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Bob Gourley

Stream New Science Fiction Web Series “ExHumans” on Amazon

The first season of the Science Fiction series ExHumans is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Set in the far future, the show follows Chrystal (Georgia Theodoulou) who is brought back from the dead at the Cryogenia Institute.

The series examines many advanced concepts we should be thinking about now. Since you are a savvy news reader you know there have been incredible developments in health and genetics and continued real world research into extending life. There has also been incredible research into freezing life in attempts to extend life. This has NOT been done yet, even though a startup is claiming they will freeze your brain in the hopes that one day someone will figure that out. Anyway, sure seems like we should think through the future right about now, and this series is a big help in that.

The show’s director Harry Boast put it this way: The series is about identity: who are you? What makes you, you? And, if you can’t remember who you are, how do you know you’re you? This was the main theme we wanted to explore.”

Will you like the series? Well, reviews are mixed. Acting is ok, scenery is meh, plots good and the fact that they queue up interesting topics is good.

Find ExHumans on Amazon at: https://bit.ly/ExHumansUS

 

The Ethics Of AI and Big Data: Facebook and Cambridge Analytica Are Writing New Case Studies For Us All

The term “Big Data” has been around quite a while (see a short history of Big Data here), but really came into mainstream discussion in 2007 (which also happens to be the first year CTOvision used the word). The phrase had an important role in helping many of us think through new architectures for how to store and analyze data. Things were different from data storage and analysis of the past and the term helped us conceptualize some of that difference.

Part of what was different was the implications of privacy that many of us saw coming. Few were as prescient as Kord Davis, who ran a series here on the Ethics of Big Data (which was also the topic of a book he published in 2012 by the same title). Lots of us are thinking about Kord’s words of wisdom these days. Techies everywhere, especially data scientists, have also long been tracking the ideas of DJ Patil, the first US Chief Data Scientist, who has advocated that data scientists and executives and leaders of all types understand the ethical dimension of what we are doing. DJ captured many elegant thoughts on this topic in a widely read post on medium at “A Code of Ethics For Data Scientists.”

DJ and Kord are not alone. Many technologists, business leaders, politicians, academics informed citizens have been tracking these issues for years.

Then all of a sudden, surprise surprise surprise. On 17 March 2018, The Guardian  reported that a political research and data science firm called Cambridge Analytica had inappropriately harvested data from the Facebook profiles of over 50 million of us who had not provided consent for their data to be used for political and psychological profiling.

In discussion with techies, as well as with my surveillance of the social media of many I admire, it seems few were really surprised that this sort of thing happened. Similar things seem to happen all the time, including data from Facebook being used for multiple political research efforts and campaigns over many years.

Some context from friends via Twitter:

https://twitter.com/mtanji/status/976576577571098624

A point I would make for all of us who strive to learn the potential of technology: We should all take it as a duty to consider not just our own ethics, but how to inform others on the potential damage that can be done by data. This includes, unfortunately, the potential for damage when the data is being used in exactly the way it was designed to be used.

Another point: Humanity can fix this stuff. It will take collective action, which can and probably should include government regulation. But we can fix it.

What Executives Should Know About Ethereum

Bitcoin was the first implementation of a working blockchain technology. The idea has been built on with several other implementations. One of the most exciting is Ethereum. In some instances Ethereum’s coin, Ether, is compared with Bitcoin, and you see both cited in cryptocurrency value listings. But Ethereum’s implementation of blockchain goes far beyond the one behind Bitcoin.

Ethereum is also a way of running distributed applications. Applications can be programed to leverage the Ethereum blockchain in ways that bring the power of an open and secure distributed ledger and data store to bear in very powerful ways.

What Should Executives Know About Ethereum?

At a minimum, we recommend everyone, especially executives, know that Ethereum provides a fabric for distributed applications. For most it will also be good to know a few other details, but that is the most important point.

What Should I Know About Ethereum?

Ethereum is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system featuring smart contract functionality. There is a cryptocurrency built on this framework called Ether that can be bought/sold/traded and mined like Bitcoin, but Ethereum is an environment that can also be used by any programmer to create coins or other applications that leverage the power of the global Ethereum network. This is what is kicking the world of distributed computing into high gear.

In general, there are three types of players in the Ethereum ecosystem:

  1. Users
  2. Developers
  3. Miners

Users: Anyone can be a user of Ethereum. You can buy and sell Ether at Coinbase, can trade Ether or other Ethereum based tokens on coin exchanges, and can interact with smart contracts and functions of companies that offer Ethereum-based functions like smart contracts.

Developers: Most anyone with some programming or CTO experience can be an Ethereum developer. The language of Ethereum distributed apps (Solidity) is very easy to learn and there are many tutorials to get you started.

Miners: Miners are those that have decided to provide computing power to make the distributed apps work in return for rewards of Ethereum (Ether) or other crypto coins.

Some recommendations:

  • Open a Coinbase account. It is easy to do. And if you use it to invest at least a small amount of funds it will motivate you to track the dynamics of cryptocurrencies. It will also make you more fluent in many aspects of Cryptocurrencies.
  • Sign up for an account on the cryptocurrency enabled Earn.com. The reason to do this is their tight connection to the cryptocurrency startup community. Leaders in the community are looking for savvy users to inform of their startups and are using Earn to find thought leaders. They pay you to read their messages (you can donate that payment to charity or keep it yourself). My view is that any startup that is vetted by Earn and will pay to have me read a message deserves to have the message read and so far I have not been disappointed, it is a great way to learn what is going on in the community.
  • Read over the main page at Ethereum.org. It does a great job of describing what is possible in a very clear way. And if you are feeling daring, work through some of the tutorials there (if you build a coin let me know, I’d love to see it).

We have much more to write about cryptocurrencies, blockchain and distributed apps. Be sure you are on distro for our newsletters so you don’t miss the next update. Sign up at CTOvision Newsletters.

Other Reading on Ethereum and Bitcoin:

What Should Executives Know About How Blockchain, Smart Contracts and Cryptocurrencies Are Disrupting Business?

https://ctovision.com/oodaloop-nails-it-again-with-reporting-on-bitcoin-price-manipulation/

Why Bitcoin Continues to Rule the Cryptocurrency Market Despite its High Volatility

From Crowdsourced Militias to Dread Bitcoin Pirates

What You Need To Know About Bitcoin: Including potential new business models to consider

Recent Reporting on Cryptocurrencies:

What You Need To Know About Bitcoin: Including potential new business models to consider

OODAloop nails it again with reporting on Bitcoin price manipulation

Today Every Company Buys Electricity, Tomorrow Every Company Will Buy Ethereum

Smart Cities Cybersecurity Challenge

Blockchain Templates: Amazon Making Technology Mainstream

How Cryptocurrencies will go from The Technologically Savvy, into the Everyday Transactions of Consumers

What Should Executives Know About How Blockchain, Smart Contracts and Cryptocurrencies Are Disrupting Business?

Cryptocurrencies and their promise for enterprise technology professionals

Cryptocurrency Thought Leader Bradley Rotter With New Use Cases for Crypto Based Solutions

Question: Have you used a utility token today?

Before answering this question, check out the video below. The video has the great thinkers/interviewers John Furrier and Dave Vellante of the Cube in a discussion with the thought leading crypto investor (and friend) Bradley Rotter.

In the video, Bradley mentioned his views on tokens, including utility tokens. Bradley wonders in the video if the investors in utility tokens are going to see one day that these utility tokens might not have any utility. If so the cart is way in front of the horse. Bradley believes in utility tokens and sees their use, but hints that what we might be seeing now is more like a Cambrian Explosion.

Bradley does provide some interesting use cases for tokens, including some for big infrastructure projects.

One critically important capability that crypto can address is cybersecurity. There are many use cases here, with one of the most important being addressed by Rivetz, a company which can provide strong security to devices using the power of new blockchain/crypto approaches (Rivetz is providing decentralized, secure device identity for mobile, IoT and PCs).

