DeepSeek is forcing a debate about how much energy AI models should be allowed to use up in pursuit of better answers. Really!

The talk of globalist, socialist central planners of the MIT! To defeat them is our mission!

"... The problem, at least to some, is that this way of “thinking” uses up a lot more electricity than the AI we’ve been used to. Though AI is responsible for a small slice of total global emissions right now, there is increasing political support to radically increase the amount of energy going toward AI. Whether or not the energy intensity of chain-of-thought models is worth it, of course, depends on what we’re using the AI for. Scientific research to cure the world’s worst diseases seems worthy. Generating AI slop? Less so. ..."

Three things to know as the dust settles from DeepSeek

MIT Technology Review: The quest to figure out farming on Mars. Really!

Would it not suffice to send robots to Mars?

We are not even growing enough food for humans on earth!

"Once upon a time, water flowed across the surface of Mars. Waves lapped against shorelines, strong winds gusted and howled, and driving rain fell from thick, cloudy skies. It wasn’t really so different from our own planet 4 billion years ago, except for one crucial detail—its size. Mars is about half the diameter of Earth, and that’s where things went wrong. ...

And what would it take to grow plants to feed future astronauts on Mars? ..."

The quest to figure out farming on Mars

The weeds are winning against pesticides. Really!

It is only a matter of time that human ingenuity will tackle this issue! 

No reason for alarmism and hysteria!

But it also tells us that nature is much more able to adopt than we acknowledge!

"Since the 1980s, more and more plants have evolved to become immune to the biochemical mechanisms that herbicides leverage to kill them. This herbicidal resistance threatens to decrease yields—out-of-control weeds can reduce them by 50% or more, and extreme cases can wipe out whole fields.

At worst, it can even drive farmers out of business. It’s the agricultural equivalent of antibiotic resistance, and it keeps getting worse. Weeds have evolved resistance to 168 different herbicides and 21 of the 31 known “modes of action,” which means the specific biochemical target or pathway a chemical is designed to disrupt.

Agriculture needs to embrace a diversity of weed control practices. But that’s much easier said than done. ..."

The weeds are winning

MIT Technology Review: What is an “algorithm”? It depends who you ask

Oh really! MIT Technology Review is not aware that we have already reached the point were biological computers or machine learning or algorithms are capable of automatically designing new algorithms! You wonder!

"Defining terms: Describing a decision-making system as an “algorithm” is often a way to deflect accountability for human decisions. For many, the term implies a set of rules based objectively on data. It also suggests a system that is highly complex. In reality, many algorithms are very simple. And, of course, they’re always designed by humans. ..."

An AI is training counselors to deal with teens in crisis

Inside NSO, Israel’s billion-dollar Pegasus spyware giant

MIT Technology Review indiscriminately demonizes Israeli company! Is this just another case of journalistic alarmism and sensationalism? Probably, yes! Or is it just another nod to the BSD (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel) movement? Possible! What about thinly veiled antisemitism expressed by MIT Technology Review? Don't dismiss it! 

As far as Western democracies are concerned there are checks and controls in place. Second, I don't believe the company is so crazy to sell this software to anyone. Third, I also believe the Israeli government is not sitting idly by!

"Spyware for sale: Pegasus is the blockbuster product of NSO Group, a secretive billion-dollar Israeli surveillance company. It is sold to law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world, which use the company’s tools to choose a human target, infect the person’s phone with the spyware, and then take over the device. Once Pegasus is on your phone, it is no longer your phone. ... But there is a long list of incidents in which Pegasus has been used as a tool of oppression. It has been linked to cases including the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the targeting of scientists and campaigners pushing for political reform in Mexico, and Spanish government surveillance of Catalan separatist politicians. NSO insists that the vast majority of its customers are European democracies, although since it doesn’t release client lists and the countries themselves remain silent, that has never been verified. ..."

Inside NSO, Israel’s billion-dollar spyware giant (MIT Technology Review. The Download 8/19/2020)

China’s students will now study online because coronavirus has shut schools

Posted: 2/17/2020

The more than two thousand year old classroom format of teaching is coming to an end thanks to the Internet and other technologies! We should thank the new coronavirus for expediting this process! 

I am quite sure this will not be limited to primary education, but that similar efforts are taking place in China regarding secondary education.

“The news: China has launched a national cloud learning platform and started broadcasting primary school classes to ensure the country’s 180 million students can still keep learning even though schools are closed, according to state-run news agency Xinhua. A new school semester, scheduled to start today, has been postponed indefinitely as part of measures to combat the coronavirus.

School on TV: The approach differs by age. Primary school classes are being broadcast on one of China’s state TV channels. Junior and senior high school students in China can use an online learning platform which has 169 lessons covering 12 subjects for the first week, based on the national curriculum. Teachers will keep updating the platform with new materials as needed.

Bandwidth: The government has enlisted China's biggest telecoms operators and tech companies like Huawei, Baidu and Alibaba to back up the platform with 90 terabytes of bandwidth and 7,000 servers,so that up to 50 million students can use it simultaneously.”

Of course, e.g. Australia has several decades of experience with making school programs available over TV to its sparsely distributed population.

Sources (S):

1. MIT Technology Review. The Download. Your daily dose of what’s up in emerging technology (2/17/2020)

The “manosphere” is getting more toxic as angry men join the incels

MIT Technology Review spews out feminist ideology! This article is pure misandry!
Little does this tendentious article say about increased female toxicity!

"The news: Men from the less extreme end of the misogynistic spectrum are drifting toward groups that espouse violence against women, a new study suggests."

