Month: January 2019

Love: Engine of Survival

by Marika Stone, posted in Artificial Intelligence, Education

Love’s the only engine of survival – Leonard Cohen, The Future

60 Minutes is almost always interesting, and occasionally infuriating. But Sunday, January 13, 2019, it rose to heights that resonate specifically with my interest in the mysteries of the consciousness and cognition, and how love and compassion seem to endure in the worst of times.

First, the interview between Scott Pelley and Kai-Fu Lee, an American-educated Chinese billionaire venture capitalist who believes AI (artificial intelligence) will “change the world more than anything in the history of mankind. More than electricity.” And, this veteran of Silicon Valley, also believes China is moving more quickly in this field, and in unexpected ways, that his former colleagues have yet to recognize.

As you might intuit, jobs of the future – or rather which ones will be made redundant by AI – got a lot of play. According to Kai-Fu Lee, some 40% of jobs, both blue and white collar, will be “displaceable” in 15 years, yes, even some service jobs. One caveat (maybe): “… in some sense there is the human wisdom that always overcomes … technology revolutions.”

2-hearts-1-heart-consciousnessAs Axios (a favorite news source in my household) puts it: Go Deeper. For an understanding of what China is accomplishing with AI, enter its classrooms. Using facial and emotional intelligence technology delivered via handheld tablet, AI is giving teachers instant feedback about their best and brightest students, and also which students need extra help and support.

And here’s what really got me: this is not an elite private school advantage. Kai-Fu Lee’s pet project is to project gifted teachers into some of the poorest classrooms in the country. Given the mess of public education in the US, that should send a chill down the spine of every administrator, teacher and parent in the country. Not to mention our political and corporate leadership.

And BTW, China’s youth is even more wired than their age cohort in the rest of the world, and no one there seems particularly upset about the loss of privacy. Are we Americans being seduced into placing our attention on things of questionable value? And to what end? Thoughts? Your comments might inspire a future post.

But it was the conclusion of the AI segment that convinced me this was the most valuable 12 minutes I have spent with a screen of any size in recent memory. The exchange (slightly abbreviated):

Pelley: When will we know that a machine can actually think like a human?

Kai-Fu Lee: … not within the next 30 years. Possibly never…I believe in the sanctity of our soul…a lot of love and compassion that is not explainable in terms of neural networks and computation algorithms. And I current see no way of solving them.

Pelley: We may just be more than our bits?

Kai-Fu Lee: We may.

Lastly, to my original point about the mysteries of cognition and the power of love, I urge you to stick around for the final 60 Minutes segment, A Different Kind of Vision, Leslie Stahl’s report on how Chris Downey, an architect who lost his sight to a brain tumor, has returned to his work – “I’m a kid again. I’m relearning so much of architecture…about what I had been missing” — and to a favorite family activity: playing baseball with his son.

Read more:
The ‘Oracle of A.I.’: These 4 kinds of jobs will not be replaced by robots

60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll: Artificial Intelligence

 

Crossfire

by Marika Stone, posted in Gun Sense, Mentoring

For some time, Mondays have been my day to write without distraction or interruption. My practice is to write something every day, even if it’s a note in the margin of a book, a few lines, or a paragraph in longhand. I got into the habit of keeping a journal in a poetry workshop decades ago. It began with an assignment for Lawrence Raab’s poetry class at Bread Loaf Summer Session, 1979. We were to keep our notebooks handy and jot down whatever caught our attention; sights, sounds — a bit of overheard conversation was my favorite — anything that could conceivably serve as material for a poem.  I kept at it throughout my 6 week session and I may have written one or two poems I considered worthy of reading in public, that is, to the assembled student body. I still write poetry in spurts, then let the well refill for a while. But journaling stuck.

The latter half of the Bread Loaf notebook, stained with coffee cup rings and ink blots, was an account of the confusion and pain of my collapsing marriage, trying to support my children through the breakup, while trying complete my degree on time.

Nowadays, I use the journal to keep sane in an insane time, to express gratitude for a privileged life that I deserve no more than anyone else, and yes, to document thoughts, feelings and ideas for further development. Blog posts, say, or maybe even poems. But today, inspiration for this post came from the dark side, a startling reminder of how close and interconnected we are, with our often trivial First World ‘problems’ (shopping for eyewear that fits and flatters) to a world where life-shattering violence, most of it from guns, has helped turn one metropolitan hospital into a nationally-recognized triage center.

Connecting the dots: my spouse is a volunteer with a state-wide mentoring program that pairs him with high school students who are designated at risk. Perhaps their families are untraditional in some way — a single parent household typically — coupled with financial need. Many students represent the immigrant community, and are bilingual and multi-cultural. The program’s goal is to help qualifying students escape the cycle of poverty through higconnect dotsher education, and some 24,000 children have been served to date in all 67 counties.

