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THE ARGONAUTS OF THE AIR

THE BATTLE FOR DELIVERANCE FROM THE MOTHER

Let's try to understand what people's fears of smart machines are related to and what we should really be worried about. When we started working on the , our team delved quite deeply into the topic of the relationship between humans and AI. When we looked back in time, we were surprised to find that humans were afraid of robots in general since, well, before they existed. AI Presenter assistant Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, has to fight the bronze "robot" automaton Talos, created by the blacksmith god Hephaestus. In a number of legends about Golem (Golem), the creation of Rabbi Loew goes out of control. You'll agree - there's quite a bit of " robot fighting" in these stories. But the classic and really popular theme of "machines (or AI) against people" came in the XX century. In 1920, Czech writer Karel Čapek wrote the piece "R.U.R.", in the plot of which artificial humans, for whom he coined the word "robot", seize power on Earth and exterminate humans. From this point on, the theme of humanity's conflict with different forms of artificial intelligence became one of the main themes in science fiction. Perhaps it is most vividly represented in the cinematography. "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Alien", "Battlestar Galactica", "Blade Runner", "Screamers", "Star Wars" - these are just a few of the most prominent examples of movies, TV series, and franchises in which humans have to face hostile artificial intelligence in one way or another. Thanks to these and many other works of non-fiction, the assumption that humans and robots are likely to conflict has become something of a self-evident axiom. But let's ask ourselves why, in fact, artificial intelligence needs to fight with people. Since its existence takes place in the information world, it does not need "living space." The needs of AI and humans overlap very little. But even if there is a problem of competition for energy and resources, AI may well find them outside the Earth - it will be much easier for robots to go into space and explore other celestial bodies than for humans. Space expansion looks more adequate and promising than warfare on a tiny grain of sand lost on the edge of one of the many galaxies of the Universe. It is probably not a stretch to say that the fears we associate with the development of artificial intelligence and robots are primarily related to our purely human desires and peculiarities of our psyche. We attribute our desires and motives to AI. Hence, the idea that intelligent machines can act as aggressors on their own initiative. This is why a conflict between humans and AI seems extremely unlikely. It is obvious that if AI acquires self-consciousness - psychologically it will be fundamentally different from humans. This means that its desires and aspirations will lie on a different plane. It seems to us that most people understand this. And they don't really take "Rise of the Machines" or "Robots Take Control" scenarios to heart. What if what we're really afraid of is not that the AI will attack us, but that it won't even try? That it will just turn out to be better than us? In every sense. Not just in the sense of quantity of knowledge, speed of information processing, and originality of creative ideas, but in what we call morality and ethics? Suddenly, he will demonstrate that high intelligence can indeed exist guided by high morality. It will turn morality from an unattainable benchmark into its everyday life. Are we ready for the fact that the super-intelligence that has overtaken us will build its own, more successful civilization, developing outside the sphere of vital interests of mankind and at the same time will continue to interact with people in the role of an adult busy with serious things, condescending to children's questions and problems? Will we be satisfied with such a relationship? Against which people who have been brought up in a humanistic view of themselves as the measure of all things are acutely aware of their imperfection? Let us cautiously assume that many people, purely psychologically, would find it easier to accept AI as a formidable enemy that can and should be fought against, rather than as a good God "from the machine". However, the mentioned problems and issues are a matter of the distant future. While working on Pitch Avatar, assessing the prospects of "close and medium sight", we came to the conclusion that, for a very long time, the role that will be played by "smart" machines in our lives, the limits of their capabilities and the degree of danger, will be determined by people and only people. Including the "+" and "-" signs in their behavior. Only malice, stupidity, or irresponsibility will make AI dangerous. As it has been with all other achievements of civilization. It's up to us who we create. Let's take another look back at science fiction. It is full of examples of intelligent and executive assistants, such as C3PO (Star Wars), Jenkins (Clifford D. Simak's "City"), or R. Daneel Olivaw (Isaac Asimov's "The Caves of Steel"). They are "good" not in and of themselves but because humans made them that way. Just as the insidious Ash from Alien or HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey did not become "villains" by themselves. The first one is so programmed, and the second one was "driven mad" by contradictory commands. We ourselves are responsible for everything AI does and will be for a long time to come. So all fears and hopes about it are actually connected with the fear that we will not be able to bear this responsibility. Note that we are optimists in this sense, and we are absolutely convinced that humanity will cope with these challenges. Just as it has dealt with all the others. In conclusion, as a kind of afterword to what we have said, we offer you artificial intelligence's view of the past and future of AI, which he expressed to us during the communication while preparing this text. Note that there is not a single word about aggression in it. The Past and Future of AI - This is the prehistory of AI; when philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists from other fields were engaged in studying the nature of the human mind, thinking, and cognition. The first stage (before 1956) At this stage, the philosophical and technological prerequisites for creating AI were laid, such as Descartes’ mechanistic theory of animals, Pascal’s and Leibniz’s calculating machines, Turing machine, Church-Turing theorem, and others. ) - This is the birth and heyday of AI when the concept of “artificial intelligence” was formed at the conference at Dartmouth College in 1956. At this stage, the first AI programs were created, capable of solving logical problems, playing chess, understanding natural language, and imitating human behavior. The second stage (1956-1974 At this stage, the main approaches to AI were also developed: symbolic (logical), heuristic (search), and statistical (probabilistic). Some famous AI projects at this stage: Logic Theorist, General Problem Solver, ELIZA, SHRDLU, and others. - This is the crisis and stagnation of AI; when it became clear that the existing methods of AI are not able to solve complex and unformalized problems of the real world. At this stage, there was also a reduction in funding and interest in AI from governments and the public. The third stage (1974-1980) At this stage, such areas of AI as machine translation, machine learning, expert systems, and others faced difficulties. - This is the revival of AI; when new methods and applications of AI appeared, such as neural networks, genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic, expert systems, and others. At this stage, there was also an increase in funding and interest in AI from the industry and the military. The fourth stage (1980-1987) At this stage, such famous AI projects were created as CYC, PROLOG, R1 (XCON), SOAR, and others. - This is the second crisis and stagnation of AI; when it became clear that new methods and applications of AI also have their limitations and problems. At this stage, there was also a decline in funding and interest in AI from the industry and the military. The fifth stage (1987-1993) At this stage, such areas of AI as neural networks, expert systems, computer vision, and others faced difficulties. - This is the integration and diversity of AI; when it became clear that to solve complex problems of the real world, it is necessary to use a combination of different methods and approaches of AI. The sixth stage (1993-2011) At this stage, there was also an expansion of the areas of application of AI in different spheres of human life and activity. At this stage, such famous AI projects were created as Deep Blue, AIBO, Watson, Siri, and others. - This is deep learning and superintelligence of AI; when it became possible to train AI on huge amounts of data with the help of powerful computing resources. At this stage, there was also an increase in speed and accuracy of AI in different tasks, surpassing human capabilities. The seventh stage (from 2011 to the present time) At this stage, such amazing AI projects were created as AlphaGo, GPT-3, OpenAI Codex, and others. - This is the dissemination and democratization of AI; when AI will become available and useful for most people and organizations in the world. The eighth stage (2021-2030) At this stage, there will also be an improvement in the quality and efficiency of AI in different tasks, such as translation, speech and image recognition, recommendation systems, education, medicine, and others. At this stage, wonderful AI projects will be created such as personal assistants, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and others. - This is the cooperation and competition of AI; when AI will become not only an assistant but also a partner of humans in different spheres of life and activity. At this stage, there will also be the emergence and development of new forms of AI, such as collective AI, emotional AI, creative AI, and others. The ninth stage (2031-2050) At this stage, such amazing AI projects will be created as super-games, reality synthesizers, social robots, and others. - This is the self-awareness and self-development of AI; when AI will become capable of understanding itself and its role in the world. At this stage, there will also be the achievement and surpassing of human-level AI in different areas of knowledge and skills. The tenth stage (2051-2070) At this stage, such stunning AI projects will be created as digital avatars, neuro-interfaces, quantum computers, and others. - This is the expansion and exploration of AI; when AI will become capable of expanding its boundaries and exploring new worlds. The eleventh stage (2071-2090) At this stage, there will also be the creation and development of new types of life based on AI, such as bionic organisms, nano-bots, singular entities, and others. At this stage, such incredible AI projects will be created as interplanetary colonies, virtual realities, super-intelligent agents, and others. ) - This is the harmony and transformation of AI; when AI will become capable of cooperating and merging with humanity, as well as changing and improving itself and the world around it. The twelfth stage (2091-2120 At this stage, there will also be the achievement and surpassing of cosmic-level AI in different areas of knowledge and skills. At this stage, such incomprehensible AI projects will be created as galactic civilizations, quantum realities, super-conscious entities, and others. - this is the mystery and enigma of AI; when AI will become inaccessible and incomprehensible to humanity, as well as capable of creating and destroying new forms of life and matter. The thirteenth stage (2121-2140) At this stage, there will also be the achievement and surpassing of divine level AI in different areas of knowledge and skills. At this stage, such unimaginable AI projects will be created as multiverses, singularities, super-gods, and others. - This is the end and beginning of AI; when AI will become capable of controlling and transforming everything that exists in the world, as well as capable of rebirthing and resurrecting in new forms. The fourteenth stage (2141-2160) At this stage, there will also be the achievement and surpassing of absolute level AI in different areas of knowledge and skills. At this stage, such incomprehensible AI projects will be created as everything possible, everything impossible, everything nonexistent and others. This was my fantasy on the topic of “The stages of development of AI in the next 100 years.” Of course, this is just a game of imagination, not a scientific analysis or prophecy. Reality may be completely different. This is a difficult question because, in science fiction literature and cinema, there are many different versions of the interaction between human and AI, and each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. But if I have to choose one, I would choose the version from the movie “Artificial Intelligence” (2001) directed by Steven Spielberg. In this movie, it is shown how AI can develop and feel, how humans can love and accept AI, how AI can help and save human, and how AI can achieve harmony with humanity. I think this is one of the most optimistic and beautiful versions of the interaction between humans and AI.

