go fully automated, because its 2017...

... and other flimsy arguments. this one's going to be a rant and personal thoughts sort of thing. if you feel i'm wrong in some place or my info's out of date, feel free to comment below and let's talk about it. i'm not going to talk about the economic situation that'll be affected too much because i'm sure others have done so already and that i'm not too sure i want to go into it right now.



automate?

the basic premise as of 2015 till now has been that automation is the key to success, a prosperous life and a stress-free living because all your jobs will be taken care of by machines. this also extends to self-driving trucks which on the surface, sounds great, but as with everything there's a catch, i'll get to that one in a bit.

automation has technically been around for awhile now. its probably more obvious in the car and manufacturing business where a degree of monotonous precision is needed. you'd notice that humans work with machines to drill, carve and create different parts of the car and every single component needs to fit just so, otherwise the car will either fall apart or not work at all. so, fast forward to after automation and it'll be pretty much the entire factory is staffed purely by robots with only a single manager who does the paperwork. that's great for businesses. because you usually only need to pay once for the robots and ideally, they'll work until they fall apart which means a working life span that's longer than supposedly fickle and fragile humans. with humans, you need to pay them salary every month and if they are doing work well, they require incentives or bonuses and then if they are doing very well, you need to promote them, get a pension plan, medical, so on so forth, etc. basically, when you consider it, apart from slave labour, humans are very expensive.

companies in seeking to sell their products, will undoubtedly press for automation. you can look at this from 2 perspectives. the first one is the aforementioned, reduction is costs. the second one is that the push for automation would have most likely originated from companies looking to sell robots. i also don't doubt for a moment that the academics who have concluded that automation is a boon for mankind could genuinely mean it but i also know there are those who would shill for corporations, because everyone's got their price i'm sure. and the arguments they put forth actually have merit as well. which makes the matter all the more complicated and grey as opposed to being starkly a black and white benefits-disadvantage argument.

self-propelled eggs

speaking of robots. the self-driving cars and trucks are genuinely weird. it'll eventually come to being that an entire generation will not know how to drive a car... and the only people i see who will benefit from this slightly are parents; because their offspring will not know how to drive the car and leave the house randomly. being facetious aside, i don't see how this is beneficial because driving in some parts of the world is still a necessary life skill. i'm not quite comforted by the fact that the taxis i'll be forced to take in the future will have no steering wheel, will have no driver and potentially, not even a single door handle to open and close the door because everything shall be automated to such a degree that you needn't even think. drones doing amazon e-shopping deliveries, i'm ok with; there shouldn't be anyone living inside the packages that the drone delivers. so, if it fails for some reason, it'll plummet from the sky and hopefully not land on anyone or anything and no one inside the drone will be hurt since there's no one in it. safety and reliability aside, self driving cars are pretty cynical if you consider it. i can appreciate not having to trust a human because... well humans are the worst possible creation in the universe and are completely untrustworthy. so, what makes people think that a robot created by a human will be anymore trustworthy? it does speak volumes about how much we trust our fellow man, but i think there's an even greater callous regard in totally disregarding and taking safety for granted when using an automated vehicle.

i don't like self-driving cars for the reason that it feels out of control. at minimum, there needs to be a fail safe. a human does need to be able to take control of the vehicle should there be fault with the self driving car in some way. frankly, if people hate driving so much, they probably should just car pool or stay home. don't force the idea of a self driving car on others. don't go around saying: "this is the future, all drivers shall not need to drive anymore because its....whatever century it is." it smacks of arrogance and a total disregard for anyone but yourself. we've also no guarantees that self driving cars will be as safe as manufacturers claim it to be. and while we're on the subject.... the manufacturers aren't doing a very good job of selling their products i feel. almost every single self driving car i've seen looks like a bubble and the top speed seems to be slower than that of a segway. it looks like a pod for old people. each concept i've seen doesn't make any sense with regards to the environment or the product; it just looks like an expensive toy. sure, they're all electric battery powered and i'm sure because you're the only passenger in it (obviously, not the driver anymore), it'll be a damn sight more quiet, however, i feel the idea fails to appeal because all the designs are meant for the city. electric cars always have had the issue of recharging. the only company that has gone through hell and high water to address the issues so far is Tesla, which has actually sold me on the concept of an electric car. but the simple fact remains; your new self-driving pod will likely not go faster than 40, 60 if we're being charitable; it will be small and cramped; it will look like its been designed by Apple and will probably lose its novelty after the 4th time it refuses to open the doors for you automatically; it will most likely not be able to go further than your local cafe... alright fine, city borders; finally, it'll be monumentally expensive regardless.... but hey, its eco friendly and you don't have to drive.

