Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagTechnology

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Amazon Box Shipped to Residential House Internet Order Delivery

U.S. Federal Trade Commission Sues Amazon

The lawsuit convicts Amazon of suppressing competition and stifling innovation from potential rivals

In a long-awaited lawsuit, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing Amazon for seeking to monopolize the online market, according to Reuters. The lawsuit convicts Amazon of suppressing competition and stifling innovation from potential rivals, arriving after years of complaints. From the Reuters article: he lawsuit, which was joined by 17 state attorneys general, follows a four-year investigation and federal lawsuits filed against Alphabet’s Google and Meta Platforms’ Facebook. “The FTC and its state partners say Amazon’s actions allow it to stop rivals and sellers from lowering prices, degrade quality for shoppers, overcharge sellers, stifle innovation, and prevent rivals from fairly competing against Amazon,” the agency said in a statement. The FTC said that it was asking the court Read More ›

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Telecommunications tower, antenna and satellite dish and city at night as background

The Future of 5G

Feutsch says that one of the great benefits of 5G will not only be faster speeds, but much lower latency

In today’s featured video from a past COSM conference, Jay Richards interviews Andre Fuetsch, President of AT&T Labs and Chief Technical Officer at AT&T, about the future of 5G communications. Feutsch says that one of the great benefits of 5G will not only be faster speeds, but much lower latency. This will be a “game changer” for latency-sensitive applications such as autonomous vehicles, drones, and online gaming that require real time information. Andre Feutsch oversees the global technology direction for AT&T. This includes network planning, the company’s innovation road map, AT&T Labs, AT&T Foundry, and the intellectual property organization. His responsibilities include spearheading the design of the company’s next-generation 5G wireless infrastructure and software-defined networking (SDN) initiative. (REGISTER NOW FOR Read More ›

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Parking electric cars. Charging stations, fast charging cars. 3d illustration

The Benefits of Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Technology

Innovation has always created more opportunity, not less

In today’s featured video from a past COSM conference, Jay Richards interviews Tom Alberg, Founder, Madrona Venture Group and Co-chair of the ACES Northwest Network, about ACES’ efforts to bring Automated, Connected, Electric, and Shared vehicle technologies to the Puget Sound region. Alberg dismisses the idea that these new technologies will lead to job loss because innovation has always created more opportunity, not less. (REGISTER NOW FOR COSM 2023) COSM is an exclusive national summit on the converging technologies remaking the world as we know it. From artificial intelligence to 5G and WiFi6, from tokenized time to blockchain, from cloud computing to the quantum revolution, and from biotech to the nanotech revolution, COSM brings together some of the greatest minds Read More ›

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Metcalfe’s Law and the Ethernet

The man who helped create the Ethernet is speaking at this year’s star studded COSM conference

The man who helped create the Ethernet is speaking at this year’s star studded COSM conference in Bellevue, Washington. The winner of the prestigious 2022 Turing Award, Bob Metcalfe paved the way for billions of computers and now smartphones to be connected to the Internet. He is also known for the concept behind Metcalf’s Law, which states that the value of a network depends on the square of how many devices can use it. A true pioneer in the field of computing, you won’t want to miss Metcalfe at this year’s COSM conference. For now, here’s an interview between Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Jay Richards and Metcalf himself at COSM 2021. (REGISTER NOW FOR COSM 2023) COSM is an exclusive Read More ›

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Julie Love at COSM 2021 interviewed by Jay Richards

Microsoft’s Julie Love on Quantum Computing

How might quantum computing change the technology in the future?

In today’s featured video from a past COSM conference, Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Jay Richards interviews Julie Love, Director of Quantum Computing Business Development at Microsoft, about how quantum computing differs from classical computing and what the future holds for this technology. (REGISTER NOW FOR COSM 2023) COSM is an exclusive national summit on the technologies remaking the world as we know it. The mission of the conference is to stimulate debate and deliberation amongst industry leaders, illuminating the synergy between Seattle and the world and providing a scene of civilized conversation and exchange. (REGISTER NOW FOR COSM 2023) We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at Read More ›

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Smart city dot point connect with gradient grid line, connection technology metaverse concept. Night city banner with big data.

Dan Mapes and the “Spatial Web”

Is this the next step of the evolving Internet?

In an interview with philosopher Jay Richards, Dan Mapes, Founder of Verses Technologies, describes what he sees as the next step in the evolution of the Internet: the spatial web. (REGISTER NOW FOR COSM 2023) “In a way you’re shrink-wrapping the world with data,” said Mapes in describing “digital twinning,” which seeks to compute 3-D spaces to an online world. “You want to be able to navigate to these places just like they were websites.” Mapes noted that users of the “spatial web” could also visit fantasy worlds like Hogwarts, not just real-life places like airports, city blocks, and work offices. He thinks it will have major implications in air travel, directing autonomous drones, etc. You can watch the full, Read More ›

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Human hand shakes artificial intelligence robotic hand, concept of union between human being and artificial intelligence, Generative AI

Artificial Intelligence: The Final Stage of Disembodiment?

The Internet invites a disembodied existence. Is AI the next step?

