Mindless 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Lennox (yesterday's video) says that, though we use it now for many impressive beneficial outcomes, narrow AI is like a sharp knife which can be used for life-saving surgery or potentially for murder because the ethics of a narrow AI program (such as autonomous driving) will reflect the ethics of the human being who programmed it. Example: what will the car target for impact in an emergency situation?

Narrow artificial intelligence doesn't know what it's doing. It's not general AI. 

But "Jarvis" or "Vision," the characters in The Avengers movies, are artificial general intelligence (AGI). They simulate human intelligence much more than narrow AI does. 

In reality, we're far from achieving AGI in the opinion of many, because science still does not know exactly what human consciousness is or what a thought is - and we're very far from creating any such a thing without even a definition. When we don't understand it, there's nothing to compute.

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Mindless 2

 (cont'd from last Friday)

Dr. Lennox explains "narrow" artificial intelligence (AI) with this practical example of its application in health care.

A person with a diseased lung goes to a doctor for a diagnosis. An x-ray of the lung is taken; the doctor looks at it and compares the x-ray to his/her memories of articles and other x-rays he/she has seen. Using his/her memory and knowledge, a diagnosis is made.

Or . . the patient's x-ray is fed into an AI system which compares it to the million lung x-rays of other patients stored in it. It looks for patterns, and a diagnosis is made without delay.

Which method is faster and more accurate? Probably the AI method, provided that correct information and meaning of the x-rays has been programmed into it by wise doctors.

Narrow AI usually does just a single thing which normally would have required natural (human) intelligence. But it doesn't know what it's doing. It is simply programmed to do a methodical task using a large amount of input. 

(cont'd tomorrow)

Mindless?

John Lennox had a brilliant career as a mathematician in Oxford, England, and is retired now but continues to speak all over the world on the interface of science, philosophy and religion. Recently he's been publishing on the subject of artificial intelligence.

From his website: 

"Either human intelligence owes its origin to mindless matter, or there is a Creator. It is strange that some people claim that it is their intelligence that leads them to prefer the first to the second."

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Next week: his recent workshop on AI

Food $

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

In terms of how long the average worker must work to earn the money to buy breakfast (yesterday's post), a similar comparison can be made with other foods.

Using the "time price" calculation as a tool, we find that food in general costs much less now than it did in 1919. 

Click to enlarge the chart below.

from Human Progress

Breakfast $

How did people live a hundred years ago? We've seen the pictures, and it looks like we're much better off. We can't understand what it really cost someone then to buy something (like a meal or a pair of shoes) by just knowing the price in dollars because the dollar's value has changed so much since then.

But we can measure what they paid in the amount of time a person had to work to buy it - when we also figure in the average wage per hour both then and now. That's the kind of comparison we need.

And yes, it tells us that a hundred years ago people paid considerably more for common things. Here's a comparison of how much time an average worker had to work to buy a breakfast in 1919 compared to how much work time it takes now.

from Human Progress

(cont'd tomorrow)

Tesla bot 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

This author is an R&D software engineer and textbook author who follows AI and electric vehicles. He says, "Nobody is taking Tesla AI seriously anymore . . . Musk has, again, promised vaporware" (software that doesn't exist yet).

Back when Tesla was gearing up for the Model 3, he promised a very high level of automation which would make his factory look like an "alien dreadnaught" when up and operating. But it proved undoable, and the somewhat-automated factory's workflow is instead mostly manual.

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"It is unclear how Musk, who was unable to get robotic automation to work in his own factory doing highly-specific tasks, expects to build a “general-purpose” robot for general tasks."

When you read something about AI, always remember that there are two kinds. "Narrow" AI is common now, the kind that can compute tremendous amounts of data or be programmed to do certain tasks. "General" is the kind that scares people, possessing independent consciousness and creativity. Many believe that will never be achieved. 

From MindMatters 

Tesla bot

Inflated optimism and exaggeration have long accompanied the predictions of Elon Musk, but this time media is calling him on it.

AI Day on August 19 set the stage to introduce the newly developed D1 chip that will power the artificial intelligence (AI) that enables its autopilot system. He called it "the best chip in the world." Motley Fool thinks it impressive.

Then the intention to build a humanoid robot was announced. A breakdancing actor in a robot costume entertained the audience. "But Musk gave no indication of having made concrete progress on actually building such a machine," says The Guardian. 

Musk claims the robot should be able to do general tasks, as opposed to merely specific tasks (think of manufacturing robots). He claimed that their expertise in AI will enable Tesla to do this, though their "full self-driving" is far from level 5.

So Ars Technica concludes, "Tesla Bot is the company’s troubled Autopilot system in humanoid form."

From a Forbes writer, "Is Tesla a serious company? Sure it is. [But] is the Tesla Bot at all serious?" This time it's harder to take Elon seriously.

