology the problems we have are much deeper causes, to tackle such as inequality, and consumption that is putting our plant at risk. Not to mention technology replacing many jobs creating a crisis of unemployment.

It’s time before the technology of profit-seeking algorithms plunders what is left of the world resources that we redistribute on merit bases that reflect the population of a country and their development needs the voting power within the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO.

If you look at the World Bank and the IMF you will see that most of the countries representatives in both institutions are finance ministers, or central bank governors while the WTO has trade ministers neither of which have people or the environment as their mantra.

This needs to be done as

Our major world institutions are long overdue in need of reform.

In order to create a fairer global economy is it not the time to democratize the major global institution’s and remove the veto powers.

Right now votes are apportioned to each country according to the financial shares in the institutions with the rich countries claiming over 60%.

The World Trade Organisation is technically democratic with one vote for each member state, but in reality, it is the countries with the biggest markets that pull the punches.

The poorer countries are don’t have the negotiating prowess or the funds to make their voices heard.

Instead of a few powerful countries setting the agendas and predetermining decisions in what is called the green room a large dose of transparency is required allowing the media to access whether the rules and penalties stand up to the common sense notion of fairness.

Perhaps we can get social media to evolve to where it is the people of countries that elect who represents them in these Institutions.

If we don’t bring our institution into the technological age there is little likelihood that the next wave of general learning algorithms (that will be able to solve problems with us specifying how) will place power in our hands but rather in the hands of a few companies and as we have witnessed recently power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

When men run out of words they reach for their swords, not their mobile phones.

One way or the other Algrothims are going to change human history.

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S. WILL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BE IN THE HANDS OF A HANDFUL OF ECCENTRIC BILLIONAIRES?

27 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Big Data., Fourth Industrial Revolution., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Our Common Values., Religion for a digital age., Technology, The Future, The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., Where's the Global Outrage.

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(A six minute read)

The big question that is going to confront us is arriving quicker than we think.

Where will AI or machine learning ultimately take us?

Should we allow AI or Machine Learning be simply set by those that directly profit from it (or the machines themselves) or should direction beset by all of us.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of the brain"

If so how?

If machines end up thinking for themselves then what?

If we don’t open our minds to these questions they will be opened for us by many artificial scientists whether we like it or not.

We are now in a race against the growing power of technology and what wisdom we have left.

In my mind, it should be made mandatory that we humans participate in how present-day technology is being used.

It’s not white Algorithms that we should be engaging with but the voices of common sense. We need people who can think and not technologists solely to decide what evolutionary surprises are in the long tall grass.

We can afford to risk letting Ai or Machine Learning breed in real time. 

If we do there will be many perverse outcomes that will cause catastrophes.

Algorithms are developing that are exploiting rules and seeking the greatest possible rewards to such extent that we are already losing control to little green boxes called Siri. Alexa, and our smartphones.

Increasingly polarized and radicalized political movements, constant surveillance, leaked health data, manipulation of elections using Facebook data are only the tip of the iceberg.

With computer science ethics is optional.

A conscious Robot built first and fixed later will not work. It needs to learn both social and ethical implications of its actions prior to operating at any level of compatibility.

We, therefore, must ensure that it is impossible for scientists to be able to abdicate the responsibility for their creations. 

There is no room for some nerd-sighted geniuses of our day to make a mistake.

I.E. That’s not my problem I just programmed or built it is not good enough.

All of us should be consulted through appointed representatives to determine whether a technology once introduced is usable by all with in the resources available.

All technology programmes whether they are Algorithms for profit or otherwise should under Law be required to submit a verified copy of the program to be held in a virtual world strongroom, accessible to all ensuring transparency and accountability.

The information inside our brains is being extracted quicker and quicker by Ai and it will end up in the hands of a machine owned by a program Android called Connecto with over one hundred billion neurons.

Now you might think that this is total hogwash but Connecto is a Neuroscience research program already going on.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of the brain"

Scientists aren’t sure if technology is destroying our brains but it’s only a question of time before a brain is uploaded to a computer and you may rest assured that only a few will understand what it will produce.

Our apps are taking advantage of our hard-wired needs for security and social interaction and researchers are starting to see how terrible this is for us. The more tapping, clicking and social media posting and scrolling people do, the “noisier” their brain signals become.

Decode our thoughts and our private minds will no longer to private.

If it’s in your mind it is in your brain.

Therefore because all brains are of a similar structure no matter what language, what religion what color your skin is whether you rich or poor we all walk and we all think much the same way we are in danger of a commonality that can be used and exploited to create a social interaction that is common to us all.

All day long, we’re inundated by interruptions and alerts from our devices.

This is why all those Like clicks are helping to create a systemic programme that could lead to being able to decode our thoughts and our personalities.

For me, the question is where is all this leading as we don’t yet quite know what intelligence is.

Is it the brain of Sapiens or the biological structure of plants that have made us subsistence to them or the structure of atoms that are the foundation to both or some other forces that we are unaware of that is the real intelligence.

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S. EUREKA! ARE WE ALL FOOLS TO THINK THAT A PLATFORM IS HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS USERS.

22 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by in Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Facebook, Freedom, Google, Modern Day Democracy., Social Media, Technology, The Internet., Twitter, Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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( A six-minute read)

Facebook is simply a platform and will never be held responsible for its users.

We can’t blame tech makers for making their products so good we want to use them. We are in control. But are we?

Facebook like all other platforms has been distorted by the fortunes they have been able to earn through advertising.

Why?

Because the techniques these companies use are not always generic: they are algorithmically tailored to each person.

There can be no ethics when it comes to technological manipulation that can be sold to the highest bidder.

The problem is that there is nothing the companies can do to address the harm unless they abandon their current advertising models. Thay have little incentive to deviate from the mantra that their companies are making the world a better place.

But how can Google and Facebook or ANY PLATFORM for that matter be forced to abandon the business models that have transformed them into the most profitable companies on the planet?

Notification technology enables hundred unsolicited interruptions into millions of lives, accelerating the arms race for people’s attention. Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. The company’s famous ‘likes’ feature has been described by its creator as ‘bright dings of pseudo-pleasure’.

