Weekend Thoughts - 3.19.16

Image by madaise, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. Our future will most likely involve computer-driven, autonomous vehicles. This article takes a look at the problems that we can expect to encounter and posits some solutions. For example, computer-driven vehicles will have a difficult time understanding a construction worker's hand signals to navigate through a work zone. Or detecting the color of a traffic light that has bright sunlight behind it. The problems are real, but not insurmountable. Just like our transition to trains, we will need to anticipate this change well in advance and plan accordingly. This article is one of the few that I have seen that offers up some potential resolutions—let's hope that more like it start churning out on a regular basis.

2. For fellow fans of color, Hindu culture, or festival celebrations, check out this article detailing the Holi Hai "Festival of Colors". There is a description of the tradition and plenty of beautiful color photographs to boot.

3. New smartphones have become fairly predictable in the past few years. Each year they're generally faster, more secure, and include some new features and updated operating systems. This article argues that the next stage of smartphones will include a lot of uncertainty, including how we interact with them. Similar to the Spike Jonze film Her (which is excellent, by the way), we may end up touching our screens less than we think. Could it be time for us to interact verbally with artificial intelligence software?

4. This article proposes two simple Buddhist techniques for amplifying positive feelings and softening negative moods. It includes a discussion about how aversion and attachment cause suffering, the differences between Western and Eastern philosophies, and suggests two visualization techniques that can be used during a meditation practice or even just when waking from sleep. There is a lot of great information and it may help those who are struggling with controlling their reactions to negative feelings. Plus, there is a funny picture of a laughing Buddha!

5. If you were wondering what the United States government would do if a zombie outbreak occurred, wonder no further. Through a Freedom of Information Act request, documentation outlining the official governmental response to a zombie apocalypse have been released. Information about how to handle various zombies, including "evil magic zombies", "space zombies", "vegetarian zombies", and "chicken zombies" (no, I'm not kidding) are detailed in the documentation. For the sake of all Americans, please read this information and plan accordingly.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Book Review - Manna by Marshall Brain

Marshall Brain (founder of HowStuffWorks) and his novel Manna: Two Visions of Humanity's Future were recently featured on KMO's C-Realm Podcast. In episode 457: Techno Extortion, KMO and Brain talk about the book as well as the United States' current trajectory with regard to jobs, automation, profitability, and societal well-being. I was intrigued by the conversation and decided to read Manna. Although the book is available for free at the above link, you can also purchase the Kindle version for $0.99, which is what I did.

Manna shows us two very different worlds. Each is possible for us to create (or find ourselves in) from the current world we live in. In the first world, robots begin eliminating human jobs in places like retail stores, fast food restaurants, construction sites, and transportation. The key technology that fuels this is inexpensive computer vision systems, and more than half of the jobs in the United States are eliminated. Tasks like restocking shelves, cleaning bathrooms, and taking out the trash are dictated by a management software called "Manna" that speaks through an earpiece each employee wears while on the job. All human managers are eventually replaced by this software. Without getting too much into detail about this world, it could be described as dystopian, and it certainly seems plausible to me, especially because I have experience working in similar jobs. I could definitely see how the management team could be stripped from the job and replaced by a cheaper, more efficient, less forgiving computer system.

The second world is more of a utopian society, where robots are not in control of the humans. Instead, the humans control the robots and use them to make life easier. People living in this world must agree with the following core principles of that society:

1. Everyone is equal.
2. Everything is reused.
3. Nothing is anonymous.
4. Nothing is owned.
5. Tell the truth.
6. Do no harm.
7. Obey the rules.
8. Live your life.
9. Better and better.

There are drastic differences in economics, transparency, energy usage, ownership, honesty, and life quality between the two worlds. It certainly seems to me like we are headed more in the direction of the dystopian world rather than the utopian world, but in the book's Postscript, Brain mentions that the utopian world is still a possibility for us to manifest.

I enjoyed the book. It's a very quick read, and it is thought-provoking. The writing left a little to be desired, because it seemed a bit over-simplified and repetitive to me. I've tried my best to not give away too much of the plot in this review, because there isn't much plot or character development to find in the book itself. I would definitely suggest this book though, because I imagine that it would be eye-opening for the average person. For me, it painted a stark contrast between the two different roads our global society could take, and highlighted a lot of the current issues that we face.

4/5 Stars. 79 pages.