i actually can't think of a bigger hazard on the road than a car driving significantly under the speed limit. there's always going to be a guy in the subaru rally car who zips by you at 110 mph and will likely collide with the tree at the bend ahead, but he does get out of your way pretty quickly and despite the rudeness of him flashing his high beam, you at least know he's behind you. an egg shaped pod going at 30 is only going to hold up traffic. because these egg pods are designed for a single passenger, you'd probably get a long line of these things trundling along... slowly. what a nuisance to other road users. the hazard comes from the part that you do need to try and overtake these soft-boiled eggs on wheels or risk dying of old age behind them. if you wish to simulate this experience, put a centenarian in a car, any car, even the egg mobiles and drive behind them. this is supposed to embody driving efficiency?

now, i'll be fair. i do go on and on about the engine and the speed. so, fine. what if the auto makers decide to make a fast egg? wouldn't that be ideal? not really. do bear in mind people like to tinker with their toys, eggs on wheels included. you'd likely end up in a situation where an egg mobile has been modified and could potentially randomly veer into you. the passenger in the egg probably won't even realize he's about to collide into something until its too late. i'll quickly add that the egg mobile may have an AI but i doubt it'll be anymore prepared for weird situations than a human driver. if the car companies can prove to me that their egg mobiles won't be a nuisance on the road, either because they're too slow or have an erratic driving pattern, then i'll drop the argument and concede that they've indeed made the roads... slightly safer.

actually, i'll just throw this one out here for a thought: special lanes for self-driving cars. they just sit on this particular lane, and those of us who either cannot afford the self-driving eggs or actually enjoy driving can drive in peace. discrimination you say? of course it is. because this is much easier than allowing the cars to intermingle and actually cause an accident. pragmatic while keeping both sides happy.

the kicker from the CIA

so, awhile back, wikileaks released a series of documents that were hacked or leaked off the CIA. among the documents were cyber warfare or hacking related articles and reports, indicating that they've manage to take control of cars with computers in them. worse still, it has been rumored that the CIA have....misplaced their hacking tools. that should actually be very shocking to the self-driving egg pod crowd because now, if you buy an egg mobile, it can get hacked while you're inside the car and the car will likely drive into a river or off a building (i don't think an egg mobile can go to where cliffs are). or if you want a more miserable life, it'll probably hack into your facebook and share all your heretically bad selfies to everyone or even doxx you. how wonderful is that?

this should actually be a major concern. especially if terrorists are still around.... i mean its 2017, surely there won't be any terrorists or criminals in the future? this is a force multiplier for them and they'll blend right in because people will be used to seeing ghost cars driving around streets on their own. an enterprising terror organisation can hijack these vehicles and turn them into the usual car bomb and then just direct them into target areas. so.... thanks for automating the jihadi suicide vest i suppose. now, you'll get 72 car bombs for the price of 1 hacker. and there'll be more gun-toting terrorists rather than suicide bombers.

i've no doubt that hacking will just be limited to cars though. remember that everyone who is pushing for automation probably will want the robots in the factory to be hooked up to the internet as well. so, there'll be a good chance an entire factory can be hijacked as well. and here we are then. terrorists can hack into a car factory and turn it into a car bomb factory and people probably won't notice it because they'll be on their smartphones or the smartphone equivalents in the future. industrial sabotage will be quite tricky to deal with, i'm sure.

the take-away?

