User:Rimag
Grand Challenge Summary:
I wrote about the problem of feeding the next billion, by focusing on efforts to make food more efficient to create, the state of synthetic foods, potential alternate sources of protein, and recreating farm land through careful cultivation.
Part 1 - Introductions:
I was surprised by how blunt Bill Gate's open letter to hobbyists was, what with it essentially calling on thieves to pay what he thought was owed. This is especially interesting as he seems to have later decided that piracy was essentially free advertising - China and India have similar problems with Microsoft's OS, but he's hoped in the past that this will contribute to overall sales as the countries open up more.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/2483179/data-privacy/bill-gates--piracy-confession.html
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pulsepoint.aeds.android (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. This app is a bit more specific, but it creates a map based data store of AED (Defibrillators) around so that anyone with access to the app can see where they are available. Among the people watching include emergency responders, who can relay this information as necessary. I've seen a few apps like this, including one that alerts EMT responders to emergencies nearby, even if they're off duty, so long as they're close enough to be able to run to the emergency.
I believe the gates article provides the best information here, as it gives insight to influential opinions that have shaped how the modern world has run on computers. With many companies moving to server-side applications that require constant internet access, like photoshop or excel, piracy has become more complicated to commit but certainly no less common.
Part 2 – Privacy and Freedom of Speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk&t=3s
But what *is* a Neural Network? | Chapter 1, deep learning
3blue1brown does a good job explaining high level concepts in simple ways, building up enough knowledge to get you to a working understanding of how things happen without requiring expert level jargon. He'll never replace a good textbook, but for concepts that you don't know a thing about in computer science, he can be a great place to start
https://timreview.ca/article/1067
By 2020 there will be over 200 billion devices connected, creating a market worth 3 trillion a year. This is only set to row as other countries build their own relevant and supporting economies. Anthem has had 76 million users' data sent off to unknown sources, while JP Morgan Chase has had 75 million accessed. In 1974 the first privacy act in the US was published, though it is hopelessly outdated compared to what is needed today. Because of the speed of the internet, and how long there have been no laws to regulate, many options have to come from nongovernmental sources like whatapp's encryption, or password protection software. These themselves are of course vulnerable to hacks, and have been breached before.
I think the youtube video is very valuable here, providing a good intuitive understanding of how this new technology works. Machine learning is present in nearly every major website we visit these days, and getting a sense of how your actions correspond to what companies know about you is very challenging. Understanding the fundamentals of the technology is one way to protect yourself.
Part 3 –
Intellectual Property
How can government play a role in moderating this kind of behavior, and should it? I don't personally believe companies should be able to harness this information so easily, but I don't know what lines should be drawn about the products they can make. I also don't know how to uphold rights to privacy if the government would take up the job of looking through data to confirm it doesn't go too far.
Google is currently building a city that is grappling with these problems - does knowing walking speed about somebody go too far? How about their trash habits, or their rate of cleaning in their house?
https://www.google.com/search?q=google+canada+city&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1-ab
Schoolism is a website that aims to bring professional art education to anyone who can pay the monthly fee, or for a bit more money, get personal critiques on their work through a scheduled class process. This obviously wouldn't be possible without computers, and I think it's important that it also completely democratizes who is allowed to receive an education. Art has long had some preconceived notions of who is capable of creating, and thus who is allowed to create. It's certainly a different process to be financially viable in the internet age than it was previously, but I do think this is one of the instances where it is genuinely easier to become a viable artist no matter where you came from or what you look like.
By far one of the most interesting things I read about this class was the city being built. They're attempting to create a seamless environment, and culture, designed for each individual while still staying usable for all. It sounds incredibly difficult, and I hope to learn what they decide and how it functions, or doesn't.
Part 4 – Crime
This article is about the overarching workarounds that exist to encryption. A lot of modern encryption uses incredibly large numbers that are designed to stop brute force attacks from modern computers - quantum computing might make these obsolete, but for now as long as the designed encryption process is used properly, it's very hard to break. These workarounds include finding the key or finding a flaw in the encryption system as built. As the article states, a random number generator built by the NSA was intentionally built with a backdoor that allowed them to eavesdrop on information (or something like that; it's a bit unclear what exactly they would get).