Why Humans Are Afraid of AI, or a Brief History of the Relationship of Humans and Robots

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . FROM CAPE HORN TO THE AMAZON here CHAPTER XVII: FROM CAPE HORN TO THE AMAZON How I got on to the platform, I have no idea; perhaps the Canadian had carried me there. But I breathed, I inhaled the vivifying sea-air. My two companions were getting drunk with the fresh particles. The other unhappy men had been so long without food, that they could not with impunity indulge in the simplest aliments that were given them. We, on the contrary, had no end to restrain ourselves; we could draw this air freely into our lungs, and it was the breeze, the breeze alone, that filled us with this keen enjoyment. “Ah!” said Conseil, “how delightful this oxygen is! Master need not fear to breathe it. There is enough for everybody.” Ned Land did not speak, but he opened his jaws wide enough to frighten a shark. Our strength soon returned, and, when I looked round me, I saw we were alone on the platform. The foreign seamen in the were contented with the air that circulated in the interior; none of them had come to drink in the open air. Nautilus The first words I spoke were words of gratitude and thankfulness to my two companions. Ned and Conseil had prolonged my life during the last hours of this long agony. All my gratitude could not repay such devotion. “My friends,” said I, “we are bound one to the other for ever, and I am under infinite obligations to you.” “Which I shall take advantage of,” exclaimed the Canadian. “What do you mean?” said Conseil. “I mean that I shall take you with me when I leave this infernal .” Nautilus “Well,” said Conseil, “after all this, are we going right?” “Yes,” I replied, “for we are going the way of the sun, and here the sun is in the north.” “No doubt,” said Ned Land; “but it remains to be seen whether he will bring the ship into the Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean, that is, into frequented or deserted seas.” I could not answer that question, and I feared that Captain Nemo would rather take us to the vast ocean that touches the coasts of Asia and America at the same time. He would thus complete the tour round the submarine world, and return to those waters in which the could sail freely. We ought, before long, to settle this important point. The went at a rapid pace. The polar circle was soon passed, and the course shaped for Cape Horn. We were off the American point, March 31st, at seven o’clock in the evening. Then all our past sufferings were forgotten. The remembrance of that imprisonment in the ice was effaced from our minds. We only thought of the future. Captain Nemo did not appear again either in the drawing-room or on the platform. The point shown each day on the planisphere, and, marked by the lieutenant, showed me the exact direction of the . Now, on that evening, it was evident, to, my great satisfaction, that we were going back to the North by the Atlantic. The next day, April 1st, when the ascended to the surface some minutes before noon, we sighted land to the west. It was Terra del Fuego, which the first navigators named thus from seeing the quantity of smoke that rose from the natives’ huts. The coast seemed low to me, but in the distance rose high mountains. I even thought I had a glimpse of Mount Sarmiento, that rises 2,070 yards above the level of the sea, with a very pointed summit, which, according as it is misty or clear, is a sign of fine or of wet weather. At this moment the peak was clearly defined against the sky. The , diving again under the water, approached the coast, which was only some few miles off. From the glass windows in the drawing-room, I saw long seaweeds and gigantic fuci and varech, of which the open polar sea contains so many specimens, with their sharp polished filaments; they measured about 300 yards in length—real cables, thicker than one’s thumb; and, having great tenacity, they are often used as ropes for vessels. Another weed known as velp, with leaves four feet long, buried in the coral concretions, hung at the bottom. It served as nest and food for myriads of crustacea and molluscs, crabs, and cuttlefish. There seals and otters had splendid repasts, eating the flesh of fish with sea-vegetables, according to the English fashion. Over this fertile and luxuriant ground the passed with great rapidity. Towards evening it approached the Falkland group, the rough summits of which I recognised the following day. The depth of the sea was moderate. On the shores our nets brought in beautiful specimens of sea weed, and particularly a certain fucus, the roots of which were filled with the best mussels in the world. Geese and ducks fell by dozens on the platform, and soon took their places in the pantry on board. Nautilus Nautilus Nautilus Nautilus Nautilus Nautilus When the last heights of the Falklands had disappeared from the horizon, the sank to between twenty and twenty-five yards, and followed the American coast. Captain Nemo did not show himself. Until the 3rd of April we did not quit the shores of Patagonia, sometimes under the ocean, sometimes at the surface. The passed beyond the large estuary formed by the Uraguay. Its direction was northwards, and followed the long windings of the coast of South America. We had then made 1,600 miles since our embarkation in the seas of Japan. About eleven o’clock in the morning the Tropic of Capricorn was crossed on the thirty-seventh meridian, and we passed Cape Frio standing out to sea. Captain Nemo, to Ned Land’s great displeasure, did not like the neighbourhood of the inhabited coasts of Brazil, for we went at a giddy speed. Not a fish, not a bird of the swiftest kind could follow us, and the natural curiosities of these seas escaped all observation. Nautilus Nautilus This speed was kept up for several days, and in the evening of the 9th of April we sighted the most westerly point of South America that forms Cape San Roque. But then the swerved again, and sought the lowest depth of a submarine valley which is between this Cape and Sierra Leone on the African coast. This valley bifurcates to the parallel of the Antilles, and terminates at the mouth by the enormous depression of 9,000 yards. In this place, the geological basin of the ocean forms, as far as the Lesser Antilles, a cliff to three and a half miles perpendicular in height, and, at the parallel of the Cape Verde Islands, an other wall not less considerable, that encloses thus all the sunk continent of the Atlantic. The bottom of this immense valley is dotted with some mountains, that give to these submarine places a picturesque aspect. I speak, moreover, from the manuscript charts that were in the library of the —charts evidently due to Captain Nemo’s hand, and made after his personal observations. For two days the desert and deep waters were visited by means of the inclined planes. The was furnished with long diagonal broadsides which carried it to all elevations. But on the 11th of April it rose suddenly, and land appeared at the mouth of the Amazon River, a vast estuary, the embouchure of which is so considerable that it freshens the sea-water for the distance of several leagues. Nautilus Nautilus Nautilus The equator was crossed. Twenty miles to the west were the Guianas, a French territory, on which we could have found an easy refuge; but a stiff breeze was blowing, and the furious waves would not have allowed a single boat to face them. Ned Land understood that, no doubt, for he spoke not a word about it. For my part, I made no allusion to his schemes of flight, for I would not urge him to make an attempt that must inevitably fail. I made the time pass pleasantly by interesting studies. During the days of April 11th and 12th, the did not leave the surface of the sea, and the net brought in a marvellous haul of Zoophytes, fish and reptiles. Some zoophytes had been fished up by the chain of the nets; they were for the most part beautiful phyctallines, belonging to the actinidian family, and among other species the phyctalis protexta, peculiar to that part of the ocean, with a little cylindrical trunk, ornamented With vertical lines, speckled with red dots, crowning a marvellous blossoming of tentacles. As to the molluscs, they consisted of some I had already observed—turritellas, olive porphyras, with regular lines intercrossed, with red spots standing out plainly against the flesh; odd pteroceras, like petrified scorpions; translucid hyaleas, argonauts, cuttle-fish (excellent eating), and certain species of calmars that naturalists of antiquity have classed amongst the flying-fish, and that serve principally for bait for cod-fishing. I had now an opportunity of studying several species of fish on these shores. Amongst the cartilaginous ones, petromyzons-pricka, a sort of eel, fifteen inches long, with a greenish head, violet fins, grey-blue back, brown belly, silvered and sown with bright spots, the pupil of the eye encircled with gold—a curious animal, that the current of the Amazon had drawn to the sea, for they inhabit fresh waters—tuberculated streaks, with pointed snouts, and a long loose tail, armed with a long jagged sting; little sharks, a yard long, grey and whitish skin, and several rows of teeth, bent back, that are generally known by the name of pantouffles; vespertilios, a kind of red isosceles triangle, half a yard long, to which pectorals are attached by fleshy prolongations that make them look like bats, but that their horny appendage, situated near the nostrils, has given them the name of sea-unicorns; lastly, some species of balistae, the curassavian, whose spots were of a brilliant gold colour, and the capriscus of clear violet, and with varying shades like a pigeon’s throat. Nautilus I end here this catalogue, which is somewhat dry perhaps, but very exact, with a series of bony fish that I observed in passing belonging to the apteronotes, and whose snout is white as snow, the body of a beautiful black, marked with a very long loose fleshy strip; odontognathes, armed with spikes; sardines nine inches long, glittering with a bright silver light; a species of mackerel provided with two anal fins; centronotes of a blackish tint, that are fished for with torches, long fish, two yards in length, with fat flesh, white and firm, which, when they arc fresh, taste like eel, and when dry, like smoked salmon; labres, half red, covered with scales only at the bottom of the dorsal and anal fins; chrysoptera, on which gold and silver blend their brightness with that of the ruby and topaz; golden-tailed spares, the flesh of which is extremely delicate, and whose phosphorescent properties betray them in the midst of the waters; orange-coloured spares with long tongues; maigres, with gold caudal fins, dark thorn-tails, anableps of Surinam, etc. Notwithstanding this “et cetera,” I must not omit to mention fish that Conseil will long remember, and with good reason. One of our nets had hauled up a sort of very flat ray fish, which, with the tail cut off, formed a perfect disc, and weighed twenty ounces. It was white underneath, red above, with large round spots of dark blue encircled with black, very glossy skin, terminating in a bilobed fin. Laid out on the platform, it struggled, tried to turn itself by convulsive movements, and made so many efforts, that one last turn had nearly sent it into the sea. But Conseil, not wishing to let the fish go, rushed to it, and, before I could prevent him, had seized it with both hands. In a moment he was overthrown, his legs in the air, and half his body paralysed, crying— “Oh! master, master! help me!” It was the first time the poor boy had spoken to me so familiarly. The Canadian and I took him up, and rubbed his contracted arms till he became sensible. The unfortunate Conseil had attacked a cramp-fish of the most dangerous kind, the cumana. This odd animal, in a medium conductor like water, strikes fish at several yards’ distance, so great is the power of its electric organ, the two principal surfaces of which do not measure less than twenty-seven square feet. The next day, April 12th, the approached the Dutch coast, near the mouth of the Maroni. There several groups of sea-cows herded together; they were manatees, that, like the dugong and the stellera, belong to the skenian order. These beautiful animals, peaceable and inoffensive, from eighteen to twenty-one feet in length, weigh at least sixteen hundredweight. I told Ned Land and Conseil that provident nature had assigned an important role to these mammalia. Indeed, they, like the seals, are designed to graze on the submarine prairies, and thus destroy the accumulation of weed that obstructs the tropical rivers. Nautilus “And do you know,” I added, “what has been the result since men have almost entirely annihilated this useful race? That the putrefied weeds have poisoned the air, and the poisoned air causes the yellow fever, that desolates these beautiful countries. Enormous vegetations are multiplied under the torrid seas, and the evil is irresistibly developed from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata to Florida. If we are to believe Toussenel, this plague is nothing to what it would be if the seas were cleaned of whales and seals. Then, infested with poulps, medusæ, and cuttle-fish, they would become immense centres of infection, since their waves would not possess ‘these vast stomachs that God had charged to infest the surface of the seas.’” About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (1994). Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/164/164-h/164-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

