Category: technology

Thoughts on Making Technology Easier to Use

My father has been asking me and my siblings for help with his computer and other devices. Recently, I went over to help him connect bluetooth headphones to the TV. This type of assistance can be frustrating, especially if my parents struggle can’t understand the process, even with multiple explanation. But while helping him, it hit me that operating computers and modern technology is actually very cumbersome and can be a bit too complicated.

These thoughts lead to this thread–namely, ways to make using computers and other modern technology a lot easier. I started thinking about an either paid or non-profit type of service center where subscribers could receive these type of administrative services–a kind of “IT department” for individual citizens. I can go into this more later, but at some point it occurred to me: why couldn’t an AI (on a device) handle things like connecting a bluetooth headphones to a TV? Why do individuals have to go into settings at all? Does Alexa already do something like this? Or the various AI? I’m wary of LLMs, but I’m more amendable to an AI not connected to the internet and only designed to help with administrative functions on a device.

Off the top of my head, I think there are three primary types of solutions to the problem I’ve described. First, individuals can handle this, which is the status quo. Second, some technological solution like an AI. Third, a group of individuals providing these services. I’ll give some thoughts on that third option in the next section.

Alternatives to Passwords

I get that security on the internet is important, but creating and having to remember so many passwords is very cumbersome process. There are ways to have software generate passwords and then store them in a “secure” location, but I don’t really care for this approach. In my view, there is no such that are something truly secure on the internet. With enough motivation and skill, security can be defeated–or so I believe. Is there a method that is less cumbersome and more secure? I don’t have a good answer for this, but I want to address this problem in this thread.

To kick things off, here are some thoughts off the top of my head:

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Discussion About Setting Up My Music On a New Laptop and Questions About I-tunes

My chromebook was on its last legs, so I just got a new laptop. Moving and organizing my music on the new computer has been a top priority and a huge task. Currently, I have a subscription to Apple Music, and I’ve used i-tunes to play music–music files I ripped from CDs prior to subscribing to Apple Music. While Apple Music’s library is very large and meets most of my needs, Apple Music doesn’t have all the music/musicians I like, and I have some of those on CDs. Because of this, I still utilized my laptop (and an older ipod) to listen to this music.

Here are some questions that I have and would be interested in some feedback:

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ChatGPT Thread

“ChatGPT is a development on par with the printing press, electricity and even the wheel and fire.”

That’s according to Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury Secretary in the Obama administration. I had heard about ChatGPT before, but I knew nothing about it. (Actually, when I listened to Summers, it sounds like he’s referring more broadly to the ability of AI to think and express itself like humans.)

Here’s what I learned from an NYT article.

“In ChatGPT’s case, it read a lot. And, with some guidance from its creators, it learned how to write coherently — or, at least, statistically predict what good writing should look like.”

Some benefits:

“It can help research and write essays and articles. ChatGPT can also help code programs, automating challenges that can normally take hours for people. Another example comes from a different program, Consensus. This bot combs through up to millions of scientific papers to find the most relevant for a given search and share their major findings. A task that would take a journalist like me days or weeks is done in a couple minutes.”

The benefits here are obvious, but, off the top of my head, here are some drawbacks:

  • For humans, the ability to comb through lots of information and find the most relevant information could deteriorate.
  • My sense is that different people make different judgments about what is relevant; the ability to do this, which includes making connections with other information, including seemingly unrelated information, can differ significantly from person to person. Will this capability become more uniform if done by an AI?
  • My sense is that this process can lead to important insights. How will AI impact that?

In a survey, a group of scientists who work on machine learning had even more dire response:

Nearly half said there was a 10 percent or greater chance that the outcome would be “extremely bad (e.g., human extinction).” These are people saying that their life’s work could destroy humanity.

This seems like a big problem, one that that seems blatantly foolish:

“The problem, as A.I. researchers acknowledge, is that no one fully understands how this technology works, making it difficult to control for all possible behaviors and risks. Yet it is already available for public use.”

