Weapons Of Math Destruction
Dear Carolyn was kind enough to give me a copy of this very important book on the dangers of how Google and other big data companies are using Artificial Intelligence ("AI") and Predicitive Analytics algorithms to make decisions about our lives, perpetuating and increasing inequalities between the economic classes (and yes, of course American has distinct social and economic classes, with the minorities continuing to be over-represented in the lowest classes, but with the poor whites also growing fast as rich, well-educated Asians flood our shores and fill our universities, both as students and eventually as our engineers and as our faculties, further eroding democracy as our home-grown American students can no longer compete for university spots at the elite universities < and the U.S. still has the best > and even if they can get in they can not understand their professors whose first language is not English - this is a particularly troublesome in Mathematics where the U.S.A., the land I love, continues to wallow at the bottom of the world in Mathematics Education).
I finally got around to starting to read it about 4 AM this morning (inveterate night owl that I am) and as Dr. Steve Stogatz of the Applied Math Department of Ivy League Cornell University in Ithaca, New York (where "It's Gorges!") says:
<<< Even as a professional mathematician, I had no idea how insidious Big Data could be until I read "Weapons if Math Destruction". Though terrifying, it's a surprisingly fun read: o'Neil's vision of a world run by algorithms is laced with dark humor and exasperation - like a modern day "Dr. Strangelove" or "Catch-22" (note from Dr. Frank: shame on you if you're not familiar with these references! How have we reached this general level of illiteracy? It is like when I tell people that we live in a Republic, not a Democracy, always have and always will, and ask who has read Plato's "Republic" and encounter mostly blank stares! Very disturbing!) it is eye-opening, disturbing and deeply important. >>>
Of course I had no such epiphany or blindness as Dr. Strogatz did, having been a science fiction fan since grammar school in the 1960's where such dystopian futures have been a frequent topic of discussion. Perhaps the most important such book I started reading recently is the excellent futuristic short story collection "AI 2041 - Ten Visions for our Future" by Dr. Kai-Fu Lee (AI expert and author of the important and eye-opening "AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley and the New World Order") using science fact and plausible forecasting, and jointly authored by science fiction writer Chen Qiufan (author of "Waste Tide", which I have yet to read - all this just gets me so depressed, especially not only does nobody care, nobody knows! Ignorance is Bliss! Give me another beer quick please (I mean "Bitte")). As succinctly put by Bennett Miller, Academy Award-nominated director of "Moneyball" and "Foxcatcher":
<<< Are we fit for the strange new world we seem determined to create? What is clear is that imagination-defying change is upon us. Less clear is what this will mean for humankind. Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Quifan's "AI 2041" offers the most carefully and caringly considered visions of what is soon to come. >>>
One might wonder how I can possibly have half of my retirement nest egg invested in AI & Robotics with these thought-provoking insights? The answer is quite simple: I need the money! I have yet to make my first million, which I desperately need to fulfill my dream of achieving dual Irish/U.S.A. Citizenship and buying a modest little cottage on the Arun Islands off the coast of Galway, Ireland (Galway is the ancestral home of my grandmothers forebears, the "Flannery's of Yonkers", as my father would say in his snobbiest dialect after a few beers, and the Arun islands are one of the many Gaeltechts in Ireland, areas where English is not permitted and only Irish is spoken - being forced to learn to speak Irish as a matter of daily survival seems to me to be pretty strong motivation - also, I've been troubled by the direction America is going socially and politically since the 1960's and it's only getting worse, with American Arrogance, Apathy and Ignorance being the chief culprits.
Slainte! ("Cheers")
Proinseas ("Frank")
O Suillabhean ("Sullivan", aka "Eagle-Eyed")
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