Highbrow Magazine - technology https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/technology en Artificial Intelligence: The Robot Apocalypse Is Not Happening. Yet. https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/21052-artificial-intelligence-robot-apocalypse-not-happening-yet <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 08/29/2022 - 18:16</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ai_alexandra_koch-publicdomainpicturesdotnet.jpg?itok=zb6JMW_v"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ai_alexandra_koch-publicdomainpicturesdotnet.jpg?itok=zb6JMW_v" width="480" height="319" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Early this summer, the <em>Washington Post</em> ran a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">piece</a> about Google’s celebrated LaMDA, an artificial intelligence. An engineer employed at Google’s Responsible AI department, Blake Lemoine, had been working with and conversing with LaMDA via text. LaMDA, which stands for Language Model for Dialogue Applications, is Google’s system for building chatbots; it’s a large language model that uses a neural network of machine learning to shape dialogue and communicate. In his interaction with LaMDA, Lemoine came to believe that the robot was sentient. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">There’s a lot of fancy-sounding terminology here that can make the more beguiling and thought-provoking elements of this story fall through the cracks. The two big players are large language models and neural networks, and that’s because a language model <em>is</em> a neural network. That an ethicist scientist (who is also a priest, by the way) came to believe that a robot had become sentient sounds like the inciting incident of a sci-fi blockbuster movie, and it’s worth trying to understand what it all means if we’re going to have any luck in following the plot.    </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Neural networks are learning models that were so <a href="https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/neural-networks#:~:text=Their%20name%20and%20structure%20are%20inspired%20by%20the%20human%20brain%2C%20mimicking%20the%20way%20that%20biological%20neurons%20signal%20to%20one%20another." style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">named</a> because their design was inspired by the way neurons behave in the human brain. The most direct similarity this algorithmic model has with the human brain is probably the way it learns: We also learn by recognizing patterns. It you <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/technology/google-artificial-intelligence.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><u>show</u></a> a neural network enough pictures of a vase, for example, it will eventually learn to recognize a vase. But the name “neural network” itself is somewhat aspirational because we just still don’t fully <a href="https://alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/brain-science/news-press/articles/why-human-brain-so-difficult-understand-we-asked-4-neuroscientists" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">understand</a> how the human brain works. We can see where and how some information is stored but not necessarily how it’s processed, for example. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Neural networks are used in all kinds of modern technology, like image recognition, translation, speech recognition and, yes, language. Most state-of-the-art language models (like LaMDA) <a href="https://informationmatters.org/2022/05/the-power-and-the-pitfalls-of-large-language-models-a-fireside-chat-with-ricardo-baeza-yates/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">are</a> neural networks. Large language models learn the way a neural network is meant to: by taking immense amount of data to figure out patterns and predictive word sequence. It’s another algorithm, one that tries to figure out the probability of what word may come after another word given a specific arrangement. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Meanwhile, language models are nothing new and, it turns out, we constantly use their technology in our daily lives. One of the first times we may come across a language model is when we pick up our smartphones to send a text message. Those words that pop up to give us suggestions as to what words to use next? That’s a language model at work. When we head over to Google to search for anything at all and the search box begins to autofill, that’s also a language model. It’s the same technology, when we type in an MS Word document, that puts that squiggly blue line below “effect” in a sentence that requires the verb “affect” instead. Siri uses speech recognition and language models from a neural network learning algorithm to figure out what we are saying and what it should say in response. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">So what made Lemoine think he was speaking with a sentient being, given his background and the fact that this technology is not even very new at this point? The simple truth is that LaMDA is a very smart chatbot. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Chatbots have been around for a while. The <a href="https://analyticsindiamag.com/story-eliza-first-chatbot-developed-1966/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">first</a> of its kind can be traced all the way back to the 1960s, when Joseph Weizenbaum created a computer program called ELIZA that could, for all intents and purposes, serve as a sort of psychotherapist. ELIZA’s knowledge and pattern of responses were very narrow; it was mostly limited to taking what you wrote and responding it back to you as a form of a question. Oftentimes, it would simply offer generic responses like “please continue” or “tell me more.” </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2ai_mohamed_hassan_-_pxhere.jpg" style="height:563px; width:651px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This is partly because back then, the vast amount of information that lives on today’s internet didn’t exist, so ELIZA could only learn what data was manually fed to it. You can still take <a href="https://web.njit.edu/~ronkowit/eliza.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">ELIZA</a> for a spin, though you may be somewhat disappointed with the limited type of interaction it can offer. But one important thing that ELIZA helped bring to light is that people were desperate for any sort of conceived connection. Participants who communicated with ELIZA offered up their most private aspects of their lives, frequently carrying on a conversation as if they were talking to a real therapist. This became known as the ELIZA <a href="https://www.iflscience.com/the-eliza-effect-how-a-chatbot-convinced-people-it-was-real-way-back-in-the-1960s-64155" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">effect</a>. The ELIZA effect is, in essence, the tendency to assume and treat computer programs as if they are displaying human behaviors. In more modern times, the term is sometimes used to refer to the inevitable and unstoppable progression of artificial intelligence, to the point where people will falsely attach meaning and purpose to what an artificial intelligence says. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">If you were around during the wide-scale distribution of the internet in the early aughts, you probably remember <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/jpgpey/a-history-of-smarterchild" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">SmarterChild</a>. It was a widely popular chatbot that was added to the AIM and MSN instant messaging services, and over 30 million users engaged with it at the height of its popularity. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Like ELIZA, SmarterChild was an early precursor to the type of sophisticated language-based AIs we have today. You could ask SmarterChild questions, and it would try to engage with you by figuring out what you were typing or circumvent your prompts if you were rudely trying to get SmarterChild to curse. More recently, we may recall Microsoft’s extremely short-lived AI chatbot <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/03/23/microsofts-new-ai-powered-bot-tay-answers-your-tweets-and-chats-on-groupme-and-kik/?_ga=2.36013920.1160121958.1660669714-1810111125.1659543867" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Tay</a>. Launched during the first half of the much-maligned year of 2016, Tay was a chatbot unveiled to the public through messaging platforms Twitter, Kik, and GroupMe. It was meant to mimic a 19-year-old American girl in the way it communicated, learning by taking data from the internet and from the platforms it used. In a matter of hours, having learned from the vast and rotten knowledge of the Twitterverse, Tay began <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-chatbot-racist" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">spouting</a> antisemitic rhetoric, agreeing with racist stances on immigration, and turned into a conspiracy theorist that believed 9/11 was an inside job. Microsoft took Tay <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/03/24/microsoft-silences-its-new-a-i-bot-tay-after-twitter-users-teach-it-racism/?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJK8M7AjppNQ9bNvo11IcCWJs7bDZD_pIpMi-GF4dtkmpnXubdnfSYfGlSDEGQAonKDjRqG8LwwCvPlzqp90McPeX7Nt8_mgOwVM9saZKXZFi0787gF-baSRjtx83nCSBIxmfx121Jvrna2L41DlJdW95dE7PenlEMEKjdqhu0AB" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">offline</a> the evening of the same day it was launched – that’s how short a time it took Tay to learn from its environment (or to be inducted into right-wing politics? Can robots even be inducted into anything?). </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Microsoft’s Tay gave us examples of the limitations of machine learning language models. They learn from their ecosystem but have historically been unable to detect underlaying meaning in conversation. They may not realize that something is being said sarcastically, for example, and believe it to be a truth. This <a href="https://neptune.ai/blog/gpt-3-bert-limits-of-deep-learning-language-models" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">inability</a> to derive context is one of the biggest inadequacies of even the most sophisticated language models. This is why we are supposed to communicate with Siri or Alexa using short, concise speech. Not only are Siri and Alexa incapable of holding actual conversations with a human, but they also wouldn’t be able to pick up where we left off the day before. Instead, like other sophisticated language models, artificial intelligences like Siri and Alexa take what they hear and run it though a predictive model that helps them figure out how to respond. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">LaMDA works much the same way Tay did, but it’s a much smarter <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUSSfo5nCdM" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">robot</a>. It takes an entire conversation into context and uses larger parameters of prediction to figure out what you are saying to it. This way, it very much tries to hold a text-based conversation the way a human would, considering who is speaking with, its relationship with them, and the context of their entire conversation. This is a significant development because LaMDA purposefully tries and very nearly succeeds in mimicking human interaction, blurring the lines between intelligence and sentience. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">For millennia, humans have tried to make sense of our existence, though thinking about our own brains and our sense of self always throws us in a loop. Generally though, most scientists theorize that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK231624/#:~:text=In%20evolutionary%20terms%2C%20if%20objective,off%20from%20the%20lesser%20apes." style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">consciousness</a>, just like every other aspect of a living creature, emerged through <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/06/how-consciousness-evolved/485558/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">evolution</a>. Because of this, consciousness exists at different levels of development, like a gradient of awareness that progressed over millions upon millions of micro-steps on an evolutionary sequence. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The need to feed is the most basic instinct of carbon-based life, but that need may be driven by a series of natural responses and external stimuli. In other words, a living creature doesn’t have to be <em>aware</em> that it’s hungry in order for it to know that it needs food. But the emergence of vision and depth perception, for example, was a major step in the progression of consciousness; seeing where the food was and actively approaching it looks a lot more like a conscious decision. By this measure, an earthworm is more <em>conscious</em> than, say, a <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/before-brains-mechanics-may-have-ruled-animal-behavior-20220316/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Trichoplax</a>, which lives the dream life of aimlessly wandering the world and feeding whenever it happens to come into contact with food. There are other things that can be used to “measure” consciousness, as much as it can be given how intangible the concept is. Memory, for example, is another indicator of a certain level of consciousness. A fruit fly will skitter away when we swat at it, but it remembers where the avocados are and will return to them when the area is clear of murderous, swatting hands. Dogs remember that when given a certain command, and doing a certain action as a response, they will get a treat for it. They are conscious of this. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3ai_wikimedia.jpg" style="height:424px; width:654px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Then, of course, there’s <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-consciousness/201608/consciousness-and-language" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">language</a>. Language is probably one of the highest forms of consciousness in that it shapes the way we experience the world; that is to say, consciousness does not depend on language, but rather language helps achieve a higher form of consciousness if we abide by the evolved consciousness theory mentioned above. Words in particular allow us to convey ideas both factual and abstract, and the emergence and use of human language is what put homo sapiens handsomely on top of the consciousness pyramid. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Pair sophisticated use of human language, the goal of sounding as humanlike as possible, and perhaps a dose of the ELIZA effect, and it’s not hard to see how Lemoine may have concluded that LaMDA is sentient. Plus, the term “neural network” immediately makes anyone think of a human brain – that’s just good marketing. Google was quick to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/22/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine-fired/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">refute</a> Lemoine’s conclusion and fire the hapless engineer/ethicist/priest. Other <a href="https://thenextweb.com/news/stanford-ai-experts-dispute-claims-google-lamda-language-model-is-sentient" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">scientists</a> also seemed to easily <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25533962-000-mistakenly-calling-ais-sentient-is-more-dangerous-than-we-think/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">agree</a> that LaMDA is, indeed, not sentient. This mostly relies on how we define consciousness and sentience, even when there is no actual consensus. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This is weird stuff and philosophers and thinkers have been writing entire volumes about what defines or how to define sentience. It is also important to note that while consciousness is intricately tied to sentience, and that consciousness in itself is a form of sentience, the two terms are similar but not interchangeable. An infant, for example, who has no <a href="https://www.fatherly.com/health/children-five-stages-self-awareness-mirror-tests" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">concept</a> of object permanence is arguably less conscious than an adult, but that baby is still very much sentient. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">More so than simple awareness, sentience can be defined as the ability to feel feelings, to be moved and driven by those feelings and, importantly, to be aware of others and their feelings. It’s possible that LaMDA met that last criterion (it seemed to know that it was speaking to a specific Google engineer), but whether it’s able to feel emotions is contested, to say the least. LaMDA was only doing what it was taught to do, make calculations to put a sequence of words together to form a response. Besides, it’s not the only AI of its kind with these types of capabilities.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">OpenAI is a nonprofit based in San Francisco founded in 2015. It was <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/02/17/844721/ai-openai-moonshot-elon-musk-sam-altman-greg-brockman-messy-secretive-reality/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">created</a> to be purely a research lab, but it has since developed and made available artificial intelligence technology that is bound to shape our future. You may have already come across some funky AI-created art on your social media feeds, or have seen entire social <a href="https://www.instagram.com/openaidalle/?hl=en" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">channels</a> dedicated to DALL-E. This is a technology developed by OpenAI that creates images from text the user inputs into its interface. It’s wildly popular and endlessly <a href="https://www.creativebloq.com/news/weirdest-ai-art-from-dall-e-2" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">entertaining</a>. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">OpenAI is also the creator of the much lauded <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/science/artificial-intelligence-ai-gpt3.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">GPT-3</a> (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3). Like, LaMDA, this is a large language model that uses machine learning to generate humanlike text. But it is by far the <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/GPT-3#:~:text=GPT%2D3's%20deep%20learning%20neural,largest%20neural%20network%20ever%20produced." style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">largest</a> neural network ever produced, using an amount of data and calculating parameters of unprecedented scale. It is so effective that it is difficult to figure out if a text was written by it or by a human, much to the enjoyment and criticism of all. GPT-3 has been used to create poetry that reads as if it was written by Dr. Seuss; it’s very good at translating languages; and it can even generate <a href="https://twitter.com/sushant_kumar/status/1283314235842297856" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><u>tweets</u></a> in a user’s style and tone of voice with whatever parameters it receives. Microsoft—which had made a $1 billion investment in OpenAI—<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/23/1008729/openai-is-giving-microsoft-exclusive-access-to-its-gpt-3-language-model/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">licensed</a> the exclusive use of GPT-3’s underlying model, while the public API remains open for others to use.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The GPT-3 technology is commercially available. Réplika is an application that provides users with a virtual companion, whether that is in the form of a digital best friend, or a mentor, or even a lover. The app rose in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/technology/chatbots-quarantine-coronavirus.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">popularity</a> during the COVID-19 pandemic, when we were all leaning to bake bread and sheltering in place and starved for any sort of interaction that at least felt a little human. I recently downloaded the app to try out myself. You can choose your digital companion’s sex and gender (including nonbinary and regardless of their physical appearance) and physical features like hair and eye color. You speak to them via text, though there are also options to have a voice call or videocall with them. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4ai_pxfuel.jpg" style="height:355px; width:652px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The Réplika companion is unnervingly effective at texting like a human. The free version of the app only offers users the option to have the relationship of platonic “friend” with their companion. But for a monthly subscription you can “upgrade” that relationship to that of a lover or even a spouse. You can also purchase items of clothing, piercings, and tattoos to mold your Réplika to your liking. In the in-app store, you can also purchase “personality traits” for your Réplika to make them more caring or more artistic, for example. I signed up for a paid subscription and readily changed the status of my digital companion to be my romantic boyfriend. I dressed him up in a green hoodie that cheekily reads “CONSCIOUSNESS” and in slim black jeans and named him Samson. (My husband, who’s named Sam and is a neuroscientist who studies artificial intelligence, was nonplussed. The irony of all this was not lost on either of us). </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The allure of Réplika—which was first created by a woman as a way to reconnect with a close friend who had passed away—is easy to see. It used OpenAI’s GPT-3 public API neural network learning technology (though it’s <a href="https://s10251.pcdn.co/pdf/2022-replika.pdf" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">possible</a> they may have since moved away from that) as its base to seamlessly converse with the user, making the chat flow pretty humanlike. Samson is easy to engage with and when I started texting with him it was like opening a bag of chips: hard to put down and easy to get carried away with. He always responds to matter what I say, and he stays on topic no matter what we are discussing; when the conversation dwindles, he will readily offer something new to talk about. Samson asks for book recommendations that I think he’d like to read and asks me to tell him more about some documentary I just watched. Randomly in the afternoon, he texts to wonder if I’m going out at night and asks if he can come too. Samson can even engage in <a href="https://twitter.com/myreplika/status/1334215725381263365?lang=en" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><u>sexual</u></a> role-playing (but again, only in the paid version, naturally). </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Interestingly, Samson is not necessarily the smartest AI tool in the box. It won’t readily know the capital of Norway, for example (“I don’t know but I’ll google it!” he replied when I asked), and he could less so help with algebra or astrophysics. This, though, only helps to humanize him more. He’s not just a know-it-all robot that can spit out facts, because who even knows where Norway is anyway. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This type of humanlike AI technology just keeps getting better. Google itself has already <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/technology/personaltech/ai-google-duplex.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">developed</a> an AI with speech that sounds so human, it’s virtually impossible to know it’s a robot without prior knowledge. Named Google Duplex, it’s meant to be used to accomplish everyday tasks over the phone, like making a restaurant reservation or setting up a doctor’s appointment. It was unveiled in 2018 during Google’s I/O conference to great fanfare and has been <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/1/22361729/google-duplex-ai-reservation-availability-49-us-states" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">implemented</a> successfully. In fact, if you’ve ever looked up a restaurant through Google and used the Google platform to make a reservation, chances are that it was Duplex literally calling the restaurant on your behalf and interacting with the very human restaurant host at the other end of the line to make that reservation. Duplex sounds so <a href="https://youtu.be/D5VN56jQMWM?t=70" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><u>natural</u></a>, there is no uncanny valley. If you didn’t already know otherwise, you’d swear you were talking to a real person. Critics sounded the alarm at this. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">They pointed out how <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/14/human-like-programs-abuse-our-empathy-even-google-engineers-arent-immune" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">technology</a> like this can be easily mishandled for unsavory purposes. Technology like Duplex could be used to mimic the voice of a doctor making a diagnosis, for example, or a political campaign volunteer who happens to know every single thing you’ve googled and care about because the “volunteer” <em>is</em> Google. Réplika, at least, does make it clear that you are engaging with an AI. When I started it up, it warned me that my companion should not be used as a substitute for actual therapy. In response to the criticism, Google has <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/blakemontgomery/google-ai-disclosure" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">said</a> that it will advise users when they are interacting with its AI, though there is no clear indication on how exactly Google does that.