Tag Archives: Human rights

THE BEADY EYE ASKS. WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FREEDOM ? WE ARE NOT FREE AND NEVER WILL BE. .

22 Saturday May 2021

Posted by in 2021. The year for change., Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Big Data., Dehumanization., Digital age., DIGITAL DICTATORSHIP., Facebook, Fourth Industrial Revolution., Freedom, Human values., Humanity., Life., Modern day life., Modern day Slavery, Pandemic, Reality., Robot citizenship., Survival., Technology v Humanity, The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Internet., The Obvious., The world to day., THE WORLD YOU LIVE IN., THIS IS THE STATE OF THE WORLD.  , TRACKING TECHNOLOGY., Unanswered Questions., VALUES, We can leave a legacy worthwhile., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

≈ Comments Off on THE BEADY EYE ASKS. WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FREEDOM ? WE ARE NOT FREE AND NEVER WILL BE. .

Tags

, ,

(Twelve-minute read) 

People think they’re free, but in reality, they don’t even understand freedom.

To live a free life, you must first be free.

Rousseau notes that the real mystery of freedom is how we can be in chains and still regard ourselves as free (Rousseau: 181).

And Kant’s argument provides us with a formidable justification for assuming that freedom is the necessary and indispensable condition of human existence given that man has the capacity to act upon the commands of reason: that is the categorical imperative.

If the will is subject to extraneous circumstances or influences it ceases to express itself freely in our actions. In this scheme of things, freedom can only be preserved if the moral laws that individuals endorse and accept as their guidance are such that they can accept them voluntarily (Kant: 57-58).

Just how true in the world of Algorithms, Data collection, Social Media, Search Platforms, Track and Trace, Potential Covid Passports, Smartphones with around-the-clock electronic surveillance to name just a few, remains to be seeing.     

In fact, there is no such thing as freedom. 

Is there a statement more likely to provoke consternation from people than to submit that there is no such thing as freedom?

I think not.

The modern political theory holds that “freedom” is something available to all but in the technology world and post-pandemic world, there is no such thing as freedom in the absolute sense since everyone views freedom differently.

Can you remember who you were before the world told you who you should be?

The dictionary definition of freedom is; The power or right to act, speak or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint and the power to determine action without restraint.

In other words, we have full control over the things that we choose to do.

This is simply not true.

A democratic constitution will not state that each of us is free, what it says is that we have the right to certain freedoms which the constitution is supposed to protect.  

We are simply part of a system of rules that gives us certain rights referred to as freedoms.

So what have we got? 

  • Free means that we freely make the choices we make and are thus are morally responsible for our choices. In addition, we may be held legally accountable for the choices we make.
  • Or does it mean I am stronger than you, so I will retain my freedoms at your expense by the use of force?

There is no such thing as “freedom” because it can’t be defined objectively.

Why? 

Because too many people in the world live with the constraints of poverty, poor access to health care and education, and a structural lack of opportunity.

None of us were representation or were participants in the writing of the rules of the social contract of the Internet.

In the face of such a common reality, is it reasonable to speak of free will as a tool to change lives?

At the most, we might be able to argue that in such circumstances a person is constrained but not determined.

We are free to stop eating but we are not free to stop breathing.

                                             ————–

The truth is that our rights, beliefs, and actions are determined by our biology, neurology, life context, nature, experiences, and interpretation of our experiences.

In psychological terms, free will means that we understand the history of our determinedness; how we have come to be what we are. 

However, the scope of your individual rights has one primary limit: it ends where the rights of another begin.

Apply that universally and you have the basis for all rights.

Instead of using the word “freedom” as an entity all in itself (which does not exist) should we be using rights?

Each culture defines rights differently based on the ethos of the various cultures.

“Rights” are simply arbitrary policies set up by individual societies to meet the needs of the citizens. Different people and different individuals differ on what they believe is a right.

Again, a subjective phrase depending on what is morally right.