Dr. Read Schuchardt, professor of communications at Wheaton College (IL), identifies five primary ways digital technology can erode our lives and relationships, or produce what he calls “vices of the virtual life”: Speaking of disembodiment, which he regards as perhaps the primary negative effect of virtual life, Schuchardt writes, On the phone, on the web, on the TV, you are simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. This creates a mind-body separation that both mimics death and parodies angels, eliminates the possibility of natural law, and allows you to become pure ‘information,’ simply wearing the corporate body as your own. -Read Schuchardt, Media, Journalism, and Communication, p. 56. I’ve found this to be true in my own experience; time online produces an inner Read More ›

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Conceptual drawing of room temperature superconductivity, 3D rendering of suspended iron cubes

The LK-99 BS Further Undermines the Credibility of Science

The rejection or distortion of genuine science can have tragic consequences

Social media is afire with reports that South Korean researchers have synthesized a room-temperature and room-pressure superconductor they call K-99. This is the biggest scientific news this year — yes, ChatGPT is now so last year. A representative Wow! from experts has been: “If LK-99 is the real deal, it could be a game-changer for everything from quantum computing and medical imaging to energy and transportation.”  Long pursued by physicists and engineers, room-temperature, room-pressure superconductivity would revolutionize electronics and engineering by allowing current to move through wires without any energy loss. Everything will be cheaper and more efficient. Trains will levitate!  Alas, the likelihood that this is BS research is very close to 100 percent. In the 110-year history of Read More ›

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Driver,transport, business trip, destination and people concept

Uber Achieves Profitability After Giving Up Self-Driving 

The alternative taxi service has finally parted ways with its self-driving unit

Uber, the ride-hailing company, has been notorious for losing money. Since 2014, they have built up over thirty billion in operating losses. Just four years ago, analysts were saying that self-driving cars were the key to Uber’s future profitability.  However, in December 2020, Uber finally gave up the dream and sold its self-driving unit to the startup self-driving company Aurora.    This eliminated one of Uber’s biggest cash-burns. The Advanced Technology Group, the name of Uber’s self-driving unit, was draining $500 million from the company each year. Overall, the company probably spent well over $2 billion on self-driving, which some of Uber’s early investors (such as Bill Gurley) think was ultimately wasted spending.  This last quarter Uber has finally been able to turn a profit, Read More ›

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Register Now for COSM 2023

Does AI usurp our humanity or save us from new perils? Find out more at COSM 2023.

Is AI “generative” or degenerative? Does it usurp humans, or save us from new perils? Depending on which AI inventor you prefer, AI portends either human extinction or human salvation. One AI titan, Geoffrey Hinton, recently of Google’s Deep Mind, sees it as a dire threat, while Yan Lecun of Meta sees it as a redemptive opportunity. As usual, experts can be polarized or even blinded by the noise and narrowness of their specialties. This year’s COSM Technology Summit, to be held November 1-3 in Bellevue, Washington at the Bellevue Hyatt, will transcend these limited visions. Instead we will seek the transformative unities that integrate this new phase in computer science with emerging paradigms in economics, materials science, the nanocosm, Read More ›

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Shanghai, China

Big Tech and China

Evaluating the technological competition between the two superpowers

How should the United States deal with China? Jay Richards interviews Dr. Bob Kelly, Managing Partner of Ignition Partners, on a panel he was included in. The panel explored the technological competition between the U.S. and China, what it means for the future, and presented differing schools of thought on how the United States should approach China moving forward. We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues that range from economics, Big Tech, and artificial intelligence. Notable speakers include 2022 Kyoto Prize winner Carver Mead, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Read More ›

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Neon Nanotech in Cyberspace: A 3D Illustration. Generative AI.

From Nanoscale to Waferscale

Sean Lie on the challenges and promises of the future's computing power

In today’s featured video, watch Sean Lie, Chief Hardware Architect at Cerebras Systems, and Pierre de Rochemont, Founder of Frontier Nanosystems, give presentations on the challenges and promising techniques for advancing computing power into the future. We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues that range from economics, Big Tech, and artificial intelligence. Notable speakers include 2022 Kyoto Prize winner Carver Mead, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Institute and author of Life After Capitalism: The Meaning of Wealth, the Future of the Economy, and the Time Theory of Money.

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Cloud data computing and neural network, cross-media marketing mesh representing connections,  monitor screen in perspective

You Control the Algorithm

Watch Dr. Phil Parker discuss how he and his team have developed revolutionary new search engine technology

For today’s featured video from a past COSM conference, watch Dr. Phil Parker, INSEAD Chair Professor of Management Science and Founder of Botipedia, discuss how his team has unlocked the power of algorithm-based content creation to create the revolutionary new search engine technology of Botipedia/Totosearch, which promises to be a dramatic improvement over Wikipedia and Google. We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues that range from economics, Big Tech, and artificial intelligence. Notable speakers include 2022 Kyoto Prize winner Carver Mead, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Institute and author Read More ›

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The Tower of Babel

“The Bigger the Toy, the Smarter You Ought to Be to Use It”

With great technological power comes great moral responsibility, said Peterson

The Canadian clinical psychologist and YouTube lecturer Jordan B. Peterson, who ascended to international fame upon the publication of his book 12 Rules for Life, has shared his thoughts on artificial intelligence, and has been speaking on the subject in his interviews with greater regularity. Here’s a short clip (ten minutes long) of Peterson lining out some of the ethical challenges with AI: “We’re primitive children on the ethical front with the tools of gods,” Peterson said, noting how in the last few decades, technological and scientific progress has far outpaced humanity’s ethical maturity. For Peterson, the more sophisticated and powerful the technology, the greater need there is for virtue, self-control, and good will in order to handle these tools Read More ›

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Business using smartphone,with wifi icon,business communication social network concept.

