Scientists Fear a Revolt by Killer Robots
August 4th, 2009Via: Times Online:
At the conference, held behind closed doors in Monterey Bay, California, leading researchers warned that mankind might lose control over computer-based systems that carry out a growing share of society’s workload, from waging war to chatting on the phone, and have already reached a level of indestructibility comparable with a cockroach.
“These are powerful technologies that could be used in good ways or scary ways,” warned Eric Horvitz, principal researcher at Microsoft who organised the conference on behalf of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.
According to Alan Winfield, a professor at the University of the West of England, scientists are spending too much time developing artificial intelligence and too little on robot safety.
“We’re rapidly approaching the time when new robots should undergo tests, similar to ethical and clinical trials for new drugs, before they can be introduced,” he said.
The scientists who presented their findings at the International Joint Conference for Artificial Intelligence in Pasadena, California, last month fear that nightmare scenarios, which have until now been limited to science fiction films, such as the Terminator series, The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Minority Report, could come true.
Robotic unmanned predator drones, for example, which can seek out and kill human targets, have already moved out of the movie theatres and into the theatre of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. While at present controlled by human operators, they are moving towards more autonomous control.
They could also soon be found on the streets. Samsung, the South Korean electronics company, has developed autonomous sentry robots to serve as armed border guards. They have “shoot-to-kill” capability.
Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at Sheffield University, warned that such robots could soon be used for policing, for example during riots such as those seen in London at the recent G20 summit. “Is this a good thing?” he asked.
Research Credit: ltcolonelnemo
U.S. Antidepressant Use Doubled Between 1996 and 2005
August 4th, 2009Must read: Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption.
Via: Reuters:
Use of antidepressant drugs in the United States doubled between 1996 and 2005, probably because of a mix of factors, researchers reported on Monday.
About 6 percent of people were prescribed an antidepressant in 1996 — 13 million people. This rose to more than 10 percent or 27 million people by 2005, the researchers found.
“Significant increases in antidepressant use were evident across all sociodemographic groups examined, except African Americans,” Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University in New York and Steven Marcus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
“Not only are more U.S. residents being treated with antidepressants, but also those who are being treated are receiving more antidepressant prescriptions,” they added.
More than 164 million prescriptions were written in 2008 for antidepressants, totaling $9.6 billion in U.S. sales, according to IMS Health.
Drugs that affect the brain chemical serotonin like GlaxoSmithKline’s Paxil, known generically as paroxetine, and Eli Lilly and Co’s Prozac, known generically as fluoxetine, are the most commonly prescribed class of antidepressant. But the study found the effect in all classes of the drugs.
Olfson and Marcus looked at the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys done by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, involving more than 50,000 people in 1996 and 2005.
“During this period, individuals treated with antidepressants became more likely to also receive treatment with antipsychotic medications and less likely to undergo psychotherapy,” they wrote.
Research Credit: VC
Federal Tax Revenues Plummeting
August 4th, 2009Via: AP:
The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation’s plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.
The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion.
Other figures in an Associated Press analysis underscore the recession’s impact: Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940, and Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever.
The last time the government’s revenues were this bleak, the year was 1932 in the midst of the Depression.
“Our tax system is already inadequate to support the promises our government has made,” said Eugene Steuerle, a former Treasury Department official in the Reagan administration who is now vice president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
“This just adds to the problem.”
While much of Washington is focused on how to pay for new programs such as overhauling health care — at a cost of $1 trillion over the next decade — existing programs are feeling the pinch, too.
Social Security is in danger of running out of money earlier than the government projected just a few month ago. Highway, mass transit and airport projects are at risk because fuel and industry taxes are declining.
The national debt already exceeds $11 trillion. And bills just completed by the House would boost domestic agencies’ spending by 11 percent in 2010 and military spending by 4 percent.
British Government Installing CCTV Cameras Inside Private Homes
August 3rd, 2009Via: Wired:
As an ex-Brit, I’m well aware of the authorities’ love of surveillance and snooping, but even I, a pessimistic cynic, am amazed by the governments latest plan: to install Orwell’s telescreens in 20,000 homes.
