Day 12: Ethical Issues Concerning Artificially Intelligent Agents

If one thinks back as little as twenty years, or even ten years and considers the technology, it is easy to see that there has been an exponential increase in all sorts of technological research. Computers are becoming increasingly prevalent in our everyday lives. Most people have laptops, tablets, smartphones, or some combination thereof. Even cars and some refrigerators have small computers in them. With all of this comes an increase in our knowledge of automation and artificial intelligence. We’ve already got machines to do our laundry and dishes for us, so that begs the question: what’s next?

Google has created a fleet of self-driving cars that are slowly hitting the streets. Will taxi-drivers soon be a thing of the past as well? While all this innovation is great to see, one must step back and consider the effect that this has on the American workforce. In the self-driving car example, thousands of taxi drivers that depend on the job to make a living would be out of a job. But the same thing happened to many independent seamstresses and cobblers with the advent of factories. With even more jobs being automated by these increasingly “intelligent” machines, is human labor destined to be completely replaced by machines? Futhermore, if we can create intelligent robots to do our work for us, should we?

I choose to reject sensationalist views of AI researchers and enthusiasts who claim that the rise of superintelligence will usher in an era of fear and tyranny when the machines seek to overtake the human race. On the other hand, I believe that autonomous robotic agents can be beneficial to us as a race. If the robots do end up taking over menial labor jobs as some claim, then this opens up new job fields to program and oversee these new intelligences. We will have moved to a more technologically advanced way of life.

Day 4: Birthday Thoughts

Welcome back for day 4 of my NaBloPoMo, in which I’m writing one post each day for the month of November. Today is my birthday, and as such I did a bit of personal introspection regarding things I have done over the last year and things I would like to do differently in the next year. Today I am 22 years old. Most would say that’s still pretty young, but for me I feel like I’ve already seen a quarter of my life go by. It’s disheartening to think back on these 22 years of life and realize that wow, I really haven’t done much with myself. I know  people that are much younger and much more successful than I am, already. It makes me feel like perhaps I’m doing something wrong, but I’ve been trying the best I can to work hard and do well.

One thing that I’ve been having a lot of trouble with lately is concentration. My attention span is shot, I can’t stay interested in things, and its becoming increasingly difficult for me to focus on school stuff or even stuff that I want to do. You might say, well that’s normal, everyone gets distracted or procrastinates sometimes, but its really been hindering my quality of work lately. I’ve read all the advice, made plans, tried to work better, but nothing seems to be working. I’m afraid I’m going to fall off the wagon with this blogging challenge too, but I’m determined to keep it up so far. It’s just disappointing, because I can’t seem to finish things that I start and I just get distracted so easily now, its hurting my school life and with me applying for graduate school programs, that’s not a good thing at all. I guess I’ve had a lot on my mind stress-wise what with the grad school thing. I just hope I can pull out of this slump soon.

Sorry for a personal rant of a post again, have been really busy this weekend and also (if you couldn’t tell) have been in a down sort of mood. I still plan to update this blog each day as I go on. Stay tuned for your regularly scheduled math/science posts in the future.

Day 3: Becoming Good at Something

A bit late, but a Day 3 post nonetheless. One of my friends from out of town came to visit me last minute for my birthday, so I’ll be keeping this short. I want to talk about something I’ve had on my mind recently. Now I know that not everyone can be good at every thing. Most people don’t have the good fortune to even be really good at one thing. However, as long as I can remember I’ve had trouble asking for help. Yes, I know its one of my flaws. But I just get intimidated when someone is vastly better at something than I am and I don’t know how to ask for help without being judged.

Perhaps its my own insecurities. Even my closest friends I feel weird about asking how to do things, because I keep thinking “oh they’re so much better at this than me, it will seem silly to ask such a question”, but at the same time, how does one improve if not by asking questions? I’ve  always had this weird sort of issue, and I’ve been trying to do better about it, but is it possible that I’m holding myself back because I feel intimidated by asking people for help? I’m so afraid of being judged or looked down upon I often don’t ask at all, and when someone does try to help me with things, I often wrongly feel like they are being condescending toward me. It’s really an unfortunate phenomenon, but I’m not sure what else I can do about it but keep on moving on.

Sorry for the short personal post tonight, was running out of time and didn’t have time to write a whole technical thing. Back to the SCIENCE tomorrow!

Plight of the Multipotentialite

This is a bit more of a personal post, but something that I wanted to talk about. I have a lot of interests. And I do mean a lot. And sure, you can say everyone is interested in a lot of different things, but I feel like this is different. Yeah, I’m doing a computer science degree in college, but I love so many other things just as much. I wish I could just do everything.

I have sort of an obsessive personality such that when I get interested in something, I go full force on it for some time. Inevitably, however, the fervent interest I once had will seem to fade, and a new venture will spark my excitement again. I’ve went through these stages all my life, and I feel pulled in multiple directions, never able to settle on one true “calling”, or even a few.

I feel like this puts me at a disadvantage. Many of my peers “do one thing and do it well”, and this will certainly help them get a job in the workforce. These people have extensive experience and advanced skills, along with multiple independent projects that bolster their merit. On the other hand, it seems like I haven’t done as much by comparison. As I said above, I’m a computer science student, and I am attempting to apply to graduate schools this fall. However, I feel almost sorely outmatched. I don’t know 20 different programming languages. I haven’t made any “apps” or websites or done any significant research. The skills that I do have are mediocre at best. And that’s where I feel like this problem is.

Becoming good at anything takes time and deliberate practice. And because I find myself perpetually hopping between a myriad of hobbies and projects, I never take the time to become an expert in any of them. It’s the stereotypical “Jack of all trades, Master of none” deal.

There are multiple ways that I could go from here. I could narrow down my interests and try to pour all my time into improving my skills in just a few things relevant to my career ambitions. I could also carry on the way I have, learning many things in hopes that a multitude of skills I’m okay at would be better than having a few skills I’ve mastered. I feel like it would be a better career move to cut down all the frivolous things that I do and focus only on skills such as computer science and math. However, I feel like that would be a hard transition to make. I’m just a naturally curious person, and as such I like trying as many new things as I can. I’m just worried that this will hurt me both in academia and the workforce.

A Collaborative Educational Model

So a friend and I recently decided to start a little educational experiment. I unfortunately don’t have a lot of experience with writing proofs, and he suggested that we work through some simple proofs together so I could better see what was going on and the logical steps one takes when proving a theorem.

Reading a book or studying theorems is all fine and good, but I think that the real learning comes from interacting with others, sharing ideas, contributing insights to a final goal. While many people see mathematics as a solitary profession, I think that intimate collaboration with a few others can really be useful. In the current education system, we have professors lecturing to rooms of dozens if not hundreds of students. I know from my point of view, as someone who has little experience with “professional mathematics”, it is like having a mentor with which I can ask questions and learn together with. It’s really nice.

At my university, we had an academic mentoring system similar to this. I’ve been on both sides of the fence, mentoring and being mentored. Its definitely worth doing and a great experience if you have the chance. Find someone in your field that you can work with and learn from. It will be worth it, I promise.

Life is a peephole…

Here’s a nice quote that I found at the beginning of a book I was reading. I found it rather profound and wanted to share it here.

Life is a peephole, a single tiny entry onto a vastness — how can I not dwell on this brief, cramped view I have of things?

Yann Martel, Life of Pi

Also relevant:

That’s your dose of philosophy for the day, internet.