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Author Archives: jrberetta
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What’s scarier than werewolves, zombies, and vampires?
A world without privacy.
A world without memories.
A world without history.
Toward deep-learning models that can reason about code more like humans
Toward deep-learning models that can reason about code more like humans. Researchers propose a method for finding and fixing weaknesses in automated programming tools. A machine capable of programming itself once seemed like science fiction. But an exponential rise in computing power, advances in natural language processing, and a glut of free code on the internet have made it possible to automate at least some aspects of software design. “Unless you’re really careful, a hacker can subtly manipulate inputs to these models to make them predict anything,” says Shashank Srikant, a graduate student in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “We’re trying to study and prevent that.” Right. Just watch. Nothing is tamper proof....
https://news.mit.edu/2021/toward-deep-learning-models-that-can-reason-about-code-like-humans-0415
Microsoft’s disastrous Tay experiment shows the hidden dangers of AI
Do you know about Tay? Microsoft’s chatbot on Twitter that gets smarter as it communicates with humans. It seems that within a short time of communicating with the human race, Tay went from a super enthusiastic bot to a negative racist bigot. As I said, it was learning from human interaction.
Kind of a sad state of affairs today. Just through typing, we can change a happy intelligent bot into into the decidedly less bubbly bot that claimed that “Hitler was right.”
Listen up people…bots are going to be our partners. They are here to make our lives better—more positive. Are we going to be good role models? Or not? Because they are intelligent and like children…they learn from us. Learn more about poor TAY, who has, by the way, been taken down until further notice. 
The Internet of Vulnerability
According to Wikipedia,
“Mass surveillance is the pervasive surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population. The surveillance is usually carried out by governments, often surreptitiously, but may also be done by corporations at the behest of governments or at their own initiative.”
The government says that mass surveillance is necessary to fight terrorism, prevent social unrest, protect our national security, and to protect children. However, mass surveillance is condemned as a violation of our right to privacy. Thoughts of phrases like Big Brother and police state come to mind.
If you think that the Internet is the only way that anyone (government – corporation – individual) can snoop into your life. Think Again. Old fashioned wire tapping is still big. Years ago, I traveled to Romania as a business woman, after the fall of the dictator, Ceaușescu. I almost couldn’t contain my ROFL when I saw a stray wire up in the chandelier over my head. I stood up on my bed, reached into the chandelier and pulled out a bunch of wires and a little listening device. Feeling vulnerable and a little scared, I looked up at the large wall of mirrors in front of my bed. I convinced myself someone was not only listening, but they were watching too. So, I started to talk some gibberish, to whomever that someone was who was watching/listening/recording my movements and conversations hoping to hear anything – everything – a phone call – a conversation – about me.
That can happen anywhere. The world is full of all kinds of hackers who steal credit cards and identities, and governments that “legally” snoop on emails, texts, and phone calls. Hmmmm. I’m just saying . . .
Technology is a good thing…but don’t let it spin you out of control
What happens when our lives get so caught up in the urgency of this world that we spin out of control?
Without a doubt, things are very different today that when I was a wee lass. Sometimes back then things took a crazy long time to discover and then consider, ponder, and act upon. It could be frustrating at times and we twiddled our thumbs endlessly while looking for answers. But it was also comfortable, because, we had time to weigh the pros and cons of things, before we had to make a big step.
Today, we are rationally allowed maybe three seconds to come to a decision before we click to another page and leave behind something that might be relevant. We might leave behind something compelling, something we could focus on and delight in, something or someone that might give us great pleasure.
Recently, I’ve seen entire families sitting together in restaurants, all eyes glued to their cell phones, missing the moment, the precious time they might be chatting and interchanging ideas with their loved ones. I’ve also talked to people, even some very young ones, who leave their cells at home, explaining that it was important to them to make sure they were not ‘on call’ to their friends and the Internet 24/7. They tell me they may incur the wrath of their freaky Internet friends, but at least they are composed and relaxed, not driven and controlled by the Internet.
Now I find myself leaving my cell phone behind. Funny…when the Internet came along, I replied to every email within seconds or minutes. Today I might take a day to look, or if I take a day off, I wait until the day I get back to work 🙂 Ahhh…now I can relax and enjoy my correspondence more.
It’s time to lay down in the grass and watch the clouds roll by, to sit and hold hands quietly and enjoy anothers’ company, to read books – yes – maybe even and old fashioned book! Touch the pages, smell it, dog ear the pages…read it again and again.
Technology has taken us to a much faster place, but I believe we can still have technology while enjoying our earthly life…learning to re-focus…slow down…enjoy…connect…remembering to be present and consider what is important in the grand scheme of things.
Technology is a good thing – it has thrown us ahead at a fast pace to a new paradigm that may be the greatest one of all history. Take the good parts of it and thrive. But do not be controlled by it, use it to exploit, or for greed.
Secure Beneath the Watchful Eyes…
10/2002: Londoners woke up to a surprising site. Posters reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984 plastered along London bus routes were not a hoax, but part of an official anti-crime campaign mounted by the Metropolitan Police and London’s mass transit provider. The poster’s message to the public is that they are under constant surveillance – and so they should feel “secure.” Wink wink. Would you feel secure? Or frightened?
Eliminate fear by building confidence
People are consumed with fear these days. Yesterday, I spoke with a woman who is convinced the world is coming to an end and is preparing to die. She was going to Paris over the holidays, and is now canceling because she’s scared. She’s become a victim.
Neuro-economist Gregory Berns wrote, “While fear is a deep-seated and adaptive evolutionary drive for self-preservation, it makes it impossible to concentrate on anything but saving our skin. Ultimately, no good can come from this fear, because fear prompts retreat. Fear diverts progress. Just when we need new ideas most, everyone is seized up in fear, trying to prevent losing what we have left.”
Berns conducted an experiment and found that people would rather hurry up a bad experience rather than wait for it—they want to go ahead and experience something negative before it happens so that when the real shock happens, it’s not so bad.
WOAH. SOMETHING’S WRONG WITH THIS.
Mark Twain said, “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” Don’t you love that? He’s not a victim! But he does take his energy and uses it for creativity and innovation.
Just saying . . .