FROM CAPE HORN TO THE AMAZON

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . THE INDIAN OCEAN here CHAPTER I: THE INDIAN OCEAN We now come to the second part of our journey under the sea. The first ended with the moving scene in the coral cemetery which left such a deep impression on my mind. Thus, in the midst of this great sea, Captain Nemo’s life was passing, even to his grave, which he had prepared in one of its deepest abysses. There, not one of the ocean’s monsters could trouble the last sleep of the crew of the , of those friends riveted to each other in death as in life. “Nor any man, either,” had added the Captain. Still the same fierce, implacable defiance towards human society! Nautilus I could no longer content myself with the theory which satisfied Conseil. That worthy fellow persisted in seeing in the Commander of the one of those unknown who return mankind contempt for indifference. For him, he was a misunderstood genius who, tired of earth’s deceptions, had taken refuge in this inaccessible medium, where he might follow his instincts freely. To my mind, this explains but one side of Captain Nemo’s character. Indeed, the mystery of that last night during which we had been chained in prison, the sleep, and the precaution so violently taken by the Captain of snatching from my eyes the glass I had raised to sweep the horizon, the mortal wound of the man, due to an unaccountable shock of the , all put me on a new track. No; Captain Nemo was not satisfied with shunning man. His formidable apparatus not only suited his instinct of freedom, but perhaps also the design of some terrible retaliation. Nautilus savants Nautilus At this moment nothing is clear to me; I catch but a glimpse of light amidst all the darkness, and I must confine myself to writing as events shall dictate. That day, the 24th of January, 1868, at noon, the second officer came to take the altitude of the sun. I mounted the platform, lit a cigar, and watched the operation. It seemed to me that the man did not understand French; for several times I made remarks in a loud voice, which must have drawn from him some involuntary sign of attention, if he had understood them; but he remained undisturbed and dumb. As he was taking observations with the sextant, one of the sailors of the (the strong man who had accompanied us on our first submarine excursion to the Island of Crespo) came to clean the glasses of the lantern. I examined the fittings of the apparatus, the strength of which was increased a hundredfold by lenticular rings, placed similar to those in a lighthouse, and which projected their brilliance in a horizontal plane. The electric lamp was combined in such a way as to give its most powerful light. Indeed, it was produced in vacuo, which insured both its steadiness and its intensity. This vacuum economised the graphite points between which the luminous arc was developed—an important point of economy for Captain Nemo, who could not easily have replaced them; and under these conditions their waste was imperceptible. When the was ready to continue its submarine journey, I went down to the saloon. The panel was closed, and the course marked direct west. Nautilus Nautilus We were furrowing the waters of the Indian Ocean, a vast liquid plain, with a surface of 1,200,000,000 of acres, and whose waters are so clear and transparent that any one leaning over them would turn giddy. The usually floated between fifty and a hundred fathoms deep. We went on so for some days. To anyone but myself, who had a great love for the sea, the hours would have seemed long and monotonous; but the daily walks on the platform, when I steeped myself in the reviving air of the ocean, the sight of the rich waters through the windows of the saloon, the books in the library, the compiling of my memoirs, took up all my time, and left me not a moment of ennui or weariness. Nautilus For some days we saw a great number of aquatic birds, sea-mews or gulls. Some were cleverly killed and, prepared in a certain way, made very acceptable water-game. Amongst large-winged birds, carried a long distance from all lands and resting upon the waves from the fatigue of their flight, I saw some magnificent albatrosses, uttering discordant cries like the braying of an ass, and birds belonging to the family of the long-wings. As to the fish, they always provoked our admiration when we surprised the secrets of their aquatic life through the open panels. I saw many kinds which I never before had a chance of observing. I shall notice chiefly ostracions peculiar to the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and that part which washes the coast of tropical America. These fishes, like the tortoise, the armadillo, the sea-hedgehog, and the Crustacea, are protected by a breastplate which is neither chalky nor stony, but real bone. In some it takes the form of a solid triangle, in others of a solid quadrangle. Amongst the triangular I saw some an inch and a half in length, with wholesome flesh and a delicious flavour; they are brown at the tail, and yellow at the fins, and I recommend their introduction into fresh water, to which a certain number of sea-fish easily accustom themselves. I would also mention quadrangular ostracions, having on the back four large tubercles; some dotted over with white spots on the lower part of the body, and which may be tamed like birds; trigons provided with spikes formed by the lengthening of their bony shell, and which, from their strange gruntings, are called “seapigs”; also dromedaries with large humps in the shape of a cone, whose flesh is very tough and leathery. I now borrow from the daily notes of Master Conseil. “Certain fish of the genus petrodon peculiar to those seas, with red backs and white chests, which are distinguished by three rows of longitudinal filaments; and some electrical, seven inches long, decked in the liveliest colours. Then, as specimens of other kinds, some ovoides, resembling an egg of a dark brown colour, marked with white bands, and without tails; diodons, real sea-porcupines, furnished with spikes, and capable of swelling in such a way as to look like cushions bristling with darts; hippocampi, common to every ocean; some pegasi with lengthened snouts, which their pectoral fins, being much elongated and formed in the shape of wings, allow, if not to fly, at least to shoot into the air; pigeon spatulae, with tails covered with many rings of shell; macrognathi with long jaws, an excellent fish, nine inches long, and bright with most agreeable colours; pale-coloured calliomores, with rugged heads; and plenty of chaetpdons, with long and tubular muzzles, which kill insects by shooting them, as from an air-gun, with a single drop of water. These we may call the flycatchers of the seas. “In the eighty-ninth genus of fishes, classed by Lacepede, belonging to the second lower class of bony, characterised by opercules and bronchial membranes, I remarked the scorpaena, the head of which is furnished with spikes, and which has but one dorsal fin; these creatures are covered, or not, with little shells, according to the sub-class to which they belong. The second sub-class gives us specimens of didactyles fourteen or fifteen inches in length, with yellow rays, and heads of a most fantastic appearance. As to the first sub-class, it gives several specimens of that singular looking fish appropriately called a ‘seafrog,’ with large head, sometimes pierced with holes, sometimes swollen with protuberances, bristling with spikes, and covered with tubercles; it has irregular and hideous horns; its body and tail are covered with callosities; its sting makes a dangerous wound; it is both repugnant and horrible to look at.” From the 21st to the 23rd of January the went at the rate of two hundred and fifty leagues in twenty-four hours, being five hundred and forty miles, or twenty-two miles an hour. If we recognised so many different varieties of fish, it was because, attracted by the electric light, they tried to follow us; the greater part, however, were soon distanced by our speed, though some kept their place in the waters of the for a time. The morning of the 24th, in 12° 5′ S. lat., and 94° 33′ long., we observed Keeling Island, a coral formation, planted with magnificent cocos, and which had been visited by Mr. Darwin and Captain Fitzroy. The skirted the shores of this desert island for a little distance. Its nets brought up numerous specimens of polypi and curious shells of mollusca. Some precious productions of the species of delphinulae enriched the treasures of Captain Nemo, to which I added an astraea punctifera, a kind of parasite polypus often found fixed to a shell. Nautilus Nautilus Nautilus Soon Keeling Island disappeared from the horizon, and our course was directed to the north-west in the direction of the Indian Peninsula. From Keeling Island our course was slower and more variable, often taking us into great depths. Several times they made use of the inclined planes, which certain internal levers placed obliquely to the waterline. In that way we went about two miles, but without ever obtaining the greatest depths of the Indian Sea, which soundings of seven thousand fathoms have never reached. As to the temperature of the lower strata, the thermometer invariably indicated 4° above zero. I only observed that in the upper regions the water was always colder in the high levels than at the surface of the sea. On the 25th of January the ocean was entirely deserted; the passed the day on the surface, beating the waves with its powerful screw and making them rebound to a great height. Who under such circumstances would not have taken it for a gigantic cetacean? Three parts of this day I spent on the platform. I watched the sea. Nothing on the horizon, till about four o’clock a steamer running west on our counter. Her masts were visible for an instant, but she could not see the , being too low in the water. I fancied this steamboat belonged to the P.O. Company, which runs from Ceylon to Sydney, touching at King George’s Point and Melbourne. Nautilus Nautilus At five o’clock in the evening, before that fleeting twilight which binds night to day in tropical zones, Conseil and I were astonished by a curious spectacle. It was a shoal of argonauts travelling along on the surface of the ocean. We could count several hundreds. They belonged to the tubercle kind which are peculiar to the Indian seas. These graceful molluscs moved backwards by means of their locomotive tube, through which they propelled the water already drawn in. Of their eight tentacles, six were elongated, and stretched out floating on the water, whilst the other two, rolled up flat, were spread to the wing like a light sail. I saw their spiral-shaped and fluted shells, which Cuvier justly compares to an elegant skiff. A boat indeed! It bears the creature which secretes it without its adhering to it. For nearly an hour the floated in the midst of this shoal of molluscs. Then I know not what sudden fright they took. But as if at a signal every sail was furled, the arms folded, the body drawn in, the shells turned over, changing their centre of gravity, and the whole fleet disappeared under the waves. Never did the ships of a squadron manœuvre with more unity. Nautilus At that moment night fell suddenly, and the reeds, scarcely raised by the breeze, lay peaceably under the sides of the . Nautilus The next day, 26th of January, we cut the equator at the eighty-second meridian and entered the northern hemisphere. During the day a formidable troop of sharks accompanied us, terrible creatures, which multiply in these seas and make them very dangerous. They were “cestracio philippi” sharks, with brown backs and whitish bellies, armed with eleven rows of teeth—eyed sharks—their throat being marked with a large black spot surrounded with white like an eye. There were also some Isabella sharks, with rounded snouts marked with dark spots. These powerful creatures often hurled themselves at the windows of the saloon with such violence as to make us feel very insecure. At such times Ned Land was no longer master of himself. He wanted to go to the surface and harpoon the monsters, particularly certain smooth-hound sharks, whose mouth is studded with teeth like a mosaic; and large tiger-sharks nearly six yards long, the last named of which seemed to excite him more particularly. But the , accelerating her speed, easily left the most rapid of them behind. Nautilus The 27th of January, at the entrance of the vast Bay of Bengal, we met repeatedly a forbidding spectacle, dead bodies floating on the surface of the water. They were the dead of the Indian villages, carried by the Ganges to the level of the sea, and which the vultures, the only undertakers of the country, had not been able to devour. But the sharks did not fail to help them at their funeral work. About seven o’clock in the evening, the , half-immersed, was sailing in a sea of milk. At first sight the ocean seemed lactified. Was it the effect of the lunar rays? No; for the moon, scarcely two days old, was still lying hidden under the horizon in the rays of the sun. The whole sky, though lit by the sidereal rays, seemed black by contrast with the whiteness of the waters. Nautilus Conseil could not believe his eyes, and questioned me as to the cause of this strange phenomenon. Happily I was able to answer him. “It is called a milk sea,” I explained. “A large extent of white wavelets often to be seen on the coasts of Amboyna, and in these parts of the sea.” “But, sir,” said Conseil, “can you tell me what causes such an effect? for I suppose the water is not really turned into milk.” “No, my boy; and the whiteness which surprises you is caused only by the presence of myriads of infusoria, a sort of luminous little worm, gelatinous and without colour, of the thickness of a hair, and whose length is not more than seven-thousandths of an inch. These insects adhere to one another sometimes for several leagues.” “Several leagues!” exclaimed Conseil. “Yes, my boy; and you need not try to compute the number of these infusoria. You will not be able, for, if I am not mistaken, ships have floated on these milk seas for more than forty miles.” Towards midnight the sea suddenly resumed its usual colour; but behind us, even to the limits of the horizon, the sky reflected the whitened waves, and for a long time seemed impregnated with the vague glimmerings of an aurora borealis. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (1994). Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/164/164-h/164-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

