^TagChina

Concept of a futuristic quantum data center, supercomputer running with physical waves

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
December 4, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Programming

Tagged
China, Enrique Blair, Featured, Google, Quantum Computing, Quantum Supremacy, Robert J. Marks}

Why Google’s “Quantum Supremacy” Isn’t Changing Much—Not Yet

_{Quantum computing was suggested by physicist Richard Feynman in 1982; the supremacy battles are quite recent} _{News

December 4, 2020

6

Artificial Intelligence, Programming}

In last week’s podcast, “Enrique Blair on quantum computing,” Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks talks with fellow computer engineer Enrique Blair about why quantum mechanics is so strange but important to our future. One thing they discussed was Google’s claim to quantum supremacy. What does it mean? Does it matter? https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-110-Enrique-Blair.mp3 The discussion of quantum supremacy begins at approximately 47:55. The Show Notes and transcript follow. Excerpts from the transcript: Robert J. Marks (pictured): Google recently announced they had achieved quantum supremacy. What is quantum supremacy, and how does that relate to the quantum computer and the other computers that we use today? Enrique Blair: It’s a pretty interesting buzzword. Maybe the first thing to mention is what Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 27, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
AlphaGo, AlphaGoZero, Checkers, chess, China, Deep Mind, Featured, Gaming AI (book), Go, IBM Watson, Jeopardy, Lee Se-dol, Map vs. territory}

Are Computers That Win at Chess Smarter Than Geniuses?

_{No, and we need to look at why they can win at chess without showing even basic common sense} _{News

November 27, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Philosophy of Mind}

Big computers conquered chess quite easily. But then there was the Chinese game of go (pictured), estimated to be 4000 years old, which offers more “degrees of freedom” (possible moves, strategy, and rules) than chess (2×10170). As futurist George Gilder tells us, in Gaming AI, it was a rite of passage for aspiring intellects in Asia: “Go began as a rigorous rite of passage for Chinese gentlemen and diplomats, testing their intellectual skills and strategic prowess. Later, crossing the Sea of Japan, Go enthralled the Shogunate, which brought it into the Japanese Imperial Court and made it a national cult.” (p. 9) Then AlphaGo, from Google’s DeepMind, appeared on the scene in 2016: As the Chinese American titan Kai-Fu Lee Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
November 25, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Global Technology, Surveillance

Tagged
Africa, African Union (AU), Belt and Road, China, Cyber espionage, Featured, Huawei, International Telecommunications Union, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Zimbabwe}

China’s Eyes Are Watching Africa Closely

_{In exchange for help with high-tech communication systems, China gets to install mass surveillance technology} _{Heather Zeiger

November 25, 2020

7

Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Global Technology, Surveillance}

Depending on who you talk to, the twenty-year relationship between China and several countries in the African Union has been described as everything from mutually beneficial to asymmetric and dysfunctional right down to exploitative and neo-colonialist. Recent pre-COVID-19 surveys indicate that citizens of several African nations see their country’s interaction with China as largely positive. But if some African science fiction writers are any indicator, others see a dystopian future. The current onslaught of high-tech surveillance technologies from China provides a chance to compare the two views. Recently, I have written about racial tensions between African nationals and local government in Guangzhou amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and about how the pandemic has worsened African countries’ debt crisis, particularly due to Read More ›

Rolled Yuan bill on the map of Africa. Chinese investment in African economy

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
November 13, 2020

Categorized
Business and Finance, Global Technology

Tagged
Africa, Belt and Road, Brahma Chellaney, China, Chinese in Africa, COVID-19, Deborah Bautingam, Debt, Debt Suspension Service Initiative (DSSI), Debt-trap diplomacy, Howard W. French, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia}

China and Africa: Debt-Trap Diplomacy?

