Tag: China | Page 5 | Mind Matters

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Heather Zeiger
Date
September 19, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Global Technology, Technocracy

Tagged
___longform, censorship, China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Disney, Featured, Uyghurs}

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 ›

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Heather Zeiger
Date
August 26, 2020

Categorized
Data Privacy, Global Technology, Social Media, Surveillance

Tagged
___longform, bias, ByteDance, China, Featured, Intercept (publication), TikTok}

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

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News
Date
August 8, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
___longform, 1984 (book), Atomic bomb, Captain Kirk (Star Trek), China, George Orwell, H. G. Wells, Innovation, Inventions, Mobile phone, Science fiction, totalitarianism}

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 ›

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News
Date
July 31, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics, Technocracy

Tagged
Bob Kelly, China, Featured, George Gilder, Jay Richards, Trade war, United States}

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

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Heather Zeiger
Date
July 30, 2020

Categorized
Surveillance

Tagged
China, Christopher Wray, COVID-19, Cybercrime, Cyberespionage, Featured, hacking, Iran, 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.

Business Finance Marketing and Budget Report

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News
Date
July 29, 2020

Categorized
Global Technology, Technocracy

Tagged
China, India, Marxism, Probability, 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.

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News
Date
July 19, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Religion, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
2084 (book), China, Featured, John Lennox, Max Tegmark, 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

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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

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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, Great Firewall}

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 ›

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Heather Zeiger
Date
July 2, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
___longform, Alipay, China, COVID-19}

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 ›

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News
Date
June 30, 2020

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

Tagged
2084 (book), China, Featured, John Lennox, Martin Rees, 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.

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Heather Zeiger
Date
June 18, 2020

Categorized
Global Technology, Social Media

Tagged
___longform, China, COVID-19, Featured, Twitter, Wolf Warriors}

The Age of the Wolf Warrior: China’s Post-Pandemic Strategy

_{The younger diplomats take their cue from a Chinese Rambo-style movie and the rewritten history they learned at school} _{Heather Zeiger
June 18, 2020

9

Global Technology, Social Media}

While countries around the world have been dealing with the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus), China has claimed disputed areas in the South China Sea, taken over the Hong Kong government, and flown planes over Taiwan. One result was a standoff between warships from the U.S., Australia, and China. A 2016 international tribunal in The Hague ruled that China has no legal sovereignty over most of the South China Sea. China, saying that the ruling was void, claims areas that are also claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Japan. The Chinese Liberation Army has also increased the number of troops at its border with India (the Line of Actual Control) disputed since the Sino-Indian war in 1962 (below Read More ›

Abstract Chinese flag painted on digital sphere. Futuristic network cyberspace illustration background. View from space. Selective focus used.

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Denise Simon
Date
June 16, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
China, Featured}

China Aims at Global AI Dominance by 2030

_{China’s systematic use of AI for social surveillance and control should cause us to think carefully about what that means} _{Denise Simon
June 16, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy}

A 2017 central government document laid out the country’s plan for global dominance in AI by 2030, asking all “people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, all State Council ministries, and all directly controlled institutions” to ”please carefully implement.“ (translation) To achieve that timeline, China has employed several operations against the United States including the Confucius Institutes (fronts for Chinese propaganda according to the FBI, 2020), the Thousand Talents Program (spying and intellectual-property theft, Bloomberg, 2019) and cyber theft. While many Confucius Institutes have been exposed by key members of the Senate and many are being terminated domestically as a result, Chinese-driven cyber theft is costing the U.S. economy more than $100 billion per Read More ›

Smart technologies in your smartphone, collection and analysis of big data

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Gary Smith
Date
June 1, 2020

Categorized
Data Privacy, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
Bill Gates, China, Conspiracy theories, COVID-19, Edward Snowden, Featured, Tim Cook, Uyghurs}

The Birds Aren’t Real. But Maybe the Spying Is.

_{A defense of our fundamental right to privacy} _{Gary Smith
June 1, 2020

7

Data Privacy, Surveillance, Technocracy}

Technology frees us from drudgery but also enable surveillance that enslaves us. Then, far from computers becoming more like humans, we may become more like computers.

