I've been watching The Capture ... about video hacking, fakes... and the like. In the past I watched Person of Interest... Both depict a present....??? or near future ... when video/audio surveilance is ubiquitous. Scary and believable ... and POSSIBLE??? With enough cameras and computing power I think YES... And that is amazingly scary.
SO -- in the past I've read a lot of science fiction which when good is pretty realistic. Maybe not happening ... but possible... and probably in some ways - small? - happening. For instance - beam-me-up ... teleportation.. Possible .... Needs lots and lots of power...And then - Space Elevators... needs the kind of materials that are light and strong.... Possible. Good sci-fi suggests the expansion... of realities that are current but inpractical... and then they someday do become real and practical...
AND SCARY... So - sci-fi once for me prepared me for a good new world... But a Brave New World... may be what we get. The two shows mentioned above suggest and show how technologies that are nearly/or really here can be manipulative, controlling, etc..
Today we are mostly concerned with AI and how smart if seems and how much it can do without risking human lives or how it can replace human drudgery ... and yet -- are those the real problems?
Secretive uses of AI... with surveilance and POWER behind it... machine or HUMAN... is wildly problematical. In Episode 2-5 - a character shows how his ALGORITHYM elects a candidate by molding perceptions and sending out messages to fragments of the populace and thus gains the majority edge needed to be elected. It is not even illegitimate... It is using information and creaing appropriate messages and it can all be rather open and known..../?? The issue would be is the data being used legally, etc being gathered for the use by the Systems?
BTW - Issac Asimov predicted the use of massive data in his Foundation Series.. calling the science: psychohistory. As wikipedia says in its article about the Foundation (novel series): "the mathematician Hari Seldon devises the theory of psychohistory, a new and effective mathematics of sociology. Using statistical laws of mass action, it can predict the future of large populations."
Legal issues? Moral issues? Ethics... - They all have, do, and will bow to POWER.. Therefore the question is - how can the people being controlled control power? Democracy is an answer and AI,etc may seem to mock that ... I suppose two parties could use AIetc and battle it out.It is when outside countries, forces (Russa, China, etc) interfere in the internal affairs of other countries that there is a BIG PROBLEM... Which can be/might be countered??!!!
Access to data - big amounts of data... about individuals and their habits and interests... their LIVES... is something TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT... I have said - it doesn't matter what people know about me... I do not do bad, shameful, immoral things... BUT aggregate me with other like me and unlike me and then send out messages tailored to individuals and their invisible groups.... THEN I can see the problem.
I still think... if all parties had equal access then all parties could battle it out, so to speak, on equal footing ... as they have always... Politicians have always tailored speeches to their audiences. There was a time such tailoring was not known (communication technologies didn't broadcast them) and then they were known... Instant News... And now: the new world has to simply take into account the speed at which news moves. Truth... as opposed to deepfakes...must be available and known and then the electorate can weigh in. YES -- DEEPFAKES can fool . but the public may be able to come to understand and get at the real facts and truths. Heinlien had the Fair Witness professionals who: "only reports exactly what they see or hear. They do not extrapolate. For example, if asked what color a house is, a normal person says "white." A Fair Witness says, "It is white on the side facing me." (from Google AI answer).
A question I would pose for today's divided world... - What can bring us together to some consensus? Rotary has its four questions and they are a basis for consensus and united living. They are:
- Is it the TRUTH?
- Is it FAIR to all concerned?
- Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
- Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
And so there are ways to pursue truth with the use of psychology and sociology and information. I hope!
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