Category: Rudy deWaele
How Technology Disrupted the Truth
Here is a must read article via The Guardian on the challenges for journalism in an era when everyone has their own facts. “Now, we are caught in a series of confusing battles between opposing forces: between truth and falsehood, fact and rumour, kindness and cruelty; between the few and the many, the connected and the … Continue reading "How Technology Disrupted the Truth"
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The risk of putting our knowledge in the hands of machines (via The Atlantic)
As we transform ourselves into creatures of the screen, we face an existential question: Does our essence still lie in what we know, or are we now content to be defined by what we want? Here is an excellent article in The Atlantic on the risk of putting our knowledge in the hands of machines. … Continue reading "The risk of putting our knowledge in the hands of machines (via The Atlantic)"
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Google’s data centers with DeepMind-powered AI
In our category “good tech”, we applaud the news that DeepMind began applying its advanced AI to Google’s data centers, in order to find ways to reduce the company’s sizeable energy bill. Two years ago, Google spent over half a billion dollars for the London-based artificial intelligence startup DeepMind. Since then, the unit became an Atari gaming pro player and … Continue reading "Google’s data centers with DeepMind-powered AI"
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Robots making pizza
Just imagine Domino’s without the labor component, you can start to see how incredibly profitable that can be. Says Alex Garden, co-founder and executive chairman of Zume, a new startup in Mountain View, trying to make a more profitable pizza through robotics. Another great example of how Silicon Valley startups are hollowing out value out of the … Continue reading "Robots making pizza"
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What are androrithms?
One of the powerful key memes from the Technology vs Humanity book are androrithms. Gerd Leonhard in his own words: This is a key neologism in the book (i.e. a word I made up). I use the term to describe what really matters for most of us: human ‘rhythms’ not machine rhythms i.e. algorithms. A super-computer can win in … Continue reading "What are androrithms?"
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The megashifts
One of the powerful key memes from Gerd Leonhard‘s new book Technology vs Humanity are The Megashifts. Because of exponential technological change and how its forces are combining with each other, these 10+ trends are absolutely essential to understand as they may create huge new opportunities – or challenge existing business models, social contracts or humanity at … Continue reading "The megashifts"
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Technology is not what we seek but HOW we seek
Are you ready for the greatest changes in recent human history? Futurism meets humanism in Gerd Leonhard’s ground-breaking new work of critical observation, discussing the multiple Megashifts that will radically alter not just our society and economy but our values and our biology. Wherever you stand on the scale between technomania and nostalgia for a … Continue reading "Technology is not what we seek but HOW we seek"
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On Facebook’s ‘universal’ censorship rules
Brilliant important statement, by editor-in-chief Espen Egil Hansen, of the Norwegian daily newspaper Aftenposten, in reply to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s demand to remove a picture of a naked Kim Phuc, fleeing from the napalm bombs – one of the world’s most famous war photographs. Facebook deleted the article as well as the image from Aftenposten’s Facebook page. If you will … Continue reading "On Facebook’s ‘universal’ censorship rules"
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The Global Brain
Are you ready for the greatest changes in recent human history? Futurism meets humanism in Gerd Leonhard’s ground-breaking new work of critical observation, discussing the multiple Megashifts that will radically alter not just our society and economy but our values and our biology. Wherever you stand on the scale between technomania and nostalgia for a … Continue reading "The Global Brain"
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Will software (machines, robots, AI…) soon start ’cheating the world’?
Are you ready for the greatest changes in recent human history? Futurism meets humanism in Gerd Leonhard’s ground-breaking new work of critical observation, discussing the multiple Megashifts that will radically alter not just our society and economy but our values and our biology. Wherever you stand on the scale between technomania and nostalgia for a … Continue reading "Will software (machines, robots, AI…) soon start ’cheating the world’?"
