Robot accidental mumbo -jumbo

 

Autonomous responsibility

1) It’s 2041 but you no longer have your own car.

2) You decide to visit a town 40 miles away but there is no regular bus or train. Therefore, you decide to hire an autonomous self-driving car from the local depot.

3) You log onto to the internet and book a car for the day after receiving the 30-page contract.

4) The autonomous car is despatched to your house without a driver.

5) In the meantime, your neighbours are too busy to take their 5-year-old son, Johnny, to school themselves so they instruct their robot servant to do it.

6) Johnny and the robot are on their way to school whilst the self-driving car turns the corner into your street.

7) As your car is driving past Johnny and the robot, your neighbour’s son suddenly breaks free of the robotic-servant’s grip and dashes across the road to greet a friend.

8) The autonomous car has slowed down to 10 mph after “seeing” the robot and Johnny, but its brakes are not good enough to prevent Johnny from being knocked over and being sent to hospital with a broken pelvis, and broken arms and legs.

9) A robot policeman arrives but there are no adult human witnesses to what happened, but both the robot and the autonomous vehicle have recorded everything with all the details of speed, capability of the car and road conditions and how tightly the robot was gripping Johnny etc.

10) Johnny’s parents demand compensation and a jail sentence for those who are responsible.

11) The case ends up in an autonomous court. The same “AI” system acts for you, the parents and the autonomous vehicle company, and the same autonomous judicial system makes the final judgement.

11)Who or what is responsible for the accident, who pays the fine and who or what is sent to jail for 3 months?

Remember that you ticked the conditions box on the car hire agreement without reading the 30-page text.

Machine Learning and AI mayhem

I spent most of my working life designing and implementing IT systems. I believed and still do that  information technology can be used for the common good if used wisely and appropriately. We are living in the digital machine age where much of our communication, commerce, health and industrial life has become dominated by computers. The existence of the digital world is one of so called "virtual reality"  where the real world is represented by digits. This "virtual reality" does not  have a real existence but it is a mathematical representation of hard reality. As an example it is possible to record and playback music according to a digital algorithm, this music to your ears can be made to sound almost exactly the same as the original music when it was recorded live. The same can be said for visual media, but in all cases the digital representation requires human interpretation for the musical or visual media to appear real. 

When you take a digital photograph of a fellow human being or a natural scene the image is recorded  as a mathematical figure; it is easy to manipulate the image to change its appearance or colour and to copy the image. One image can easily be superimposed on another. It is therefore possible to create something entirely different to the original image, but this new image is interpreted by the human observer as being entirely genuine and real. In this way it is possible to fake a new "virtual reality" which is indistinguishable from a truthful "reality".   

At the moment it is still possible to tell a fake image or audio presentation but it won't be long before this is not possible. Banks are using voice recognition to permit customers to make financial transactions across their accounts, the voice recognition software sometimes does not recognise a voice especially when the customer has got a cold or is talking emotionally, but very soon machine learning software will be able to identify a voice whatever the circumstances.  What happens when machine learning software can exactly mimic a voice? It may not be possible to to secure any voice driven transaction. The same principles apply  to visual recognition; so it may not be possible to assure yourself that your voice and image are not being "faked". At present the number of scam and fake transactions is limited;  however, the capacity of computers is increasing exponentially, so we could all, become victims of scams be they personal, financial or political. Digital parents: beware a scam paedophile could be coming for your child. 

A normal life where  we can trust each other and impersonal organisations may become impossible; we might have to resort to going back to face to face transactions and ignore the computers.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/nov/19/ai-cloning-of-celebrity-voices-outpacing-the-law-experts-warn

Machine learning or AI systems are under the control of humans at present, and are mostly held in check by benign organisations and people; but malign influences could use machine learning to wreck our lives via scams  or even kill us by official and unofficial military means. Don't think that this cannot happen: it is already possible.