When you consider that the total size of all global data hit 20 zettabytes in 2017.

This probably means nothing so picture this: If every 64 – gigabyte I Phone were a brick, we could build 80 Great walls of China with the I Phones needed to store all the above data.

It’s growing every second and completely out of any control.

All of our minds are being hijacked.

Our choices are not as free as we think they are. The technologies we use have turned into compulsions, if not full-fledged addictions.

Billions of people have little choice over whether they use these now ubiquitous technologies, and are largely unaware of the invisible ways in which a small number of people in Silicon Valley are shaping their lives.

We now have an internet-shaped around the demands of an advertising economy with technology platforms contributing toward so-called “continuous partial attention.

Manipulating people into habitual use of their products or platforms with rewards or short-term social affirmations, while harvested valuable data about the preferences of users that could be sold to advertisers.

So what if anything can be done.

It is very common, for humans to develop things with the best of intentions and for them to have unintended, negative consequences.

We’ve truly reached a new level of technological time wasting, with the young generation unable to communicate.

If we the adult world cannot wean ourselves free a good starting point would be if we are to exercise our freedom by banning,  iPhones, iPads, laptops and mobile phones from places of education.

They will become a real problem if you don’t, as they are ridiculous thing to be addicted to. It just something to use when you’re procrastinating or is it a procrastination-trap, a slate of tools destined to get you addicted.

We have to learn to deal more effectively with our emotions if we want to procrastinate less.

Such as varying the rewards people receive to create a craving, or exploiting negative emotions that can act as triggers. It makes them look like they have a life.

Social media and other addictive technologies have and are creating an attention economy, which is severely limiting people’s ability to focus, and is possibly lowering IQ.

One reason I think it is particularly important for us to talk about this now is that we may be the last generation that can remember life before the Internet.

Drawing a straight line between addiction to social media and political earthquakes like Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump, digital forces have completely upended the political system and, left unchecked, could even render democracy as we know it obsolete.

The mere presence of smartphones damages cognitive capacity – even when the device is turned off. Everyone is distracted, all of the time.

Feelings of boredom, loneliness, frustration, confusion, and indecisiveness often instigate a slight pain or irritation and prompt an almost instantaneous and often mindless action to quell the negative sensation by looking at your I Phone, I Pad

If the people who built these technologies are taking such radical steps to wean themselves free, can the rest of us reasonably be expected to

”Chrome extension, called DF YouTube, “which scrubs out a lot of those external triggers” an app called Pocket Points that “rewards you for staying off your phone when you need to focus”

Get a life and use one.

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https://embed.ted.com/talks/tristan_harris_the_manipulative_tricks_tech_companies_use_to_capture_your_attention

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S; THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO REGULATE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ITS SOFTWARE ALGORITHM’S

16 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by in Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Fourth Industrial Revolution., Humanity., Our Common Values., Robot citizenship., Technology, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The world to day., United Nations, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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( A three-minute read)

I AM SURE THERE IS NO NEED HERE FOR ME TO REMIND YOU THAT TECHNOLOGY IS NOT ONLY CHANGING THE WAY WE CONDUCT OUR LIVES BUT THE WAY WE WILL EXIST IN THE FUTURE. 

There is a wonderful aspiration by the writer Isaac Asimov introduced in 1942:

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except when such orders would conflict with the previous law; and a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the previous two laws.

I call the above an aspiration because as we all know that this will never happen.

We now have AI learning from AI, engage in cyberbullying, stock manipulation or terrorist threats. We also have AI surveillance, both private and public collecting data with or without permission.

A.I. systems don’t just produce fake tweets; they also produce fake news videos.

What, exactly, constitutes harm when it comes to A.I.?  No one knows.

AI systems, are already no longer limited to a single set of tasks.

On the other hand, we need AI to tackle world future problems, such as climate change, threats from space, immigration, and sustainability itself.

There is no argument that regulation of what I call essential AI should be avoided.

However, my A.I. for profit or exploitation did it should not excuse illegal behavior.

A.I. system must clearly disclose that it is not human. As we have seen in the case of bots — computer programs that can engage in increasingly sophisticated dialogue with real people — society needs assurances that A.I. systems are clearly labeled as such.

We must ensure that people know when a bot is impersonating someone.

We must ensure that A.I. system cannot retain or disclose confidential information without explicit approval from the source of that information. Because of their exceptional ability to automatically elicit, record and analyze information, A.I. systems are in a prime position to acquire confidential information.

We must ensure that an A.I. system must be subject to the full gamut of laws that apply to its human operator. This rule would cover private, corporate and government systems.

Unfortunately none of the above is possible.

This is why I favor ( In the interest of caution)  that we establish A World Technological Strong Room, just like the World seed bank where all software programmes are held and available to everyone.

Of course, it would be totally naive to think that all AI should be subject to scrutiny.

It’s not military nor intelligence AI that I am talking about, it is AI that is created for exploitation for profit.

Rather than regulating what AI systems can and can’t do that make it more expensive to develop AIs the strong room would hold the founding programme.

Because Artificial intelligence systems are now learning from each other and have the potential to change how humans do just about everything. We must ensure all AI has an impregnable “off switch.”

How can this achieve? and by whom.

This is where I am open to suggestions.

It could be A United Nations Cloud Strongroom, run by a world people algorithm that copies all existing software and Algorithms.

Companies making and selling AI software will need to be held responsible for potential harm caused by “unreasonable practices” Any sufficiently transformative technology is going to require new laws and New legislation that isn’t imminent.

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S : IN THIS AGE OF TECHNOLOGY ARE WE REALLY TALKING TO ONE ANOTHER?

13 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Algorithms., Technology., The cloud., The Future, The Internet., Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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( A twenty-minute read)

Today’s atomizing forces are brand new and far less tangible: ubiquitous Internet access, constant email and social-media updates, all distracting us from our surroundings, loved ones and other people around us.

Are we indeed socially hobbled by our little screens?

If matters have gotten worse, how would we know?

We’re disengaged.’ Compared to what?

If the new technologies are to fulfill their promise, it is necessary to direct attention towards the costs and concerns that come with the globalization of technology.