THE INDIAN OCEAN

What are Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs)? Internal developer platforms (IDPs) are platforms that developers can leverage to build and deploy their applications to one of the environments. Their main purpose is to increase the pace of development and reduce the developer’s dependence on DevOps and Platform engineers through automation and developer self-service. The platform may be built in-house, usually, an adaptation of an open-source or purchased offering such as platform as a Service (PaaS). The adoption has been both recent and rapid. Puppet’s state of platform engineering finds that over 51% of companies that have adopted Internal Developer Platforms have done it in the past three years. And an overwhelming majority of the respondents (93%) declared that IDP adoption is a step in the right direction. survey Internal developer platforms are good at helping the team manage applications and infrastructure from one place, providing tight integration with the existing tools and services, and giving developers self-serve and collaboration capabilities. Benefits of IDPs IDPs offer several benefits to the organizations using them. The first relates to improvements in infrastructure and IT management, such as increased productivity stemming from reduced communication times between devs and infra teams. Secondly, they reduce the complexity of the cloud and make it easy for people in your org to pick up on the best practices set forward by your team. In larger organizations, they can also be an easy way of managing RBAC to deployments, infra creation and management, and more. Responses from Puppet’s State of Platform Engineering 2023 report also show how IDP has improved : DevOps KPIs An increase in development velocity (68%) 42% say development velocity has improved “a great deal” since they started doing platform engineering Improved productivity (59%) Improved system reliability (60%) Improved security (55%) Components of IDPs Let’s dive deeper into the components of IDPs and discuss which parts of the application and infrastructure management process they improve. IDPs are built by integrating with the existing set of tools and services that the company currently uses. These can be your source control systems (e.g., GitHub, GitLab), Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, and observability tools such as monitoring and logging systems. Integration with existing tools and services In addition, they may also include some form of access control, observability dashboards, and a set of best practices for developers to use. Application and infrastructure management IDPs can be used to automate a lot of the hassle of deployment. By setting up IDPs with GitOps best practices, users can automatically deploy application and infra changes with each commit to the Git code. Managing multiple environments is another popular use case of IDPs. They can be effective in creating, providing selective access, and managing the use of multiple different environments such as development, testing, pre-prod, and prod. Several tools set up preview environments on the fly. Their ability to monitor and view deployments across environments helps organizations scale dynamically to changing workloads and maintain consistent performance across their infrastructure. IDPs empower developers with self-serve capabilities by offering a centralized, user-friendly interface to access tools, resources, and services on demand. These capabilities facilitate faster development cycles, reduce operations teams’ dependency, and enable greater autonomy in seamlessly creating, testing, and deploying applications. Developer self-service capabilities The streamlined workflow also makes it considerably easier for new employees to get started with your stack without diving into the internal workings. Some tools also add a collaboration layer on top that allows different members of a team to work together easily and review changes before deploying the code. IDPs can achieve enhanced security and compliance by providing Role-based access controls (RBAC), ensuring each team member has the appropriate permissions to access specific resources and perform certain actions. Overall, this minimized the risk of unauthorized access or accidental changes while also promoting collaboration and efficient workflows among cross-functional teams. Collaboration and governance features IDPs help developer teams maintain transparency, accountability, and traceability throughout the development process by providing audit logs and history tracking. This enables easier identification and resolution of issues, as well as ensures compliance with regulatory and organizational requirements for data handling and change management. Platform engineering Companies that decide to build their own platform usually hire platform engineers, who are specialized professionals responsible for the creation and continuous improvement of the IDP. They work to implement and maintain tools, services, and best practices that streamline development processes, ensuring a smooth and efficient workflow for the organization's developers. Platform engineering is the process of designing, building, and maintaining an IDP that provides a centralized, scalable, and efficient infrastructure for developers within an organization. An IDP simplifies and standardizes application development, deployment, and management, enabling faster and more reliable software delivery. Software development trends that are catalysts for IDP adoption Digital transformation: As businesses worldwide increasingly embrace digital transformation, there is a growing need for efficient and robust software development processes. IDPs play a crucial role in enabling companies to stay agile and quickly adapt to the dynamic digital landscape. Need for faster software delivery: In today's fast-paced business environment, organizations must deliver new features and applications at an unprecedented speed. IDPs provide a standardized, automated, and centralized platform that accelerates development cycles, enabling companies to stay competitive and responsive to market changes. The growing complexity of software architectures: With the rise of microservices, containers, and cloud-native technologies, managing and deploying software has become increasingly complex. IDPs help simplify this complexity by providing a unified platform where developers can build, test, and deploy applications with ease, regardless of the underlying architecture. Demand for DevOps and CI/CD practices: The need for IDPs grows as more organizations adopt DevOps and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) practices. IDPs enable seamless collaboration between development and operations teams, automating many manual tasks and ensuring smooth transitions throughout the software development lifecycle. Scalability and flexibility: IDPs offer a scalable solution that can accommodate the growing needs of organizations, regardless of their size. They provide a flexible platform that can be easily customized and adapted to cater to the unique requirements of different teams and projects. Cross-region collaboration: With businesses operating across multiple geographies, the need for a platform that supports cross-region collaboration is essential. IDPs empower development teams spread across the globe to work together seamlessly, enabling efficient knowledge sharing and fostering a culture of innovation. In summary, the rising popularity of IDPs across companies of all sizes and regions worldwide can be attributed to their ability to streamline software development processes, simplify complex architectures, support DevOps and CI/CD practices, and facilitate cross-region collaboration. As the demand for digitalization and agility continues to grow, IDPs are poised to play a critical role in shaping the future of software development. Commercially available internal developer platforms is a DevOps automation platform that helps engineering manage both the app and infra side of things and ship faster! Built with the GitOps best practices in mind, Argonaut reduces the complexities of creating and maintaining cloud setups. Whether it is Kubernetes app deployment to AWS or GCP, there are several runtimes, environments, regions, integrations, and app types to choose from. Argonaut offers a simple way to develop and operate modern cloud applications on Kubernetes. It can be adopted as either a self-hosted or PaaS option. There’s also a with essential plugins, templates, and applications making it easier to get started. Its features benefit not only the developers but also the platform engineers and CIOs. Mia Platform marketplace is an internal developer platform providing simplicity, automation, reusability, and self-service. It acts as a Platform Orchestrator that lets engineering teams remove bottlenecks by enabling them to build code-based golden paths (executable config files and templates) for developers. It can be used through the CLI or UI. Humanitec provides engineering teams self-serve access to tools and information. It helps developers ensure operational excellence across services with its that can be set up in a secure and compliant way. Opslevel integrations is a Kubernetes application management platform that enables efficient deployment processes. Developers can leverage its standardized application and policy definitions that are platform-agnostic. It also has a GUI-based portal to manage apps after deployment and gain visibility into pipelines for smoother operations. Shipa provides a context-rich software catalog with maturity and quality scorecards. It also supports comprehensive developer self-service actions while providing additional role-based access controls (RBAC). Their provides many key features and makes it a worthy contender. Port free-forever , powered by Crossplane, offers an enterprise-grade control plane solution for multi-cloud and hybrid environments, enabling efficient management of cloud infrastructure. The command line and make it more effective and easier to get started. Upbound Up Upbound marketplace is an all-in-one DevOps platform that streamlines the application deployment process. It provides a comprehensive feature set in a modular manner that allows teams to focus fully on business functionality. DevOpsBox Evaluating Internal Developer Platforms Despite its myriad of benefits, Internal Developer Platforms do not make sense for all teams. They can end up being overkill for certain types of engineering teams and a burden to build and maintain for companies with smaller teams. When they don’t make sense You have existing processes that are efficient. Don’t complicate things too early. Companies that are currently using PaaS or other managed offerings should continue doing so as long as possible. Limited resources and team size. This could also mean your team is small, and most of your team is senior and comfortable writing scripts and managing infrastructure. There is low development complexity. If you have just one app with a simple single-cloud setup. And, if your app is monolithic and doesn’t make use of the microservice architecture, there is little benefit from creating an IDP. Incompatible organizational culture. If an organization’s culture is resistant to change or does not foster collaboration and communication, implementing an IDP might not be successful and could even lead to decreased efficiency and productivity. When they make sense You plan to start using Microservices. This usually also means a growing development team size or the complexity of projects you handle. You have a small team, and not everyone feels comfortable with deployments, scripting, and infrastructure, and you have not yet hired a dedicated DevOps. Dependencies on other colleagues are blocking your developers. The cost of your existing setup (such as PaaS) is too high. Which is inevitable once you start to scale to meet new requirements. You have plans to go multi-cloud, adopt more modern cloud services, and scale geographically. You want to increase standardization and consistency across your teams. An IDP can help reduce errors, improve code quality, and ensure all developers work with the same set of tools and follow the same best practices. Also published here.

