SCIENTIFIC TOOLS IN THE WRONG HANDS ARE AS DANGEROUS AS FIREARMS
Today’s email brought a missive from Hewlett Packard Enterprise which was tag-lined “Insights and resources to help IT pros shape the future of business.” And, it serves as an example of how progressive socialist democrat thought infects science writers…
Example one …
Armed with artificial intelligence, scientists take on climate changeResearchers are using AI to tackle the flood of data needed to understand and respond to the effects of climate change.
Science needs to understand and predict how climate change—and the growing onslaught of hurricanes, fires, and floods it’s bringing—affects tropical forests. Will the forests respond to the assault with shorter trees? Will they store less carbon, or support less tree and plant diversity and fewer wildlife species?
To better understand the effects a changing climate will have on tropical forests, Maria Uriarte, Columbia University professor of ecology, evolution, and environmental biology, needs to analyze images of forests. These bird's-eye view images are the size of a postage stamp. And she’s working with enough postage stamp-size images to cover a 28,000-acre national park. Since it would take her years to analyze even a dozen of those images, there’s no way she could handle enough to get a real understanding of an entire forest.
|
Example Two…
Finding the needle in the haystackResearchers are throwing their weight into better understanding the changing climate and finding ways to stall or even reverse it because of the speed at which the climate is changing and its effects on everything from rising sea levels to agriculture, wildlife, storm patterns, shrinking ice sheets, droughts, and human populations.
And with such a massive undertaking, scientists need the most powerful tools they can get their hands on. Massive databases, data analysis tools, and high-performance computing are all being used. But AI, often feared as a threat to humanity, is turning out to be one of the most powerful tools scientists are using to protect the planet.
|
Example Three…
Making climate predictions that span decadesAI is proving to be a key tool for scientists working on climate change predictions, notes Dr. Eng Lim Goh, vice president and chief technology officer for high-performance computing and AI at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Unlike weather forecasting, which is more local and has a day-to-day time frame, climate modeling makes global predictions spanning decades and uses enormous amounts of corresponding data. With so much data and a myriad of factors to consider, it’s often difficult for us to ensure that all relevant causes are included. AI, according to Goh, can be a valuable tool to augment humans in taking care of this.
“The accuracy of traditional top-down rules-based or laws-based approaches is only as good as the scientists having accounted for all factors that contribute to the prediction,” Goh says. “This is not a simple endeavor. For example, after accounting for heat absorbed by our oceans, scientists also have to remember to account for heat reflected by our ice sheets. After accounting for emissions caused by human activity, they need to remember to include livestock emissions, and so on.”
|
Example Four…
Informing critical climate decisions, policyLloyd A. Treinish, a distinguished engineer and chief scientist at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center, says AI will be increasingly used in climate change research and in helping people make critical decisions. “Ultimately, these are tools that can help people who are on the policy or business side understand the implications of the choices they are making,” says Treinish, who has worked with city officials and utility companies on long-term sustainability issues. “[AI’s] biggest potential role right now is in the decision-making aspects, trying to assess the implications of a changing climate and understand how choices affect it. It’s going to be a matter of policy to make the changes needed to reduce the effects of a changing climate.… We’d use AI to help them make decisions.”
|
Bottom line…
We should not fear AI or any scientific tools, we should fear corrupt individuals who misuse the tool for evil – much in the same manner evil is manifest by the individual who pulls a trigger to kill the innocent.
Just as socialism was sold as the “scientific method” of managing peoples and cultures, it remains a fact that history has proven that socialism is as much a global threat to humanity as unreformed Islam. Both requiring absolute fealty or be subject to draconian punishments.
Where the “science” of climate has been corrupted by political ideology, let us not forget that the purpose of science is to explain our universe, not direct its manipulation to the detriment of its inhabitants.
We are so screwed.
-- steve
“Nullius in verba.”-- take nobody's word for it!
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”-- George Bernard Shaw
“Progressive, liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Democratic Socialist -- they are all COMMUNISTS.”
“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius “A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell “Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar “Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS