Category Archives: Recommendations

Recommendations from around the web.

Stars Are Born in Pairs

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Did our Sun have a companion star some long, long time ago? According to new research, it seems like all stars are born in pairs. The scientists believe that the Sun’s companion (called Nemesis) has departed our cosmic neighborhood not long after the Sun formed:

https://phys.org/news/2017-06-evidence-stars-born-pairs.html^

This is quite the statement! I would say that it’s about the same level of magnitude as claiming that the Earth is not flat or that it rotates around a star. It really changes the way we have thought about solar system formation and will impact our estimations regarding planets able to support life. That’s because planets orbiting close binaries may experience severe weather swings while planets orbiting wide binaries would suffer from increased chances of asteroid bombardment.

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Kids and Screens

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There’s been a lot of research in the past years regarding exposing children to screens (of various kinds). The “when and how much TV to watch” debate has been raging on for decades (with clear results but with even harder to apply rules, especially as a lot of people seem to not care about the facts).

However, the new screens available to children today, namely mobile phones, pads, portable game consoles and other such interactive entertainment devices are an order of magnitude more powerful when it comes to influencing brain development.

Alarm bells should start ringing when some of the most famous people dealing with technology try to protect their children from these sort of devices:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/bill-gates-and-steve-jobs-raised-their-kids-tech-free-and-it-shouldve-been-a-red-flag-a8017136.html^

I’m young enough to have been influenced by handheld game consoles and I distinctly remember how my school performance and social skills suffered due to how enticed I was by these gizmos. I have worked with software during the past 20 years and I am in a good position to understand how it is built in order to capture minds^, both young and old. Here’s what Facebook’s first president had to say about “exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology”:

https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/facebooks-founding-president-on-stage-yesterday-we-created-a-monster.html^

But enough with the technology part. Here’s what psychologists have to say about all this:

http://www.somedaily.org/ipad-far-bigger-threat-children-anyone-realizes/^

Like I said in another article, parenting advice is a dime a dozen these days^. But this is not advice. This is presenting actual cold hard science and even colder and harder decisions that must be taken. In our family, we will politely prohibit (guide with kindness, offer healthy entertainment alternatives) our son from getting near these things at least until he’s five years old. We are also curtailing the use of such devices when he’s around. Being constantly online is mind poison anyway.

Update: And then, of course, there’s the Trojan horse aspect these devices pose. Privacy? What privacy?

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Machine Learning and Our Future

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Machine Learning is all the rage these days. Be it computer vision, speech recognition, pattern matching or high-speed decisional capabilities, this century is the century of software. Like all technological revolutions, there’s potential for miracles and catastrophes.

Large corporations have started to realize^ that Machine Learning is a way to prevent smaller competitors^ from threatening them. This is because small companies can’t (yet) afford the huge infrastructure and Big Data investments that ML requires. It’s not surprising then that Microsoft, Google, FaceBook and others have open-sourced ML platforms, trying to attract developers and smaller companies to their ecosystems.

This post will touch on but a few of the changes we can expect in the coming decades thanks to the upcoming advances in Machine Learning. Looking at our history, we can see how the industrial revolution has supercharged our progress as a species. I believe that the Machine Learning revolution will make the industrial revolution seem like a snail in slow motion. This is both hopeful and scary.

The purpose of any post in the Futurology^ category is to launch a wild, boundless speculation regarding what the future holds regarding a certain concept. To get things going, here are some of the things I imagine can be accomplished in the near future (coming decades) by Machine Learning. Feel free to submit your own ideas in the comments below. With your approval I may integrate these in the article, giving proper credit.