_{The story of China helping Africa modernize resists simple formulas} _{Heather Zeiger

November 13, 2020

8

Business and Finance, Global Technology}

Last week, I reported on the accusations of racism on the part of the the Chinese authorities against African residents of the city of Guangzhou in Guangdong province. While Africa and China have enjoyed a seemingly amicable relationship since the 1970s, several African leaders have pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as highlighting unresolved underlying tensions. One of those tensions is several African countries’ debt burden. China’s response to requests for deferral in the midst of a pandemic has strained Sino-African relations. China isn’t the African countries’ only creditor. As of this writing, G20 leaders will be meeting to discuss debt-relief and extending the Debt Suspension Service Initiative (DSSI). The service has deferred debt payments by poor countries due to the Read More ›

Blockchain technology. Information blocks in digital space. Decentralized global network. Cyberspace data protection. 3D illustration with elements of a binary code

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 12, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Global Technology

Tagged
bitcoin, Blockchain, China, Facial Recognition, Featured, Gaming AI (book), George Gilder, Internet security, Life after Google (book), Robert J. Marks}

While the West Hesitates, China Is Moving to Blockchain

_{Life After Google by George Gilder, advocating blockchain, became a best seller in China and received a social sciences award} _{News

November 12, 2020

7

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Global Technology}

In this week’s podcast, “George Gilder on blockchain and carbon computing,” tech philosopher George Gilder and computer engineer Robert J. Marks, our Walter Bradley Center director, continued their discussion of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). This time, they focused on the future of blockchain, of quantum computing, and carbon computing.What difference will they make? Quite a lot it seems. Today, we will look at what happens when blockchain goes global. You can download Gilder’s new book, Gaming AI, for free here. The three earlier episodes and transcripts in this series are also linked below. And so now… https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-108-George-Gilder.mp3 Gilder and Marks discussed both the huge surge of interest in blockchain in China and the central weakness of Bitcoin, whose Read More ›

With the global spread of the new coronavirus pneumonia, an automated line of disposable medical masks makes the masks ready for an epidemic 24 hours a day, COVID-19 outbreak

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
November 5, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Global Technology, Medicine and Health, Surveillance

Tagged
Africa, Africans in China, China, COVID-19, Featured, Guangzhou, Racism}

COVID-19 Response Exposes Racism in China, amid Harmony Claims

_{The lid blew off when African leaders broke the accustomed silence imposed by their dependence on Chinese high-tech loans} _{Heather Zeiger

November 5, 2020

8

Ethics, Global Technology, Medicine and Health, Surveillance}

The coronavirus COVID-19 epidemic has exposed two longstanding ugly problems: underlying racist views of Africans living in China and the burden debt to China lays on several African countries. The key flashpoints creating tension between China and Africa are 1) Mistreatment of citizens of African countries living in China, particularly in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province (pictured) and 2) Beijing’s position on granting debt relief to countries in Africa so they can direct resources to dealing with the coronavirus. In one incident, Nigeria’s speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, posted a video of himself summoning Chinese Ambassador Zhou Pingjian to his office where he expressed his displeasure about a Nigerian man being evicted from his home. While nobody Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
October 12, 2020

Categorized
Global Technology, Programming, Social Media, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
Ai Fen, censorship, China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chinese Human Rights Defenders (organization), COVID-19, Fang Fang, Featured, Gitee, GitHub, Li Wenliang, Microsoft, Peter Hessler, Wuhan, Wuhan Diary (book)}

China: COVID-19’s True History Finds an Unlikely Home — GitHub

_{The Chinese Communist party, rewriting the COVID-19 story with itself as the hero, must reckon with truthful techies} _{Heather Zeiger

October 12, 2020

9

Global Technology, Programming, Social Media, Surveillance, Technocracy}

For a brief window of time at the beginning of 2020, China’s internet censors didn’t block stories about Wuhan and COVID-19, the coronavirus. Caixin, a widely-read news magazine, published a multi-page investigative report on everything leading up to the outbreak, including the way in which the provincial authorities in Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital, suppressed knowledge of the virus. Fang Fang, an award-winning novelist, kept a Wuhan diary online on Weibo, which was recently published as a book in the U.S. (HarperCollins 2020). For that short time, comments on the coronavirus were not being censored (Wired) at WeChat. Many people were thus able to vent their frustrations and pay their respects when 32-year-old ophthalmologist and whistleblower Li Wenliang Read More ›

sunset on a yurt , in the grassland of Mongolia

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
September 28, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Education, Global Technology, Social Media, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
Bainuu, China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Cultural genocide, Culture, education, Featured, Inner Mongolia, Language, Mongolia, Schools, Southern Mongolia, Xi Jinping}

High-Tech Suppression of China’s Mongol Region Provokes Protests

_{But Mongolian protesters against Chinese-dominated schools are threatened with loss of social credit, which means no jobs or loans} _{Heather Zeiger