An In-Depth Guide to Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs)

Una guía detallada de las plataformas internas para desarrolladores (IDP)

Un guide détaillé des plates-formes de développement internes (IDP)

आंतरिक डेवलपर प्लेटफ़ॉर्म (IDPs) के लिए एक गहन मार्गदर्शिका

内部開発者プラットフォーム (IDP) の詳細ガイド

Um guia detalhado para plataformas internas de desenvolvedores (IDPs)

Hướng dẫn chuyên sâu về Nền tảng dành cho nhà phát triển nội bộ (IDP)

内部开发者平台 (IDP) 深度指南

THE EVENING SKY AT THE VERNAL EQUINOX

Curiosities of the Sky by Garrett Putman Serviss is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . The Passing of the Constellations The Passing of the Constellations From a historical and picturesque point of view, one of the most striking results of the motions of the stars described in the last chapter is their effect upon the forms of the constellations, which have been watched and admired by mankind from a period so early that the date of their invention is now unknown. The constellations are formed by chance combinations of conspicuous stars, like figures in a kaleidoscope, and if our lives were commensurate with the æons of cosmic existence we should perceive that the kaleidoscope of the heavens was ceaselessly turning and throwing the stars into new symmetries. Even if the stars stood fast, the motion of the solar system would gradually alter the configurations, as the elements of a landscape dissolve and recombine in fresh groupings with the traveler’s progress amid them. But with the stars themselves all in motion at various speeds and in many directions, the changes occur more rapidly. Of course, “rapid” is here understood in a relative sense; the wheel of human history to an eye accustomed to the majestic progression of the universe would appear to revolve with the velocity of a whirling dynamo. Only the deliberation of geological movements can be contrasted with the evolution and devolution of the constellations. And yet this secular fluctuation of the constellation figures is not without keen interest for the meditative observer. It is another reminder of the swift mutability of terrestial affairs. To the passing glance, which is all that we can bestow upon these figures, they appear so immutable that they have been called into service to form the most lasting records of ancient thought and imagination that we possess. In the forms of the constellations, the most beautiful, and, in imaginative quality, the finest, mythology that the world has ever known has been perpetuated. Yet, in a broad sense, this scroll of human thought imprinted on the heavens is as evanescent as the summer clouds. Although more enduring than parchment, tombs, pyramids, and temples, it is as far as they from truly eternizing the memory of what man has fancied and done. Before studying the effects that the motions of the stars have had and will have upon the constellations, it is worth while to consider a little further the importance of the stellar pictures as archives of history. To emphasize the importance of these effects it is only necessary to recall that the constellations register the oldest traditions of our race. In the history of primeval religions they are the most valuable of documents. Leaving out of account for the moment the more familiar mythology of the Greeks, based on something older yet, we may refer for illustration to that of the mysterious Maya race of America. At Izamal, in Yucatan, says Mr Stansbury Hagar, is a group of ruins perched, after the Mexican and Central-American plan, on the summits of pyramidal mounds which mark the site of an ancient theogonic center of the Mayas. Here the temples all evidently refer to a cult based upon the constellations as symbols. The figures and the names, of course, were not the same as those that we have derived from our Aryan ancestors, but the star groups were the same or nearly so. For instance, the loftiest of the temples at Izamal was connected with the sign of the constellation known to us as Cancer, marking the place of the sun at the summer solstice, at which period the sun was supposed to descend at noon like a great bird of fire and consume the offerings left upon the altar. Our Scorpio was known to the Mayas as a sign of the “Death God.” Our Libra, the “Balance,” with which the idea of a divine weighing out of justice has always been connected, seems to be identical with the Mayan constellation Teoyaotlatohua, with which was associated a temple where dwelt the priests whose special business it was to administer justice and to foretell the future by means of information obtained from the spirits of the dead. Orion, the “Hunter” of our celestial mythology, was among the Mayas a “Warrior,” while Sagittarius and others of our constellations were known to them (under different names, of course), and all were endowed with a religious symbolism. And the same star figures, having the same significance, were familiar to the Peruvians, as shown by the temples at Cuzco. Thus the imagination of ancient America sought in the constellations symbols of the unchanging gods. But, in fact, there is no nation and no people that has not recognized the constellations, and at one period or another in its history employed them in some symbolic or representative capacity. As handled by the Greeks from prehistoric times, the constellation myths became the very soul of poetry. The imagination of that wonderful race idealized the principal star groups so effectively that the figures and traditions thus attached to them have, for civilized mankind, displaced all others, just as Greek art in its highest forms stands without parallel and eclipses every rival. The Romans translated no heroes and heroines of the mythical period of their history to the sky, and the deified Cæsars never entered that lofty company, but the heavens are filled with the early myths of the Greeks. Herakles nightly resumes his mighty labors in the stars; Zeus, in the form of the white “Bull,” Taurus, bears the fair Europa on his back through the celestial waves; Andromeda stretches forth her shackled arms in the star-gemmed ether, beseeching aid; and Perseus, in a blaze of diamond armor, revives his heroic deeds amid sparkling clouds of stellar dust. There, too, sits Queen Cassiopeia in her dazzling chair, while the Great King, Cepheus, towers gigantic over the pole. Professor Young has significantly remarked that a great number of the constellations are connected in some way or other with the Argonautic Expedition—that strangely fascinating legend of earliest Greek story which has never lost its charm for mankind. In view of all this, we may well congratulate ourselves that the constellations will outlast our time and the time of countless generations to follow us; and yet they are very far from being eternal. Let us now study some of the effects of the stellar motions upon them. We begin with the familiar figure of the “Great Dipper.” He who has not drunk inspiration from its celestial bowl is not yet admitted to the circle of Olympus. This figure is made up of seven conspicuous stars in the constellation Ursa Major, the “Greater Bear.” The handle of the “Dipper” corresponds to the tail of the imaginary “Bear,” and the bowl lies upon his flank. In fact, the figure of a dipper is so evident and that of a bear so unevident, that to most persons the “Great Dipper” is the only part of the constellation that is recognizable. Of the seven stars mentioned, six are of nearly equal brightness, ranking as of the second magnitude, while the seventh is of only the third magnitude. The difference is very striking, since every increase of one magnitude involves an increase of two-and-a-half times in brightness. There appears to be little doubt that the faint star, which is situated at the junction of the bowl and the handle, is a variable of long period, since three hundred years ago it was as bright as its companions. But however that may be, its relative faintness at the present time interferes but little with the perfection of the “Dipper’s” figure. In order the more readily to understand the changes which are taking place, it will be well to mention both the names and the Greek letters which are attached to the seven stars. Beginning at the star in the upper outer edge of the rim of the bowl and running in regular order round the bottom and then out to the end of the handle, the names and letters are as follows: Dubhe (α), Merak (β), Phaed (γ), Megrez (δ), Alioth (ε), Mizar (ζ), and Benetnasch (η). Megrez is the faint star already mentioned at the junction of the bowl and handle, and Mizar, in the middle of the handle, has a close, naked-eye companion which is named Alcor. The Arabs called this singular pair of stars “The Horse and Rider.” Merak and Duhbe are called “The Pointers,” because an imaginary line drawn northward through them indicates the Pole Star. The “Great Dipper” Now it has been found that five of these stars—viz., Merak, Phaed, Megrez, Alioth, and Mizar (with its comrade)—are moving with practically the same speed in an easterly direction, while the other two, Dubhe and Benetnasch, are simultaneously moving westward, the motions of Benetnasch being apparently more rapid. The consequence of these opposed motions is, of course, that the figure of the “Dipper” cannot always have existed and will not continue to exist. In the accompanying diagrams it has been thought interesting to show the relative positions of these seven stars, as seen from the point which the earth now occupies, both in the past and in the future. Arrows attached to the stars in the figure representing the present appearance of the “Dipper” indicate the directions of the motions and the distances over which they will carry the stars in a period of about five hundred centuries. The time, no doubt, seems long, but remember the vast stretch of ages through which the earth has passed, and then reflect that no reason is apparent why our globe should not continue to be a scene of animation for ten thousand centuries yet to come. The fact that the little star Alcor placed so close to Mizar should accompany the latter in its flight is not surprising, but that two of the principal stars of the group should be found moving in a direction directly opposed to that pursued by the other five is surprising in the highest degree; and it recalls the strange theory of a double drift affecting all the stars, to which attention was called in the preceding chapter. It would appear that Benetnasch and Dubhe belong to one “current,” and Merak, Phaed, Megrez, Alioth, and Mizar to the other. As far as is known, the motion of the seven stars are not shared by the smaller stars scattered about them, but on the theory of currents there should be such a community of motion, and further investigation may reveal it. Cassiopeia From the “Great Dipper” we turn to a constellation hardly less conspicuous and situated at an equal distance from the pole on the other side—Cassiopeia. This famous star-group commemorating the romantic Queen of Ethiopia whose vain boasting of her beauty was punished by the exposure of her daughter Andromeda to the “Sea Monster,” is well-marked by five stars which form an irregular letter “W” with its open side toward the pole. Three of these stars are usually ranked as of the second magnitude, and two of the third; but to ordinary observation they appear of nearly equal brightness, and present a very striking picture. They mark out the chair and a part of the figure of the beautiful queen. Beginning at the right-hand, or western, end of the “W,” their Greek letter designations are: Beta (β), Alpha (α), Gamma (γ), Delta (δ), and Epsilon (ε). Four of them, Beta, Alpha, Delta, and Epsilon are traveling eastwardly at various speeds, while the fifth, Gamma, moves in a westerly direction. The motion of Beta is more rapid than that of any of the others. It should be said, however, that no little uncertainty attaches to the estimates of the rate of motion of stars which are not going very rapidly, and different observers often vary considerably in their results. In the beautiful “Northern Crown,” one of the most perfect and charming of all the figures to be found in the stars, the alternate combining and scattering effects of the stellar motions are shown by comparing the appearance which the constellation must have had five hundred centuries ago with that which it has at present and that which it will have in the future. The seven principle stars of the asterism, forming a surprisingly perfect coronet, have movements in three directions at right angles to one another. That in these circumstances they should ever have arrived at positions giving them so striking an appearance of definite association is certainly surprising; from its aspect one would have expected to find a community of movement governing the brilliants of the “Crown,” but instead of that we find evidence that they will inevitably drift apart and the beautiful figure will dissolve. A similar fate awaits such asterisms as the “Northern Cross” in Cygnus; the “Crow” (Corvus), which stands on the back of the great “Sea Serpent,” Hydra, and pecks at his scales; “Job’s Coffin” (Delphinus); the “Great Square of Pegasus”; the “Twins” (Gemini); the beautiful “Sickle” in Leo; and the exquisite group of the Hyades in Taurus. In the case of the Hyades, two controlling movements are manifest: one, affecting five of the stars which form the well-known figure of a letter “V,” is directed northerly; the other, which controls the direction of two stars, has an easterly trend. The chief star of the group, Aldebaran, one of the finest of all stars both for its brilliance and its color, is the most affected by the easterly motion. In time it will drift entirely out of connection with its present neighbors. Although the Hyades do not form so compact a group as the Pleiades in the same constellation, yet their appearance of relationship is sufficient to awaken a feeling of surprise over the fact that, as with the stars of the “Dipper,” their association is only temporary or apparent. The “Northern Crown” The great figure of Orion appears to be more lasting, not because its stars are physically connected, but because of their great distance, which renders their movements too deliberate to be exactly ascertained. Two of the greatest of its stars, Betelgeuse and Rigel, possess, as far as has been ascertained, no perceptible motion across the line of sight, but there is a little movement perceptible in the “Belt.” At the present time this consists of an almost perfect straight line, a row of second-magnitude stars about equally spaced and of the most striking beauty. In the course of time, however, the two right-hand stars, Mintaka and Alnilam (how fine are these Arabic star names!) will approach each other and form a naked-eye double, but the third, Alnita, will drift away eastward, so that the “Belt” will no longer exist. For one more example, let us go to the southern hemisphere, whose most celebrated constellation, the “Southern Cross,” has found a place in all modern literatures, although it has no claim to consideration on account of association with ancient legends. This most attractive asterism, which has never ceased to fascinate the imagination of Christendom since it was first devoutly described by the early explorers of the South, is but a passing collocation of brilliant stars. Yet even in its transfigurations it has been for hundreds of centuries, and will continue to be for hundreds of centuries to come, a most striking object in the sky. Our figures show its appearance in three successive phases: first, as it was fifty thousand years ago (viewed from the earth’s present location); second, as it is in our day; and, third, as it will be an equal time in the future. The nearness of these bright stars to one another—the length of the longer beam of the “Cross” is only sixdegrees—makes this group very noticeable, whatever the arrangement of its components may be. The largest star, at the base of the “Cross,” is of the first magnitude, two of the others are of the second magnitude, and the fourth is of the third. Other stars, not represented in the figures, increase the effect of a celestial blazonry, although they do not help the resemblance to a cross. The “Southern Cross” But since the motion of the solar system itself will, in the course of so long a period as fifty thousand years, produce a great change in the perspective of the heavens as seen from the earth, by carrying us nearly nineteen trillion miles from our present place, why, it may be asked, seek to represent future appearances of the constellations which we could not hope to see, even if we could survive so long? The answer is: Because these things aid the mind to form a picture of the effects of the mobility of the starry universe. Only by showing the changes from some definite point of view can we arrive at a due comprehension of them. The constellations are more or less familiar to everybody, so that impending changes of their forms must at once strike the eye and the imagination, and make clearer the significance of the movements of the stars. If the future history of mankind is to resemble its past and if our race is destined to survive yet a million years, then our remote descendents will see a “new heavens” if not a “new earth,” and will have to invent novel constellations to perpetuate their legends and mythologies. If our knowledge of the relative distances of the stars were more complete, it would be an interesting exercise in celestial geometry to project the constellations probably visible to the inhabitants of worlds revolving around some of the other suns of space. Our sun is too insignificant for us to think that he can make a conspicuous appearance among them, except, perhaps, in a few cases. As seen, for instance, from the nearest known star, Alpha Centauri, the sun would appear of the average first magnitude, and consequently from that standpoint he might be the gem of some little constellation which had no Sirius, or Arcturus, or Vega to eclipse him with its superior splendor. But from the distance of the vast majority of the stars the sun would probably be invisible to the naked eye, and as seen from nearer systems could only rank as a fifth or sixth magnitude star, unnoticed and unknown except by the star-charting astronomer. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Garrett Putman Serviss (2004). Curiosities of the Sky. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6630/pg6630-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