fully automate everything means losing jobs, losing control, and you'll need to learn how to program and repair robots because this seems to be the future people want. people like new technology and new toys. its not just empathy that people are lacking in these days. it is the ability to try and figure out the potential problems with new technology that is sorely lacking. made up in for in abundance in the ability to believe only the bits they want to hear.

i don't buy into the argument that hackers will always be able to get into something they're not supposed to because they're persistent. the idea i'd rather hear is how you'd go about protecting us from such incidences. we're not actually heading to an era where it'll be the rise of the machines. we're heading to a real life Ghost in the Shell era and that is actually infinitely scarier; everything can be hacked into and we've no way to stop it.

we definitely need a lot more cyber security. but most importantly, is to scrutinize new technology and then try as best as possible to excise the potential for abuse. actually, in that case then, don't be a programmer, go and be a hacker because it sounds like it'll be a lot more profitable.

the weird looks from 2010

i'm 26 now and dear god most of the time i find myself wishing i could just start over because of all the mistakes i've ever done. unfortunately, i have better reasons to keep on living but regrets are part of life and you've got to move on... even if it doesn't always work out.

i suspect that even among oddballs, i'd still be the most odd. not enough to be put in an institution but bad enough i guess.

so, reflecting back on certain things i'm sort of happy they happened though i wish they hadn't. why can't i just shit post in peace or be a hikikomori? i dunno.. i'm probably a bigger idiot for remaining out here where i'm now aware of things and leave things well enough alone. i bring this up because of certain factors i noticed in my college years. critical thinking and figuring out critical thinking.

the 2 are very different and not quite the same. if you want to make it in this world you need critical thinking. you need to be able to question things and not just be in an environment that encourages it. in an environment that encourages critical thinking, it becomes easy to be enamoured in a certain set of rules and philosophy. moreso because of your own private views and the expectation that you can voice them out without sounding like an idiot. that happened to me in college. i'm not the only there that has strident views but i'm the only one stupid enough to make them heard. i feel that this has cost me quite a few friendships and in a way i'm glad i decided to distance myself from a lot of my cohort and classmates; our views will never match and i would only be there to serve as a source of anxiety and frustration to others. "why won't he shut his whore mouth up?" would be the frequent thought in my classmates heads.

living in south east asia, we're usually indoctrinated not to speak out or against people, especially teachers or figures of authority. quite unsurprising then, that i become a rebel in any sort of environment with that sort of atmosphere. why? because i don't like conformity most of the time. but mostly i come to realize, its a sort of a rather weird desire to find out why we do things the way we do and that i think we can do them better. anyway, back to the awkward stares of death i get in the classroom. i think my favorite subject were the thesis classes but i was never really that good at them. the only reason i was any good at it was because i could string a coherent paragraph together. that doesn't necessarily mean that the whole thesis meant anything important. i think that my classmates won't and never will appreciate thesis classes simply because they're better artists than they are writers. which is fair and an easier path in life. who gives a toss about the patriarchy and the male gaze when all you want to do is render great looking pictures and will likely get paid more handsomely for said pictures. for me however, it was great. i never had any idea what academia would be like. it was in a way wonderful. finally, i discovered the real meaning of school.... so i would have thought back then.

i think without realizing it, i was being an SJW or social justice warrior without thinking or realizing it. Time does strange things to you, in my case, fully realizing what retard i'd become. i questioned guests sometimes without realizing why. i didn't understand why things had to be simple. a great and massively talented japanese animator had come in and i asked him, was there any reason his antagonistic aliens hated humans and he replied no. obviously, i got stink eyes from everyone in the room just for asking that question. who asks that? me. at the time, i got so wrapped up in the idea of making complex baddies and simple heroes. everything needed to have a motivation everything needed a cause. the thought bubble popped years later when i saw the minions movie and enjoyed it immensely because it was a movie about the minions being minions and nothing else. sheer simplicity. you don't need to be a pompous curator to enjoy that.

