Neo-Taylorism and Algocracy; The end of Moore’s law, Coders need to get Smarter; Post-Fans-In-The-Stadium Era...

I don’t remember how it happened, but a few years ago I got subscribed to “The WorldPost” a newsletter published by the Berggruen Institute. I have never been really engaging with the content, once in a while I would look at it, but that was it. Till this week.

What used to be The WorldPost has now become Noema Magazine. Intrigued by the title of the first issue, The Great Acceleration, I decided to browse it and was extremely (positively) surprised by the quality of the content. Admittedly it is not all “light content”, but I do think they are addressing a lot of very important questions any antidisciplinarian should be engaging with.

Of all the articles and essays, one, The New Axial Age by Editor in Chief Nathan Gardels, particularly struck me. Two paragraphs resonated particularly:

?Not surprisingly, the most difficult challenge for governance arises when facing the greatest transformation of human civilization since the discovery of fire. Finding that point of equilibrium — homeostasis — that enhances human potential to its utmost while respecting nature and preserving the dignity and autonomy of the individual living in community, of what it means to be human, is a summons for custodians of the soul no less profound than for scientists peering into the physical origins of the universe or the minute interstices of our DNA…

…The long-lost unity of origins would finally meet up again in the unity of destiny. It is the perpetual and differentiated quest for equilibrium in this new ecology of existence — an evolved level of homeostasis by which all beings not only survive but thrive — that is the new ground of the sacred.“

These words and the article made me think, given the last editions on Deep Tech and nature engineering but also as I was putting together this week edition. 

To be sincere, I was somehow horrified to see in this week’s edition that, as WFH becomes increasingly prevalent, companies are turning to surveillance apps to maximize the productivity of their remote workforce. This is so antithetical to what the future of work should be, as brilliantly articulated by Aaron Dignan in Brave New Work. It points somehow to a renaissance of McGregor’s Theory X (vs. Theory Y) in which typical workers have little ambition, avoid responsibility and are individual-goal oriented. I thought and hoped that we had this past beyond us…

And I agree with Giampiero Petriglieri, arguing that the fourth industrial revolution is characterized by totalitarian and exploitative tendencies from big businesses - aka "Neo-Taylorism". He calls for a new movement to counter the "tyranny of automation." Which reminded me of the brilliant TED talk by Sylvain Duranton about the risks of “Algocracy”, the new algorithms-driven burocracy.

Don’t miss the article about Denmark’s AGF soccer team, which faced off against local rivals in an empty field, but at least 10k spectators tuned in via Zoom, with fan shouting piped into the stadium's loudspeakers and their faces displayed on an enormous video wall. 

Not sure if the pandemic has hastened the post-human era, as argued in this article, I am more with Nathan Gardels on this, as it goes beyond the pandemic. But for sure this is the post-fans-in-the-stadium era…

Some other highlights from this week's edition include:

●      As the volume of coronavirus-related scientific research grows during the pandemic, AI may assist in parsing and analyzing the incoming deluge of data, and even detect patterns humans would find difficult to spot.

●      Autonomous delivery startup Nuro recently announced a partnership with CVS Pharmacy to test prescription deliveries in Houston, Texas. The company will start deploying its autonomous vehicles to transport prescriptions to CVS customers this June.

●      Autonomous tractors have seen significant progress over the past several years. A group of researchers is planning to start harvesting crops autonomously this year - their goal is to eventually have multiple vehicles that can negotiate their own paths into and out of fields.

●      Using synthetic biology, and location-specific microbes, to monitor food safety and object provenance in a globalized supply chain. 

●      Carbon nanotubes and quantum computers are hot technologies that may turn out to be the future of computing, but until then we don't need a major paradigm shift to circumvent the slowing down of Moore's Law - more so new algorithms, better software, and more specialized hardware.

...along with a number of other enlightening reads. 

Human and Machine

This Startup Is Using AI to Give Workers a "Productivity Score"

As WFH becomes increasingly popular, companies are turning to surveillance apps to maximize the productivity of their remote workers: Hubstaff records an employee’s on-screen activities; Time Doctor takes videos of the screen and periodic webcam shots to check whether users are at their computer; and Isaak monitors employees' interactions to identify the change-makers. Boston startup Enaible is even working on an AI Productivity Platform, which learns each employee's workflow and assigns a productivity score.

Critics of electronic surveillance argue that it undermines trust and strains employees. Director of Research and Strategy at TIME'S UP Rakeen Mabud says that the technology puts "additional stress on workers who already endure poor working conditions." Last year, Amazon workers protested that the "automatically enforced pace of work" made the job grueling. Enaible CEO Tommy Weir downplays the concerns: "Imagine you're managing somebody and you could stand and watch them all day long, and give them recommendations on how to do their job better. That's what we're trying to do. That's what we've built."

The Coronavirus Has Hastened the Post-Human Era

Futurists have been floating the idea of posthumanism for a while now, evoking excitement and skeptics in equal measures. "Post-humanity" has different connotations across academic fields, but the general definition refers to a time when humans will surpass their limitations, mainly by the use of technology (which we're already sort of doing). TechCrunch contributor Mario Gabrielle believes the pandemic is accelerating our transition to post-humanity.

For example, we have seen more robots on the streets delivering critical supplies; Neolix, a Chinese manufacturer of driverless vans, has seen a spike in demand since the outbreak. Tech has also provided humans with alternative methods of finding love; besides enhancing human interactions through chatting and video calls, AI friends have filled the gap - for instance, Replika, an AI chatting partner, has about 500k users, with 40% of users considering it a romantic partner.

Creativity

Spectral Actors and Viewer Voting: German-Language Theater Adapts

Social distancing has sent cinemas online. Last month, Neon Cinema released Spaceship Earth virtually across on-demand platforms; other distributors such as Oscilloscope and Film Movement have also released their films digitally. Germany-based New York Times writer A.J. Goldman takes us through some of the innovative ways film directors in the German-speaking world are using the internet to keep theater alive during the pandemic.

For example, Bert Zander recently directed a five-part adaptation of The Plague for Theater Oberhausen in Northwest Germany. The production was filmed remotely in different locations in the city of Oberhausen, with actors appearing superimposed onto scenes. Though theaters are set to start reopening, Neon founder Tom Quinn predicts that virtual cinema will be a permanent fixture within the film ecosystem: "It provides another way to engage, and seeing more good films only begets more film watching."

Pen Plotter Used as Storytelling Device

A YouTuber used an AxiDraw machine (which features use cases such as automated political signatures and mass-produced personalized thank-you notes) to plot the history of oil prices and consumption - definitely a fresh take on digital graph explainers!

Life Sciences

How Cutting-Edge AI Is Helping Scientists Tackle COVID-19

As the volume of coronavirus-related scientific research grows during the pandemic, AI may assist in parsing and analyzing the incoming deluge of data, and even detect patterns humans would find difficult to spot, says AI specialist Pascale Fung in her WEF guest post. Fung demonstrates two ways AI can help the crisis - finding fast answers to urgent questions and detecting future threats. To expand on each:

●      "A scientist may for example type a simple question into a search engine tied to the database, such as 'Is COVID-19 seasonal?' The search engine then finds and ranks all related papers. A programme called a 'neural question-answering engine' goes through the top-ranked papers and identifies passages that answer the question. Another programme called a 'neural summarization engine' creates a summary of all these passages."

●      "Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources (EIOS) is an initiative run by the World Health Organization’s Health Emergency Information and Risk Assessment Department. It gathers and analyses data from sources such as health monitoring programmes and different health databases. The first article reporting on a pneumonia cluster in Wuhan in December was picked up by this unit."

Spaces

CVS Pharmacy Tests Self-Driving Vehicle Delivery for Prescriptions

Autonomous delivery startup Nuro recently announced a partnership with CVS Pharmacy to test prescription deliveries in Houston, Texas. The company will start deploying its autonomous vehicles to transport prescriptions and other essential items to CVS customers this June, according to a press release. Pilot customers will be able to choose autonomous delivery options while ordering items from the CSV Pharmacy app. CSV previously partnered with UPS Flight Forward in late April to transport prescriptions to the US's largest retirement community in Florida.

Driverless Tractors Are Coming Soon to U.K. Farms

Autonomous tractor developments have progressed significantly over the past several years. Earlier this year, Kubotalaunched a completely autonomous tractor that is able to make its way around both regular fields and rice paddies; John Deere showed off a concept electric tractor at last year's Agritechnica trade fair; and a group of researchers at Harper Adams University is planning to start harvesting crops autonomously this year.

The researcher group began their initiative in 2016 with the goal of farming a single hectare without any direct human assistance. They initially improved off-the-shelf solutions to automate processes such as retrieving crop samples. Last year the group, in collaboration with Farmscan AG, an Australian company that specializes in precision agriculture, embarked on a full hands-free farm initiative. Their goal is to eventually have multiple vehicles that can negotiate their own paths into and out of fields. Though the project has faced setbacks such as floods, the team is optimistic to harvest at least one field remotely this year.

Materials

AI, AR, and the (Somewhat) Speculative Future of a Tech-Fueled FBI

This Wired piece is an excerpt from P.W. Singer and August Cole's Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution, which provides a glimpse of what police work may look like when autonomy, robotics, and AI are factored in. The novel's predictions are reportedly backed with research from the latest job automation reports and interviews with experts. On a related note, see this Popular Science article, which lists sci-fi predictions that came true over the years, from space stations, to defibrillators, to AI.

Why the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution' Looks Much Like the First

Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at INSEAD Gianpiero Petriglieri looks at the 4IR through the lens of the humanism vs. Taylorism debate. Taylor's scientific management principles were popular at the turn of the 20th century before being overshadowed by humanist approaches in the 1930s. Taylorism focuses on maximizing productivity, with little attention to the individual freedoms of the worker. In contrast, humanism aims to make jobs more favorable for employees.

Citing the examples of the employee surveillance apps we discussed above and data harvesting tendencies by Big Tech, Petriglieri argues that the 4IR is characterized by totalitarian and exploitative tendencies from big businesses - aka "Neo-Taylorism." He calls for a new movement to counter the "tyranny of automation."

Processors

MIT: If Chips Can't Get Smaller, Then Coders Have to Get Smarter

Carbon nanotubes and quantum computers are hot technologies that may turn out to be the future of computing, but until then we don't need a major paradigm shift to circumvent the slowing down of Moore's Law. In a recent Science paper, MIT researchers identified three key areas to prioritize for computing speed-ups: new algorithms, better software, and more specialized hardware.

One issue the researchers point out is the "reduction" of existing code: " if someone has to create a system to recognize yes-or-no voice commands... they could take an existing program that recognizes a wide range of words, and tweak it to respond only to yes-or-no answers." This reduces coding time but greatly adds inefficiencies.

As for algorithms, "the team suggests a three-pronged approach that includes exploring new problem areas, addressing concerns about how algorithms scale, and tailoring them to better take advantage of modern hardware."

Interfaces

The Rise of Robo-Doc—how Augmented Reality Helps Treat Covid-19 Patients

The Economist's latest weekly podcast has host Kenneth Cukier speaking with the doctors leading the augmented reality Hololens initiative at Imperial College London Healthcare NHS Trust. Dario Gil, director of IBM Research, also drops in to discuss the future of scientific collaboration.

A Danish Soccer Team Invited 10,000 Fans to a Zoom Watch Party

Denmark's AGF faced off against local rivals in an empty field, but at least 10k spectators tuned in via Zoom, with fan shouting piped into the stadium's loudspeakers and their faces displayed on an enormous video wall. Before the game, AFG asked fans what sections they'd normally sit in the stadium, grouping fans into video calls of 18 people; each group was then projected on the screen.

"We are trying to recreate a community where you have your seat where you have always had it, so a season-ticket holder can come to the stadium and see those people that usually sit by them."