News — At The Edge — 9/29

While technology keeps evolving — software, surveillance, DNA, gig economy — U.S. political system — racism & liberalism — keeps devolving.

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If Software Is Eating the World, What Will Come Out the Other End? So far, it’s mostly shit. —

“[10%] of investors own 84 percent of the stock market…[so] society simply isn’t benefiting from this trend of software eating the world….

[We’ve] have turned the world to data…to change the world…[but w]hat have we become?….

[Most] of technology’s leadership…are puzzled by these newfound demands from…[Congress] and Europeans….

The world is still real. Software hasn’t eaten it as much as bound it in a spell….Software — data, code, algorithms, processing…dressed the world in new infrastructure.

But this is a conversation…between the physical and the digital, a synthesis we must master if we are to avoid terrible fates, and continue to embrace fantastic ones.” https://battellemedia.com/archives/2018/09/if-software-is-eating-the-world-what-will-come-out-the-other-end

Just Don’t Call It Privacy —

“[After] data-mining scandals — including Russian-sponsored ads on Facebook…[Congress] now rallying behind…a new federal consumer privacy law…[asking] companies to explain ‘what Congress can do…without hurting innovation’….

[But] issue at hand isn’t privacy…[rather] unfettered data exploitation and its…deleterious consequences…[like] unequal consumer treatment, financial fraud, identity theft, manipulative marketing and discrimination….

[So] asking companies whose business models revolve around exploiting data-based consumer-influence techniques to explain their privacy policies…[is] as useful as asking sharks to hold forth on veganism….

[Congress] should be examining how these firms collect and use the personal data of [users]…[and] that might merit government oversight….

Companies are sending their [lawyers]…not the engineering folks who actually understand these systems…and can talk through alternatives….

California recently passed a new privacy law…[companies] hope to defang…by pushing Congress to pass federal privacy legislation that would overrule state laws….

[Issue’s] the right not to be observed….

[The] revelations about Russian election interference…[show] data-driven influence campaigns can scale quickly and cause societal harm….

[There’s] often gulf between the innocuous ways companies explain their data practices to consumers and the details they divulge about their targeting techniques to advertisers….

[So] consumer advocates hope senators will press…[for] details on their consumer-profiling practices….’and how they’re categorizing, ranking, rating and scoring us’….

[EU] data protection law…requires companies to obtain explicit permission from…users before collecting personal details on sensitive subjects like their religion, health or sex life…[giving] users the right to see all of the information companies hold about them — including any algorithmic scores or inferences….

[They] also have the right not to be subject to completely automated decisions that could significantly affect them, such as credit algorithms….

[Congress] could force companies to give consumers…rights over [their] data.” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/22/sunday-review/privacy-hearing-amazon-google.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=9&pgtype=sectionfront

My Data Is My Property — Pay Me If You Use It

The Dangers of DNA Testing —

“74 out of 108 crime laboratories implicated an innocent person in a hypothetical bank robbery….

Tube swaps are easy to understand…[but] hard to interpret DNA mixtures from three or more people…[common] from anyone who may have lightly touched an object.

The result is that DNA mixtures have…match statistics varied over 100 trillion-fold. That’s like the difference between soda change and the United States’ gross domestic product….

The good news is that there are methods to reanalyze old DNA mixture data using computer programs that can help analysts correct errors, without any new lab testing…and should easily go back…to correct tragic mistakes.” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/21/opinion/the-dangers-of-dna-testing.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

Uber drivers and other gig economy workers are earning half what they did five years ago —

“On average, drivers who transport people (Uber or Lyft) or things (Uber Eats or Postmates)…made 53 percent less in 2017 than they did in 2013….

[People] who worked for a transportation app in a given month declined to $783 from $1,469…[but] population that has participated in the online gig economy…rose from less than 2 percent in 2013 to nearly 5 percent in 2018….

50 % of drivers work less than 10 hours a week…[to] supplement regular nine-to-five jobs rather than serve as full-time employment…to make ends meet.” https://www.recode.net/2018/9/24/17884608/uber-driver-gig-economy-money-pay-lyft-postmates

‘Robotics Skins’ turn everyday objects into robots (2 min video) —

NASA-inspired robotic skins enable users to turn soft objects — a stuffed animal or a foam tube, for instance — into robots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=106&v=uuAY5Y_INYQ

Legislators struggle with tech. That’s why we need the Office of Technology Assessment. —

“CONGRESS NEEDS…the resurrection of the Office of Technology Assessment, which from 1972 to its 1995 defunding provided representatives with nonpartisan analysis of science and technical issues….

