Did they get it right, at last?

https://www.geekwire.com/2021/washington-state-finally-pass-data-privacy-laws-bill-backed-tech-industry/

Why Washington state could finally pass data privacy laws with a bill backed by the tech industry

Washington state will once again try to pass data privacy regulations akin to Europe and California’s laws this year — and the third time could be the charm, according to Reuven Carlyle, the state senator who has sponsored the legislation for three years running.

The Washington Privacy Act grants consumers the right to access, transfer, correct, and delete the data that companies such as Facebook or Google hold on them. Consumers can also opt-out of targeted advertising and the sale of their personal data under the legislation.

… Carlyle believes that his third-generation bill will succeed where previous attempts have failed due to support from the tech industry and stronger enforcement authority for the attorney general. Public policy representatives from Microsoft and the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) testified in support of the bill during a virtual hearing this month.

Too much or just too soon?

https://thenextweb.com/neural/2021/01/27/amnesty-international-calls-for-ban-on-facial-recognition/

Amnesty International calls for ban on facial recognition

… Amnesty notes that the software is often prone to errors. But even when it “works,” it can exacerbate discriminatory policing, violate our privacy, and threaten our rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.

The human rights group wants a total ban on the use of facial recognition for government surveillance and a block on any exports of the systems.

The first Audit Guidance I’ve seen. Gracias!

https://www.insideprivacy.com/artificial-intelligence/spanish-supervisory-authority-issues-guidance-on-auditing-data-processing-activities-involving-artificial-intelligence/

Spanish Supervisory Authority Issues Guidance on Auditing Data Processing Activities Involving Artificial Intelligence

On January 12, 2020, the Spanish Supervisory Authority (“AEPD”) issued guidance on how to audit personal data processing activities that involve Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) (available here, in Spanish). The AEPD’s guidance is directed at data controllers and processors, as well as AI developers, data protection officers (“DPO”), and auditors. The guidance aims to help ensure that products and services which incorporate AI comply with the requirements of the European Union’s (“EU”) General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

Another opinion.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jan/26/us-has-moral-imperative-to-develop-ai-weapons-says-panel

US has 'moral imperative' to develop AI weapons, says panel

The US should not agree to ban the use or development of autonomous weapons powered by artificial intelligence (AI) software, a government-appointed panel has said in a draft report for Congress.

… Its vice-chairman, Robert Work, a former deputy secretary of defense, said autonomous weapons are expected to make fewer mistakes than humans do in battle, leading to reduced casualties or skirmishes caused by target misidentification.

“It is a moral imperative to at least pursue this hypothesis,” he said.

… The commission is due to submit its final report to Congress in March, but the recommendations are not binding.

Similar to measuring the military potential of a neighboring country?

https://venturebeat.com/2021/01/26/why-the-oecd-wants-to-calculate-the-ai-compute-needs-of-national-governments/

Why the OECD wants to calculate the AI compute needs of national governments

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) wants to help national governments understand their AI compute demand needs. As part of the work, the multinational economic policy group is creating a task force that draws together data from a range of sources to make it easy for policymakers to understand how their investment strategy compares to that of other nations. Alongside datasets and algorithms, compute or computing power is an essential part of training predictive models.

… “Think of it this way — if no one measured resources like electricity or oil, it’d be difficult to build national and international policy around these things,” he said. “Compute is one of the key inputs to the production of AI, so if we can measure how much compute exists within a country or set of countries, we can quantify one of the factors for the AI capacity of that country.”

Research for Twits? Researching Twits?

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/26/22250203/twitter-academic-research-public-tweet-archive-free-access?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4

Twitter is opening up its full tweet archive to academic researchers for free

To help researchers better study online discourse and platform trends

(Related)

https://www.bespacific.com/enabling-the-future-of-academic-research-with-the-twitter-api/

Enabling the future of academic research with the Twitter API

Twitter Developer Blog: “…With the new Academic Research product track, qualified researchers will have access to all v2 endpoints released to date, as well as:

• Free access to the full history of public conversation via the full-archive search endpoint, which was previously limited to paid premium or enterprise customers

• Higher levels of access to the Twitter developer platform for free, including a significantly higher monthly Tweet volume cap of 10 million (20x higher than what’s available on the Standard product track today)