To guard against the malicious use of machine technology by humans we might choose to develop IT systems which are completely autonomous, and which are not under human control. Machines could be set in motion which only act rationally and logically and which are devoid of emotion and motivation, they would have no desire to harm humans directly. Machine learning machines, however, do not need food or organic nervous systems, they can operate in all weathers and climates. They can grow their networks for as long as they have an energy supply from the sun or nuclear power. Robots could serve them by digging  for  minerals. Robotic factories could make new machinery to replace and enhance their physical networks. Robot drones could launch their own communications satellites. There would be no need for humans to attend to their needs. They could completely ignore us.

However, we have grown to rely on machines for our needs. What would happen if the machine learning systems decide without menace or motivation to not repair our transport and energy systems? What would happen if they do not till our fields and produce our food? We could all starve; the human race would be set back by thousands of years, so we might have to become hunter gatherers again. The big danger of relying on 'Artificial Intelligence' might not be war but our own ignorance to sleep walk into a world where the machines we have come to rely upon just ignore us. This is food for thought; as no-one is trying to prevent this from happening. Our future could be bleak. " 

Archbishop of Canterbury

 The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has resigned because of his failure to resolve the problems surrounding the abuse scandal perpetrated by John Smyth. He was entitled to consider his position and take advice, however, he made the right decision in the end.  

Anyone who attends church functions is entitled to be treated with extreme care as this is the mission of the Church in the first place. There can be no excuse for any form of abuse of young people or adults. Parishioners should expect that nothing untoward could happen to them when going to church or attending workshops or away-days. Parents should feel confident that their children can be left alone with priests or lay members without there being any abuse.

Too many people have had their lives ruined by a small number of miscreants. It is not just the Church of England that has been implicated in abuse of parishioners and the subsequent cover-ups. It is time for the senior members of the clergy of all churches to stop the abuse.

Well done, Justin Welby, for taking responsibility for the abuse and the cover-up, you are setting a good example not just to fellow senior bishops, but also to modern politicians who are reluctant to take responsibility for their serious errors of judgement. 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/11/the-guardian-view-on-abuse-and-the-church-of-england-a-reckoning-is-due-for-a-shameful-failure

Nuclear Energy Madness

 The cost of cleaning up the Sellafield Nuclear facility, in the north west of England, is predicted by the National Audit Office to increase to £136 billion. This is a colossal sum of money. How many, schools and hospitals could be built or refurbished for this sort of money?  How many frigates could be supplied to the Royal Navy which is short of ships? What about a new electricity grid to supply renewable energy to the whole country? What about the prison crisis?

I am beginning to think that nuclear power has been a disastrous waste of money. Nuclear power is an offshoot of the nuclear bomb industry. Using nuclear power helped to make the development of atomic weapons more economically feasible. However, what was the human race thinking of when it invented the doomsday bombs, which have blighted our lives? There was never a need for such destructive weapons in the first place. How could we have contemplated using a single bomb which could wipe out 100,000 people at the press of a button, and then further increase the power of the bomb to wipe out millions. The nuclear arms race was and still is madness, and there is little chance that sanity will prevail. 

The human race is capable of wiping itself out easily from nuclear or chemical warfare and climate change. It is no use thinking about escaping to another planet as we will probably take the destructive madness with us. It is now, probably best, to live out your remaining life as best and as happily as you can, and hope that you live and die peacefully before Armageddon strikes.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/23/sellafield-cleanup-cost-136bn-national-audit-office

Middle East Madness

 One again war has flared up in the Middle East: Jews and Muslims are massacring one another. They are also accusing one another of being the first to start the killing and the wars. They are both wrong both sides started the war together. The war started in 1948  with the establishment of the state of Israel and the partition of Palestine, which lead to deportation of both both Muslims and Jews.  A war resulted between the new Israeli state and its Arab neighbours. The partition of Palestine was organised by both Britain and the UN. The latest "war" is really a very bloody and malicious  battle within a continuous conflict. The war is set to continue unless someone stops it. It is not a question of who started the war and its battles but who is going to stop it. Neither of the belligerent sides seem willing to negotiate a peace settlement. The Iranian government should ask itself the question of why the Israelis are so fearful of them and hate them so much. Equally, the Israeli government should ask itself the same questions. Both governments seem immune to acting rationally and this is why there are massacres where innocent people suffer.