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38755584 .
This is a kind of tour of the different cybercrimes currently in vogue. I think a large one for a lot of the population is ransomware, which can lock down files or business information and demand payment. They often do this under bitcoin, which is easily movable across the world and is (at least theoretically) harder to track.
The bbc article is I think the more useful one here, providing an overview of ways in which you might put yourself in danger. I think it's very important to understand what happens behind the screen, and how savvy other people can be when it comes to getting what they want. It's douby important for small businesses, or higher employees of large companies, as that will result in damaging effects across large swathes of people.
Part 5 – Employment, Education, and Entertainment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NGe4dzlukc
Making Games Better for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing | Designing for Disability
There's a lot of interesting information here - my favorite piece of insight are that games can take advantage of their playable nature to give subtitles a specific ruleset that follows the game. For instance, a character can be given a certain text color, which will let you know they're talking even when the player is busy and they are not on screen. Further, 3D games can take advantage of information in the soundscape by giving visual direction about where sound is coming from. Minecraft does this with a compass style arrow system, while Fortnite gives icons and directions in a ring in the center of the screen. This lets players know about sounds without needing to hear them, leveling the playing field and giving further enjoyment.
https://www.polygon.com/2018/7/16/17578332/nintendo-labo-creators-contest-best-projects (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Nintendo recently released a project for engineering and building with their LABO sets for the switch system. These are the winners of a recent contest - though they aren't made by children, they show the kinds of things the system is capable of. The actual product comes with five preset projects that need to be built from cardboard (and only cardboard), which then use the game system to interact. It also has a garage area where kids can design and program their own creations, making musical instruments, games, shows, or whatever else they can think of.
This lets kids in on engineering, from idea to design to plan to failure to success. It's hard to give kids incentive to complete long projects, especially when they're more abstract, which is why this product can be helpful as an interactive workshop.
I enjoyed the video a lot, and found it easy to digest while bringing up important points I haven't had to think about in a long time. Even a game controller is a pretty monstrous beast for someone who's never touched one, but it's been around for long enough that many people find it second nature. Similar blindspots exist all over this and other industries, and communication is the only way I know of to remove them.
Part 6 – Feeding the Next Billion
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034015/pdf (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. A look at how changing meat sources can affect the amount of food built.
A company rebuilds farmland in broad swathes of Africa, planning to show the world how to rebuild land the size of two Europes for food production.
http://www.luxresearchinc.com/news-and-events/press-releases/read/alternative-proteins-claim-third-market-2054 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
A prediction of which protein sources will be needed worldwide. Details below.
http://www.luxresearchinc.com/intelligence-services/consumer-choices-food-health-and-wellness (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
https://www.wired.com/story/lab-grown-meat/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
A company called Just (along with others) attempts to build profitable, sustainable, marketable synthetic food.
All of these articles were extremely interesting, but I think the most useful of the bunch would be the lux research. It provides an overview of how food needs can be processed and thought about across the world, and from there it's easy to dig deep into their research and see what options they believe are most viable.
Part 7 –
Evaluating and Controlling Technology
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/6-ways-the-internet-of-things-is-improving-our-lives/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. This article talks about a bunch of ways the internet of things will be affecting day to day life soon. I think the most interesting part is talking about cities at the large level, especially leveraging data to get exact senses of problems like pollution and finding ways to mitigate this on a case by case basis. Like every technology, this will become a tool that can be used well or poorly, and I'm glad to see how many people are trying to solve problems and not just become excess middlemen hoping for a quick buck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5wpm-gesOY
The Problem with Time & Timezones - Computerphile
This video talks about the challenges of engineering timekeeping tools in programs that are built, especially when they need to be synchronized across the world. Time zones are tricky, especially with daylight savings and occasionally decisions from countries to just skip time zones for that year - or how israelis and palestinians follow different times despite being in the same country.
