Obliterated

My little corner of tumblr. Maybe it'll get bigger, maybe it won't . Let's see, shall we?

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Dear #YouTube, As Creators & Fans of YouTube, we ask you this; When it comes to DMCAs, where's the fair use? #WTFU http://thndr.me/AKXXyn

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Perth Trip October 2015 by Brad Wood Via Flickr: Traveled to Perth to be with the rest of my family for my sister Lyn's funeral on Mon, 12 Oct 2015. She took her own life on Fri 02 Oct 2015, after a long struggle with debilitating migraines and associated depression and mood disorders. She will be hugely missed by all who knew her, particularly her kids Mitchell and Kate, husband Peter, and close friends in Perth where she's lived with her family for the past 18 years.

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Fig by Brad Wood Via Flickr: Moreton Bay Fig tree at Orleigh Park, West End.

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The Candidate by Brad Wood Via Flickr: Nicole Lessio, Labor's canditate for the Gabba ward in the next Brisbane City Council elections.

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The (real) hard problem of AI

It’s not making software that can solve our problems: it’s figuring out how to pose those problems so that the software doesn’t bite us in the ass.

Stuart Russell (Peter Norvig’s co-author on the authoritative Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach) lectures on the real significance of modern AI research and its potential and pitfalls.

Russell’s point boils down to this: when (or if) we figure out how to get AI to solve the difficult problems we have, the problem of expressing that problem in terms that will not get the AI to go astray is very, very hard. It’s the “sorcerer’s apprentice” problem – the reason that the third genie wish is always, “Please undo the first two wishes.”

Not least because AI systems are often designed to decompose hard problems into simpler sub-problems and to solve those – so if you tell HAL9000 to keep the mission going, it might decide to create and solve a sub-problem of keeping itself running at all costs so that it can fulfill its larger mission.

Russell’s problem is really not an AI problem at all – it’s just a special case of the problem of regulation altogether. If you tell company managers that they have a duty to use their investors’ money wisely, how do you stop them from interpreting that as “Pollute to the point where your estimated savings from not treating your waste are just ahead of the penalties you’ll pay for destroying the health of everyone in breathing range of the factory?”

This is the subject of Tim Harford’s important book Adapt, which talks about the problem of constructing bank rules that encourage banks to behave responsibly, instead of just recklessly enough to make as much money as possible without being shut down as a criminal enterprise:

Read the rest…

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Technology has created more jobs than it has destroyed, says 140 years of data

Study of census results in England and Wales since 1871 finds rise of machines has been a job creator rather than making working humans obsolete

This is becoming a tiresome debate since it will be extremely hard to predict the future in this area anyway. Most of my worries are not about the number of jobs that is created but how the wealth distribution mechanisms in the future society will turn out. Politicians can and will create loads of different service jobs of different kind when needed, but making them pay so much so those who are employed can be good consumers and keep the production wheels turning is a different matter… Jobs is really not the issue. Distribution of wealth in the society is!

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It's my what??? by Brad Wood Via Flickr: Birthday...really, it's your birthday...

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Happy 81st Barbara by Brad Wood

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Lowndsey came 2nd by Brad Wood Via Flickr: I took a bunch of photos at Yesterday's Ipswich Supersprint - this one of Craig Lowndes​ coming back to the pits at the end of the race. There's an album of others at https://www.flickr.com/photos/obliterated/sets/72157654382622573

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Frankie at Willowbank by Brad Wood Via Flickr: for the V8 Supercar round today - tickets were part o' the deal

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The highlight of the day by Brad Wood Via Flickr: Marg got Mark Skaife's autograph when we bumped into each other in the QR paddock this morning.

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Spillway by Brad Wood Via Flickr: Hinze Dam, Gold Coast, Australia

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RAAF Memorial, Lismore by Brad Wood Via Flickr: Front Inscription This memorial is dedicated to all personnel who served in the A.F.C. and R.A.A.F. This propellor is typical of those used on aircraft flown and serviced by members of the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II Erected by Lismore City Council in co-operation with Lismore and District R.A.A.F. Association and No. 22 Squadron R.A.A.F. Per Ardua Ad Astra

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Vietnam Memorial, Lismore by Brad Wood Via Flickr: Front Inscription Vietnam 1962 - 73 In memory of those who served Lest We Forget

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Sunshine on a winter's day by Brad Wood Via Flickr: Marg soaking up the warmth at Hinze dam

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Rescue by Brad Wood Via Flickr: Lismore Fire Station

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Lismore Transit Centre by Brad Wood Via Flickr: On the walled area beside the Lismore Transit centre, are a series of paintings done by the "Back Alley Gallery of Lismore." For more see here: "http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Australia_and_Oceania/Australia/State_of_New_South_Wales/Lismore-1873793/Things_To_Do-Lismore-TG-C-1.html"