As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him;
Just as a father loves his children,
So the Lord loves those who fear and worship Him [with awe-filled respect and deepest reverence].
Psalm 103:13 Expanded Bible (Expanded Bible)
The Lord has ·mercy [compassion] on those who ·respect [fear] Him
as a father has ·mercy [compassion] on his children.
5 essential skills you need to keep your job in the next 10 years — from fastcompany.com by Gwen Moran
Automation may affect half of jobs. Here are five areas to develop to keep yourself employed.
Excerpts/quotes (emphasis DSC):
From DSC:
It is great to see an article that encourages trendspotting, being aware of what’s happening in the world around us, and looking upwards/into the horizons as key skills! Given the pace of change, this is becoming critical for people to do — otherwise, we risk being blindsided by changes — by incoming “waves” of change — that we didn’t see coming. We don’t want to be tapped on the shoulder, personally escorted to that conference room with all of the windows having cardboard on them, and then be let go…to our utter shock and dismay.
Image from:
ttp://www.careerealism.com/laid-off-get-back-immediately/
This also means that we should be teaching more about trendspotting and futurism in K-20.
Further questions/thoughts:
Also from visionmobile.com’s Developer Economics newsletter:
Ericsson Mobility Report 2016 — from ericsson.com
Also see:
Proverbs 15:1 New International Version (NIV)
A gentle answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.
We can do nothing to change the past, but we have enormous power to shape the future. Once we grasp that essential insight, we recognize our responsibility and capability for building our dreams of tomorrow and avoiding our nightmares.
–Edward Cornish
From DSC:
This is the fifth posting in a series that highlights the need for us to consider the ethical implications of the technologies that are currently being developed. What kind of future do we want to have? How can we create dreams, not nightmares?
In regards to robotics, algorithms, and business, I’m hopeful that the C-suites out there will keep the state of their fellow mankind in mind when making decisions. Because if all’s we care about is profits, the C-suites out there will gladly pursue lowering costs, firing people, and throwing their fellow mankind right out the window…with massive repercussions to follow. After all, we are the shareholders…let’s not shoot ourselves in the foot. Let’s aim for something higher than profits. Businesses should have a higher calling/purpose. The futures of millions of families are at stake here. Let’s consider how we want to use robotics, algorithms, AI, etc. — for our benefit, not our downfall.
Other postings:
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV
From page 212 of
Mary Meeker’s annual report re: Internet Trends 2016
The White House is prepping for an AI-powered future — from wired.com by April Glaser
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Researchers disagree on when artificial intelligence that displays something like human understanding might arrive. But the Obama administration isn’t waiting to find out. The White House says the government needs to start thinking about how to regulate and use the powerful technology while it is still dependent on humans.
“The public should have an accurate mental model of what we mean when we say artificial intelligence,” says Ryan Calo, who teaches law at University of Washington. Calo spoke last week at the first of four workshops the White House hosts this summer to examine how to address an increasingly AI-powered world.
…
“One thing we know for sure is that AI is making policy challenges already, such as how to make sure the technology remains safe, controllable, and predictable, even as it gets much more complex and smarter,” said Ed Felten, the deputy US chief of science and technology policy leading the White House’s summer of AI research. “Some of these issues will become more challenging over time as the technology progresses, so we’ll need to keep upping our game.”
Meet ‘Ross,’ the newly hired legal robot — from washingtonpost.com by Karen Turner
Excerpt:
One of the country’s biggest law firms has become the first to publicly announce that it has “hired” a robot lawyer to assist with bankruptcy cases. The robot, called ROSS, has been marketed as “the world’s first artificially intelligent attorney.”
ROSS has joined the ranks of law firm BakerHostetler, which employs about 50 human lawyers just in its bankruptcy practice. The AI machine, powered by IBM’s Watson technology, will serve as a legal researcher for the firm. It will be responsible for sifting through thousands of legal documents to bolster the firm’s cases. These legal researcher jobs are typically filled by fresh-out-of-school lawyers early on in their careers.
Confidential health care data divulged to Google’s DeepMind for new app — from futurism.com by Sarah Marquart
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
Google DeepMind’s new app Streams hopes to use patient data to monitor kidney disease patients. In the process, they gained confidential data on more than 1.6 million patients, and people aren’t happy.
…
This sounds great, but the concern lies in exactly what kind of data Google has access to. There are no separate statistics available for people with kidney conditions, so the company was given access to all data including HIV test results, details about abortions, and drug overdoses.
In response to concerns about privacy, The Royal Free Trust said the data will remain encrypted so Google staff should not be able to identify anyone.