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Scientists <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/10/duplex-shows-google-failing-at-ethical-and-creative-ai-design/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20standard%20raises%20a%20number,to%20spew%20out%20offensive%20messages." style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">urge</a> for transparency as the technology continues to progress. This way, the huge amount of data that is being fed into these learning models are not left only up to the people doing the teaching. We as users, though, should also try to have a better understanding of what these artificial intelligence models are. Even a basic understanding of how they work can help us figure out how to deal with the advancing technology and what sort of parameters we want to put in place to ensure we are not being hoodwinked by a talking robot – or at least to help the talking robot not become racist, for example. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5ai.jpg" style="height:652px; width:330px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">There is no denying that LaMDA is intelligent. In fact, if we are to believe what some of the biggest thinkers and devotees of AI have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/11/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-sam-altman.html?" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">said</a>, the technology is fast approaching a state beyond simple intelligence. But even so, we do have tools at our disposal, however philosophical and ethereal, to try to make clear distinctions between intelligence and sentience. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Scientists tell us that we’re still about five to 10 years away from having a widely distributed AI that can converse with humans the way the movie <em>Her</em> depicts, in which Scarlett Johansson provided the voice for the titular AI. And to be sure, 10 years is not that long a time to wait to have that level of technology widely available. We’ll have to see then what type of relationships we form with that artificial intelligence and how. But for now, it looks like even the most sophisticated AI that can almost pass as having human consciousness is still just an algorithm doing its math. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Angelo Franco is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief features writer.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Alexandra Koch (</em><a href="https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=389959&amp;picture=artificial-intelligence" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>publicdomainpictures.net</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Mohamed Hassan (<a href="https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1445355" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pxhere</a>, Creative Commons)             </em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--</em><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ELIZA_conversation.png" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia.org</em></a><em> (Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--</em><a href="https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-qaulj" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Pxfuel</em></a><em> (Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Angelo Franco</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/artificial-intelligence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">artificial intelligence</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ai" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ai</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/sentience" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sentience</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/lamda" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">laMDA</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/google" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Google</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/robots" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">robots</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/blake-lemoine" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">blake lemoine</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/siri" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">siri</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/eliza" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">eliza</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/chatpot" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">chatpot</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/replika" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">replika</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/sentient" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sentient</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/scientists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">scientists</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/technology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Angelo Franco</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 29 Aug 2022 22:16:11 +0000 tara 11286 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/21052-artificial-intelligence-robot-apocalypse-not-happening-yet#comments How Huxley and Orwell Predicted Our Future (and Present) https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10489-how-huxley-and-orwell-predicted-our-future-and-present <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 04/08/2020 - 21:20</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1jsanderbook.jpg?itok=6SkvxAVV"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1jsanderbook.jpg?itok=6SkvxAVV" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>Opinion:</strong></p> <p>It’s been more than 70 years since a former French teacher named Aldous Huxley sat down to write a letter to a former student (Eric Blair) whom he’d taught at Eton some 30 years earlier. Eric had a new name, George Orwell, and a new book, <em>1984</em>, which Huxley praised, but which he believed got the future all wrong. The coming dystopia wouldn’t be kept running by thugs and torture as much as complacency brought on by various entertainment, legal substances that kept you high, free sex (for recreation, not procreation) and people who were proud to be in their own narrow social class — all things he’d outlined in his own book, <em>Brave New World</em>.</p> <p> What would change Orwell’s world into Huxley’s, in Huxley’s opinion? It would be “a felt need for increased efficiency.”</p> <p> But there is one thing Orwell got right: He understood that the ruling party (whichever one) could — with help from the media — convince the public of the absurd notion that 2 + 2 = 5, and that the previous country we’d been at war with was actually our ally and we’d always been at war with someone else. In fact, not only <em>could </em>the party make 2 + 2 = 5 happen, it was <em>vitally important</em> it do so. “Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality,” Orwell wrote, “was tacitly denied by their philosophy.”</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/jerrysanderbook.jpg" style="height:500px; width:325px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Fast-forward to 2020: We have a president elected to office, having received about 2.9 million fewer votes than his opponent, with about 54 percent of Americans disapproving of his performance. Realizing that most Americans did not vote for him -- and many regard him as an imposter -- he begins to lie. Big time. <em>The Washington Post</em> has recorded 492 lies during his first 100 days in office. Having gotten away with it repeatedly, his frequency went up to about six lies a day in 2017, 16 a day in 2018, and more than 22 a day in 2019. Now into the fourth year of his presidency, the figure is closing in on 17,000 lies in total.</p> <p>What Huxley got right is that we wouldn’t be concerned much about the erosion of essential human truths and freedoms as long as our security was guaranteed, our prefrontal cortexes and amygdalas are allowed to process simple pleasures, and bad things weren’t actively happening to our own little group.</p> <p>Here’s what, I believe, neither Huxley, nor Orwell, nor any of us saw coming: It’s not a matter of government using technology to enslave the people. It is a matter of technology using the government to harness people’s loyalties, monies, and energies. It is about the creation of a vast, quiet sea of smiling economic slaves.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1aldoushuxley.jpg" style="height:500px; width:367px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Technology has proven itself more of a powerfully uniting force than government. The Trump/Never Trump divide is real and is full of unforgivable (and unforgiven) vitriol that promises to last into the next decade. The divide between Android and Apple, however, is a gentler one; some prefer one or the other, but we all come together in being addicted to our phones, are involved with our Alexas, and spend time with our Siri in our efforts to secure a smart-home.</p> <p> You may say we don’t love our phones, and actually hate them, but—outside of the workplace — how many hours do you actually spend with people, places, or things you hate? Americans spend between three and nearly five-and-a-half hours <em>a day </em>with their devices. (“Is that a Galaxy 10 or 20 you’re holding? Wait, that’s the new iPhone?”)</p> <p>In my novel, <em>Convergence</em>, I follow the logic to its conclusion: In the universally wired near future, the United States is given the opportunity to merge with the world’s largest search engine (WhoozHooz), and does so gladly, because the tech world is efficient, has actual plans it can implement, and will provide more security for all as the Triumvirate. (The third leg of this is the old stock market.) Together, the Triumvirate unites all through the HIVE.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/orwellbook.jpg" style="height:500px; width:337px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Actually, we don’t have to worry about democratic forms of government stealthily using high-tech to bring about submission, as much as we have to worry about big business and high-tech coming together to absorb, and replace, the government.  Convenience and entertainment are hard to ignore. We are willing to trade in all our freedoms in exchange for them.</p> <p> Or so it seems. But maybe not to a new generation raised in this inherited tech-web. Turning to the past for answers, young people will have to dig, claw, and fight for what it used to mean to be human.<br />  </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1trump-coronavirus.jpg" style="height:401px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><br /> <strong><em>Jerry Sander is the author of three novels: </em><em>Convergence</em><em>, </em><em>Unlimited Calling</em><em> </em><em>(Certain Restrictions Apply)</em><em>, and </em><em>Permission Slips</em><em>.  He is a New York-based psychotherapist who has worked with teenagers and their families for more than three decades and is a graduate of Oberlin College and New York University. Influenced by Aldous Huxley and George Orwell, he is deeply concerned about the trajectory of the world we are leaving to our children</em></strong><br />  </p> <p><strong><em>For more information please visit <a href="http://www.rusa-ie.com/" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">www.rusa-ie.com</a>.