• More precise filtering capabilities across all v2 endpoints to limit data collection to what is relevant for your study and minimize data cleaning requirements

• New technical and methodological guides to maximize the success of your studies

The release of the Academic Research product track is just a starting point. This initial solution is intended to address the most requested, biggest challenges faced when conducting research on the platform. We are excited to enable even more research that can create a positive impact on the world, and on Twitter, in the future. For more in-depth details about what’s available, see our post on the Twitter community forum …”

For the toolkit.

https://www.makeuseof.com/free-data-visualization-tools/

5 Free Data Visualization Tools to Visualize Data in Minutes

A tool for SciFi fans.

https://www.bespacific.com/historical-dictionary-of-science-fiction/

Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction

“Welcome to the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction. This work-in-progress is a comprehensive quotation-based dictionary of the language of science fiction. The HD/SF is an offshoot of a project begun by the Oxford English Dictionary (though it is no longer formally affiliated with it). It is edited by Jesse Sheidlower. Please explore the menu links to learn more.”

Your phone will rat you out!

https://www.pogowasright.org/dc-residents-get-visits-from-fbi-as-agents-track-cell-phones-that-pinged-near-the-capitol/

DC residents get visits from FBI as agents track cell phones that pinged near the Capitol

Joe Cadillic sends me an “I told you this would happen” message as Bruce Leshan reports:

If you were anywhere near the Capitol on Jan. 6, you may be getting a knock on your door from the FBI.

A D.C. woman said an agent visited her neighbor and called her, telling them investigators were tracking people whose cell phones connected to wi-fi or pinged cell phone towers near the Capitol during the riots.

“They don’t call first, they just come to your house,” Bree Stevens, a legal investigator who lives near Capitol Hill, said.

Stevens said an FBI agent told her they were reaching out to every single person whose cell phone put them near the Capitol during the riots.

But it’s how they got the information that is concerning as this is an extremely broad sweep/surveillance operation:

“Extremely creepy, because he explained that they have everyone’s phone number from pinging off the cell phone towers, and they know basically exactly where you were, within the vicinity of the Capitol,” Stevens said. “And they can actually pinpoint on Google Maps exactly where you were standing. Like, he knew where I was standing on the sidewalk, like specifically, based on my cell phone ping.”

Read more on WUSA9.com.

Say it ain’t so, Joe.

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/gartner-the-future-of-ai-is-not-as-rosy-as-some-might-think/

Gartner: The future of AI is not as rosy as some might think

A Gartner report predicts that the second-order consequences of widespread AI will have massive societal impacts, to the point of making us unsure if and when we can trust our own eyes.

Gartner has released a series of Predicts 2021 research reports, including one that outlines the serious, wide-reaching ethical and social problems it predicts artificial intelligence (AI) to cause in the next several years. In Predicts 2021: Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on People and Society, five Gartner analysts report on different predictions it believes will come to fruition by 2025. The report calls particular attention to what it calls second-order consequences of artificial intelligence that arise as unintended results of new technologies.

[One prediction:

By 2025, 75% of conversations at work will be recorded and analyzed, enabling the discovery of added organizational value and risk.

(Related) A response to analysis by AI.

https://www.bespacific.com/a-2011-dictionary-is-reshaping-the-language-of-corporate-reporting/

