AI Ramifications

 

My thoughts about AI are that once AI gets embedded into massive use, we will soon not realise or distinguish, what is the truth or reality, from what is made up with dubious agendas and out to mislead.

Technology will offer new fangled or useful mechanisms.  How one uses them is the bottom line reality for society, economy, philosophy, art, personal relations, geopolitics and in the broad management of Mother Earth.

Unlike offerings from past Industrial Revolutions, AI heralds a more serious concern to the human race, as AI can sophisticatedly self learn at a fast pace to emulate otherwise inherent human abilities like observing, copying plus self developing - and gradually become more independent from or merged in singularity with previously separate human intervention.

Applied negatively, AI will increasingly become a useful ingredient for destruction, manipulation and greed.  At the same time,
AI can save significant costs, bring more efficient supply logistics, eliminate repetitive work in human labour and provide instant analysis of performance, business or health wise.

With a burgeoning population of currently 8 billion, Earth has so many unique humans to look for a purpose in employment, business or occupation role.
AI can remove much of human input in manufacturing, care services, health diagnosis, financial care, retail services, mass delivery, military, communication, transport and in the daily regime of any human being.

AI can spike the value of services and businesses where personal interaction is still offered, albeit at expensive prices and higher revenue margins.

AI can make its mark in the quality and quantity of services provided to customers residing in remote geographical areas, like across the United States, China, Russia, Africa, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Chile and Argentina.  Long distance education is an obvious candidate for such a useful purpose.

Aged care services so benefit from AI, ranging from diagnostic services, location of patients, stimulating activities for the elderly and in assessing meal standards.

On the other hand, will our already much eroded personal privacy parameters be scuttled even more by the application of AI technology?

AI only works when there is a viable level, capacity and capability of wi-fi delivery.  Not many places or much of the population have access to this higher level of wi-fi. 

Fun aside, like at this stage, with the making of amazing, humorous, agitative, educational, propagandic or
community video clips,  AI on balance poses further challenges to the viability, integrity and uniqueness of the human intellect, condition and pysche.

Will there be a time when AI creativity surpasses that of the human brain and heart?

As demonstrated in the past, pertinent regulation, policy and legislation introduced in various nations can be so many steps behind the impact of AI.  This kind of mindset and reactive response to AI can only be disadvantageous for human interests.   Earth is meeting head on with a powerful technology whose control still remains with supercharged and well funded powers.

#yongkevthoughts

That Hand Held Device

Do we change smart phone, computer and electronic screen models and pads more often than our smartest wardrobe?

At the end of each calendar year, the major electronic screen device makers launch new models, new shows, new buzz.    Software and App providers add more fancy and content to ensure we require more operating power and capacity to run them.   Screen devices have become more useful to capture, send and store images rather than be used for oral communication. 

Don't we text or image more than talk to other people in our daily lives?  Each of us listens more attentively to the ting from a software App than from a telephone ring. 

We cannot help to check our electronic devices several times a day, as we store and rely more on that hand held gadget more than on a physical folder, the desktop or our bag.   We can access daily used information on that small device that increasingly costs more than the rate of inflation each year.   When we travel, we only need a passport and a mobile phone  - the travel ticket, money wallets and any other documentation are electronically stored on that hand held screen.

When we cross barriers, whether they are airport checks or transport fares, increasingly all we need to do is tap with our smart phone.  So called Millennials do not pack much when they roam, around the world on business or leisure  - and demand more enabling screen devices.   Commercial businesses do not ask for paper copies, only screen versions.

Human kind loves to adopt the fusion of our flesh, blood and mind to artificial intelligent machines, not just for health, but for all aspects of the life cycle - buying, selling, entertainment, communication, mobility, hired help, financial transactions and more.

We do rely more on the energy needed to run Apps, bluetooth, Wi-Fi and linking the internet of things.   

Do we pause to think about the resources utilised to make new models, new equipment and new features?

What happens to the increasing mountain of discarded models, some as new as only two years old?

It is more captivating and fun to check the contents of your hand held device than to go through a file of papers. 

#yongkevthoughts

Lurking Dangers In Over Using Cyberspace

There is nothing free for convenient access to Apps and information from the Web.

Something is taken by us inevitably for something else seemingly so amazingly without cost.

How much of yourself are you willing to give up, and how much of this can come back to bite you?    It is not just privacy, integrity, dependency, addiction and vulnerability that we are at risk of. There are health risks with over use of eyes and slack posture when dealing with mobile and desktop devices.

Human invented tech and devices have shown a long track record of being abused and misused, apart from bringing benefits.    The inter-connectivity of various smart devices can amplify the risks arising from just using one. 

