聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 A Facebook post got me thinking.
听听听听听听听听听听听 The top part noted that in the 1960s, people were worried about the government wiretapping their phones. The lower part shows a woman speaking to her Amazon Alexa, a wiretap she purposely put in her home, asking it for pancake recipes.
听听听听听听听听听听听 My wife pointed out that my phone informed me our vehicle was parked. I know, I told her. It also tells me when you park at work, too. And when I leave the house, it says how long it will take me to get to the office. When I start the truck at the end of the day, it tells me how long it will take to get home, too.
听听听听听听听听听听听 My iPhone has a built-in fingerprint scanner, which I have never used, nor do I intend to. However, I am certain it has already scanned my fingerprint every time I touch it, and thus big brother, somewhere, has both of my index fingers scanned.
听听听听听听听听听听听 This is somewhat significant in that I have never had my fingerprints taken, for any purpose.
听听听听听听听听听听听 About 14 years ago I got a new-fangled wireless mouse whose receiver included a fingerprint scanner. To hell with that, I thought, and never used the scanner.
听听听听听听听听听听听 The new iPhone X, in getting rid of its fingerprint scanner, now uses its front-facing camera, plus special thermal cameras, to do a visual identification on your face before opening your phone. Great way to keep the kids from absconding with it, horrible for any notion of personal privacy.
听听听听听听听听听听听 And now Wired is reporting that a Vietnamese security firm has figured out how to crack it, using a 3-D printed mask made of plastic, silicone, makeup and paper cut-outs. Their hack has yet to be verified, but if true, Face ID isn鈥檛 all it鈥檚 cracked up to be.
听听听听听听听听听听听 I must grant here that most people do not have it in their capabilities to, Mission Impossible-like, come up with realistic masks of this type. So I wouldn鈥檛 worry too much about that. It鈥檚 just freaky how biometrics is now becoming standard.
听听听听听听听听听听听 小蓝视频 Park, the ultimate in irreverent television, spoofed the Amazon Alexa in September, purposefully causing the Alexa to add several rather rude things to its shopping list and even telling it good night, to which the real life Alexa in people鈥檚 homes wished the TV sweet dreams.
听听听听听听听听听听听 Our homes and pockets are now filled with devices listening around the clock for 鈥淗ey, Siri,鈥� or 鈥淥kay, Google.鈥�
听听听听听听听听听听听 How much data has to be flowing out of all these devices, all the time? How much computer processing power is 小蓝视频 used to handle all of this?
听听听听听听听听听听听 You can take it as a given that your phone conversations, emails, texts and chats are 小蓝视频 monitored by some big brother computer system, somewhere, watching for keywords. 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Imagine if that processing power was used to map the genomes of various forms of cancer? Instead, it鈥檚 小蓝视频 used in the most part to sell ads.
听听听听听听听听听听听 Thinking back to the Terminator movie franchise, it鈥檚 scary how prescient it has turned out to be. Indeed, the next generation of stealth bombers, the B-21 Raider, is to be capable of manned and unmanned operations, I read this week.
听听听听听听听听听听听 To quote the Terminator from 1991鈥檚 Terminator 2, 鈥淚n three years, Cyberdyne will become the largest supplier of military computer systems. All stealth bombers are upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, becoming fully unmanned. Afterwards, they fly with a perfect operational record. The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes online August 4, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.鈥�
听听听听听听听听听听听 Well, they got the date wrong, which is addressed in this movie and the latter ones. But the warnings about artificial intelligence are spooky.
听听听听听听听听听听听 What if Google and Facebook get together and have an AI baby? Then they take over Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing?
听听听听听听听听听听听 Hey, only the likes of Stephen Hawking, arguably the smartest person on the planet, and Elon Musk, the guy behind Tesla and SpaceX, are warning about artificial intelligence.
听听听听听听听听听听听 What if FaceGoogleLockheedBook, a.k.a. Skynet, determines we鈥檙e more trouble than we鈥檙e worth?
听听听听听听听听听听听 How do we pull the plug then?
听听听听听听听听听听听 鈥淗ey, Siri, turn off Skynet,鈥� is not going to cut it.
