We Have Been Harmonised by Kai Strittmatter makes for uncomfortable reading. The book details the seemingly unstoppable slide towards the total surveillance state (or the 360 degree, 4D WiFi curtain, as I like to call our emerging omniscient open air prison reality), not just in the Communist Party of China's China, but all over the … Continue reading We have been harmonised
"Your iPhone is all that is left of your once limitless future" ~ Eric Weinstein There is a difference between volatility and dynamism. There is a difference between invention and innovation. There is a difference between technological adoption and technological disruption. There is a difference between technology that accelerates and (re)distributes that future, and technology … Continue reading Volatility is not Dynamism
At the end of last year, I was asked to write a few thoughts on the most important, most disruptive technological milestones for each year of the last decade that will continue to have an impact in the future of the decade to come. Here follows the original version of that article, before it was edited … Continue reading Trend retrospective, a decade in the rearview mirror
Can robots have rights? Should robots have rights? These deceptively big questions regarding "roborights" are shaping up to be among the Big Issues debated by law makers, scientists, engineers, and philosophers in 2019 - and far into the future. I read David J. Gunkel's Robot Rights to get a handle on where academia is "at" … Continue reading Robot Rights
"Those two, in paradise were given a choice: happiness without freedom, or freedom without happiness. There was no alternative." - We I'm really enjoying retro-science fiction at the moment. The ideas imagined in science fiction of years past planted seeds in more practical minds who went on to shape the future that we live in … Continue reading We
There is a problem with automated governance and outsourcing decision making to artificial intelligence. And that problem is probability. And the probable problem at hand is that the innocent are flagged as guilty, the right candidates flagged as wrong, at an unacceptably high probability. As we use - even highly reliable - automated systems such … Continue reading I don’t like the look of your face
Creativity is a sign of intelligence, and artificial intelligence is getting creative. In 2016, a novel authored by an algorithm nearly won a prestigious Japanese literary prize. (The novel was, creatively, titled The Day a Computer Writes a Novel.) AI has only got more creative (although, perhaps, not more talented depending on your definition of artistic … Continue reading Artificial Art
Person or Property? - That is the Question... “From a legal perspective, this is a complicated area, as the algorithms of an AI act as a “black box” — even the creator of the artificial intelligence is not always sure why the algorithm made a certain decision," ~ Marten Kaevats, Adviser of the Strategy Unit of the Government … Continue reading With robot rights, come robot responsibilities
Following on from Sapiens, Homo Deus is as illuminating as its predecessor. This volume looks at transhumanism, that is the evolution of homo sapiens (that's us) into an entirely new species: Homo Deus, the first terrestrial species to emerge to have created itself, though a combination of biological, genetic engineering and technological enhancements, rather than to … Continue reading Homo Deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow
The Library of Babel is a short story by Jorge Louis Burges - in 1941 - about an infinite library, containing all the knowledge of the world. The Library of Babel is utterly wonderful concept to bibliophiles and futurists like myself. (Infinite books! Infinite knowledge!) It has also been a source of inspiration for many … Continue reading The Library of Babel
