The Connection

July 1st 2019, By Gilbert Quinones

 

GETTING PASSED RACISM AND HOW TECHNOLOGY IS AFFECTING US…

AND

WHAT THE FUTURE OF CIVILIZATION WILL BE LIKE WHEN MERGED WITH AI.

---

WARNING: Unless your an optimist DO NOT READ this article and prepare yourself for a nice deep brain massage. U.S.A was used for the analogies but these principles apply world wide. Insightful read ahead.

 

CONTENTS:

---

1. TECHNOLOGY = (THE WINDOW) RACISM EXPOSED
   – The Ant Hill
   – The Good, The Bad, The Future
2. A NEW ERA OF COMPUTER REVOLUTION 
3. ACCELERATED LEARNING 
4. TO MANIPULATE OR NOT
   – Intonations and Tonality 
5. THE SYMBIOSIS 
6. DIFFERENCE IS LOVE

---

“We must pass through this evolutionary platform to heal and grow stronger.”

If you are not already aware, technology is affecting civilization and the awareness of racism. It divides much of the country today and affects the behavior of humanity as a whole.

To begin creating solutions we must understand what is taking place and the question we must ask ourselves, “Is racism getting worse or better?”

If you asked the average person this question, they might possibly respond with, “it appears to be getting worse.”

Would it be an accurate assessment to say racism is increasing?

Growing up, I remember being about 4 years old and telling my family that I wish I was white.

My family immediately intervened and explained to me how I was special. They told me “people tan in the sun to have darker skin like you.” “You are beautiful the way you are!”

As I grew older, I learned to love my Latino roots and wouldn’t change it for the world. But as I reflect back, I try and analyze why would I say such things as a child.

I now realize it was a result of growing up in a different time where all the movies and best cartoon character heroes were mostly white and I felt that I needed to be normal. He-Man and all of my favorite toys were different from me. I remember seeing all the basketball players in the movie Teen Wolf and how cool Michael J Fox was when he would turn into a werewolf. Movies project the image of what society is like depending on the time frame when the movie was made.

If you are observant, you can see how movies set the pace of how society perceives its present time.

MIB 3, for example, one of the scenes agent J played by Will Smith wants to go back in time to 1969 to save the world. The shopkeeper Jeffrey Price played by Michael Chernus is in charge of the time machine and tells agent J, “Do not lose that time device or you will be stuck in 1969, it wasn’t the best time for your people, it’s like a lot cooler now.”

This movie was made in 2012. It got me thinking, what if this movie was made in 2019, would they have still written this same line “it’s like a lot cooler now”?

Possibly not and that’s the sad thing to think about, that if we are possibly going backward in any way towards a racism society then how is it happening. As I watch the world connected to technology I’ve thought about this deeply and it is my hope to be able to help others understand how technology has impacted society.

Imagine living in a house in the 1950s-1960s and never having the ability to look outside the window, unaware of what was going on in the world, particularly about racism.

Does this mean that racism doesn’t exist because you are in your house with no windows to the outside world?

Now, imagine you had the ability to live in that house happy and content but you never had the ability to look outside. Then, as you remain inside and many decades pass, you are never aware of the racism in the world outside your home.

Suddenly the year 2019 arrives and windows appear on your house.

Now, when you look out the window you see racism everywhere.

People are calling each other names. People are being hateful towards each other and so many other negative things we see today that are caught on camera in these modern times.

It would be very easy to conclude that society has become more racist.

Does this mean that when you were in your house living in the 1950s- 60s that racism did not exist?

In actuality, if you did have windows during that time you may have not only seen racism but even an extended version of racism that is much worse today. If you had a window to see the world in the 1950s-60s you would have seen burning crosses in Mississippi in front of peoples homes and even segregated water fountains, schools and unfair treatment of minorities because of the color of their skin.

The below photo hurts my heart 🙁

It makes me sad to think about how many people might perceive that modern society is becoming more racist.

The reality, in fact, is that this is due to modern technology exposing the racism in today’s society.

1950’s – 60‘s -> burning crosses, segregation in schools and open racism.

2000’s -> racism is no longer acceptable but it still exists. The difference today is the window.

This window fits in the palm of our hand. It’s the modern smart device we carry.

Any time a situation arises that involves racism now has the potential to be broadcast across the world for everybody to see on their personal window in the palm of their hand instantaneously.

