Man used to fear the dark - because thousands of years ago - this was when animals much larger than us would hunt.
We have all sorts of phobia's - but the one that interests me is fear of computers - Cyberphobia.
Science fiction has long predicted - that computers will become our equals if not our superiors.
Computers are taking middle class jobs and often the jobs that graduates would take. In Spain unemployment is 56% for youth under the age of 26.
http://www.businessinsider.com/benja-serra-bosch-spains-unemployment-icon-2013-10
Lots of these starter jobs have currently been moved to India or the Philippines (where it is cheaper to outsource) in stead of computers. However this type of work is heavily scripted - i.e. perfect for computers and India and Philippines will also be stripped this type of work. If these countries are clever - that will use the current outsourcing environment - to up skill their youth - while they still can.
There are plenty of articles on this phenomena.
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/515926/how-technology-is-destroying-jobs/
The free market - as it exists - is slowly but surely boiling down to a handful of people at the top making all the money - and the rest of us - will only be required if a machine cannot replicate our function. The free market therefore desires machines that replace as many people as possible - and are faster than their competitors computers.
The area of AI, Machine Learning, Computer Vision (all areas that Robotics focus on) are still in their infancy (yes Deep Blue beat Kasparov) -but people in the AI field generally blog about how this tech has never gone anywhere.
However, in my opinion, the reason for this if that they try and program a computer - to be a computer.
However, using different machine learning techniques, computers are beginning to think (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y43qwS8fl4). It's dam primitive - however - this is where it all starts.
We are successful as our brains are able to make multiple predictive assumptions - about what we see and hear and remember. We are amazing - at recognizing and assessing/scoring patterns. This ability - has allowed our species to dominate the planet. We recognize the patterns - that mean we are under threat - we recognize patterns that indicate opportunity.
However, at some point computers will be able to do this. Not now..... as the computing power required to access trillions of patterns and make sense of them - does not exist.
However, in a way, it may not be that hard as we think.
Take a look at the complex and bewildering patterns produced by simple fractal equations (Stephen Wolfram - has dabbled with the idea - that the entire universe was created by a simple pattern http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_wolfram_computing_a_theory_of_everything.html).
Computers will one day be able to see and understand patterns well beyond the human brain can process. Hopefully computers - will pass these insights back to us - to make all our lives better. In the short term - this is unlikely. Such insight - will be used by Governments and Countries - for their advantage.
Think the infamous PRISM....
Its naive to think this network is just about spying on terrorists! It is also extracting business insight - for US corporations - it is protecting both the USA's security - it is also protecting the countries business interests. Security and economy is always tied together!
At some point - computers like us will be able to reason/make decisions/and seek betterment for their existence. This is currently the realm of science fiction - but science fiction that was written a long time ago now. A lot of the enablers are appearing now... and funnily enough - a lot of them... right now... are just trying to get you to click on an ad!
We have all sorts of phobia's - but the one that interests me is fear of computers - Cyberphobia.
Science fiction has long predicted - that computers will become our equals if not our superiors.
Computers are taking middle class jobs and often the jobs that graduates would take. In Spain unemployment is 56% for youth under the age of 26.
http://www.businessinsider.com/benja-serra-bosch-spains-unemployment-icon-2013-10
Lots of these starter jobs have currently been moved to India or the Philippines (where it is cheaper to outsource) in stead of computers. However this type of work is heavily scripted - i.e. perfect for computers and India and Philippines will also be stripped this type of work. If these countries are clever - that will use the current outsourcing environment - to up skill their youth - while they still can.
There are plenty of articles on this phenomena.
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/515926/how-technology-is-destroying-jobs/
The free market - as it exists - is slowly but surely boiling down to a handful of people at the top making all the money - and the rest of us - will only be required if a machine cannot replicate our function. The free market therefore desires machines that replace as many people as possible - and are faster than their competitors computers.
Currently machines using their computational powers - for our benefit
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22380611The area of AI, Machine Learning, Computer Vision (all areas that Robotics focus on) are still in their infancy (yes Deep Blue beat Kasparov) -but people in the AI field generally blog about how this tech has never gone anywhere.
However, in my opinion, the reason for this if that they try and program a computer - to be a computer.
However, using different machine learning techniques, computers are beginning to think (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y43qwS8fl4). It's dam primitive - however - this is where it all starts.
We are successful as our brains are able to make multiple predictive assumptions - about what we see and hear and remember. We are amazing - at recognizing and assessing/scoring patterns. This ability - has allowed our species to dominate the planet. We recognize the patterns - that mean we are under threat - we recognize patterns that indicate opportunity.
However, at some point computers will be able to do this. Not now..... as the computing power required to access trillions of patterns and make sense of them - does not exist.
However, in a way, it may not be that hard as we think.
Computers will one day be able to see and understand patterns well beyond the human brain can process. Hopefully computers - will pass these insights back to us - to make all our lives better. In the short term - this is unlikely. Such insight - will be used by Governments and Countries - for their advantage.
Think the infamous PRISM....
Its naive to think this network is just about spying on terrorists! It is also extracting business insight - for US corporations - it is protecting both the USA's security - it is also protecting the countries business interests. Security and economy is always tied together!
At some point - computers like us will be able to reason/make decisions/and seek betterment for their existence. This is currently the realm of science fiction - but science fiction that was written a long time ago now. A lot of the enablers are appearing now... and funnily enough - a lot of them... right now... are just trying to get you to click on an ad!
No comments:
Post a Comment