EIA2019Italy - New Technologies - Matteo Antony Mistretta
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This document discusses new technologies including human enhancement, artificial intelligence, and whether we live in a simulation. It explores science fiction visions of technology and examines current technological advancements as well as how technology may contribute to various problems.
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EIA2019Italy - New Technologies - Matteo Antony Mistretta
- 5. What Is Technology “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” — Arthur C. Clarke, 1973
- 26. Are We Part Of A Simulation?
- 28. Technology as part of the problem
Editor's Notes
- Hello world! Today we are going to talk about exciting new technologies. And since we are here, why not doing so through memes?
- How many have a cool idea for a startup? Raise your hands. How many are apps? How many are apps that allow to meet people based on common interests? Ho many are apps that give you a service without the need to meet people? It’s totally cool folks, but you must admit it’s curious how most of us are interested in gathering together and avoid human contact at the same time, right? Well, this keynote aims at inspiring you to think outside of the box and put a little more technology in the equation.
- Before we start, just a little presentation about myself. I’m one of those strange devices, fuelled by coffee, that turn problems into solutions, and have sarcasm as a side effect. So I warn you: you will see a lot of irony here, please don’t get offended by anything because it’s not my intention. I’m a silly person, so silly that sometimes even my dog cannot stand me.
- Moreover, I cannot define myself as a tech enthusiast. On the contrary. *reads* Yeah, that’s pretty much my attitude.
- So what is technology. MAGIC. Well it is, in a certain way! In fact, a famous quote from Arthur C. Clarke reads: *reads* Imagine a magic wand that can guide you anywhere you want, sheds light on your path, and can even open a portal to a place far away where you can see people and speak with them as if they were there in front of you. Yeah, I’m talking about a mobile phone with GPS and camera flash on a selfie stick.
- But this is what technology is about: it’s about imagining things that are not possible right now and making them possible. *reads* And who imagines the impossible better than science fiction novelists?
- Science fiction is a rich source of ideas for what can be achieved in the near future. Tablets, video conferences, the internet itself, were already imagined in sci-fi novels and movies. Sci-fi imagines the future based on our current knowledge and view of the world. It shapes the future and is shaped by the present. I can’t but see a huge warning sign when I see how sci-fi is describing the future nowadays.
- But we are way too addicted, to the point of no return. *reads* It’s inevitable: any kind of technology will enhance our abilities, making us weaker in return. We discovered fire that makes us warm, now we freeze without fire. We learned to write so we can take notes, now we lose memory in return.
- Technology is evolving fast, so fast that it’s difficult to catch up. I think I’m not going to say anything new to you today, but at least I hope you’ll find it entertaining.
- Virtual Reality is still at an early stage, but it’s already starting to make its way in gaming. But games are not the only field of application for VR, the possibilities are endless. Virtual worlds in general, like Second Life a few years ago or Minecraft and VRChat today, can become more immersive social networks. The only limitation I see here is that you’re completely isolated from the real world. That’s why Augmented Reality seems like a promising field: we just need to find new, original uses, aside from showing shiny pop-up ads.
- Blockchain is another common buzzword nowadays. *reads* A few years ago I would have said that blockchain is just a very slow database, useful only to store transactions such as money transfers and contracts and make them permanent forever. And it is still true, it’s still a distributed transaction-based database, but advancements in this technology are making it performant enough to be a valid alternative to traditional databases or for other innovative uses.
- And then there’s the Internet Of Things. *reads* Every device, no matter how small, can now have sensors and a wireless internet connection. We are being surrounded by little smart robots all over the place that know everything about us, enhancing our house, our car, our city, … and what about...
- ...Human Enhancement.
- When engineering is combined with chemistry and biology we have nanotechnology. Microscopic robots could start “living” inside our body and keep our blood vessels clean, repair damages, enhance our brain activity. And what about the exterior?
- We are very close to some of the enhancements that we see in cyberpunk fiction. A lot of stuff is actually already present such as augmented reality glasses, although they are usually not engraved in our body nor have tactile sensors.
- Well this was true last year maybe, but now look at this: *reads* So it’s not the usual bionic arm, it gives you tactile feedback. It feels almost like a real hand. And you can use it outdoors! Well you still need to carry a laptop in your backpack to collect sensors data, but it’s a step forward nonetheless.
- Do you know this guy? This is Neil Harbisson, the first official cyborg. He’s an artist who enhanced his color perception outside of the visible spectrum with an antenna implanted in his skull. His brain cells adapted to this new sixth sense, so if he removed the antenna he would lose a sense just as if he lost his sense of smell. So, as you can see, our addiction to technology is not just about losing a commodity.
- Another cool device is neuro-headsets: they have non-invasive sensors that capture your intention to move and translates it in machine language, so this can be used by paralyzed people to control their wheelchair or to interact with a computer. It would be awesome to use it for games too, but unfortunately at present it’s still too buggy and has too much latency.
- As you may know, the majority of technologies that I described earlier includes a good amount of Artificial Intelligence. So what’s this AI about, and why is it so important?
- Well, AI is a very misused term. *reads* It’s a broad term that incompasses many other, such as Machine Learning or Natural Language Processing. It’s about creating algorithms that mimic, and sometimes overtake, some intellectual features of us humans.
- One of these features is tackled by Machine Learning: ML algorithms are able to classify data into predefined categories, or even come up with new categories and fill them with classified data. This is achieved usually, but not only, through neural networks: a software structure similar to how human brain cells work.
