Blog – Page 30 – Technology vs Humanity: the coming clash of man and machine

Why efficiency is dangerous and slowing down makes life better

We worship efficiency. Use less to get more. Same-day delivery. Multitask; text on one device while emailing on a second, and perhaps conversing on a third. Efficiency is seen as good. Inefficiency as wasteful. There’s a sound rationale for thinking this way. Read full Article

The semi-satisfied life

Two years earlier, in Hamburg, Johanna’s husband Heinrich Floris had been discovered dead in the canal behind their family compound. It is possible that he slipped and fell, but Arthur suspected that his father jumped out of the warehouse loft into the icy waters below. Johanna did not disagree. Read full Article

Announcing a new speaking topic: A FUTURIST’S CASE FOR TECH REGULATION

The adage “too much of a good thing can be a very bad thing” is true for most things that might cause us harm but that we enjoy, regardless - be it food, coffee or alcohol. Yet right now, this obvious need for responsibility and balance is particularly glaring when we consider our exponential technological progress and the increasingly dominant (some would say monopolistic) behaviour of the world’s leading tech giants

Facebook is training robot assistants to hear as well as see

In June 2019, Facebook’s AI lab, FAIR, released AI Habitat, a new simulation platform for training AI agents. It allowed agents to explore various realistic virtual environments, like a furnished apartment or cubicle-filled office. Read full Article

Big Tech’s Domination of Business Reaches New Heights (via the NYT)

“As the economy contracts and many companies struggle to survive, the biggest tech companies are amassing wealth and influence in ways unseen in decades” Read the NYT piece here. “The traffic on these sites was immense before the pandemic, but daily visits increased sharply in March, when stay-at-home orders began, with Facebook up 15 percent […]