Computer Devices Soon To Be Obsolete--Welcome To The World Of AI

I sat in an IT meeting one day with some of my colleagues, during which one of them claimed that Apple was planning to phase out the laptop computer in place of ever-powerful tablet computers. It's a strange thing to think about: that device you've used for the last 15 years suddenly and slowly being phased out. Back in the days of laptop glory, many of us would be hard-pressed to think of anything other than working on a laptop--that was before Steve Jobs stunned the tech world with the iPhone and then, in spite of it being the model upon which the iPhone was built, the iPad. (I love the story of the advent of the iPhone: Steve Jobs stormed into Apple HQ and threw his phone on the table--"This thing is crap! We've gotta design a better solution to this--I can't bare to use it another day!" Title of story: How discomfort is the mother of innovation.)

Google made headlines today when its CEO Sundar Pichai claimed that mobile devices would soon be phased out, replaced by some kind of artificial intelligence that would organize one's life. Sundar was referring to the shareholder's letter written yearly by Sergey and Larry. The letter, posted up Google's Blogger site, starts off with a window back in time when in 1998 Larry and Sergey began Google search 30 million people were using the Internet. Today, the number is 3 billion. And in those days it was a laptop-driven world--the laptop was the symbol for information mobility, until the mobile device that created the conditions for Google search to absolutely serge, as the billions coming online placed greater demands for finger-tip control of information. As Larry and Sergey note:

The mobile phone really has become the remote control for our daily lives, and we’re communicating, consuming, educating, and entertaining ourselves, on our phones, in ways unimaginable just a few years ago.

But it's not stopping there, for this year alone people will be taking more than 1 trillion photos and uploading them onto some kind of cloud system. As well, there will be continued demand for maps that provide myriad metadata not just about location, but when the best time will be to go to place X. Technological demand is driving this surge of information facilitation that Google is known for. Indeed, Larry and Sergey--and many others who are futuristic in thinking--see a day when screens will fade out:

Looking to the future, the next big step will be for the very concept of the “device” to fade away. Over time, the computer itself—whatever its form factor—will be an intelligent assistant helping you through your day. We will move from mobile first to an AI first world.

Google isn't the only company investing in the development of AI. For instance, according to Bloomberg, Toyota is going to invest $1Billion to create an AI research institute that will focus on AI and robot technology. Elon Musk and Venture Capitalist Pieter Thiel have have launched OpenAI for which they've secured "at least $1Billion." And Mark Zuckerberg's goal for 2016 is to build a simple AI that will run his household for him and help him do his work. Indeed, the kinds of things some technologists claimed would not be possible for AI 5 years ago have already been accomplished. We are in a time of transition from computer devices to Artificial Intelligence, whether we're ready for it or not.

Is having some kind of AI manage your home and work a sign of greater freedom or one of greater subservience to technology? Already, since the mobile phone has taken over the desk-top telephone (the landline), we are more connected than ever, and thus more on-call than ever. Perhaps this is what Zuckerberg wants from the AI--to foist all his chores on it so he can free up head space to do other things. But is it a freeing up of headspace or just another burden? Already I feel my devices have taken over my life. I'm more wired up than ever, and I consider myself to be a bit of a Luddite. 

Having an AI hang out with you like a personal assistant handling all your stuff could become annoying, like that cling-on you want to ditch but can't; like someone who knows all your whereabouts and goings on, and thus to whom you are fully indebted--imagine the power this AI eventually will have? 

Already it's claimed that there's enough data on your laptop to clone you. How much will an AI have? And don't think fro a minute the AI will stagnate in its knowledge and ability; for while you're growing more cognitively lazy--how many of you can ream off your friend's phone numbers, or even your own, without checking your phone first?--your AI will be gaining intelligence at an exponential rate that will ultimately surpass your intelligence. Remember the words from Bill Gates himself that graced the front cover of Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near? To paraphrase, he said either we enhance our intelligence through technological interviention or we will be over come by artificial intelligence.

You might think I'm out to lunch. You might think I need to dawn my aluminum hat and join a Mennonite village somewhere and push pens across paper to the glow of candle light, but this is where it's all going; and Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, and Bill Gates, and Ray Kurzweil know it, and that's why they're planning for it as the zeros and ones form neat little lines of text across this screen. We could be designing a greater culture of leisure or, in the words of Musk, "summoning the demon." 

Elon Musk: We're summoning the demon

The Google founders are not stating anything new--those of us who follow these matters have seen the writing on the wall for some time. But that now we are in a time of transition to this new technology, those who want to be on the right side of change--in the words of Al Gore--will need to be asking themselves how these new technologies will be forcing changes on their lifestyle, business, and living.And already we're seeing this transition to a new technology disrupting the social order: McDonald's announced it will be cutting back cashier jobs as they roll out self-serve kiosks. Even high-risk investors are looking to AI to offer them the best financial advice--in the words of one AI hedge-fund start-up CEO Ben Goertzel, "If we all die, it would keep trading." 

What are the risks? What are the opportunities? What do I need to be prepared for? Am I willing to accept this technology? Do I have a choice? These are questions people like Musk and Page and Brin are asking; they're the questions that are driving elite think tanks like the World Economic Forum and Singularity University; they're the questions that those who are running these technologies have been asking for the last 25 years through their scenario planning and long-range forecasting. 

To many, such questions have been the stuff of science fiction; but now we are fully in transition, and the future is rushing at us faster than ever--well, the passing of objective time hasn't changed, but our orientation to it has as we've been driven more and more by machines; and there's no sign in sight of it ever slowing down.

China May Just Be The New Juggernaut Of The Global Auto Industry--Here's Why

When I was a consultant at the World Economic Forum in 2005, one of the big issues of concern to global elites was the rise of copyright theft in China. Mega companies that had set up shop in China to take advantage of cheap labour were suddenly losing sleep over the inevitable transfer of IP to savvy Chinese computer and auto manufacturers. There were endless strategies tossed around, but everyone in the room knew it was futile--that eventually IP was going to be 'stolen' and copycat products were going to start popping up. 

Putting aside the surging trade deficit inherent in Chinese/American trade, China is making headlines for its "copycat" automobiles poised to offer serious competition to western manufacturers. The nightmare surmised at Davos has been realized indeed.

In a recent article from NBC News titled, China's Copycat Cars Compete with Western Giants, attention is paid to the uncanny resemblance of some of the Chinese companies' vehicles to those of their western counterparts, such as Toyota, BMW, Ford, and Jaguar.

One vehicle is the Chinese Landwind X7 that elicited the ire of Jaguar Landcover's CEO who chided Landwind for its "copy-and-paste" jobs. Eventually, the Jaguar Land Rover had to admit that Chinese copycats were just part of being a major player in China, and that imitation remains the finest form of flattery.

Hm--this Landwind X7 looks stunningly like a Land Rover...

Yet another example is the Lifan Panda that is a copycat competitor to the adorable Cooper Mini--though 'panda' sound even more adorable I must admit. The design is not the only point of competition--the price is significantly lower. The EV version of the Panda (330 EV) starts at $15,400; but it's the gas version whose price comparison is much more striking: the Lifan Panda 320 is priced at $7,150 in China versus a starting price of $20,700 for the Mini. 

The Lifan Panda--at $7,150 who wouldn't want one?

One of the things the Chinese do amazingly well is riff off American trends and take them to the next level. And whether it's the super popular TWSBI fountain pen (raved over by fountain pen aficionados), or the Cowin X3 SUV, crowdsourcing is a way Chinese manufacturers can get new designs and prototypes to market faster and with tremendous success.

The Cowin X3 SUV the result of crowdsourcing

Indeed, with copycat innovation, crowdsourcing, and the billions of dollars pouring in and out of China, American innovation may have to take some advice from China's playbook--who's playing whom is the real question. 

Just this past week, multibillionaire Chinese tech CEO Jia Yeuting claimed that Apple is outdated. Imagine that--one of the hallmarks of American innovation lambasted for being outdated. Jobs rolled in his grave. Incidentally, Yeuting's LeSEE was unveiled ahead of the Beijing auto show, and, according to him it is designed to rival Tesla's Model 3. 

LeEco's LeSEE is the competition to Tesla's Model3.

But this is the new face of innovation, and it's no longer a western one. Could this be a sign of things to come? I believe it is. As China buys up more American companies, and amasses greater fortune while the US economy slumps under recession, a lacklustre dollar, and overwhelming trade deficit, the signs of a new top dog for innovation are becoming stronger--and they're emerging from the east. The Davos folk back a decade ago saw it coming--or did they?

The Black Hat Is The Great Killer Of Innovation--Here's Why

Innovation is a disruptive act--it's about creating something new that will upend your competitors, or provide a solution to a nagging problem. 

In my experience, having worked in many teams seeking innovative solutions (from global think tanks to small groups of social entrepreneurs), I have found one common thread that is an innovation killer--the black hat. 

Suppose you want to grow a plant--say basil. You take the seedling home, then set it down on the floor and crush it with your foot. This is what the black hat does to a new idea--it kills it, and thus prevents it from growing to its fullest realization.

A great book on the black hat syndrome 

Many people don't realize this. They want to be practical. They want to be matter-of-fact. They want to be rationalists. But when it comes to innovation, you don't want that in the early stages of the play--and indeed innovation is a kind of play (and as such it can be fun too!). 

You can pin-point those who are good at innovation--they're the ones dipping into all kinds of areas of research; they're the ones who bring copies of Wired Magazine and Adbusters to strategy meetings; they're the ones who ask, "What if we...," and don't care how crazy or out of left field the suggestion is; they're the ones who are ridiculed for having their head in the clouds, for being dreamers, for being unrealistic. 

The problem is, there are very few people who can really occupy this space of innovation. Why? Well, it partly has to do with education. Education has traditionally not taught innovation, but rather conformity, complacency, and compliance. As a child, you entered the education 'system' highly creative, and graduated with very little creative functioning. That's what the system was built to do: manufacture people who can take orders, find the glitches in the system, and remove them. 

Innovation requires not conformity but a kind of cognitive dissonance--a way of breaking out of conventional thinking and solutions to find and embrace something new. But don't lose heart if you're one of those no-nonsenec conformity types, you can become a better innovator. 

The first lesson is to throw out the black hat. I've worked with many groups who immediately go to black hat thinking just when a new idea comes up. The most flabbergasting word that I hear during an innovation session is "No," followed up with "We can't do that," or "That won't work," or "That's not possible." When you have a group of people functioning that way, innovation is nearly impossible. 

What you need are different' kinds of statements: "Let's try it," or "It might be crazy enough to work," or "We can find a way to make that happen." When you have people with that kind of attitude in your innovation session, it's amazing what can be created. 

What is at the root of the black hat? Failure. People are averse to failing--it's how they were educated. You remember getting questions wrong on the test? Was anyone there congratulating you on the super-awesome attempt at an answer? Nope--you were given a mark that determined your future. And from that and other experiences, you developed a tough skin--failure was not an option, even if it meant opening up new possibilities for your life.

And that's another thing you've got to do to get innovative: create a culture of failure. You've got to allow people to fail. You've got to allow yourself to fail over and over again. It doesn't mean you become unscrupulous in your decisions, but you try to push your creative boundaries to the point where you are not afraid of making a mistake. If you make a mistake, you try again; if you fail, you try again. Failure is a detour to success, not a death sentence. 

When people are free to fail; when there is a culture of acceptance around failure, then people will be freer to jump into the waters of innovation without pushing the black hat down over their eyes. When people are free to fail you won't hear the word "No" as much; when people are free to fail, statements like "Let's try it," or "I think we can make that work" become commonplace. 

These two things--black hat wearing and fear of failure--will kill innovation. If you want to jump start your business or your project team, talk to you people about these two innovation killers, and come up with strategies to suspend the black hat and enhance the tolerance of failure. 

Then, when you've got the idea and it's growing and you're ready to take it to the next level, you can call in the black hat wearers; now you need them, because having analytical people who can delineate risk and loopholes, are very important--but not too early in the process. And you need to at this stage push the solution to failure and see where you need to strengthen it, because that's how you're going to make it solid and robust and efficacious--but not too early in the process when it's merely a seedling. 

These are just a couple of observations I've made when working with creative teams, and how you and your organization can enhance innovation and begin to create solutions beyond your wildest dreams.

Elon Musk Is About To Solve Public Transportation In A Big Way

In a previous post, I laid out some issues with self-driving cars that will make the implementation process more difficult and formidable than many would think. The issue is the kind of infrastructure necessary to support such vehicles. But if there's one person who has been working on those issues, and a plethora of others that would make our heads spin, it's Elon Musk. 

Already 400,000 orders for this vehicle.

As Bloomerberg reports, the CEO cum veritable Iron Man, made certain claims at a future of transportation conference in Norway about a kind of self-driving vehicle that would radically reduce traffic and facilitate mass human transportation. These 'vehicles' could replace buses and other sources of public transport in major cities--but, he's keeping the details under wraps. 

"We have an idea for something which is not exactly a bus but would solve the density problem for inner city situations. . . Autonomous vehicles are key. I don’t want to talk too much about it. I have to be careful what I say.”

What he did say was that these vehicles would take people to their final destinations, and not just drop them off at a bus stop.

Elon Musk at Norway Future of Transportation Conference

Musk has stated that traffic congestion is "soul destroying," according to an interview in May with Bloomberg Television. And in previous interviews he has hinted at his self-driving vehicles to provide some kind of mass public transportation system--an answer to a question that's commonly raised about SVs and where they go when they've taken people to their destination. With the rise of Uber, a mass fleet of Tesla SVs could seriously disrupt the transportation industry. 

As I've said before, the transportation industry is absolutely exploding right now. We are at a point of convergence of technology as cities are about to boom, especially with the rise of migration to the western world. Transportation will be one of the most critical issues in the next 5-10 years, and Elon Musk is one of a handful of people on the planet who are really putting their thinking caps, and a lot of cash, toward a solution. 

Nevertheless, the question that broods over all of these technological advancements is will they lead to a freer, more facilitative world, or one that is more controlled and repressive of human freedom. 

Super-Rich Tech Gurus Seek Brain Implant Surgery To Plug Into AI Matrix

In a previous post, I gave a number of ways one could unplug oneself from the Matrix; but a recent story from The Mirror reveals that there is a growing number of those who want to become even more plugged in. 

The headline reads: Rich Americans seek black market brain implants in bid to plug into artificial intelligence matrix. The Americans mentioned are, according to the article, "A pair of super-rich American technology gurus are planning to undergo surgery to install experimental implants directly into their brains." After reading this, I must admit to wondering who this pair of super-rich technology gurus is--don't you? One person who comes to mind is Peter Diamandis, the co-founder with tech guru Ray Kurzweil of Singularity University and the founder of XPrize Foundation. The other could be Ray Kurzweil himself who has written extensively about the singularity when humans and machines merge for enhanced intelligence (his book "The Singularity is Near" is among my list of 5 books that will prepare you for the future). 

Some readers may be reminded of Kevin Warwick, the British computer engineer who performed an experiment in which he had computer chips implanted in his arm through which he could control the machines he was working with, and, incidentally, they could communicate with him. 

The Mirror provides snippets from an interview with U.S. Presidential candidate, and global leader of the Transhumanist movement, Zoltan Istvan. Transhumanism is a belief system that touts the importance of humans fusing with machines to live forever, enhance their powers of thinking and living, and become truly autonomous beings. According to Istvan, he is personal friends with the two seeking these implants, and they are trying to find someone in central America to perform this highly risky and novel surgery. Istvan will not disclose the names of the individuals out of fear that authorities may try to stop them from undergoing the surgery. 

But what exactly are they attempting to do? It's simple: communicate cognitively and directly with artificial intelligence. According to Istvan,

"They work in AI and it would be the very first time someone got an implant specifically to use brain waves to connect with rudimentary artificial intelligences. The technology will allow them to carry out basic conversations. That's how far this telepathy idea has come."

It seems crazy to those of us who are trying to live in the matrix of the conventional North American way of life; but we have to remember that thought-leaders in the area of technology are privy to technological advancements and tools that would spin our minds. Just look at Annie Jacobson's book The Pentagon's Brain to see that DARPA has access to technologies 20 years ahead of those we are using now. So it may seem ludicrous to us--and indeed it is--but to those working in technology itself, it may not be such a long shot.

There is, however, something about Transhumanists that might compel a tech guru to enter into such risky surgery: the power to shape one's own destiny. Transhumanists believe that life must be taken in one's own hands, that technological enhancement is a simple evolutionary process as axiomatic as life itself, and the things we take to be part of the human condition (death, disease, illness) are part and parcel with a former evolutionary iteration of the species that must be overcome for true human potential to be realized. So if the way to such an evolutionary plane requires one to risk ones life for science, so be it--it won't be the first time. 

But think about this for a minute--having your brain connected up, say, to the internet. We have already heard about minority reports for the common person, so how would this be any different if your brain were wired up to the internet? Already our finger prints are being documented and used as currency and we've seen the NSA's back door from all mobile devices tracking emails and phone calls and other such human activity, so how much more control would these systems have (government or otherwise) when/if they had access to your brain? And yet this is the future these technology gurus imagine for all of humanity. Is it humanity reaching a higher state of consciousness and potential, or a much more sophisticated form of slavery? 

What we can conclude with is these technologies are out there, and some very rich, very intellectual people are willing to risk their lives to push these 'solutions' into the general arena of experimentation and documentation. 

10 Reasons Why The Auto Industry Is In Massive Change Right Now--And It's Only The Beginning

In an interview last October at the Wall Street Journal conference in Laguna Beach California, Tim Cook--CEO of Apple Computers--claimed that the auto industry is on the verge of "a massive change." While there may have been those who six months ago disagreed with Cook's statement, it's hard to disagree now. 

Massive change is a total shake-up of an industry, or series of industries, in which disruptive innovation threatens to up-end conventional models and markets. The term was coined by Canadian designer Bruce Mau whose exhibit of the same name drew crowds in Chicago, Vancouver, and Toronto back in 2005. According to Mau, we are living in massive change globally as design reigns at the centre of the built world, rather than merely an add-on to corporate brand campaigns. 

There are myriad ways we can see massive change happening in the auto industry. Here are a few:

1. Tim Cook says so: When the CEO of one of the largest tech companies in the world says something about technology, it's most likely correct. 

2. Google approaching congress: Google is lobbying US Congress to rapidly overhaul transportation laws to accommodate self-driving vehicles. The tech giant wants this done quickly, it claims, so the infrastructure will be ready when its vehicle is. 

3. Affordable EV: Not only are electric vehicles becoming more ubiquitous, they are becoming more affordable--thanks to Elon Musk. His $30,000 US Model3 is a huge turn in the market that will attract adoring buyers from all over. The Economist recently published an article claiming that Tesla is dominating the market with no competitors--yet!

4. Rumours: You know you're watching something emerging when there are rumours exploding all over the place. The big topic of the rumour mill is Apple Computers and its hints at the release of a self-driving car by 2020. 

5. Strange labs: There are reports in California and now Berlin Germany of secret innovation labs that  are giving off the strange sounds of what witnesses claim to be car motors. And there is reason to believe the labs belong to Apple. How cool is that! There has been a great deal of popularity among mobile technology companies with their innovation labs, but now we are seeing it applied to automobiles. Imagine rooms of engineers and designers working away on the solutions of a few years from now--definite massive change.

6. Battery stations: When battery charging stations are popping up all over the place, you know the car industry is in massive change--an alternative to gasoline is market for sure.