On the other hand, it is not a zero sum game between us individuals and the powers that rule us in cyberspace.   The latter obviously make use of us, but how can we make use of them as well?   As with any danger, the first step is to realise and acknowledge. 

Then comes the greatest risk of all, to do nothing on our part. I observe users and the media continue to wallow in known risks, but carry on irregardless of the progress of the dangers posed. 

We continue to add more Apps, get reminders to update systems, rely on data tracking websites in our daily lives and get distracted by fancy gadgets which can work on the basis that they did not fully tell us the truth.

Our individual relaxation, commercial and usage patterns begin to be controlled by forces we normally do not want to be acquainted with.  Just like news of drug busts by authorities, the frequency of data hacking on a massive scale shows that reported incidents are really just the tip of the iceberg of events.   

Don't you want back a world which does not know so much of your identity, inner thoughts, activities and joy? 

Don't you want a world where aggressive, greedy and fraudulent intentions cannot continue so much to exploit you?

I have read unrequited, unnecessary, sensational and divisive comments, information and feedback on social media.   

A good first step in responding to this dangerous world is to moderate use of the mechanisms by which we are being exploited.

Use less Apps, less internet search engines, less storage mechanisms that deliver convenience but can disappear in the Cloud.   Always back up critical and significantly important data elsewhere in non-digital form.

Diversify your usage, storage, identity and communication activity across all fronts and do not put all your proverbial eggs in one basket. Over dependence can lead to obsession and higher risks.

Balance your lifestyle away from over interactions with machines, artificial intelligence and robots to deal more with humans and Nature.

Increase the use of your own brain, thinking and intelligence in various aspects of your own life.

Increase your self realisation and recognition of hype in the promotion of more products, newer models and temporary fun on a regular basis.

Where possible, go direct to the source of information and assistance. Be wary of middle parties and brokers lurking in cyberspace.

Get more healthy sensations elsewhere instead of overly depending on wi-fi. 

Feel the love of your pet, look up to the sky, just talk with family and friends face to face or learn a craft, instead of constantly just pressing our thumbs on electronic devices.

Plant something natural, watch it grow and enjoy its harvests. 

I assure you the experience can be better than keeping track of the number of likes on an App.

Always be mindful that cyberspace tech is a tool to be utilised by us - and not the other way around.


#yongkevthoughts

Wi-Fi Rules the World

How do you envisage an experience of a Wi-fi supply breakdown?

These seemingly invisible facilitators, as opposed to a more tangible scenario of water not coming out of taps or electricity cut off after a destructive storm, can provide frustration in every stage of a daily routine........especially if we have taken it for granted.

In a contemporary world where there are expectations of faster downloads, more dependencies on the internet of things and an overwhelming linkage of private lives to Wi-fi, it can be a truly felt personal shock when the Wi-fi supply is hijacked, not available or sold to you at monopolistic prices.

We have been gradually, relentlessly and unashamedly been nurtured to depend on Wi-fi as part of our lifestyle and aspirations.

Alarms, weather forecasts, home security, private viewing entertainment, operation of white goods like fridges and printers, information searches, education delivery, investment algorithms, news dissemination, communication channels and travel means rely on the workability of Wi-fi.

Ditto to cyberspace gaming, gambling, banking, transport enablers, on line purchasing and selling, military applications, medical transactions and access to public, private and commercial data.

Artificial intelligence, driverless mechanisms, robotic procedures and automated control processes only work if you have Wi-fi. Compare to the huge reliance on petroleum to operate motor vehicles. Is Wi-fi the new and more dangerous dependency?

Instant and flexible accessibility to what you need can be an over powering rationale for individual users to salute the benefits of Wi-fi. The most significant disadvantage on the other hand is the risks of power concentrated in the hands of Wi-fi suppliers.

An old adage is to never put all your eggs on one basket. Do you put all your hard earned monies in just one type of imvestment? No. Do you ensure your good health by just digesting one super pill? No. Do you utilise only one form of gym exercise to buff up your body? No.

Then why do we let our daily lives increasingly be controlled by Wi-fi? It is obvious there are immediate negative pyschologicall reactions when Wi-fi is cut off or becomes a controlled item.

Humans progressively make it easier to do things, that is the common thread of civilisation. However, there are hidden costs with each new invention, if not managed optimally. For example, social media makes it seem a breeze to be in contact with a network of people, even if you do not really talk with them. Social media makes it so efficient to share the bad and the ugly together with the good and encouraging.

The key is to find an optimal use and reliance on new tools and inventions. Machines and cars increased the quality of our lives, but we do not use or rely on them all the time. The dangers of Wi-fi are the easier addiction and relentless usage encouragers not seen before with use of other previous inventions. The pervasiveness of Wi-fi clearly means many seemingly simple processes do not work without Wi-fi.