It is my belief, and it is a belief shared by many, that these are rights that should be observed, and that the infringement upon these rights of any entity, whether it be government or individual, should be stopped.

So rights are freedoms with the caveat that it’s morally correct to collect Data without our express permission to do so in the first place. A Liberty which is taken for granted.

Take  “Liberty” an abstract word that doesn’t have an absolute definition.

The word simply means whatever it is accepted to mean even if one’s man’s desired Liberty is perceived as infringing on another man’s Liberty.

Freedom, use to be the ability to legally do or think anything that does not infringe upon the rights of another human being whether or not the action or thought is popular or under a certain prevailing viewpoint.

Freedom does happen, in the brain but one’s perception of freedom changes when one can not see the freedom one owns. So freedom these days still exists though it may seem as though it is not all that it is cracked up to be.

Not any longer. To access platforms one has to agree with an untransparent Algorithm that runs that platform.  

Is this morally wrong? 

How do you define “morally wrong” when everyone has a different moral belief?

The problem is that data collection is now the holy grail and the fewer people in a country feel they have been severely limited in their freedom, the less free the country is as a whole.

“Freedom is nothing left to lose”

The current Pandemic has and is highlighting how freedoms that are taken for granted can be reversed. 

As long as the masses do what the elite tells them to do, then they are free.

What then is freedom? 

The power to live as one wishes. – Marcus Tullius Cicero.

The moment we let go is the moment we find freedom. – Rebekah Stephenson.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. – Martin Luther King.

Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom assumes responsibility and most people are afraid of that. – Sigmund Freud.

Freedom is the power to choose our own chains. – Jean Jacques Rousseau.

It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything. – Tyler Durden.

Money doesn’t buy you freedom, but freedom cannot be achieved without money either. Money doesn’t work for you, you work for money – you’re a slave for money.

                                          __________________

The role of the internet and social media offered the possibility of retrieving a common space and a way for people to share and connect and to be free. 

It was a chance to build an economy that wasn’t based purely on the extraction of resources and capital.

But that’s not what happened.

Instead, digital technology is used to double down on industrialism and it has evolved in everything from the spread of terrorist propaganda to the rise of authoritarianism.

At some point, technology ceased to be a tool to help us get what we want and instead became the only thing we actually want.

Technology is everywhere, and we’re all more or less dependent upon it — so how do we escape the pitfalls?

We’re talking about algorithms here. They live with us, even if we don’t see them.

We stopped using technology and it started using us.

We’re all hostage to our technologies, or we’re simply at the mercy of this system.

We’re being steamrolled by our devices, and the result is a kind of emotional slavery turning crucial decisions about people’s lives over to machines to translate the data into action.

We now live in a consumer democracy that restricts human connection and stokes “whatever appetites guarantee the greatest profit.”

Algorithms are behind the digital services that we consult daily. They are modifying the opinion of their users based on their psychological profiles and they are increasingly being extended to all businesses.

Take a platform like Facebook, and Facebook is using data from your past to dump you into a statistical bucket. Once they know what bucket you’re in, they do everything to keep you in that bucket and to make you behave in ways that are more consistent with all the things about that bucket.

The lifeblood of data science is turning what left of our identity into  “filtered freedom”  “predictive algorithms freedom”  “governance algorithm” “risk reports algorithms, Google search algorithms,  all effectively destroying human autonomy.

With a growing dependence on automated systems that are taking humans and transparency out of the process?

Where are our digital rights? 

How to confront the use of algorithms.

George Orwell once predicted that those who control the information hold the power.

This is more true today than it ever was!

How do you win against a computer that is built to stop you?

How do you stop something that predetermines your fate? 

There must be total and full transparency with all algorithms subject to auditable accountability. 

I can’t control other people, but I can control my choices.  

One of the things we need to make really clear about algorithms — is that they are hand-tailored to a particular decision.

Kant notes that man may come to approve of various rules of social co-operation for a variety of reasons, some of them ethically more obscure than others.

Algorithms are not just doing our thinking for us they are fucking up the world.