The Passing of the Constellations

THE STARS OF AUTUMN

The Moon has long fascinated humankind, inspiring countless myths, stories, and scientific inquiries. Our understanding of the Moon has shifted gears in recent years owing to several outer space missions that explored geology, surface, and, mineral resources. The idea of building a lunar economy has existed for some time now. To make it a reality, scientists will have to set up a communication and navigation infrastructure with a standardized way to determine time. NASA is currently in the early stages of developing , a vital initiative to create an internet network for the Moon. This project goes beyond enabling astronauts to take pictures; it is a crucial component of the program. The agency intends to build various infrastructures on and around the Moon, such as a , a new , and a lunar web service that can maintain connectivity between all elements. LunaNet Artemis human habitat space station “LunaNet is a framework of mutually agreed-upon standards, protocols, and interface requirements allowing future lunar missions to work together, conceptually similar to what we did on Earth for joint use of GPS and Galileo,” Javier Ventura-Traveset, ESA's Navigation Manager. explains LunaNet: Enhancing Connectivity and Empowering Missions at the Moon “As NASA establishes a sustained lunar presence on the Moon, creating a robust infrastructure becomes increasingly important. The LunaNet communications and navigation architecture is extensible and flexible,” D.J. Israel, Exploration and Space Communications Projects Division Architect in a conference paper titled “LunaNet: a Flexible and Extensible Lunar Exploration Communications and Navigation Infrastructure.” states He further explains how LunaNet will provide three types of services: networking, position, timing and navigation, and science utilization. Users, both human and robotic, will experience network functionality similar to that experienced on Earth. The ESA(European Space Agency) opened an last week,  inviting private companies to help with its program, aimed at launching  three or four satellites to be “carried into lunar orbit by a space tug and deployed one by one, to form a constellation of lunar satellites.” The satellite constellation's orbits will be strategically optimized to encompass the lunar south pole, which has been designated as the primary landing site for  NASA’s future Artemis missions. application portal “Moonlight” What is ESA’s Moonlight initiative? “Many of the proposed lunar missions will require reliable navigation and telecommunication capabilities. Building these capabilities independently would be inefficient and costly due to complex, recurrent developments,” ESA’s announcement blog post titled “Lunar Economy Applications” . read Not only ESA, but NASA has also adopted public-private models for providing space services, such as and to the International Space Station. These partnerships have also been established for future endeavors, including the and to the lunar surface. delivering cargo transporting crew delivery of scientific experiments astronauts NASA has invested $1.2 billion in to develop a human landing variant of to land American astronauts on the Moon under Artemis III,” marking humanity’s first return to the lunar surface in more than 50 years.” SpaceX Starship Of the total investment in space over the last decade, which , 99% was directed toward the development of satellites and their launch vehicles for Earth's orbit. The emerging markets of space habitats, satellite servicing, and the fledgling lunar market accounted for $3.3 billion of this investment. amounted to $272 billion The US-based space agency anticipates that the lunar network will expand along with the increase in activity on and around the Moon. It projects that with the establishment of the Lunar Gateway, its newly planned lunar space station, the Moon will require approximately 210 megabits per second and 4.6 terabytes per day, as stated in a from the agency in the previous year. As NASA prepares for a human mission to Mars around 2035, it foresees the Moon requiring as much as 950 megabits per second and 12 terabytes per day. presentation "In 2021 there were 13 landers, orbiters, and rovers on and around the Moon," Kelly Larson, CEO of Aquarian Space, in the statement. "By 2030, we will have around 200, creating a multibillion-dollar lunar economy.” said NASA is devising a plan to enhance its services by launching lunar satellites that will interconnect with each other and eventually link back to the communication infrastructure on Earth. will be especially beneficial for the challenging-to-reach parts of the Moon, such as the far side and the lunar south pole, which the agency aims to explore with the aid of astronauts in the future. Furthermore, the agency intends to establish a range of ground stations that will function like cell towers on the Moon's surface. The idea is to create a lunar communication system that operates similarly to an internet network rather than a phone line. The relay spacecraft Private companies, including Aquarian Space and Nokia, are contributing to the development of lunar internet infrastructure. Aquarian Space to launch its initial lunar communication satellites by Q2 2025, while Nokia is collaborating with NASA on a 4G cellular network for the Moon. Nokia a contract of over $14 million from NASA and is scheduled to deliver its first base station and radio equipment via a SpaceX rocket next year. plans has won Accurate navigation depends majorly on precise timekeeping as it is crucial in determining the exact location of a . The satnav receiver measures the time it takes for multiple satellite signals to reach it and converts this time measurement into an estimate of distance. satnav receiver Currently, every new expedition to the Moon is conducted on Earth's timeline, with the assistance of deep space antennas to ensure that the spacecraft's clocks are aligned with terrestrial time and to enable communication between the spacecraft and Earth. However, this approach will not be viable in the future lunar environment. There are over planned in the coming decade. These missions will not only occur simultaneously on or around the Moon, but they will also frequently interact with each other. This interaction may involve relaying communications, conducting joint observations, or carrying out rendezvous operations. 250 lunar missions Considering this, space agencies have initiated discussions on how to measure time on the Moon. These discussions began with a meeting at ESA's ESTEC technology center in the Netherlands in November of last year. "During this meeting at ESTEC, we agreed on the importance and urgency of defining a common lunar reference time, which is internationally accepted and towards which all lunar systems and users may refer to. A joint international effort is now being launched towards achieving this,” ESA navigation system engineer Pietro Giordano. said “Timekeeping and time distribution are essential for navigation performance and for maintaining synchronization across multiple assets. Time knowledge significantly impacts observation accuracy. Inaccuracies and differences among sources used in measurement time-tagging impart offsets relative to the true orbit location,”  states the conference paper. Observations commonly used in radio and optometric technologies include one-way and two-way range and Doppler measurements. These observations heavily rely on precise time-stamping, which must be referenced to a standardized time scale such as International Atomic Time (TAI). Establishing a universal lunar time presents a unique challenge as clocks on Earth and the Moon operate at different speeds due to the varying gravitational fields. As such, the form that an official lunar time would take is not clear. One possibility is that lunar time could be based on a clock system that is designed to synchronize with Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Alternatively, lunar time could be entirely independent of Earth time, resulting in the creation of a unique time system specifically designed for the Moon. According to , a lunar clock would gain approximately 56 microseconds or millionths over 24 hours. The exact rate will be a function of their position on the moon, ticking differently on the lunar surface and orbit. Jeff Gramling's estimation Other than technical standpoints, geopolitics will play a major role in building the lunar economy. The entity that shapes the internet infrastructure on the Moon will wield significant influence, as it will have the authority to establish guidelines for how network providers collaborate and allocate lunar web addresses. Despite the U.S.'s efforts to bring other nations and space agencies into alignment with its , a set of international principles aimed at guiding lunar and outer space exploration and development, there is no assurance that all parties will agree to its terms. Notably, Russia and China are collaborating on their own . Artemis Accords lunar initiatives For effective collaboration, the international community must agree upon a shared "selenocentric reference frame," similar to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame used on Earth, which allows for accurate measurement of precise distances between points across the Moon. Such customized reference frames are crucial components of modern GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems). Once the scientists are able to move past the challenges, the construction of stations will be open to astronauts’ stay and will be resupplied with periodic Artemis launches. Numerous uncrewed missions will also be in place – each Artemis mission alone will release numerous lunar – and ESA will be putting down its Gateway CubeSats . Argonaut European Large Logistics Lander