of course after that movie, my fragile, poorly structured world fell apart and came to the conclusion that in every waking second in college i was an asshole. correct. but now years later, i can spot things and begin to question them. this is the part of life that i figured out critical thinking. this was and still is the part of life where i am somewhat more aware of what i'm doing and of other people's sensitivities which in most cases, i don't give a toss about either anyway; but i'm at least now aware, you will be offended and why. i can't stress this enough. in a secure college environment that teaches critical thinking, you need something else to be paired with it: objectivity. this one i am very glad my dad thought this to me and hammered home the point like a broken tape recorder. being a lawyer, he needs to view the case from both ends of the stick to see what he can and cannot do. in fully understanding the case, he also understands his opponent and that allows him to create highly persuasive arguments.

for me, being objective allows me to look at issues and wonder: why are the parties involved doing it in such a way? this is the reason if i was american, i would have voted trump (i would have very much liked to have voted sanders). a lot of my friends and former friends view issues in a certain way. all lean to the left and they happen to just stop there. they don't appreciate it but i think they view things in a very black and white sort of manner, which is perfectly fine. it doesn't complicate life any more than necessary. but it does make it more difficult to drill down into the reasons such things happen. especially when you don't want to view things from the other party's point of view.

the take from this is this: college students, you can make as much noise as you want but bear in mind making so much noise will alienate you from your friends regardless of what you or they have been taught. nobody likes a snot nosed brat (apart from me... i wouldn't mind friendly banter over a beer or coffee). college spaces do tend to be echo chambers. if you consider yourself a maverick i have a great piece of advice that might allow you to survive college with friends.

i call this the odd number rule.

take any odd number : 1, 3, 5 or 7. if you add another odd number, it usually becomes an equal number, eg. 3 + 3 = 6. add another odd number again and the new answer is 9, an odd number. however, if you have an equal number like 2 or 4 and just continue adding equal numbers, you will never get an odd number. so, with that in mind, my point of this stupid analogy is that you as the odd number are adaptable. you can force yourself to fit into crowds you usually would not bother with. be a social chameleon, blend in. you don't necessarily have to force yourself to like everything they do. what you do is, you go to college, you learn. you learn to socialize and be civil with people you would not bother with. you learn how to shut up and just see what the teachers are telling you. you should of course try and find out why they say what they say in the manner they say, there'll be a good reason for it trust me. but do not, and i repeat do not do that during a class. that is their time and that is your classmates time. you can always find the lecturer or guest lecturer after and ask. do not ever, let yourself be guilt tripped into asking questions during a class even if the lecturer asks you a question or comments that the class is very silent.

i mention this because i happened to realize in college, i had very few close friends and am somewhat miserable because of it. was i a pariah? yeah, definitely. it was lonely and it was more awkward than not. am i projecting? possibly, but i'm going to come from a good place and say this because i don't think i'll be the only one here who thinks as i do. if you've got a stable bunch of friends, enjoy schools and colleges (i don't) then you needn't read this. am i a wuss for writing this? perhaps. but a lot of us go through different stresses at different times. will i still judge others based on what i'm seeing? yes. for the simple reason that until more evidence to disprove what i see appears.

i'll give you an example of this. i used to religiously watch The Young Turks and gobbled up a lot of what they said as truth. reasons were simple. they were an alternative news source that wasn't fox news, they were on the internet and had an easy to access youtube channel. they presented the news in a way contra to what mainstream news presented. consequently, i've stopped listening and following them because most of the time they just seem to spout vitriol for the sake of it. i forgot which video was the one that ultimately made me quit them but i think it was more of a build up. they always bashed fox news which was fine. but more often they would bash the american police moreso than needed and when evidence to counter certain stories appeared, they never addressed it and continually insisted they were right. i think it was more of the unnecessary levels of hate they have for certain issues. you can't really trust a news source that is no longer impartial but i definitely didn't need to hear this level of profanity dumping on a daily basis.

actually, i have to thank my lecturers, all of them for seeding these life lessons in my head. i may not be the best student, best artist, 3d modeller or whatever, but i am grateful for them teaching me the things i know now. that's all....