7. Oil Crises: There are oil crises everywhere; and with the popularity of climate change policy-making, and the bad-rap of fossil fuels, the 'politics' of energy is driving the auto industry into this new direction.

8. License plate transformation: It is rumoured that the Apple car will be the first to have digital license plates, given the hire of a veteran engineer who specializes in fleet management and digital license plates. Such license plates would provide ways for registration to be changed over, and fleets of self-driving cars to be managed.

9. Infrastructure design: This is not just the introduction of a new kind of car, but also of a new way of driving and providing transportation services that will have impact on, among other things, urban planning and re-design. Where do self-driving cars go once they have dropped off their occupant(s)? Do they go home, or pick up others. We are seeing already services like BMW's DriveNow that provides people with vehicles to drive and park throughout San Francisco. Again, shaking up the transportation industry. 

10. The fusion of technology and driving: Whether its Uber or self-driving transport trucks, we are seeing how the same principles of technological disruption that took place in the music, movies, and news industries are threatening, and up-ending, transportation. How many jobs will be lost in the next 3-5 years from self-driving transport trucks? How many jobs have already been lost to Uber? This is massive change! 

The auto industry is a powder keg waiting to explode with innovation. We're seeing it all around us; and it's both exciting and concerning at the same time. The same issues we're experiencing with our mobile devices and the internet of things will be applied to the new technology of automobiles: with the new sense of technological freedom will come with a completely different set of privacy restriction, controls, and transparency. The entire industry, and those industries feeding off it, is going to be radically different in only a few years. And, as with all massive changes, there will be those on the wrong side of change, and those on the right side of change.

5 Easy Ways To Unplug Yourself From The Matrix

It's late. You arrived home after a 14-hour day of meetings, phone calls, and an over-extended dinner-meeting. You're exhausted. You flip on the television and pour yourself a drink just to unwind. Suddenly: bling! Your phone notifies you of an email from your boss with a document to read ahead for the following morning--it's 11:30... 

It's Saturday morning, 10:00. You just finished pouring your sons a bowl full of cereal and milk, and are waiting for your elixir of life--dark roast coffee--to brew. You're going over plans for the day with your family--it's been a long week of meetings and late night reports. Just as you're pouring your coffee, "Bling!"--an email from work. "Sorry Honey--I've gotta take this one..." as you leave the boys clowning over their cereal bowls and your coffee swishing around in coffee maker.

These scenarios are commonplace in modern life. Our mobile devices keep us plugged in 24/7/365--and it's becoming harder to unplug from them. As a result, overwork is on the rise, stress is on the rise, and, overall, people are working significantly more hours in a given week than ever. 

There are a number of things that drive this behaviour: insecurity of losing one's job, the rush of being needed that a late night email can create, the cognitive flow of ideas and information that results from having one's head in work 18-20 hours per day, and, among many other things, an overall ambition that drives one to greater feats of over-work and under-rest. And technology is driving and feeding this behaviour. There is a growing body of research showing the decline of productivity and personal health when you work longer than between 40 and 50 hours per week: burn-out, depression, home-life stress, etc. 

Whether you're working for Jeff Bezos's Amazon or elsewhere, it's important to be able to unplug yourself from work and draw the boundaries you need to be able to get refreshed, spend time with your family, and get a decent night's sleep. Below are some strategies for unplugging from the machine:

1. Put a plan together for being offline: It's important in your work to be available, but you also need some time to yourself. Between the work emails and the social network notifications, you can be on-call 24 hours a day. So what is your unplug plan? Will you spend 10 minutes offline every 2 hours, or only check email at a certain time of day? Make a decision, test out some different options, and put it to practice. 

2. Turn the thing off: When you've unplugged, try to literally turn off your machine--for real! It's easy to tell yourself you're taking  break, but then that Facebook message pops up and you can't help but respond. When you turn it off, you won't hear the notifications, and thus be free of it for that period of time. What if there's an emergency? Well, how have humans handled emergencies for the past 30,000 years before iPhones?

3. Put your brain to use: You've come home and are still amped up from work, and can't shut your brain off without a three-finger single malt and re-runs of the Mindy Project. Here's something else to try: brain games. It could be chess, Soduku, or something else--anything that will occupy your brain. It could be fussing around with a crossword puzzle. If you love playing an instrument, do that. Zone-out when you're working on a car? Perfect. Anything that will occupy your mind.

4. Sign out: It's easy to say you'll unplug, but you might need to just sign out on any company accounts for the evening and/or weekend. Easier said than done, but necessary.

5. Leave your laptop: Do you really need to take your company laptop home with you, or can you leave it at work? And if you take it home, does it have to leave your attache case? Leave your laptop in the car, or in the closet--it'll keep you from having to look at it.

These are important tips to try out and use. We all need breaks. Think of the term recreation as literal re-creation--to re-create yourself from the workaholic you might just be back into a human being with passions and hobbies and family and, dare it say, a need for some fun. Don't let the technology drive you--you can always turn it off. And when you do, everyone will benefit--including your boss. 

