Author Archives

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Harvard will take a close look at the brain to build better AIs

This is a moonshot challenge, akin to the Human Genome Project in scope. The scientific value of recording the activity of so many neurons and mapping their connections alone is enormous, but that is only the first half of the project. As we figure out the fundamental principles governing how the brain learns, it’s not hard to imagine that we’ll eventually be able to design computer systems that can match, or even outperform, humans.

Source: Harvard will take a close look at the brain to build better AIs

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Why Are Corporations Hoarding Trillions? – The New York Times

Corporations, it seems, may have amassed at least a good chunk of that $1.9 trillion in mysterious savings because the stock market is rewarding them for it.

Which leaves one last question: Why? The answer, perhaps, is that both the executives and the investors in these industries believe that something big is coming, but — this is crucial — they’re not sure what it will be. Through the 20th century, as we shifted from a horse-and-sun-powered agrarian economy to an electricity-and-motor-powered industrial economy to a silicon-based information economy, it was clear that every company had to invest in the new thing that was coming. These were big, expensive investments in buildings and machinery and computer technology. Today, though, value is created far more through new ideas and new ways of interaction. Ideas appear and spread much more quickly, and their worth is much harder to estimate. (Indeed, the impossibility of valuing the Internet is essentially what created the 2000 stock bubble.)

Source: Why Are Corporations Hoarding Trillions? – The New York Times

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‘Altered Carbon’ Series From Laeta Kalogridis Ordered By Netflix | Deadline

I am excited to see how they bring these books to the screen.  I love the series.  They’re one of the inspirations for the Eclipse Phase RPG.

 

“Altered Carbon is set in the 25th century when the human mind has been digitized and the soul itself is transferable from one body to the next. Takeshi Kovacs, a former elite interstellar warrior known as an Envoy who has been imprisoned for 500 years, is downloaded into a future he’d tried to stop. If he can solve a single murder in a world where technology has made death nearly obsolete, he’ll get a chance at a new life on Earth.”

 

Source: ‘Altered Carbon’ Series From Laeta Kalogridis Ordered By Netflix | Deadline

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Tourists Love to Rub the Bronze Balls of Wall Street’s Charging Bull Statue. Why? | Atlas Obscura

Right, so back to the balls. It’s clear they represent the intersection of two universal and timeless human fascinations: money and genitals. But when did touching them become good luck? Why do Brazilian businessmen rub their briefcases against the giant genitalia? Why do groups gather around the bull’s majestic butt crack for family photos, parents gently pushing their children to climb underneath and hug the balls from below?

Source: Tourists Love to Rub the Bronze Balls of Wall Street’s Charging Bull Statue. Why? | Atlas Obscura

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10 Habits that Kill an Engineer’s Productivity – Livecoding.tv Blog

Anyone that claims they are “good at multitasking” is flat-out lying.

Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of a person, machine, factory, system, etc., in converting inputs into useful outputs, according to businessdictionary.com. As such when engineers are unproductive, it…

Source: 10 Habits that Kill an Engineer’s Productivity – Livecoding.tv Blog

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Digital Diagnosis: Intelligent Machines Do a Better Job Than Humans – Singularity HUB

“These changes will not happen overnight, but they are inevitable. Though many doctors will see these changes as a threat, the chance for global good is unprecedented.

An X-ray taken in equatorial Africa could be read with the same reliability as one taken in an Australian centre of excellence. An infectious rash could be uploaded to a phone and the diagnosis given instantly. Many lives will be saved, and the cost of health care to the world’s poor can be minimal and, in many cases, free.”

Source: Digital Diagnosis: Intelligent Machines Do a Better Job Than Humans – Singularity HUB

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Report: Robots, other advances will cost humans 5.1 million jobs by 2020 | Ars Technica

“Ultimately, the WEF offers a massive list of recommendations for major companies to prepare for the 2020 robot-workforce apocalypse. The report’s authors use the strong phrase “no more excuses” regarding diversity in hiring, and they offer a longer-term recommendation for companies to invest in “wholescale reskilling” of their existing workforces. It also encourages businesses to engage with governments and educational providers in updating high school and college systems for a new economy. “Two legacy issues burdening formal education systems worldwide are the dichotomy between humanities and sciences and applied and pure training, on the one hand, and the prestige premium attached to tertiary-certified forms of education—rather than the actual content of learning—on the other hand. Put bluntly, there is simply no good reason to indefinitely maintain either of these in today’s world,” the report says.”

Source: Report: Robots, other advances will cost humans 5.1 million jobs by 2020 | Ars Technica