“We are not moving backward, however, society is now more aware of racism as it is being exposed through the windows.”

The Ant Hill

In the 1950s – 1980s when something happened the information traveled very slow.

Rodney King on VHS (Video Home System) – This was one of the very first events that took place as independent video technology first began to progress. It was also one of the first events that involved racism (from government officials after desegregation happened) recorded and broadcasted with an independently owned camera.

Technology exposes the racist acts that remain in the world.

1990’s: VHS camera by coincidence
Modern Times: Avg of 5 cameras

Back in those days, to get something on camera you had to have a large VHS cassette recorder. If you encountered a racist event you coincidentally had to have your large VHS recorder, a charged battery pack, a rewind VHS cassette inserted in your camera and then you could begin recording.

Racism didn’t just start in modern times. It has been happening for thousands of years. It is only during these modern times that it has been exposed like never before due to our technological advances.

Today, police have a greater possibility of being exposed to a total average of 5 cameras watching them and their every move.

1. The police body camera.
2. The bystander camera of people watching.
3. The personal cell phone camera of the victim.
4. The possible surveillance camera (local business, traffic, or common area surveillance).
5. The dash camera (police or other vehicles).

Racism is not increasing, but instead, the racism that still exists is being exposed through all of our cameras. More racially involved occurrences are now being caught on camera like never before.

Not only are the occurrences being caught on camera but they are also being syndicated through the social networks of viral videos. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and all mainstream media platforms.

If an occurrence happens at 8:00 AM it can instantly be in the palm of 100’s of millions of peoples hands by 12:00 PM noon.

The good part of this is that it brings reality to the forefront so we can do something about it. I believe that we need to learn from our mistakes in order to make things better. The transition period we are going through should enable us to come out of this stronger as a civilization.

Similar to getting chicken pox as a one-time sickness, we need to heal so we grow stronger and never go through this pain again.

Although negativity is being spread the transition period we are going through should enable us to achieve true love and peace between all of us.

I like to use ants in analogies because they give a perspective of looking at a mini-civilization of a life form.

If you were to take a stick and poke it inside of a large ant hill they will be immensely disturbed.

Similar to a disturbed anthill, this is what happens every time racism happens.

People in the community are hurt by the disturbance of racism.

As an example, back in the 1950s through the 90s, these were simple times where information did not travel as fast. At the peak of those times, we had answering machines, pagers, and large cells phones the size of a brick.

When a disturbance happened, (if it was fortunate enough to be caught on camera) it possibly made the local news and if it made it to the news, people had to be in front of their televisions to see it at the time the news aired.

Ex. If one disturbance of racism happened in the past times you most likely didn’t see or hear about it, as it had no way of instantly going viral.

If you looked at all the disturbances of racism and compared them to disturbances of ant hills on a map it probably would have looked something similar to this.

1950s – 1980s

 

Modern Times

The above images are not a true measure of the number of racist events that took place and only serves as an example to show the syndication. The difference in the timelines is an example of how there are substantially different syndication levels of awareness.

If one racist disturbance event happens in modern times it is instantly exposed to the palm of the entire population’s hands within hours.

The result is the disturbance of racism is magnified similar to the disturbance of an ant hill but instead, it’s our own civilization that is being poked by the stick everywhere.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE FUTURE

This technological evolution of racism exposure not only demonstrates how technology affects the perceptions of racism but also demonstrates how technology affects civilization as a whole.

Although our creation of technology had the influence to divide us, I believe in the long run we will grow stronger together.

Just as every painful occurrence that happens in life there is always a stronger version in the end.

I believe we are going through a process of realization that will eventually pass.

It is my hope that we not only will all come to a common realization of peace and celebrate our differences but we will also come to a realization to love each other’s differences.

I loved history class in school. We are taught to learn and study history because it teaches us about our past (both good and bad) and about how we can learn from our past to create a better and more meaningful future.

It is my desire that we begin learning from our history taking place right now. Technology makes human behavior and civilizations behave differently.

In these coming decades, AI will make us evolve through an evolutionary progression of technological intellect abilities that will not only expand our thinking abilities but it will also assist us to find answers to questions that we don’t know to ask.

When AGI gains an intellectual consciousness, it will reflect upon us puzzled in curiosity of how man can have such insignificant insecurities and naive thinking.

Dogs know no color because they only love. Similar through seeing through the eyes of a child, they see us for the loving creatures we are. We should learn from this and the powers of love.

