Technology versus Humanity

“It’s not just collecting what is basically the object code of life that is expanding exponentially. Our ability to understand it, to reverse-engineer it, to simulate it, and most importantly to reprogram this outdated software is also expanding exponentially. Genes are software programs. It’s not a metaphor. They are sequences of data. But they evolved many years ago, many tens of thousands of years ago, when conditions were different.”

Ray Kurzweil: The world isn’t getting worse — our information is getting better
http://www.geekwire.com/2016/ray-kurzweil-world-isnt-getting-worse-information-getting-better/
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“The majority of American adults are Facebook users, and the majority of those users regularly get some kind of news from Facebook, which according to Pew Research Center data, means that around 40 percent of US adults overall consider Facebook a source of news.

So let’s recap:

People are increasingly using their smartphones for everything.
They do it mostly through apps, and in particular social and messaging apps, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Twitter.
The competition to become such an app is intense. Competitive advantage for platforms relies on being able to keep your users within an app. The more your users are within your app, the more you know about them, the more that information can then be used to sell advertising, the higher your revenues”

Facebook is eating the world
http://www.cjr.org/analysis/facebook_and_media.php
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“When you think of the millions of lives that could be saved and improved by access to basic healthcare and education, it makes the idea of fearing the further advancement of artificial intelligence seem myopic. The fact of the matter is that any developments in a robot revolution are going to look quite differently depending on where you happen to live in this world.”

Only the privileged fear a robot revolution
http://social.techcrunch.com/2016/07/19/only-the-privileged-fear-a-robot-revolution/
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“Those supporting the negative income tax recognize that the importance of work is not just the income derived from it, but also the anchor that it affords us both socially and psychologically. Work provides a sense of purpose as well as a way to earn social status. The places we work give us both the opportunity for socializing as well as the structure that many of us need to feel productive and happy.”

The Future of Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence - Joi Ito's Web
https://joi.ito.com/weblog/2016/06/14/the-future-of-w-1.html
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“All reason tells us that the great issues of our time have little respect for national borders. The leave side has attempted to turn “expert” into a term of abuse, but one does not need the IMF, the Bank of England or any special knowledge to grasp that these border-busting issues range from corporate power, migration and tax evasion to weapons proliferation, epidemics and climate change. Not one of them can be properly tackled at the level of the nation state”

The Guardian view on the EU referendum: keep connected and inclusive, not angry and isolated | Editorial
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/20/the-guardian-view-on-the-eu-referendum-keep-connected-and-inclusive-not-angry-and-isolated
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