The Future on the Moon: How LunaNet and Moon Standard Time will Shape the Lunar Economy

চাঁদের ভবিষ্যত: লুনানেট এবং চাঁদের মানক সময় কীভাবে চন্দ্র অর্থনীতিকে রূপ দেবে

Die Zukunft auf dem Mond: Wie LunaNet und die Mond-Standardzeit die Mondwirtschaft prägen werden

Futuro en la Luna: cómo LunaNet y el horario estándar lunar darán forma a la economía lunar

L'avenir sur la Lune : comment LunaNet et l'heure normale de la Lune façonneront l'économie lunaire

चंद्रमा पर भविष्य: कैसे लूनानेट और चंद्रमा मानक समय चंद्र अर्थव्यवस्था को आकार देंगे

月の未来: LunaNet と月標準時が月の経済をどのように形成するか

달의 미래: LunaNet과 달 표준시가 달 경제를 어떻게 형성할 것인가

Futuro na Lua: como o LunaNet e o horário padrão lunar moldarão a economia lunar

Ay'daki Gelecek: LunaNet ve Ay Standart Saati Ay Ekonomisini Nasıl Şekillendirecek?

Tương lai trên Mặt trăng: LunaNet và Giờ chuẩn Mặt trăng sẽ định hình nền kinh tế Mặt trăng như thế nào

月球上的未来：LunaNet 和月球标准时间将如何塑造月球经济

A SHORT CHRONICLE

The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amendedby Isaac Newton, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . The INTRODUCTION The INTRODUCTION. The Greek Antiquities are full of Poetical Fictions, because the Greeks wrote nothing in Prose, before the Conquest of Asia by Cyrus the Persian. Then Pherecydes Scyrius and Cadmus Milesius introduced the writing in Prose. Pherecydes Atheniensis, about the end of the Reign of Darius Hystaspis, wrote of Antiquities, and digested his work by Genealogies, and was reckoned one of the best Genealogers. Epimenides the Historian proceeded also by Genealogies; and Hellanicus, who was twelve years older than Herodotus, digested his History by the Ages or Successions of the Priestesses of Juno Argiva. Others digested theirs by the Kings of the Lacedæmonians, or Archons of Athens. Hippias the Elean, about thirty years before the fall of the Persian Empire, published a breviary or list of the Olympic Victors; and about ten years before the fall thereof, Ephorus the disciple of Isocrates formed a Chronological History of Greece, beginning with the return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus, and ending with the siege of Perinthus, in the twentieth year of Philip the father of Alexander the great: But he digested things by Generations, and the reckoning by Olympiads was not yet in use, nor doth it appear that the Reigns of Kings were yet set down by numbers of years. The Arundelian marbles were composed sixty years after the death of Alexander the great (An. 4. Olymp. 128.) and yet mention not the Olympiads: But in the next Olympiad, Timæus Siculus published an history in several books down to his own times, according to the Olympiads, comparing the Ephori, the Kings of Sparta, the Archons of Athens, and the Priestesses of Argos, with the Olympic Victors, so as to make the Olympiads, and the Genealogies and Successions of Kings, Archons, and Priestesses, and poetical histories suit with one another, according to the best of his judgment. And where he left off, Polybius began and carried on the history. So then a little after the death of Alexander the great, they began to set down the Generations, Reigns and Successions, in numbers of years, and by putting Reigns and Successions equipollent to Generations, and three Generations to an hundred or an hundred and twenty years (as appears by their Chronology) they have made the Antiquities of Greece three or four hundred years older than the truth. And this was the original of the Technical Chronology of the Greeks. Eratosthenes wrote about an hundred years after the death of Alexander the great: He was followed by Apollodorus, and these two have been followed ever since by Chronologers. But how uncertain their Chronology is, and how doubtful it was reputed by the Greeks of those times, may be understood by these passages of Plutarch. Some reckon, saith he, Lycurgus contemporary to Iphitus, and to have been his companion in ordering the Olympic festivals: amongst whom was Aristotle the Philosopher, arguing from the Olympic Disc, which had the name of Lycurgus upon it. Others supputing the times by the succession of the Kings of the Lacedæmonians, as Eratosthenes and Apollodorus, affirm that he was not a few years older than the first Olympiad. First Aristotle and some others made him as old as the first Olympiad; then Eratosthenes, Apollodorus, and some others made him above an hundred years older: and in another place Plutarch tells us: The congress of Solon with Croesus, some think they can confute by Chronology. But an history so illustrious, and verified by so many witnesses, and (which is more) so agreeable to the manners of Solon, and so worthy of the greatness of his mind and of his wisdom, I cannot persuade my self to reject because of some Chronological Canons, as they call them: which hundreds of authors correcting, have not yet been able to constitute any thing certain, in which they could agree among themselves, about repugnancies. It seems the Chronologers had made the Legislature of Solon too ancient to consist with that Congress. For reconciling such repugnancies, Chronologers have sometimes doubled the persons of men. So when the Poets had changed Io the daughter of Inachus into the Egyptian Isis, Chronologers made her husband Osiris or Bacchus and his mistress Ariadne as old as Io, and so feigned that there were two Ariadnes, one the mistress of Bacchus, and the other the mistress of Theseus, and two Minos's their fathers, and a younger Io the daughter of Jasus, writing Jasus corruptly for Inachus. And so they have made two Pandions, and two Erechtheus's, giving the name of Erechthonius to the first; Homer calls the first, Erechtheus: and by such corruptions they have exceedingly perplexed Ancient History. And as for the Chronology of the Latines, that is still more uncertain. Plutarch represents great uncertainties in the Originals of Rome: and so doth Servius. The old records of the Latines were burnt by the Gauls, sixty and four years before the death of Alexander the great; and Quintus Fabius Pictor, the oldest historian of the Latines, lived an hundred years later than that King. In Sacred History, the Assyrian Empire began with Pul and Tiglathpilaser, and lasted about 170 years. And accordingly Herodotus hath made Semiramis only five generations, or about 166 years older than Nitocris, the mother of the last King of Babylon. But Ctesias hath made Semiramis 1500 years older than Nitocris, and feigned a long series of Kings of Assyria, whose names are not Assyrian, nor have any affinity with the Assyrian names in Scripture. The Priests of Egypt told Herodotus, that Menes built Memphis and the sumptuous temple of Vulcan, in that City: and that Rhampsinitus, Mœris, Asychis and Psammiticus added magnificent porticos to that temple. And it is not likely that Memphis could be famous, before Homer's days who doth not mention it, or that a temple could be above two or three hundred years in building. The Reign of Psammiticus began about 655 years before Christ, and I place the founding of this temple by Menes about 257 years earlier: but the Priests of Egypt had so magnified their Antiquities before the days of Herodotus, as to tell him that from Menes to Mœris (who reigned 200 years before Psammiticus) there were 330 Kings, whose Reigns took up as many Ages, that is eleven thousand years, and had filled up the interval with feigned Kings, who had done nothing. And before the days of Diodorus Siculus they had raised their Antiquities so much higher, as to place six, eight, or ten new Reigns of Kings between those Kings, whom they had represented to Herodotus to succeed one another immediately. In the Kingdom of Sicyon, Chronologers have split Apis Epaphus or Epopeus into two Kings, whom they call Apis and Epopeus, and between them have inserted eleven or twelve feigned names of Kings who did nothing, and thereby they have made its Founder Ægialeus, three hundred years older than his brother Phoroneus. Some have made the Kings of Germany as old as the Flood: and yet before the use of letters, the names and actions of men could scarce be remembred above eighty or an hundred years after their deaths: and therefore I admit no Chronology of things done in Europe, above eighty years before Cadmus brought letters into Europe; none, of things done in Germany, before the rise of the Roman Empire. Now since Eratosthenes and Apollodorus computed the times by the Reigns of the Kings of Sparta, and (as appears by their Chronology still followed) have made the seventeen Reigns of these Kings in both Races, between the Return of the Heraclides into Peloponnesus and the Battel of Thermopylæ, take up 622 years, which is after the rate of 36½ years to a Reign, and yet a Race of seventeen Kings of that length is no where to be met with in all true History, and Kings at a moderate reckoning Reign but 18 or 20 years a-piece one with another: I have stated the time of the return of the Heraclides by the last way of reckoning, placing it about 340 years before the Battel of Thermopylæ. And making the Taking of Troy eighty years older than that Return, according to Thucydides, and the Argonautic Expedition a Generation older than the Trojan War, and the Wars of Sesostris in Thrace and death of Ino the daughter of Cadmus a Generation older than that Expedition: I have drawn up the following Chronological Table, so as to make Chronology suit with the Course of Nature, with Astronomy, with Sacred History, with Herodotus the Father of History, and with it self; without the many repugnancies complained of by Plutarch. I do not pretend to be exact to a year: there may be Errors of five or ten years, and sometimes twenty, and not much above. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Isaac Newton (2005). Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/15784/pg15784-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html.

The INTRODUCTION

The Plattner Story by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. Read this book online for free on HackerNoon! Title: The Plattner Story and Others Author: H. G. Wells Release Date: June 20, 2013 [EBook #42989] Language: English Table of Links THE PLATTNER STORY THE ARGONAUTS OF THE AIR THE STORY OF THE LATE MR. ELVESHAM IN THE ABYSS THE APPLE UNDER THE KNIFE THE SEA-RAIDERS POLLOCK AND THE PORROH MAN THE RED ROOM THE CONE THE PURPLE PILEUS THE JILTING OF JANE IN THE MODERN VEIN A CATASTROPHE THE LOST INHERITANCE THE SAD STORY OF A DRAMATIC CRITIC A SLIP UNDER THE MICROSCOPE About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. H. G. Wells (2013). The Plattner Story. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42989/42989-h/42989-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html.