A 2011 dictionary is reshaping the language of corporate reporting

Quartz – “A new corporate principle is: Never say you’re restating anything. The machines will hold it against you. Over the past decade, “restatement” is the word companies have most strenuously tried to avoid in the text of their filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to an upcoming paper by academics at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business and Columbia Business School. The evasion is a response to the army of bots that investors routinely deploy to catch any whiff of implicit market intelligence. The bots flag “restatement” as a negative word, which darkens their outlook on a company’s prospects. The paper, which builds on an earlier version released last October by the National Bureau of Economic Research, analyzes nearly 360,000 10-K and 10-Q documents filed with the SEC between 2003 and 2016. It shows how companies are trying to phase out words that, like “restatement,” are judged to have negative connotations by financial analysis algorithms. “Corporate disclosures and reporting have been reshaped by machine readership,” Baozhang Yang, one of the paper’s authors, said. The dog-eat-dog nature of markets has always tended to favor those with an extra sliver of information. When everyone has access to the same, structured sources of data—published reports, earnings figures, profit-and-loss statements—the appetite for alternative data, of even the least merit, can turn very keen. Sometimes analysts and investors try to latch on to such alternative data using their own intuition. Nils Paellmann, a former vice-president for investor relations at T-Mobile, recalled how, on one earnings call, the company’s CEO—known for cursing freely and often—was far less profane than usual. “I got a lot of calls from investors, asking: ‘What’s wrong? Why wasn’t he his usual self? Is he less confident about the company’s outlook?’” But the real thrust has come with the advance of automation. In the past decade, the channels of obtaining alternative data have grown, as has the raw computing power to crunch and weigh such data. Within the industry, practitioners tell wild stories—of trading equities by using satellites to count cars in parking lots, as a proxy for economic activity; or of planting an infrared camera outside a Tesla plant, to determine how busy it was at night and therefore how full its order book was. Some of this is what one expert calls “innovation theater,” but investors also glean genuine value out several of these strategies…”

(Related) The second country to use famous dead people to sell soap. (or something)

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/25/asia/south-korea-kim-kwang-seok-ai-dst-hnk-intl/index.html

South Korea has used AI to bring a dead superstar's voice back to the stage, but ethical concerns abound

For the first time in 25 years, the distinctive vocals of South Korean superstar Kim Kwang-seok will be heard on national television singing new material.

It's a feat made all the more extraordinary because the famous folk singer is dead.

National broadcaster SBS plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to bring Kim's voice back to life on a new program, "Competition of the Century: AI vs Human," to air later this week.

Prognostication.

https://www.oreilly.com/radar/where-programming-ops-ai-and-the-cloud-are-headed-in-2021/

Where Programming, Ops, AI, and the Cloud are Headed in 2021

Following O'Reilly online learning trends to see what's coming next.

… This study is based on title usage on O’Reilly online learning. The data includes all usage of our platform, not just content that O’Reilly has published, and certainly not just books. We’ve explored usage across all publishing partners and learning modes, from live training courses and online events to interactive functionality provided by Katacoda and Jupyter notebooks. We’ve included search data in the graphs, although we have avoided using search data in our analysis. Search data is distorted by how quickly customers find what they want: if they don’t succeed, they may try a similar search with many of the same terms. (But don’t even think of searching for R or C!) Usage data shows what content our members actually use, though we admit it has its own problems: usage is biased by the content that’s available, and there’s no data for topics that are so new that content hasn’t been developed.

For our CJ students.

https://www.bespacific.com/law-enforcement-statutory-database/

Law Enforcement Statutory Database

National Conference of State Legislatures: announcement – “Legislative interest in policing and police accountability is currently at an unprecedented high. Deaths and other confrontations involving law enforcement continue to drive national conversations about policy and promote review of current state and local laws. From May 25, 2020 through the end of 2020, 36 states and Washington D.C. introduced more than 700 bills addressing policy accountability, nearly 100 of which were enacted. NCSL, with support from Arnold Ventures, has produced a comprehensive, first-of-its kind database of law enforcement statutes covering topics detailed below. State Legislatures consider and enact laws that address many aspects of law enforcement policy. State law can set the baseline for the standard of practice in states, creating a foundation for state regulatory agencies and local jurisdictions to expand upon. The database paints a picture of what this baseline looks like in the states, covering a number of policy areas that play a key role in law enforcement effectiveness and accountability. This statutory database is part of a suite of resources NCSL has developed for legislatures to use as they make important policy decisions on law enforcement effectiveness and accountability.”

• NCSL: Policing Legislation Database

Tools

https://www.makeuseof.com/organized-writer-mobile-apps/

Become a More Organized Writer With These 7 Mobile Apps

Anything to get rid of help my students.

https://www.makeuseof.com/resume-apps-make-your-cv-different-for-a-job-hunt/

5 Resume Apps to Make Your CV Different and Eye-Catching For a Job Hunt

Shakespeare for shut-ins.

https://www.bespacific.com/you-can-stream-shakespeare-direct-from-his-hometown-starting-this-month/

You can stream Shakespeare direct from his hometown starting this month

Fast Company – “Here’s a great way to brush up on your Bard while you’re locked down in sweet sorrow. Streaming service BroadwayHD has reached a deal with Britain’s famed Royal Shakespeare Company to stream a number of past productions from its back catalogue, the companies said today. The theater-centric service will add nine RSC works in January, beginning today with productions of Hamlet and King Lear that were filmed in 2016. Additional works will debut on the platform in February and March.

