China mulls AI support for its foreign policies !!

As humanity heads ever closer to the singularity, the technological advances in humanoid robots are starting to speed up. We might be a long way from Netflix's Altered Carbon stylistic future, but that doesn't mean that we're not doing incredible things in engineering, artificial intelligence and robotic design.

Robots are quite interesting ! ~ in Rajni starrer Enthiran (Robot) – Chitti, the humanoid robot would read a full book by just scanning it in his face for a couple of seconds.  That perhaps was a thought that Sujatha wrote in ‘Mr Munsamy oru  1.2.1’ – in which a roadside rickshaw puller acquires super memory by an injection that were to lost only for a short period !!  My all time favourite is story written by Sujatha ~  En Iniya Iyanthira (என் இனிய இயந்திரா) the plot opens up in the year 2021 where India is ruled by a dictator called Jeeva. In his rule, the population is kept under control by killing elderly people when they cross the prescribed age limit. Everyone is allotted a unique name with two letters by Government. On a New Year eve, Nila, a homemaker is very delighted for having the Government's permission letter to have a boy baby from Population Control Board. She intimates the news to her husband Sibi.   At this juncture Sibi vanishes and pet Jeeno, the super intelligent robot dog steps in her life.  The story evolves on the plot to throw the dictator and the intelligence of pet dog Jeano !

~ that with some alterations needed for movie and for hero Rajnikant was Shankar directed ‘Enthiran’ – the real hero being mastermind Sujatha and more impressive were the acts of Jeeno.  In a song, you will hear reference to Isaac Asimov, who thought beyond his time on robotics.  I, Robot is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov.The stories originally appeared in the American magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950 and were then compiled into a book. 

Artificial intelligence (AI),  is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals. In computer science AI research is defined as the study of "intelligent agents": any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals. The scope of AI is disputed: as machines become increasingly capable, tasks considered as requiring "intelligence" are often removed from the definition, a phenomenon known as the AI effect, leading to the quip, "AI is whatever hasn't been done yet."  It is an issue troubling some of the greatest minds in the world for humanity believes super intelligent machines could use humans as pets. Professor Stephen Hawking said it is a 'near certainty' that a major technological disaster will threaten humanity in the next 1,000 to 10,000 years. 

More than 60 percent of people fear that robots will lead to there being fewer jobs in the next ten years, according to a 2016 YouGov survey. As well as posing a threat to our jobs, other experts believe AI could 'go rogue' and become too complex for scientists to understand. (recall Chitti going bonkers loving Sana and killing humans !).  If experts don't understand how AI algorithms function, they won't be able to predict when they fail. This means driverless cars or intelligent robots could make unpredictable 'out of character' decisions during critical moments, which could put people in danger.

Leaving all this aside, China's next key foreign policy decision could be aided by artificial intelligence, writes MailOnline.  It reports that the country is actively developing an AI system that will help lawmakers make policies based on unbiased data analysis, rather than human emotion.

When a policymaker needs to make an urgent decision in an ongoing, complex situation, the AI-powered system will be able to summon a range of options with recommendations for the best move in a matter of minutes. As it stands, the technology is purportedly still in its infancy, but one-day hopes to provide an unbiased view of political scenarios, without any trace of fear or 'moral concerns' that could get in the way of the nation's strategic goals. Scientists with knowledge of the plans stress that human diplomats will still be behind the final policy decisions, with the AI acting only as a support system. China already uses an AI system in the foreign ministry to analyse oversees investment decisions, researchers revealed.

'Artificial intelligence systems can use scientific and technological power to read and analyse data in a way that humans can't match,' Dr Feng said. 'Human beings can never get rid of the interference of hormones or glucose.' The technology would strip away the tiredness and fatigue that can hamper a politician's judgement. Scientists said it would also be completely immune to human flaws that can make some political decisions difficult, such as passion, honour, and fear. 'It would not even consider the moral factors that conflict with strategic goals,' Dr Feng added.  However, in order successfully make informed decisions that will benefit Chinese society, the AI machine would need access to huge volumes of data. According to the researchers, this could be a stumbling block for the technology, since some of the data needed to assess the viability of each option may be difficult to obtain, or not exist at all in the case of some isolated regions or countries.

