The temperature outside is a pleasant 20 C, much cooler than the 34 C, in this presqu'île de Quiberon, Brittany.
A very good article arrived from The New York Times, which I consider to be the best newspaper in the world. and read The Economist, you can be up to date with what is happening in the WORLD, not just in the village (regardless of the population) where you live.
This article made me think very fondly and relevantly about my younger brothers Shimon and his wife Avital in Israel and the other, Mordecai and Gretel in Florida.
You would see why.
The article was written by Kevin Roose, a technology correspondent for NYT.
He has explored the rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence and was started talking about an app developed by a SF company, that converts texts into vivid images, real and illusory.
- AJEYA COTRA
- EFFECTIVE ALTRUISM
Ajeya Cotra, a senior analyst with Open Philanthropy who studies A.I. risk, estimated two years ago that there was a 15 percent chance of “transformational A.I.” — which she and others have defined as A.I. that is good enough to usher in large-scale economic and societal changes, such as eliminating most white-collar knowledge jobs — emerging by 2036.
But in a recent post, Ms. Cotra raised that to a 35 percent chance, citing the rapid improvement of systems like GPT-3.
“A.I. systems can go from adorable and useless toys to very powerful products in a surprisingly short period of time,” Ms. Cotra told me. “People should take more seriously that A.I. could change things soon, and that could be really scary.” (from the article)
Whether you are an optimist or a pessimist about AI, if you have a children or grandchildren, take heed, things are happening at a faster rate than you can comprehend and the history of the future is acceleratingly, menacingly close (think of Yuval Noah Harari and read him)
A lot of people agree that many many hands on jobs now we take for granted would become obsolete in the next couple of decades. In my own field of Medicine, being acquainted with our beloved Start Up Nation, ISRAEL and their fantastic contribution in the field of Technology and Science, I can predict that many of the newly created positions in the field such as Mid Level Providers such as NP or PA or auxillary workers would disappear or diminish in importance. Treatment would go from blasting the disease to micromolecular management (think of Oncological treatment now where poison is poured which blasts the mitotic cells into oblivion, that is the best we have, to picking out one by one the millions of mischievous cells, and this will be done by a machine, of course)
For a traveller, sadness is about the inequality that exists in the world but technology while creating a large cache of people unable to contribute to its milieu would make the technology available on a more equitable basis. Just check how much a PC with 25 mb of RAM cost in 1990s and how much a PC with far far far more powerful cost now, just a fraction of the price!
This is where ALTRUISM and PHILANTHROPY steps in. I remember with disgust when an Exploitative co worker said his work was SELFISH ALTRUISM, doing good things for himself and his family. I was told of altruism by my own father who fought in Burma, so that the people would be free (alas even in 2022 they are not).
While many global names have been attached to Effective Altruism, the Melbourne born Jewish moral philosopher seems the progenitor of these thought processes.
Effective altruism (EA) is a philosophical and social movement that advocates "using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis". People who pursue the goals of effective altruism are labeled effective altruists.
Common practices of effective altruists include significant charitable donation and choosing careers based on the amount of good that the career achieves, which may include the strategy of earning to give. An estimated $416 million was donated to effective charities identified by the movement in 2019, representing a 37% annual growth rate since 2015. Famous philanthropists influenced by effective altruism include Sam Bankman-Fried, Dustin Moskovitz, and Liv Boeree. Popular cause priorities within effective altruism include global health and development, animal welfare, and risks to the survival of humanity over the long-term future.
The philosophy of effective altruism emphasizes impartiality, with broad applications to the prioritization of scientific projects, entrepreneurial ventures, and policy initiatives estimated to save the most lives or reduce the most suffering. Whether or not effective altruists should consider difficult-to-measure but potentially high-impact interventions such as institutional or structural change remains controversial.
The movement developed during the 2000s, and the name effective altruism was coined in 2011. Several books and many articles about the movement have since been published, and the Effective Altruism Global conference has been held since 2013. By 2022, EA had become a billion-dollar movement.
YouTube has Peter Singer's well received TED TALK
here is a taste of his talk
As AI would afford us greater opportunities, those who select that path
could generate money and materials so that they can help millions
of others who will be left out of this surge of economic movement.
We should encourage younger ones to have a good philosophical
upbringing and then let them use their altruistic thinking to study
and educate themselves to become effective altruists.
Perhaps it is our history or philosophical inclinations of those who
influenced us, many of us, especially among my people have
already chosen this path.
From ME ME ME to US US US .. not just our people but the
Humanity itself ..
To me, this has always be explanation or responsibility of being
People of the Book or The Chosen People
An example of the new generation thinking like this is illustrated
by one of my nieces from Israel, who is 8 years old
she asked the teacher
What is the purpose of us being here on earth?
The teacher thought the little one wanted to know how she came
to be on earth. I know that, but my question is what is the purpose
of us being here .
The clever teacher reverted the question.
Why do you think we are put on this earth?
The little one without hesitation answered
We are put here, so that we can study, study sciences, and make
new discoveries SO THAT WE CAN BE HELPFUL TO OTHERS..
With MISCHPOCHAH like that I feel the planet is in safe hands.
My other younger brother, helps projects with financial support
he can be more effective if he did it just by himself. I am hoping
that we can set up a project (a medical one, as we both are
physicians) in Suriname for the prevention of chronic metabolic
diseases.
The question, especially in the individualistic societies like USA ,
these days is What have you done for yourself, meaning
materialism and quantity and in the near future, the questionwould
change to
What are you doing for others ?
I am proud to belong this family of entrepreneurs, intellectuals,
incubators of ideas
merchants and philanthropists who would leave a mark on
planet
during our brief stay here and as we say: May we leave behind
a good name.