  • Speech recognition is already quite advanced. In the coming decade, most day-to-day electronic devices will understand what humans speak. Additionally, these devices will form an interconnected sensorial mesh via the Internet of Things. Privacy will obviously be a major concern.
  • Without any prior technical knowledge, people will soon be able to talk to the robots that are about to enter our daily lives, both indoors^ and outdoors^. Countless jobs will be transformed or outright eliminated. Companies will jump at the opportunity of cutting costs. While some of this will have beneficial effects on some (company stakeholders for example), society might be negatively impacted as there will be plenty of those that cannot find a new job in a world that is increasingly robotized. Hopefully at least a part of the next generation of superrich few will empathize with the disadvantaged many.
  • Advanced algorithms are already able to take better (and much faster) decisions than humans in some fields (for example management of traffic, energy and bandwidth). This capability will expand to more and more areas. This development should not be confused with True Artificial Intelligence^, but will still mean that yet more jobs will be given to automated systems. Here’s for example how Google used machine learning to save a massive 15%^ in data center costs.
  • Companies that own data infrastructure will become dangerously powerful. Just look at how FaceBook allowed^ Russia to interfere^ in one of the most influential electoral contests in the world. Given the narrow difference between the candidates, it is quite possible that Russia’s influence (of which only a small part will ever be uncovered) will have been a decisive factor.
  • Governmental oversight could prevent a lack of balance in society, but strong lobbying from powerful corporations will continue to corrupt the purpose of government (in most countries, our representatives have long ceased representing us, if they even ever did).
  • The influence of ML throughout the economy means that society will have to find ways to protect those that are at risk of being crushed under the weight of the coming changes. In a way reminiscent of the industrial revolution, entire job sectors will become obsolete overnight, except that this time around the changes will come even faster and affect more people. Fortunately, we are also wiser and richer than a century ago so we are well positioned to find constructive solutions.
  • We may enter a period where creatives (artists) will again be in high demand. At least until True A.I. is upon us, machines still can’t create art. No matter how advanced an algorithm may be, the art it creates will still be a soulless mixture of unoriginal and random.
  • We run the risk of falling under total surveillance, aka Super Big Brother. This is much worse than what George Orwell could have even imagined when he wrote his 1984 novel. Super Big Brother doesn’t need humans to listen-in to conversations. It simply records everything (this is already being done, as the Snowden leaks proved). Then, somebody (like an oppressive authority that seeks to exterminate dissent) asks it to find certain information in text, audio or video recordings. If we now think that we have little privacy left, Super Big Brother will make things exponentially worse. Update 2018-04-30: check how China is using facial recognition in Guiyang^.
  • However, all is not so bleak. If good people act, there is another invention that will shackle Super Big Brother. That invention is open surveillance. All systems used for surveillance shall be based on open source software. All people being surveilled will be able to access their information and know why it was recorded (you were in a public space, you were suspected of a crime, etc.).
  • Government will put privacy back in the hands of the people. Because government has to be the people. And because lies and secrets never truly saved the world (although perhaps they helped in postponing major conflicts without, however, fixing the underlying problems). It will be openness and communication that will be proven to be the only way forward if we are to survive.

The Futurology Disclaimer: I do not claim that my ideas are original. I’m sure these suggestions are just scratching the surface of what can be achieved, but hopefully they’ve scratched enough to get somebody inspired to come up with more. I’m also sure many of these ideas are already being worked on by several organizations. If any of the ideas listed by anybody on this page are original and will benefit any organization, I expect credit to be given where it’s due.

Version history:

2017-11-23 – 1.0 – Written.

2018-04-30 – 1.1 – Added link about Guiyang use of facial recognition.

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Painful Facts about Pornography

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When asked, “How do you know a guy likes you?,” an 8th grade girl replied: “He still wants to talk to you after you [give him oral sex].” A male high school student said to a girl: “If you [give me oral sex] I’ll give you a kiss.” Girls are expected to provide sex acts for tokens of affection, and are coached through it by porn-taught boys. A 15-year-old girl said she didn’t enjoy sex at all, but that getting it out of the way quickly was the only way her boyfriend would stop pressuring her and watch a movie.