Mentees accepted into the program who graduate high school are awarded two years of paid tuition to any Florida institution of higher learning that accepts them. Obviously, good grades are a must for those who aspire to the more prestigious schools like University of Central Florida or UF Gainesville. For even those who manage just to graduate, there is the fine community college option at no cost to them. These students also get the academic help they need, but the role of volunteer mentors like my spouse is to support and encourage their students to complete their high school education. A sort of motivational coach.

His current student, the second American-born of Haitian descent he has mentored, is a star, both academically and athletically, who already displays a keen interest in and aptitude for business. He maintained the grades for a top-rated school and has already been accepted by the university of his choice.  He’s also mature, personable, and it would appear that he has been able to rise above the family and financial challenges of his earlier life.

So today, while I was at my desk pounding the keys as usual, the two met in the lunch period as is their practice.  I fully expect my spouse to return ebullient from these regular meetings, eager to bring me up to date on his student with whom he has forged a strong relationship. But I could see immediately his mood was different as soon as he walked in. Turns out, his student would be leaving school early today to visit the family of a neighborhood friend who was gunned down last night. Beyond that detail, he didn’t want to talk about it. What I want to know is, how will this ambitious, smart 18-year-old live with these memories. How will we?

Lin-Manuel Who?

by Marika Stone, posted in cohousing, localizing, Neighborhoods

Hamilton is playing at the Broward Center for the Arts and there are still a few tickets left as of today, Balcony Row M for $159. Of course, in New York City, the ‘cheap seats’ are going for $438, and Orchestra? If you have to ask …

Flashback to the summer of 2015. We’re in New York City —  in a borrowed apartment on the Upper West Side — when it was suggested to us that we get into an early morning line at the Richard Rogers Theater to score a couple of tickets at deep discount. Hamilton had opened at the Public Theater to critical acclaim, and now the Broadway run was just starting. Maybe I’d been away from the big city and annual theater subscriptions for too long. I just remember thinking something like Hamilton, Schamilton. Lin-Manuel who? For a grandson who had committed the Hamilton lyrics to heart, this may have been the moment he realized these grandparents were just human after all.

It’s human to regret the roads not taken, and perhaps there is an evolutionary purpose for wondering what might have been. Will having blown it with Hamilton be a regret I’ll carry to my grave? Not likely. For one thing, the movie will be here soon enough, and I’ll be able to hear and understand those rap lyrics better than I could in Row M. For another, the missteps and stumbles of life are a chance to re-do, re-set, carry on better.

We have lived for nearly a decade in a well-maintained townhouse community, remarkable for the reticence of its residents. True, a certain percentage of us are seasonal and others are in the 9-5 workforce. Whatever the reason, most residents keep to themselves, hidden by garages and patio walls. Just as co-housing is designed for connection and interaction, ours seems organized to keep people apart. As we learned last Fall, even if the HOA rules don’t forbid canvassing, such activity is unusual and not warmly received in our community. With a relatively small number of families with children, even Halloween here is pretty muted.

A young family in the next townhouse to ours was expecting their second child. We were on friendly terms with Lauren and Eric largely because our paths regularly crossed. They were often outside, playing on the grassy area with their little girl and puppy, while our routine includes daily walking or biking. We were the nonconformists, you might say. Eric worked from home, and you’d see him heading off for a run when Lauren came home for lunch from her nearby job. When Lauren’s pregnancy became evident, I made a mental note of her due date so I could bake some blueberry muffins and stop in when their new baby came home. No doubt I was remembering my New Jersey neighborhood, where every life event, even the sad ones,  occasioned an outpouring of baked goods and casseroles. Like an extremely inclusive church or temple.

The happy day arrived. Eric and Lauren’s home was swarming with grandparents and visitors, balloons and covered dishes, and somehow the moment for that extra measure of neighborliness passed. We spent more of that Summer away, and the next thing I knew, their baby boy was taking his first steps. And then, just as swiftly, their home was on the market and they were moving out of the area. To a larger place with a yard, they said. I wasn’t surprised, just sad for what might have been.

These days, I’m conscious of making an effort to greet and make eye contact with neighbors or the people I pass on my exercise route, whether regulars or not. Husky, right? Beautiful dog! Hey, great shot. Winter at last! Terrific haircut.

A quiet 40-something single man replaced the family next door with the trio of noisy dogs, and Italian-speaking nonna whose spaghetti sauce wafted into my kitchen (the silver lining). Our new neighbor apologized in advance for the ruckus of his renovations (which were extensive). In short order, we met his parents, exchanged coffee cakes, and stood chatting in each other’s space. I don’t want to overstate this, but it feels as if I took the right fork this time.