For more context see this cube discussion:

And for more on Rivetz see Rivetz.com

Now back to the question: Have you used a utility token today? How about asking everyone you know. Let me know when you get an affirmative answer. I haven’t used one. I have lots sitting in a crypto wallet ready for me to use, and am am very excited about the potential for many I am reading about. But I have to admit I have not really used one, yet.

By the way, we offer advice on tech topics, including how to make the best use of Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Mobility, Big Data, Robotics, Internet of Things, CyberSecurity.

For more see:

What should I know about blockchain?

What artificial intelligence tools are really useful?

How can I have a career in data science?

How can I select a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB)?

How can I stop ransomware?

How can our military use advanced technology smartly?

How can we improve cybersecurity?

 

What Should Executives Know About How Blockchain, Smart Contracts and Cryptocurrencies Are Disrupting Business?

One hundred percent of board of directors and other executive leaders I interact with know of the blockchain. Not all are fans of cryptocurrency, but all seem to be deeply interested in exploring the business impact of the distributed ledger that makes cryptocurrencies work.

There are quite a few interesting use cases out there. Some may hold great potential. But there are also lots of interesting ideas that once you start asking questions don’t make so much sense.

To help you ask the right questions, this article provides some executive level context on what the blockchain is.

At a high level, consider blockchain technology as a system that lets you distribute a ledger that records data and, depending on how it is implemented, can let everyone see the data in ways that prove its accuracy. Some blockchain technologies can do even more than that. Some solutions can provide blockchain capabilities just inside an enterprise. Some can provide ways to program contracts and monitor their execution.

What that as an introduction, here is my view of the things every executive should know about blockchain enabled technologies:

  • Executives should have at least a basic understanding of how the technology works, including the technology of the blockchain behind bitcoin and the blockchain and computing fabric behind Ethereum, which is much more powerful in producing smart contracts. There are some good books on this topic. One we recommend is: Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money
  • Executives should have a clear understanding that investing in cryptocurrencies is different than investing in blockchain solutions for your business. Investing in cryptocurrencies is a special topic and may also interest you (we recommend everyone open a Coinbase account and put at least a tiny bit of money into some of the currencies there), but for most companies the big investment you will want to make is in developers who can program blockchain enabled solutions (get your tech team learning the tool called Solidity).
  • Executives should know that the use of the term “smart contract” in a blockchain context refers to computer programs that can be written to directly control the transfer of value when certain conditions are met. Smart contracts digitally facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract, all without third party involvement.
  • Although the blockchain will disrupt many industries, the one which may see the biggest impact fastest is the financial sector. Executives in this industry already know this. But all of us who are their customers also need to be thinking through this disruption. We can have a voice in how our financial services providers serve us and should be pushing them to do so smartly with blockchain enabled solutions.
  • Executives should also be on the lookout for new capabilities from venture capital funded companies that can leverage the blockchain to accelerate or improve business functions for your own company. If your competitor works with a firm like this but you do not you could be losing out. If you leverage a partner before a competitor does you can beat them in the market.
  • Consider the impact that blockchain technologies can have on your current company strategy. This is especially important if you are a board member or CEO. You should ensure your entire management team is smart enough on what the concepts are to be able to have intelligent discussion on coming opportunities and threats.
  • Consider ways that smart contracts and blockchain technologies can improve your internal systems. Developers who know how to program blockchain solutions can provide applications that work inside your firm but deliver similar strong benefits as those that run on the public blockchain. We have seen proof of concept solutions like this already and are also seeing a rise in new commercially supported solutions that will soon be available for HR, Admin, Supply Chain Management and even cybersecurity.
  • For executives in technical domains (the CIO, CTO, CDO, CISO), you will find it easy to work through tutorials that show how to build blockchain solutions yourself. I’ve built my coin and learned quite a bit in doing so. Building a coin has become the “hello world” of the new blockchain coding world, and doing that will give you more food for thought.
  • As hinted about above, executives should also be ready to ask questions regarding any proposed solutions that leverages a blockchain technology. Ask, for example, why it is better than a solution that involves a modern database with smart encryption.

