Clippy, AI and Distant Worlds

Xiaolce or Cortana or Siri or - just creepy dystopian AI

In my last post, I bemoaned human nature as the weakest link in our rapidly advancing, technology driven world -  as if to prove me right , Microsoft created a virtual teen AI as an online ' chatbot' .
Known as Tay, it was modelled on succesful AI which Microsoft introduced to China , named 'Xiaolce ' which gave great recitals of stories and made good conversation.
With 40 million devotees, it was decided to quickly expand the exercise .

Taught to Troll 

Sadly , though, apparently in the West, we still teach parrots to swear - and so, within 24 hours, the chatbot known as 'Tay' was withdrawn , as it had ' learned ' fascism , hyper-sexuality, and was producing a slew of offensive tweets .
Back to the drawing board, Microsoft - just don't reduce it to another ' Clippy' , please ...dysfunctional AI is one thing, but software that induces murderous rage is a no - no.

If you never suffered with 'helpful' Clippy, you're lucky

The burgeoning world of AI is heaving with personal assistants - from Siri to Cortana and Echo and Alexa, it's a troublesome field - but is it really a practical solution, or just a chance to slack off, whilst enjoying the idea of having AI resolve issues for you ?
My personal worry is the end result of ' outsourcing' questions - will it ultimately create a knowledge deficit ?
I suppose it's really no lazier than saying " I'll Google it", the great fallback for tricky questions; but even so, is it a virtual cop-out ?
Discuss...

Meanwhile, out in the solar system...



The area of online info regarding what's new in space is a burgeoning field, and NASA have created a new site to cover most things, so I will be lessening my focus on all things space related -
I am only a keen amateur, after all.
At the end of the day, the reappearance of a floating city in China interests me as much as tectonics on Pluto, so...
!
However, I am impressed with the pictures which show us ' Mithrim Montes' , a set of mountain ranges on Titan, one of Saturns moons.
The images look a bit like vague watercolour , as they are from radar readings which penetrate the hazy atmosphere, allowing us to gauge surfaces beneath , so not true - vision , really.
even so, I'm impressed.
Why ?
Because it may be a blurry image, but they have deduced the height of the tallest mountain on the satellite of a planet which is over a billion kilometres from here.*
That's why I'm impressed.

    Occator crater on Ceres               pic NASA/ JPL / CALTECH/

Staying with the idea of unconventional imaging, we also have a ' gravity map' of the martian interior.
Given the strangeness of Ceres   , I wonder whether we'll get a similar interior probe ?
Although the Mars map is made from three separate readings from three explorers -  Maven, Orbiter and Curiosity, whereas Ceres only has Dawn to survey it , at present.
The latest news of Ceres is that it almost certainly contains a subsurface, briny ocean - and the expulsion of bright salts we see are possibly the result of impacts .

Colour image of spots on Ceres           pic NASA

There have been recent launches including Exo Mars, the next level of Martian exploration -  a lander module and an orbiter , which will eventually lead to a research base , not a permanent colony .
After all , we still don't know if the way is clear.

Meanwhile, on Jupiter , there seems to be activity on the poles , which already have a permanent aurora display - also a mysterious collision has occured on Jupiter.
I say mysterious, it's almost certainly a wandering meteor, asteroid , or a comet . The incident is further detailed here.
Don't forget, with the NASA Juno probe entering Jupiters atmosphere in July this year, we may see the next collision up close .





* That's an approximation, the distance between us varies greatly .

Crisis Of Confidence

Lately, I've been suffering a 'crisis of confidence'.
This morning, I decided to ignore my normal urge to plunge into the online world.
It has become my 24 / 7 newspaper.
A window on a world that never stops.

In my childhood, I used to read the newspaper whilst eating breakfast.
It meant that I could start the day with some knowledge of topical news - although we never watched much tv , so I avoided all the celeb nonsense - actually, there wasn't so much of it then.
If someone was famous, it was due to their achievements.
What I mean is there was no connection between wealth and fame.
Or worse, fame for its own sake.
Infact, I think it was seen as somehow vulgar.

The first person who entered my personal radar as being famous 'just because' was Paris Hilton.*
Since then, it's been downhill - which is saying something.
Infact, sometimes I think it's out of control - and with it goes our system of values , where genuine ability was rewarded, as opposed to column inches of magazines and newspapers being dedicated to the next vacuous thing.
The saturation of media with narcissistic personalities has given us a very small ' gene pool ' , where ability is outshone by the cult of personality or wealth (Mr Trump).
...
People like to emulate success.
Although celebrity status is no guarantee of wisdom (Mr Trump).
I think that's part of the problem.
Should someone be able to lecture to us on diet and lifestyle just because they are in the public eye ?
Does their diet perhaps contain some secret to their success ?
Or is their surname Kardashian ?

Of course, manufacturers are always looking for famous people to endorse products - it's just that now we have people being famous for endorsing products.

Kaiju culture , or a comment on  Donald Trump ?

The ' old ' media world is populated now by the 'entitled ' classes.
There is no hunger for ' the new' anymore, and complacency is king.
It's already obvious in the constant re-invention of old material, and the remaking of classic films.
Perhaps it's age.
Of course, I am getting old, and am already outstripped by the upcoming ' millenials'.
On the other hand, almost everything now is a reference to what's gone before, so I'm perfectly placed to comment on 'pop' culture in all its forms -  cartoons and toys , transient fads or vinyl records or 3D films or clothes or lifestyle.
And this is perhaps, my point.
Pop culture is the main currency now, and we are all part of that.
Citizen microbloggers, You Tubers, Cosplayers, Instagrammers, Minecrafters, Makers, everyone is involved in enhancing pop culture at some level.
It's good to see blind consumerism morph into something more productive.

Not consumption - creation.

Memes are a new form of expression
( artist unknown )

I've always been fascinated by pop culture , and how it infiltrates and reflects our society.
I remember how strange it felt to live in the nowhere of middle England in 1987, reading manga .
It was like a window to another world - although even that world contained echoes of our own...

Barefoot Gen was harrowing

International time and date lines are immaterial in this switched on internet world.
Which brings me back to this morning, and my determination not to go online.
I failed.
Worse, I responded to an emotive article .
I soon found myself embroiled in an online argument.
In the days of newspapers, it was simply a matter of turning the page if you failed to agree with a piece.
Online, however, you must be prepared to have your entire worldview questioned or brought into disrepute.
It's a minefield - and lately, the scourge of lynch mobs with virtual pitchforks appears to have expanded to Farcebook as well as Twitter.
I thought I'd avoided childish banter by staying away from the ubiquitous ' comments' section of most online articles and You Tube videos.
But it's everywhere.
The end result of online anger is frustration.
All pent up and nowhere to blow.

Unfortunately, the old 'fight or flee' mechanism is sorely out dated in the internet realm.
Way back in the google-free days of the early Nineties, I used to say that coming advances in technology would leave us struggling as a species.
I think we've already reached that point.
So far, we have adapted quickly and well to the smartphone-driven world where images , emojis and acronyms are the new language: where everything is now, and all things are available.
But what next ?
Do we hope for a singularity or an evolutionary leap to lift us all to greater heights ?
Or do we try to slow the advance of technology ?
Do we yearn for the lazy Summers of yesteryear, when time was immaterial , or do we rush headlong into a future propelled by the relentless drive of technology ?
If you choose the latter, be prepared for endless upgrades.


P.s. I've just realised that Paris Hilton is as much a product of  pop culture as anything else, so I 'm guilty of cherry picking.
And hypocrisy.

I'll take my meds, now.

*In fairness, Big Brother generated the first slew of 'famous because' in the u.k. way back in 2000.