We Can Figure This Out

Part of the problem that we’ve seen is that our general commitment as a society to basic research has diminished.  Our confidence in collective action has been chipped away, partly because of ideology and rhetoric.
The analogy that we still use when it comes to a great technology achievement, even 50 years later, is a moon shot.  And somebody reminded me that the space program was half a percent of GDP.  That doesn’t sound like a lot, but in today’s dollars that would be $80 billion that we would be spending annually … on AI.  Right now we’re spending probably less than a billion.  That undoubtedly will accelerate, but part of what we’re gonna have to understand is that if we want the values of a diverse community represented in these breakthrough technologies, then government funding has to be a part of it.  And if government is not part of financing it, then all these issues that Joi has raised about the values embedded in these technologies end up being potentially lost or at least not properly debated.
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I was a sucker for Star Trek when I was a kid.  They were always fun to watch.  What made the show lasting was it wasn’t actu­ally about technology.  It was about values and relationships.  Which is why it didn’t matter that the special effects were kind of cheesy and bad, right?  They’d land on a planet and there are all these papier-mâché boulders. [Laughs.]  But it didn’t matter because it was really talking about a notion of a common humanity and a confidence in our ability to solve problems.
A recent movie captured the same spirit — The Martian.  Not because it had a hugely complicated plot, but because it showed a bunch of different people trying to solve a problem.  And employing creativity and grit and hard work, and having confidence that if it’s out there, we can figure it out.  That is what I love most about America and why it continues to attract people from all around the world for all of the challenges that we face, that spirit of “Oh, we can figure this out.”  And what I value most about science is this notion that we can figure this out.  Well, we’re gonna try this — if it doesn’t work, we’re gonna figure out why it didn’t work and then we’re gonna try something else.  And we will revel in our mistakes, because that is gonna teach us how to ultimately crack the code on the thing that we’re trying to solve.  And if we ever lose that spirit, then we’re gonna lose what is essential about America and what I think is essential about being human.
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Star Trek, like any good story, says that we’re all complicated, and we’ve all got a little bit of Spock and a little bit of Kirk [laughs] and a little bit of Scotty, maybe some Klingon in us, right?  But that is what I mean about figuring it out.  Part of figuring it out is being able to work across barriers and differences.  There’s a certain faith in rationality, tempered by some humility.  Which is true of the best art and true of the best science.  The sense that we possess these incredible minds that we should use, and we’re still just scratching the surface, but we shouldn’t get too cocky.  We should remind ourselves that there’s a lot of stuff we don’t know.
President Barack Obama
Discussing A.I., Star Trek and the future in an interview in Wired Magazine
The interviewer is: Scott Dadich
I read this in the November 2016 issue of Wired Magazine
The article is: “The President in Conversation With MIT’s Joi Ito and WIRED’s Scott Dadich“
The link to the article:  https://www.wired.com/2016/10/president-obama-mit-joi-ito-interview/
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But The Beginning Of What?

As powerful as advanced AI might be someday, we need to understand it first and think carefully about how it should be applied.  The best thing we can do is make sure we have the best minds working on AI and support research that helps us develop it faster.  Again, it’s just math.  Not magic.
At a very basic level, I think AI is good and not something we should be afraid of.  We’re already seeing examples of how AI can unlock value and improve the world.  If we can choose hope over fear — and if we advance the fundamental science behind AI — then this is only the beginning.
—  Mark Zuckerberg
Quoted by: Jason Tanz
In his article: “A To-Do List For The Tech Industry“
Appearing in: Wired Magazine, dtd: November 2016
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We Need To Continue Experimenting