Although information technology and increased knowledge can empower everyone on an individual level, the limitations of the existing structures within the job market, socioeconomics, and governmental sovereignty are hard to cast away; an underlying irony has yet to be eliminated.

We are only just beginning to replacing vague theories with some hard data and the overarching effects so far point to the disruptive nature of technology.

So here are a few facts explaining how digital-age technologies have already transformed our world, for better and for worse.

Wealth boosted by technology has not been equally distributed.

By 2020, it is estimated that the 1 percent will own 54 percent of global wealth.

Thanks to technology, we can vent our frustration in increasingly visible ways.

Jobs will be computerized in the next 10-20 years.

With the rise of websites like WebMD, LegalZoom, and E*Trade, even white-collar professionals like lawyers, doctors, and financial middlemen are under threat from technology. Are any jobs safe? For the time being, positions that require empathy—say, nurses over doctors—are better positioned to withstand the technological blow.

Furthermore, governmental programs do not provide the assistance needed to help workers transition to the technological age, further wedging the gap between rural and urban. This disparity is also magnified within the stratification of international systems: The digital divide that exists among developed and developing countries is obvious and the high cost of bringing broadband and technology to third-world countries is an issue that needs to be solved.

Health will be run by algorithms attached to the cloud.

To put this in perspective, a full human genome sequence cost $100 million in 2002. Today, it can be done for $1,000; by 2020 it may cost less than a cup of coffee.

Technology can be a double-edged sword, but at least when it comes to our health (if not necessarily our medical professionals), it has largely been a force for good but just imagine what is going to happen to Health Insurance when your health is monitored by the Cloud.

Education.

Today, there are more than 80,000 education apps available for download through Apple’s App Store; 72 percent of those are aimed at toddlers and preschoolers. But while parents and app developers have obviously embraced the tech education revolution, the link between technology and educational performance is murky at best.

Technology can help save the planet…

The World Bank estimates that climate change may push more than 100 million people into extreme poverty by 2030.

Of course, technology has played a role in our current predicament. The shale revolution—which at its core is a technological revolution—has given a new lease on life to the oil and gas era. That may be good for falling oil prices, but it’s horrible for our environment.

But what makes the difference is that the global economy grew by 3 percent in 2014 while world emissions remained flat.

People are not willing to fundamentally change their lives for problems far off in the future, even ones as potentially catastrophic as climate change. To avoid the worst effects of climate change, alternative energies need to become as cheap and reliable as their carbon-emitting counterparts, and quickly.

Cheaper alternative energy is the best hope the world has left.

Global Security:

Technology has also created a whole new set of global security concerns.

The thoroughly modern phenomenon of cybercrime and economic espionage is estimated to cost the world more than $445 billion every year. That’s roughly 1 percent of global income. And while it hasn’t happened yet, the fear that cyber attacks can spill over and trigger real-world conflicts remains an ongoing concern.

Technology has also changed the face of modern warfare. A decade ago, the Pentagon had a stockpile of fewer than 50 drones; today it has an arsenal of about 7,000. The Pentagon estimates that China will build nearly 42,000 drones by 2023. Others will follow suit. Yet another possible complication.

But the most worrisome development?

Technology has given terrorist groups like ISIS an unparalleled platform to spread their messages of hate. The knowledge needed to build bombs in the comfort of your own home is now just a few short clicks away. Technology is capable of empowering every single individual in the world, even the worst of us.

Finance and the world economy.

It is quite obvious that money in the form of cash is going to disappear.

World stock market is now run by high-frequency trading algorithms. Personal credit lines are governed by algorithms. World trade is reverting to protectionism. Inequality is widening.

Communication:

We are all talking on our cell phones. Public spaces aren’t communal anymore. No one interacts in public spaces.

On the other hand, access to the wealth of information and opinion available on the internet is exposing people of all ages to views, lifestyles, and knowledge they might never have encountered otherwise, potentially generating greater compassion and understanding both within local communities and for people on the other side of the world.

In the next few years, virtual reality could offer a further means of breaking down geographic and social barriers.

Project Syria, for instance, uses virtual-reality goggles to place people inside the meticulously researched world of a Syrian citizen caught in the Syrian conflict, cutting through the ‘empathy fatigue’ often brought about by constant access to global news.

THEN THERE IS:

CRIME:

WHAT LAWS SHOULD APPLY TO AI.

SHOULD THEIR CREATORS BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS ACTIONS?

An AI programme could be an innocent agent with either the software programmer or the user being held to be the perpetrator-vi another.

Does the programmer know that if the machine is used in a certain way that a certain outcome is inevitable?

Who or what should be punished if for an offense of which an AI system is directly liable.

Is Ai a service or a product. The legal implications will be profound.

PRIVACY: 

Nothing is private any longer. Whether you like it or not everything is data.

Should AI platforms Pay us for the Data?

FALSE NEWS:

There is no longer a source of Facts. Campaigns to manipulate public opinion through false or misleading social media postings have become standard political practice across much of the world.

Exploiting every social media platform — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and beyond — and relying on human users and computerized “bots” that can dramatically amplify the power of disinformation campaigns by automating the process of preparing and delivering posts. Bots interact with human users and also with other bots. They generate so much content — and they share each other’s content — that it’s hard to disaggregate the networks.

The impact goes beyond electoral politics to hot-button issues such as climate change and the safety of vaccines.

So should we put aside these value judgments and focus on how technology will simply make the world different going forward. 65 percent of children entering primary school today will end up working in jobs that don’t even exist yet. Our time is better spent figuring out how to live in this new world rather than lamenting the old one.

Unfortunately, by the time we get around to waking up to Algorithms, we will be owned by one.

History also advises that the measures taken must be developed through close consultation between governments, private sector experts, and stakeholders and citizens. Experience with previous technologies suggests that prudent policies can help us effectively manage the risks associated with new technologies without harm to their benefits. But can we say that this is honestly true with Algorithms that are learning from each other or driven by profit, filtering platforms in order to supply personalized information?

The result is having corrosive effects across the whole political arena worldwide.

Whether you are techno-utopians or techno-skeptics technology is changing our lives and the world we all live in and on IN MORE WAYS THAN WE YET OR WILL EVER BE CAPABLE OF COMPREHENDiING.