AI algorithms are worthless without a dataset to work on.

Because of this, the usefulness of an AI algorithm is intrinsically tied to the availability of high-quality data. In this regard, AI algorithms are fundamentally different from other types of software, whose code is valuable on its own without any additional data.

This is why you see companies like IBM buying Weather Channel’s data operations not because it wanted to know if it’s going to rain, but because climate change is going to be the number-one factor driving global GDP the data will allowing it to do everything from predicting winter energy demand to forecasting crop yields.

Google, Facebook, and others hold similar advantages in their respective areas, possessing vast quantities of consumer and social-media data that can be used to train highly valuable AI tasks, from sentiment analysis for marketing to object-recognition for photos to natural language processing for user interfaces.

For AI tech companies with large treasure troves of data, the sky is the limit, and rest assured it is not to stimulate broad societal benefits but to cash in on your freedoms.

Freedom is to remember your humanity what you do with what’s been done to you.  

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

 

Advertisement

Knock, Knock, Who there? 2015

24 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Knock, Knock, Who there? 2015

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy New Year to one and all.

As a species, we are social beings who live out our lives in the company of other humans. We organize ourselves into various kinds of social groupings, such as nomadic bands, villages, cities, and countries, in which we work, trade, play, reproduce, and interact in many other ways. Unlike other species, we combine socialization with deliberate changes in social behavior and organization over time.

Consequently, the patterns of human society differ from place to place and era to era and across cultures, making the social world a very complex and dynamic environment.

The ways in which people develop are shaped by social experience and circumstances within the context of their inherited genetic potential.

We are increasingly dependent on one another through international economic systems and shared environmental problems. The growing interdependence of world social, economic, and ecological systems makes it difficult to predict the consequences of social decisions. Changes anywhere in the world can have amplified effects elsewhere, with increased benefits to some people and increased costs to others.

.

All year I have advocated that Greed is the curse of Capitalism. It is at the root cause of Inequality.

One hundred and six billion of us have being born since the dawn of the human species. Making the current population 6% of all the people who ever lived on the planet. ( 7,283,314749)  With 2.8 Billion of us living on less than two dollar a day, with over a billion not having access to healthy water, with 876 million of adults illiterate, with ½ a million murders a year, with 30,000 children under 5 die every day from avoidable diseases it’s no wonder we have terrorists.

Currently we have 20% of the global population with 90% of the wealth.

Christmas is over and all the words of peace to mankind have been sung once more, but the canvas of the World remains weeping. It is time to return dignity to the world. Which can only be achieved by capping greed to create a perpetual fund. ( see previous postings)

Here is the current painting.

A round revolving ball in the vastness of space teaming with life, with 1.35 billion of us spending 20 minutes each day of Facebook each month. The new slavery of our age leading us to the globalization of indifference, born out of ego selfishness, removing our sense of compassion and dignity.

A world on which we have 26 countries in a state of conflict , with 170 Militias, Guerrillas, Separatist, Anarchic, are all represented by a world of 31% Christians, 23% Muslims, 15% Hindus, 7% Buddhists, 6% Folk religionists, 1% Others and 0,02% Jews.

A Disposable world full of Ego Centrism in which man was probably happiest when he was swinging from tree to tree.

A world with 20/30 million in modern-day slavery ( A slave in 1850 in America cost the equivalent of $40,000 in to days money, to-day an average of $90.)

A world that has this much fresh water.  

Fresh groundwater and surface-water make up the bubble over Kentucky, which is about 252 miles in diameter. The sphere over Georgia reresents fresh-water lakes and rivers (about 34.9 miles in diameter).

This much gold. 171.300 tons.

Gold piled up on Wimbledon's centre court

Just enough oil to last the world 53.3 years at the current production rates.

Just enough gas in proven reserves to meet 58.6 years of global production at the end of 2010.

That will run out of phosphorus in 50 to 100 years unless new reserves of the element are found.

That has enough coal to meet 188 years of global production.

