Technology And Extinction, Twitter Relaunch Its Blue Subscription, Machine Learning, Attempt To Compensate FTX users, and NextRetreat

Technology And Extinction: How Modern Society Has Been Rigged, Abused, And Corrupted By

Technology has become a rigged, abused system. The web has become a dangerous place, and it's causing chaos.

In an interview with the Guardian, tech visionary Jaron Lanier said that humans are passing information between themselves in order to survive. However, we’re putting that fundamental quality of humanness through a process with an inherent incentive for corruption and degradation. The fundamental drama of this period is whether we can figure out how to survive properly with those elements or not.

The problem is that there are “psychological operatives” associated with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the Chinese communist government promoting and filtering agenda-based information. Basically, technology and the web have become a rigged, abused system, and it’s causing dangerous chaos. 

So what does all of this talk about technology have to do about extinction? Not necessarily everything—but it's a fundamental sign we haven't become completely dysfunctional yet if we can coordinate ourselves to solve the climate crisis (which is already happening).Read more...

Twitter Will Relaunch Its Blue Subscription

Twitter’s relaunching its Blue subscription on Monday, one month after abandoning a chaotic first attempt that spurred hoax accounts and general mayhem.

As reported previously, the subscription will cost $8 per month to purchase on the web or $11 per month via the iOS App Store to make up for the up to 30 percent commission Apple takes off of in-app purchases. This time, anyone paying for Blue who wants to display a “verified” checkmark on their profile will need to register a phone number first, and changing your “handle, display name or profile photo” will remove the label until your account is reviewed again.

In a thread on Twitter, the company says subscribers will get access to the blue profile checkmark along with a number of features, including the ability to edit tweets, upload 1080p videos, and access reader mode. The company lists fewer ads and prioritization in search and replies as “coming soon.”

Twitter also says it’s replacing the “official” label it toyed with during the last Blue push with a gold checkmark for businesses before adding a grey checkmark for “government and multilateral accounts” later this week.Read more...

Machine Learning: The Next Frontier For Creativity

Machine learning is an exciting field of study that is growing in popularity due to three factors: access to large volumes of data, affordable access to computational power, and vast access to high-speed internet.

Machine learning is part of an umbrella of technology known as artificial intelligence (AI), which focuses on creating systems that learn from historical data, identify patterns in learning, and make logical decisions that require little to no human interaction. In short, machine learning involves analyzing a variety of digital information—numbers, words, clicks and images—to determine the best way forward for action or decision making.

Machine learning applications are able to learn from data input and continue to improve upon the accuracy of their output with the use of automated optimization methods. The overall quality of a machine learning model depends upon the following:

1) The quality of input data; and

2) The quality of machine learning model used for analysis.Read more...

Sam Bankman-Fried Says He Plans To Launch New Business In Attempt To Compensate FTX collapse

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former CEO of the now-collapsed FTX crypto exchange, has said that he hopes to start a new business to generate funds to pay back victims of the company’s collapse.

More than one million FTX users are estimated to be locked out of their crypto wallets and unable to access their funds. When questioned whether he planned to make a new business to earn the money to compensate FTX investors, SBF said: “I would give anything to be able to do that. And I’m going to try if I can.”

Described by bankruptcy lawyers as “one of the most abrupt and difficult collapses in the history of corporate America,” SBF was accused of running FTX as “his own personal fiefdom.” Furthermore, it is alleged that SBF’s hedge fund company, Alameda Research, was using customer funds from FTX to make risky bets on financial markets without customer knowledge or consent. 

A former senior FTX employee claimed that SBF must have been aware of this practice, and accused him of lying in recent interviews where SBF denied knowledge of the flow of funds and cryptocurrencies between the companies. 

In response to the former senior FTX employee’s claim, SBF said: “No that’s not true […]I didn’t knowingly commit fraud, I didn’t knowingly commit fraud, I don’t think I committed fraud, I didn’t want any of this to happen.”Read more...

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