The AI will also need a clearly-defined set of goals before it can present the options it has generated for the politicians. However, these goals can sometimes be absent at the start of drawn-out diplomatic interaction. There is a concern the advent of AI policymakers could further increase the divide between affluent nations and developing countries. AI excels at processing huge swathes of complex information to create a strategy. In the past, these systems have proven tricky adversaries for humans in board games, beating the world's best human players of strategic games Chess and Go. 'The machine will never replace human diplomats. It only provides assistance,' it is stated, but is an innovative and novel thought indeed. Research is also under way in China to introduce AI into nuclear submarines to help commanders making faster, more accurate decision in the heat of battle.  That way China is notches ahead !!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

30^th July 2018.

hate (e)mails ~ the angry response and Employer apologising !!

Unemployment was the theme of many films - When we were in school, there was some talk about Balachandar and Barathiraja – both taking film on same subject - in those days when only print media provided hot news, one friend remarked that on Deepavali eve, Barathi Raja telephoned Balachandar expressing concern on both handling the same subject and both getting released on Deepavali – to which Balachandar reportedly remarked that his way of handling was bound to be different that than of Barathiraja [obvious that the teller was a balachandar fan!] .. Kamal played the youth frustrated in not getting an employment – neither unemployment  nor cinema is the subject matter of this post – but those days, cinema will show hero receiving many letters – ‘rejection letters’ – communication from the Companies regretting their inability to recruit !

In the modern World of only electronic communication, where post cards / letters have almost found their demise, and when emails gets pushed on smart phones and other devices, not sure whether the practice of sending regret letters do exist .. .. but there are many emails, some of which make the recipient regret or respond with innate anger ! ~  sure, you too would have received one at some point.  One notices a mistake of the co-worker (read those reporting)

I am sure most of us have been there at some point. We notice a mistake one of our co-workers made, learn about a frustrating occurrence – and bang goes the ‘angry mail’ – calling for explanation for all the sins committed.  The sender will proclaim to be fair and receptive – but decision already made, judgement pronounced – mail will innocuously call for explanations of the sin made – ‘the angry mail has arrived’ – which shakes the recipient badly and some would react with more anger or madness.  People, in general, do not agree to the assessment, call the assessor bad and retorts an angry response.

These emails all look pretty similar. Typically, they are full of bolded words, the excessive use of capital letters, and lack any sort of salutation, letting out the innate anger well and truly known. When such an email gets exchanged, it shakes and bothers both.   It’s rude, disrespectful, creates animosity and immediately makes one feel that the hardwork is not appreciated, it draws unnecessary comparisons too ! In such hate and anger, any good quality and past performance gets buried deep, almost forgotten. 

You could see that in workplace, someone getting worked up – yelling harsh enough that the inner mind voice is heard - “I am so going to send email and give  piece of my mind”   ~ I had seen a person well respected by me, make the laptop keyboard tremble, as words (rather emotions) got typed, flowing fast, hard and angry.  We’ll take the life out would be the war cry – and the send button gets pushed hard. That anger might make one gloat on the accomplishment of making other shaken for life, a temporary accomplishment,  as the sender feels to sit back and relax !!   This person has wronged you, they deserve what’s coming to them, right?

Depending on how mature one is – in an hour or so, or after some more time, after blasting out such a communication – the anger starts fading and doubt could creep – have we gone a bit deeper – now you try to read back what was sent, trying to figure out whether it in any manner contains or could be understood to convey what you wish you would not ! – may be, one starts feeling that one need not have sent such an angry reposte or could have calmed down to read once again the tone and tenor before it was sent.

Unfortunately, it is too late by that time ~ the email is sent. The relationship is ruined.  In any relationship you are eventually going to experience some level of anger. It might be a mild irritation, it might be pure rage and anything in between. It is natural. Different people see things differently. Mix in some human emotions and occasionally characters clash leading to some level of anger from one, or both, sides. It happens at home, at work, with friends or even with pets.The next time this happens to you, before you do something irreversible that you’ll end up regretting later, try to buy time, before you react angrily. 

Recently one such hate email went  viral purported to be  the ‘worst email’  and now comes the news that Sydney boss apologised for angry all-staff message.  Guardian reports on that email - Marcus Wood says workers ‘getting on my tits’, and unless performance improves he will fire their ‘sorry ____’.. .. ..