A world that when you take a deep breath the chances are, the air filling your lungs is far from pure. Even if you live in a clean, ecologically conscious area, you may be inhaling pollutants from faraway, less-pristine locales. Your hometown air may contain microscopic particles of mercury-coated coal dust from China, diesel from Europe, ozone from Los Angeles, or carbon monoxide from India—or possibly a cocktail of all of the above.

Where Scandium and terbium are just two of the 17 rare earth minerals that are used in everything from the powerful magnets in wind turbines to the electronic circuits in smartphones. The elements are not as rare as their name suggests but currently 97% of the world’s supply comes from China and they can restrict supplies at will. Exact reserves are not known.

Where we are told by the Artists not to don’t worry,( the Artists being our World Leaders places in power by us the people with black x’s in square boxes) because the Economy and World Trade, is turning people into merchandise for trade while depriving its victims of all dignity.

Where there is 75 trillion dollars in circulation. A billion Cars. With roughly 10/11 million standing soldiers between 10 countries.  While 86%-91% of the 8.7 million(± 1.3 million) species that we share the world with still await description before we are all swimming.
Photo: Woman wading through flooded Venice plaza

Where Scientific research indicates sea levels worldwide have been rising at a rate of 0.14 inches (3.5 millimeters) per year since the early 1990s.  The trend, linked to global warming, puts thousands of coastal cities, like Venice, Italy, (seen here during a historic flood in 2008), and even whole islands at risk of being claimed by the ocean.

A world where we now need more than ever to apply different brush strokes if the painting for 2015 is to have any chance of been appreciated in the future.

Day after day I follow news reports of the enormous suffering endured by many people in the Middle East. It is not enough to contain wars, or international terrorism, which displays deep disdain for human life and indiscriminately reaps innocent victims we must stop the bankrolling of these conflicts by the unchecked traffic in weapons.

There seem little point to continue to catalog the illnesses that are plaguing the world. You could continue to list all the shortcomings till the end of the earth.

Communications is about informing people – not collecting “hits.” In order to progress towards the future we need the past. However in doing so we need to move away from the present World model that is more prone to make demands than to serve humanity. 

We all know that the human family, must be grounded on respect, cooperation, solidarity and compassion. That it must be built on justice, socio-economic development, freedom, respect for fundamental human rights, and the participation of all in public affairs and the building of trust between people’s.

None of our present political systems are coming up to the mark ( Democracy, Republic , Monarchy, Communism , Dictatorship) because of Greed.

If we are to break out of the structures that hold us back from a recognition, we must share and share a like. Update our out of date World Organisations that are unable to function due to lack of funds, United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF, the World Health Organisation,that are run by our of date Government Systems (see post: Is Democracies outdated and Disfunctional)

If we are to reduce the Inequalities of the future a Global ethic is needed.

We all deserve a peaceful world order based on unity of purpose. Their dignity is your dignity.

As Pope said. ” It (the earth) is the greatest resource which God has given us and is at our disposal not to be disfigured, exploited, and degraded, but so that, in the enjoyment of its boundless beauty, we can live in this world with dignity.”

We need profound roots, sustainability, not a disposable society, which can only be achieved if we use the power of social media to effect change (see previous posts)

So there you have it a master piece deserving of to be hung in the Louvre, beside the Mona Lisa.

If your have by any chance read this post, I am not interested in receiving your like tick. I am Interested in any suggestions as to how we might go about setting up a grass roots Organisation to apply pressurize where needed by using the power of Social Media ( Not a Petition site.) more a name and shame site.    Happy New Year.

 

 

To most of us the World of Islam seems incomprehensible.

24 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on To most of us the World of Islam seems incomprehensible.

Tags

, , , ,

To most of us the World of Islam seems incomprehensible.

You could say it is bigoted and uncompromising with is actions harsh and arbitrary.

There are billions of words spoken and written on the subject most of which are never heard or read by any of us.

Now I could be wrong in some of the observations I make in the post, so I am open to correction.