This is why I advocate a strong room for technology. Where all software is stored and available to all. (See the previous post)

If we are not careful the very thing that we all cherish Freedom will become the sole prerogative of the Algorithms world OF APPLE, MICROSOFT, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, AND THEIR LIKE.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of technology"

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revolutionary.

What was still missing from the research, he decided, was historical perspective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S. ONE OF THE BIGGEST THREATS TO THE PLANET IS OUR CONTINUING DISCONNECTION

22 Thursday Feb 2018

Posted by in Artificial Intelligence., Climate Change., Humanity., Life., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Paris Climate Change Delegates., Sustaniability, Technology, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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( A seven-minute read)

The vast majority of us now live in cities far removed from nature, walking around with our faces in smartphones connected to the cloud by algorithms sporting fancy names like Twitter, Facebook etc.

I am sure you have read or hear that we are now connected more than ever in our history, but most of this connectivity is false. Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of climate change effects"As amazing as this seems, this is just the beginning of what we can expect.

Mobile technology has seen a meteoric rise in adoption since the debut of the first iPhone in 2007. Seven years have given us significant advancements in mobile technology, but relative to the span of recorded human history, seven years is still a short time.

We’re barely skimming the surface of what we can expect from technology.

This very moment we live in a world in which news is broken in under 140 characters and people are more driven by bouncing icons on their mobile phones than what can be experienced outside of their 3.5” screen.

Google attempts to understand our behaviors to deliver more relevant information and content to better connect with users through their various services.

As connected as we are now, there is still a fundamental disconnect between people and the companies that attempt to reach them through these technologies.

We may one day reach a point where true conversations can happen between man and machine, but for now, it is still up to the people, the marketers and brand ambassadors of the world, to drive this human connection.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of disconnect"

So what does all of this mean?

The world used to be really small. People were limited to what happened in their city or village and every now and then, if the event was truly important, the news spread far enough. They wrote letters that would take months to reach their final destination if ever at all. The information was kept by few. You would hear from countries directly involved in the recent history of yours and you would barely ever make it very far from home. And even if you did, it was not an everyday thing or an everyday decision for anyone.

This was the life less than 100 years ago.

And to put things in perspective, humans have been on earth for around 200.000 years and the Earth herself is 4.543 billion years old.

So we can agree that the way we live now is fairly recent.

“We are now so disconnected” with the madness being amplified year after year with so much information it leaves us with 3 choices:

You will listen to it as if this had nothing to do with you what so ever.

Or

You hide under your blankets. Forever. And deny it. Live in the bubble. Proclaim that all is well. Refuse to see the disconnection to the point that you are unable to move or function.

Or

We can take a stand, and make a choice.

We can listen enough to know and make an informed choice and then we can choose to do something about it.

This is where the greatness is found.

There are no absolutes in science but we have to begin to trust the science of climate change.

Why?

Because it is untestable that this is the best planet we know, and it is clear beyond any doubt that the risk to us all is climate change.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of climate change effects"

The move beyond the land and our disconnection from nature are impressive… but it is also one of the main threats facing us all.

With or without the Paris climate agreements:  We are still pumping 70 million tons of CO2  into our atmosphere a day.

Rest assure that climate change will not all happen at once.

It must now be treated as a continual threat with no debate.

We exist by nature consent not the other way around and the sooner we learn it the better.

It is the time that we put sustainability on all Education syllabus.

It is the time for all of us to demand that all-weather forecasting slots on our televisions screens at least once every three months addressed climate change.

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YET we are more connected today than ever before and this has its madness and its greatness.

 

So we are DEFINITELY more connected than ever before.

 

THE BEADY EYE ASK’S: SHOULD WE TRUST ALGORITHMS.

15 Thursday Feb 2018

Posted by in Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Big Data., Fourth Industrial Revolution., Humanity., Innovation., Our Common Values., Social Media, Technology, The cloud., The common good., The Future, The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., United Nations, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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( A two-minute read) Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of computer algorithms"

Do you ever stop to ask yourself why you should trust the information or decisions that algorithms produce?

AI smartphones will soon be standard, using machine learning from the cloud and sooner than later smartphones will have personalized algorithms that will run even when offline.

These algorithms will be own by the companies that both sell and manufacture the phone and will, therefore, carry inbuilt biases depending on which platforms they are attached to.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of computer algorithms"

Imagine a cheap little device that can compute as much data as all the brains in the world. It will have a deep and irreversible affect on everyone and there is no way of predicting what exactly will happen as the developers of such a device will have no idea what it is doing.

How far do we want to go- Robots that obey no matter what with us blind human as their allies.

Today the world faces a number of hugely complex challenges, from global warming to conflicts to nuclear weapons to rampant inequality. But one the real seismic change is how we are going to respond to each other when we all trusting algorithms to make decisions on our behalf.

Now is it the time to put in place world standards and regulations that govern the use of all biological data.

THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT THE WORLD IS GOING TO NEEDS AS MUCH COMPUTER POWER POSSIBLE TO TACKLE ITS PENDING PROBLEMS.

HOWEVER, IT SHOULD BE A HUMAN RIGHT TO INSPECT THE SOURCE CODES OF ANY TECHNOLOGY THAT HAS BIOLOGICAL DATA IN ITS TARGETED SOFTWARE ALGORITHMS. 

IT IS OBVIOUS THAT THE COST OF POWER/ENERGY WILL DRIVE THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY AND ITS SYSTEMS IN THE WORKPLACE AND COMMERCIAL WORLD MARKETS NOT TO MENTION SURVEILLANCE EITHER BY GOVERNMENTS OR OTHER ORGANISATIONS.

NOW IS THE TIME TO START DEMANDING STANDARDS.

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S: WHAT IS THE STANDING OF DEMOCRACY IN THE WORLD TO DAY AND IS IT SOCIAL MEDIA THAT IS ALIENATING US FROM THE VOTE.

05 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by in Algorithms., Democracy, Facebook, HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Modern Day Communication., Modern Day Democracy., Modern day life., Politics., Populism., Post - truth politics., Social Media, The common good., The world to day., Twitter, Unanswered Questions., What needs to change in European Union., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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( A Slow read of twenty minutes)

Democracy has many strengths, including the capacity for self-correction, but the question is can it survive social media.