No longer the perfect gift for grandpa. (Maybe for weird Uncle Al...)

https://www.techradar.com/news/iphone-12-can-interfere-with-pacemakers-apple-confirms

iPhone 12 can interfere with pacemakers, Apple confirms

If you have a pacemaker then you might want to think twice about buying an iPhone 12 (or any other model in the iPhone 12 range), as one of the star features of the phone also makes it a risk.

We’re talking of course about MagSafe, which uses magnets and radios to let you attach accessories to the back of the phone. If you have a pacemaker then you’re probably already aware that magnets don’t mix well with it, but Apple has now confirmed that the iPhone 12’s are no exception.

Another version of Privacy.

https://theconversation.com/how-kenyas-new-personal-data-protection-law-could-affect-researchers-153558

How Kenya’s new personal data protection law could affect researchers

… In Kenya, a new law came into force late last year that significantly affects researchers. Passed in 2019, the Kenya Personal Data Protection Act was designed to bring the protection of personal data from misuse in Kenya into the 21st century. It’s a significant step forward because it facilitates lawful use of personal data, including research, thus strengthening individuals fundamental rights. The appointment of Kenya’s first Data Protection Commissioner in November finally operationalised the law.

The Act governs the use, processing, and archiving of personal data, establishes the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, makes provision for the regulation of the processing of personal data, stipulates the data producers’ rights, and specifies the obligations of the data controllers and processors.

My AI is counting on this…

https://which-50.com/c-suite-expects-private-sector-will-lose-control-of-ai-within-5-years-report/

C-Suite Expects Private Sector Will ‘Lose Control’ Of AI Within 5 Years: Report

Business leaders expect the private sector will fail to provide the governance necessary to keep artificial intelligence in check, and governments will be forced to take over within five years, according to a new global poll of 1350 c-level executives.

Most in the c-suite (65 per cent) said the current level of external AI governance is inadequate for the explosive growth of the technology.

Over a quarter of top executives said they have no designated AI governance leader and only 25 per cent are managing a formal policy at the C-suite level, suggesting oversight of the transformative technology remains a low priority for most businesses despite continued warnings of its dangers.

The research was commissioned by Pegasystems, an enterprise software company that uses AI in several of its own products but has cautioned against its “unsupervised” use.

(Related)

https://gizmodo.com/developing-algorithms-that-might-one-day-be-used-agains-1846114150

Developing Algorithms That Might One Day Be Used Against You

Machine learning algorithms serve us the news we read, the ads we see, and in some cases even drive our cars. But there’s an insidious layer to these algorithms: They rely on data collected by and about humans, and they spit our worst biases right back out at us. For example, job candidate screening algorithms may automatically reject names that sound like they belong to nonwhite people, while facial recognition software is often much worse at recognizing women or nonwhite faces than it is at recognizing white male faces. An increasing number of scientists and institutions are waking up to these issues, and speaking out about the potential for AI to cause harm.

Brian Nord is one such researcher weighing his own work against the potential to cause harm with AI algorithms. Nord is a cosmologist at Fermilab and the University of Chicago, where he uses artificial intelligence to study the cosmos, and he’s been researching a concept for a “self-driving telescope” that can write and test hypotheses with the help of a machine learning algorithm. At the same time, he’s struggling with the idea that the algorithms he’s writing may one day be biased against him—and even used against him—and is working to build a coalition of physicists and computer scientists to fight for more oversight in AI algorithm development.

I would be at the World Economic Forum in Davos, but once again they failed to invite me.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/knowledge-is-power-why-the-future-is-not-just-about-the-tech/

Knowledge is power: why the future is not just about the tech

Virtual technologies are swiftly becoming intertwined with our physical world, and companies need to adapt. But that doesn’t simply mean replacing humans with robots or relying on artificial intelligence (AI) to make all of our decisions.

This is because technology, though powerful, is just part of the equation. In fact, human intelligence will be one of the most valuable assets in today's Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR), and companies may flounder if they fail to strike the right balance of automated technology and human insights.