Morning walk

If you like to take an early morning walk, you know it can be a real pleasure. Apparently science has discovered that it can be very good for you in an unexpected way. Your eyes need the sort of light we get from sunshine, and it's the kind that is blocked by glass windows and doors. 

Myopia (nearsightedness) in young people is a growing phenomenon around the globe. As an example, by the time South Koreans are 20 years old, 96% of them have it.

Our eyes need more outdoor light - but modern people live increasingly indoors.

"A team of nine research ophthalmologists in Japan and the United States led by Xiaoyan Jiang sought to discover the underlying effect that explains why visible violet light protects against myopia development." 

Read what they found out about how our eyes react to sunlight at Reasons to Believe.

Texas can do it

You've noticed gas prices going up in the last year. Most people (except oil stock holders) don't like rising gas prices or the rising prices of other things that will result from it, and it's not good for politicians currently in office either. 

OPEC (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) has great influence on gas prices. They often increase oil production to decrease prices, or decrease oil production to increase prices.

Last week the White House asked OPEC to raise production levels so global economic recovery from the pandemic could grow better--and prices would go down. OPEC's answer: they don't think it's  necessary. 

Then the Texas governor offered a solution to the White House. As the producer of 20% of the world's total oil production, Texas can do it.

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Gold Star wife

Crissie Carpenter was eight months pregnant and unable to travel in February of 2011. She couldn't spend a last day with her husband before he died in a German hospital. He had been shot in Afghanistan and died five days later.

Her son Landon was born in March, never to know his Marine Corps dad.

Her husband, Lance Cpl. Andrew Carpenter, was one of thousands of Americans who were killed in Afghanistan. Now that the Taliban they fought have taken over the country, many can't help asking if they died for nothing.

Crissie Carpenter has some thoughts about that. She doesn't think so. She shares her own perspective on her husband's service here.

from "They Protected Us: A Gold Star Wife's Moving Afghanistan Message"

Taliban win 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

General Petraeus, former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, says the situation is a disaster, that the country will be a sanctuary for Al-Qaeda and Islamic State after the Taliban take control. 

It's a disaster for one group more than any other: people who helped the U.S. Imagine their desperation now that the Taliban has power. America's military made them safe for 20 years but now they're pulling out, leaving our Afghan allies to the mercy of barbarians. One of them says, "We are all living in fear."

Some, about 640 persons, managed to get to the airport and onto a U.S. military cargo plane.

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Others flooded the roads and headed for the border.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Taliban win

Yesterday the Taliban stormed into Kabul, the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. They're re-taking the country after U.S.-led forces removed them 20 years ago. They're now the "champions of the jihadi movement because they pushed out the United States." (Video below.)

"Already today [Sunday] thousands of Al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners were freed from jail." (Video below.)

Thousands of panicked citizens took to the highways and the airport. Some raced to the bank to take out their savings before the city is lost.

Belt and Road

Almost 70 countries are going to be the recipient of new infrastructure projects funded in part by China. Leader Xi introduced the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 and it's now part of their constitution. They want to create "connectivity" among nations in Central Asia, South Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

China's investment is/will be in ports, dams, skyscrapers, railroads, airports, tunnels, and roads.

US$60 billion will go to Africa. Dams have been built in Zambia, Ethiopia, and Ghana with China's help. Local economies are stimulated, and China gets their raw materials.

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from Wikipedia

Next nuclear 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

When and if China's Molten Salt Reactor power plant goes online in 2030, it will be located in the desert city of Wuwei. Additional plants will follow in arid places within China, and then in foreign countries. 

Yes, China plans to build them in other countries.  It's part of their Belt and Road Initiative, a  strategy to build infrastructure among 70 countries in Asia and Europe for trade and "connectivity." 

Thorium (named after the Norse god of thunder) as a nuclear plant fuel is more desirable than Uranium-235 which is used as fuel in existing plants. China's first MSR will be 10 feet by 8 feet. Small, but it will produce enough power for 100,000 people.

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As the biggest national contributor to global carbon emissions (more than the entire developed world combined), China is far from "carbon neutral by 2060," the expressed goal of its president. This project will help because nuclear power produces no CO2 emissions.

from Live Science

Next nuclear 1

"Ideally, every nation would like to get its energy in some way that is safe, reliable, emits no carbon, produces no problematic waste - and of course is cheap."

Molten Salt Reactors (MSR) are a great fit for that description. Though the project was shut down after being successfully designed in America in the 1950's, MSR's seem to be in the midst of a re-birth because they fit today's needs. Interest in this form of energy has gone way beyond America. It's global.

