Category Archives: Technology
Aasof on Democracy!
Posted by on Jun 30, 2018
This week on Facebook: Following my reading of the articles in Bloomberg’s Weekend Edition (This Week was China Week), it’s apparent that we are committed to ideologies, politicians in particular — in my view — being particularly committed to the authoritarian ideology of China’s master plan, which I posted this month. However, in whatever form they may come in, the adherence to a particular ideology produces its own zealots. Comments on the social media confirm this view, but what about the many more who do not involve themselves in ideological discussions!
Inequality & Technology
Posted by on Apr 14, 2018
This week on Facebook: The subject of global inequality is clearly one that presents a global dilemma in the search for a rational between the inequalities that economic growth has introduced with the advances in technology¹. The latter being this week’s subject as the harbinger of global inequality that is now being experienced by the developed world. Would that it were that simple, but many more factors are involved and while a scapegoat for global economic woes may be desirable, its use is only papering over the cracks that are now being revealed.
Google Ngram
Posted by on Mar 25, 2018
Google provide a programme called the Ngram Viewer, which enables the tracing of words or phrases as they have been used in books over the centuries. At a recent regular meeting with an ex-colleague of mine, we discussed wealth, prosperity and happiness, in the context of growth and inequality. The problem withe Ngram is the context in which the words are being used, by whom, when and for what purpose. Read more of this post
Aasof on Cyborgs
Posted by on Mar 10, 2018
This week on Facebook: Increasingly there is a notion that our cyborg traits are in conflict with those traits that determine our ethics and that of our humanity, and yet for the centuries, scientists speculated that we could tap into the body’s system to restore lost functions or enhance our powers, like machines. The concept of acupuncture, which began in China at least 2,500 years ago, premised that there are essential patterns of energy flow (Qi) throughout the body. Modern human cybernetic enhancements emulate the stimuli flowing throughout the body by creating pulses of electrical energy.
Perhaps it is always the human creative ability to form images, ideas, and sensations in the mind without any immediate input of the senses, and an innate ability to invent partial or complete personal realms within the mind from sense perceptions of a shared world that has led to our success as a species. Such imaginings are readily recognised in an artistic world, for example; literature, writing, art, poetry, but imagineering is hardly ever given recognition and credit in the technological world. Yet it may well be the artistic world of imagineering that has led to this world of cyborgs.
The Grauniad — Christmas 2017
Posted by on Dec 29, 2017
For those who are not aware of the pre-Internet age, this was the early days of computing, for the amateur enthusiast PCs were unaffordable but motherboard kits were available, which cost more than some modern Notebooks. It was so long ago the term geek wasn’t in common use. For excited techies the kit they’d assembled was programmed in machine code and loaded by cassette tape as floppy discs were expensive (a simple program could take 15 minutes to load). In fact all memory was expensive at that time.
Coherent Extrapolation Volition
Posted by on Apr 15, 2017
This week on Facebook: I intended to take a break from my theme of robots and AI but on reflection thought that perhaps a week of utopian articles should be set against the largely dystopian ones vis-à-vis AI, robotics and humans that I had previously published. I was surprised to find that utopian articles on the relationship between AI and humans were quite difficult to find. Those utopian articles that I did find could — to my mind — be classified as Pollyannaish. Read more of this post
AI & Humans
Posted by on Apr 8, 2017
This week on Facebook: I was expecting to move on from AI, or at least ignore it for a while, then I read about Elon Musk and Neuralink — a venture to merge the human brain with AI. This led to yet more thoughts on robotics and AI, which will become a never ending story in what remains of my lifetime. Perhaps I may be spared the realisation of what the Financial Times calls the Frankenstein fears hanging over AI, which can be read by clicking on the following image: Read more of this post
Robotics & AI
Posted by on Mar 11, 2017
This week on Facebook: It is very difficult to draw any conclusions from my incursion into the world of robotics and AI other than (perhaps) it being an inevitable step in human evolution. Inevitable in the sense that — regardless of the political motivations — there is a global scramble for economic growth and global economic hegemony. There are many scenarios that can be speculated on regarding any outcome to this scramble and naturally I would look for an analogy in the history of humankind, at the moment being drawn to the European revolutions of 1848, something I touched on in The Patriot. The inevitable outcome of any trade war in this scramble for global dominance in economic growth being military war. Read more of this post
Brain Plasticity
Posted by on Oct 29, 2016
This week on Facebook: I have written elsewhere about brain training and memory, informing readers that the average short term memory, as propounded by George Miller, can hold 7 ± 2 (5 to 9) chunks or bits of information, whereas I now believe that mine is 0 ± 1. This is something my wife has always believed and insists on giving me written lists. Having read the works of Edward De Bono on useful techniques to enhance memory retention, whatever techniques I learned I have now forgotten as my wife always gives me a list. Read more of this post
Aasof’s Reflections 