[New] legislation requires the Congressional Research Service to examine the need for an…entity to dispense technological guidance…[and] Government Accountability Office…to evaluate how to give its tech assessment program more prominence….

OTA was established in recognition of technology’s ‘increasingly extensive, pervasive, and critical’ impact on all of us….

[GAO’s] culture centers on audits and investigations, and it lacks the [talents]…[to supply] careful analysis of the toughest tech issues…and the policy options to address them….

[Democrats] struggle to secure Republican buy-in…[but] knowing what one is talking about should not be a partisan issue.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/legislators-struggle-with-tech-thats-why-we-need-the-office-of-technology-assessment/2018/09/17/bb7c30c6-b860-11e8-a7b5-adaaa5b2a57f_story.html?utm_term=.f7210959b879

Why do all these racists keep joining the GOP? —

“[No] candidate can’t be responsible for everything any supporter [says]….

But you know who doesn’t have to worry about getting endorsed by neo-Nazis, white nationalists and racists? People who don’t give neo-Nazis, white nationals and racists any reason to believe that they share their views….

Republicans in 2018 [are] being lumped in with racists…[since] favored news outlets are…saturated with white nationalist rhetoric…[and] party is led by a man who is…an obvious bigot…[and] ran a presidential campaign built on xenophobia and racial resentment….Trump doesn’t get celebrated on white nationalist websites because they’re laboring under some misimpression….

[T]he vast majority of conservatives…[say] they strongly believe in racial equality…[and] unfairly accused of being racists…claiming that Democrats are the real racists…[convinced] white people are the last legitimate victims of racism…regularly held back…by a system that distributes spoils to minorities while leaving them to struggle….This requires no small measure of self-persuasion, as does arguing for policies that have obvious racial motivations….

[Republican’s] broad range of voter suppression laws…specifically designed to fall…heavily on minority voters….[T]hey make a political issue out of the murder…[by] an immigrant, but ignore a nearly identical case when the alleged murderer is a white man…[or] responding to the shooting of a black teenager by police by saying he was probably a thug who had it coming, but responding to an allegation of attempted rape by a white…[as] just ‘horseplay.’

But you know who doesn’t have any doubt? The unapologetic racists….

[So] people of goodwill might ask….

Why is it that all these racists are so supportive of my party?….Why is it that every white nationalist thinks they can find a home in the GOP?…. [S]o far, we’ve heard pretty much nothing.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/09/20/why-do-all-these-racists-keep-joining-the-gop/?utm_term=.f8849aa0c6be

Quicksand of Our Past

Liberalism 3.0? —

“The Economist [magazine]…sees itself as occupying a middle ground between the old liberalism…[emphasizing] economic and political freedom, and the new, with its faith that collective actions can bring collective good….

The problem is not the past. It’s the future…[with] a popular rebellion against liberal elites, who are seen as self-serving and unable, or unwilling, to solve the problems of ordinary people….

[The] 25-year shift towards freedom and open markets has gone into reverse….[China] shows that dictatorships can thrive’….

[Three] trends increasingly define politics.

1. Economic integration has outrun political integration. The explosion of trade, migration and cross-border money flows have made it harder for nation-states to shape their domestic economic and social conditions…[and] slower economic growth has stoked nationalistic and cultural differences….
2. Massive welfare states have discredited governments and established leaders. Efforts to rein in large government deficits are inherently unpopular…[yet] aging of most wealthy societies compounds the pressure on [states]….
3. 3. Technology isn’t always benign….Global warming is a product, at least partially, of industrialization. The Internet exposes us to cyberattacks. Expensive health-care advances add to costs, often with little therapeutic gain….

The basic purpose of politics is to resolve conflicts, but the…political systems of many advanced countries have broken down….Politicians prefer stalemate to the hard work of constructing a Liberalism 3.0. That’s not the message the Economist intended, but it is the one it sent.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-hard-work-of-constructing-a-liberalism-30/2018/09/23/58cd8c96-bdf0-11e8-8792-78719177250f_story.html?utm_term=.2004bfbeffd6

Find more of my ideas on Medium at,A Passion to Evolve.Or click the Follow button below to add me to your feed.Prefer a weekly email newsletter — free, no ads, no spam, & never sell the list — email me dochuston1@gmail.com with “add me” in the subject line.May you live long and prosper!Doc Huston

News — At The Edge — 9/29 was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.