- Neural networks have different uses: they can identify things and people in pictures... *reads* They have always been quite good at recognizing text… *reads* But the huge leap forward happened in 2012 with *reads* Deep Learning. With Deep Learning machines have become better than us in some of these activities (especially character recognition), but they are now even starting to generate content instead of just passively learning it.
- I’m quite sure you know this one: this is a prototype made by NVidia in which you can draw simple color shapes on the left and these shapes are rendered as realistic landscapes on the right.
- Deepfakes put someone else’s face on top of a person in video. We already saw this in movies (I’m thinking about one from Fast And Furious, for example, or Star Wars). If you are scared of being a target of deepfakes don’t worry too much: you need a lot of footage to produce a quality deepfake, so if you’re not doing too many snapchats or tiktoks you should be fine. Celebrities and especially politicians are a common target, a dangerous target. Makes me think that in the near future we won’t be able to easily tell the truth from what we see.
- On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence is also able to spot fakes. *reads* So it’s an evolutionary arms race between fake generation and fake detection, and I expected to witness some sort of equilibrium between the two parts sooner or later. But all this simulating stuff and virtualizing stuff makes you think...
- ...Is reality some sort of simulation itself? Well, short answer is: *reads* no. Reality is way too complex, unnecessarily complex, to be a simulation. But on the other hand, in theory everything could be simulated. Everything could be serialized into a stream of bytes. So what’s the difference between reality and a simulation? If I simulate a living creature on my computer, when does it start being real? When it proves to be sentient? When it is able to feel pain?
- Take a look at this picture. I hope I’m not spoiling this movie to anyone. In this scene Wall-E loses his memory and acts like a soulless robot. I don’t know you but I cried like a little girl. Wall-E is not “dead”, he loses his “wallyness”. Apart from the fact that this is just a movie, but if Wall-E was real, would his personality be just a simulation? This causes ethical issues on me. Speaking of which...
- Let’s talk about technology as part of the problem. Yeah, we use technology as a mean to solve problems, but many times it becomes the problem itself.
- It can happen because of many reasons. *reads* Technology can be faulty. It should never happen, but it happens. *reads* Technology has unexpected side-effects when used, or is completely misused. *reads* And finally, apparently there are people in this world that create technology to cause problems, to harm people.
- Apart from bugs and failures, side effects can include privacy violations. I don’t care too much about my privacy, but I can understand if someone is concerned by it.
- People are also very concerned about losing their jobs. *reads* So apparently accountants will be replaced soon, yay… Anyway, the good news is that for most of us it is not the case, nor it will be for a long time, because humans are flawed indeed, but algorithms are too, and in a complementary way. So the role of a machine is more likely to be just that of an advisor to humans, which should always have the last word on every decision. That’s because humans have qualities that machines don’t have, such as empathy. Yes, you want services without human interactions, but when things go wrong who do you want to speak to?...
- ...A cold machine or a gentle human that understands your feelings and… *reads* Oh crap. Ok yes, machines are starting to give sign of empathy, at least a simulated one.
- But not without flaws.
- You know what? The real advantage that humans have over machines is not empathy, it’s that we can bend rules, break them even, disobey following our hearts, in order to add that “human touch” that cold-hearted machines don’t have. Ok, but there are other concerns that arise with technology, such as, I don’t know...
- ...Death? Sometimes I hear questions such as “Will technology destroy us all?”. Why, silly… Of course it will! It happened many times in the past and it will in the future!
- Technology is just a tool, and as a tool it can be used in different ways. Nuclear power can be used to kill a city, accidentally or not, and if the old saying “the pen is mightier than the sword” is still true, there’s people who can deal damage even with a pencil.
- There’s no good way for us to prevent technology to kill people. A good start would probably be to everyone agree on not building killing machines in the first place. But then, will the bad guys respect this agreement? Will the “good” guys be able to do the same? Is there a limit to our inclination to self-destruction? (By the way, the second panel is taken out of context: these robots are actually vegetarian, they feed on grass. A demonstration of the fact that we don’t need AI to create fake news. But nonetheless...)
- This is my real concern about technology. Apparently we are so dumb to fund people who want to build terminators and killing drones and whatnot. Well sure… *reads* The more smart and human machines become, the more dumb and inhuman we are becoming. *reads*
- So maybe before being able to build a killing machine we should try to get rid of our killing instincts. *reads*
- And our lack of humanity is not only towards machines. Do you know this little girl? A couple of months ago she posted a poll on Instagram asking if she should kill herself. 69% of responders voted in favor. And she did. I don’t feel like blaming Instagram for allowing such things to happen, and I can’t even blame too much the voters, since I’m quite sure everyone thought it was a prank or something, but I think this episode should raise awareness on how a mobile screen can make us numb to real suffering.
- And of course, our greed for money, power, speed, gadgets, is very likely to kill us and other lifeforms in the next ten to thirty years. Sun rays will become fatal, farm lands will become deserts, food price will skyrocket, wars will be waged. The clock is ticking and we must find a solution quick. We need to change.
- I think that change should first of all come from within. We should find our humanity again, we should find compassion, and a reason to live. And, once we have found it, we should help others find their own reasons to live. That’s why any idea you come up with during this program, if it’s something you care about, and if it helps people to care about something, then it will be a battle worth fighting for, because it will become a step forwards towards human salvation. And I thank you for this.
- Thank you.