This starts back to Kevin O’Connor talking about his views. We do have to remember there was a huge strike of luck that helped him get his start as what occurred with many early Venture Capitalists. Sure there’s a ton of knowledge but I think the smart 
ones still realize that a little bit of luck was on their side too and that occurs in all walks of life. The basics of people working together has not changed. It is interesting to hear what they have to say. We can all agree on Capitalism not working but what some of the VCs interviewed here forgot to mention is the cooperation of Wall Street and the financial markets they have. They wouldn’t have their money without it:)
We do have two very different societies out there today and this documentary I think exposes that very nicely without an all out attack on how technology companies and their executives “think”. On the extreme other side we have the political dupers and we all get tired of them, the government who’s way behind both technology and Wall Street. One thing I think that deserves a bit more focus is that “people have to be responsible for their algorithms and code” and perhaps we’ll hear more about that this year. I’ve been focusing on it for a number of years here but now when the divide becomes so large with the gap of income and money, it’s not going away. It’s also getting harder to be the overnight success with technology today as it’s a changed world from where we started years ago. Tim Draper, offers some interesting opinions and I do have to say he’s out there a bit. What I found disturbing about some of his comments though is he wants the divide and somewhat encourages a split world. For those who do not have the code, we kind of live under the Attack of the Killer Algorithms as we don’t have the code writing connections to battle back and are offered a reality of what technologists see and there’s not one with a different view.
It’s also interesting to hear another point of view on how technologists can see things ahead of other, well yeah they can, they write the code. You see Mr. Draper dancing his fanny off on “how happy” he is. Well he’s wealthy and who wouldn’t be happy if you had the same amount of money. We need a balance with how technologies work with the “real world”. What I found interesting is what some of the folks interviewed called “the real world”. Context comes into play here by all means. 
I have an entire different view of “the real world” and kind of align myself with people like Emanuel Derman, a Quant who teaches a Columbia and was one of the first Quants who worked at Goldman Sachs years ago.
The Attack of the Killer Algorithms- Some Technologies Help and Some Don't
Perception is key in a lot of this and what really does have value. As a developer there’s nothing like that big thrill of seeing what you wrote “actually work” and 99.99 percent of those who develop experience that, but of that crowd, that get the hype and feeling of accomplishment, 99.99 of that group do not become millionaires and don’t have the code written that creates value for the average consumer. It’s a hard nut to crack and again focus on how people work. The video moves on to speak to a young Google executive too. What is interesting is that as of a year or so ago, Google themselves found they needed to do a study as they don’t understand how their own people work…so we do get a ton of crap software to where the imagination of the developer is not really how people work and nor can you change a lot of behaviors with software either. There are some you can if a consumer feels they are getting some value, but look at mHealth apps, tons and very few use them as they don’t feel there’s any value and they are foreign to how we work as humans. Then the marketing and guilt marketing kicks in to push it to make money and that’s when things really get skewed.
“People Don’t Work That Way” A World of Broken Software Models That Don’t Align To the Human Side,Too Much Push At Times With Only A Proof of Concept That Fails in the Real World..
So in other words you have a lot to cook up in the kitchen with the odds really not being in your favor. Some succeed and we do all benefit but what about the rest who’s dreams don’t make it? Are they happy dressing up in costumes as we see here (grin). I think that’s a good question to ponder over and over and over as now we are getting in touch with the “real” real world. I could understand the enthusiasm of the young Google executive and sure we need some of that for sure but what happens when he’s done with is Legos? It’s code Legos and one thing he mentions that does happen is the interruption of a phone call to dump all your Legos on the floor. That is true as the focus here is very intense today.
People don’t come to the Silicon Valley to make money, well I can debate that one with all the banks and financial firms who have labs in the Valley, writing code to make money. There’s a partnership with Wall Street and Silicon Valley and Computer Scientist Jaron Lanier hit the nail on the head in stating such recently. It didn’t start out that way, but that’s how it is today.
One thing for sure, and this is my own observation and you can give it some thought, is that we watch Wall Street toss money at the most “Digital Illiterate” politicians out there today, just read the news. Why? The dumber they are the easier they can be manipulated. Then we have to be entertained to the extremes with how “digital illiterate” they are and get to hear them talk about abortions, they can model laws 
and bills and the folks on the technology side completely get this. Look at how Google has successfully figured out how to work both sides and they do it well and toss enough money out there to get some open ears. There’s no such thing as “sharing for the good” any more as it’s all shifted to “sharing for the good money”, not ours, their money:) Further more read this link below and see how news manipulation is the next ‘big rig”. It’s all about using technology to coerce and give the impression that you are “doing it for the good”. Not every company though is like this and there are some outstanding companies that really are doing things for the good.
Major US Newspapers Sign Up and Invest With New Start Up That Will Charge You To Read The News–20 Cents Per Article, Probably Written by a Bot and Goes On You Credit Card–And Bolsters the $180 Million Dollar Year Personal Data Selling Business
Take Theranos as an example. There’s just no comparison here with the value they are creating in making labs affordable and doable for the average consumer. They are a company that combines the old school of what Silicon Valley set out to do, create value. We need more companies like Theranos for sure and I don’t have an issue with companies like them making money as consumers do get a return and their low cost labs do help us and it’s not just some wild flinging perceptual algorithms that “say” it’s here to help you. What Theranos is doing is real value and is not just a bunch of bots out there to gobble up other data and present you a perceptual madness of value. In other words, they offer more than just a bunch of bots and algorithms running on server farms somewhere.
