The Internet Forum walls

I like Twitter even though I am a big believer in long winded rational thought.
It was a little nicer back then.

What makes twitter special is that it reinvents the walls of the Roman Forum. 

 

It was a little nicer back in SPQR. My high school friend http://www.trentu.ca/agrs/faculty_cook.php studies Roman dig sites all over the Mediterranian. I won't speak outside my limited knowledge, seek an expert for more.

Bottom line: anyone could post ideas for all to see on the walls of the Forum. People could come to one place and listen and learn and compete ideas in a Socratic method kind of way. All ideas were presented equally because they were all in the same spot in the same way.

This is a powerful tool that even technological dinosaurs must understand going into the future. This is the reason why sociology and archaeology are still important sciences because they allow us to understand all technology from before for now and the future.

Body Camera Rule: How do you stop a policeman from turning off a camera?

 

My suggestion for the laws around body camera use is that body cameras should be enforced by law.  If the officer turns off his camera, then his testimony is discounted versus other witnesses.  That should be the law; turn off the camera, then you are treated as suspect. 

Body cameras should also have a log of when the device is turned off, turned on, and complete GPS location for the entire shift.  The more data the better.

Society's Money Sink - Healthcare

People are fixated on the topical problems of the day.  But the biggest problem is not ISIS, it's not Ukraine, and it's not the banking system; more people will die from car crashes than ISIS and China won't let the West go into bankruptcy. They lose their principal in that event.

It's healthcare.  The demand for healthcare is unlimited. It is society's money sink (as in the opposite of a source not the kitchen variety).  That means if everyone came forward with a need for some covered condition it would bankrupt the system.  No system can afford to cover all expenses.  So the reality is that every year the system tries to make efficiencies but also tries to slow down demand to meet the existing budget.

Demographics is the biggest forcing function in society; the age histogram dictates what costs are prevalent to society.  And the aging population is risking society's fiduciary status.  Healthcare costs will go up not flatten.

Healthcare can bankrupt us.  

What we need is mandatory innovative changes forced on the system.  We need to force creative solutions outside their comfort zone, technology, robots, any and all improvements to squeeze every efficiency out of our tax dollars. 

We need e-visits to doctors,  we need automated sample surveys, we need Artificial Intelligence doctor's assistants, e-files, we need doctor teleconferencing for remote locations. 

Any government that is not focused on healthcare is a liability to its citizens. 

Elon Musk is starting to branch out into metaphysics

Ok I was thinking of investing in Tesla the company because I think the electric car industry is a growing part of the next generation vehicle market.  There is a greater need for electric vehicles and it is a growing market. 

Then I read this:

Tesla battles Google in race to get driverless cars on the road: Elon Musk says company will produce self-driving vehicles by 2016

When Elon Musk, who is not an expert in artificial intelligence and autonomy, claims to know we are 90% towards full autonomous cars.  But even Toyota and Daimler Benz predict the actual horizon is maybe 10 to 15 years out.  Maybe.  Claiming an unrealistic timeframe makes me think he doesn't give care to understand a business area.  People have been working towards artifical intelligence since 1970's.  I've been working in this area since 2000.  I predicted the failure of the US Army's FCS - Future Combat Systems back in 2009.  I know more about autonomy than he does. And I wouldn't stake my money nor my reputation on a megalomaniacal statements.

And then I read this


Elon Musk Compares Rogue Artificial Intelligence to Demons. Yes, Really


For those that don't know all the science jokes, when a physicist comments that a colleague is dabbling in metaphysics - that's an insult of the highest variety.  Metaphysics - is uncounted or counted philosophy. It doesn't have anything to do with natural law. So may or may not have anything  to do with physics. When Elon started to make an analogy using demons and autonomy then I realize he's not acting in a most rationale manner. 

I don't think I'm going to invest in Elon Musk anymore. He's a loose cannon. His almost failures were a warning sign. 

The Richard Feynman Lectures

Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize winning physicist that started working on the Manhattan Project and ended his career as one of the preeminent and most sought after physics sages.


Bill Gates, in an act of pure kindness to humanity, bought the rights to Feynman's famous Cornell University Physics lecture series entitled, "The Character of Physical Law" and opened them for everyone.

If you never got physics or hated the math, you can understand Richard Feynman. In these lectures he is presenting to students and his respected professor colleagues so he is explaining things in an unpretentious way for anyone to listen.

I urge you to watch these videos.

Here's where I got the story:
http://www.openculture.com/2012/08/the_character_of_physical_law_richard_feynmans_legendary_lecture_series_at_cornell_1964.html


Here are the videos.

Enjoy!










 

Electronic passports

If people are concerned about the location of Western converts fighting for ISIS, then all nations should make electronic passports complete with GPS transponders.  Cell phones cost almost as much as a passport these days so it is economically viable. 

Electronic passports have many advantages:

• Easy to find someone lost in a foreign land. 
• Easy to track if people went into a dangerous country. 
• Easier to track drug mules.
• Easy to estimate how many foreigners are in a country.
• Easy to determine when and where someone was kidnapped. 

 It's defeatable, but it makes things easier.

Technology can help lots of problems if people can conceive it.