Category Archives: Interesting tech

Is our convenience burning the planet?

I was fascinated by a talk last year about data storage given by Thomas Coughlin, president of the IEEE. What struck me most was finding out that magnetic tape storage is still used and not only is it cheaper than other mediums but its environmental impact is far less too.

So, this got me to thinking.

Why don’t we have a choice on how to store our emails and photos – those we don’t mind waiting 30 seconds to retrieve? Why can’t we choose to have them stored on magnetic tape?

Continue reading the post and the subsequent conversation on substack…

The future of hydrogen (with BMW)

I had a fascinating afternoon hosted by BMW where we discussed the future uses of hydrogen.

Some of the conversation was technical and some of it was societal. All of it was interesting.

I hadn’t realised the extent to which hydrogen can be used, and actually how much it’s already being used, in some of the more ‘background’ things of the world, such as shipping, building materials production, and even lorries / trucks.

It was an inspiring afternoon and already one of my short stories features a hydrogen powered vehicle.

My main takeaways were that: it has a perception problem around safety; an infrastructure issue (in the same way as electric vehicles do; and for domestic transport (cars) it’ll probably need to start with hybrid of electric and hydrogen. That said, it’s potential across a range of uses is big.

If the shout at the moment is to ‘Terminate Pollution’ (see interview with Arnie) then this could be a part of the answer.

AI reflects the past not the future.

“Big Data processes codify the past. They do not invent the future. Doing that requires moral imagination, and that’s something only humans can provide. We have to explicitly embed better values into our algorithms, creating Big Data models that follow our ethical lead.”

Cathy O’Neil, Weapons of Math Destruction.

This is an easy book to read and it’s a difficult book to read. It’s easy because it’s well written with many real-life examples and extrapolations. It’s difficult because the examples show how pervasive and corrosive big data and machine learning has and can become.

However, the quote I’ve chosen gives an uplift of spirits; if humans take more interest, control and responsibility then the emerging world of artificial intelligence could be a good one.

I recommend this as essential reading for anyone with more than a passing interest in artificial intelligence and who wants to think a bit more about the ethical aspects of big data and machine learning.

After all as you’ve heard me say many times, ‘the future is ours and it’s up for grabs…’


photo credit: György Soponyai The Crystal Ball via photopin (license)