Posted on 12/02/2017 9:45:56 PM PST by Kaslin
The internet has provided tools to improve the world that are, in a way, indescribable. For example, understanding the multitude of medical challenges people face becomes easier with the internet. Improving your language skills and understanding a foreign language is infinitely simpler. But there are severe challenges that come with the ease of the internet. Google and others cannot go unchallenged.
This all began as something to explore for me when within a month I had a chance to spend an extended period of time with two different biochemists on two different continents. Both of these men are utterly brilliant individuals and it was fascinating to have the chance to have prolonged dialogues with both.
The first is a retired college professor who is not really retired. He is in the middle of writing four textbooks at what most people would consider an advanced age.
He expressed complete faith in science and mankinds ability to develop scientific solutions to every task at hand. He longingly saw the day when driverless cars were roaming the streets asserting complete confidence in them being a solution to our transportation problems. In his mind, we can develop an algorithm for every problem we face.
Next, I was a guest of a biochemist in Western Australia. With our wives, we shared two dinners at his family winery. Engaging with such brilliant people presents some fascinating conversations. When I told him of having my stent put in, he proposed that very soon algorithms would be developed to diagnose any medical condition one might have. I ran through how my situation was discovered and resolved. We began to clash in our paths here he believes a computer will solve my medical needs while I put my faith in Reed Wilson (my internist and cardiologist) who, with his vast experience, figured out very quickly what was wrong with me.
I turned to my host in Australia and said to him You are Gerry. That is the name of the man about whom I just wrote -- in the U.S. They both had complete and total faith that an algorithm could be developed to solve every challenge mankind faces, even though they were half a world apart.
What is the reality for the rest of us? I love our advancements in computers and other devices. Just writing my weekly column is made immensely less challenging as I can scour worldwide information to research a topic at three in the morning from anywhere. But there are downsides.
Those downsides were displayed in a recent communication I had with a very public figure who will remain anonymous. He was telling me how the ever-invasive internet with some of its applications had dramatically altered his life.
He started by saying I am starting construction on my house. I am having issues with (uninvited) people showing up at my house. I need to protect my youngest son. Its for safety and for value of the house. Things arent getting better and I have weapons and my next dog is gonna be a pit bull.
He goes on: Thanks to the miracle of Google Earth we have NO privacy!! None and you cant get off. I wrote Google a nasty note about publishing my info as it is also published on websites when I am in and out of town. They scammed a photo of my house .. which is old anyway...
All I can say is Orwell had no idea how bad it would be.
Thanks to Waze we have traffic like never before. When I bought this house it was so quiet, no stop signs, no people that didn't live up here... it was so cool and mellow... then.... we have what we have now -- mayhem.
Have a nice day my friend and thanks for noticing the tune. It wont sell. Nothing does. People steal music. Why buy it? Why do you think I am on the road 200 days a year?
Google and Facebook.... or as I like to call it Hatebook. The things people say to each other now.... fact-less b.s. that just is never ending... I barely look anymore. I dont get into it on threads on message boards, I dont have the time or desire.
The iPhones all of it... we are losing our humanity. The ability to be social. To be REAL! To have a conversation not an argument. Not everything is a straight up yes or no answer. What ever happened to working together for the greater good?
Why do you have to choose a side? I dont. I wont. I just want what everyone wants. Peace and prosperity and my family safe and healthy. Hope for a better future for all. Does one need to choose a side for that?
Hey, I love my tech and hate it at the same time. It stole my business and took 80% of my money away.
Everything is fake now. Where's Walter Cronkite with the news, not an agenda or a wink or an 'alternative truth'.
Music, food, water, air, healthy, hope, no one is nice anymore... its rare. No social skills staring into a cell phone all day long.
That is one mans opinion about the benefit that we have derived from all those algorithms. He has to rebuild portions of his home because of its location being disclosed and strangers coming to his front door because of his celebrity. A quiet neighborhood has now become a major thruway. His income has been destroyed by people stealing it over the internet thus necessitating him to be away from his family for extended periods to replace it.
In addition, he is convinced we have lost our humanity as people bury their faces while staring at their phones looking at strident comments from people they barely know.
