Applying the principles of Technology Philanthropy

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Large blocks of history as written can be demonstrated as inaccurate, fictitious or worse (think state propaganda). It may be time we start teaching programming, critical thinking, and ethics as alternatives, especially considering technology has propelled us into historically unprecedented times.

Working recently on an AI project for an Australia based medical company we were able to discover that the AI engine we applied to a large set of medical data was quickly able to determine that death was the most potent cure for disease. Technically death does cure all disease, but we humans intuitively understand death is not the desired outcome. To “fix” the problem we simply marked death as a disease itself and set it as the disease to be avoided above all others. Interestingly, I’ve begun to think that death in and of itself, in a way, is a disease we are simply all born with and we have predominately just culturally accepted it as normal. To be or not to be I guess is still the question.

Image found from https://pixabay.com/en/horror-madhouse-fantasy-dark-girl-914404/

As I predicted back in Q3 2016 VR is not going to be the big hit so many Reddit wannabe technophiles believe it will be.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-03-08-superdata-cuts-vr-forecast-by-30-percent

That is already a 30% reduction in the forecast, which is massive. So why is Virtual Reality not going to take off? Because it is a disconnected and dissociative experience. Inclusive experiences are the future, and still so desperately needed in the current disassociate landscape of technology that blankets modern society. The existing sales (the remaining 70%) are mostly bogus figures because units are being delivered bundled with other tech and given away for free in many cases.

Something strapped to one’s face eliminating from their actual surrounding every person’s most important sense, sight, is not a position most people will like to be in often. Furthermore, when you watch someone using a VR headset they look like an idiot, either bobbing and twitching (VR Tweaker I call them), or in a motionless zombie like trance sitting still with their mouth open as if they are in a trance. Anyone else in the room will be pointing and laughing at the VR Tweaker, or taking rotten selfies embarrassing the disconnected VR zombie.

Having VR headsets out there in the ether doesn’t mean anyone is using them, it just means they are out there, well so what… there are a lot of Wii Fit Balance Boards out there as well, and fake Rock Band Music Instruments tucked away in closets, that doesn’t mean anything.

Watch someone using a VR headset and what do you see? The user is no longer connected to the actual reality around them… and the technology instantly disassociates the user from the reality around them and directly excludes everyone else from the experience. Facebook should know better, they took over the world by connecting people, then dumped tons of cash into a technology that disconnects people. What they need to be doing is investing in technology that brings people together for useful purposes in reality.

There are reasons certain laws prohibit or limit consent due to intellectually one-sided relationships. There are clear interactions that are so uneven that law is created specifically to protect the disadvantaged from being dominated. Even already, advanced computer systems and advanced AI systems are being used by those in power to physiologically gain advantage over others; the whole knowledge is power thing. What about soon when these tools are so sophisticated they are thousands or millions or more times more “intelligent” than any human being. Wouldn’t that be unfair by an measure? Should it be fair to have such a system be the tool used to negotiate a contract or to make requests for good or services? Anyone would recognize the problem with allowing 10 year old kids to enter into contract with an “adult” or an organization. We should be putting such statutory limitation in place now before we set precedence to the contrary.

The old saying Knowledge is Power, or K=P needs to be updated in our brave new world… it should be CK=CP; with the C being a constant for CONTROL. Old wisdom suggests knowledge is a stand alone thing, available, comprehensible, mostly static, and obtainable. Once possessed, said knowledge could be forged into nearly any tool to progress humanity forward when wielded by a leader of conscience.

So what if knowledge, or the selection and delivery of knowledge became consciously selected, sorted, and delivery in a very discretionary manner, a manner in which distorted reality through a carefully honed lens?

Welcome to the brave new biased world.

http://decisiondata.org/news/sanders-media-coverage-update/

We as a biological species have in our birth right distinct biological limitations. These are natural limits brought forth through our natural environment via the process of evolution. These limitations are not good or bad in and of themselves, they are simply facts, a characteristic built into each of us which has enabled the perseverance of our species, I’d argue these characteristics are good through that context at least.