St Francis Outpatient Center in Federal Way, Washington State

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Michael Egnor
Date
June 1, 2020

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Religion

Tagged
Afterlife, Alex Berezow, Atheism, China, COVID-19, Featured, Pandemic, Steven Pinker}

COVID-19: Atheism Went Viral As Well

_{Atheists are uniquely unsuited to accuse others of devaluing human life} _{Michael Egnor
June 1, 2020

6

Medicine and Health, Religion}

Professor Steven Pinker’s quickly deleted tweet provides a window into anti-religious hate. In health and medicine, he is entirely mistaken.

cybercrime, hacking and technology concept - male hacker with headphones and coding on laptop computer screen wiretapping or using computer virus program for cyber attack in dark room

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Heather Zeiger
Date
May 20, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Global Technology, Surveillance

Tagged
China, COVID-19, Cyber espionage, Economic espionage, espionage, hacking, Industrial espionage, Intellectual Property, United Nations, United States, World Health Organization (WHO)}

The New Cyber Cold War with China

_{Cybersecurity strategist Peter Singer told Wired that there has never been a better time than the COVID-19 pandemic to be a government hacker} _{Heather Zeiger
May 20, 2020

6

Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Global Technology, Surveillance}

The United States has formally accused China of both funding and operating cells of hackers who infiltrate research labs working on responses to COVID-19.

Young woman using smart phone,Social media concept.

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News
Date
May 1, 2020

Categorized
Data Privacy, Medicine and Health, Surveillance

Tagged
Anonymity, China, COVID-19, Deanonymizing data, Google}

Is Contact Tracing a Simple Answer to COVID Lockdowns?

_{An engineering professor at the University of Austin asks us to look at the costs and benefits} _{News
May 1, 2020

5

Data Privacy, Medicine and Health, Surveillance}

The conventional science fiction fear of a superintelligent AI taking over the planet and ridding it of pesky humans distracts our attention from a much more realistic threat: Artificial intelligence (AI) makes both government and corporate surveillance much easier, cheaper, and more useful—whether it is in average citizens’ interests or not. If we are lucky, this will be the decade when we address the implications of that fact.

COVID-19 coronavirus in China, renminbi yuan money bill with face mask. COVID global stock market. World economy hit by corona virus outbreak. Financial crisis and coronavirus pandemic concept.

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Heather Zeiger
Date
April 23, 2020

Categorized
Global Technology, Medicine and Health

Tagged
___longform, China, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Featured, Journalists, Wuhan}

COVID-19: Getting to the Bottom of What Happened in China

_{China knowingly violated the terms of a World Health Organization (WHO) disclosure agreement} _{Heather Zeiger
April 23, 2020

14

Global Technology, Medicine and Health}

It is widely recognized that medical professionals and journalists in China are being silenced if they publish any information about COVID-19 that contradicts the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official narrative. But now mainland Chinese scientists must ensure that their research publications also toe the CCP party line. If we sift carefully, however, we can uncover real information.

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Heather Zeiger
Date
April 5, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Global Technology, Social Media, Technocracy

Tagged
___longform, China, COVID-19, Featured, Twitterbots}

The Dragon’s Deception: Conspiracy Theories and False Numbers

_{China’s global attempt to rewrite the history of coronavirus (COVID-19) is running up against incriminating evidence} _{Heather Zeiger
April 5, 2020

9

Ethics, Global Technology, Social Media, Technocracy}

The Chinese Communist Party has touted the superiority of an authoritarian government over a democratic one in handling the virus outbreak. But American intelligence sources say that it was the punishment that local officials might receive from the authoritarian system that led to the initial coverup of the outbreak.

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Heather Zeiger
Date
March 19, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health, Technocracy

Tagged
___longform, China, COVID-19, media}

China: Rewriting the History of COVID-19

_{Making the government the improbable hero of the tale} _{Heather Zeiger
March 19, 2020

9

Ethics, Medicine and Health, Technocracy}

Chinese scientists worked together swiftly and seamlessly to sequence the virus, (completed February 25), even as the government was downplaying the extent of the problem and silencing doctors who attempted to warn colleagues and the public. The Wuhan public erupted in anger when the government demanded a show of gratitude for its efforts rather than theirs.