Seriously now...

  A way to consider the reach of AI.

 

Stephen Fry Explains Why Artificial Intelligence Has a “70% Risk of Killing Us All”

Steven Fry seems to have his doubts about certain big-tech projects in the works today: take the “$100 billion plan with a 70 percent risk of killing us all” described in the video above.

This plan, of course, has to do with artificial intelligence in general, and “the logical AI subgoals to survive, deceive, and gain power” in particular. Even in this relatively early stage of development, we’ve witnessed AI systems that seem to be altogether too good at their jobs, to the point of engaging in what would count as deceptive and unethical behavior were the subject a human being. (Fry cites the example of a stock market-investing AI that engaged in insider trading, then lied about having done so.) What’s more, “as AI agents take on more complex tasks, they create strategies and subgoals which we can’t see, because they’re hidden among billions of parameters,” and quasi-evolutionary “selection pressures also cause AI to evade safety measures.”

Open Culture 

Today's quote:

It is in the act of giving without the expectation of anything in return that we find joy.

Feel free to share...

 A collection from the internet...hey, I've been sick!

You may need to have a Facebook account to understand this joke...many times trolls ask us to be their friends, posing as some nice looking man with credentials they've made up!

Not to be outdone, since they weren't even critiqued by a new to the running politician..

But the jokes continue to talk of childlessness. Such a strange bunch to narrow a field down. There are so many women of all ages that are either childless by choice (remember I'm a pro-choice person) or how about all the women with children who also like these jokes?

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And other news that I think continues to need resolution!

No apologies for grammar on the following.

Strange how the news has just stopped talking about this.  

He knew he was hit by something...probably heard the gunfire by the next frame, where one red hatted man on the back right turned toward the sound. 

Just interesting how our new cycles have become much quicker at changing focus.

Of course the next big thing was Biden bowing out of the race.

Then lots of focus on Kamala.

And then last Friday the Olympics started in France. Big hoopla!

Today's quote:

We must reject not only the stereotypes that others hold of us, but also the stereotypes that we hold of ourselves.

SHIRLEY CHISHOLM

Women acting "Outside the Box"

 From Colossal newsletter the other day, I received a wonderful  woman-affirming article with great photos.

All photos by Todd Anthony

Todd Antony Chronicles the ‘Cholitas Escaladoras’ Summiting the Highest Peak in the Americas

For generations, Indigenous Bolivian women were not allowed to walk freely in the wealthy or central parts of the nation’s capital, La Paz, where they were considered lower-class and expected to stay at home or work in servitude. More recently, this attitude has changed as Aymara and Quechua women have taken back their rights, expressing themselves confidently through characteristically tall bowler hats, long braids, and bright shawls, skirts, and petticoats.

Originally meant as a pejorative term, cholita has been embraced by Aymara and Quechua women, who have adopted the name as a signal of pride. Photographer Todd Antony (previously) caught up with a group who call themselves the “Climbing Cholitas,” and a breathtaking series of images was born in Cholitas Escaladoras. 

Armed with ice picks, boots, ropes, and their traditional shawls used in lieu of rucksacks, five Aymara women scaled Argentina’s Mt. Aconcagua—the tallest outside of Asia—in January 2019. The climbers donned helmets but didn’t leave their bowlers at home, summiting the 22,841-foot peak in traditional polleras, or billowing skirts.

 

Climate Change attitudes

 Yale Climate Change Conversations latest newsletter published on: 

Global Warming's Six Audiences Around The World

Our prior research has identified six distinct audiences within the public – the Alarmed, Concerned, Cautious, Disengaged, Doubtful, and Dismissive – based on their beliefs and attitudes about climate change.*

 

Key Findings:

• The Alarmed are the largest group in about three-fourths of the countries and territories surveyed.
• The United States is less Alarmed about global warming than most other top carbon-emitting countries.
• Among the top 15 emitters, the largest proportion of Alarmed are in Mexico, Brazil, and India.

* The identified attitudes are based on these definitions:

The Alarmed are convinced climate change is happening, human-caused, and an urgent threat, and strongly support climate policies.

 The Concerned think human-caused climate change is happening and is a serious threat, and support climate policies. However, they tend to believe that climate impacts are still distant in time and space, thus the issue remains a lower priority. 

The Cautious have not yet made up their minds: Is climate change happening? Is it human-caused? Is it serious? 

The Disengaged know little to nothing about climate change and rarely if ever hear about it. 

The Doubtful do not think climate change is happening or they believe it is just a natural cycle. 

And the Dismissive are convinced climate change is not happening, human-caused, or a threat, and oppose most climate policies. 

I find this is a bit more information than just speaking of Climate Change Deniers. 

When you see this photo, do you think at all about climate change? That's what I'm talking about. A brain shift, or paradigm shift, if you will. Each time we see a beautiful shot of nature, we can consider what climate change is doing, or will do, to that area. First thought for me is wildland fires, or forest fires. They are incredibly hard to fight in steep mountain terrain. What else might happen to this pristine landscape?

This is not "awful-izing" so much as bringing a different focus upon the view. Like taking a different set of binoculars which show something that isn't visible at first glance. If we think "wildfires on steep slopes," there are several avenues that veer off of that key phrase. Firfighters, number, equipment, availability. The following years with denuded slopes might also lead to mud slides and flash flooding. Are there people or wildlife affected by any of these possibilities?

Some Women's Talk

  

A piece of needlework that is very fine, done by hand I imagine. something I would have no way to accomplish, so I am in awe of the skill demonstrated by the woman (don't you figure?) or girl who made this. 

Midwife checking position of baby, Colima Mexico, 1st century BCE. This shows that women cared for women in childbirth in all societies, throughout the ages.