What is also built into us, are certain characteristics which are hallmarks of our species, such as compassion, and empathy. I am no fool, I am not saying these characteristics are found in every human being, I’m talking about all of humanity, as a collective, not any individual, I realize there are exceptions to these rules… but the point remains, there characteristics are indeed present within our species.

So if we are a product of evolution, which most science suggests is the reality, than it stands to reason that these characteristics are indeed survival characteristics… necessary for the continuation and progression of our species. These characteristics are not simply edge case surplus traits, but a profound foundation attributes that actually are necessary for human beings to have progressed to where we are today, our lives, our survival has depended on it.

So now onto my point… we are at the point in history where we are creating new forms of life, both in biological forms and mechanical forms. One thing that is not happening in this process is we are not imbuing these creations with these same foundation mechanics that brought us humans to this point in history… we are essentially ignoring the mere essence that makes us profoundly successful as a species in the blind ambition of creating new forms of life through technology.

How very sad, that with such restrictive biological limitations, nature has placed a premium on empathy, compassion, etc., but now in our own unfortunate limits within our imaginations, we fail to understand the importance of creating our great institutions, and our emerging technological creations in our own image, and we permit such creations to come into existence without these important qualities.

Free will may possibly be nothing more than an illusion created as a result of merging determinism with complexity.

After listening to several well-known technology pioneers, I was shocked at their actual lack of vision. This was until I recognized a common denominator I can’t believe I never noticed… ego. Their ego was their cloud of ignorance. The cheering captivated audience was who they now think for, and then speak to. Our technology leaders and perhaps political leaders all seem to lack vision due to the fact that we humans always seem to have a powerful emotional element of some variety lying in wait to trump our intellectual triumphs and imaginative breakthroughs.

Our emotions, the breakthrough in evolution that provided our species enormous advantages, now is our Achilles heel as we move into a time of convergence with machines.

In a world of food scarcity, our bodies evolved preferential taste for foods high in calories (fats, sugars, carbohydrates, etc.) and efficient means to transport these foods to our vital organs (heart, brain). These traits are exploited by the commercial food industries of today as a built in weakness, a conduit by which more profit can be harvested from the “consumer,” without regard for health or the welfare of the community. These same commercial food industries target their advertisements to our emotions, linking their brands with happy, healthy, positive emotions… Santa Claus gleefully enjoying a Coca Cola, McDonalds loves to see you smile, and your kids will be happy if provided a “happy meal,” on and on, the examples are nearly endless.
Where is the logic and calculated decision making among the masses? The cold hard truth is an overwhelming majority of people are fully capable of making sound rational decisions, the problem is that more often than not, these would be rational decisions are superseded by irrational emotion. This is well understood in industries such as marketing and advertising, this phenomenon is not an opinion, it is fact, proven by countless examples.

When machines possessing artificial intelligence fully “understand” this fact, they will become our complete masters and we will become complete slaves. A complete slave is one that is fully controlled, but has a complete belief they are free. When sufficient emotional variables are thoroughly understood, each one becomes a string by which the puppet may be made to respond. The more strings there are attached, the more fine-tuned the responses become.

So, if human beings, at our current intellectual limitations are more than willing to exploit other human beings by leveraging knowledge of human psychology and physiology, would not machines of comparable or superior intellectual capability be able to do the same?

The only way to prevent this is have social change where ethics and morality become highly values human traits. All is not lost, would you like some real vision? How about this; we teach ethics at all levels of education and make it a top priority within the sciences! This is visionary, and it is what we should do.

In Software Engineering, as in life, there is no secret formula, and there are certainly tons of variables outside of our control, some known, some unknown. Our professional duty to ourselves and others is to do the best job we can handling the variables we can control, and positively influence any variable we can not. As cliche as it sounds, within this reality there are bountiful opportunities for self improvement as long as there is open-mindedness.