Marcus Wood, the director of Mars Recruiting, has owned up as the author of the self-described “Gordon Ramsay meets Donald Trump-style email rant”, and says he has learned from his experience after the email went viral on social media.The original missive, titled “Friday observation”, was sent out last week and was then leaked online.

“Morning guys,” it began. “Quick observation that is really getting on my ….. 1: Endless ping pong during CORE BD business hours – especially from people with no money on the board.“2: Not even bothering to put a suit on or pretending to look the part (again with no money on the board). 3: Some of you are taking more sick days than Tom Hanks during the dying days of Philadelphia...again with no money on the board (and being a cost to the company and me personally).  “5 or 6 of you are REALLY GETTING ON MY … in this office – you are a cost, you are demanding and exhausting and you don’t even look like you are trying. will talk to you in more detail on Monday but if 5-6 of you don’t pick up your game massively you will see your sorry ---s fired and slung out the door in under 3 months”.

Later that day, he apologised to staff saying it was clear he was “not at my loquacious best”.“[It came] in a moment of seeing red and most definitely should not have happened,” he said. That was a British slang and in  his follow-up to staff, Wood wrote: “I am happy to hold my hands up, and to this end I wanted to apologise. Obviously some of you know me pretty well and know I shoot from the hip, but obviously others don’t.“It seems I am becoming an online sensation for how NOT to communicate - and in hindsight I agree!! I do value you all, but I am sure you get my sentiments in wanting you to reach your full potential, even if my delivery in this case was not at my loquacious best.”

Perhaps some of us have seen worser email communications but may not have the guts and gumption to stand up and apologise.  In life, as we mature, we learn that it makes real sense to be polite and communicate things without being harsher and hurting others.  Life can be uncertain and sudden ending – people management and relationship are the most important things.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

28^th July 2018.

mother Cow index ~ Quantitative Vs Qualitative analysis

How chill is vanilla ice-cream to strawberry – while one can feel the difference in chillness and measure the degree of cold – there are things which are better measured by feeling and not by scale.  In our school days, it was all about mathematical tables, and the one who could reel off 13 table was a wizard ! ~ do you know what is ‘mother cow index’ ?

Thosedays  life was all about tables ! ~ in Mathematics, a multiplication table is used to define a multiplication operation for an algebraic system.The decimal multiplication table was traditionally taught as an essential part of elementary arithmetic around the world, as it lays the foundation for arithmetic operations with base-ten numbers. It was all about memorising and recalling.

That way, has life turned simple or more complicated – as you would see modern day youngsters struggle for simple multiplications and search for a calci (calculator) or an MS excel sheet.  As someone said, modern day Offices might come to a standstill if Powerpoint and Excel cease to function on a given day !!Excel is a wonderful tool with unimaginable potential. This software is not only capable of doing basic data computations, but one can also perform data analysis using it. Excel, with its wide range of functions, visualization, arrays empowers amazes its users.  In every argument – there are ‘ifs & buts” – in Excel it is scientific.  If(): one of the most useful function in excel. It lets you use conditional formulas which calculate one way when a certain thing is true, and another way when false.

For advanced learners, Statistics is the branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation and presentation of data. In applying statistics to, for example, a scientific, industrial, or social problem, it is conventional to begin with a statistical population or a statistical model process to be studied. Populations can be diverse topics such as "all people living in a country" or "every atom composing a crystal". Statistics deals with all aspects of data including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveysand experiments.  In every analysis, scales help us measure the physical world. To compare quantities, we  rely on quantitative scales – numerical measurements that tell us something about frequency and quantity. Inches, feet, yards and miles; ounces, quarts, litres and gallons; seconds, minutes, centuries and lightyears are all quantitative scales.

There are qualitative scales too. These are yardsticks that measure observable, but not necessarily numerical, properties – and we use them all the time. Read this interesting article in BBC on this – they  range from chili pepper heat to mineral hardness to ocean breezes to something called the Mother Cow Index. Qualitative scales allow us to label variables with little or no quantitative information. These unusual units of measurement are often colloquial: guesstimations and “as-the-crow-flies” rules of thumb that allow for quick assessments and comparisons.