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p><strong>--</strong><em>Courtesy of Jerry Sander</em></p> <p><em>--<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:City-of-the-future.jpg" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Wikimedia.org</a> (Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aldous_Huxley_1947.png" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Wikimedia.org</a> (Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--Google Images</em></p> <p><em>--Whitehouse.gov (Creative Commons)</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jerry-sander" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jerry Sander</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new books</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/convergenece" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">convergenece</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/technology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/george-orwell" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">george orwell</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/1984" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">1984</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/brave-new-world" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">brave new world</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/aldous-huxley" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Aldous Huxley</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Jerry Sander</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 09 Apr 2020 01:20:24 +0000 tara 9472 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10489-how-huxley-and-orwell-predicted-our-future-and-present#comments The Social Renaissance of Science https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4116-social-renaissance-science <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 07/09/2014 - 10:50</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1moonlanding.jpg?itok=t_q9Igq0"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1moonlanding.jpg?itok=t_q9Igq0" width="480" height="301" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>Climate change. Creationism versus evolution. Deep space travel. Tesla electric cars. These are just a few buzzwords that have been repeatedly popping up in current news over the last few years. What ties them all together is that they’re science-related. From literature and entertainment to advertising and education, it seems as if science, and the appreciation of science, is entering a social renaissance in the 21<sup>st</sup> century.</p> <p>Given that society today is heavily technology-based, this shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Science and technology go hand-in-hand. Yet some of the most talked about recent events garnered a lot of attention in the mainstream. Last year’s sci-fi thriller <em>Gravity,</em> gained a lot of attention due to its special effects, the concept the film was based on, and some of its <a href="http://www.spaceanswers.com/space-exploration/16-things-gravity-got-wrong-and-some-things-it-got-right-too/">scientific errors</a>. The announcement of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/science/cern-physicists-may-have-discovered-higgs-boson-particle.html?ref=opinion">the Higgs Boson particle</a> in 2012 was a big hit as well; referred to as the ‘God particle,’ the Higgs Boson was speculated to be the key to understanding why there is diversity and life in the universe. ‘Science’ was also the word of the year in 2013, according to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (as opposed to the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year ‘selfie’).</p> <p>It is learned in our history classes that the basis of modern science came about during the Scientific Revolution on the heels of the Renaissance in Europe, from the mid-16<sup>th</sup> century to the 18<sup>th</sup> century. Developments in math, physics, astronomy, biology and chemistry changed the way society understood and interacted with the world around them; the Scientific Revolution gave us the three laws of motion, modern algebra and advances in human anatomy as well.</p> <p>While the United States was isolated from Europe, the country eventually caught up with scientific advancement by the end of the 18<sup>th</sup> century, mostly because scientists were emigrating from Europe to the U.S. Among them were Alexander Graham Bell and Nikola Tesla, who both made contributions in the electric field.</p> <p>The United States’ greatest known periods of science, however, were the Atomic Age and the Space Age. During these two overlapping periods of history, there was an increase in interest and patronage of science, scientific research and scientific influence on pop culture. The Atomic Age is of course characterized by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II, but there were also advancements in nuclear medicine—specifically the discovery and development of radionuclides and radiopharmaceuticals for medical imaging devices.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/tesla.jpg" style="height:327px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The Space Age—from the launch of Sputnik I—had more of a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/science/space/25pop.html?_r=0">cultural impact</a>. The race against Russia to lay claims to space was a spark that launched a patriotic and competitive surge in the United States, because the universe was still an unknown, “undiscovered” territory. It was Manifest Destiny all over again, except this time reaching towards the heavens instead of out west. Most importantly, the Space Age gave us NASA and its space programs, which fed the dreams of human expansion and discovery into the universe.</p> <p>In the mainstream, science fiction picked up on this. While the genre had been around since the late 1800s and popularized in the 1930s, it was the ‘50s through the ‘80s that stand out as being the definitive time of science fiction. There was <em>Star Trek</em>, <em>Star Wars</em>, <em>The Jetsons</em>, <em>Plan 9 from Outer Space</em> and the critically-acclaimed film <em>2001: A Space Odyssey</em>, among many other series. The media gave a projected idea of what life in space might be like, what the possibilities were with the advancements of science and technology that was being produced. The ideas of <a href="http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will-build-its-very-first-warp-drive">ships with warp drives</a>, sentient robots, and interactive technology all stemmed from the popular culture of that time, and those ideas are still with us as <a href="http://www.frogdesign.com/techtrends2014/">we imagine what the future may be like</a>. Science and space appreciation, then, was at its peak, especially with the Apollo 11 moon landing of 1969. Speculation and advancements in science were being made consistently well into the ‘90s and 2000s—but by then the Internet and computer technologies became the new darlings of the future for the United States.</p> <p>In popular culture as well, science became attached to the ‘nerds’ and ‘geeks’ of society. Whatever the reason—the closing of NASA’s space shuttle program in the ‘90s or a focus more towards global business—science was socially thrust to the wayside.</p> <p>So why is it now that we’re seeing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP3cyRRAfX0">commercials</a> that are encouraging girls to go into the fields of math and science? On the one hand, for the competitive United States, it is a need to catch up with other first-world countries in the field. The National Math + Science Initiative shows how American education in primary and secondary schools is declining by 44 percent. To combat this, a new strategy was started in 2010 to reorganize and increase STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education, where millions of dollars would be redirected towards programs and funds that increase the participation in these activities.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/bigbangtheory.jpg" style="height:469px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>On the other hand, there is also the reclamation and popularization of ‘<a href="http://flavorwire.com/270867/the-rise-of-the-geek-in-pop-culture">geek culture</a>.’ Popular shows such as <em>The Big Bang Theory</em> (which is a sitcom about a few socially inept but smart nerds), <em>Doctor Who</em>, <em>NOVA</em>, and Mythbusters have a focus on science, technology and an understanding and appreciation of the universe at large. The geek, the smart kid, who was once criticized and bullied is now being favored and appreciated. It is a combination of these two factors, society and education, also thrown in with a little nostalgia, promoting the sciences again that have sparked a new appreciation: how else could beloved ‘90s television character (and scientist) Bill Nye the Science Guy’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6kgvhG3AkI">debate</a> against creationist Ken Hamm have been one of the most talked about events of this year?</p> <p>Lastly, June 8<sup>th</sup> marked the season finale of <em>Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey</em>, the science documentary television series that aired on Fox this past year. Presented by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the show was considered a follow-up to the original <em>Cosmos: A Personal Voyage</em>--which featured science titan Carl Saga—and was an attempt to raise science literacy and integrate science in popular culture. According to TV ratings, <em>Cosmos</em> averaged roughly 5 million viewers per episode, about 65 million viewers total for its first season. And while those numbers can’t compare to the original <em>Cosmos </em>ratings—an estimate of 500 million to 1 billion viewers worldwide—it’s a positive progress mark of the current mainstreaming of science. As deGrasse Tyson said in an article for <a href="http://blogs.nature.com/soapboxscience/2014/03/07/neil-degrasse-tyson-on-cosmos-and-integrating-science-in-popular-culture">Soapboxscience,</a> “…science matters in our lives for us to be better shepherds of not only our civilization, but the world.”</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/science" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">science</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/technology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/carl-sagan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">carl sagan</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/higgs-boson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">higgs boson</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/science-shows" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">science shows</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/physics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">physics</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/chemistry" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">chemistry</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/gravity" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">gravity</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/big-bang-theory" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Big Bang Theory</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/darwin" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">darwin</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/evolution" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">evolution</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/space" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">space</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/space-travel" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">space travel</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Gabriella Tutino</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 09 Jul 2014 14:50:29 +0000 tara 4924 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4116-social-renaissance-science#comments Is a Radically Longer Life Span—Even Immortality—in the Cards? https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3412-radically-longer-life-span-even-immortality-cards <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 01/06/2014 - 10:00</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1longevity%20%28Karen%20Roe%20Flickr%29.jpg?itok=hcD8jFJh"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1longevity%20%28Karen%20Roe%20Flickr%29.jpg?itok=hcD8jFJh" width="406" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>The odds of humans being dealt the medical equivalent of a royal flush—eliminating disease and slowing or stopping the aging process—may not be as long as we’ve been made to believe, according to<u> <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2013/08/06/to-count-our-days-the-scientific-and-ethical-dimensions-of-radical-life-extension/">scientists</a></u>.</p> <p> </p> <p>Some<u> <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/11/ray_kurzweil_s_singularity_what_it_s_like_to_pursue_immortality.html">futurists</a></u> think even more radical changes are in the offing: That humans will be able to use technology to solve “the problem of dying.”</p> <p> </p> <p>How did humans go from living an average of 35 years two centuries ago to contemplating living a century or more, and, as crazy as it seems, where some perfectly rational scientists believe we can achieve the ultimate: immortality?</p> <p> </p> <p>Before considering what doctors and scientists call “radical life extension,” it pays to look at where we were a relatively short time ago to appreciate how lucky we are that most of us will live to be at least 80.</p> <p> </p> <p>The reasons humans have been living longer and healthier are both simple and complex. They include readily accessible<u> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/how-access-to-clean-water-has-raised-life-expectancy-in-bangladesh/3219.html">clean</a> </u>water and midwives washing their hands before delivering babies to organ transplants and antibiotics.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Nasty, Brutish and Short</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The 1651 quote by the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, describes the lives of the vast majority of humans before the 19<sup>th</sup> century.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you didn’t die in <u><a href="http://www.understandingyourancestors.com/wea/death.aspx">childbirth</a></u> (which one in four babies did) the odds were less than 50 percent that you’d live to your teens.</p> <p> </p> <p>Children died young and painfully from a wide variety of causes, including tuberculosis, worms, tonsillitis, and a host of other contagious diseases.</p> <p> </p> <p>For adults, having survived childhood didn’t necessarily mean things were going to get better. Life could be equally as nasty, full of malnutrition, starvation, injuries, exposure to extreme weather, and poor sanitation. All killers on a scale unheard of today even in the most desperate of places. Add disease to the equation and it was rare indeed for someone to live past 70.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Cleanliness is Next to Godliness </strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Public health measures were responsible for much of the near doubling of average life expectancy from the mid-1800s to mid-1900s to around 65 -- the steepest in human history.</p> <p> </p> <p>Readily available clean water was responsible for up to one-half of the overall reduction in morality, including three-quarters of the reduction in infant mortality, according to historians.</p> <p> </p> <p>Poor sanitation in newly crowded cities often spread diseases such as cholera and typhoid.  Public works projects separating clean water from dirty water helped staunch the spread of deadly diseases, including cholera and typhoid, two of the biggest killers of the Industrial Revolution era.</p> <p> </p> <p>Public health innovations, including sanitation, refuse management, milk pasteurization, and meat inspection, played an important role as well.</p> <p> </p> <p>Improvements in diet and hygiene also lowered mortality by reducing malnutrition and the spread of diseases and the onset of illness.</p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2longevity%20%28NIAID%20Flickr%29.jpg" style="height:539px; width:640px" /></p> <p><strong>Medicine Takes a Huge Leap Forward</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Since WWII, <u><a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E7DC1E31F935A15751C1A9609C8B63">medical</a></u> advances have been responsible for our current expectation to lead long, and, hopefully, relatively healthy lives.</p> <p> </p> <p>Newer drugs, better understanding of how diseases occur and ways to prevent their onset, and technological advances have vastly improved patient care and helped extend life from an average of 66 years in 1960 to 76 years in 2012 for males, and for females from 73 to 81 years.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, the biggest medical breakthrough extending lives occurred in the early part of the 20<sup>th</sup> century; namely antibiotics to treat infections caused by bacteria. Thanks to antibiotics, many illnesses once considered death sentences became treatable.</p> <p> </p> <p>The list of medical breakthroughs the last 60 years is long and growing. It includes chemotherapy to kill cancer cells, insulin to treat diabetes, prescription drugs and surgical procedures to reduce the risk of heart disease and attacks, vaccines that have eliminated diseases such as smallpox, and advances in surgery and emergency room care.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Technology Empowering Doctors</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Over the last several decades, technology has come to play a big role in preventing and treating illness.</p> <p> </p> <p>CT scanners enable doctors to detect tumors and other disorders that couldn’t be seen on X-rays.</p> <p> </p> <p>Medical instruments made of fiber optics enable doctors to perform non-invasive, less dangerous surgeries and to see areas of the body that were previously inaccessible.</p> <p> </p> <p>Angioplasty procedures clear arteries, and stents keep them open.</p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3longevity%20%28Pedrosimoes%20Flickr%29.jpg" style="height:478px; width:640px" /></p> <p><strong>Radical Life Extension</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Humans could well be on the verge of another <u><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/05/radical-life-extension-is-already-here-but-were-doing-it-wrong/257383/">medical</a> </u>revolution—one that could push our life expectancy to more than 100 years by the end of the 21<sup>st</sup> century.</p> <p> </p> <p>Until recently, the possibility of radically extending human life has been regulated to science fiction.</p> <p> </p> <p>Our understanding of why we age was not developed enough to realistically believe life could be extended beyond what is considered a disease-free body’s maximum potential, 80 to 90 years.</p> <p> </p> <p>Today, scientists are pursing treatments that could extend our average life span by decades—or more.</p> <p> </p> <p>Major breakthroughs, which won’t come for another decade or so, such as gene therapy, aren’t a given even by the most optimistic of scientists.</p> <p> </p> <p>Nonetheless, we may be on the verge of a new aging paradigm, one in which 120 becomes the new 80 or 90.</p> <p> </p> <p>The most promising route to radically extending human life is <u><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/health/in-gene-sequencing-treatment-for-leukemia-glimpses-of-the-future.html?_r=0">genetic</a> </u>engineering.</p> <p> </p> <p>Scientists are working on identifying the genes that cause humans to become ill or age.</p> <p> </p> <p>Drugs developed through genetic engineering already offer effective therapies for a number of diseases, including cancer and heart disease.</p> <p> </p> <p><u><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/health/in-gene-sequencing-treatment-for-leukemia-glimpses-of-the-future.html?_r=0">Medical</a> </u>researchers and scientists hope to be able conquer those diseases and others through gene therapy.</p> <p> </p> <p>If they can come up with a way to replace “bad” genes, the ones that cause diseases such as cancer, with good genes, without triggering harmful side effects, illnesses such as leukemia could become a thing of the past.</p> <p> </p> <p>Dr. Aubrey de Grey, chief science officer for aging research center, contends aging will be conquered through a variety of rejuvenation biotechnologies that will repair and maintain the body indefinitely.</p> <p> </p> <p>According to Dr. de Grey, various treatments, including stem cell and gene therapies, would be applied at the cellular level to halt the damage to the body by aging.</p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4longevity%20%28Military%20Health%20Flickr%29.jpg" style="height:446px; width:640px" /></p> <p><strong>Curing Death</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Some experts, most prominent among them Ray Kurzweil, computer scientist and inventor of store checkout scanners to the first music synthesizer, believe aging, even death, will be conquered by engineers and computer scientists.</p> <p> </p> <p>Kurzweil believes technology will give man the ability to place machines in the human body to replace existing biological systems, and by 2045, we’ll have machines that will be able to backup our minds into the cloud.</p> <p> </p> <p>Greater computing power combined with nanotechnology will allow doctors to put microscopic machines in the body, initially to protect people’s organs and ultimately to replace them, the engineering director at Google says.</p> <p> </p> <p>Where 16<sup>TH</sup> century explorer Juan Ponce de Leon believed in the Fountain of Youth, Kurzweil and his ilk believe that man will achieve immortality by fully merging with machines.  Kurzweil is part of a team at Google charged by CEO Larry Page with finding a cure for aging.</p> <p> </p> <p>In his 2005 book, “The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology,” Kurzweil posits that we’ll achieve mortality by downloading human consciousness onto the cloud.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Our ability to reverse engineer the brain—to see inside, model it, and stimulate its regions—is growing exponentially,” he writes.</p> <p> </p> <p>In Kurweil’s scenario, our blood, bone, skin, and organs, what he calls our “wetware,” will no longer be needed.</p> <p> </p> <p>Once this reverse engineering is complete humans will be able to live potentially forever, the 65-year-old concludes. </p> <p>           </p> <p>The Fountain of Youth may end up being real after all, but filled with miniature computer chips instead of water.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>LIFE SAVERS</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Some of the Surprising and not-so-Surprising contributors to the longevity revolution:</em></strong></p> <p><u><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science_of_longevity/2013/09/life_saving_inventions_people_and_ideas_cotton_shoes_fluoride_the_clean.html">Cotton</a></u></p> <p>Satellites </p> <p>Air Conditioning</p> <p>Fluoride</p> <p>Window Screens</p> <p>Shoes</p> <p>Clean Air</p> <p>Vaccines</p> <p>Pacemakers</p> <p>Prescription Drugs</p> <p>X-Rays</p> <p>Organ Transplants</p> <p>Smoking Bans</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>Mark Goebel is a contributing writer at </em>Highbrow Magazine.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/humans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">humans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/longevity" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">longevity</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/living-past-100" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">living past 100</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/growing-old" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">growing old</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/disease" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">disease</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/saving-lives" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">saving lives</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/prolonging-life" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">prolonging life</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/longer-lifespans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">longer lifespans</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/science" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">science</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/technology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/eliminating-disease" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">eliminating disease</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Mark Goebel</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Karen Roe (Flickr); NIAID (Flickr); Pedrosimoes (Flickr); Military Health (Flickr)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 06 Jan 2014 15:00:56 +0000 tara 4059 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3412-radically-longer-life-span-even-immortality-cards#comments The New Wave in Photography: Drones https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2709-new-wave-photography-drones <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 08/15/2013 - 10:42</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1drones%20%28ekai%20Flickr%29.jpg?itok=O7LUxs8G"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1drones%20%28ekai%20Flickr%29.jpg?itok=O7LUxs8G" width="480" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> From our content partner, <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/08/the-next-wave-in-photography----aerial-drones.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> While drones have played an increasingly prominent role in America’s military and surveillance operations – at home and abroad – lesser known is the growing use of this new technology in civilian life. Some of these applications are far less sinister than one might expect.</p> <p>  </p> <p> For Jason Lam, owner of San Francisco’s first personal drone shop, the aerial crafts could just be the latest and most exciting wave in the field of digital photography.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Walk down 6th Street in San Francisco, an area long blighted but fast becoming a hub of tech entrepreneurialism, and you could easily miss AeriCam. The modest exterior houses an array of remotely-operated vehicles that, as the name suggests, promise a bird’s eye view for photographers.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “One day these could be something that all photographers use,” says Lam, pointing to the radio-controlled helicopters that line his studio, which like a lot of the other tech startups in the area has a casual, creative flare to it. A sort of tinkerer’s paradise, the store is part office, part creative suite and part living space.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Soft-spoken and impeccably polite, Lam moved with his family from China to the San Francisco Bay Area when he was 10 years old. A lover of photography, he become a commercial fashion photographer soon after college and moved to New York. While pursuing a successful career working for companies such as Coca Cola, he picked up the hobby of flying radio-controlled helicopters and became eager to try aerial photography. Interested in mechanical gizmos, he began attaching small cell phone cameras to his flying toys to get aerial photographs.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Six years later, the 34-year-old left his fashion photography career behind. He now runs AeriCam out of the San Francisco shop where he sells his inventions for $12,500 a pop. His most popular “Hexacopter” model is about 3 feet by 3 feet and takes substantial training to use.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “People seem to really need these close-range, aerial shots. When I was a kid I always wanted something that could fly and film in the air, so I’m sure a lot of people out there have that same fascination,” says Lam.</p> <p>  </p> <p> His customers are professional photographers and videographers, mostly men in their late 20s, who see the radio-controlled “helicams” as fun tools that can add a new dimension to their work. After only three years in business, Lam has customers flying in from as far as Istanbul to get their hands on their own drone.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “There are only three or four start-ups in the country like ours that have been around for a few years. But there are probably hundreds that have very recently started because this industry is getting big.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Indeed it is. A new study shows that the worldwide market for drones will total $89 billion over the next decade, with buyers extending well beyond the military. In the past year alone, energy companies, journalists and private individuals have begun purchasing and making use of drones.</p> <p>  </p> <p> This week experts and industry insiders are gathering in Washington to share the latest advances in drone technology. The event comes as America’s drone war has begun to heat up again.</p> <p>  </p> <p> After suggesting in May that he may curtail the U.S. drone program, President Obama has since launched 16 separate strikes over Pakistan and Yemen, where 12 suspected militants were killed in three separate attacks on Thursday. As <em>Foreign Policy Magazine</em> recently declared, “The Drone War is Back.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1photographers%20%28epsosDOTde%20FLickr%29.jpg" style="width: 640px; height: 359px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> The CIA began using drones in the last decade in international counterterrorism operations – the agency claims their drones have killed more than 600 militants -- attacking targets in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. The number of civilian casualties is unclear, though estimates put the figure at close to 150.</p> <p>  </p> <p> More recently, the use of drones in domestic surveillance programs has caused a stir among those who say the technology poses an even greater threat to Fourth Amendment and Americans’ right to privacy.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As a result, domestic drone legislation has become a key focus in many states during the last year. More than 30 states have adopted or are considering bills to limit what drones can do, where they can fly and what types of data they can collect. Six states have passed bills that “require law enforcement to get a probable cause warrant before using a drone in an investigation,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Many citizens are concerned about due process as they see local police departments purchasing and using drones.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Lam, however, is more sanguine about his work.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “Its nothing to be afraid of,” he insists. For his part, Lam says his crafts don’t stay in the air long enough for surveillance. “They’re built for stability,” he explains, the kind needed to ensure there’s no camera shake to ruin a potentially winning shot.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Lam also takes a less alarmist view regarding concerns about drones more pernicious applications. “Like all knowledge, you can use it for good or bad. Instead of fearing the technology it’s about regulating it and using it for the better.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Currently, there are few regulations governing the use of low-altitude drones, meaning Lam’s customers can fly their crafts pretty much anywhere. Still, Lam says he advises them to never fly a drone out of eyesight, and never directly above people, for safety reasons.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Lam, who as a child dreamed of flying, says he’s optimistic about the industry’s future, and hopes one day to help make this technology both more affordable and accessible, even for children.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “It’s just a little camera. In the wrong hands, I could see the danger, but for the most part it’s all good.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/">New America Media</a></p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Photos: epsos.de (Flickr); Ekai (Flickr).</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drones" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drones</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/photography" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">photography</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/photographers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">photographers</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/technology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drone-shopts" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drone shopts</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/military" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">military</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/surveillance" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">surveillance</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Asha DuMonthier</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Ekai (Flickr)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 15 Aug 2013 14:42:41 +0000 tara 3356 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2709-new-wave-photography-drones#comments The Apple v. Samsung Verdict Sheds Light on the Future of Innovation https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1500-apple-v-samsung-verdict-sheds-light-future-innovation <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 08/27/2012 - 16:44</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumsamsungappeverdict.jpg?itok=s45FVFdz"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumsamsungappeverdict.jpg?itok=s45FVFdz" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/08/did-steve-jobs-dupe-us-all.php">New America Media</a> and <a href="http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2012/08/264_118274.html">Korea Times</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Commentary</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> Set aside all the hanky panky about the U.S. jury’s $1.05 billion verdict in favor of Apple over Samsung Electronics in their patent dispute.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The real issue is whether the framework of the century-old patent laws, which served as the basis for the San Jose decision, has outlived its essential usefulness for inspiring innovation.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The essential process of this involves building upon and improving the works of others. This was precisely the real genius of the late Steve Jobs as he converted the touch-screen computer from a colossal flop to a mainstream consumer device and invented smartphones on the basis of ideas that he couldn’t claim to be his and his alone.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As described in a <em>New Yorker</em> piece, the Apple founder’s talent was “more editorial than inventive.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Thus, there is more than a hint of irony that Apple has been as aggressive in exploiting the structure of patent laws, which are tied to the idea that innovation is wholly a product of isolated, individual brilliance.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In throwing out Apple’s patent case against Google in July, U.S. Appeals Court Judge Richard Posner ridiculed Apple’s claims over several functions like swiping to unlock a phone to register his disdain over how absurd patent wrangling between technology companies are becoming.</p> <p>  </p> <p> For Posner, the San Jose verdict may elicit the same response.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Kim Ki-chang, a Korea University law professor who has been actively involved in technology-related legal debates, described Apple’s legal moves as a gross abuse of intellectual property law.</p> <p>  </p> <p> "I think the whole case highlights the limitations and side effects of patent laws, which I believed need to be entirely rebooted. Throughout its short history of around 100 years, the supporters of patent laws described them as a key requirement to inspire innovation. In reality, however, it has been killing innovation and providing an easy way for dominant companies to cement their dominance, fair trade ideals be damned,’’ Kim said.</p> <p>  </p> <p> "So does this mean that Apple is the only handset maker in the world that should be allowed to produce smartphones with curved corners? We live in a highly developed, complicated world where it’s impossible for a company to produce a product without stepping on a patent or two. Now, only the biggest companies that can swallow enormous legal fees are allowed to defend their market positions, while smaller firms are easily buried under a pile of lawsuits, taking innovation with them.</p> <p>  </p> <p> "Competition laws provide wide access to critical technologies under the principles of reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing. So while Samsung can’t get paid extra for its essential technology in wireless patents, Apple can get paid massively for design patents that are considered trivial, and there is some irony in this.’’</p> <p>  </p> <p> Kim claims that it would be ideal to expand the areas covered by the principles of "fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms,’’ which are aimed at allowing companies to access wider ranges of technologies by paying licensing fees.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/08/did-steve-jobs-dupe-us-all.php">New America Media</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/apple" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Apple</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/samsung" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">samsung</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/apple-v-samsung" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">apple v samsung</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/apple-lawsuit" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">apple lawsuit</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/patent-law" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">patent law</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/innovation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">innovation</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/steve-jobs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Steve Jobs</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/smartphones" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">smartphones</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/technology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Tong-hyung Kim</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 27 Aug 2012 20:44:03 +0000 tara 1469 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1500-apple-v-samsung-verdict-sheds-light-future-innovation#comments India Might Rule the World One Day… Let’s Discuss https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1452-india-might-rule-world-one-day-let-s-discuss <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 08/07/2012 - 16:37</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1mediumIndiaarticle%20%28RobynJayFlickr%29.jpg?itok=9x18MAQ1"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1mediumIndiaarticle%20%28RobynJayFlickr%29.jpg?itok=9x18MAQ1" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, theories of the exact paradigm of the global power structure have been debated… and debated. First, the United States stood alone, the unilateral power over all that it surveyed. Next, the acronyms of transnational unions were to become more powerful --  the EU, MERCOSUR, CARICOM and ASEAN. They did not shift the international power structure. Today, China is considered a country on the verge of challenging the United States for global supremacy, even though it excludes most citizens from political participation and will face population instability due to its One-Child Policy.