Curta: a mechanical pocket calculator
Technophilic MagazineI’m years late to this, but totally flabbergasted. What a great piece of engineering.
Published in Weekly Filet #240
Technology
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MIT researchers can now track AI’s decisions back to single neurons
QuartzSort of mind-bening: First, humans invent artificial intelligence, now they try to understand how it works.
Published in Weekly Filet #239
Facebook’s Secret Censorship Rules Protect White Men from Hate Speech But Not Black Children
Pro PublicaAn important piece that sheds light on how Facebook decides on what is allowed on the platform and what gets removed. It has been shared widely and also been used as proof that Facebook is actively discriminating and opressing voices (the title of the piece certainly sets the tone). I think that’s wrong. Facebook deals with billions and billions of pieces of content every day and needs a set of rules that work across hundreds of national laws and cultural norms. That is a highly complex problem to solve. And while Facebook as arguably the worlds largest arbiter of human expression certainly needs to take more responsibilty, I don’t think lazy, one-dimensional criticism is helpful.
Published in Weekly Filet #238
How Facial Recognition Works
The Wall Street JournalA short explainer on facial recognition that works with your own face. There’s also a notable piece on the widespread use of facial recognition in China (the text is behind a paywall, the video isn’t).
Published in Weekly Filet #238
How an entire nation became Russia’s test lab for cyberwar
WiredSome of the worst, most sophisticated cyber attacks have hit Ukraine over the past three years. It seems to be Russia’s laboratory for perfecting new forms of global online combat.
Published in Weekly Filet #237
A.I. versus M.D.
The New YorkerSomehow, computers outsmarting humans in games tend to get way more attention than in areas in which the consequences will be a lot more far-reaching. Take medicine. Algorithms are already beating humans’ accuracy in analysing brain scans or detecting skin cancer. This New Yorker piece offers a deep dive on how it works and what it means. (Plus, and that alone is worth the click: the definitive illustration of the mind-body-problem)
Not even wrong – ways to dismiss technology
Benedict Evans«The question is not whether something works, but whether you know how to change it.» – an excellent text on how to predict the future.
Click Here to Kill Everyone
New York Magazine«You can think of the sensors as the eyes and ears of the internet. You can think of the actuators as the hands and feet of the internet. And you can think of the stuff in the middle as the brain. We are building an internet that senses, thinks, and acts. This is the classic definition of a robot. We’re building a world-size robot, and we don’t even realize it.» An important text by security expert Bruce Schneier on how dangerous the internet is becoming, why markets won’t help and why regulation is needed, but hard to do.
Back to the Future of Handwriting Recognition
Jack SchaedlerA fascinating explainer of how a 1966(!) tablet could understand handwritten input with stunning precision. Come for the story, stay for the interactive examples that let you explore how handwriting recognition works.
Published in Weekly Filet #233
Yuval Harari, author of «Sapiens» on AI, religion, and 60-day meditation retreats
The Ezra Klein ShowCan humans expect empathy from superintelligent entities once they are here? What does it mean when your doctor is an algorithm? And what will people do when there is no more work for them – or will there? your doctor is an algorithm? A super interesting talk with Yuval Harari, the author of «Sapiens» and now «Homo Deus». So many takeaways, but what instantly stuck with me: how he describes religion as a virtual reality game.