This was a quote from the article below. The topic of pornography has been debated a gazillion times but there is now a renewed discussion in the light of what is quickly becoming a torrent of painful social studies. These findings keep popping up increasingly often. Through statistics and surveys, we keep finding a direct connection between pornography and dismal changes in the attitude men have towards women. Were women emancipated only to wake up in an age where their freedom is transformed in a choice of what sort of sex object they want to be?

http://fightthenewdrug.org/sex-before-kissing-15-year-old-girls-dealing-with-boys/^

To be clear: this is not to say that all erotic content is dangerous. There is also such a thing as ethical pornography and there are productions that go against the “macho” stereotype. However, this sort of production can’t really compete against a deluge of ego-worshipping, love-destructive porn.

The reason? We keep coming back at it: a lack of education in the most important elements of a happy life: empathy, connection, love. Instead, our industrialized educational system focuses on training kids to perform the work robots should help us with. It is no wonder that a lot of men easily drown in the sea of dick-glorifying deceitful imagery.

Learn more:

http://learn.ftnd.org/^

Update: also worth a read: Inside the Romanian Sex-Cam Industry^.

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Petrol Money Poison

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One of the most unfortunate things that can happen to human beings is social disconnection. Depression often causes this. But in today’s article I’ll focus on wealth. A root cause of social disconnection due to wealth is when an unprepared individual attains great wealth. In this situation “unprepared” means not ready to emotionally and rationally adapt to a sudden change of situation. The moral compass of such individuals is vulnerable. In time, many of them end up behaving in ways that would seem unacceptable if they could ask their own younger selves.

Social disconnection also occurs in children born in a situation where vast wealth has already disconnected the entire immediate social group (friends & family) from the way “normal” people live. By “normal people” I mean the statistical average for the standard of living when looking at the entire planet. Children born in socially disconnected families (and this includes royalty) grow and develop using completely different life standards. They don’t even get to opt out of this until much later and sometimes never, something that will in the future probably be considered akin to abuse through deprivation of opportunity (similar to what children in poor, unstable families experience with parents that have a history of substance abuse).

In this post, I’m focusing on a certain social group: petrol-rich citizens from the Middle East. Here’s what that triggered me to write this piece, an article that tells about how Qatar’s billionaires have migrated to the richest areas of the most expensive city (property-wise) in Europe:

https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/23432-qatari-quarter-emerges-in-london-s-posh-mayfair-neighborhood^

And here’s another interesting article^, which covers the recent Saudi crackdown on (supposedly) corrupt princes and business-men. Of important note here is the fact that the media has focused on arrested prince Al-Waleed bin Talal’s opulent lifestyle. He owns, for example, a yacht worth about $200 million. But here’s the kicker: the prince that is supposedly “draining the swamp” owns a $500 million^ yacht. As is often the case, the rules are oh-so flexible when it comes to what is a justified expense.

The resource curse^, also known as the paradox of plenty, refers to the paradox that countries with an abundance of natural resources (like fossil fuels and certain minerals), tend to have less economic growth, less democracy, and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources.

Have mercy upon those that have drank the petrol money poison and are wasting away caught in the worst trap of all: the ego trap.

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Does Cryptocurrency Have a Future?

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The cryptocurrency craze is on! Social media websites have been swarmed by advertisers hoping to entice people to jump on the Bitcoin wagon or tempting them to invest in any of the ICOs (initial coin offerings) popping up almost on a weekly basis for various competing cryptocurrencies. It’s almost hysterical.

The Bitcoin has grown by more than 1400% in about a year. That’s a staggering development no matter who you ask. Many analysts warn that the bubble will soon burst^, but they’ve been saying this^ for months and the Bitcoin is still growing.

There are a lot of Bitcoin pessimists out there, including people that worked with blockchain technology for a long time. It’s interesting to read what this senior Bitcoin software engineer^ was saying back in January. I wonder if he still has the same opinion now when the currency has climbed this much.

I would love nothing better than to see the current financial system shaken to the core and forced to evolve. Competition is great. We’ve been abused long enough by banks using centuries-old practices and mentalities, working like packs of ruthless sharks instead of collaborators in the world we build for our children.