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According to a Hong Kong newspaper, Chinese government researchers will be ready to test a Molten Salt Reactor prototype in September. A nuclear power plant of this type may be ready to provide power commercially to the Chinese by 2030.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the U.S. developed the technology and it's now in the public domain, open to all. A former nuclear researcher says, "The real data mine is the thousands of published reports in 1960s and '70s that are found in the open literature."

from IEEE Spectrum

(cont'd tomorrow)

Taliban return 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

The Taliban last held power around the turn of the century, banning music and television, preventing girls from studying after puberty, and not allowing women to leave home without an escort. Kabul's soccer stadium was re-purposed for public executions. In 2006, Kabul's American University had one woman in its 51 students. 

Now the U.S. and its allies are leaving Afghanistan after two decades of fighting Islamic extremism, but the Taliban is regaining the power it lost during the war. They control about half the districts in the country.

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Reports say that they're killing civilians in Spin Boldak, and executing Afghan officers who recently surrendered. A former government official says that the Taliban brags that they defeated the U.S. and made it negotiate an exit.

"[Y]ou can see why the Biden administration—like the Trump administration before it—wants out. But we should be clear-eyed about what this means. Afghanistan will return to brutality, and the world will have to cope with the consequences."

from AEI

Taliban return 1

Taliban stories from Afghanistan were featured in our headlines years ago. We're going to wish they stayed in the past because they're back, bringing death and destruction with them.

According to Wikipedia, Islamic "mujahideen" fought the U.S.S.R.'s invasion and occupation of Afghanistan back in 1979, aided and trained by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. Some of them eventually founded and led the Taliban movement.

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Their own power and ideology were driven rough-shod over all other traditions. In 2001 they aimed their missiles and weapons at two historic, gigantic Buddha statues carved into the hillside almost 2000 years ago. The heritage of other people is nothing to them.

Murder and destruction of anything in their way was typical. They never disbanded and now they're back. Panic is rising in Afghanistan.

(cont'd tomorrow)

NASA partner

When the first human being set foot on the moon in 1969, only national governments had the resources to go into space because it takes a lot of money, innovation, talent, work. But that isn't the situation today. 

Multiple companies are forming to do business in space. NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (an agency of the U.S. Government), supports the trend:

"A robust and competitive commercial space sector is vital to continued progress in space. The United States is committed to encouraging and facilitating the growth of a U.S. commercial space sector . . . "

Instead of building their own rockets, NASA is now a client of companies that build rockets. They specify what they need and share information, but people who work at companies like SpaceX are the ones who build them. 

Here are Elon Musk and Jim Bridenstine (former head of NASA) in 2020 discussing their partnership. Bridenstine says that SpaceX has something NASA has been lacking, a "willingness to fail." He says they "fly, test, fail, fix" - repeatedly. (To get to the good stuff, start at about 2:40.)

Space solar

If you think of space as the "final frontier" (per Star Trek), it's also being tamed like the frontier of the Old West. People are going there for tourism, for exploration, for future commercial use. And for energy.

California Institute of Technology started the Space-based Solar Power Project (SSPP) in 2013 to harvest solar energy in space. They think they can transmit collected solar energy to earth's surface using microwaves. One wealthy individual kicked off the project with a gift of $100  million.

They've developed technology to convert sunlight to radio-frequency microwave energy, then to direct that beam to a specific location. They may be able to run a test in space by 2023.

If this works, it will be a game-changer. Solar power is intermittent on earth's surface because of weather. In space, sunlight is steady.

from Space

Still SpaceX

Last April NASA awarded a $2.9 billion contract for a lunar lander to SpaceX for practical reasons. Blue Origin and Dynetics lost that competition. 

But Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) didn't let it go. The two losing companies filed a challenge and complaint with NASA. No money could flow to help SpaceX develop its Starship until the challenge was answered and resolved.

NASA is done with its deliberations now, concluding that they decided fairly in April - based on the funds that Congress had given NASA to work with.

So . . it's still SpaceX.

Artemis is the name of the mission to land people on the moon again, many years after the last time. There will be more bumps in the road and politics will play a huge part in the outcome. Count me in with the American people who hope it can still be done.

Anomaly

Dear Readers, I just discovered that the August 3 post, "Racism & school 2," was somehow erased. I have no explanation for that, but will try to recover and re-post it!

Racism & school

Last week's posts told the story of teacher Paul Rossi in a New York school. He objected to the new racism required there, and the Head of School agreed, but the ideology still continues to rule. New York schools are not alone.

Minnesota schools do likewise, largely unknown to parents and taxpayers.

Last fall the Hopkins Superintendent told staff that they were going to focus on how the white race is responsible for a pandemic of injustice. They fight white supremacy with policies like not requiring black students to turn in assignments on time (racial injustice). Presumably white students must still be on time.

It's hidden from parents. A Sartell student says all the students had to answer personal questions on an "equity" survey whether they understood them or not, and were forbidden to tell their parents about the questions. It made her very uncomfortable, and she apparently told her parents anyway.

(cont'd tomorrow)