Category Archives: Science & Technology

Oliver Sacks on steam engines, smartphones and fearing the future

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“I cannot get used to seeing myriads of people in the street peering into little boxes or holding them in front of their faces, walking blithely in the path of moving traffic, totally out of touch with their surroundings. I am most alarmed by such distraction and inattention when I see young parents staring at their cell phones and ignoring their own babies as they walk or wheel them along.”

“Everything is public now, potentially: one’s thoughts, one’s photos, one’s movements, one’s purchases. There is no privacy and apparently little desire for it in a world devoted to non-stop use of social media. Every minute, every second, has to be spent with one’s device clutched in one’s hand. Those trapped in this virtual world are never alone, never able to concentrate and appreciate in their own way, silently. They have given up, to a great extent, the amenities and achievements of civilization: solitude and leisure, the sanction to be oneself, truly absorbed, whether in contemplating a work of art, a scientific theory, a sunset, or the face of one’s beloved.”

The Machine Stops

IT Guys I’ve Worked With

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I found these on Mastodon, a microblogging site I’ve been haunting. The author goes by the handle Sensual Jewish Wizard.

The Dingus: he’s a dingus. Somehow keeps getting work despite being a nitwit. He carries a clipboard, tucks in his t-shirt, has two cell phones attached to quick-release holsters on his belt. Once broke a VGA connector trying to jam it in to a serial port. He added the “Everyone” group to the “Domain Admins” group in Active Directory because he couldn’t figure out how to properly re-permission a shared folder. Names his servers after Star Trek characters and always thinks he’s being hacked.

The Fan: he’s a fan of Firefly. His wife is a fan of Firefly. Has he told you how much he and his wife love Firefly? They LOVE it! He loves Ready Player One and buys stuff from ThinkGeek every week. His Captain America tee is worn out, his Doctor Who TARDIS coffee mug is fading, his Mini Cooper needs new tires. He says “Bazinga!” without a trace of irony and with far too much enthusiasm. He will work a ticket until it is solved but it might mean waiting five hours for him to install a printer.

New Career Cameron: his 22 year old cousin in IT is making double what he is so he switches careers. A “degree” from a night school, a couple of certs, a Milspec Bro attitude with 1/50th the knowledge. Has actually worked outside of IT and knows how to talk to Human People. Is literally fascinated and terrified by any kind of technology that they’ve never heard of (which is almost everything). Innocent, nice, soul still intact and not yet crushed by corporate IT support hell.

The Hecker: laughs at your definition of gender. Dyed hair, an old laptop, a jacket with patches all over it. Roots their Android without a problem and makes the l33t jealous. Loves Linux, advocates for it, helps maintain a custom distro, dualboots into Windows to play games on Steam. Still wears a faded DefCon tee their friend got for them at the 1997 convention.

The Manager From Wisconsin: the whitest creature in existence. Blissfully unaware. Knows a bit about everything but not enough to be good at anything. Calls himself a programmer because he set up his own LAMP box. Works on personal projects at work thinking that no one will notice. Did he tell you that he’s from Wisconsin? He’ll tell you eventually because it’s the only thing interesting about him.

The Support Stoner: always stoned. If not stoned, always looking to get stoned. Always talks about what he was doing while he was stoned. Begs you to let him blaze it up in your car as you’re coming back from lunch. Relegated to service support like remote backups, patch/update deployment and anything where he isn’t communicating with a user or a customer.

The “Not In IT” Engineer: suddenly part of IT because he “knows electronics” and managed to help someone reset their password once. Doesn’t dare reboot any of the (physical) servers because they might never come back. Took home a few of those Dell PowerEdge 2950s that were gonna be tossed because he’ll “figure out what to do with ’em.” A big well-maintained mustache, a pot belly covered by a stripey button-down, a secret leather fetish. Hands more wrinkly than rhino skin and a smoker’s cough.

The Woman: a woman in IT. People say they don’t exist but people tend to be assholes. Has a ton of certs like Milspec Bro but doesn’t brag about it. Talking to a customer on the phone: “Hah yeah I know I’m a woman and I like computers, crazy right?” (she rolls her eyes so hard they fall out) Almost always has to unfuck whatever l33t or Elder God has fucked up. Usually a “little bit country”. Possibly married to a Milspec Bro but knows more than him.