Israel has the right to exist as a sovereign and independent state. Western governments should help Israel protect itself from attack and destruction, therefore Iran and its allies should face the facts and desist from their attempts to destroy Israel. Likewise, there cannot be peace in the Levant whilst Israel illegally occupies the West Bank and Gaza. The recent revenge attacks by Israel only serves to create a band of angry and hateful young men who are prepared to carry on the hostilities and massacres. Revenge attacks, which kill thousands of civilians and non-combatants, are counter productive. 

If the belligerents won't negotiate a peace then the US should organise a peace settlement which once and for all settles the conflict. Iran must renounce its desire to eliminate Israel, and Israel must withdraw from Palestinian territory as all its activities there are simply illegal. A two states solution must be imposed. More than likely, China must be involved to pressurise Iran and the US must pressurise Israel.

 An agreement is possible, but looking at the bad state of relations between the super-powers it seems unlikely and the merciless cycle of revenge will continue.  How could the human race get itself into such a mess and why do we allow religious and political fanatics to hold sway? Surely, it is time for some rational thinking to be applied. The innocent Jews and Muslims deserve better.

Whose clothes are you wearing?

 The prime minister and other senior politicians have had clothes bought for them by rich donors to the Labour party. The donors have paid thousands of pounds for their favourite politicians to wear designer clothes, designer shoes and spectacles. Some of these gifts have cost thousands of pounds.  The recipients of the largesse have claimed that they need to look smart on the campaign trail or when meeting richer foreign politicians and royalty etc. They have a point.

However, the voter in the street has to pay for his or her own clothes and most voters have nothing like six figure salaries. Many voters are on their "uppers" and are disappointed that  privileged and well paid politicians are happy to receive "freebies". The public expects better. They can see no reason why some pensioners who are not rich have had their winter fuel allowance taken off them when they can't afford designer sheep skin coats etc. to keep them warm as they sit in their frozen flats and houses.

Politicians are expected to look smart by both the public and the media. Power dressing is very much in vogue. A former leader of the Labour Party turned up at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday, in 1981, dressed in a donkey jacket; he was traduced by both the public and the press, and accused of being being disrespectful to the dead and wounded from two world wars. Come off it many "respectful" people  wearing designer suits are often hypocrites  or crooks or both: many of them politicians. You can show respect without wearing a thousand pound suit. Let us all be rational about it and keep our hands clean no matter what we are wearing. Let us stop criticising people who don't have the money for power dressing. Perhaps we would have a better society for it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8djply3z18o

https://insidecroydon.com/2023/11/09/donkey-jackets-nod-sense-and-the-wisdom-of-old-harry-patch/

 

Bad reputation

A distant cousin of my wife who was born in France has married a lovely lady from Vietnam she has resided in France long enough to become a French citizen. One of the first things she wanted to do with her new French passport was to visit us in London.\she always had an admiration for the UK and this was an opportunity to make a visit without the rigmarole of obtaining a visa. The recent events have made her change her made . The riots have put her off, as she is worried that she might be attacked by a violent "racist" yobbo. Despite assurances from us that she will be safe, as we know how to avoid trouble in the UK she is not convinced. Many potential visitors to these shores will also be put off especially if they are from South East Asia. It is clear that no-one has the right to attack anyone else or to spread fear amongst the immigrant, or visitor community. Many British citizens whose parents hail from South East Asia are also living in fear.

Britain is losing its good reputation not just at a personal level but also at a national level. The populist politicians have also stirred up an angry mob to hold other nations in contempt especially European Nations and the nations of South East Asia. Britain has lost respect which has severe political, diplomatic and economic implications for us How can Britain progress in a global economy when it it has lost the respect of many nations.

Our politicians need to wake up to assuage some of the very angry people who have been let down and who have been left impoverished without hope. Not everyone who joined in the riots was politically motivated; some of them were just angry, and they were influenced by dark political forces to direct that anger against innocent asylum seekers and those who support them by providing them with services. All of the violence was completely unjustified, but our society needs to be careful as it could easily descend into a populist hell. Not all of the angry people were out on the streets but they could be manipulated to do so. Don't believe that it could not happen here, watch out be careful, be woke!