What I want to do if possible is to try to look at Islam as it see itself and not through our Western eyes.

The current political mess in Middle East and the rise of ISIS must both have their origins within its interpretation, both by us and its faithful.

So are we all mistaking when view Islam as uncompromising and uncivilized, when in fact to most of us who are not Islamic, so we see it at worst as Mysterious and inexplicable at best and at the moment Barbaric with good reason.

Like all subjects it is impossible to understand the simple things about Islamic life without knowing something about its religion.

Islam like all religions is a way of life, based on the will of God, and like most religions the will of god is known through its holy book or books, in Islam case the Koran.

The Koran contains the sayings and actions of its prophet Mohammed.

My first observation is that Mohammed must have been influenced by the times he was born into. Since then the Koran like the Catholic Bible or any bible for that matter has been subject to interpretations put upon its teachings in different places and at different times till it arrived to the present day.

The real question is what is the difference between the Interpretation of Mohammed and to days interpretations.

Every aspect of Islamic life is seen as part of the indivisible whole, literally inseparable from all the other aspects. So a Muslim like us believes life was created by God. The task of Muslims is not to rearrange or order it, or even to understand it but to obey the laws laid down by him.

How does man know the laws? For a Muslim the answer is simple. They are in the Koran that has no beginning and no end. It can be read from the beginning to the end or from any point with no difference to the message contained within.

My second observation. If this is so and believed by Muslims there is underlining all Islamic culture an element that the Koran itself makes logic, and therefore undermines communication with any outsiders.

If you were to ask a conservative Muslim does the Koran control all aspects of his life you might get a confused answer due to tribal or social customs allowed by Islam but not actually required by its laws contained in the Koran leading to where theory and practice are confused. Although it is commonly agreed that the Koran is the supreme authority in directing the life of a believer there is another reference called the Sunna ( the sayings and actions of Mohammed). In the Sunna you find human interpretations in the numerous schools of law as they adopt their positions. As a result the clear-cut authority of the Koran is not uniformly accepted throughout Islam. (I am sure this will be disputed.)

Ok course none of this does anything for the image we have of Muslims.

Take for example the Koran is uncompromising in its declaration that the penalty for theft is amputation, and it also states a man has an absolute right to have four wives if he treats them equally.

Killing their sisters,wives, and daughters for their family honor, murdering non believers,stoning to death, mutilating genitals, all in the name of Allah because of Qur’an and Sharia Law tells to do so.

But where in the Koran does Allah, (Arabic for God. There is no God save Allah.) condone such actions.

Observation three. We are used to reviewing religion as a private matter of conscience unlike Islam in which religion dominates the life of a Muslim and in this comprehensive sense , is his life. Literally everything in life is the predetermined will of God from always to eternity. Not a leaf falls from a tree unless it is the will of God which beg the question how do you predetermine life.

Islam( which means submitter and the Koran means recitation) has what are called Five Pillars of Faith, which form the core of the faith to which all other aspects of life are ultimately related. Prophets means Messengers or Apostles and Mohammed is the messenger of God.

Pillar one: Shahada.  Recitation of the Shahada or short creed ” There is no God but Allah”

Pillar two: Salat. Devotional worship, acknowledgement of God a physical act repeated at least twice with the worshipper touching the ground with his forehead. Worship takes place five time a day, preferably performed in congregation of at least forty in a mosque led by an imam( president)

Pillar three: Zakat. Obligatory tax to the needy. There is no formal arrangements for the collection of Zakat.

Pillar four: Sawn. Fast during the months of Ramadam.

Pillar five: Hajj:  To set out for a definite purpose – Pilgrimage to Mecca. Mohammad forbade access to Mecca for unbelievers, and this applies to Medina also.

These are the basic foundations of Islam.

Now lets address a few questions.

Why do Muslims get their nickers in a twist when the Koran is burnt?

Here is something you might not know that the Koran which is in Arabic is considered by many Muslims as a miracle since Mohammad could not read or write. ( This could be debatable as he must have learned both to be a merchant in Mecca) 

As the word of God it cannot and should not be translated into other languages.