September 28, 2020

8

Artificial Intelligence, Education, Global Technology, Social Media, Surveillance, Technocracy}

China is removing the Mongolian language and culture from the curriculum and textbooks in Inner Mongolia (see outline map), an autonomous region in China. In August, leaked government documents showed that language and literature, civics, and history will be taught in Mandarin rather than Mongolian in schools where Mongolian is the primary language. Additionally, the new textbooks replace stories about historic Mongolian heroes with Chinese ballads and expunge a popular folk verse that expresses pride in the Mongolian culture and language. In response, many parents in Inner Mongolia (called Southern Mongolia locally) have been keeping their children from attending school on September 1. In retaliation, state authorities threaten their jobs and social credit status: Southern Mongolia has quickly become a Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
September 19, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Global Technology, Technocracy

Tagged
___longform, censorship, China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Disney, Featured, Jeannette Ng, Liu Yifei, Max Brooks, Mulan (film), Turpan, Uyghurs, World War Z (film), Ziba Murat}

Mulan: Disney Talks Freedom at Home, Toes the Line in China

_{Films we see get altered in subtle and not-so-subtle ways to conform to the requirements of CCP propaganda} _{Heather Zeiger

September 19, 2020

10

Ethics, Global Technology, Technocracy}

China’s government allows only about thirty-four Hollywood movies to be shown in Chinese theaters. As a result, entertainment companies like Disney go out of their way to make sure a film appeals to both North American crowds and Chinese Communist Party’s censors. Of course, what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allows and doesn’t allow in films is vague and subject to change, which keeps foreign film-makers guessing. Mulan, Disney’s latest attempt to please both the North American and the Chinese market, has failed to do either, for a number of reasons. Financially, Disney is already hurting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Theaters in the U.S. either remain closed or permit only limited-capacity seating. In response, Disney released Mulan on its streaming Read More ›

close-up view of robot playing chess, selective focus

^{Type
podcast

Author
Robert J. Marks and Larry L. Linenschmidt
Date
August 27, 2020

Tagged
AI Delusion (book), Alan Turing, algorithm, Algorithm-of-the-Gaps, Algorithmic Information Theory, algorithmic intelligence, AlphaGo, Ambiguity, Artificial Intelligence, China, Chinese Room, Computer History, Computer science, Creativity, David Gelernter, Deep Blue, Deep Learning, ethics, Gary Smith, George Gilder, Go (game), human brain, hype, IBM Watson, Jay Richards, Larry L. Linenschmidt, Neural networks, non-algorithmic, Peter Thiel, qualia, Quantum Computing, Reinforcement learning, Robert J. Marks, self-driving cars, STEM fields, Supercomputers, Swarm intelligence}

Bingecast: Robert J. Marks on the Limitations of Artificial Intelligence

_{Robert J. Marks and Larry L. Linenschmidt

August 27, 2020

2}

Robert J. Marks talks with Larry L. Linenschmidt of the Hill Country Institute about nature and limitations of artificial intelligence from a computer science perspective including the misattribution of creativity and understanding to computers. Other Larry L. Linenschmidt podcasts from the Hill Country Institute are available at HillCountryInstitute.org. We appreciate the permission of the Hill Country Institute to rebroadcast this Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
August 26, 2020

Categorized
Data Privacy, Global Technology, Social Media, Surveillance

Tagged
___longform, bias, ByteDance, China, Featured, Intercept (publication), Michael Schuman, TikTok, Virtual eugenics, Zhang Yiming}

Why Some Nation States Are Banning TikTok

_{The United States is not alone in questioning the social medium’s allegiance to the Chinese government} _{Heather Zeiger

August 26, 2020

10

Data Privacy, Global Technology, Social Media, Surveillance}

Why is TikTok so controversial? It’s the first Chinese technology company that has reached a billion users outside of China. Its main demographic is Generation Z—teens and twenty-somethings. If you take a look at TikTok videos, most are goofy and irreverent. They’re frenetic shorts of everything from fashion tips to pranks and, of course, (bad) dancing. TikTok’s stated mission is to “inspire creativity and bring joy.” What could go wrong? Here’s what. Working with China, as Disney and the NBA can attest, comes with certain strings attached, including acquiescing to the Chinese Communist Party’s rules for acceptable speech. Because ByteDance, which owns TikTok, is a Chinese company (although partly owned by investors from the U.S. and Japan), the Chinese Communist Read More ›