Two questions for managers of learning machines — from sloanreview.mit.edu by Theodore Kinni
Excerpt:
The first, which Dhar takes up in a new article on TechCrunch, is how to “design intelligent learning machines that minimize undesirable behavior.” Pointing to two high-profile juvenile delinquents, Microsoft’s Tay and Google’s Lexus, he reminds us that it’s very hard to control AI machines in complex settings.
The second question, which Dhar explores in an article for HBR.org, is when and when not to allow AI machines to make decisions.
All stakeholders must engage in learning analytics debate — from campustechnology.com by David Raths
Excerpt:
An Ethics Guide for Analytics?
During the Future Trends Forum session [with Bryan Alexander and George Siemens], Susan Adams, an instructional designer and faculty development specialist at Oregon Health and Science University, asked Siemens if he knew of any good ethics guides to how universities use analytics.
Siemens responded that the best guide he has seen so far was developed by the Open University in the United Kingdom. “They have a guide about how it will be used in the learning process, driven from the lens of learning rather than data availability,” he said.
“Starting with ethics is important,” he continued. “We should recognize that if openness around algorithms and learning analytics practices is important to us, we should be starting to make that a conversation with vendors. I know of some LMS vendors where you actually buy back your data. Your students generate it, and when you want to analyze it, you have to buy it back. So we should really be asking if it is open. If so, we can correct inefficiencies. If an algorithm is closed, we don’t know how the dials are being spun behind the scenes. If we have openness around pedagogical practices and algorithms used to sort and influence our students, we at least can change them.”
From DSC:
Though I’m generally a fan of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), we need to be careful how we implement it or things will turn out as depicted in this piece from The Verge. We’ll need filters or some other means of opting in and out of what we want to see.
What does ethics have to do with robots? Listen to RoboPsych Podcast discussion with roboticist/lawyer Kate Darling https://t.co/WXnKOy8UO2
— RoboPsych (@RoboPsychCom) April 25, 2016
Retail inventory robots could replace the need for store employees — from interestingengineering.com by Trevor English
Excerpt:
There are currently many industries that will likely be replaced with robots in the coming future, and with retail being one of the biggest industries across the world, it is no wonder that robots will slowly begin taking human’s jobs. A robot named Tory will perform inventory tasks throughout stores, as well as have the capability of directing customers to where what they are looking for is. Essentially, a customer will type in a product into the robot’s interactive touch screen, and it will start driving to the exact location. It will also conduct inventory using RFID scanners, and overall, it will make the retail process much more efficient. Check out the video below from the German Robotics company Metre Labs who are behind the retail robot.
From DSC:
Do we really want to do this? Some say the future will be great when the robots, algorithms, AI, etc. are doing everything for us…while we can just relax. But I believe work serves a purpose…gives us a purpose. What are the ramifications of a society where people are no longer working? Or is that a stupid, far-fetched question and a completely unrealistic thought?
I’m just pondering what the ramifications might be of replacing the majority of human employees with robots. I can understand about using robotics to assist humans, but when we talk about replacing humans, we had better look at the big picture. If not, we may be taking the angst behind the Occupy Wall Street movement from years ago and multiplying it by the thousands…perhaps millions.
Automakers, consumers both must approach connected cars cautiously — from nydailynews.com by Kyle Campbell
Several automakers plan to have autonomous cars ready for the public by 2030, a development that could pose significant safety and security concerns.
Excerpt:
We’re living in the connected age. Phones can connect wirelessly to computers, watches, televisions and anything else with access to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and money can change hands with a few taps of a screen. Digitalization allows data to flow quicker and more freely than ever before, but it also puts the personal information we entrust it with (financial information, geographic locations and other private details) at a far greater risk of ending up in the wrong hands.
Balancing the seamless convenience customers desire with the security they need is a high-wire act of the highest order, and it’s one that automakers have to master as quickly and as thoroughly as possible.
…
Because of this, connected cars will potentially (and probably) become targets for hackers, thieves and possibly even terrorists looking to take advantage of the fledgling technology. With a wave of connected cars (220 million by 2020, according to some estimates) ready to flood U.S. roadways, it’s on both manufacturers and consumers to be vigilant in preventing the worst-case scenarios from playing out.
Also, check out the 7 techs being discussed at this year’s Gigaom Change Conference:
Scientists are just as confused about the ethics of big-data research as you — wired.com by Sarah Zhang
Excerpt:
And that shows just how untested the ethics of this new field of research is. Unlike medical research, which has been shaped by decades of clinical trials, the risks—and rewards—of analyzing big, semi-public databases are just beginning to become clear.