The word ‘democracy’ has its origins in the Greek language. It combines two shorter words: ‘demos’ meaning whole citizen living within a particular city-state and ‘kratos’ meaning power or rule.

Democracy of sorts had existed for centuries but there is no absolute definition of democracy. The term is elastic and expands and contracts according to the time, place and circumstances of its use.

Meaningful democracy only arrived at a national level in 1906, when Finland became the first country to abolish race and gender requirements for both voting and for serving in government.

Even in established democracies, flaws in the system have become worryingly visible and disillusion with politics is rife. Yet just a few years ago democracy looked as though it would dominate the world. The combination of globalization and the digital revolution has made some of democracy’s most cherished institutions look outdated.

It is far short of the settled, comfortable state of maturity that many of its early adherents expected (or at least hoped) it would be able to claim after decades of effort.

Just a few years ago, Facebook and Twitter were hailed as tools for democracy activists, enabling movements like the Arab Spring to flourish.

Today, the tables have turned as fears grow over how social media may have been manipulated to disrupt the US election, and over how authoritarian governments are using the networks to clamp down on dissent.

They are fast becoming tools for social control.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of social media democracy"

So has democracy’s global advance come to a halt, and may even be in reverse.

The notion that winning an election entitles the majority to do whatever it pleases no longer holds water.

Since the dawn of the modern democratic era in the late 19th century, democracy has expressed itself through nation-states and national parliaments. People elect representatives who pull the levers of national power for a fixed period.  But this arrangement is now under assault from both above and below.

From above, globalization has changed national politics profoundly.

From below Modern technology is implementing a new modern version with national politicians surrendering more and more power to Social Media.

For example over trade and financial flows, to global markets and supranational bodies, and may thus find that they are unable to keep promises they have made to voters.

International organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation, and the European Union might have extended their influence, but they no longer have the power to implement what they preach.

There is a compelling logic too much of this:

The fragility of the United Nations influence elsewhere has become increasingly apparent with the state of the world.

How can anyone Organisation or a single country deal with problems like climate change or tax evasion?

National politicians have also responded to globalization by limiting their discretion and handing power to unelected technocrats in some areas. The number of countries with independent central banks, for example, has increased from about 20 in 1980 to more than 160 today.

So is the power now in the hands of multi Clongormentts like Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Mircosoft etc.

Certainly, the perception that democracy in decline has become more widespread than at any time during the past quarter-century. Erosion of freedom over the past few years, adopting smarter methods for m of subversion

There are four main sorts of Democracy.

  • Direct democracy
  • Representative democracy
  • Constitutional democracy
  • Monitory democracy

A liberal democracy (that is, one that champions the development and well-being of the individual) is organised in such a way as to define and limit power so as to promote legitimate government within a framework of justice and freedom.

Social media is a double-edged sword it allows us to speak truth to power but on the other hand, it allows power to manipulate public opinion and polarize the electorate.

Citizens use it to speak truth to power, and authoritarian governments use it to spread misinformation.

Twitter users got more misinformation, polarizing and conspiratorial content than professionally produced news.”

They fake petition signatures. They skew poll results and recommendation engines.

Rather than a complete totalitarianism based on fear and the blocking of information, the newer methods include demonizing online media and mobilizing armies of supporters or paid employees who muddy the online waters with misinformation, information overload, doubt, confusion, harassment, and distraction.”

And yes, governments are increasing their efforts to censor the internet, but that’s because they recognize that the internet poses a threat to their control.

Every authoritarian regime has social media campaigns targeting their own populations.

If the liberal world order is indeed coming apart under pressure from
the authoritarians, the future of democracy will be deeply affected.

Social media firms are “largely immune from responsibility” in the legal sense, but that “in the court of public opinion it is a different matter, and future US/EU legislation seems likely if they don’t address these issues in a meaningful way.

So what is the answer?

Is social media basically good, or does it have a “negative impact on society”

There are no gatekeepers when you publish via your social profile, (outside of each platform’s terms of use) – you can write anything and anyone has the chance to view it.

Social Media has truly democratized media and given everyone a medium through which to be heard.

It has also opened the system up to those who would exploit it to push their own agendas. The platforms are now looking to police this, but it’ll likely always play a part.

To make democracy work, we must be participants, not simply observers.

One who does not vote has no right to complain.

Here are a few questions to mull over.

What can be done to fight citizens’ political alienation and distrust?

Are representative democracy and greater public participation the answer or do we need to think beyond current practices?

How can the cultural and historical factors involved and reflected in present developments help us look into the future?

What knowledge is needed to understand and inform decision-making in the future?

Which values are and which values must be at the base of decision-making?Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of social media democracy"

If we are indeed heading for a Smartphone Algorithms Democracy: Who, or What will be in control. 

The algorithms behind social media platforms convert popularity into legitimacy, creating echo chambers, overwhelming the public square with multiple, conflicting assertions.

Today, social media acts as an accelerant, and an at-scale content platform and distribution channel, for both viral “dis”-information (the deliberate creation and sharing of information known to be false) and “mis”-information.

“Populist” leaders use these platforms, often aided by trolls, “hackers for hire” and bots, on open networks such as Twitter and YouTube.

Sometimes they are seeking to communicate directly with their electorate. In using such platforms, they subvert established protocol, shut down dissent, marginalize minority voices, project soft power across borders, normalize hateful views, showcase false momentum for their views, or create the impression of tacit approval of their appeals to extremism.

And they are not the only actors attempting to use these platforms to manipulate political opinion — such activity is now acknowledged by governments of democratic countries.

In addition, advanced methods for capturing personal data have led to sophisticated psychographic analysis, behavioral profiling, and micro-targeting of individuals to influence their actions via so-called “dark ads.” to self-censor or opt out of participating in public discourse.

Currently, there are few options for redress. At the same time, platforms are faced with complex legal and operational challenges with respect to determining how they will manage speech, a task made all the more difficult since norms vary widely by geographic and cultural context.