We can all agree we love our tech, but there is a lot to dislike. We certainly dont want the self-appointed gods of tech ruling our lives, restricting our speech or what we can read. It may be time to rein them in.
“Where’s Walter Cronkite with the news, not an agenda or a wink or an ‘alternative truth’.”
Was he really that honest and unbiased?
All for freedom and for pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world
Short answer, no.
Longer answer, BAHAHAHAHAHA... no.
No. And as the old fart aged, he stopped trying to cover up his bias
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N6z81BUvIA
Tears for fears. Nice music, great vocals, lousy philosophy.
Why net neutrality needs to end. It’s pure communism now. When people have to pay to steal, they won’t.
I almost made it to the end - but then they mentioned Walter Conkrite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlbEzzubDsc
Walter introduces the above newscast from 1965 on the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam. During the introduction it shows young troops, with Uncle Walter saying “...proud, sure of themselves, but still to be tested in battle.”
Then, with the rows of caskets being unloaded “Last week.....some of them....came home.....”
Later-on Morly Safer says something like “While this battle was claimed a victory, it remains to be seen how long America will stand for the huge losses of their sons fighting in this remote jungle.:
This was in 19-friggin’-65 near the beginning of the war!
The leftist manipulated news has been around for a long time.
Many years ago I had lunch with a futurist from MIT. He predicted that we would no longer have governments but instead be affiliated with large multinationals.
It is becoming true. Facebookers, Apples, Amazons, Googles,
Of course back then we thought it would be IBMers, who then ruled the world.
Guess what, with blockchain technology, you cannot erase or change what is posted. Google is now a dinosaur which has betrayed the internet, trying to centralize it
No google at all is good .
I despise Google and refuse to use it.
Walter Cronkite was an angry globalist who mocked that he’d gladly sit at the right hand of Satan to see one world governance with Americans giving up independence and rights to a higher State.
The nations of the world in the original Rollerball were replaced with waring industries that settled their battles in bloodsport.
Interesting post. “It may be time to rein them in.” If this strikes a chord with you, I recommend Franklin Foer’s 2017 book titled World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech. Foer has plenty to take issue with Google, but Facebook and Amazon are equally of concern. Whatever your political proclivities, the book is fascinating and disturbing.
No
Hell No
No F%%king Way
CALLER: Is this Gordon's Pizza?
GOOGLE: No sir, it's Google Pizza.
CALLER: I must have dialed a wrong number. Sorry.
GOOGLR: No sir, Google bought Gordons Pizza last month.
CALLER: OK. I would like to order a pizza..
GOOGLE: Do you want your usual, sir?
CALLER: My usual? You know me?
GOOGLE:
According to our caller ID data sheet, the last 12 times you called you ordered
an extra-large pizza with three cheeses, sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms
and meatballs on a thick crust.
CALLER: OK! Thats what I want
GOOGLE:
May I suggest that this time you order a pizza with ricotta, arugula,
sun-dried tomatoes and olives on a whole wheat gluten-free thin crust?
CALLER: What? I detest vegetables.
GOOGLE: Your cholesterol is not good, sir..
CALLER: How the hell do you know?
GOOGLE:
Well, we cross-referenced your home phone number with your medical records.
We have the result of your blood tests for the last 7 years.
CALLER:
Okay, but I do not want your rotten vegetable pizza! I already take
medication for my cholesterol.
GOOGLE:
Excuse me sir, but you have not taken your medication regularly.
According to our database, you only purchased a box of 30 cholesterol
tablets once, at Drug RX Network, 4 months ago.
CALLER: I bought more from another drugstore.
GOOGLE: That doesnt show on your credit card statement.
CALLER: I paid in cash.
GOOGLE: But you did not withdraw enough cash according to your bank statement.
CALLER: I have other sources of cash..
GOOGLE:
That doesnt show on your last tax return unless you bought them using an
undeclared income source, which is against the law.
CALLER: WHAT THE HELL?
GOOGLE: I'm sorry, sir, we use such information only with the sole intention of helping you.
CALLER:
Enough already! I'm sick to death of Google, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and
all the others. I'm going to an island without internet, cable TV,
where there is no cell phone service and no one to watch me or spy on me.
GOOGLE: I understand sir, but you need to renew your passport first. It expired 6 weeks ago
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