Qualitative scales prove their usefulness time and again. Without them, we would struggle to conceptualise ideas of pain (a doctor might ask a patient to rank his symptoms) or grade the severity of weather conditions (like the Beaufort Scale does).Date, when measured from an arbitrary epoch such as BC or AD, helps us understand time, while direction measured in degrees from true or magnetic north orients us in physical space.Quantitative scales are much easier to evaluate, since they are effectively comparisons to a known standard. A square-kilometre, a teaspoon of sugar or an hour-long lecture are basically unchanging measurements. Qualitative scales are more subjective. Neither quantitative nor qualitative scales, however, are ever 100% accurate: they are each limited by the uncertainty baked into the definitions of units themselves.Any true measurement, when you get down to it, is arbitrary. Yet the very human urge to appraise, quantify, and compare persists, and so we continuously seek new ways to describe our experience of the world.

In 1805, Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, an Irish hydrographer in the Royal Navy, wanted a way to more accurately measure ocean breezes. Each day aboard the HMS Woolwich, he recorded in his diary wind force and sea conditions, from eerie calm to violent gales. Today, a “Beaufort 0” means an ocean as smooth as glass, while a "Beaufort 12" indicates crashing waves, hurricane-force wind, whitecaps and greatly reduced visibility.

By and large, qualitative scales fall into one of two categories: Ordinal measurements (in which values can be arranged in a meaningful order), or Interval measurements (in which values can be arranged in a meaningful order, and the difference between two values matters). For example, an earthquake that measures 6.0 on the Richter scale is many orders of magnitude greater than a small trembler of 3.0. So the order of quake size matters, and the interval is also fixed, meaning that Richter’s scale is an Interval scale.  An “extremely satisfied” response on a customer service ranking is not triple the satisfaction of “somewhat dissatisfied”; even the difference between 10C and 20C, while quantitative, is not an intuitive measurement. Some argue that these limitations make qualitative scales inherently less functional.

Indeed, while proper measurement ascribes value to the physical world, our perception of the physical world varies widely. “There are things that we can measure and things we can’t,” says Andrew Hanson, senior research scientist at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the UK. “But even what we canmeasure, we can only do to a degree.”Hanson works in soft metrology: he studies measurements that relate to sensory scales like colour and light, which are quantitative but also subjective. No human can see ultraviolet or infrared light, but even shades on the visible spectrum appear differently from person to person – a difference that has real-world implications.

Think about traffic signals, which must appear red, amber, or green. The way we perceive the brightness of these coloured lights is non-linear: numerical changes in input (watts) don’t always translate to the naked eye, or to human experience.“For a scale to become legitimate, everyone must agree on its units and intervals,” Hanson explains. Despite the fact that they aren’t always linear or mathematical, qualitative scales still seem to get the international greenlight.Take the Scoville scale. Named after its creator, American pharmacist Wilber Scoville, this scale ranks chili pepper spiciness. But the Scoville doesn’t actually measure the amount of spice, or capsaicin, in a pepper; rather, it notes the number of dilutions needed to put out a capsaicin-fuelled fire.At present, qualitative measurements help us translate ideas that are almost poetically incalculable: the length of a city block or the Grand Canyon, the pitch of a teakettle or a lightning strike or a whisper in the dark.

Sounds complicated but true

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

28^th July 2018

Inspired by BBC article and largely reproduced from : http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180726-the-measures-that-dont-need-maths

PS:  For farmers, the literal size of a field was much less important than its utility in sustaining cattle. Ireland once used "a cow's grass" as a unit of measurement — that is, the amount of land needed for one cow. In America, the "mother cow index" determined how many pregnant cows an acre of land could support. As opposed to size, it was a quality measurement.

worst wildfire in Greece ~ Govt owns responsibility

The worst wildfire to hit Greece in over a decade tore through a small resort town near Athens this week, killing at least 74 people, injuring almost 200 and forcing hundreds more to rush on to beaches and into the sea as the blaze devoured houses and cars.  News reports suggest that huge, fast-moving flames trapped families with children as they tried to flee from Mati, 18 miles (29km) east of the Greek capital. Among the dead were 26 people whose bodies were found huddled tightly together close to the beach. It was the country’s deadliest fire since blazes raged across the southern Peloponnese peninsula in August 2007, killing dozens of people.

The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said a state of emergency had been declared in the Attica region, which includes Athens, and ordered three days of national mourning.“Greece is going through an unspeakable tragedy,” he said, adding: “We mustn’t let mourning overwhelm us, because these hours are hours of battle, unity, courage and above all solidarity.”