Maybe the most important recommendation for executives: View the blockchain with excitement! And channel that excitement into action to improve your business.

CTOvision will be providing more context on this topic in our newest category, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain. To ensure you never miss a post, be sure to sign up for our newsletters and you will be alerted when we publish.

Recent Reporting on Bitcoin:

What You Need To Know About Bitcoin: Including potential new business models to consider

OODAloop nails it again with reporting on Bitcoin price manipulation

From Crowdsourced Militias to Dread Bitcoin Pirates

Today Every Company Buys Electricity, Tomorrow Every Company Will Buy Ethereum

Smart Cities Cybersecurity Challenge

Blockchain Templates: Amazon Making Technology Mainstream

How Cryptocurrencies will go from The Technologically Savvy, into the Everyday Transactions of Consumers

What Executives Should Know About Ethereum

Cryptocurrencies and their promise for enterprise technology professionals

As We May Think: Vannevar Bush’s 1945 Essay still provides great motivational concepts for advancing science

BushAtWorkMany of us today are seeking ideas on how to deal with the massive, overwhelming deluge of data and information, both at work and at home. If that describes you, one recommendation I have is this: If you want a new idea, turn to history. One great icon of this info age, Vannevar Bush (1890-1974), may have insights that surprise and inform you. At a minimum you should find it inspirational that humans have always had great thinkers that can apply deep thought to big problems, and perhaps he will inspire you to create the solutions we need today.

Vannevar Bush is a pioneer remembered for many things. He was an engineer, scientist and an educator of greats (including the great Claude Shannon). He is also credited with leading the response of science in support of national security prior to and during World War II. He was the President’s science advisor and head of the US Office of Scientific Research and Development during the war, and was a champion of the Manhattan Project.

One of his most famous essays was first published in The Atlantic in 1945. It is Titled “As We May Think.” The entire piece is worth a read because of its importance as a historical document. But it is also fascinating to read his visions for information storage and retrieval. He also articulated goals for the scientific community that are motivational even today, calling on the scientists who helped win that great war for national survival to turn their minds to advancing humanity. It is really an awesome piece.

A favorite quote from the article:

The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it.

An introductory excerpt:

Of what lasting benefit has been man’s use of science and of the new instruments which his research brought into existence? First, they have increased his control of his material environment. They have improved his food, his clothing, his shelter; they have increased his security and released him partly from the bondage of bare existence. They have given him increased knowledge of his own biological processes so that he has had a progressive freedom from disease and an increased span of life. They are illuminating the interactions of his physiological and psychological functions, giving the promise of an improved mental health.

Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals; it has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual.

There is a growing mountain of research. But there is increased evidence that we are being bogged down today as specialization extends. The investigator is staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other workers—conclusions which he cannot find time to grasp, much less to remember, as they appear. Yet specialization becomes increasingly necessary for progress, and the effort to bridge between disciplines is correspondingly superficial.

In a particularly prescient paragraph he articulates the need for better ways make use of information:

The difficulty seems to be, not so much that we publish unduly in view of the extent and variety of present day interests, but rather that publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record. The summation of human experience is being expanded at a prodigious rate, and the means we use for threading through the consequent maze to the momentarily important item is the same as was used in the days of square-rigged ships.

And he then did even more foreshadowing of the concept of “Big Data”, the coming deluge of massive amounts of information that humans cannot hope to analyze alone:

Professionally our methods of transmitting and reviewing the results of research are generations old and by now are totally inadequate for their purpose. If the aggregate time spent in writing scholarly works and in reading them could be evaluated, the ratio between these amounts of time might well be startling. Those who conscientiously attempt to keep abreast of current thought, even in restricted fields, by close and continuous reading might well shy away from an examination calculated to show how much of the previous month’s efforts could be produced on call. Mendel’s concept of the laws of genetics was lost to the world for a generation because his publication did not reach the few who were capable of grasping and extending it; and this sort of catastrophe is undoubtedly being repeated all about us, as truly significant attainments become lost in the mass of the inconsequential.

