The Atlantic has an important article about the promise and problems of AI and computer tech advances in our time. C-Span has an interview with
the author and the topic is red hot. To give you an idea, think of the mess that happens when a computer simply does not "get" what the human input is really all about. Hence the story -true- about a toddler in the early stages of language proficiency. The child tried to tell the computer something along the lines of "twinkle, twinkle little star." But it came out as 'tinkle, tinkle, lil' star,' or something like that, and the computer interpreted this to mean a request for porn videos. Now, any parent would know, instantly, what was really going on in the child's universe, but something so basic was totally lost on the algorithm. OK, this kind of problem can be fixed, let us say. A few hundred or a few thousand corrections to the algorithm and, presto, everything is OK. But this is only to start us down this path, into the realm of what computers can and cannot do and may never learn how to do. And the answer is that they should be able to do all sorts of things we now think they can never do BUT that there really are things that are hopelessly beyond their capacity. The proposition to put forward is that it would be smart -or vital- for tech firms to come up with really good forecasts of which-is-which and make adjustments accordingly. Otherwise they are guaranteed to make some costly and maybe irreparable mistakes. If I may use my article about Clement of Alexandria for purposes of explanation, let's say that it is a significant contribution not only to knowledge generally, but that it has implications for the Catholic Church, for many individual Catholics, for Evangelicals and Jews, not to mention for US politics, European culture, and on and on. Just try to tell me that there is anything remotely like an algorithm, any conceivable algorithm, that could have come up with something along the lines of that paper. And yet, while the effects cannot be immediate and can only take time, maybe years, for everything to be processed "out there," what you've got is a new paradigm for Christian faith that has all kinds of real world potential. That is, even if not as dramatically as I might like, this "can change everything." In the meantime there are computers programmed to analyze politics and religion in society that are based entirely on status quo assumptions about the nature of religion and politics. These algorithms cost tens of thousands of dollars to write, maybe in excess of $ 100,000. And they now are worthless. The paper discussed confirmation bias among religious people, However, the same thing is true for tech people. With all that money and all those reputations invested in high tech solutions to problems nobody in the field has an appetite for considering that their working assumptions are mistaken. In other words, clearly, the way forward should be for computer mavens to identify what they cannot do, where serious social and intellectual changes are really coming from, and work with people who do know what the hell is going on in those areas, and interface with them in order to produce results that matter. But will this happen? Ha ha ha. LOL. ROTFUL. You know, and I know, that this will not happen because of false pride. Because of the conceit that the only people who count in today's world are other computer people like themselves, "no Irish need apply," so to speak. It isn't just Deists who see what they want to see when looking at the era of the American Revolution, not just Evangelicals, it also is the high tech crowd when looking at change in contemporary American culture and society. And instead of taking my advice why, hell, they will do no such thing because there is no obvious way that the advice can make money for them. In so many words, there is a huge hole in the working ideology of Silicon Valley and it necessarily spells serious trouble for the entire industry. Told you so. And, believe it, at the very first opportunity, I fully intend to rub it in, real bad. Go ahead, ignore me, make sure I am rewarded for nothing at all, make every excuse you can think of, deflect all criticism from yourself, Silicon Valley, and see where that approach will get you. That is, you can do business with me now for bargain rates, in the future the asking price will be an arm and a leg and controlling interest in businesses that I find useful. You do not need to like me, that is not what is most important, but you do need to be open to working with me in those areas where there can be mutual advantage. For now, because there is no choice, my work is free, but it won't stay free and I would expect everything to be different in the future. Billy -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