The “manosphere” is getting more toxic

Too Many Hit Pieces By MIT Technology Review

Posted: 5/10/2019  Updated: 5/26/2019

Update Of 5/26/2019

Here is another ridiculous headline pushed by MIT Technology Review today (5/26/2018) on their Facebook page:

The underlying article with same headline, again is quite old: China Publishes More Scientific Articles Than the U.S. (published 1/18/2018). Why the MIT Technology Review pushes old articles on their Facebook page and most of the times without indicating the age of the underlying article is another major annoyance!

My comment: Quantity is not quality! Communists like to produce quantity no matter what the quality!

Original Post

Just saw this latest, mostly meritless hit piece by MIT Technology Review: People are calling for Zuckerberg’s resignation. Here are just five of the reasons why. Facebook has been beset by scandals over the last year and many believe that nothing will change until its founder and CEO is gone. I received this hit piece courtesy of MIT TR daily newsletter (the articles promoted in this newsletter are not always current).

It is very appalling that a once prestigious media outlet publishes/engages in such crap! I certainly do not sympathize with everything that Facebook does!

I do not have the time to refute or dispute all the claims made in the above hit piece, but I am very confident that they do not hold up to scrutiny or a more balanced evaluation!

These “reasons” were carefully selected with bias, are extremely exaggerated and overblown. Yes, there were hacks, privacy issues, unprecedented access to user data etc. However, social media is very new form of business that did not even exist before the turn of the century! Of course, mistakes are made etc.

Low and behold, there was another hit piece in same newsletter:

The economic argument behind the Green New Deal Economist Mariana Mazzucato explains how rethinking industrial policy could be key to tackling climate change.

In short, the argument is in favor of socialist central planning! The indoctrination with climate religion and Global Warming hoax continues!

New IPCC Baloney About Crops

Just read http://www.technologyreview.com/news/525891/un-climate-report-warns-of-increased-risk-to-crops/

Even the MIT Technology Review cannot resist to regurgitate this nonsense. This has been thoroughly debunked. Crops actually appreciate the increased CO2.

As if We The People are fools, the IPCC warns that by 2030 dire things will happen. We cannot even predict weather with any certainty for up to 10 days.

Dismal Economists Or How Technology Is Destroying Jobs

Technological Change Becomes A Scapegoat

I have recently written a blog post about modern luddites arguing about the dangers of robots and how they will displace labor. Every age has their luddites.

Technological Change Destroys Jobs Faster Than It Creates New Ones

This about sums up a new “feature story” in the MIT Technology Review titled “How Technology Is Destroying Jobs” written by its editor David Rotman dated 6/12/2013. The MIT Technology Review was the last publication I would have expected such an article to come from.

In the opening paragraph we read (Emphasis added):

“… it is easy to miss just how provocative Erik Brynjolfsson’s contention really is. ­Brynjolfsson, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and his collaborator and coauthor Andrew McAfee have been arguing for the last year and a half that impressive advances in computer technology—from improved industrial robotics to automated translation services—are largely behind the sluggish employment growth of the last 10 to 15 years. Even more ominous for workers, the MIT academics foresee dismal prospects for many types of jobs as these powerful new technologies are increasingly adopted not only in manufacturing, clerical, and retail work but in professions such as law, financial services, education, and medicine. … But Brynjolfsson and McAfee’s claim is more troubling and controversial. They believe that rapid technological change has been destroying jobs faster than it is creating them, contributing to the stagnation of median income and the growth of inequality in the United States.”

These two authors, Mr. B. and Mr. McAfee, have also published a book about this subject in 2011 titled “Race Against the Machine”. In their online excerpt the authors state “We can’t win that race, especially as computers continue to become more powerful and capable.” Oh, really!

Just Academic Baloney

To blame the “rapid technological advances” for the sluggish employment growth over the last 10 years or so is a seriously flawed economic analysis. If anything is the cause the economic malaise of the past 10 years are failed economic policies, excessive government spending over the past 2-3 decades, excessive government debt, high burden of taxation and regulation, and reckless central bank manipulation of interest rates and other monetary policy failures.

Economics is not a dismal science, but some economists are dismal and some are Luddites and dismal combined in one person.

Like the steam engine or the spinning jenny or industrial robots before, this technological revolution will not lead to employment disaster. Who builds robots? Who repairs robots? Who writes software, who designs networks, data centers, etc.? I am still waiting for a robot to cut my hair (I wish they would be available).

Like Photography Displaced Naturalistic Or Realism Painting – Computational Music Is Going To Transform Music

Music At A Crossroads

I have little doubt that like computational photography is going to revolutionize conventional digital photography computational music is going to do the same for music. In my opinion, popular music (including classical, jazz, pop music etc.) has become kind of stale. Of course, we still like to listen to it, but I believe, we are about to enter a new era in music. I also have no doubt that somewhere on this planet unconventional musicians are already experimenting …

Too Excessive Copyrights Protecting Modern Music

As I see it, there is at least one major hindrance and that is excessive copyright rights which almost exclusively protect the music created over the last 100 years or so. Without these excessive copyrights contemporary or modern music could be more easily stored in computer systems and remixed or whatever to please current generations of listeners. New styles of music could be fused and much more.

I wrote a separate blog on excessive intellectual property rights.

Music X-Ray

In an article published on 7/27/2012 in the MIT Technology Review titled “Can Creativity be Automated?” by Christopher Steiner it reads that the music industry is beginning to rely on computer algorithms to select artists & repertoire for the next big hit. The company behind these algorithms: Music X-Ray.

Well, if such algorithms are capable to select music that suits our sweat spots could such algorithms not also compose music in such a way that it creates catchy tunes or songs?

Same article also mentions Professor David Cope of UC Santa Cruz who created algorithms that compose classical music.