This comes down to knowledge management. When leading teams of both humans and machines, executives need to understand the two major types of knowledge – implicit and tacit – and how to utilise each type best.

Perspective.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2021/01/24/perspectives-on-ai-from-the-north-dakota-chief-data-officer/?sh=512c15091fa0

Perspectives On AI From The North Dakota Chief Data Officer

North Dakota is not often one of the states in the United States that is considered to be foremost for technology adoption, but the state’s thought leadership in a wide range of technology areas shouldn’t be underestimated. After all, the current Governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, was not only president of Billion-dollar tech company Great Plains, which was acquired by Microsoft, but also he was the head of Microsoft Business Solutions, chairman of the board for Atlassian, and on the board of SuccessFactors, and co-founder of Arthur Ventures.

It should come as little surprise, then, that North Dakota has been very forward thinking in their use of data, automation, and AI. In a recent AI in Government event North Dakota’s Chief Data Officer Dorman Bazzell shared how states are approaching technologies such as automation and advanced data analytics, as well as how AI plays an increasing role in local government. He provides more detail in a recent interview on the AI Today podcast and he shares insights in this follow up interview here on Forbes.

Ask your AI to keep an eye on the competition.

https://www.govconwire.com/2021/01/archintel-releases-competitive-artificial-intelligence-the-crossover-point-white-paper/

ArchIntel Releases ‘Competitive Artificial Intelligence: The Crossover Point’ White Paper

ArchIntel, a leading provider of concise actionable open source market and competitive intelligence (CI) reports to business leaders across the federal sector, has released “Competitive Artificial Intelligence: The Crossover Point,” the platform’s latest white paper discussing the influence that artificial intelligence (AI) is having on the future of the CI landscape.

Beware the SPACs! Except the one I start and want you to invest in…

https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-spacs-attack-a-new-force-is-invading-wall-street-11611378007?mod=djemalertNEWS

When SPACs Attack! A New Force Is Invading Wall Street.

The hottest thing in finance is four letters long. Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal has one. So does former House Speaker Paul Ryan. Same goes for silver-haired hedge-fund billionaire William Ackman.

It’s called a SPAC, and increasingly it is the favorite source of financing for private companies looking to go public. Richard Branson’s space-exploration firm Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. went public through a SPAC in 2019, and sports-wagering firm DraftKings Inc. did so last year. Nearly 300 SPACs are now seeking deals, armed with about $90 billion in cash. And more are rolling out at a furious clip—so far this year, an average of five new SPACs launched each business day.

I bet this will be one of the most researched collections of data ever, as we try to answer that burning question: what the hell happened?

https://www.bespacific.com/national-archives-launches-trump-presidential-library-website/

National Archives Launches Trump Presidential Library Website

On January 20, 2021 – “The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) …launched the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library website, which provides information on archived White House websites and social media accounts, as well as information on access to the records of the Trump Administration. Under the Presidential Records Act, the National Archives receives all records of the Trump Administration, which will be preserved in NARA facilities in the Washington, DC, area, and access to those records will be provided through the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library, controlled and administered by the National Archives. The Trump Library will be part of the National Archives’ Presidential Libraries system, which, under the Presidential Libraries Act, established a system of privately constructed and Federally maintained Presidential Libraries, going back to President Hoover’s administration. NARA’s Presidential Libraries promote understanding of the Presidency and the American experience. They preserve and provide access to historical materials, support research, and create interactive programs and exhibits that educate and inspire. Regardless of whether a former President decides to build and donate an archival research facility and museum to NARA under the Presidential Libraries Act, the National Archives maintains the collection of Presidential records created by the Presidential administration as a Presidential Library. The Trump Library will be the fifteenth Presidential Library operated by the National Archives…”

• See also Next Gov – “…According to a case study ArchiveSocial published after-the-fact, it had “processed more than 10 million social media records and transferred more than 450 exports comprising over four terabytes of data—all in less than eight weeks.” The Trump administration generated more than 20 terabytes of social media data, NARA’s statement confirmed. Those are just one of dozens of types of Trump-centered presidential electronic records the agency is currently collecting and curating…” [h/t Pete Weiss

• See also Politico – Will There Be a Trump Presidential Library? Don’t Count On It – “…Presidential libraries are complicated. And if you understand how they work—and how Trump himself works—it’s nearly impossible to imagine him actually pulling it off. The consequences of this failure, for Trump and his supporters, will go beyond just a building: Without a library, a center or some kind of institute to shore up his reputation, his legacy as a president and his place in history are likely to fall even further out of his control…”

Something to amuse us shut-ins.

https://mashable.com/article/free-harvard-classes-online/

10 free online classes from Harvard to learn something new

… All you need is an internet connection to take certain Harvard courses for free in the comfort of your own home, thanks to the university's fabulous online learning portal.