Every democracy needs its justice system, so we must “catch up with the modern world”, to cope with the social media.

In reality, old power structures still have power, they just have it in new spaces.

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THE BEADY EYE SAYS: THE WORLD OF WORK IS IN A STATE OF FLUX.

14 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by in 2018: The Year of Disconnection., Capitalism, Democracy, Freedom, Happiness., Innovation., Life., Modern Day Democracy., Our Common Values., Politics., Sustaniability, Technology, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The world to day., Wealth., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Leaders, World Politics

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( A Sixteen minute read)

How much stuff do we really need to lead a normal life?

Not as much as you might think.

Automation, digital platforms, and other innovations are changing the fundamental nature of work.

You could say that: The world of work is in a state of flux.Humanoid robots work side by side with employees in the assembly line at a factory in Kazo, Japan.

There is growing polarization of labor-market opportunities between high- and low-skill jobs, unemployment and underemployment especially among young people, stagnating incomes for a large proportion of households, and income inequality.

However the field of robotics promises to be the most profoundly disruptive technological shift since the industrial revolution.

The development of automation enabled by technologies including robotics and artificial intelligence brings the promise of higher productivity (and with productivity, economic growth), increased efficiencies, safety, and convenience. But these technologies also raise difficult questions about the broader impact of automation on jobs, skills, wages, and the nature of work itself.

Somehow, we believe our livelihoods will be safe. They’re not:

Every commercial sector will be affected by robotic automation in the next several years. We have yet to reach the full potential of digitization across the global economy.

More than half the world’s population is still offline.

Greater interaction will raise productivity but require different and often higher skills, new technology interfaces, different wage models in some cases, and different types of investments by businesses and workers to acquire skills.

In a recent report, the World Economic Forum predicted that robotic automation will result in the net loss of more than 5m jobs across 15 developed nations by 2020, a conservative estimate. 40–50% of all jobs will be taken by robots in the next twenty years.

By 2025, average salaries in the robotics sector will increase by at least 60% – yet more than one-third of the available jobs in robotics will remain vacant due to shortages of skilled workers.

Developments in motion control, sensor technologies, and artificial intelligence will inevitably give rise to an entirely new class of robots aimed primarily at consumer markets. For example  “Create Your Taste” kiosk – an automated touch-screen system that allows customers to create their own burgers without interacting with another human being.

The thing is: we’ve heard this all before. Time and time again, we underestimate capitalism’s extraordinary ability to come up with new meaningless jobs. (It’s 37% in the UK right now, but it could be 50%, 60% or even 100% in the future.)

Unless we update our ideas about what ‘work’ even is. The rise in the total of those employed is governed by Parkinson’s Law, and much the same whether the volume of work, were to increase, diminish or even disappear.

Labor which was once the capital of working men will be longer true.

Again: it’s not about the technology, it’s about the choices we make as a society.

When it comes to universal basic income: we don’t have to wait for the robots. We are more than rich enough to do it right now – in fact, we should have done it forty years ago!

Technology is not destiny, education is.

Everything depends on the choices that we make as a society.

If history is any precedent, we already know the answer.

MOST OF US ARE NOW SURROUNDED WITH A PORTION- DISTORTED EMBARRASSMENT OF NOT JUST FOOD BUT GOVERNMENT SIZE.

Guest Blog: Downsizing for Public Health

It’s time for taxpayers to remind themselves just how much the cost of government to run us is..

Let’s take the cost of running the UK as an example.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of house of parliament in london"

The House of Commons with 650 Mbps at £76,000 pa costing the tax payer £156 million a year.

Add in the £6.4m pa given to opposition parties (Short Money), and support items like IT, and the overall total for each MP goes up to £242,000 pa.

But that’s only part of the bill: we also need to add in the costs of running the Commons itself.  According to the HoC Administration Resource Accounts 2006-07, those costs total £210m, which is a further £325,000 per MP.

Oops I nearly forgot the gold-plated final salary pension guaranteed by taxpayers.

The official cost of MPs’ pensions is under 12 per cent of their salary, after 11 per cent contributions from MPs themselves. This adds up to total pay and pension for an MP of £85,000 (their £76,000 salary and £9,000 pension).

So with 650 MPs, that means each one costs us £85,000 pa in salary, pension contributions and employment taxes. Those troublesome “staffing allowances” cost us an additional £57.9m pa- £90,000 for each MP. Then there’s incidental expenses, additional cost allowances, and travel expenses, totaling a further £30.7m (£48,000 each).

Then you have 814 unelected Peers in the House of Lords at £83,000 pa. Costing the tax payer £67,932,000 a year plus £462,510 in tax-free expenses. Members can claim £300 or £150 for every day they attend the House and undertake parliamentary work. The dining rooms and bars are all subsidised by the taxpayer.

Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill, who has claimed £220,000 of expenses over her 27 year career on the red benches, has never spoken in a debate.

The total cost of members’ allowances and travel is around £20 million per annum.

So reducing the size of the House by about 250 members would represent a significant saving to the taxpayer.

Then you have the Civil Service 418,343, (316,792 full-time and 101,551 part-time.)  Gross annual earnings (excluding overtime or one-off bonuses) for Civil Service employees is around £25,350, pa.

You dont have to ask why people are lying on the floors of hospital corridors.

————————————————————————————————-

‘What do you do when there is nothing left to do?’

What should a government faced with an unmanageable level of unemployment do when conventional policy has failed to resolve the issue?’

Perhaps then a seemingly radical solution, such as universal basic income (UBI), becomes plausible. Universal Basic Income (UBI), a form of social security paid to individuals, not households. It is paid to everyone.

It would give individuals the freedom to say ‘yes’ to jobs. Individuals will not have to do that which they do not wish to do. Fewer people will engage in menial and unsatisfying work. Employers may be forced to increase the wages for underpaid or unpaid jobs.

UBI creates a floor (minimum level) on the income distribution curve, alleviates poverty, and gives bargaining power to the ones who have it least.

Forgetting about work for a moment (if you can), think about what you should do when your physiological needs are no longer a concern. If you’ve had a passion at the back of your mind then you might finally pursue it. If, on the other hand, you’ve passed life going from one kind of busy to another, then you might have missed opportunities to reflect and figure out what you would like to be doing. The cost of failure may have been too high if it meant putting you or your family’s livelihood at risk.