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Team Human (Weekly Podcast with Douglas Rushkoff)
Author, media theorist, and professor Douglas Rushkoff is coming back on the air with a new audio show. It’s a weekly podcast called Team Human, looking to challenge the operating systems driving our society, reveal its embedded codes, and share strategies for sustainable living, economic justice, and preservation of the quirky nooks and crannies that make people so … Continue reading "Team Human (Weekly Podcast with Douglas Rushkoff)"
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The world wide cage (via Nicholas Carr)
“Silicon Valley and China should not become ‘mission control for humanity”, writes Gerd Leonhard in Technology vs. Humanity (released on September 8 2016). In-line with Gerd’s vision is the brilliant The world wide cage article by Nicholas Carr on the aeon website. In his provocation, Nicholas writes how “Technology promised to set us free. Instead it has trained us to withdraw … Continue reading "The world wide cage (via Nicholas Carr)"
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Stanford University One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence 2016 Report (AI100)
“As a society, we are underinvesting resources in research on the societal implications of AI technologies. Private and public dollars should be directed toward interdisciplinary teams capable of analyzing AI from multiple angles.” The One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, launched in the fall of 2014, is a long-term investigation of the field of … Continue reading "Stanford University One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence 2016 Report (AI100)"
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The trouble with capitalism
We can afford the things we don’t need, but we need the things we can’t afford. For many Americans today, that shiny new flat-screen TV is now more within reach financially than it’s ever been. But it has become harder to afford the house to put it in, food to eat in front of it, or … Continue reading "The trouble with capitalism"
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Universal basic income to unleash the world’s creativity?
There’s a lot of thought and discussion on the Universal Basic Income (UBI) form of social security in very different parts of the world, all with different social and capitalist backgrounds. UBI would guarantee all citizens or residents of a country to regularly receive an unconditional sum of money, either from a government or some other public institution, in addition … Continue reading "Universal basic income to unleash the world’s creativity?"
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About artificial intelligence and strategic management
“Anything that can be digitized or automated, will be – and anything that cannot be digitized or automated will become extremely valuable”, mentions Gerd Leonhard in his Technology Vs. Humanity manifesto. Since IBM started using artificial intelligence for its Mergers & Acquisitions program five years ago, the major consulting firms are all positioning and investing in machine intelligence to … Continue reading "About artificial intelligence and strategic management"
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Democratising algorithms
It may seem a surprise but the original data accountability standard was set by president Richard Nixon in the Fair Credit Reporting Act in 1970. Nixon – not otherwise known for his commitment to transparency, included the right for citizens to examine and challenge the data used to make algorithmic decisions about them. Meanwhile, algorithms have become ubiquitous in … Continue reading "Democratising algorithms"
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Big data, Google and the end of free will (via The Financial Times)
We are at the pivot point of exponential and combinatorial technological evolution: all around us, science fiction is becoming science fact – and the future will increasingly arrive gradually then suddenly. We need to proceed with a very wise combination of precaution and pro-action. (Gerd Leonhard in Technology Vs. Humanity) Similar to Gerd’s vision is this MUST READ article by Yuval Noah Harari … Continue reading "Big data, Google and the end of free will (via The Financial Times)"
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Would a Work-Free World Be So Bad? (via The Atlantic)
Excellent article by Ilana E. Strauss in The Atlantic on the wrong assumptions we often have about people without work. Why should it be that way? It hasn’t always been like that… Work-free societies are more than just a thought experiment – they’ve existed throughout human history. Llana mentions a couple of examples in history where … Continue reading "Would a Work-Free World Be So Bad? (via The Atlantic)"
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The Ethical Dimensions of Artificial Intelligence
“Digital ethics will evolve into a burning, un-ignorable issue for every individual and organization as technology permeates every aspect of human life and activity.” – Gerd Leonhard in Technology vs. Humanity (released on September 8 2016) The US Federal Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) recently stated that Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies “offer great promise for … Continue reading "The Ethical Dimensions of Artificial Intelligence"
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