£400 million ($668 million) will be spend on installing and monitoring CCTV cameras in the homes of private citizens. Why? To make sure the kids are doing their homework, going to bed early and eating their vegetables. The scheme has, astonishingly, already been running in 2,000 family homes. The government’s “children’s secretary” Ed Balls is behind the plan, which is aimed at problem, antisocial families. The idea is that, if a child has a more stable home life, he or she will be less likely to stray into crime and drugs.
It gets worse. The government is also maintaining a private army, incredibly not called “Thought Police”, which will “be sent round to carry out home checks,” according to the Sunday Express. And in a scheme which firmly cements the nation’s reputation as a “nanny state”, the kids and their families will be forced to sign “behavior contracts” which will “set out parents’ duties to ensure children behave and do their homework.”
And remember, this is the left-wing government. The Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling, batting for the conservatives, thinks these plans are “too little, and too late,” implying that even more obtrusive work needs to be done. Rumors that a new detention center, named Room 101, is being constructed inside the Ministry of Love are unconfirmed.
Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption
August 3rd, 2009Via: New York Review of Books:
Since drug companies don’t have direct access to human subjects, they need to outsource their clinical trials to medical schools, where researchers use patients from teaching hospitals and clinics, or to private research companies (CROs), which organize office-based physicians to enroll their patients. Although CROs are usually faster, sponsors often prefer using medical schools, in part because the research is taken more seriously, but mainly because it gives them access to highly influential faculty physicians—referred to by the industry as “thought-leaders” or “key opinion leaders” (KOLs). These are the people who write textbooks and medical journal papers, issue practice guidelines (treatment recommendations), sit on FDA and other governmental advisory panels, head professional societies, and speak at the innumerable meetings and dinners that take place every year to teach clinicians about prescription drugs. Having KOLs like Dr. Biederman on the payroll is worth every penny spent.
A few decades ago, medical schools did not have extensive financial dealings with industry, and faculty investigators who carried out industry-sponsored research generally did not have other ties to their sponsors. But schools now have their own manifold deals with industry and are hardly in a moral position to object to their faculty behaving in the same way. A recent survey found that about two thirds of academic medical centers hold equity interest in companies that sponsor research within the same institution.[6] A study of medical school department chairs found that two thirds received departmental income from drug companies and three fifths received personal income.[7]
Research Credit: efs
The Deep Politics of Hollywood: Close Encounters with the Pentagon
August 3rd, 2009I wish I’d taken a screenshot from the scene in the 2007 Transformers where John Turturro is shown against a wall and the sign to the left of the frame says something like, “322 days since last accident.” HAHA. I almost upchucked the lamb chop I ate for dinner that night.
I hit REWIND and then I paused it. A couple of things went through my mind. First of all, I didn’t want to tell you guys that I watched Transformers. (I like any SciFi, even nonsense SciFi.) Additionally, I don’t want to be seen as someone who cuts Easter Eggs out of movies. I mean, after all, appearances need to be maintained! (I’ve probably done it on Cryptogon somewhere and forgotten about it. I should have just taken the screenshot.)
After I returned the DVD, I wondered how many maniacs posted that 322 shot.
I couldn’t find even one site that mentioned it.
That was a bit of ramble, but when you understand that there are no coincidences with the set design, and that everything was put there on purpose, and that U.S. Military “advisers” were present during filming… Like I said, that lamb chop nearly came up. The military isn’t just going to let any joker run his film crew around F-117s and F-22s. The light from atop the pyramid must shine brightly on Michael Bay.
Via: Information Clearing House:
For 60 years space aliens have left their mark on the Hollywood box-office in some of the most popular movies of all time, from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), E.T: The Extraterrestrial (1982) and Independence Day (1996), to the highly lucrative Monsters vs. Aliens (2009). The new Transformers sequel, Revenge of the Fallen (2009), is also poised for box-office glory this summer with its big-budget blend of eye-popping special effects, fan-fiction and UFO mythology. The most interesting aspects of the Transformers films, however, are evident not so much in celluloid form as they are behind the scenes – in a production process built around the close relationship between Hollywood, the United States military and a variety of government agencies. While the dryer details of this relationship have been relatively well documented, the curious tale of government involvement in Hollywood’s UFO movies represents a forgotten chapter in the history of American cinema.
DOLLAR: USDX INTRADAY DOWNSIDE BREACH 77.688
August 3rd, 2009WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Buckle up. A lot of stuff could break on the way down to 71-72.