Loud Larry: loud. LOUD. Can be heard through closed doors. Doesn’t know shit but is somehow a customer favorite. Probably better off in sales but he’s too much of a lummox. Secretly has a terrifying temper. Breaks his phone’s headset every other week, has a keyboard so filthy it’s considered a superfund site, is the only one who knows how to administer that one esoteric database used for that one specific thing by HR. Put him in a room with The Brain and a murder will occur.

The One Nice IT Guy: a myth. Doesn’t exist. A shadowy temporary form flitting from l33t 5uPP0rt to Milspec Bro to The Brain to The Elder God. If seen, it quits just as it becomes popular with the office, vanishing forever (and usually replaced by a Milspec Bro).

The Christina: she’s not in IT but she has to work with them. Terms like “gigabyte” and “certificate” and “form-factor” scare her but she’s learning. Cries a lot because her cubemate is The Brain. Very good at what she does but overshadowed by her male peers. Cusses like a sailor and doesn’t give a shit who hears it.

The Elder God: been in IT 30 years but still somehow doesn’t know how to type properly. A beard, but unironic. Hates technology, doesn’t trust WiFi, still uses a Hotmail account, drinks coffee from a mug he hasn’t cleaned since he was the Novell Netware 5 admin at that big government contractor across town. Has seven figures in his bank account but won’t pay more than a fiver for lunch. More than likely he’ll be the IT guy who dies and everyone mourns because he was just there for so long.

Six Month Steve: he’ll last six months at best. Knows just enough to get in to trouble and bail when he has to escalate for the fifth time in two days. Listens to reggaeton and takes the early shifts so he can play Eve Online when no one is around. “I don’t do direct deposits; can I get my paychecks live instead?” Contributes apathy and nothing else. Never remembers anyone’s names because he’ll be there for six months, tops.

The Brain: terrifyingly smart, quiet as hell, always judging everyone. Dressed like Milspec Bro but a little more loosely because his wife probably chose his outfit for him. Gets all the juicy projects but won’t dole out any info to anyone below him. Hates level 1s and 2s with a fury and calls them idiots on conference calls. Usually has a loud Model M keyboard that can be heard the next building over. Crafts convoluted infrastructure naming schemes because it gives him pleasure.

l33t 5uPP0rt: nu-metal tee, faded jeans, possibly a trilby or a pork pie hat. Always says “Micro$oft”. Loves Linux but doesn’t know how to use it. Roots his Android and immediately fucks it up but laughs and says “lol Apple slaves” before going for his seventh smoke break of the day. Always has a nickname because there are so many people with his name in the office. Always level 1 or 2 tech support and always has to escalate because they “don’t know Exchange”.

Milspec Bro: tucked-in polo, pressed slacks, New Balance shoes. Has every possible cert but is always studying for another one. Crew cut, Oakleys, a rocky marriage and light beer. No sense of humor, doesn’t actually enjoy anything at all. Almost always named “Greg”.

Freedom Points

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“Every time you generate data, in whatever form, you accrue more Freedom Points. Some data is more valuable than other, so points would be ranked accordingly: a trip to Moscow, say, would be worth a million times more points than your trip to the 7-Eleven. Well then, what do Freedom Points allow you to do? They would allow you to exercise your freedom, your rights and your citizenship in fresh modern ways: points could allow you to bring extra assault rifles to dinner at your local Olive Garden restaurant. A certain number of Freedom Points would allow you to erase portions of your criminal record — or you could use Freedom Points to remove hours from your community service. The thing about Freedom Points is that if you think about them for more than 12 seconds, you realise they have the magic ring of inevitability. The idea is basically too dumb to fail. The larger picture is that you have to keep generating more and more and more data in order to embed yourself ever more deeply into the global community. In a bold new equation, more data would convert into more personal freedom.”