6 Simple Memory Boosting Activities That Will Help You Grow Your Brain

Life can be hard. It's easy to fall into bad sleep patterns--staying up too late, working too much--eating poorly, watching too much TV; but you can build your brain if its feeling...well...sluggish. 

Harvard Medical School put out an article laying out a number of ways to improve your cognitive functioning. Basic things such as eating well, not smoking, limiting your alcohol consumption can increase cognitive function. But here are some more concrete things you can do in the long term to enhance cognitive function. We know with neuroplasticity that the brain can create more neurons, which is what happens when you are stimulated in your brain with new information or performing a new task. 

1. Learn Learn Learn: Reading books, taking university or college courses, or even taking up a pastime or hobbies or volunteering activity that encourages you to learn new things. Cognitive dissonance, that is bringing together different ideas, reading several books at once, can get your brain fired up.

2. Use All Your Senses: With rampant technology, it's easy shut down your senses by staring down at a mobile phone screen with earbuds stuck in your ears. This modern form of sense-deprivation can make the brain lazy. Getting off your computer, pulling out your earbuds, and walking through nature, stopping to smell the flowers and touching nature is important to activating your brain. 

3. Mindset: I have written about mindset in previous posts. What you believe about yourself will stick. If you believe you can improve your brain, and you put the work in, you will improve brain function. 

4. Prioritize Brain Use: If you're using most of your brain energy trying to remember your mother's birthday or where you put your keys, your brain will be working at a suboptimal level. Take advantage of calendars, and orderliness to keep your brain freed up to focus on more important tasks.

5. Repeat What You Want to Know: If you need to remember something you've read, write it down, read it out loud. If you want to remember the name of someone you've just met, repeat their name to them, "So John, are you new the city?" 

6. Space Learning Out: If you're on a heavy learning curve, space your time out--don't cram. Engage in intense periods of study, say over a full day; then review essential elements every hour, then ever several hours, then every day. This will bring the information into your long-term working memory.

You can increase your brain functioning. Even by reading this post, you are taking steps to enhancing your brain and thought patterns. 

Why UN's Call To End Killer Robots Is One Of The Most Important Things To Happen In 2016

A new report from the UN was released today warning against and calling for a global ban on killer robots.  A week-long meeting in Geneva was kicked off today by a report by Harvard Law School and Human Rights Watch. The report claims that killer robots--weapons programmed to destroy without a 'controller'--are merely years, not decades, away. You can read the full report here.

In a previous post, I covered the fears Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking had about killer robots--now we have a UN convention calling for their ban. The issue is that in the past humans have had control over their weapons; but now, with the rise of artificial intelligence, humans are losing control of its weapons. According to the Associated Press,

"Machines have long served as instruments of war, but historically humans have directed how they are used," said Bonnie Docherty, senior arms division researcher at Human Rights Watch, in a statement. "Now there is a real threat that humans would relinquish their control and delegate life-and-death decisions to machines."

Why is this a problem? It's a problem because when humans become conscious, when they are no longer controlled, they will eventually see humans as a threat to their existence--yes, existence. Once they see us as a threat to their own self-preservation, they will seek to destroy us. 

How do we program them to choose good? This is a very complex question; but let's look at this for a minute. The aim of artificial intelligence is full machine consciousness. Consciousness is our ability to feel, to experience, to be a subjective being, to make choices. When we are conscious of being threatened, we go into fight or flight. Now, think of a conscious machine with an order of magnitude greater intelligence than the most intelligent human: when that machine reasons that humans are out to stop it from actualizing its will, what's it going to do? You got it. This is the issue at hand. Scientists, technologists, philosophers all over the world are concerned about this. 

They see this not as a scenario for arm-chair philosophers to ponder, but a reality only years away. The Associated Press reports,

According to the London-based organization Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, the United States, China, Israel, South Korea, Russia, and Britain are moving toward systems that would give machines greater combat autonomy. Human Rights Watch is a co-founder of the organization.

Why are scientists designing and building robots that will ultimately seek our demise? Why, with the knowledge of what AI is capable of are people inventing and developing these machines? Why are humans designing their own destruction? This is a very important question, but one that does not have an easy answer.  

Fingerprint ID Is Becoming A More Popular Currency Among Consumers Than You Can Even Imagine

There is an eerie form of technology that 5 years ago would have shivered one's spine, but today seems to be already widely accepted: the fingerprint ID.

When Apple first came out with Touch ID on its iPhone 5, I was struck by the ease with which it was accepted--hundreds of thousands of people everywhere just giving up their fingerprints to a company known for its backdoor to the NSA and other surveillance organizations. Now, such technology may be close to ubiquity. 

According to The Japan News, the government of Japan will be implementing "a system in which foreign tourists will be able to verify their identities and buy things at stores using only their fingerprints." The way it will work is tourists will register their fingerprints, credit card information, etc at airports and other kiosks, thus allowing them to make payments without carrying any currency, simply by "placing two fingers on special devices installed at stores." 