I think of these two the weforum article is most useful, providing a sense of progress and technology. Smart cities are coming whether or not we are ready for them (especially near De anza, so embedded in silicon valley). I'm hopeful that their technology can be used for interesting and helpful purposes, especially at a scale that was previously impossible to account for.
Part 8 – Risks, Failures, and Responsibilities
https://diatribe.org/sneak-peek-lillys-automated-insulin-delivery-system
This is an interesting device that can automate insulin delivery for diabetics, while still giving more fine manual control. It uses smartphones as an operating device, and claims to be able to help diabetics (especially those getting it later in life) with living without stress or pain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Alexandria_Ocasio-Cortez
I looked at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' page, as she's a public figure who quickly gained notoriety in the world after beating out an incumbent in the midterm elections last month. A major contributor on her page is Brendon the Wizard, who's helped wtih at least 2500 articles, likes tornadoes, and is a libertarian communist. In talk, there's a naturally a lot of conversation on where exactly to define her views ('far-left', despite being what the media calls her, makes some contributors uncomfortable as a nonjudgmental label), and there is also debate as to whether her family life and work in a taqueria is relevant to her page, or if it contributed to her political views.
The diabetes page is really interesting, but I think more generally useful would be the wiki page, specifically the conversation. It was nice to see some cordial (though brusque) dialogue happening around how to best present beliefs alongside history and facts, and it actually taught me more of how wikipedia and its contributors examine the importance of information. They attempt to distill into relevant specifics, avoiding any bias, and have to dig deeper than that to discuss their own contributors bias and how it's affecting their opinion - without ever taking things personally or trying to be more of an authority than they are.
Part 9 – Anytime, Anywhere
This is a company that combines the data for a patient into one easy to read resource, letting doctors make decisions with all the knowledge currently available. Of course, it's reliant on doctors actually putting their information into the system, but it's less steps than pen and paper, or the other systems that may not propagate among all areas of the hospital, or different places someone might need to visit. A lot of companies make their business by making things slightly easier, becoming the middleman of sorts, and phones allow that process to happen and help the users of the products.
I've been using udacity for the last year or so, teaching myself
data analysis and Android (using Java) programming. These have pros
and cons - they do give you a mentor and resource board to work with
other students, but you can't easily create study rooms or find
relationships without working very hard at it. I've found their
course content really helpful, and you build projects that get code
reviews along the way, so you end up with a portfolio of finished
projects by the end.
The medisas company looks very interesting. I volunteered in physical therapy clinics for a while, and saw doctors spend a lot of time gathering necessary information and posting it to clipboards or movable computers (literally, desktop computers on wheels they could drag from client to client) having a fast, secure, and private way to deal with that information and capture it would make their job a lot smoother, and let them see more patients more quickly.
Part 10 – Technology Advances, Social Trends
https://www.angaza.com/about-us/
Angaza creates pay as you go plans in far flung places to help install solar energy products, especially in developing countries. This means it's possible to create clean energy more cheaply, and get exactly as much as needed. It is geared towards developers and companies over individuals, allowing for large amounts of change quickly.
https://www.research.ibm.com/ibm-q/learn/what-is-quantum-computing/
Quantum computing has been up and coming for a while, but consistent progress keeps being made. The simple analogy they use is to imagine that instead of the two bit system computers use, zeroes and ones, we have a kind of four bit thing because direction is now involved. The main impact this will have on consumers that I know of is that encryption we've been using will suddenly be obsolete, as the protection that computers couldn't compute the passwords through brute force will no longer be the case thanks to quantum's incredible speed. I imagine this will help other areas, like folding proteins, working with big data, and all sorts of other computationally heavy tasks.
I think the quantum computing, though it's very dense, wins here. This information is incredibly valuable, and IBM even has a quantum computer you can play with. You can explore that right here:
There's no denying how complex this is, and like most devices there's a certain amount of fundamental understanding before you can even begin to understand what's happening. I think more than anything it reminds me how specialized we've become to create complex devices - like how no one person knows exactly how a smartphone works, but a group could explain each part they worked on themselves.