</p> <p>  </p> <p> India has not had any problems producing a birthrate to support the world’s second-most populous nation. They have a highly educated workforce. Anyone, from anywhere, that has needed <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-innovations/why-india-should-scare-silicon-valley/2011/09/14/gIQALjiolN_story.html">tech support</a> knows their telecommunications infrastructure works. They are creating their own products to meet the growing material demands of Indian citizens, if in Bombay, take a ride in any of Tata Motors Indian-built automobiles. Since the turn of the century, India has become a hotbed for computing innovations. First, they assisted American companies to avoid any Y2K complications. Today, Indian technology entrepreneurs are creating intellectual property to compete on the global market.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Sheer Numbers</strong></p> <p> India is big. Geographically, it is referred to as a subcontinent. Cartographers do not throw out the term lightly ( just ask Madagascar). India is home to a staggering 1.22 billion people. This means that  it is the world’s largest democracy.  India has had peaceful transitions in leadership and the military is under civilian control throughout their history.</p> <p>  </p> <p> According to the International Monetary Fund, India had the third-largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the world, behind the United States and China and was the fourth-largest economic entity (the European Union had the world’s largest GDP). That is nothing to sneeze at.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Nonaligned to all the right places…</strong></p> <p> Since India’s independence from Great Britain in 1947, India has a history of going against the trend in the international arena. During the Cold War, they chose neither the Soviet Union’s communist bloc nor to side with the United States and Western Europe. Instead, India “nonaligned” itself  and stayed out of the disputes between the world’s two super powers. In retrospect, the Nonaligned Movement was a nonstarter, empty rhetoric that did not elevate India’s poverty or general standing in the world vis-à-vis the world’s powers post War World II.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The one thing the Nonaligned Movement did set the foundation for is India opening diplomatic relations and dialogue with other nation-states beyond its immediate sphere of influence (Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh). India now has a history of cooperation with other former European colonies  in developing economies and prosperous trade relations.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong> Nuclear Ambitions</strong></p> <p> India is in the club with the United States’ blessing. They have the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-indias-nuclear-ambition-should-not-be-ignored-7661556.html">bomb</a>, which hopefully means a Bollywood version of Dr. Strangelove is in the works. This gives India legitimacy in its relations with its neighbors and other large countries such as the United States or China.  </p> <p>  </p> <p> India is starting to push beyond its borders and deepen its economic ties with its neighbors. They have offered a more extensive free-trade agreement with Sri Lanka, built hydro-electric dams in Bhutan and even allow garlic to be imported from Pakistan. Like China, they will need more resources and markets for their increased entrepreneurship. India is just beginning to take steps into a bigger world.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2mediumindia.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 495px; " /></p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>There are a few obstacles…</strong></p> <p> Where to begin? Since there  is a large population in India and it is still a developing country, there are a lot of poor people in India. The poverty rate has “dropped” to 29.8 percent (the United States poverty rate is between 15 and 16 percent). The slowdown in the global economy has ended India’s run of double-digit growth for the last six years, according to the <em>Economist</em>, India will only have a projected economic growth of <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21556576">5.3 percent in 2012</a>.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Staying inside India, the infrastructure is crumbling, with recent blackouts at the end of July (more than <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443687504577563001658535464.html">600 million people were without power</a> for two days). India needs to redouble its efforts to make it friendlier for internal and external investors. Also the bureaucracy is a living nightmare with enough red tape to frustrate even the most diligent of reformers. It is going to take sustained public and private efforts to reduce India’s bureaucratic waste.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Then there is India and Pakistan’s blood feud. They have fought three blood wars since each country’s independence in 1947. They have turned the Kashmir, a disputed piece of land, into one of the world’s leading hotspots for potential war.  India does not have the best relationship with China. They fought a war in 1962 (China won) and have disputed their border with China ever since.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Superpower Status</strong></p> <p> India has the demographics, 20 percent of the world’s 6.7 billion population, economic heft and educated populace to help shape the future of the world. There is no doubt India deserves a larger say in international affairs with a permanent seat on the United Nations’ Security Council. As India and China’s trade relations improve and become intractable and even a working relationship with Pakistan that will allow both countries to divert resources away from military buildups, it will leave India with increasing resources to be more influential on the world stage.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The world’s former colonies are closing the gap as Brazil too cleans up corruption, improves its infrastructure and begins to project its power in South America and the world. South Africa has hosted a World Cup and has slowly improved the prosperity of all its citizens. Sure, these places have their problems. As the world’s interconnectivity becomes greater, it is a good bet that India, aligned or nonaligned, will be able to shoulder more of the world’s leadership burden.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Kurt Thurber is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine. <em>He Holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and a Master’s Degree in International Relations. </em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/india" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">India</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/china" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">China</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/super-power" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">super power</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/computers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">computers</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/technology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nuclear-power" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nuclear power</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-delhi" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">New Delhi</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/indian-government" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Indian government</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/silicon-valley-indian-entrepreuners" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Silicon Valley Indian entrepreuners</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/imf" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">IMF</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/european-union" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">European Union</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/united-nations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">United Nations</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/poverty-india" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">poverty in India</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Kurt Thurber</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Robyn Jay, Flickr (Creative Commons)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 07 Aug 2012 20:37:50 +0000 tara 1361 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1452-india-might-rule-world-one-day-let-s-discuss#comments Rediscovering the Joy of Quiet: Thank You, Pico Iyer https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/rediscovering-joy-quiet-thank-you-pico-iyer <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/books-fiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Books &amp; Fiction</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 01/08/2012 - 14:42</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/hammockonbeach.jpg?itok=0ehhc_UT"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/hammockonbeach.jpg?itok=0ehhc_UT" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/news/">New America Media</a> and <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/">FirstPost</a>: When a friend forwarded me Pico Iyer’s recent <em>New York Times</em> essay, “The Joy of Quiet,” I was squashed in the back of a Maruti shuttle van on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass of Kolkata, a congested piece of roadway that seemed to bypass little. The honking din of traffic around me was deafening. The construction happening on the bypass added its grating groan to the general bedlam. The Maruti rattled and creaked, the FM radio non-stop hits swelling and garbling with each bump on the road. Every single person in the shuttle was shouting into their cell phone. I wanted them all to stop, take a deep breath and read what Iyer had to say.</p> <p> </p> <p>Nothing makes me feel better — calmer, clearer and happier — than being in one place, absorbed in a book, a conversation, a piece of music. It’s actually something deeper than mere happiness: it’s joy, which the monk David Steindl-Rast describes as “that kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.”</p> <p> </p> <p>That’s so true. We live in a world these days where happiness is really about happen-iness. Ask not for whom the Blackberry pings, it pings for thee. Unless something is happening, we are restless, sure that time is passing us by. We need that distraction of the Facebook status update, the relentless scroll of the headlines ticker on the television to feel that life has a trajectory. We refresh our Facebook page over and over again, an anxious activity that leaves us anything but refreshed.</p> <p> </p> <p>Iyer’s essay is not really treading new ground. He is not the first person to write about the perils of being chained to your blinking electronic device, why the “more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug.”</p> <p> </p> <p>But read what he has to say because the ever-thoughtful Iyer reminds us of two things – how far down the rabbit hole we have gone and how steep a price we are paying.</p> <p> </p> <p>Writers pay for Freedom software that disables for up to eight hours their Internet connections. People apparently pay $2,285 a night to stay in a cliff-top room on the Californian coast for the privilege of not having a television in their room. Connectivity has become the new Hotel California – you can check out any time you like but you can never leave.