The difficulty seems to be, not so much that we publish unduly in view of the extent and variety of present day interests, but rather that publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record. The summation of human experience is being expanded at a prodigious rate, and the means we use for threading through the consequent maze to the momentarily important item is the same as was used in the days of square-rigged ships.

But there are signs of a change as new and powerful instrumentalities come into use. Photocells capable of seeing things in a physical sense, advanced photography which can record what is seen or even what is not, thermionic tubes capable of controlling potent forces under the guidance of less power than a mosquito uses to vibrate his wings, cathode ray tubes rendering visible an occurrence so brief that by comparison a microsecond is a long time, relay combinations which will carry out involved sequences of movements more reliably than any human operator and thousands of times as fast—there are plenty of mechanical aids with which to effect a transformation in scientific records.

He then goes on to outline needs that through today’s lens look like he is calling for smartphones, home computers and the Internet itself.

And he doesn’t stop there. He moves on to discuss the contributions that computing machines can make to analysis.

The repetitive processes of thought are not confined however, to matters of arithmetic and statistics. In fact, every time one combines and records facts in accordance with established logical processes, the creative aspect of thinking is concerned only with the selection of the data and the process to be employed and the manipulation thereafter is repetitive in nature and hence a fit matter to be relegated to the machine. Not so much has been done along these lines, beyond the bounds of arithmetic, as might be done, primarily because of the economics of the situation. The needs of business and the extensive market obviously waiting, assured the advent of mass-produced arithmetical machines just as soon as production methods were sufficiently advanced.

With machines for advanced analysis no such situation existed; for there was and is no extensive market; the users of advanced methods of manipulating data are a very small part of the population. There are, however, machines for solving differential equations—and functional and integral equations, for that matter. There are many special machines, such as the harmonic synthesizer which predicts the tides. There will be many more, appearing certainly first in the hands of the scientist and in small numbers.

If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get far in our understanding of the physical world. One might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability. The abacus, with its beads strung on parallel wires, led the Arabs to positional numeration and the concept of zero many centuries before the rest of the world; and it was a useful tool—so useful that it still exists.

For more you will want to check out The Atlantic. Good on them for keeping this essay alive for the future. Find it here.

Thiel, Hoffman, and Spiderman Ethics

The tech world is great for those that love to learn. Things are changing fast so learning is critical. One of the great ways to learn is to track the words of the creators of tech. Two of the great tech investor/creators, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman, recently sat down for a discussion moderated by historian Niall Ferguson of the Hoover Institution that provided fantastic context on a wide range of issues. They discuss and debate and argue topics like societal inequality, whether the Internet is a force for good or evil and even international politics and issues of war and peace.

Funny moment: Consider Thiel’s context on AI and Cryptocurrencies: “Crypto is decentralizing, AI is centralizing. Or, if you want to frame it more ideologically, crypto is libertarian and AI is communist.” Ha! The entire discussion underscored something else Thiel said when he described his view of the dynamic of good and evil in cyberspace: “I remain optimistic, but not utopian.”

I also loved Hoffman’s belief that Silicon Valley has been too focused on the future and not enough on the “now.” It was also good hearing his call for “Spider-Man” ethics for the tech industry, since it is true that with great power comes great responsibility.

The full video is long, but well worth it. Imagine you had an opportunity to spend an hour with Hoffman and Thiel. Would you do it? Of course you would!

Spend time with these great thinkers here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Ts4_65hKk

Boston Dynamics RoboDog Has A New Skill: Terrifying, But Potentially Lifesaving

The evolution of Boston Dynamic’s robots continues at a brisk pace. The latest example to hit YouTube features a pack of their robot dogs that work together to assess a situation and take action. The action? Escape from the lab!

Check them out here at:

Jokes are easy with this one. Like “I for one welcome our robot overlords” or “oh we are all doomed now”. But frankly the real use cases are much more exciting. Like rescue missions where it is too dangerous for humans to go or security patrols were door security needs to be checked. Getting the hands to work even better will open robots up to even more exciting things, like work in space.

For more see: Boston Dynamics  and our list of Robotics Companies.

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