Futuristic Science Fiction Bedroom Interior with Planet Earth View in Space Station, 3D Rendering

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
August 8, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
___longform, 1984 (book), Atomic bomb, Captain Kirk (Star Trek), Charles Hall, China, Clipper of the Clouds (book), George Orwell, H. G. Wells, Helicopter, Hugo Gernsback, Igor Sikorsky, Innovation, Inventions, John Brunner, Jules Verne, Leó Szilárd, Maratin Cooper, Mind at the End of its Tether (book), Mobile phone, Ralph 124C 41+ (book), Robert A. Heinlein, Science fiction, Simon Lake, Stand on Zanzibar (book), Stranger in a Strange Land, The World Set Free (book), totalitarianism, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (book), Waterbed}

When Science Fiction Comes to Life…

_{Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it sometimes grows out of it} _{News

August 8, 2020

7

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

A senior editor at Wired told us a while back that science fiction writer H. G. Wells’s 1914 tale, The World Set Free, formed part of the inspiration for the atomic bomb, exploded over Hiroshima in 1945. … in the novel Wells imagines a new kind of bomb, based on a nuclear chain reaction. In this science fiction story Wells imagines that atomic energy would be discovered in 1933 (20 years in his future), and that the bomb would first explode in 1956. Wikipedia notes, “As fate or coincidence would have it, in reality the physicist Leó Szilárd read the book in 1932, conceived of the idea of nuclear chain reaction in 1933, and filed for patents on it in Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 31, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics, Technocracy

Tagged
Bob Kelly, China, Featured, Gary Rieschel, George Gilder, Jay Richards, Trade, Trade war, United States, Wendy Liu}

Tech Investment Analysts Strategize How to Deal With China Today

_{China’s assertions of power in recent years have left many uncertain about the future of business relationships} _{News

July 31, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics, Technocracy}

Recently, Jay Richards interviewed Dr. Bob Kelly, Managing Partner of Ignition Partners, focusing on the panel he moderated at COSM 2019,“The Crisis of Big Tech: The US and China.” They explored the technological competition between the U.S. and China and what it means for the future. The panelists were futurist George Gilder, Wendy Liu, China market strategy analyst at multinational investment bank UBS, and Gary Rieschel, a venture capitalist in China and the United States. From the interview: Jay Richards: So what was the core controversy if you had to summarize it neutrally? Bob Kelly: I guess I’d say the core controversy really is what stance do we as Americans, or in the technology arena, take towards China? And there’s Read More ›

Binary code with China flag, data protection concept

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 30, 2020

Categorized
Surveillance

Tagged
China, Christopher Wray, COVID-19, Cybercrime, Cyberespionage, David Bowdich, Featured, Gilead Sciences, hacking, Iran, Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi, Made in China 2025, Russia}

Charges Reveal Extent of China-Sponsored Hacking in the West

_{Targets have included COVID-19 labs, dissidents, and religious groups} _{Heather Zeiger

July 30, 2020

7

Surveillance}

What’s new about the most recent indictment is the acknowledgment that China is working with known cybercriminals. Read More ›

Business Finance Marketing and Budget Report

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 29, 2020

Categorized
Global Technology, Technocracy

Tagged
Arunabh Ghosh, China, India, Making It Count (book), Marxism, Probability, Random sampling, Statistics}

What Happened When 1950s China Dreamed of “Total Information”?

_{When China rejected random sampling in favor of exhaustive enumeration of individuals, masses of “data” flooded in, but what did it mean?} _{News

July 29, 2020

5

Global Technology, Technocracy}

A historian of modern China recounts the outcome of a momentous decision that China’s new Communist rulers made in the 1950s. They decided to abandon conventional methods of gathering statistics that use probability and adopted the method of exhaustive counting of everybody and everything. Why did their dream of total information became a nightmare? Harvard historian Arunabh Ghosh (right), author of Making It Count: Statistics and Statecraft in the Early People’s Republic of China (2020), explains that in the 1950s, newly communist China faced a choice about how to survey the population accurately while making “a clean break with the past.” For philosophical reasons, debates about how to gather statistics came to the fore: In a speech in 1951, Li Read More ›

3D rendering of a futuristic mech soldier with dog.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 19, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Religion, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
2084 (book), China, Featured, John Lennox, Max Tegmark, Revelation 13, Robert J. Marks, Social Credit (China)}

Do Some Passages in the Book of Revelation Seem to Talk About AI?