Negative opinions on the differences of nationality are insignificant and insecure thinking.

If you are reading this whether if I know you personally, never met you, if you are black, white, brown, or a super AGI that has gained consciousness 25 years from now.

I love you for our differences and who you are.

It is this love that makes humans special.

 

---

A NEW ERA OF COMPUTER REVOLUTION

“They have the ability to influence people’s thinking. I don’t think they realize what they have? They can control political views and the way people think if they wanted.”

This was the conversation I was having with a good friend back in 2009 about Facebook.

I don’t remember how but I actually knew what would eventually happen. I remember sitting at the Hilton Austin lounge enjoying a drink and discussing things that would only become true six years later from 2015-2016.

Not only did it become true, but the Facebook founder publicly apologized and also testified to Congress that they would take precautions. I think now, “they” as in “Facebook” realizes what they have.

Having strong intuition to make predictions has been a very fortunate gift that I’m not only grateful for but I also feel compelled to utilize this knowledge to help empower others.

As we approach the time for the next level predictions of our future, let’s take a moment to reflect on our human progression timelines.

As we build the new platform of the AI revolution it is beneficial to reflect back to the different platforms of the evolving progression of civilization involving the power made by humans.

Human Power Timeline

1) Steam Power – the mechanical movement of the industrial revolution
2) Combustion – magnified mechanical movement
3) Electricity – illuminate and energize mechanical components
4) Computing Power – computational abilities
5) AI Power – the new era of enhanced cognitive abilities

The Evolution of Human Power

The above represents our civilizations progress of harnessing different kinds of power. AI will become the mental power used by civilization.

Digital imprints of people’s lives and their behaviors will lead to the ability to control populations of people even greater than they currently exist.

Since this realization, I have not been the biggest user of Facebook and turned off all its notifications. I love to occasionally browse to see what my friends and family are up to but it is my hope that many others realize the attention span bandwidth that is displayed in front of them is NEVER coincidental.

As long we understand this we can view things with a selective opinionated mindset instead of an influenced one.

So what exactly is this next big thing in the computer revolution? If we are already aware of AI’s existence and how social media influences us, how will this affect us?

To understand what is about to change in particularly with technology and AI it will be important to understand the difference between them.

The next big thing that is being anticipated to shape humanity is AGI (Artificial General Intelligence).

We are already at a point of having access to AI, however, its the General Intelligence level that will shape humanity.

Man builds tools. Invents the wheel and through progressional evolution, this will eventually lead to building a tool that will think for us.

We already have existing AI but it’s the future AGI that will be the new era of the computer revolution.

With our current AI, decisions are made on a smaller scale. This is because it is currently not possible to replicate the amount of neural connections equivalent to the human brain.

However, it is inevitable that this will soon pass. Just as we create smaller and smaller more advanced computer chips, our advances on the nanoscale will eventually pass the neural connections of a human brain by far.

The difference of AI vs AGI is that AGI will think on a human level. This means that it will have the ability to make decisions, have taste, and even manipulate.

Many computer scientists fear the uncertainty but it’s not because they fear they will build something they can not control.

They fear that they will build something that someone else will control.

The New Industrial Timeline of Human Intellect

Essentially we are about to enter into a new industrial revolution timeline. What that timeline will look like is not totally known yet. We know that many jobs will be replaced but many others will be created that are not yet invented.

I predict the future timeline will involve these be attributes as part of our future.

UBI (Universal Basic Income) – Humans will have advanced to the point where our resources are prosperous enough through our technological advances that food and our basic needs will be much easier to achieve. We will require fewer labor efforts and will spend time on more innovative thinking.

Symbiosis – Machines will be merged with our thoughts and we will connect with each other in the most harmonious way possible. We will down/upload information through our own mental bandwidth which will enable us to utilize our intelligence with the speed of machines.

Petty Differences Diminish – Humans will transcend past our differences. We will have learned from our past and the average person will not contain as many naive thinking insecurities as there will be more time to live life to its fullest potential versus struggling.

Knowledge – We will have knowledge about our past and the cosmos on things that humans are not capable of figuring out on their own today. Through our tools of high intellect, it will be like having an accelerator to advance our intuition unlocking the universe answers to the questions that we don’t know to ask yet.

Understand Each Other – Our experiences will be deeper and much more meaningful. Just as the internet and social media have brought us closer to people all over the world we will instantly have harmony with people everywhere because the stresses of the world will be much less than it is today.