Uncontrolled blazes fuelled by weather, wind, and dry underbrush, wildfirescan burn acres of land—and consume everything in their paths—in mere minutes.On an average, more than 100,000 wildfires, also called wildland fires or forest fires, clear 4 million to 5 million acres (1.6 million to 2 million hectares) of land in the U.S. every year. There are three conditions that need to be present in order for a wildfire to burn, which firefighters refer to as the fire triangle: fuel, oxygen, and a heat source. Fuel is any flammable material surrounding a fire, including trees, grasses, brush, even homes. The greater an area's fuel load, the more intense the fire. Air supplies the oxygen a fire needs to burn. Heat sources help spark the wildfire and bring fuel to temperatures hot enough to ignite. Lightning, burning campfires or cigarettes, hot winds, and even the sun can all provide sufficient heat to spark a wildfire. Thus in any wildfire, it is more of combustible vegetation. Earth is an intrinsically flammable planet owing to its cover of carbon-rich vegetation, seasonally dry climates, atmospheric oxygen, and widespread lightning and volcanic ignitions.  Wildfires can be characterized in terms of the cause of ignition, their physical properties, the combustible material present, and the effect of weather on the fire.

Five days after devastating wildfires decimated seaside communities outside Athens, leaving 87 dead and countless missing, Greece’s embattled prime minister Alexis Tsipras has assumed political responsibility for the disaster.At an emergency meeting of his cabinet, he acknowledged that the tragedy had left him wondering whether his government could have done more to prevent such loss of life. “This is a difficult moment, perhaps the heaviest of our term in office,” he said. “The dead cannot talk, but the least we can do in their memory is to show respect for the truth.“Before the cabinet, and the Greek people, I want to assume full responsibility for the tragedy … I regard this as self-evident for the prime minister of a country to do – and I call on you to also assume responsibility, no matter how hard.”, said Tsipras.

The leftist-led coalition has been left reeling as criticism of its handling of the disaster mounted. Tsipras, who assumed power in 2015, promising to radically change the way Greece was governed, admitted that he had been possessed by “mixed feelings of pain, devastation and anguish … anguish as to whether we acted as we should have done, if we responded correctly in these critical hours, and if we could have done anything more to save even one more of the souls who died unjustly”.The prime minister has not appeared in public since rushing back from Bosnia-Herzegovina on Monday when it became clear that wildfires were raging out of control barely 25km outside the capital. His absence has reinforced the outcry over the response to a disaster now regarded as Greece’s worst in modern times. With the death toll rising, the Queen joined other international heads of state in expressing her condolences this week.

Addressing his sombre and downcast ministers, Tsipras said the disaster had left him fearing that out of an “instinct of self-preservation”, members of his government could have “made too many excuses to lessen responsibility” – even if the political opposition was also exploiting the disaster.But Tsipras’ coalition provoked further fury on Friday when the civil protection minister, Nikos Toskas, told a hastily arranged news conference that while he suspected that arson had caused the fires, he had found no indication “of grave errors” in the way they had been handled.On Thursday, the defence minister, Panos Kammenos, was heckled as he inspected the charred remains of buildings in Mati, the seaside village almost entirely obliterated by the conflagration and where most of the deaths occurred.

Many victims are now known to have died after becoming trapped in vehicles as they tried to escape the fires. But with gale-force winds of up to 124km/h fanning the flames, the government has insisted there was no time to evacuate people from areas whose escape routes were blocked by illegally built summer homes.In a special report, experts from the University of Athens’ faculty of geology and geo-environment described Mati as a “fire-trap”, arguing that the resort’s anarchic construction had rendered fire safety impossible in an area well known for summer blazes.

The government has been quick to announce relief measures, including a one-off €10,000 (£8,800) payment for the families of victims, university places for affected children and public sector jobs for the partners of those who died.As rescue crews continued to comb the fire-ravaged region for victims, Tsipras said he was determined to deal with the chronic problems that triggered the tragedy, starting with illegal construction and society’s abuse of the natural environment.It was crucial, he added, that the country overhauled its civil protection agency. “If we need to put bulldozers to work and face confrontation, so be it. We are not going to sit back with our arms crossed, taking half-measures, waiting indecisively for the next tragedy.”

Sad ~ and somehow across frontiers behave more or less in typical lines and many a times care much less for the people they represent.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

28^th July 2018.