To go ahead with something that we don’t fully understand, but could pose an existential threat to humanity (albeit a relatively small probability) seems foolish. And how can we accurately assess the risk if we don’t fully understand how the technology works?

A Middle Ground for Moderating Social Media

Social media companies have been wrestling with content moderation for several years. Jaron Lanier recently suggested an alternative to a laissez-faire approach and government regulation. Here’s how he describes it:

…a platform would require users to form groups through free association, and then to post only through those groups, with the group’s imprimatur.

…It would be like starting up a zine, a band, or a partnership. You’d find some people with whom you feel compatible, people whom you trust, and then you’d work together to create a brand—a name for your group to be applied to a common feed of posts. Only groups like this would be able to post, not individuals, though individuals would still identify themselves, just like they would when playing in a band or writing in a magazine. Individuals could join multiple groups and groups would self-govern;…

…Members would share both good and bad consequences with one another, just like a group shares the benefits and responsibilities of a loan in microlending.

…Groups, as they appear on existing platforms, can be of any size. Some number in the millions. The sort of groups I have in mind would be much smaller as a rule. The point is that the people in the groups know one another well enough to take on the pursuit of trust and quality, and to rid their groups of bots.

…each group will be self-governing. Some will have a process in place for reviewing items before they are posted. Others will let members post as they see fit. Some groups will have strict membership requirements. Others might have looser standards. It will be a repeat of the old story of people building societal institutions and dealing with unavoidable trade-offs, but people will be doing this on their own terms.

I’ll write some thoughts later. What do you guys think?

Looking for a Hard Disc Player to Store and Play my CDs.

I have a few thousand cds that I have downloaded onto my laptop, and I’ve done this several times, as I’ve had to replace laptops. To avoid this, I’ve been looking for a music player that has capacity to rip(?) all my cds. I’ve only found two or three such players (e.g., the Brennan B2). The problem is that some of them are pricey ($1,000 or more). The Brennan B2 is about $700, but it’s the only one in that price range. Are there other options? Or maybe there’s another approach I could take? For example, maybe I could download my cds onto a hard drive and connect that drive to something that will play the music. ? If you guys have any ideas, let me know.

Thought Experiment: If We Could Fulfill Everything on Our Technological Wish-List, Would Humanity Eliminate Most of Its Biggest Problems?

I’m currently reading a book on A.I. One questions that lingers in the back of my mind involves the reasons we would want to build A.I.–and more broadly, the reasons we strive for newer and better technology. Improving our lives–more specifically, improving our material existence–is the obvious answer–i.e., curing diseases, making tasks that requires physical and cognitive resources easier and more efficient, etc. Clearly, improving technology is very important way to improve the lives of human beings.

However, my sense is that many people act as if this is the most important way to improve the lives of individuals and society overall, and I think this position is flawed. For example, I tend to believe the source of humanity’s biggest problems are moral and even social in nature. Improvements on the former can improve the latter, which, in turn, would have the most dramatic impact on most of our social ills. At least, this is my current position.

To test whether humanity’s problem are rooted in material or more moral/spiritual matters, I want to offer the following thought experiment: Suppose we could fulfill all the ambitions of technophiles (excluding technology that would dramatically change human nature–e.g., genetic engineer humans that are more selfless and compassionate), what would those technologies be, and what impact would we expect on individual and societies? Would we expect a significant reduction or elimination of the biggest problems we face?

Suggestions to Make the Internet Better for Democracy

How to Put Out Democracy’s Dumpster Fire by Anne Applebaum and Peter Pomeratsev in the Atlantic is an article about the way the current nature of the internet, in general, and social media, specifically, are harmful, or even hostile, to democracy. The authors also recommend several specific suggestions to change this. The writers seem optimistic that their suggestion could actually significantly improve the internet, making it a more viable for democracy, if their recommendations are adopted (which is another matter).

I do believe improvements can be made to at least reduce the toxicity and dysfunction of the information and discussion space produced by the internet. But I do have some critiques of their recommendations.

I’ll go over these soon, but for now I recommend others to read this article.

A Possible Solution to Big Tech’s Control Over the Public Square

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