Increasing in value the way it does, the Bitcoin’s upcoming crash seems more inevitable with every psychological threshold it passes. And given the network’s already known weaknesses (such as long transaction confirmation times) not if but when this correction occurs, it risks bringing a lot of people to tears. Or, as an analyst put it: “it’s going to be pandemonium”.

As it crashes, the Bitcoin will drag along with it the rest of the cryptocurrency market whose growth, to be honest, is even more ridiculous than that of the Bitcoin. Just look at this insane list of one hundred different cryptocurrencies, most of which are not even more than a year or two out in the “market”:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/19/100-cryptocurrencies-described-in-4-words-or-less/^

The Bitcoin may survive any number of crashes and even the dents in reputation that come with such an erratic evolution. What the Bitcoin will not survive, however, is a heavy-handed regulatory crackdown that may happen if the rich & powerful 1% see it as a threat to the financial status-quo. China is already taking steps towards regulation^ and the fact that countries such as North Korea rely on Bitcoin to sponsor shady deals might bring cryptocurrencies in general under serious scrutiny. The enemies of an independent financial system are waiting for their moment to destroy this initiative.

But then again, there’s other, more devious ways to tarnish the reputation of cryptocurrencies for years to come. For example, a disastrous cryptocurrency crash that will send investors scurrying back to their comfort zones of old. Oh, how banks would love that! I wouldn’t be surprised to see banks one day investing and the next day dumping their Bitcoins faster than most people can escape the collapsing hell. It’s the little guys that usually get squashed during a market crash.

On an entirely different note, what about the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining? Yes, there is such a thing. In a previous version of this article, I was wondering if this is a worthy question. Just weeks later, this excellent article^ showed up. BitCoin is the worst offender when it comes to wasted energy. During late 2017, mining BitCoin amounted to the output generated by anywhere from 1 to 3 nuclear reactors. All this for a currency that is backed by little more than public sentiment.

How much will cryptocurrency mining waste in the coming years? There are better things to do with our energy supplies than investing in digital currency. I want and believe in an alternative to the current financial system, but the costs at which it comes might be too great. Fortunately, alternatives to BitCoin are less wasteful, but investing too much of our resources in this digital coin rush seems reckless and even disrespectful towards our ecosystem.

Update 2017-12-14: A bit over two weeks after publishing this article, the BitCoin fever is still in full swing, with the currency having gained another massive ~20% on top of its already huge price point – all within a single week. Here’s what Reuters had to say about it:

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-markets-bitcoin-risks-insight/bitcoin-fever-exposes-crypto-market-frailties-idUSKBN1E724X^

The risks are higher than ever. If I’d own BitCoin, I’d sell at least 75% right now.

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How the Lack of Touch Is Damaging Men

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Most people feel much more comfortable seeing two women holding hands rather than two men, even if the two men are father and son. The men might be brothers, but still, a large part of society will assume some sort of sexual background behind the simple and beautiful act of sharing the sense of touch. And when it comes to sex, the differences in social acceptance between lesbians and gays is even greater. Why is that?

The article below explains the developmental and educational roots of what is one of the most damaging discriminations made by society: starting already from early childhood, men are deprived of platonic touch. This is robbing men of the emotional security that touch brings to most mammals and particularly primates.

http://upliftconnect.com/how-lack-touch-destroying-men/^

I think the (male) author pretty much nailed it when it comes to a major affliction that is crippling our society. The extent of the damage is not hard to imagine: it fuels emotional insecurity, strengthens stereotypes and, worst of all, poisons human interaction. Who knows how many terrible disagreements would have been avoided if (most) men would not have missed out on vital emotional education?