Everyone talks about peace but no one educates for peace. In this world, they educate for competition, and competition is the beginning of any war. When educating to cooperate and owe each other solidarity, that day we will be educating for peace.

~Maria Montessori

The Montessori Method:

Of course men and children felt the major shift of the 70s...but women changed from stiff hairstyles to long loose hair, from shirtwaist dresses to bell bottoms or mini skirts, from being subservient to knowing their power!

Kamala Harris, Democrat nominated to run for Presidency!

Today's quote:

May you live all the days of your life.

JONATHAN SWIFT

Camping out (including maybe my mom's parents)

 For a few short years, from about 1913 to around the mid 1920s, auto camping was all the rage. As new owners of automobiles, Americans were learning what the freedom of having an automobile felt like. To be able to get in their cars and drive someplace, away from the city, even if just for a few days, it was worth it to be able to relax and escape the responsibilities of day to day life. Although this trend lasted just a few years, it laid the groundwork for the ways Americans would travel for years to come: auto camps were the precursor to both motels and RVs.

Thanks Facebook, Posted by Hershey Region Antique Auto Club of America

My maternal grandmother and her sister took photos of their camping out (or something outside by a car) in Texas. On the other side of my family (my father's parents) went on some hunting trips with various photos. I'll try to dig them out, but I think the hunting trips were in the 30s, so they'll be in a separate post, and my mother took part in them, while at just 7-8 years old, she wasn't in the camping outing with her mother and step-father below.

Mozelle Miller Webb Munhall, 1925, my mother's mother. 

A series of photos collected by my mother as a young girl. Later than the dates shown I think, because some of the dates are confused....probably posted after her step-father died when she was 10. 

Mozelle Miller Webb Munhall 1925

Fred Munhall and brother Jack, 1926. Fred married Mozelle Miller Webb and became my mother's step-father in November, 1924. It looks like these guys might have been hunting also, but standing on a civilized sidewalk kind of foils their intentions. Get out in the woods, guys!

Fred Munhall 1926, looking very much like he got out in the woods

Mozelle Miller Munhall and my mother, Mataley 1924 (however same outfit and standing in the same place with her step-father, my mother noted in her album 1925.) Upon further thought about them being dressed up in the daytime (not a concert or party happening) I think it might have been when Mozelle married Fred Munhall in Nov. 1924. At that time my mother would have been 7 years old.

Fred Munhall 1924

Fred Munhall

Uncle Jack Munhall, Mozelle Miller Munhall and Fred Munhall, 1926. It appears they are sitting on the bumper of a vehicle, with various boxes around. Perhaps camping, or moving...who knows.

Dorothy Miller 1926 - My great aunt Dorothy, sister of my grandmother Mozelle Miller. No clue what she is holding!

And we come back to a car with a family gathered to enjoy the great outdoors. 

 Family by the side of the road with a model T Ford

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week.

The Sepians may be by the water, but my family was in dry land, yet outside on all occasions!

Kamala Did What?

 A nice video to quickly give her accomplishments. From "Politics Girl," Kamala Did What?

A bit less than10 minutes, recorded before Biden dropped out of the race, but still focused on what Harris has done in her life...and as VP.

 From Emergence Magazine, a film that offers passion and love of the earth and our belonging to it.

Aloha ‘Āina

Directed by Adam Loften and Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee

“As someone who believes in transformation, as someone who believes in liberation, in ea, in sovereignty, in life, I think about the power of that imaginative space and what it offers for us if we honor it.”

Click here to go to film.

This film is art, that is all.

"Native Hawaiian poet Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio opens a space where we can feel what it means to love the land."

Another look at July 19 and CrowdStrike

 As I mentioned on that day, it is wise to see who your resources are when making comments. This FB individual is unknown to me personally, but look him up and decide for yourself if he knows what he's talking about.

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Ian Muir

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OK, I will answer here in a group since a lot of non tech friends have asked me. Lots of stuff broke today because a company called Crowdstrike released a bad piece of software that a lot of systems rely on. Here are some answers to common questions people have asked me.

Edit: One note for people who think I'm being dramatic here and that this was all just an accident. This whole thing happened before at a smaller scale with McAffee in 2010. The CTO of McAffee at the time was Crowdstrike's current CEO. This isn't a coincidence, it's a pattern.

Why wasn't the update tested better? Because tech people are expensive and Crowdstrike laid a bunch of them off over last 2 years to save money including testers. Testing is expensive and it's hard to convince a business leader that testing is important because it doesn't "make them money".

Why didn't big tech companies have a way to function without this one piece of software? Because tech people are expensive and big tech comapnies laid a bunch of them off over last 2 years to save money including the people who help make things stable and flexible. Flexibility is expensive and it's hard to convince a business leader that flexibility is important because it doesn't "make them money".

Why didn't airlines, governments, telecom companies, and other business have a backup plan? Because tech people are expensive and many companies laid a bunch of them off over last 2 years to save money including the people who research and implement backup plans. Backup plans are expensive and it's hard to convince a business leader that backup plans are important because they doesn't "make them money".

Wait a minute. How many of these critical systems in tech, transportation, government, and infrastructure are short staffed right now? Pretty much all of them. Good luck.

Wait a minute, all of these people who laid off all the tech workers said they were replaced by AI. What happened? AI was just a bullshit justification to lay off expensive tech people. AI hasn't really replaced many people in tech because making major changes like shifting to AI is expensive and it's hard to convince a business leader to spend money on making changes when they can just fake it because their compensation is affected more by how many tech people they can lay off than how well the companies actually function. Someday, AI might replace a lot of people in tech, but right now most of the jobs were not replaced by AI and were likely just closed or sent overseas.

Thanks Ian!