“It’s A Basic Human Right for Individuals to Have Access-One Drop of Blood”Theranos CEO & Founder, Elizabeth Holmes TED Video
So how do both worlds come together with “real world” solutions and not Tim Draper with a tie showing how to split up California so they can “leave the real world” behind? I’m not attacking him but rather looking at a big picture here overall. They want to escape and certainly I share the frustrations of the politicians we elect is just not being there and creating more problems than solutions these days as they still seem to think their legal verbiage can control those who code and the perceptions that are sold and marketed. Burning Man is discussed here and did you read the news where when the tickets went on sale a few weeks ago about how 200 technologists “hacked” the system to take opportunities away from others who want to enroll and attend?
Kevin Slavin hit the nail on the head with the hacking of the Burning Man tickets and said “that looks just like front running that takes place with High Frequency Traders on the Stock Market”, in other words folks that know how to code and hack right front showed you their talent (if you call it that in this instance) and how they can jump right out and smash and hopes of the average consumer wanting to learn. I did have to laugh when I saw Slavin’s tweet, he was right on target when 200 Silicon Valley Techs hacked the site to get their tickets, no regard for anyone else on the site wanting tickets who had put in their requests, but they did get caught. By the way watch video #4 in the footer here from Kevin Slavin and he’ll explain a lot more to you on how this works. As a matter of fact, all the videos in the footer are good to watch as all of the “smart” folks there are taking time to help educate the average consumer on “what’s really going on” out there. People use code to manipulate and make money and like it or not some of it cheats and fiddles with risk formulas and that’s all hidden in proprietary code so you never get to see it and most of the writing you see on the web is from people who analyze “what code does” and the sometimes un-intentional consequences it creates.
Politicians are heavily manipulated and they can’t even see a lot of it for the most part as again they forget that there’s more to laws today than just flat out verbiage to regulate how code works, and this is not just in the stock market, those models are all over the place. 
I said three years ago that Congress needed to restore the Office of Technology Assessment and get up to speed here and stop distracting consumers with their political garbage. I agree with the Silicon Valley on that end of it as I grow very tired of the nonsense and what we see in the news. One example here is the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act. I thought most news accountings of this were like morons discussing it.
Why Do We Discuss Supreme Court Ruling On Affordable Care Act Like a Bunch of Morons? Want to Make Changes and Review Legal Interpretation? Bring Code Please
Hey folks did we forget about Healthcare. Gov and all the code? Yes indeed it appears that way as most articles focused on the the politics and not the cold hard fact that if you change provisions of the law, line up some coders to change the IT infrastructures that run it. I didn’t see anyone else relate to that fact and I guess everything that was learned with complexities of IT systems today with the roll out of the website as soon forgotten and we reverted back to the old school again, which does not work. Sure get rid of subsidies, well guess what, you might be creating “algorithm hell” for consumers as insurers, government, etc. all have to change IT system..duh? Again, this should be brought to the attention of consumers as that’s the real world and laws depend on complex IT infrastructures to run it.
Instead we get stupid news with Cruz, Feinstein, McCain, and the list goes on with their opinions and not one could talk the real world with their opinions. I started calling this the Sebelius Syndrome and others are afflicted. She got the name as nobody else was so digital illiterate in the public eye over and over and over and she couldn’t’ stop herself with the whacked out perceptions she kept putting in the news, over and over and over.
“Markets Are Not Rigged” Spoken Like A True Data Mechanics Novice, It’s Like Sebelius at HHS All Over Again, Looking For Algo Fairies at The SEC, One More Government Agency Wrapped Up in “The Grays”…
Senator John McCain: Another Demonstration of Why Congress Should Reinstitute the Office of Technology Assessment, When Education Takes Place, Less Distractions With Boredom And More Respect for Consumers…
There’s some good coverage here with how Wired Magazine functions and how they report technology news. They are trying, like I do here to show how much power there is with computer code and what disruption does, the good and the bad and be an advocate where it works.
Here’s another reason that all this is growing and the fact that we have two different societies out there..people just hate
math and code and run for the hills. This is not saying everyone needs to be a coder or mathematician but understand the concept and how it works. Sniff some data and choose the news you read carefully and stay away from the distractions that do nothing, i.e. Hilary email dumps for one:) What impact does that have on you? Absolutely nothing, but it capture way too much of your time and keep you distracted from what’s really taking place today.
“Algo Duping” – Plos One Journal Publication Explains Why The Fear of Math Plays a Big Role As One Underlying Reason We All Get Duped And Those Who Don’t Fear Math Take All the Money, Gradually, Using “Mathematical Formulas & Algorithms”
Artificial Intelligence is also worth a mention and be aware of what can happen and how you get fooled. I go back to a great lecture
given by Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle and he was first out there with his warning “be careful with artificial intelligence that’s smarter than you”, and after all it was his daughter who made the move “HER” to bring this to the forefront. What kind of a “natural” world do we want? Good points made at the end, could someone like Mark Zuckerberg embrace the real natural world lying in the grass picking flowers? They don’t think so according to this video.
Larry Ellison, CEO Oracle, HCM Conference Keynote–”Be Careful About Virtual Relationships With Artificially Intelligent Pieces of Software That’s Smarter Than You“, It’s Really All About People”–Algo Duping and the Killer Algorithms Living Amongst Us…(Update) Video
So the question is, how do we unite both societies? We need to do that and get real numbers, real world values to all come together
soon, as we’re not looking so good to separate but rather need to united, some levels need to come up and some levels need to go down to understand the big picture and start looking at real world values and not just the virtual worlds. Virtual world values do impact the “real world” and consumers need to be educated on both and not just duped into “virtual values” as sold and marketed today for money and power, and to me that’s a lot of what’s wrong out there today.
Now that you have watched the documentary, here’s Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist, well known through out the tech society and he does a good job explaining the consumer impact of a lot of this with “behavior restriction”. Who are the people restricting our behavior? We don’t know and need to index and at least license them so we know who they are. BD
0 comments :
Post a Comment