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About Politics Polarization with Renowned Psychologist Jonathan Haidt

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This is one of the most interesting and informative presentations about the times we’re living. It is about how social factors have created a climate of mutual distrust in the world and about how our society has become dangerously split. Doctor Jonathan Haidt focuses on the political arena because it is there where our future is often decided. In this most critical area, the current social polarization is doing the most damage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAE-gxKs6gM^

This talk is of even more value than it was last year, before the democratic catastrophe that took place in the United States, where the electorate was basically asked to choose between two of the least popular candidates ever. The warning is clear: it is up to every single one of us to contribute to the healing of our society, lest even darker days will be upon us.

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The Rise of the RoboJournalist

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The quality of online journalism has been dropping like a stone during the past decade. The main reason is websites trying to cut corners as a way to survive in a publishing landscape completely transformed by the Internet. Websites have lowered their standards regarding whom can write for them. This leads to such sad examples^ where armies of (mostly) amateur exploited writers generate a humongous amount of content, spamming the web and suffocating quality writing.

An even more worrying development is the so-called “rise of the robo-journalist”. The following article reveals how automated writing is on the rise. The quality of these machine-authored creations might increase, but will continue to lack soul (at least until we develop true AI^). Even more importantly, the low-quality articles spam will explode in quantity:

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/05/tech/mci-robojournalist/^

I will speak for myself and admit that sadly I do not contribute financially to any online publication. Even though I consider my contributions here as sufficient payment, I would still like to somehow contribute to the well-being of those online publications that I respect. But with every single one of these publications asking for monthly fees and my need to have at least fifteen different content sources, the expense becomes simply too large. However, I think there’s a way to fix that.

I believe we need a service similar to Audible, Spotify or Netflix, but for online publications. I’m sure very many people thought about the very same thing, but the timing when an idea reaches the market is critical. Is the market ready? Will the idea propagate explosively or will it fizzle and die out?

Later Edit: Apparently something does exist, and it’s called Blendle. Check www.blendle.com^ although it is currently still in Beta.

I’ll throw a spark out there. In order to see if this is the right time for such a service to exist, I have initiated a KickStarter campaign^ for creating a system that will provide online publishers with a share of what subscribers pay. The campaign should be seen as an opportunity assessment (part market analysis and part thought experiment).

In short, the system I envision is intended to work both like an “all you can eat” (a la Spotify & Netflix but with a tiered approach) and like a digital newsstand (for example like Valve’s game-related store, Steam). Compared to other similar services, the system will give a greater share back to authors because it will not be hosting any content by itself but simply act as a gateway back to the publication’s own website (which translates in reduced maintenance costs).

Codexia! Goodbye annoying ads, hello premium subscriptions!

 

 

 

Fun fact: the idea for Codexia came to me while writing this article. There was no campaign yet when I finished typing everything you just read. But as a software engineer and a product owner, I know the importance of sharing ideas with the possible market before doing anything concrete. It’s what opportunity assessments are for.

I knew this won’t be a huge commitment to begin with because I already planned to work in very small iterations. The start will be a micro-campaign draft that will perhaps improve during the coming weeks and maybe months before even daring to think about publicizing it.

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Why Is It So Hard to Renew Certain Beliefs?

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It sometimes seems impossible to change somebody’s mind even when we have solid, fact-checked data. A fascinating scientific study^ explains exactly why. It’s called the backfire effect and this podcast^ explains it in ample detail.

But if you want a bit of entertainment while you’re learning about yourself, here’s one of the best ways to do it – along with this excellent comic from The Oatmeal:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe^

Other than the important teachings imparted in a fun and easy to integrate way (Matthew Inman’s superpower), this quote resonated very strongly with me:

“I don’t have a way to change the behavior of seven-point-five billion people carrying their beliefs around like precious gems wrapped in hand grenades.”

Because for years I hoped that there is a way to do exactly that. To somehow make people understand one of the most basic of notions: it’s not cool to kill each other. There are tons of other things which are quite uncool, but maybe we can at least start by changing this one thing before we can even consider turning down the volume when it comes to fear and hate. It all starts with forgiveness. And forgiveness starts with change.

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