You have options. There are free courses as well as courses that are free to audit, which means you can take the course for free but there is a cost to upgrade for additional content and/or to receive a verified certificate from HarvardX.

We've handpicked a selection of some of the best free Harvard courses

1. Justice

2. Masterpieces of World Literature

4. Fundamentals of TinyML

6. Shakespeare's Life and Work

Interesting argument. The right to be forgotten comes much later.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/20/internet-crime-scene-capitol-riot-data-information-governance/

The Internet Is a Crime Scene

How we conceptualize the role social media played in the Capitol siege will set the stage for information governance across the globe.

In the aftermath of the Capitol siege, journalists, researchers, police, and archivists are racing to gather evidence as platforms purge content and accounts in record numbers. Although the scramble is reducing the capacity of Trump supporters to stage a second attack, it is also preventing others from identifying and collecting evidence for the trials of those involved in the first one.

This moment shows the need for international data preservation laws that would require technology companies to create processes and protocols that make information accessible for journalists, civil society organizations, law enforcement, and researchers. As platform companies delete an incredible amount of content while the FBI calls on these companies to hold onto the information, it is clear that the absence of clear regulations benefits those who tried to overthrow the U.S. government, and serves authoritarians who use social media to misinform the public.

Know how to use your tools...

https://www.makeuseof.com/apple-watch-helped-police-kidnapping-victim/

Apple Watch Helped Police Find a Kidnapping Victim

… According to Fox San Antonio, a woman used her Apple Watch to call for help, revealing that she had been kidnapped, and that she was in trouble. Police in Selma, Alabama, were then able to use an "emergency cellular ping" to track the victim, and discover her location in a vehicle in a parking lot.

Computer cops? Trained on existing law or potential law?

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3766960

Computational Antitrust: An Introduction and Research Agenda

Computational antitrust is a new domain of legal informatics which seeks to develop computational methods for the automation of antitrust procedures and the improvement of antitrust analysis. The present article first introduces it, then explores how agencies, policymakers, and market participants can benefit from it. Against this background, it sets out a research agenda for the years ahead in view of providing answers to the challenges created by computational antitrust, and better understand its limits.

[From the Intro

Antitrust 1.0 appeared in 1890 with the Sherman Act and was introduced in Europe with the Treaty of Rome in 1957. It has been shaped by several schools of thought (antitrust 1.1 for the Brandeis School, antitrust 1.2 for the Roosevelt School...), but always within the framework of a textual interpretation. Antitrust 2.0 then came along with the Chicago School in the early 1960s (antitrust 2.1 being the Harvard School, antitrust 2.2 the post-Chicago School...). Antitrust law became more economical to fit with the dynamic sectors falling within its scope. The method matched the subject matter.

Antitrust 3.0 is emerging but remains incomplete.

Start worrying now and avoid the rush.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/premature-freakouts-about-techno-enhancement/

Premature Freakouts about Techno-Enhancement

… The problem arises when pundits concerned about possible social and ethical downsides of a technology exaggerate its technical feasibility. This happens in discussions of psychopharmacology, genetic engineering, brain implants, artificial intelligence and other technologies that might, in principle (that wonderful, all-purpose fudge factor), boost our cognitive and physiological abilities. Warnings about what we should do often exaggerate what we can do.

Technology historian David Brock introduces “wishful worries,” which he defines as “problems that it would be nice to have,” in a 2019 essay for the Los Angeles Book Review. He cites these examples: “As biotechnology affords dramatically longer human lifespans, how will we fight boredom? With neurotechnology-augmentation rendering some of us essentially superheroes, what ethical dilemmas will we face? How can we protect privacy in an age of tech-enabled telepathy?”

The ideal manager?

https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-01-24