Assuming UBI ensures a basic livelihood for everyone in a community, do these citizens have a duty to give back by working? Do individuals have a duty to accept paid, available employment?

I would say Yes: Individuals should have a duty to do something, providing it is socially beneficial. There was something about people helping each other for its own sake that makes for a good society. A society is not well-functioning if it’s members are not interested in actively improving each other’s well-being.

Caring for the those who cannot care for themselves (such as the elderly, children and disabled). One could volunteer for various causes they care about, whether they be social, environmental, tech-related or so on.

Your recognition that you have alleviated the suffering of others might make you feel like you have done something meaningful.

UBI provides the opportunity for you to try contributing to your community in different ways. This freedom lets you find a way to contribute that is most satisfying for yourself.

It would remove fear replacing it with dignity.

UBI would also reduce the cost of citizens relying on the state for assistance.

There are many pending environmental crises hanging over us, but human wastefulness can be avoided. Can you imagine a world of 7.6 billion people no longer struggling for food or shelter and now focused on bettering the world for their children? That’s universal basic income. That’s a legacy we can all leave.

So why is it not being done?

Because it would downsize our consumerism lifestyle and remove inequality.

There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.

I can hear you saying where will the money come from?

Vat, Negative Interest rates, Earnings from investments, Decreasing militry spending, Sovereign wealth funds, etc.

It would ensure that the distribution of the fruits of technology advancement are distributed fairly. 

As Jeremy Howard said: ” In a post-scarcity world , why hold back wealth from people just because they can’t provide labor inputs just to create wealth.”

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S. WHERE IT THE TRUTH TO BE FOUND? CERTAINLY NOT ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

12 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by in Communication., Fake News., Google, Social Media, Technology, The world to day., Twitter, Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Organisations.

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( A Fifteen minute read)

The internet has loosened our collective grasp on the truth.

It is a fact of the internet that ( with a new social media user, every 15 seconds,) every click, every view and every sign-up is recorded somewhere.

So what exactly is Social Media:Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of social media"

Is it a term relating to gatherings of people that prefer to exist in groups?

Or

Is it the dustbin of idle world gossip.

Not on your Nelly> With billions of people glued to Facebook, Whats App, We Chat, Instagram, Twitter, Weibo and other popular services, social media has become an increasingly powerful cultural and political force, to the point that its effects are now beginning to alter the course of global events.

This is what it is to-day:

Social networks earned an estimated $8.3 billion from advertising in 2015.

  • A 2011 study by AOL/Nielsen showed that 27 million pieces of content were shared every day, and today 3.2 billion images are shared each day.
  • On WordPress alone, 91.8 million blog posts are published every month.
  • It’s estimated that video will account for 74% of all online traffic in 2017.
  • Google processes 100 billion searches a month.
  • 91.47% of all internet searches are carried out by Google.
  • 60% of Google’s searches come from mobile devices.
  • To carry out all these searches, Google’s data centre uses 0.01% of worldwide electricity, although it hopes to cut its energy use by 15% using AI.
  • By 2014, Google had indexed over 130,000,000,000,000 (130 trillion) web pages.

    social sites

    Facebook statistics

    • Facebook adds 500,000 new users every day; 6 new profiles every second.
    • 79% of all online US adults use Facebook.
    • 76% of Facebook users check it every day.
    • The average (mean) number of friends is 155.
    • Half of internet users who do not use Facebook themselves live with someone who does.
    • Of those, 24% say that they look at posts or photos on that person’s account.
    • There are an estimated 270 million fake Facebook profiles.
    • The most popular page is Facebook’s main page with 204.7m likes. The most liked non-Facebook owned page is Christiano Ronaldo’s with 122.6m.
    • There are 60 million active business pages on Facebook.
    • Facebook has 5 million active advertisers on the platform.
    • Facebook accounts for 53.1% of social logins made by consumers to sign into the apps and websites of publishers and brands.

    Twitter statistics

    • 500 million people visit Twitter each month without logging in.
    • There is a total of 1.3 billion accounts, but only 328 million are active,
    • Of those, 44% made an account and left before ever sending a Tweet.
    • The average Twitter user has 707 followers.
    • But 391 million accounts have no followers at all.
    • There are 500 million Tweets sent each day. That’s 6,000 Tweets every second.
    • Twitter’s top 5 markets (countries) account for 50% of all Tweets.
    • It took 3 years, 2 months and 1 day to go from the first Tweet to the billionth.
    • 65.8% of US companies with 100+ employees use Twitter for marketing.
    • 77% of Twitter users feel more positive about a brand when their Tweet has been replied to.

    graph

    You tube statistics

    • 300 hours of video are uploaded to You tube every minute.
    • People now watch 1 billion hours of YouTube videos every day.
    • More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices.
    • The average mobile viewing session lasts more than 40 minutes.
    • The user submitted video with the most views is the video for Luis Fonsi’s song ‘Despacito’ with 4.36 billion views.
    • YouTube sees around 1,148bn mobile video views per day.
    • In 2014, the most searched term was music. The second was Minecraft.
    • 9% of U.S small businesses use Youtube.
    • You can navigate YouTube in a total of 76 different languages (covering 95% of the Internet population).

    Instagram statistics

    • There are 800 million Monthly Active Users on Instagram.
    • Over 95 million photos are uploaded each day.
    • There are 4.2 billion Instagram Likes per day.
    • More than 40 billion photos have been shared so far.
    • 90 percent of Instagram users are younger than 35.
    • When Instagram introduced videos, more than 5 million were shared in 24 hours.
    • Pizza is the most popular Instagrammed food, behind sushi and steak.
    • 24% of US teens cite Instagram as their favourite social network.

    data chalkboard image

    Pinterest statistics

    • Pinterest has 200 million active users each month.
    • 31% of all online US citizens use the platform.
    • 67% of Pinterest users are under 40-years-old.
    • The best time to Pin is Saturday from 8pm-11pm.
    • In 2014, male audience grew 41% and their average time spent on Pinterest tripled to more than 75 minutes per visitor.