Imaginary use of data from a 2015 article by Douglas Coupland

Hacking the genome

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“He Jiankui, a genome-editing researcher from the Southern University of Science and Technology of China in Shenzhen, says that he implanted into a woman an embryo that had been edited to disable the genetic pathway that allows a cell to be infected with HIV.” (Nature)

Claim hasn’t been verified but this is exactly what Yuval Noah Harari talks about in Homo Deus (and 21Lessons). The rest of the world might freak out over the ethics of this kind of research but when on country has this tech, they won’t be able to stop it. Do you think some billionaire will care about ethics if she can protect her offspring from some dreaded disease. And how long before someone hacks the genome to make a human smarter/stronger/faster/whatever?

 

Why Doctors Hate Their Computers

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This is a long article (like all New Yorker articles) but very interesting. A few nuggets:

More than ninety per cent of American hospitals have been computerized during the past decade, and more than half of Americans have their health information in the Epic system.

A 2016 study found that physicians spent about two hours doing computer work for every hour spent face to face with a patient—whatever the brand of medical software.

A team at the Mayo Clinic discovered that one of the strongest predictors of burnout was how much time an individual spent tied up doing computer documentation.

AI Superpowers

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“In his book “AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order,” Kai-Fu Lee, a well-known artificial-intelligence expert, venture capitalist and former president of Google China, argues that China and Silicon Valley will lead the world in AI. But his highly readable book covers a lot of other ground as well, and among the most interesting insights are his descriptions of the differences between Chinese and Silicon Valley tech culture.” (Washington Post review) Not quite finished but here are some excerpts:

If artificial intelligence is the new electricity, Chinese entrepreneurs will be the tycoons and tinkerers who electrify everything from household appliances to homeowners’ insurance. […] Ambitious mayors across China are scrambling to turn their cities into showcases for new AI applications. They’re plotting driverless trucking routes, installing facial recognition systems on public transportation, and hooking traffic grids into “city brains” that optimize flows.

China’s startup culture is the yin to Silicon Valley’s yang: instead of being mission-driven, Chinese companies are first and foremost market-driven. Their ultimate goal is to make money, and they’re willing to create any product, adopt any model, or go into any business that will accomplish that objective. […] The core motivation for China’s market-driven entrepreneurs is not fame, glory, or changing the world. Those things are all nice side benefits, but the grand prize is getting rich, and it doesn’t matter how you get there.

Adoption of mobile payments happened at lightning speed. By the end of 2016, it was hard to find a shop in a major (Chinese) city that did not accept mobile payments. […] By the end of 2017, 65 percent of China’s over 753 million smartphone users had enabled mobile payments. […] It got to the point where beggars on the streets of Chinese cities began hanging pieces of paper around their necks with printouts of two QR codes, one for Alipay and one for WeChat. […]

For 2017, total transactions on China’s mobile payment platforms reportedly surpassed $ 17 trillion—greater than China’s GDP. […] Data from mobile payments is currently generating the richest maps of consumer activity the world has ever known, far exceeding the data from traditional credit-card purchases or online activity captured by e-commerce players like Amazon or platforms like Google and Yelp. […] Recent estimates have Chinese companies outstripping U.S. competitors ten to one in quantity of food deliveries and fifty to one in spending on mobile payments. China’s e-commerce purchases are roughly double the U.S. totals, and the gap is only growing.

U.S. federal funding for math and computer science research amounts to less than half of Google’s own R& D budget.

Between 2007 and 2017, China went from having zero high-speed rail lines to having more miles of high-speed rail operational than the rest of the world combined.

It no longer makes sense to think of oneself as “going online.” When you order a full meal just by speaking a sentence from your couch, are you online or offline? When your refrigerator at home tells your shopping cart at the store that you’re out of milk, are you moving through a physical world or a digital one?In the United States we build self-driving cars to adapt to our existing roads because we assume the roads can’t change. In China, there’s a sense that everything can change—including current roads. Indeed, local officials are already modifying existing highways, reorganizing freight patterns, and building cities that will be tailor-made for driverless cars.

Much of today’s white-collar workforce is paid to take in and process information, and then make a decision or recommendation based on that information—which is precisely what AI algorithms do best.

Experience Self vs. Memory Self

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  • Being happy “in” you life, vs. being happy “about” your life
  • We don’t choose between experiences, we choose between memories of experiences
  • We don’t think of the future as experience, we think of the future as anticipated memories
  • Why do we give so much weight to memories, relative to the weight we give experiences?
  • We do not attend to the same things when we think about life and when we actually live.