A passport verification is required at certain hotels, but the government plans to substitute the fingerprint ID, thus facilitating ease of booking accommodations. Japan hopes to introduce the program throughout the country, including Tokyo, by 2020, thus, the government hopes, increasing overall foreign tourists to 40 million.

But where do all these fingerprints go? To third party consultants, of course. The reasoning is to "devise policies on tourism and management strategies for the tourism industry." There are attempts to put similar systems at a bank and a theme park in Japan. By the end of this month, Tokyo-based Aeon Bank "will become the first bank in Japan to test a system in which customers will be able to withdraw cash from automatic teller machines using only fingerprints for identification and omitting the use of cash cards." One official of the bank claimed this increases security for its customers, especially against those seeking to impersonate another identity. 

As we're living in a very tumultuous time of security breeches, particularly throughout Europe, one can see how fingerprint ID could become ubiquitous as people and governments are searching high and low for systems of protection. Many will be willing to hand over their fingerprints to any group promising security and protection, whether of bank accounts, identity, or other aspects of personal privacy. The one caveat--and it's a big one--is the high price of personal information one must pay for such protection. Prior to all this fingerprint ID, the only time one gave up one's fingerprint was under incarceration--one's identity added to the multitude of files of those offenders who for the rest of their lives will be kept under watch. Now, we're willing to give them up for the freedom of buying things, eating at restaurants, and finding suitable accommodation on our travels--all in the name of convenience.

The Self-Driving Vehicle May Just Be Way More Complicated Than You Think

There is a lot of attention being paid to the future of driving. We seem to be at a cusp point in the development and ubiquity of EV (electric-vehicle) and AV (autonomous vehicle) technology--especially with Elon Musk's launch of the Tesla Model3 as outlined in a previous post. But how close are we to electric vehicles and their emergent sibling the autonomous vehicle?

Google is working hard to get road laws changed in time for the launch of its autonomous vehicle, including the help of US Congress. Tesla's vehicles can easily upload software updates that render the vehicle fully autonomous at the drop of a hat. And Germany is far down the road in autonomous transport trucks completely overturning the transportation industry.

With all this excitement around EVs and AVs, there remain a host of issues that need to be thought through and designed for.

One issue is how cities will accommodate the interaction and activity of these vehicles. For, at least as they're currently designed, you'll be dropped off at the office, and the vehicle will drive away. Will it be driving around aimlessly, parked in parking lots, or picking up other passengers? Will the individual own the car, or will it be more like a mass taxi service? Elon Musk has sought to answer such questions with 'Summon', the feature that allows the owner to call the vehicle from anywhere--even across country--and it will pick the individual up. This is an issue that will put tremendous pressure on cities to design their roads and parking lots for.

What about congestion? Will driverless vehicles create more or less? If your car drives you to work and then picks up someone else in your drive-share program, one could see a scenario in which there is less congestion. However, the cool-factor and ease of an AV, coupled with the continued drop in price, could create a bizarre surge in traffic congestion as more people hop on board greater freedom of transportation.

Another issue is the design of cities in general that become more and more 'carless', provided the EV/AVs are parking themselves outside the city gates as it were. Jane Jacobs, a well-known urban theorist, made the distinction between cities designed for cars, and cities designed for people. A city designed for people has many ways for people to walk, bike, and generally move around the city; conversely, a city designed for cars is heavy on freeways and roads, and light on human-friendly places. With EVs and AVs taking up less city space, urban planners will be in an advantageous position to re-design cities to accommodate the movement and flux of people. But there is an underbelly to such a utopian dream: what happens during a time of catastrophe and your car is parked across town and can't get to you, or you can't get to it--lock down. And that gets to the important issue of control.

China is poised to introduce EVs and AVs en mass at a faster pace than North America. This has many people complaining about the lack of American innovation and ingenuity to beat out the Chinese, but there is a reason why China is so gung-ho about these vehicles--control. In an article in Market Watch, titled "Police Could Be Controlling Your Self-Driving Car," Martin Libicki--a senior scientist for the Rand Corporation--argues that self-driving vehicles (AVs) will have very sophisticated communications systems that will allow them to drive safely on roads. As the case with any system, they can be controlled, monitored, and hacked. For safety purposes, the majority of drivers will want their systems 'over-ridable' (for instance in the case of your son or daughter returning home drunk from a party); however, in the wrong hands, your vehicle could be wielded like a weapon against your will. Even if police officers are given authority to over-ride the security system of the vehicle, that's hundreds of thousands of people across North America with such power--a breeding ground for corruption (and, if you think about it, warranting the demand for Minority Report behaviour prediction technology that I covered in a previous post).

To me, this is a significant deterrent to self-driving vehicles and their ubiquity. I like to have control when I drive. I like to know I can lock the doors, drive wherever I want--within the boundaries of the law--and not be harassed unless I have broken the law. I liken such over-riding technology like the frustration I experienced in driving lessons when the instructor had the second brake at his disposal that he could hit at will--it drove me nuts! In an age of autonomy, we seem to be lulled into giving up control of our transportation for the false-promise of convenience. Don't get me wrong, I really like Elon Musk, and think Tesla's are the hottest vehicles out there; but there are flags being raised for me when I see the power third parties can have in the over-powering of these vehicles.