    LinkedIn statistics

    • LinkedIn has 500 million members.
    • 106 million of those access the site on a monthly basis.
    • More than 1 million members have published content on LinkedIn.
    • The average CEO has 930 LinkedIn connections.
    • Over 3 million companies have created LinkedIn accounts.
    • But only 17% of US small businesses use LinkedIn.

    Snapchat Statistics

    • Snapchat has 178m active daily users.
    • 60% of them are under 25.
    • In 2016, $90m was spent on Snapchat ads.
    • 47% of US teens think it’s better than Facebook, while 24% think it’s better than Instagram.

    That’s your fill of social media statistics for now, with just a tiny fraction of the weird and wonderful stats and facts available out there.

    It’s easy to get dragged into the drama and other negative aspects of social media.

    Social media is built for polarisation and extremes.

The basic engagement mechanisms of popular social media sites like Facebook drive people to think and communicate in ever more extreme ways.

Social media is a collective term for all the websites and online services that are erasing national borders and distances.

Social networks are helping to fundamentally rewire human society.

They are used to spread information about dramatic events or to warn others about risky routes. When refugees reach a new country, they can also use social media to contact their fellow countrymen who are already there and find out about things like permits, authorities they can turn to or what things cost.

They have subsumed and gutted mainstream media.

They have undone traditional political advantages like fund-raising and access to advertising.

They are destabilizing and replacing old-line institutions and established ways of doing things, including political parties, transnational organizations and longstanding, unspoken social prohibitions against blatant expressions of racism and xenophobia.

They are helping to create surprisingly influential social organizations among once-marginalized groups. For Example : Brexiters in Britain to ISIS in the Middle East to the hacker collectives of Eastern Europe and Russia.

Each network in its own way is now wielding previously unthinkable power, resulting in unpredictable, sometimes destabilizing geopolitical spasms.

Through this new technology, people are now empowered to express their grievances and to follow people they see as echoing their grievances.

THE QUESTION IS:

IS SOCIAL MEDIA NOW THE JUDGE AND JURY AND THOSE THAT RUN ITS ALGORITHMS ARE NOW THE REAL WORLD POWER BROKERS.

If it wasn’t for social media, I don’t see TRUMP AS PRESIDENT OF THE US.

This has to be the scariest ACHIEVEMENT about Facebook/ Twitter.

Not that Facebook may be full of lies (a problem that could potentially be fixed), but that its scope gives it real power to change history in bold, unpredictable ways.

But that’s where we are.

It’s time to start recognizing that social networks actually are becoming the world-shattering forces that their boosters long promised they would be — and to be unnerved, rather than exhilarated, by the huge social changes they could uncork.

This should come as no surprise.

Facebook and Twitter have become the new TV, where businesses can’t control their messaging as they once were able to do with TV ads.

In a way, we are now living through a kind of bizarro version of the utopia that some in tech once envisioned would be unleashed by social media.

Online campaigns directed at GOVERNMENTS OR FOR THAT MATTER AGAINST BRANDS can be a lot more effective than writing. Pay-to-play strategy by letting posts run and gain organic traction before boosting them.

Efforts to fight this dismaying trend are obviously worth pursuing, but is it time to give our due to the new political activism – Social Media. The king of communication.

As it becomes increasingly commercialised there is a risk that people – particularly young people – will see social media content as being politically and commercially independent.

What it means to get caught in a Twitter storm. Facts tell, but stories sell.

In actual fact, the very opposite is true.

When you sign up for Facebook, you also accept a business model that can use information about what you do and how you feel, for example in marketing.

One terrifying example is how the terrorist group ISIS uses social media to recruit new supporters. Potential ISIS fighters can be invited to join private Facebook groups where they are put into contact with individuals who are active in Syria.

However if used in a responsible manner it s also a new tool for democracy.

More people can express their views and form opinions. There are also examples of individuals who have quickly succeeded in raising large sums of money for those in need.

The Impotence of Social Media is in its nucleus accumbens. 

People tend to follow the behavior of the group.” If other people have liked a post, new viewers will be more likely to like it too. And that popularity can feed on itself, changing their behavior to try to get social approval, respond to headlines without any in-debt knowledge of what the headline refers to. 

A single ‘like’ can make a social-media post more popular.

Many social media sites share more of the higher-ranked — or more popular — posts. As a result, “people are more likely to see what others have positively rated,”  what’s in those photos is socially acceptable.

Skip pictures with few likes.

Likes can have a subtle but significant effect on how teens interact with friends online.

The important take-home message here, is that Social media shapes how we perceive the world around us.

When people express themselves through social media, they communicate collectively.

Members of social media communities direct raw emotions into particular interests. These audiences show their interest and approval by liking, sharing and commenting. And those mechanisms drive future social media behavior all driven by algorithms that drive participation and attention-getting in social media, the addictive “gamification” aspects such as likes and shares, invariably favoured the odd and unusual.

What are the results?

How polarised and divided nations are becoming.

The smartphones and web applications were increasing people’s

passions while also driving them to polarising extremes.

Political figures around the world are more polarised.

Language is more crude.

Sharing is becoming competitive, pushing participants to one-up each other.

Where Facebook or Twitter (viewed on mobile devices) has become for many people the sole source of news. Article will have a MUCH higher chance of converting to a sale!

You’ve engaged them, you’ve educated them, you’ve entertained them with social networks. (Communities of people (or animals) that are interrelated owing to the way they relate to each other.)

In humans, this can involve sharing details of their life and interests on Twitter or Facebook, or perhaps belonging to the same sports team, religious group or school.

I rest my case.

The functions of social media have transformed into something we have never anticipated.

Social media has transformed into political tools, increased global awareness, and offered a quicker way to spread information.

People have the power to abuse social platforms like Facebook and Twitter to promote radical ideas. So what.

Once you gag people’s right to speak freely, you place a mental shackle on the subconscious mind.

If you want to influence others to act upon what you have to say, treat social media communications with the same degree of importance as those that are face-to-face.

Social media to a great extent is a reflection of life. Without education for the sake acquiring knowledge the mind looks for it else where.

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

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