Be honest with yourself. What makes you more upset and feeling disempowered, if you have a cut off of clean water, or fuel, or electricity or Wi-fi? Is your business not operable when there is no Wi-fi? Would you vote out a government which provides sub standard Wi-fi delivery? Would you pay more to be part of a select group of users having access to the most quick download and upload speeds? Would you pay a ransom if your Wi-fi was withheld by crimimals and political enemies?

Matters that are Still A Bother

So I sit with a group of mates overlooking the beach, somewhere on the South Coast of NSW. It seems to me a most familiar scene, its peacefulness taken for granted, with the fresh breeze much appreciated after another rather humid summer's day.

What has not changed can be something we can be much grateful for. At the same time, there are less desired aspects of matters that remain the same, or have grown worse.

Venezuelans remain trapped in economic despair as a country rich in petroleum resources continue to spiral in negativity under the dictatorship that seems to be a South American affliction.

An infectious disease like Ebola resurfaces in central Africa, adding to a heady mix of socio-political issues.

An African swine disease out break is being managed in southern China, with the dry winter air increasing health risks. 

Guns under personal ownership and military weapons of bigger destruction continue to wreck havoc, grief and damage.

Individuals continue to have a strong urge to migrate in illegal ways to seek a better life, whether to escape from political or religious persecution, economic malaise or discrimination.

The use of trade wars or extreme tariffs is escalated to appease heartland support groups. This inceases the likelihood of escalating into military conflict between nations. History has many examples of this.

Excessive spend on fireworks, extreme hotel prices, lots of alcohol, huge street gatherings, fancy restaurant prices and a heightened sense of crowd control highlight the ritual of a change in the annual calendar. Local governments, commercial parties and the media cash in.

The gap between the very rich and the poorest in any society continues to widen.

Addiction to technology marches on, no matter what is discussed about the erosion of privacy, manipulation of data, increasing reliance on a few super duper companies and the effects of excessive screen time.

The usefulness of increased revenue for governments does not change from high consumption levels, gambling activities, over construction of apartment blocks and outsourcing of management of vital assets to private parties.

There remains too much talk and lack of action by politicians who prioritise their own self interests way above the needs of the voter populace.

There is a surge of illicit drugs that still comes in to damage the brain, health capacity and personalities of the vehicle driver, colleague at work and family member.

The increased loss of common sense, accompanied by the manipulation of law and policy, to obtain over the top financial benefits by knowledgable claimants who have selective causes.

Decreased personal communication is happening despite the increased channels available to do so.

The loss of press freedoms is evident in a more politically restrictive world. Even when media appears relatively more free, behind the scenes, such media are owned and controlled by powerful owners with their own cultural and political agendas.

There is increased use of our skies for passenger, commercial and cargo traffic.

Personal identification, monitoring and data storage have increased in leaps and bounds.

And the beer continues to taste good, which may not be a bad thing.

Human Addiction

If they are not organically grown, strawberries are said to carry the most residue of pesticides from commercial growing of vegetables and fruits.

Just reflect on smart devices and their software, looking captivating as well with lures and experiences of convenience, interconnectedness and flexibility. What residues of negative connatations and real risks do these gadgets have?

1. Escalating personal addictiveness. How long does it take to check your smart phone after waking up each day?

2. Allowing others to manipulate and control our desires - and we are not even aware of it. Fake news or a source we trust?

3. Feeling pleasure in building up our dependency on others. There is an App for almost everything, especially for things we did not even think we required.

4. Emphasising unplaced trust. Who reads all the terms and conditions, written in a most unpalatable way?

5. Enhancing runaway loss of privacy. Did you notice how many parties want to know your present location?

6. Submitting to structures much larger than nations and governments. 

7. Increasing the risks of putting all the eggs in one basket. The Cloud, the Cloud!

8. Nurturing the Empire of Self-obsession. The Me culture is evident in most Apps.

To unplug is comparable to abstaining from our fav foods. Previous generations were hooked on television, white goods, motor cars and other inventions. So what is new?

The immediate casualty for an individual in this contemporary period is losing the balance in choices amongst screen time, embracing the outdoors and enhancing physical activity. There are pyschological and physiological benefits in putting away the smart screens for longer periods - and yet there are withdrawal symptoms, pleasure to give up from persuasive tech and an isolation from communication issues to deal with.

