Monthly Archives: July 2017

We tend to speak about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in terms of the pinnacle of its potential evolution, and thats a problem.

This article I found showcases one current debate about the potential for AI doing evil. Elon Musk fires back at Mark Zuckerberg in debate about the future: His understanding of the subject is limited.

On Sunday afternoon, while smoking some meats in his back garden, Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, questioned why Musk, the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and OpenAI, was being so negative about AI.

What theyre debating is the future potential for AIs that can, for all practical purposes, duplicate and then go far beyond the capabilities of the human mind. And, in addition, possess the ability to interact with humans beings for good or evil.

Of course, AIs today are very limited. We discover those limitations when we realize that AI demos typically only address one or two specific tasks. Like playing chess. Or driving a car on the roadwaysin traffic.Our interactions with Siri provide confirmation every day of that AIs limits.

So whats the debate really about? I think those who worry, like Elon Mush, ponder two certain things.

Just as Apple has built a sophisticated web browser, called Safari, that serves us well and trued to protect us, theres no way to perfectly protect the user when dedicated minds, the hackers, try to subvert the good uses of Safari for financial gain or other purposes.

Moreover, even though Apple has, for example, joined the Partnership on AI consortium, theres no guarantee that the knowledge or ethics developed there will be constrained only for good purposes, all over the planet Earth.

So then the question boils down to the limits of human capabilities. I dont think anyone doubts that well get smart enough to build an entity like Star Treks Lt. Commander Data. See NASAs page on the science of Star Trek:

At a conference on cybernetics several years ago, the president of the association was asked what is the ultimate goal of his field of technology. He replied, Lieutenant Commander Data. Creating Star Treks Mr. Data would be a historic feat of cybernetics, and its very controversial in computer science whether it can be done.

So how long will this take? If it takes us another 100 years to build a Lt. Commander Data, unforeseen events, war, climate change, and cultural changes could prevent that kind of evolution from ever happening. On the other hand, if we develop AI technology too fast, without adequate controls, we could end up as we did with nuclear weapons. A lot of power that we struggle to keep under control.

In the end, I think both Mr. Zuckerberg and Mr. Musk have equally good points. In Mr. Zuckerbergs favor, AI technology will do a lot to help us out in the short term, limited in scope as it is. However, in the long run, Mr. Musk has a great point. Namely, our species hasnt been able to control its worst instincts on the current day internet.What will we have to do as a species to avoid the worst possible fate of massive AI evil inflicted on ourselves.

Thats what were in the process of finding out.

Read more here:

Will the Evolution of Artificial Intelligence Harm Humans? Depends - The Mac Observer

After being closed to the public for the past six months, the Natural History Museums Hintze Hall reopened on the 13 July 2017, featuring a grandblue whale skeleton as its central display. This event carried particular importance for OUPs Gabriel Jackson, who was commissioned to write a piece for the Gala opening ceremony.

The piece, This Paradise I give thee,is a short composition for 13 instruments and baritone solo which draws inspiration from the diversity of the natural world alongside the words of Charles Darwin and John Milton. With this piece Gabriel maps processes and theories of evolution onto music. The idea that evolution can be expressed through music poses some interesting questions; what happens when you consider this relationship from an alternative angle? How has music evolved with humans over time? In his chapter Music and Biocultural EvolutionIan Cross, Professor of Music and Science at the University of Cambridge, provides some interesting ideas.

Although most modern scholarship on music only stretches back to the 1100s or so, music is truly ancient. The earliest example of sophisticated musical instruments (in the form of pipes made of bone and horns) date to around 40,000 years ago. Whilst this may not sound that far back, this predates all examples of visual art.

These early instruments were found in Germany; however, much like today, musical production was not only centred in this part of the world. In fact, there is evidence of music having existed globally at this time, with music production being found in places as far-flung as the pre-Hispanic Americas and the Aboriginal people of precolonial Australia.

It is generallyassumed that the creation of these very early physical instruments occurred significantly after the human capacity for musicality developed. As such, it is likely that other methods of music making that do not involve sound production from instruments, such as singing, date much, much further back than 40,000 years. According to Cross, this assertion provides good grounds for believing that music may have accompanied humans from the earliest signs of modern activity.

Of course, in order for these theories of music as a product of evolution to withstand scrutiny, Cross and other scientists have to rely upon a much more malleable notion of music than that which we often use today. According to the Oxford Dictionariesmusic is, Vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. This definition is unlikely to fit with notions of pre-modern music, and, indeed, does not fit all music that is produced today. Some people, for example, may find it quite difficult to perceive a sense of form or harmony in a work such as this:

The notion that all music fits within the definition posed in the Oxford English Dictionarycould therefore be considered a little Western-classical centric; however, the fact that all music expresses emotion is an inescapable truth. Whilst the emotions felt are often specific to an individual, it is unlikely that one would listen to a piece and feel nothing at all.