Although some of its text was written down under Mohammad supervision it has no chronological order but on close examination it does have a structure in as much that aspects of life can not be seen separately but accepted as a whole based on the divine will of God. However the parts of same revelation it spread throughout it text. Reason plays an important part in the Koran. God is always arguing, discussing and appealing to reason, never giving up. Infidels were considered as people of no intelligence indeed Mohammad comes close to labeling them as infirmity of the human mind.

Observation four: If I was God I would have had the Koran or the Bible written in all languages. It might have avoided all the misinterpretations. Not just Arabic and Hebrew.

The Koran is about the size of the New Testament, 144 chapters set in verses. It is never put on the ground or allowed to contact with anything dirty. Like the Bible it has being subject to study and analysis till black and blue.

What is Jihad? 

Jihad literally means an effort or striving. Mohammad himself fought nine battles. It is still the duty of imam to order war against infidels on every suitable occasion.

According to Mohammad there are seven deadly sins. Associating anything with god, magic, killing without reason, taking interest on money, taking property of an orphan,running away from a battle when Jihad has been declared, accusing an innocent woman of adultery.

What is Sunnis or Sunnites, or Shiites?

Muslin sects to-day out number those of Christians.

They majority are Sunnis, followers of the Sunna.

Shiite is derived from Shiat Ali (the party of Ali). They believe that on Mohammad’s death succession should remain with his closest relative his son-in-law Ali.

They also believe to be a true Muslim its teachings and practices must be taught by an Imam. To the Sunnis this confers a degree of divinity upon the Imam and this is blasphemous.

Observation Five. The notion of love one’s neighbor in a Christian sense is not enshrined in the Koran. There is a false concept of Muslim brotherhood.  You either conform to the rules or suffer the consequences. A rigid simplicity is it underlining structure, whether its hidden or out in the open.

No matter what your beliefs the right to life states that you own your own body. It is your property to do with as you please. No one may force you to do anything, no one may injure you in any way, and above all, no one may take your life (without consent.)a right to life. This means that nobody – including the government – can try to end your life. It also means that you have the right to be protected if your life is at risk. It does not create an entitlement to choose death rather than life.

  • Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
  • Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

Observation Six. Islam needs to teach every Muslim that life means that each individual should be treated with respect, dignity and equality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Changing World Poverty through the power of smartphones

08 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

Right it’s time to return to the main reasons I started this blog.

And that is:

TO CREATE A WEB SITE THAT WILL ATTRACT THE WORLDS SMART PHONE USERS INTO A WORLD MOVEMENT THAT WILL USE THE COMBINED POWER OF THEIR PHONES TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE. ( see previous posts)

We know and most of us acknowledge the problems of the world.

The main problem is the distribution of Wealth i.e. POVERTY

It is my contention that no matter what the world does in its efforts to eradicate POVERTY – nothing will work. Why?

The geography, the resources distribution, the power struggles, lack of education, the digital age creating technological deserts, the lack of genuine will, consumerism, population growth, to mention a few reason

There is only one way:  To tap into the very reason why it exists in the first place.

GREED:

 There is no way of archiving this other than placing a Poverty commission on all trading on all the Stock Exchanges of the WORLD THAT EXITS NOW AND IT THE FUTURE.  To day there are approximately 103 Exchanges world wide. On very trade no matter what it is – stocks, bonds, derivatives, forex&inter bank, cash&spots, futures, equities, gilts, commodities, hedge-funds. You name it. If it can be traded for profit it contributes to eradicating poverty. Poverty is man-made with millions of people trapped in its prison. It can be overcome.

Greed will not even notice it. The income generated will be in the trillions.

No more : Donate just two pounds a month to save a child, a snow leopard, a whale, a donkey.  

Rather : Enough funds – to stop conflicts, to stop exploitation ,to stop terrorism, to stop climate change, to live on one planet with dignity and respect for each other, to change the world. CASE CLOSED.