This is a more fruitful approach than trying to erase dialog from the Internet altogether.  We can all agree that material that incites violence doesn’t belong online.  But when ISIS raises questions about the world, you can’t just wipe that from the Internet.  Ideas need to be raised and confronted and disputed.  Right now, it can feel dangerous to challenge extremism online. ­ People get shouted down, harassed, or worse.  That gives power to the bad guys, because it shuts reasonable people out of the conversation, leaving just the violent voices.
We haven’t seen a terrorist organization as digitally savvy as ISIS before, but when you think about it, much of what it’s doing isn’t all that different from what any teenager can do; you wouldn’t be surprised if your 14-year-old daughter made a video and put it online.  It’s only surprising because we have this idea of terrorists as old, bearded men hiding out in the mountains.  Terrorist groups are evolving like the rest of us.  We need to continue experimenting with solutions that meet these groups where they connect with the rest of the world.
—  Yasmin Green
Quoted by: Jason Tanz
In his article: “A To-Do List For The Tech Industry“
Appearing in: Wired Magazine, dtd: November 2016
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Slowly Cutting Their Own Throats

This all may sound obvious, but far too little of the tech industry operates this way today.  We’ve gotten to a point where companies aren’t even trying to build a business that will produce profits; they are just trying to stay funded long enough for another company to acquire them.  They are actively chasing the waste instead of the win.  That misplaced focus isn’t just annoying, it contributes to global inequality, because it emphasizes capturing value instead of creating it.  It reminds me of Wall Street in 2007.
And it echoes the story of the economy writ large.  Over the past 30 years, wages have largely flatlined as corporate profits have surged, which means that companies in other sectors too are capturing more wealth than they are creating. This is a recipe for economic stagnation.  Consumer demand is 70 percent of GDP.  So when companies treat people solely as an expense to be automated away, or as mere supply of wealth to be extracted, they are slowly cutting their own throats.
—  Tim O’Reilly
Quoted by: Jason Tanz
In his article: “A To-Do List For The Tech Industry“
Appearing in: Wired Magazine, dtd: November 2016
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The Morality Of Spying

Clapper says he has never doubted the morality of his profession.  The job of the intelligence community is, in his view, honorably straightforward: to provide policy­makers with objective analysis derived from intelligence gathered through legally authorized methods.
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Unpredictable instability has been a constant for this administration and will be, he says, for the next one too.
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After a pause, Clapper answered unapologetically: “We can do our job with a clear conscience, but we have to be careful.  The history of the intelligence community is replete with violations of the trust of the American people.”  That doesn’t mean that the job is immoral — it just means the job has to be done correctly.  “I have always accepted intelligence was an honorable profession.  We are all mindful of the need to comply with our moral values and the law.”
—  James Clapper
From the article: “Watching The Watcher“
Article written by: Garrett M. Graff
Article appearing in: Wired Magazine, dtd: December 2016
Link to article:  http://www.wired.com/2016/11/james-clapper-us-intelligence/
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The Reproductive Value Of A Presidential Election

Sometimes the stupid gene expresses itself, Tommy.  Genes are always testing themselves to see if they bring reproductive value.
—  Jerry Hayes
Quoted by Hannah Nordhaus
From her article: “The Honey Trap“
Appearing in Wired Magazine, dtd: August 2016
Link to the article:  http://www.wired.com/2016/08/jerry-hayes-how-to-save-the-bees-monsanto/
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Bricolage Art

[Tom] Sachs made one too.  His was plywood and screws and resin.  He left the edges rough.  You can see the color of the wood bleeding through the white paint.  It is, unquestionably, a Tom Sachs artwork.  We both made two, and gave each other one.
Sachs says mine is art too.  I tell him I’m not sure I agree.
“Your Blade Runner gun is totally a piece of art,” he says.
“But I couldn’t sell it at a gallery,” I say.  “I guess I could make another one, but it would kill me to let this one go.”
“It feels like that every single time,” Sachs says.  “That’s when you know it’s good.”  If you cobble together found materials into a bricolage of a prosaic object, but it hurts to let it go, you’re making art.
—  Adam Savage
From his article: “Ground Control To Major Tom“
Appearing in: Wired Magazine, dtd: September 2016
Link to the article:  http://www.wired.com/2016/09/adam-savage-tom-sachs-movie-props/
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