And the patchwork of review boards responsible for overseeing those risks are only slowly inching into the 21st century. Under the Common Rule in the US, federally funded research has to go through ethical review. Rather than one unified system though, every single university has its own institutional review board, or IRB. Most IRB members are researchers at the university, most often in the biomedical sciences. Few are professional ethicists.
Addendums on 6/3 and 6/4/16:
The 2016 edition of Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report covers today’s Internet growth and an in-depth look at the following:
@ 277MM Users…India passed USA to become #2 global user market behind China
Global GDP growth slowing = Growth in 6 of last 8 years @ below 20-year average
Total global debt loads over 2 decades = High & rising faster than GDP
From DSC:
Looking at this graphic — with Gen Z using 5 screens at once — it’s unlikely that faculty members will be able to stop students from bringing and using their screens/devices. It might be better to ride the wave and use technologies in class, rather than try to halt the wave.
Ways for businesses to contact Millennials = Social media & chat…worst way = telephone
Romans 11:33 New International Version (NIV)
Doxology
33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
![The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian-July-2012.jpg)
This is why I’m so excited about the “The Living [Class] Room” vision. Because it is through that vision that people of all ages — and from all over the world — will be able to constantly learn, grow, and reinvent themselves (if need be) throughout their lifetimes. They’ll be able to access and share content, communicate and discuss/debate with one another, form communities of practice, go through digital learning playlists (like Lynda.com’s Learning Paths) and more. All from devices that represent the convergence of the television, the telephone, and the computer (and likely converging with the types of devices that are only now coming into view, such as Microsoft’s Hololens).
You won’t just be limited to going back to college for a day — you’ll be able to do that 24×7 for as many days of the year as you want to.
Then when some sophisticated technologies are integrated into this type of platform — such as artificial intelligence, cloud-based learner profiles, algorithms, and the ability to setup exchanges for learning materials — we’ll get some things that will blow our minds in the not too distant future! Heutagogy on steroids!
Want to go back to college? You can, for a day. — from washingtonpost.com by Valerie Strauss
Excerpt:
Have you ever thought about how nice it would be if you could go back to college, just for the sake of learning something new, in a field you don’t know much about, with no tests, homework or studying to worry about? And you won’t need to take the SAT or the ACT to be accepted? You can, at least for a day, with something called One Day University, the brainchild of a man named Steve Schragis, who about a decade ago brought his daughter to Bard College as a freshman and thought that he wanted to stay.
One Day University now financially partners with dozens of newspapers — including The Washington Post — and a few other organizations to bring lectures to people around the country. The vast majority of the attendees are over the age 50 and interested in continuing education, and One Day University offers them only those professors identified by college students as fascinating. As Schragis says, it doesn’t matter if you are famous; you have to be a great teacher. For example, Schragis says that since Bill Gates has never shown to be one, he can’t teach at One Day University.
…
We bring together these professors, usually four at at a time, to cities across the country to create “The Perfect Day of College.” Of course we leave out the homework, exams, and studying! Best if there’s real variety, both male and female profs, four different schools, four different subjects, four different styles, etc. There’s no one single way to be a great professor. We like to show multiple ways to our students.
Most popular classes are history, psychology, music, politics, and film. Least favorite are math and science.
See also:
Addendum:
We know the shelf-life of skills are getting shorter and shorter. So whether it’s to brush up on new skills or it’s to stay on top of evolving ones, Lynda.com can help you stay ahead of the latest technologies.
Everything announced at Facebook’s F8 conference.
Everything Facebook announced at F8 2016 — from thenextweb.com by Natt Garun
Excerpt:
Two days of Facebook’s F8 Conference have come and gone, so here’s a look back at all the things you may have missed from the event. To learn more about each topic, click the links below for full stories.
The 5 Biggest Things Facebook Announced This Week — from time.com by Victor Luckerson
Messaging bots, live video in drones and 360-degree cameras
Excerpt:
In a wide-ranging keynote April 12, CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out the company’s 10-year plan to “Give everyone the power to share anything with anyone.” To do so, Facebook plans to move far beyond its original role as a social network. The firm aims to launch new virtual reality projects, beam Internet across the world using drones and unleash complex artificial-intelligence bots that can fulfill our every digital need.
Before all that can happen, Facebook has to deal with the here and now of improving its current products. On that front, the company made several announcements that will reshape the way people and brands use Facebook and its constellation of apps this year.
Here’s a breakdown of Facebook’s biggest F8 announcements.
How Facebook’s Social VR Could Be The Killer App For Virtual Reality — from fastcompany.com by
It’s going to take time, but Facebook is committed to developing realistic and satisfying social experiences in VR.