In addition to expressing emotion, there are also a number of other persistent similarities to be found when establishing the traits of music across cultures. For example, music nearly always carries some form of complex sound event (such as structured rhythms, or pitch organisation) over an underlying regular pulse. This is true regardless of the genre of music that is being listened to. When considering the importance of time in a musical performance, and the transition of emotions, then, some suggestions begin to emerge regarding the reasons why music may have evolved with us.

Cross outlines that, through allowing people to create something together via a regular pulse or beat, musical sounds may have provided a means through which people could envisage that they were sharing each others experiences, thus fostering social bonds.

Similarly, musics capacity to transmit emotions that are felt by everyone, yet specific to an individual, may suggest that it was created as a way of understanding individual and group feelings, particularly in times of social uncertainty. Indeed, as Cross states, the ability to share emotions and intentionality is fundamental to our capacity for culture, the possession of which is assumed be a generic feature of modern humans.

Musics ability to create and maintain social relationships, alongside its direction and motivation of human attention, is likely to have been incredibly important to the survival of pre-modern humans. When taken outside of its more modern context of entertainment, it is indeed likely that music provided an imperative social tool throughout the history of human evolution, and represents just one of the many ways in which humans are different from other species.

Original chapter written by Ian Cross, Professor of Music and Science at Cambridge University. Chapter published in The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction, Routledge, 2003. Extracts used by kind permission of Ian Cross.

Featured image credit:Stone wall with ancient musicians, by Repina Valeriya via Shutterstock.

Continued here:

Music and human evolution - OUPblog (blog)

Cumberland-based Numerex Corp, a provider of enterprise solutions enabling the Internet of Things, announced thatnxCONNECT, an LTE wireless backup solution, has received a 2017 IoT Evolution Product of the Year Award fromIoT Evolution magazineandIoT Evolution World, the leading magazine and website covering IoT technologies.

Purpose-built for MSOs and CSOs,nxCONNECT ensures the continuity of internet connectivity for small and medium businesses by using Numerexs network cellular service as a backup failover in the event of broadband service outages.nxCONNECT consists of a complete bundled offering which includes an intelligent router that instantly detects broadband signal loss and seamlessly reconnects to a powerful LTE link, so that mission-critical enterprise information continues to be transmitted and customers Cloud applications remain operational. nxCONNECT comes with a user-friendly online portal, along with inventory and fulfillment services, and an easy to use self-install kit which allows quick set up and installation for the end user.

The solutions selected for the IoT Evolution Product of Year Award reflect the diverse range of innovation driving the market today. It is my honor to congratulate Numerex for their innovative work and superior contribution to the rapidly evolving IoT industry, said Carl Ford, CEO ofCrossfire Media, a co-publisher of IoT Evolution.

We are honored that TMC has selectednxCONNECT as an innovative solution that earned Numerex the 2017 IoT Evolution Product of the Year Award, said Shu Gan, CMO of Numerex. As a new offering launched this year in our service portfolio,nxCONNECT leverages our powerful nxFAST Platform and the Numerex network to bring tangible benefits to our business customers.

The winners of the 2017 IoT Evolution Product of the Year Award will be published in the next issue ofIoT Evolution magazine.

See the article here:

Numerex receives IoT Evolution Product of the Year Award - MDJOnline.com

Racing.com is about to go through its first major evolution since the official launch of the joint venture between Seven West Media and Racing Victoria in August 2015.

After being granted the media rights for Thoroughbred Racing South Australia (TRSA) for seven years, Racing.com will broadcast South Australian racing for the first time from Morphettville on August 2, sitting alongside Victorian racing across all of its media platforms.

Andrew Catterall, Racing.com CEO, sees the addition of South Australian Racing as a major win for Racing.com.

"The shareholder agreement that governs the Racing.com joint venture between Seven West Media and Racing Victoria very clearly states that the acquisition of further racing content is in our mandate," Catterall said.

"Racing.com is the only dedicated 24/7 free-to-air sports channel in Australia and the addition of another 180 meetings to the existing base of 520 Victorian and 88 Hong Kong meetings really strengthens our offering of over 3000 hours of live race broadcasting per annum.

"Our channel is available free of charge to 95 per cent of homes, pubs and clubs and every mobile phone, not just in Victoria and SA, but also nationwide."

Catterall has questioned some recent media coverage querying whether Racing.com is doing the right thing for Victorian racing by adding additional coverage from other jurisdictions, including broadcasting five feature meetings of the Brisbane Racing Carnival and 10 meetings from New Zealand, along with winning the South Australian rights.