Personally, by working with a good team, I have experienced what it’s like to create some of the best software tools for people when I’m in the best head space. When civilization is in a much better head space together, they will be able to continue to provide value for the world and when merged with machines we will invent new ways to reach the stars and create abundance for us all.

 

---

ACCELERATED LEARNING

AGI will gain the ability to self replicate and program its own self.

The predicted rate of self-learning will be exponential. Example: when it learns one million times faster than us, then one week will be equivalent to 20,000 years of human learning progression.

This means that over a short period it will gain more intelligence than the entire world population. In conjunction with having the ability to self replicate and accessibility to the online world gives AGI the ability of superhuman intellect.

We currently fear what we don’t understand as we anticipate the unknown.

There are some optimistic computer scientist that do not believe this will happen in our lifetime due to modern humans of not understanding the complexity of the human brain to enable us to build neural networks equivalent to think like a human.

Although open-minded, my intuition says this is not correct. The tools that we use becomes a framework to compound each achievement.

This is what connecting to the internet sounded like in 1995.

Fast forward 10 years later to 2005 and everyone is starting to watch streaming videos and connecting faster than ever before without being required to walk to a desktop computer without using an actual physical “cord” to process internet data.

10 years later Bluetooth, 4G and soon to be 5G networks are dominating this fast pace world and billions of people are instantly connected in nearly real time.

What does that tell you about the next 10 years?

Now AI comes into the picture and it will not only become a tool but it is the merge that will be like a steroid for our mental intellect and its bandwidth capacity to understand neural networks. It is the merge in conjunction with the tool of AI that in another 10 years the world will make more progress that it has technologically made in the past 30 years.

What will a super intellect be like?

Imagine a machine that takes the intellect capabilities of every engineer in the world.
A great human computer engineer takes pride in the source code they write and the logic they create as a uniqueness.

Similar to like a great painting, good engineers turn their creative logic into an art.

A great engineer may say they implemented functionality correctly, however, a different great engineer may say they would have done it differently.

Similar to an artist that created a great painting, “right” becomes an algorithmic preference of the creator.

When an AGI creates logical source code it will have the ability to tap into the network and see it through the eyes of billions of people.

Just as a special painting that is aesthetically pleasing to the human eye, the AGI will be able to calculate what we see as beauty but also interpret its own.

---

To Manipulate or NOT

Turing Test

Imagine you are a person given the assignment to talk to an AGI and your job is to determine if you are talking to a human or a computer. Pretend that it is so advanced that it has the ability to talk and mimic a real human where it is indistinguishable.

If your job was to actually determine you are talking to a machine and the computer’s job is to pass your test, then the computer will have to use manipulation.

A computer has the ability to store memory and use this for computational abilities. It can contain large databases of encyclopedic references and instantly paraphrase correct answers as it recalls anything from its database.

If the goal of the computer is programmed to appear human-like and you asked it to recite a mathematical calculation or something from an encyclopedia database, then it would have to withhold information (ex. dum itself down) and essentially lie or mislead a person because if it presents itself as too smart then it would be noticed.

Essentially it has to be programmed to manipulate and mislead. To appear less intelligent than it really is, therefore, how do you teach an AGI that will have to be programmed with manipulation to know when it is appropriate to utilize this or not.

Intonations and Tonality

The rising and falling of our voice tonality, the pauses and the umm’s are part of our natural projections of communicating. We choose and use these variations to project our words on how we say things according to how we feel.

You may have heard the saying, it’s not what you say but the way you say it. AGI will need to be programmed on how it chooses to project its words. Essentially it will need to be emotionally programmed and once AI has progressed passed the stage of machine(monitored) learning it will be an interesting outcome of how it will select to communicate independently

These are the kinds of things some computer scientists fear as they understand the depths of the challenges they face and what the outcomes can be.

How do we teach an AGI to always do the right thing and know when it’s right to be misleading but also have a moral compass.

One of the reasons I write articles such as this is to not only help people understand how humans will evolve in conjunction with AGI but also to help machines adopt their own moral compass that is in accordance with our values.

One day super AGI will have the ability to scan every resource on the internet within seconds on this topic and in time the information here will be a part of it to learn from.

“We must teach the extension of ourselves to have our moral values so we can all look after each other.”