Will Wi-Fi 6 and LEOs Be the Real 5G?

Considering the future of mobile networks with George Gilder and Richard Vigilante

In today’s featured COSM video, Richard Vigilante and George Gilder moderate a panel exploring the future of mobile networks. Panelists include Gilad Garon, co-founder and CEO Of ASOCS, and Stephen Cohen, Chief Architect of Worldwide Enterprise Services at Microsoft. We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues that range from economics, Big Tech, and artificial intelligence. Notable speakers include 2022 Kyoto Prize winner Carver Mead, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Institute and author of Life After Capitalism: The Meaning of Wealth, the Future of the Economy, and the Time Theory of Read More ›

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Planet earth from space, zoom in to the middle east, Saudi Arabia, world skyline, globe

Why So Blue? Look at the Progress We’ve Made

Even though there are reasons to celebrate, the mainstream narrative hides them

We’ve cited the groundbreaking book Superabundance several times here at Mind Matters, mainly in connection to its co-author, Gale Pooley, a Senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth & Poverty, and a speaker at the 2021 COSM conference, the yearly technology summit that has attracted speakers like Carver Mead, Peter Thiel, and others. Pooley’s co-author, Marian Tupy, who lectured at COSM 2022 on the book, does work on human progress at the Cato Institute, and published a post showing the many ways humanity has benefitted over the last century. He stands opposed to the mainstream approximations of doom that declare our world’s swift-approaching expiration date, writing, The chance of a person dying in a natural catastrophe — earthquake, Read More ›

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colorful stained glass

Consider Laying Your Phone at the Altar

What if we actually did start eliminating smartphone use in our most important social institutions?

If you’re a churchgoing person, do you check your phone during the sermon? Do you even bring it with you? Or when you’re having dinner with your spouse or a group of friends, is the draw to glance at the smartphone an almost irresistible temptation? It is for me. I’ve struggled with phone addiction since I was first introduced to my first smartphone at the age of seventeen, which I realize is way older than the average age kids get online today. But what would it look like to have social spaces totally free of these persistently distracting and disruptive technologies? A new article by Jake Meador at the online journal Mere Orthodoxy asked this question. He poses it hypothetically, Read More ›

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Titanic at Belfast. Date: 1912

The Titan and the Titanic: Bookends of Progressivism

Nature, despite all our technological innovations, remains extremely powerful

I read, with great sadness, of the wreck of the Titan. There were, undoubtedly, technical reasons why this submersible, carrying five human souls, broke up, lying now in the same graveyard as the Titanic. We pray that the impacted families might find peace in this moment—and in the coming times when lawsuits are filed, and horrible things are spoken about their loved ones. There is a great lesson to learn from this disaster—not the obvious lessons about the all-to-human failings of individual engineers or managers. The lesson we take from this should be broader. We should learn a lesson about man’s confidence in his own abilities, in our ability to overcome nature, and in a certain kind of progress. The Read More ›

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Young handsome man with beard wearing casual sweater and glasses over blue background very happy and excited doing winner gesture with arms raised, smiling and screaming for success. Celebration

AI Can Do It All So You Don’t Have To

Sometimes satire says it best

Satire is often best at uncovering uncomfortable truths. Much of the talk around AI progress celebrates its ability to make certain tasks way easier, such as writing essays, programming computer code, or firing your employees. While that is certainly true, the concern remains that if we depend on AI like this for long enough we might just forget how to put two and two together and write a sentence over ten words long. That’s probably cynical, but the principle is there – depending on technology to perform mental tasks will lessen the ability to independently perform those same mental tasks. The popular satire site The Onion published a paragraph about a hypothetical man who is delighted about AI because it Read More ›

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Man Presenting to Group of People

New Review of “Life After Capitalism” Amplifies Book’s Core Themes

Returning to the "mind-centered economy" where knowledge is wealth

A new review of George Gilder’s latest book Life After Capitalism from Samuel Gregg highlights the need for the return of the “mind-centered economy,” in which governmental bureaucracies no longer hamper human creativity and imagination. When capitalistic, democratic societies fall for materialistic presuppositions of the world, they end up resembling socialist contexts in which the state is everything and individual men and women are squelched. Gregg writes at the Acton power blog, [Gilder]takes this notion of the free human mind as the decisive factor in driving economic growth and applies it across the board to economic theory, technology, and our understanding of money. Looking at the question of incentives, for example, Gilder points out that they would yield nothing in Read More ›