Excerpt:
When Facebook bought Oculus VR in 2014 for $2 billion, many observers wondered what the world’s largest social networking company wanted with a virtual reality company whose then-unreleased system was pretty much all about single-user experiences. Today at F8, Facebook’s annual developers conference in San Francisco, the company showed off some of the most fleshed-out examples of how it sees VR as a rich social tool. During his F8 keynote address, CTO Mike Schroepfer talked at length about what Facebook explicitly calls “social VR.”
Facebook Shows Us What It Means to Be ‘Social’ in Virtual Reality (Video) — from recode.net by Kurt Wagner
Excerpt:
One of the key knocks on virtual reality, the gamer-heavy industry Facebook is betting big on, is that wearing a headset intended to block out the real world in favor of a virtual one isn’t a very social activity. Facebook, an inherently social company, thinks it can change that.
At its F8 developer conference on Wednesday Facebook demoed what it calls “social VR,” which is exactly what it sounds like: Connecting two or more real people in a virtual world.
Oculus Demos VR Selfie Sticks and 360 Photo Spheres — from vrscout.com by Jonathan Nafarrete
Excerpt:
During the second day keynote of Facebook’s F8 Developer Conference, Oculus showed off an entirely new way to get social in VR.
On stage, Facebook’s CTO Mike Schroepfer showed how 360-degree photos can instantly be shared with a friend in VR, with 360 photos appearing as handheld spheres. You can virtually grab the floating sphere and smash it against your face, you will then be instantly teleported into the content of the spherical photo.
Oculus Social VR Full Demo – Facebook F8 Conference 2016
Has Facebook achieved what AOL could have a generation ago? — from medium.com by Gary Vaynerchuk
Excerpt:
[On 4/12/16], Facebook opened up Instant Articles to all publishers. If you don’t know, Instant Articles are Facebook’s new way to natively load articles within the app using an adapted RSS feed. These native articles, which have a lightning bolt in the top right corner, load in half a second?—?10x faster than if user was to click out to a website. From what I’ve seen so far, they really do load instantaneously and have a great layout and user experience. And if you’re paying attention, you’ll understand that this is their third push for native media consumption: first photos, then videos, and now written content.
…
However, as of [4/13/16], Instant Articles become available to anybody with a Facebook page and a blog. This is a key opportunity for small blogs and publications to get ahead of the game and really understand how best to use the new product.
…
Has Facebook been able to achieve what AOL could have a generation ago? By that I mean: Has Facebook become a layer on top of the Internet itself?
Internet of Things Landscape 2016 – In One Diagram — from Matt Turck
Excerpt:
Is the Internet of Things the world’s most confusing tech trend? On the one hand, we’re told it’s going to be epic, and soon – all predictions are either in tens of billions (of connected devices) and trillions (of dollars of economic value to be created). On the other hand, the dominant feeling expressed by end users (including at this year’s CES show, arguably the bellwether of the industry) is essentially “meh” – right now the IoT feels like an avalanche of new connected products, many of which seem to solve trivial, “first world” problems: expensive gadgets that resolutely fall in the “nice to have” category, rather than “must have”. And, for all the talk about a mega tech trend, things seem to be moving at the speed of molasses, with little discernible progress year on year.
…
Just as for the Big Data world, the annual update to our Internet of Things Landscape (scroll below for the 2016 version) is a great opportunity to check in on the industry. In 2013, we were trying to make sense of the Internet of Things; in late 2014, it seemed that the IoT had reached escape velocity. In 2016, the IoT space continues to hold considerable promise, but equally, and unsurprisingly, there’s no shortage of obstacles – there is a long road ahead and this trend will unfold over many years, possibly decades.
Facing the future: “Everything about our financial services experience will change.”
What will the bank of the future look like? — from weforum.org by Taavet Hinrikus (formerly…as Skype’s first employee, Taavet helped build a company that has changed hundreds of millions of lives…so he knows how to ride these “waves.”)
Excerpt:
Lionel Barber, the editor of the FT, summed it up at Davos: “Nobody wants to be in banking, everyone wants to be in FinTech”. FinTech — or financial technology — has reached the mainstream, but what does this mean for the banks?
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is taking hold in banking. The rise of FinTech came about over the last five years primarily as the result of five key developments:
…
Looking ahead to ten years’ time, the picture changes even more dramatically: 20% of consumers anticipate they will trust technology providers with all their financial service across the board from credit cards to mortgages.
Around 2,000 years ago, this was not a Good Friday for the LORD. But for us, looking back on His resurrection, it is a Good Friday — as He paid the price for our sins.
As it is written in Isaiah Chapter 53:
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
———————-
Isaiah Chapter 53 (NIV version) in its entirety reads:
53 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes[c] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life[d] and be satisfied[e];
by his knowledge[f] my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[g]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