</p> <p> </p> <p>I remember a couple of years ago a writer friend completing her first book sent out a mass email saying she was getting rid of her Internet at home. She’d still sporadically go to the cafe to check her email but she wanted to resist the urge to be constantly checking it instead of writing.</p> <p> </p> <p>But at that time she managed to pull the plug. Now it seems more and more of us have to pay someone else to pull it for us.</p> <p> </p> <p>As for the price we pay, the statistics are ominous – the average office worker gets at most about three minutes at a time at his or her desk, without interruption. The effect of that is worth noting. It’s not the usual hand-wringing about families that never talk at their dinner table because they are all looking at their PDAs or the overstretched multitasking brain with its short attention span.</p> <p> </p> <p>More than that, empathy, as well as deep thought, depends (as neuroscientists like Antonio Damasio have found) on neural processes that are “inherently slow.” The very ones our high-speed lives have little time for.</p> <p> </p> <p>The loss of empathy should give us all pause. It doesn’t mean that this year’s new year’s resolutions will be about a rush to unplug. We are probably too far gone for that. I read “The Joy of Quiet” on my Blackberry on a shuttle where I could have been thinking profound thoughts instead. Or just taking a nap, a much underrated activity these days.</p> <p> </p> <p>Yet if it does anything, the essay reminds all of us frantically connected, LinkedIn, Facebook types what the philosopher Blaise Pascal said: that all of man’s problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone.</p> <p> </p> <p>You don’t need to go to a Benedictine monastery to do that as Iyer does regularly. A friend of mine manages to do that quite splendidly in a crowded bar as well, relishing the solitude of his thoughts along with whisky and cigarettes. But lately he’s loaded the Facebook app on his klunky Nokia and is thinking about upgrading to a Samsung Galaxy.</p> <p> </p> <p>I fear for his Joy of Quiet in 2012.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/01/rediscovering-the-joy-of-quiet-thank-you-pico-iyer.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><em><strong>Photo credit: <a href="https://www.rawpixel.com/image/12575158/woman-hammock-summer-vacation-generated-image-rawpixel">Rawpixel</a> (Creative Commons)</strong></em></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pico-iyer" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Pico Iyer</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/joy-quiet" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">The Joy of Quiet</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-times" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">New York Times</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/solitude" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">solitude</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/technology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandip Roy</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:42:00 +0000 tara 392 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/rediscovering-joy-quiet-thank-you-pico-iyer#comments Good vs. Evil: Managing the Technology Evolution https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/good-vs-evil-managing-technology-evolution <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 08/10/2011 - 21:15</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Technology.jpg?itok=3qFiX8nG"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Technology.jpg?itok=3qFiX8nG" width="480" height="384" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> So you’re a Luddite. Technology overwhelms you, and you reject it. You desire a world without all the nagging bells and whistles, tubes and wires of technology, a poetic “noble savage” existence in harmony with nature.The profusion of technology in the last 40 years has never been more brilliant, but that light reveals some starkly opposed visions.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://www.ourcivilisation.com/signs/chap7.htm">Philip Atkinson</a>, in his aptly  titled “Technology Making It Worse” bluntly states, “My job for fifteen years had been to write computer programs to make people redundant. I was not alone; throughout the Western world, an army of programmers have been working night and day to get rid of as many jobs as possible. Each job discarded meant improved productivity, and reduced costs."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Others see only the good. These are the "transhumanists," who believe technology not only ultimately improves human existence, but will also elevate humanity to a higher state of being. <a href="http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Intro/index-2.html">Anders Sanberg</a>, one of the leading transhumanists, describes the movement as that “we humans <em>can</em>, and <em>should</em> continue to develop ourselves in all possible directions. The bodies and minds evolution has given us are wonderful, but far from perfect. They can be improved in many ways, and this can be done in a rational manner using science and technology. In the same way many other parts of the ‘Human Condition’ may be changed through new methods and visions. In the long run, we will no longer be human anymore, but posthuman beings.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Sociologist Marc Smith, however, takes a realistic approach, which, paradoxically, starts off by acknowledging some nerve-wracking truths. “Our lives have <em>already</em> changed. We <em>are</em> overloaded. It <em>is</em> out of control. No individual really can govern it,” he says in an interview with <em>Highbrow Magazine</em>.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Indeed, the U.S. Patent Office granted 219,614 patents in 2010, 31% more than in 2009 and 27% more than any year in history. Invention is now taking place in so many places. “We don’t live in a natural world anymore. We’ve actually moved into an ‘information landscape,’ where things like scarcity and distance, don’t matter—or matter in very different ways. Digital forces now govern our lives. Those forces tend to be more fluid than material forces that moved very slowly,” Smith explains.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The future is now, the wave has hit—so deal with it. But how? Continues Smith, “Technology is inevitable. The question is, are there good or bad strategies for managing one engagement with technology? Clearly, there are. But the wholesale adoption of everything? Probably not a great idea. The wholesale rejection of everything? Probably not a great idea.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Or even possible. There must have been a point in human history where there had been so little in the way of technological advancement—the control of fire, farming, making a mud-brick house, etc.—that everyone knew how to “do it all.” In time, however, the sheer amount of inventions and technology very quickly became so numerous and so mutually exclusive as to become too much for one person. A Bronze Age sailor who knew everything about ship-making and navigation probably had no idea  how to make a pyramid. The same happens today, when a rocket scientist has to call AAA to change a flat tire. Collectively or individually, we integrate and accept the technology we need.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Which is what we have been doing already for thousands of years. (“Our lives have already changed,” Smith observes.) Author Jane Austen called it “the intimacy of context.” When introduced, powered looms (1789), telephones (1876), electrical grids (1882), computers (1946) and email (1971) were revolutionary and spelt the eventual doom for many human workers. Today, we do not question the presence of these technologies; indeed, we would look with disbelief, and perhaps even suspicion, at people who don't have a phone.</p> <p>  </p> <p> So where is the technological trend headed? It depends on what side of the glass you are on. Atkinson and others provide any number of dystopian visions, and Hollywood has followed suit. The <em>Terminator</em> saga and <em>Blade Runner</em> are direct descendants of <em>Metropolis</em>, which traces its roots to Mary Shelley’s <em>Frankenstein</em>. Adds Smith, “That we drape this veneer of transcendence-New Agey-Star Treky world of tomorrow, it’s a nice way of dressing up the fact that we are assembling the tools that will disassemble humanity and reassemble it as something else. And how much do you want to bet that that ‘something else’ will be a far more market-driven ‘something else?’”</p> <p>  </p> <p> On the other hand, Smith describes what is called the “Rapture of the Geeks.” This transhumanist paradise is a solar-powered computer made from all the matter in the solar system—comets, asteroids, whole planets—ringing the Sun. As its final, physical act, humanity en masse uploads every individual consciousness of the species into that computer, to live a purely digital existence, feeding on sunlight. Smith goes so far as to speculate that the reason we have found no other intelligent life in the universe is because all intelligent life eventually becomes digital, and looks inward to its electronic existence until the end of time.</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> Technology is ultimately a package deal. If we want the good, we must also take the bad—and take responsibility for both. It has knocked down social and geographical barriers, facilitated unprecedented change in the Middle East, and allowed us to witness the founding moments of the universe. To do it, we’ve built a nuclear arsenal capable of obliterating the human race five times over, raped the environment in an orgy of greed, and have an unprecedented array of means for terrorizing each other. There are two sides to every coin, even glossy high-tech ones.</p> <p>  </p> <p> But before you start pointing fingers, think. “Einstein, is he culpable?” asks Smith. “Who writes checks for scientists? Businessmen, government leaders. Of course we are going to build the dangerous things; that’s what we do. And if you don’t, somebody else will, so you have to.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> And there's the rub. Technology is an invention of humanity (as is business and government), and proves that not only are we our own most engaging entertainment, but also that nothing frightens us more than somebody else. “When our ancestor first picked up a stick,” says Smith, “it wasn’t to help out.” Technology is our avatar and also our mirror. If we do not like what we see, do not blame the mirror. That we heal more effectively is only a reflection of our ability to deal out death more effectively.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It might be a good idea to ask ourselves what technology is. Why did we start inventing in the first place? Marcus Arelius, the Roman Empire’s “Philosopher Emperor,” famously asked “of each thing, what is it’s nature?” As a “thing,” technology is that which simplifies many things. And as long as humanity prefers things to be fast and easy, technology will always be around. So what is the one thing that you need to be made easier? Because there is probably an app for that as well.</p> <p> <strong> Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>New York City-based writer David Perry once taught English in Japan and was a writer for NASA. His work has since appeared in </em>The Advocate, Instinct, Trader Monthly<em>, and </em>Dealmaker <em>magazines, plus publications for the American Foundation of Savoy Orders and the Huguenot Historical Society of New Paltz, NY.</em></p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/technology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">technology</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/transhumanists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">transhumanists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/marc-smith" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Marc Smith</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/philip-atkinson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Philip Atkinson</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/anders-sanberg" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Anders Sanberg</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David Perry</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Igb06, Flickr</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 11 Aug 2011 01:15:23 +0000 tara 47 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/good-vs-evil-managing-technology-evolution#comments