Comments on: Death of the Knowledge Society http://blog.worknouveau.com/2009/03/04/death-of-the-knowledge-society/ Impacts of technology on work and society Wed, 14 Apr 2010 06:01:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Ian Culpin http://blog.worknouveau.com/2009/03/04/death-of-the-knowledge-society/#comment-27 Ian Culpin Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:30:31 +0000 http://blog.worknouveau.com/?p=272#comment-27 Interesting contributions. Consciousness, emotions, moral fibre, are these things that are uniquely human, probably not we have signs of other primates that plan ahead, show self awareness and certainly emotions, and quite possibly we will see it in lower animals too. Not too many showing fraudulent tendencies yet. On the other hand we are ruled and governed by administrations and corporations that as entities do not have feelings either. Perhaps a machine intelligence could be endowed with a better sense of justice than we possess. Interesting contributions. Consciousness, emotions, moral fibre, are these things that are uniquely human, probably not we have signs of other primates that plan ahead, show self awareness and certainly emotions, and quite possibly we will see it in lower animals too. Not too many showing fraudulent tendencies yet. On the other hand we are ruled and governed by administrations and corporations that as entities do not have feelings either. Perhaps a machine intelligence could be endowed with a better sense of justice than we possess.

]]> By: Josephine in Brussels http://blog.worknouveau.com/2009/03/04/death-of-the-knowledge-society/#comment-26 Josephine in Brussels Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:55:24 +0000 http://blog.worknouveau.com/?p=272#comment-26 machines don't feel fear... in fact they don't feel at all. Pretty scary. But no real surprise - as still today frauding a couple of 100 00 dollars or a few millions gives a longer imprisonment than killing another human being. As long as we let greed dictate, we can expect everything - except empathy. machines don’t feel fear…

in fact they don’t feel at all.

Pretty scary.

But no real surprise – as still today frauding a couple of 100 00 dollars or a few millions gives a longer imprisonment than killing another human being.

As long as we let greed dictate,
we can expect everything -

except empathy.

]]> By: Ian Culpin http://blog.worknouveau.com/2009/03/04/death-of-the-knowledge-society/#comment-18 Ian Culpin Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:16:47 +0000 http://blog.worknouveau.com/?p=272#comment-18 Hi Luc, Yes your comment reflect well on my underlying thoughts. One of the problems we have now is that policy development on new issues has to be started proactively rather retrospectively. 30 years ago there was enough time for a phenomenon to be observed prior to taking action, because the pace of change was within the policy horizon. The current trend for social network development is to my mind a response to a human need to share, and indeed a human "hive" would act as a balance towards machine intelligence. I can see potential for a political/administrative backlash against social networks with security, IPR, privacy, all being used to throttle the process. I don't view this as any form of conspiracy, only a lack of perception. Hi Luc,
Yes your comment reflect well on my underlying thoughts.
One of the problems we have now is that policy development on new issues has to be started proactively rather retrospectively. 30 years ago there was enough time for a phenomenon to be observed prior to taking action, because the pace of change was within the policy horizon.
The current trend for social network development is to my mind a response to a human need to share, and indeed a human “hive” would act as a balance towards machine intelligence. I can see potential for a political/administrative backlash against social networks with security, IPR, privacy, all being used to throttle the process. I don’t view this as any form of conspiracy, only a lack of perception.

]]> By: Luc Debaisieux http://blog.worknouveau.com/2009/03/04/death-of-the-knowledge-society/#comment-17 Luc Debaisieux Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:27:52 +0000 http://blog.worknouveau.com/?p=272#comment-17 Hi Ian, Interesting perspective and mind challenging questions. My first thought after reading your post was "hopefully we're not there yet"... as if the O-so-relative time between now and then would help us find answers to these questions. ; ) "Will these knowledge machines be creative? Intuitive? Empathetic?" Right on! I'd say that the second word that popped to my mind was "consciousness". Although this might seem to be an Hollywoodian vision of science; the day a computer or artificial intelligence system will acquire self-consciousness, we'll seriously have to reposition ourselves vs machines (cfr. Hal 9000 in 2001 Space Odyssey, I Robot, AI, Battlestar Galactica, etc.). Question being: should we wait till we reach that point or anticipate? "Consciousness" strikes again when thinking about your last paragraph and on 2 levels. Shouldn't leaders obviously be "conscious" of "the implications of a networked society"? (I mean by definition, as leaders) Or maybe the other way around: what will the networked society do when the fact that leaders are not "aware" will spread the networked consciousness? For the moment, my Utopian green eye likes to imagine a networked (human) filter of the information based on networked (human) values... to the rescue. Hi Ian,

Interesting perspective and mind challenging questions. My first thought after reading your post was “hopefully we’re not there yet”… as if the O-so-relative time between now and then would help us find answers to these questions. ; )

“Will these knowledge machines be creative? Intuitive? Empathetic?” Right on!

I’d say that the second word that popped to my mind was “consciousness”. Although this might seem to be an Hollywoodian vision of science; the day a computer or artificial intelligence system will acquire self-consciousness, we’ll seriously have to reposition ourselves vs machines (cfr. Hal 9000 in 2001 Space Odyssey, I Robot, AI, Battlestar Galactica, etc.). Question being: should we wait till we reach that point or anticipate?

“Consciousness” strikes again when thinking about your last paragraph and on 2 levels. Shouldn’t leaders obviously be “conscious” of “the implications of a networked society”? (I mean by definition, as leaders) Or maybe the other way around: what will the networked society do when the fact that leaders are not “aware” will spread the networked consciousness?

For the moment, my Utopian green eye likes to imagine a networked (human) filter of the information based on networked (human) values… to the rescue.

]]> By: Ian Culpin http://blog.worknouveau.com/2009/03/04/death-of-the-knowledge-society/#comment-14 Ian Culpin Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:15:24 +0000 http://blog.worknouveau.com/?p=272#comment-14 I'm sure as the project advances the information will be forthcoming, DARPA permitting. Some guidance may be gained from the two preceding projects on the half and full mouse brain projects. The goal is total emulation, with the ability to transfer the functionality of a human brain. Apart from the emulation issues, the question of whether appropriate technologies will emerge to fully scan the synaptic structures is there. Worth watching - carefully. I’m sure as the project advances the information will be forthcoming, DARPA permitting. Some guidance may be gained from the two preceding projects on the half and full mouse brain projects. The goal is total emulation, with the ability to transfer the functionality of a human brain. Apart from the emulation issues, the question of whether appropriate technologies will emerge to fully scan the synaptic structures is there. Worth watching – carefully.

]]> By: Ron C. de Weijze http://blog.worknouveau.com/2009/03/04/death-of-the-knowledge-society/#comment-13 Ron C. de Weijze Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:04:19 +0000 http://blog.worknouveau.com/?p=272#comment-13 I wonder what model of the human brain is used, apart from 'just' the number of axions or entity-relations, which if they are to support a human, needs to be 100 billion or so. What structures will be functional and how? On how many levels? What sort of informations can be handled on what kind of scales (binary, nomological, interval)? Or are these trade secrets? I wonder what model of the human brain is used, apart from ‘just’ the number of axions or entity-relations, which if they are to support a human, needs to be 100 billion or so. What structures will be functional and how? On how many levels? What sort of informations can be handled on what kind of scales (binary, nomological, interval)? Or are these trade secrets?

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