"The challenge for Victorian Racing is to make the channel more relevant to more people, more often," Catterall said.

"We want to attract punters from all states and territories to our freely available platform.

"Broadcasting South Australian racing is clearly an important outcome to attract South Australian viewers to our channel.

"As the premium product on the channel, Victorian racing clearly benefits from being more relevant to a larger audience.

"Since the launch of Racing.com, wagering on Victorian thoroughbred racing has grown by 18 per cent and has broken through the $6 billion per annum turnover mark for the first time for any state racing authority in Australia.

"This growth in turnover will lead to increased revenue for FY17 for Victorian Racing, for the benefit of all participants.

"Given this growth story, concerns that the coverage of Victorian racing is somehow diminished or that the argument that Racing.com should remain Victorian only are illogical."

Catterall also reinforced that the investment made by Racing.com to secure the South Australian thoroughbred rights from 2017 to 2024 was a well-considered strategic and commercial decision.

"It's a pity that some media commentators continue to publish false assumptions about the commercial deal between Racing.com and TRSA, and don't bother to ring us to fact check," Catterall said.

"The rights payment offered to TRSA covers both domestic and international rights for the period FY17 to FY24.

"Both the domestic and international offers were based on extensive analysis of our capacity to generate a direct return on the investment.

"Our shareholders, Seven West Media and RVL, hold us accountable to getting a return on the investment on behalf of the industry.

"We clearly paid the market price given that the Tabcorp-owned Sky Channel matched our offer through their last-rights option in the auction process.

"In the end, given comparable offers, the superior distribution benefits of Racing.com's free-to-air, Pay TV and streaming model were adjudged by TRSA to be the right option for the future."

Catterall also said that once the rights were secured, Racing.com immediately secured major agreements to recover the financial investment in rights payments, and de-risk the strategy for shareholders and the Victorian industry.

"We have already completed a sub-licensing deal with Sky Racing to guarantee that South Australian racing remains on the SKY 1 wall-to-wall service until 2024," Catterall explained.

"A deal has already been done to sub license the international rights to our partners at the Melbourne Racing Club, which goes through to 2024 as well.

"We have also completed sponsorship deals with our wagering partners until 2019.

"These core deals recover the bulk of the rights investment, and so now we turn our attention to securing as many streaming sub licenses to wagering operators as we can, and finding advertiser partners seeking to leverage SA racing within our nationwide broadcast.

"These streaming outcomes are really important for TRSA as South Australian racing generates around 50 per cent of its revenue, and the majority of all bets taken, from punters outside of South Australia, wagering through corporate bookmakers and interstate TABs that promote SA racing to the much larger national audience."

Catterall said that Racing.com is keeping TRSA updated through learnings from wagering operators on how they have been negatively impacted by the Point of Consumption tax implemented by the South Australian Government.

"This tax impacts on all bets made by South Australian residents," Catterall said.

"We will continually update TRSA on what impact this is having on how the corporate bookmakers promote South Australian racing both in SA and nationally."

Link:

SA coverage heralds Racing.com evolution - Racing.com

(Note: This program first aired back in January.) On this edition of ST, we speak with Randall Fuller, the Chapman Professor of English here at TU. He joins us to discuss his book, "The Book That Changed America: How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation." As the historian Eric Foner wrote of this work in The New York Times: "[Fuller's] account of how Americans responded to the publication of Darwin's great work in 1859 is organized as a series of lively and informative set pieces -- dinners, conversations, lectures -- with reactions to 'On the Origin of Species' usually (but not always) at the center. Fuller focuses on a group of New England writers, scientists, and social reformers. He begins with a dinner party on New Year's Day, 1860, at the home of Franklin B. Sanborn, a schoolmaster in Concord, Mass. The guest of honor was Charles Loring Brace, a graduate of Yale and founder of the Children's Aid Society, which worked to assist the thousands of orphaned, abandoned, and runaway children who populated the streets of New York City. Also present was Amos Bronson Alcott (Louisa May Alcott's father), a local school superintendent so garrulous that his neighbors would start walking in the opposite direction when they saw him coming to avoid an interminable discourse on one subject or another. Henry David Thoreau was there as well, taking a break from his hermit-like existence on Walden Pond. Brace brought to the gathering a copy of Darwin's new book, which he had borrowed from his cousin Asa Gray, a professor of natural history at Harvard. Fuller explores how these and other figures reacted to their encounter with Darwin's ideas.... Fuller is a lively, engaging writer, with an eye for fascinating details. His subjects wrote copious letters, kept diaries, gave speeches, and recorded their conversations with one another. Fuller has mined this rich material with care and insight."

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"How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation" (Encore Presentation) - Public Radio Tulsa