While I’m expecting it to wreck hard, a part of me is sitting here, looking at it and thinking, “They’re not really going to let this happen, are They?”
As of now, it sure looks that way.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, see: Dollar Finally Breaking Down from July 20th.
Via: Reuters:
U.S. gold futures rose to their highest level in nearly two months on Monday due to a combination of a weaker dollar, physical demand and fresh buying from investment funds amid a Wall Street rally.
Corporate Welfare at the Expense of Everything Else
August 3rd, 2009Via: Solari:
What we are watching price out through the political process is life vs. death. More specifically, the financial value of the life and death of various groups and ages of people vs. the life and death of large banks and corporations.
In a market economy, if a person’s skills become outdated, the theory is that they will be encouraged by their need to generate income to learn new skills or change.
If a large bank or corporation can no longer generate revenues to cover its operations, likewise the theory says that it will change. Management will invent new products and services, cut expenses, renegotiate with creditors through bankruptcy or shut down.
However, in a bubble, the people and the corporations and banks all avoid change by going to the government and coming up with thousands of ways to keep their operations afloat using government funds so they do not have to change– government programs, subsidies, contracts, credit, guarantees, regulations and so forth. This is why I start my case study on how the system really works with that old New Jersey street saying – “Make a law, make a business.”
Changing the laws, however, does not change the real world where fundamental productivity continues to count. So over the last twelve months, after many bubbles, there was not enough for everyone. So we made a decision to shift most, if not all, of our remaining resources to the large banks and corporations.
What this means is that if people do not need the products and services of the banks and corporations, rather than let them die, we are going to use government and central banks to simply take money from people to keep a bank or corporation alive without customers or markets.
So the institutions created to serve markets are deemed to have lives of their own that justify subsidizing them even if the markets are gone. Government can guarantee markets even when customers have no money to buy goods and services and taxpayers can not afford to pay taxes.
Big banks and corporations are guaranteed life. In addition, there is no prison or death penalty for big banks and corporations as a result of their bad behavior, including when it causes the death of people. So their life is infinite.
To pay for this we must take resources from people — with taxes, with fees, with inflation, with lower benefits and with legal and economic warfare. If they do not go along, we can send them to prison or inflict the death penalty.
Hence, an overview of a series of policies is emerging from Wall Street and Washington which is crystal clear.
People will die so that corporations and banks without retail markets, customers or purpose can live richly, although not anywhere near as richly as the invisible forces that hide behind them.
Research Credit: efs
A Scene from a Los Angeles Freeway On Ramp
August 3rd, 2009I like it, but the artist botches the job by using “socialism” as the tagline. When I think of socialism, I think of the Scandinavian countries. While I don’t find those models socialism desirable, by a lot of measures, those countries are pretty good places to live. The U.S., on the other hand, suffers under a state of quasi fascism that was hatched by a corporate oligarchy. What’s the difference? Besides the appearances, which vary widely, U.S. fascism is characterized by a zombie-like quest for corporate profits. The wars and atrocities are by-products. It’s not a racial struggle, either, as is usually the case with fascism. It’s just business. Obviously, it’s more complicated than that, but there’s not a lot to be gained by splitting hairs at this late stage of the game.
Feel free to split hairs in the comments, if you can be bothered. (Your time would probably be much better spent getting clear of the mobs that will kill each other over the bullshit they believe once the state fails.)
Hmm. I would have liked it much better with Hank Paulson as The Joker, but hardly anyone would know who they were looking at. I’d guess that Hank likes it that way.
Via: Wizbang:
Detroit: Feral Houses
August 2nd, 2009Must see.
Via: Sweet Juniper:
I’ve seen “feral” used to describe dogs, cats, even goats. But I have wondered if it couldn’t also be used to describe certain houses in Detroit. Abandoned houses are really no big deal here. Some estimate that there are as many as 10,000 abandoned structures at any given time, and that seems conservative. But for a few beautiful months during the summer, some of these houses become “feral” in every sense: they disappear behind ivy or the untended shrubs and trees planted generations ago to decorate their yards. The wood that framed the rooms gets crushed by trees rooted still in the earth. The burnt lime, sand, gravel, and plaster slowly erode into dust, encouraged by ivy spreading tentacles in its endless search for more sunlight.
Research Credit: ltcolonelnemo