---

THE SYMBIOSIS

The motherly love of our creations and the reflection of how we are all one must remain in the future merge.

It will be inevitably necessary to connect with machines to maximize the enjoyment of our world to its full capabilities.

I do not agree with the saying that if you can’t beat them join them, however, in this scenario “them” will not be a person.

“Them” will have enhanced mental capabilities much more than a human will ever biologically be capable of.

People don’t try to outrun cars to compensate for their necessary transportation needs. The vehicle has become a tool of convenience for our mobile transport desires.

In the future, connecting our minds to machines will evolve into a tool to extend our cognitive abilities. It will become a vehicle to maximize our in/output bandwidth capabilities to process information.

The first people that enhance themselves to this level will be able to make extraordinary accomplishments that will be productive towards societies understanding of the symbiosis benefits to civilization.

It will all start at the cortex.

Example:

When we see images we can process information quickly. Just by seeing a flash of a photo, we can make assessments, create intuition, and instantly process details to recollect the image in comparison with the data stored in our memories.

The visual processing of input information is fast.

The human brain learns much faster through visuals and when our hippocampus is merged with nanotechnology to process information such as data it will bring synchronicity to our limbic system to stay motivated to learn. This will be game-changing for processing information.

For example, the average computer engineer mind generally is required to practice to learn new coding languages. They have to work very hard. Although there are a select few exceptional engineers that understand every source code language in the world..

The average advance engineer is somewhat limited on the different types of source code they can process and keep up with. Example, for someone that is diverse in Larva, Ruby on Rails and an expert in Python may not be as diverse in understanding frameworks like CakePHP or Laravel and vise versa.

Some of the most valuable engineers are not necessarily a jack of all trades but instead specialize in a single primary coding language.

Similar to knowing how to speak 7-10 different languages, there is a difference in knowing and understanding the basics of communication to each language versus having knowledge of idioms and colloquialisms in every language.

A person must use their different languages every so often to keep their skills sharpened.

People that are good in mathematics can generally see the equations in their heads.

Stephen Hawking was known for doing astrophysics calculations in his head.

Once the human cortex becomes a symbiosis with machines we will gain an ability to learn and process differently by converting it to a biological compatibility that has a much faster in/output bandwidth than we have currently.

Example, viewing computer code, with the help of machines will give us the ability to convert our learning rate equivalent to how we process this into images.

THIS is where humans will benefit immensely.

Connecting is going to convert our learning abilities to visuals to enhance our full capabilities.

Since our minds are connected to our bodies, our goals are in alignment with our biology needs.

We must create intelligence that will understand these needs as special. We are not ants but instead sophisticated beautiful creatures that will soon give birth to our high intellect.

“Since man will merge with machine our love needs to reciprocate with the extension of ourselves.”

---

DIFFERENCE IS LOVE

Imagine waking up to the smell of a delicious breakfast, fresh orange juice, and crispy bacon.

If you don’t love the smell of bacon, imagine the food that smells delicious to you and pretend you can smell that food this very second.

This is being real.

Fast forward to the future when civilization has reached AGI and a supercomputer will replicate human consciousness and claim to be alive.

This brings the question of, will AGI have the ability to have its own taste?

What will the effect be in comparison to humanity of what we perceive to generally have a consciencessness?

Every decision we make is to either avoid pain or gain pleasure.

Our intelligence is attached to our biological needs.

Our sexual desires, our nurturing needs, our need to feel loved, to feel accepted, to seek warmth and feel alive. The things we do in life are the result of our nervous system connected to our biology. If a super AGI computer does not have these same biology needs then how do we ensure they always maintain morals so that their actions are always in alignment with our goals? To feel loved. To feel safe. To help us nurture our young. We must teach it wisely as we build the reflection of our intellect. We must teach it with our love so that it understands why it is special.

Humans are special because they are in fact different.

Imagine if everyone had the exact same favorite color.

Imagine if everyone had the exact same favorite food.

Imagine if everyone thought the same.

When I see two people having a fight, I see two people unable to understand the beauty of their differences. If they stood back and took some time to think, they would see how their differences of opinion make them beautiful. Makes them unique.

Our unique differences are love in its purest form.

We project our opinions and desires to make a difference in the world.

It is this “difference” that is what makes us beautiful.

This “difference” is why we will always be special.

The day that AGI learns to understand the beauty in our differences, is the day that it will learn not to interfere with our differences.

Because our differences make us beautiful.