Our human brains are increasingly engineered to sync with such smart machines to such an extent each of us undergo feelings of real loss in not constantly interacting with them. We feel better when we get likes. We instinctively want to get biofeedback from our exercises - and this facet of behavioural pyschology has been utilised to higher levels of inducing addiction in each of us. We want to instinctively get rewards on a constant basis - the smart machines and Apps know this very well.

The human race is essentially a social animal - and yet so called smart tech escalates isolation, over self importance and encourages social awkwardness. The art of an enjoyable conversation is lost, replaced by the thrills of software graphics and the ability to do things silently without the need to verbalise or spell - think of Emojis.

Previous inventions freed up time to enable gathetrings of the family or tribe.
Smart machines make us so obsessed we run out of time to eat properly or make time to meet up - after all the message has been delivered to other individuals by a click.

We can be observed to be like guinea pigs riding mini wheels to obtain constant bursts of little cubes of food. The volume of content of so many social media vehicles are endless - not that most have any meaningful value. 

The stakes in today's games are higher than ever, due to the startling degrees of lacking transparency, hidden access to your data and the extreme profiling of individuals. Behind it all is business, the need to make profits and to sell you something - that has never changed!

In summary, the actual ability of smart machines, social media moves and Apps software to change your behaviour is the most significant. Most of us do not even realise this is happening to each of us.

Rare is the person who can utilise the largest opportunities to take advantage of this development.

#yongkevthoughts

Internet - Convenient for You or the Provider of Your Services?

Feeling the creeps from being snooped upon.

Facing the consequences of being a victim of intentional stealing of our data.

Realising that we can have disadvantages suffering a personal invasion of our privacy.

Knowing that hacking has occurred of our financial and health records.

Being tracked of our private movements, and then being taken advantage of with such unauthorised tracking.

Having our unique human identity stolen and then misused by fraudulent behaving people.

These are just some of the rising nature of ways in which we can be potentially robbed, invaded and have our inner selves gutted.

WE are now advised to:

Clear the cookies we incur when ever we use any electronic equipment that has been connected to the cyberspace.   If you do this regularly, it is like regularly changing the locks to your physical property  - it takes patience and determination, but cna be ingrained as part of the routine of life.

Purchase and download authentication apps  - these are available or utilised from software developed by Google and Duo Security.  To me, that sounds like further depending on software companies....

Place a security code on our mobile phones. 

Physically tape off our webcam hole in our desktops and other related equipment.   This old fashioned measure perhaps is the cheapest move an individual can make to fight back.

Avoid publicly accessible Wi-Fi, like in hotels, shopping centres and institutions.  This means you only connect to the Big Universe of Cyberspace through your own known and hopefully secure arrangements.

Be disciplined to use health, financial and property related transactions through only one specified piece of equipment that you have secured well in this big and bad world.

Give up the convenience of connecting your household equipment to the internet - like home security, refrigerators, audio and visual entertainment pieces, solar panel operations and vehicle enablers.

Go shopping and invest in a bug scanner - another gadget to buy!!!   Fun, exciting and mysterious to use, especially in a hotel room, or whenever you have this irritating intuitive feel that you are being monitored, measured and watched.

Never reveal our eyes in digital transmission or social media - always wear shades in photographs, you never know how your eye retinas are going to be digitally measured and stolen.

Always use cash and never a digital means of payment - that means no pay wave on your mob phone or credit card, spend what you already have and have a coin pocket....until the day governments ban the use of currency and cash.

It is now easier for others to rob us behind the scenes in the digital world than for them to confront us face to face or in the physical perspective.

It used to be that fraudsters had to interact with their intended victims face to face, utilising all the tricks of a snake oil salesperson.  These days, in line with the rising impersonal nature of commercial transactions, delivery of services and mindset of human interaction, frauds, corruption and misdemeanours occur through the click of a button, a touch of an LED screen and an electronic exchange across the world.

The experience of being taken advantage of can be a remote and soul destroying experience.

And yet with every month passing into the 21st century, millions of individuals are willingly or forcibly made to adapt to faceless transactions, heartless exchanges and robotic encounters.   It may start as simply innocent as having your utility company make you get only on-line bills.  It can be as big as having the necessary information in life only made accessible through a screen.

Do look around your abode.  How many things do you observe that enable this digital, faceless and cyberspace intruder have access to your privacy?  Do you reflect how much you had to dish up of your hard earned post tax money to get them?   Do you have a terrifying smile then, when you realise that you and your family members are pressured often on an average of every two years to change to a better model of such equipment?  

Providers of services and goods inevitably move us to be more vulnerable to these heightened risks, for various reasons.  One big reason is their containment of costs for the business and the corresponding increase in profitability for their owners, shareholders or management rewards.   for users and consumers, it may be increased convenience....but at what cost?