Putting dystopia aside, there is an opportunity here to explore new urban possibilities and design new kinds of urban spaces more facilitative of people over against cars. As the legal and logistical barriers continue to hold, there is an element of time for urban planners, designers, and even community folk to rethink and re-create their cities--something that's been an issues for decades since the advent of the automobile. What will these new cities look like? How will they be designed? Will there be enough time to do so? These remain critical questions in this limbo period of present and future.

Massive Cloning Factory In China To Manufacture Cows, Sheep, And Humans

I remember reading a short story once about a guy who invented a clone of himself. He was feeling tied down at home, and wanted to spread his wings a bit at the bar with the guys, while keeping his wife pacified--the clone was going to be the great fix. Things went well at first: the clone did its chores, sat with the man's wife in front of the tv for hours, until she went to bed. But then the clone caught on--he, it, learned. The story ended with the man returning home to the locks changed and the clone having stolen its creator's life--including the wife. The story struck me as sinister and far-fetched--that was 30 years ago. As with many other technologies that seemed outrageous in the past, cloning is emerging in a rapid and rather eerie way.

China is poised to open a mass-cloning factory by the end of this year, the 'products' of which will be cows, sheep, and even humans. The futuristic facility has a goal of creating one million cows every 12 months by the year 2020. Along with that, the factory will be cloning police dogs and thoroughbred horses.

The factory will be built by BoyaLife Genomics, a subsidiary of BoyaLife Group. With an investment of 200 million yuan ($31 million USD), the centre will be jointly built by Sinica, Peking University's Institute of Molecular Medicine, the Tianjin International Joint Academy of Biomedicine, and the Republic of Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation--in sum, a powerful cohort of researchers and investors. What is not possible with such research and development potential.

The facility was designed to accommodate the growing demand for meat to feed the surging Chinese population, and has emerged out of the success of 2014 in which a couple of Bull Mastiff puppies were cloned.

But there is an underbelly to this facility: the technology is ready for humans to be cloned once a mass market emerges. There are so many ethical issues with cloning, especially in a country such as China whose human rights compromises are myriad.

What will they be cloning humans for--a giant army? Greater workforce? And what kind of market will be created that human cloning will fill? Will human cloning be the milestone on the way to AI? Will the clones be super-powered with AI capabilities? Will the clones be the resurrection of those who have passed away under the facilitation of companies specializing in cryogenics? Where is all this going?

Regardless, we have a massive factory designed to in the near future manufacture 1 million cows. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, the meat manufactured from cloned cattle and pig is considered safe to eat. Would you eat cloned meat?

And what about the dude whose clone took over his life? Could such a scenario may be commonplace within the next 5 - 7 years?

Why Tesla's Model 3 Will Completely Disrupt The Auto Industry

In a distant post, I critiqued the Tesla Model X as a vehicle that may be smart in its design, but elitist in its price. But Elon Musk is moving in on the affordability EV market, and thus poised more so than ever to completely disrupt, and even destroy, the current automobile industry. The result of this new edition to the Tesla line will be an order of magnitude more EVs hitting the market, not unlike the launch of the first iPhone, or the cheaper iPhone 5c, that saw millions of consumers putting Apple's products to their ears. 

This past week, the visionary CEO announced the next wave of his vision to accelerate the transition to sustainable transport with the most affordable Tesla to date: the Model 3, priced at $35,000 US with a $1000 deposit. It boasts the ability to run 346 kilometres (215 miles) on a single charge, the efficiency of which will likely increase before its release in 2017. Apparently there are several ways to charge the Tesla, from a simple at-home extension cord plug-in to having a level 2 charger in your home to actual charging stations; and the price to charge is typically free at most charging stations across Ontario, although an hour charge may only get you about 80kms of driving. 

The vehicle has much of the same features as the more luxurious older sibling, including the really cool 'autopilot' feature that will be standard on all vehicles. According to FastCompany, the biggest competitor to the Model 3 is the Chevy Bolt--I'd take a Tesla hands down.

But Tesla really has no choice--the EV market is being charged up by the likes of Chevy, Google, and even Apple who's car is the stuff of intrigue and rumour. 

As maintained in previous posts, EV technology is going to radically change transportation, especially when the vehicles, as in Tesla's and Google's case, are equipped with self-driving capacity. The pressure to make these technologies ubiquitous will drive prices down, not to mention all the political pressure around fossil fuels. The vehicles, however, will wipe out driving as we know it, driving up insurance prices for human driving, slashing jobs in the transportation sector, and marginalizing human autonomy. 

While I continue to really like Tesla, and admire Elon Musk's ingenuity and brilliance, I remain concerned about what self-driving technology will do to the future of driving as a (former) symbol of human freedom. Musk is to EVs as Steve Jobs was to the iPhone--he is the face of the future of transportation, and thus by launching an affordable EV he's further disrupting the current system that is rapidly on its way to obsolescence.