Japanese Professor perfecting how to replicate himself in robot form. Yikes!
Plus FIVE THINGS On Technology’s Impact on the rest of the world, another gadget making something from nothing, a link to some AI reality (i.e. no hype), more headline scratchers and FTW: Vibe
On the eve of the total destruction of the world as we know it - The American Presidential Election - I’m off for a couple of week’s of R&R in Mexico: walking long beaches, drinking fruity cocktails, and eating great food. So getting prepared to go meant that this week it is morning-ish. But I will still be publishing Monday Morning Tonic each week while away. It will just have a more relaxed tropical vibe though.
FIRST COURSE: What would you do with a copy of yourself, let alone 6?
Maybe you saw where a brilliant Japanese inventor, over the past 18 years, has built 6 versions of himself. Naturally the latest version is the best him. Novel approaches in robotic engineering coupled with the latest in AI. LLM (Large Language Models) training focused on everything the professor has ever done. Professor Ishiguro has perfected his replicant to the point where it’s latex skin is life like, it makes the same facial expressions as the real professor does, and has been doing his lectures, even responding to student questions after the robot’s presentation. After processing a range of feelings that burst upon me while reading these articles - scary, creepy, intriguing, hubristic - I was left with more questions than conclusions:
Do you get a discount on classes taught by the robot vs.the real professor
How much do these robots cost to make and when are they coming to augment all of us?
If soon, are they part of a solution to our inchoate worldwide fertility problems?
If you had a couple of them at home, is it easy to keep track of where they are?
Do they like the same things as you, say your love of 1980s British pop music?
Would you and your robot always agree on everything or would you end up arguing endlessly with each other as you both know each other’s hot buttons and arguing techniques?
SECONDI: FIVE THINGS On Technology Impact in the Rest of the World
I found an interesting publication that explores the impact of technology on the rest of the world.
Meta, before its ridiculous rename, used to have a devious project to get people in lesser developed countries, internet access. Facebook preached social benevolence but it really was a shameless ploy to sign people up to nothing but Meta’s products. Continuing in that vein , comes this story of WhatsApp vigilantes in India converting Christians by force.
TikTok however is proving useful in Mexico for the average person, reporting narco-violence using special code words. My code word on TikTok if we see any while vacationing is HELP!
One of our great new trends shows up elsewhere, with a fascinating wrinkle. The most popular payment app in the Philippines has extra feature: online gambling. Just what we all need, more opportunities to lose our money. A little side bet on the election next time you make a Apple payment?
Physical distance and spending too much time virtually can soften the hardest edges. The cult of Santa Muerte - which is different from recent Day of the Dead celebrations - has a long twisting history that many Mexican find intimidating with her dark skeletal images. She has a strong following amongst cartels members. But lately TikTokers have given Santa Muerte a makeover, making her a vibrant, beautiful, and approachable figure.
Amazon drafted talented Indian craftspeople for their site. What could go wrong? How about everything. A great case of over-promising these unique specialized artisans on the benefits of Amazon’s marketplace. Amazon spent a lot of money on training them, but one could predict what would happen; their beautiful products were just lost on the seeming infinity of the world’s largest ecommerce site. Platforms only benefit themselves. Costs nothing for Amazon to list more prodcuts but these people were hurt by the paltry results. No, Etsy won’t be better for them.
And if you’re enjoying Monday Morning Tonic, consider forwarding it to someone else you think might like it.
ENCORE: More gizmos turning air into apparently good things
New from the “We will ever see this work in reality” Department
I just love all these crazy inventors and their ideas. This story is even stranger and more scientific than last week’s find. I think most people can understand bacteria finding some good food - CO2 evidently is chocolate for certain species - so this gadget takes a lot more to understand. Boiled down, a snazzy tube sucks in ordinary air with CO2 in it. Then pulsating plasma generates different microwaves at different times which splits and then reforms the chemical bonds. Got it? Voila the alchemy is complete, turning CO2 into “green” methanol. Some fascinating science but calling a prototype that stands 6 feet tall a Microbeam is a stretch. Until you read that the vision is to create a 300 foot tall colossus. When will these things dot our landscape twinned with wind turbines?
A little sass, that is a short article found elsewhere on Substack, from my favourite AI thinker Gary Marcus who gives the goods on what is really happening out there in all things artificial. Overpromising and underdelivering always results in major problems. I use a little AI during different parts of my day but my expectations are firmly grounded, like 2 inches above it. Read him and this to bring yourself back to earth.
FTW: Vibe(s)
The George Orwell Say What You Mean Department
I read the latest news in bed each morning while sipping a cup of tea to give me strength to face whatever fresh horrors - sorry I meant features - the digital world has foisted upon us overnight. Twenty minutes in and already THREE vibes, not counting my own gratuitous use in the first paragraph. This is a class of what I called the Trending Cliches, which tend to be propagated by people who focus on the Trending feature of whatever social media or search they are using. Similar to weird which also took off in the last few months, it is a reasonable word that has been over-used in a short period of time. Like Top 40 music used to be. Vibe’s popularity seems oxymoronic when we hear about how anxious, worried, depressed, unhappy, and stressed we all are. The power is in it’s medicinal value: just say the VIBE out loud a few times and your blood pressure immediately drops.
HEADLINE HEAD SCRATCHERS
Just ahead of the US Election.
Not sure if you saw this one, but are people in government and/or politics getting less and less tech savvy everyday. How on earth do you accidently post a spreadsheet with all these presumably secret passwords online. No, I mean please tell me how is this an accident?
Evidently we have now personified a completely made up digital nothing “store of value” that has no real uses after many years of many people trying.
Unless this bitcoin has been given some robotic life by a certain Japanese inventor.
Until next week keep riding the waves.