_{Revelation is notoriously obscure but a passage about a future “total control” state gives pause for thought} _{News

July 19, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Religion, Surveillance, Technocracy}

John Lennox, author of 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity (2020), is not only an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University but also pastoral advisor to Green Templeton College at Oxford. In a podcast, “Does Revelation Talk About Artificial Intelligence?” with Robert J. Marks, director of the Walter Bradley Institute, he addresses the title question, “Do some passages in the Book of Revelation seem to talk about AI?”: https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-091-John-Lennox.mp3 Selections from the transcript are provided below: (The complete downloadable transcript may be found following the Show Notes and Resources. “Can AI Replace the Need for Belief in God?” provides an account of the earlier portion of this lively discussion.) Robert J. Marks (right): Last question I want Read More ›

concept of future technology 5G network wireless systems and internet of things

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 10, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Global Technology

Tagged
___longform, China, COSM, Featured, George Gilder, Information Theory, Peter Thiel, Universities, wealth}

Valley Insider Peter Thiel’s Comments Last Year Proved Prophetic

_{China’s recent takeover of Hong Kong and the campus Cancel Culture spotlight his warnings for our culture’s future in the age of 5G} _{News

July 10, 2020

7

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Global Technology}

Peter Thiel, who spoke by interactive video to the COSM conference last October, is probably the most remarkable of the Silicon Valley insiders. A fuller version of his discussions with tech philosopher George Gilder has just been released. What makes Thiel (think PayPal, Facebook, Palantir, Airbnb, Lyft, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX) unique is that he so much contradicts the Valley stereotype and is certainly not afraid to tell the Valley its faults. In fact, he moved down to Los Angeles in 2018, fed up with the Valley as a one-party state. He suggested in 2019 that Google be investigated for treason for refusing to work with the Pentagon but helping the Chinese military. Most of the time, though, Thiel prefers Read More ›

iron chain and castle on the silk national flag of Hong Kong with beautiful folds, the concept of a ban on tourism, political repression, crime, violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 9, 2020

Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Ethics, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
___longform, Apple (company), China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Facebook, Featured, Google, Great Firewall, Hong Kong, Hong Kong National Security Law, Instagram, Microsoft, Telegram, Tik Tok, Twitter, WhatsApp, Zoom}

Hong Kong: Tech Companies Face Serious Ethical Decisions

_{As Hong Kong is transformed into a police state, Western companies, faced with demands for snitching on users, are rethinking cozy relationships with China} _{Heather Zeiger

July 9, 2020

7

Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Ethics, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy}

The semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong is no longer semi-autonomous, at least in practice. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), circumventing Hong Kong’s parliament and courts, passed the Hong Kong National Security Law on June 30 that effectively abolishes the “one country, two systems” regime outlined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The law was passed one day before the anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China (July 1, 1997), in time to quash any pro-democracy candidates who would likely win in the September elections. Although the CCP justifies its moves from the Hong Kong Basic Law and claims that Hong Kong will maintain autonomy, in practice, it has already arrested dissidents and formed a secretive agency called the Office Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 2, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
___longform, Alipay, China, COVID-19, Health Code (China)}

China’s Health Code App: One More Way to Track Citizens

_{Heather Zeiger

July 2, 2020

7

Artificial Intelligence, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy}

For the Chinese Communist Party, SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus) has provided an opportunity to expand its massive surveillance system. The current extensive network of facial recognition cameras has left some gaps. People could avoid recognition, for example, by wearing a face covering to curb the spread of a respiratory illness. Now, China is looking to fill those gaps by keeping the Alipay Health Code app, launched at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a mainstay for its citizens: Compared to omnipresent facial recognition software and other surveillance systems in China, the health code mechanism covers more people and collects a broader range of personal information. The state can also impose stricter control as people now have to use health codes Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 30, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Global Technology, Surveillance

Tagged
2084 (book), China, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Featured, John Lennox, Martin Rees, Mellichamp, Nick Bostrom}

Exclusive!: John Lennox Answers Our Questions About AI in 2084

_{News

June 30, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Global Technology, Surveillance}

In his new book, 2084, the Oxford mathematician doubts that AI, now or then, will out-think humans. Our real worry is how they will be used. Read More ›