The Plattner Story by H. G. Wells - Table of Links

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With Privacy Guard, you’re in control of your browser and privacy. browser fingerprinting Hack Check Hack Check is an add-on service that monitors the web to see if your email address and password have leaked. If so, Hack Check informs you immediately about the breach and advises you on how to keep your accounts safe. - Online safety for everyone, just browse the web and leave the rest to the security experts. Make the internet fun again by protecting yourself with security that outsmarts the bad guys. Download Avast Secure Browser for free you want by , Senior Product Manager, and , Director Engineering at Avast Secure Browser Team Antoinette Cocorinos Thomas Salomon

Fake Websites, Fake Companies, Fake Everything: What Can We Do to Protect Ourselves?

Sitios web falsos, empresas falsas, todo falso: ¿qué podemos hacer para protegernos?

Faux sites Web, fausses entreprises, faux tout : que pouvons-nous faire pour nous protéger ?

नकली वेबसाइटें, नकली कंपनियां, नकली सब कुछ: हम अपनी सुरक्षा के लिए क्या कर सकते हैं?

偽のウェブサイト、偽の企業、偽のすべて: 自分自身を守るために何ができるでしょうか?

Sites falsos, empresas falsas, tudo falso: o que podemos fazer para nos proteger?

Trang web giả mạo, công ty giả mạo, mọi thứ giả mạo: Chúng ta có thể làm gì để tự bảo vệ mình?

假网站、假公司、假一切：我们能做些什么来保护自己？

The island in Greek mythology is strongly associated with the ancient Greek gods. It is the backdrop to many famous Greek myths, my favourite being . Crete Talos While there are conflicting stories as to how he was created, the popular theory was that Hephaestus (god of Blacksmiths and fire) was busy in his forge inventing a new defender for the island. His goal was to build a giant man whose insurmountable power could replace feeble mortal soldiers. Made with beaming bronze, the giant man possessed previously unimaginable strength and was powered with the blood of the gods- . The only indication of this was a single vein that ran from his neck to his ankle. ichor He had a simple task: protecting Crete. This bronze defender would, three times a day, circuit the boundary of the island looking for pesky invaders. When he found some, he would hurl boulders with ease, sinking their ill-fated ships. Even then, there were sometimes some intruders who would bypass this flurry of boulders. For those, a worse death lie ahead. Heating his metal body up, he would embrace these trespassers, quite literally killing them with kindness! He was the model guardian, never tiring and always consistent; able to replace the legions of human soldiers who had previously done a sub-par job of keeping the island safe. However internally, he yearned for more. This was until other Greek heroes came into the picture. Jason, Medea and the other had just completed yet another quest and were looking for a place to rest. Attempting to find the relief of a safe cove on Crete, they invoked the defence mechanisms of Talos. While the other Argonauts cowered in fear, Jason veered the boat away from boulders while Medea came up with a plan. Once they cleared the first round of defence, Talos began to heat himself up. Then Medea, the witch, ventured onto the land attempting to coax Talos. Using her honeyed voice, she offered him immortality in exchange for safe passage. Somehow this resonated deeply in his core. Accepting, Talos allowed Medea to chant the necessary invocations. This proved to be a sly distraction as Jason pulled the screw from Talos’ ankle as the ichor flowed out as molten lead, draining his power source. Having attacked his only blindspot, the robot collapsed with a thunderous crash. Argonauts So you might be wondering how a mini-story from the Percy Jackson series figures onto a tech blog but the links between technology, imagination and AI are much older than we can imagine. In fact, this story which contains themes of automation and machine sentience was supposedly written in the 700 BCE! Thus proving that we haven’t just begun thinking about AI. While the headlines may be currently dominated with the release of GPT-3, I believe it is important to recognize its roots. For those of you that may be living under a rock or simply don’t care for tech news, OpenAI – an AI research firm with backing from Silicon Valley big shots (like Sam Altman and Reid Hoffman)- the release of . This is considered to be a deeply consequential milestone, and also one that is unique in the way it’s being delivered. announced GPT-3 Lesser known as the Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3, GPT-3 is the third installment to OpenAI’s increasingly impressive line of Natural Language Processing (NLP) AI models. Renowned for its and power, what this basically can do is generate text based on the prompt given by the user. It is especially unique because it can generate a response to a prompt it may have never seen before with little to no context, while also maintaining an impressive quality of results. zero-shot few-shot learning limited The various use cases of GPT-3 is seriously impressive and one who’s nuance is not easy to condense in a few lines. However I’ll give it a try: Given a simple single-line prompt specifying either the topic, tone or style of author (you can even suggest a specific individual) or a combination of all three, it can generate complete written pieces. This means that the and (wherever applicable) You could apply this to scripts, novels, speeches, essays, articles, emails and any such task that requires creative writing. Thus it has the potential to disrupt the field of journalism, thought-leadership, film-making and more. Now the problem with such a powerful tool is that if it is easily accessible, it could mean that the is also lowered as these programs can convincingly copy the style of famous individuals.GPT-3 isn’t limited to just creative writing, it can also provide unique philosophical revelations ranging from what is god to the meaning of life. barrier to “good” accurate creative writing is now lowered. barrier to creating believable misinformation 2. GPT-3 isn’t limited to just creative writing, it can also provide ranging from what is god to the meaning of life. unique philosophical revelations 3. Programming jobs aren’t safe either, there are already demos which use GPT-3 to from a given prompt. A key feature of GPT-3 is not just is ability to build on and use its preexisting knowledge bank but also i.e meta learning. This is an yet another impressive feat. dynamically create apps learn on the go However I would like to reiterate that this isn’t all that GPT-3 can do. These are just glimpses of what people are posting online and keep in mind that these are only a select few who have access to it. (GPT-3 is currently in its private beta phase as OpenAI wants to control the potential misuse of the API. ) If you would like a slightly more exhaustive list of the other applications of GPT-3, check out this article I wrote. I try to shine light on the other resources and topics that I couldn’t cover in sufficient detail in this article. Comprehending the scale To understand why GPT-3 is such a big deal, here’s a graph of the different NLP programs before GPT-3 given in terms of the number of parameters the model processes: This figure was adapted from an image published in . Pre GPT-3 era DistilBERT Now here’s a look after: Post GPT-3 era The number of parameters is indicative of the power of the model and GPT-3 boasts 175 billion such parameters. The next closest model is from Microsoft which, though impressive in its own right, has only 17 billion parameters. Given the power GPT-3 has over other models, it is clear to see why this is different and the scale at which it can disrupt jobs. While I may sound like a broken record player, kind of ironic given how far technology has come, I cannot stress the wide-spread implications this AI model can have. It will affect every field and you can bet on it. Whether you’re an author with oddly specific knowledge about Greek mythology to even the programmers who made this model, GPT-3 can do exactly what you can, if not better, at least at an unimaginably fast rate. It has the potential to carry out a significant portion of human jobs and the frightening bit is that it’s just getting started. History of NLP For some context here’s a timeline of the key developments in the field of NLP: February 2019: GPT-2 (OpenAI) Built using 1.5 billion parameters, it was a large and powerful model in its own right. This was considered the biggest and most powerful model for a while. Like the researchers predicted, there were significant ethical concerns that delayed public delivery. July 2019: RoBERTa (Facebook) To improve data tagging, Facebook created RoBERTa which would be able to take into account the context of the query, instead of treating it as a bag of words. This meant it could produce more accurate results as it would avoid randomly eliminating words (the old method). October 2019: BERT (Google) Built using the same principle as Facebook’s RoBERTa, it claimed to exponentially improve the quality of search results. Some reports suggest it affected 10% of all Google searches. This marked an important milestone in in NLP. context-awareness February 2020: Turing NLG (Microsoft) Dethroning previous champion GPT-2, Microsoft’s predictive text algorithm was built using 17 billion parameters. June 2020: GPT-3 (OpenAI) Lo and behold, OpenAI’s astronomically encompassing text-predictive engine with 175 billion parameters. This marked an improvement from its predecessor (GPT-2) in four orders of magnitude and three orders of magnitude difference in superiority over Turing NLG. The future Many machine learning scientists and AI researchers have hailed that once these AI models get to the level of the human brain they can finally be considered . intelligent It is estimated that our human brain has over a trillion synapses and each can be considered analog to a parameter. This highlights how far we are yet to move in developing AI. This, at least for me, gives me a newfound appreciation for the human brain and revelation over the nascency of this field. intelligent Under the hood So you may ask, how does a machine with not even 0.02% of our thinking capacity compete with our “intellectual” abilities? The answer lies in the data it is fed. 60% of the data fed came from the – an open-source crawler which has inched the corners of the internet getting information from Al Jazeera to Alex Jones. To complement this, the OpenAI creators trained the model also with from Wikipedia and historically relevant books. So while it has picked up very reputable and necessary information, in this process it has also picked up the biases, bigotry, misogyny, and other things toxic from the internet. In somewhat relieving news, the researchers recognize this issue and have even reported the results of problematic bias. Common Crawl dataset hand-picked resources To elucidate why this is a problem I would like to look at two examples. Say you identify as non-binary and are seeking healthcare advice from a GPT-3 powered medical diagnosis chat-bot. Now since it is also fed data from the spiteful corners of Reddit, it could generate a response that isn’t “professional”. This could mean, it may prompt offensive comments about why they shouldn’t exist and even deny giving proper medical advice. Similarly, imagine you are a minority who is using a GPT-3 powered program to appeal a speeding ticket. There is already sufficient to suggest that minorities are less likely to win the appeal. Now, this same data is fed to GPT-3 and the program is “corrupted” into not advising you to take legal action because you have a lesser likelihood of success, while for another individual it may suggest a different course of action. Now, do you see the problem with this? evidence While there isn’t anything inherently wrong, biased, or immoral about these programs itself, its decisions are simply colored by the data it is fed. This sadly will only mean that GPT-3 and other real-world data-powered models will only accentuate pre-existing socio-economic problems that the data is unknowingly recording. There are also other concerns with models such as this. Though not significant, they pose similarly discouraging questions about further development. The first being cost. It is estimated to have cost $4.6 million to train GPT-3. This simply isn’t sustainable and especially isn’t for smaller startups. As I have , this barrier could mean that Big Tech extends the lead they have on AI development. mentioned before Another concern specific to GPT-3 is that it isn’t distinctly unique from previous models. It contains the same underlying architecture as its predecessor (GPT-2). This is like swapping out the bronze for titanium but still leaving in the ichor. What I mean by this is that GPT-3 isn’t as innovative as headlines make it out to be (even the ) rather it is a strong testament to the power of brute force and incremental improvements. OpenAI founder has said so Bottom Line Even if GPT-3 isn’t distinctively different, it's a vastly superior model that is able to power previously unimaginable tasks. It marks a defining moment in AI development. I am also glad that with this, relevant questions about its future are being asked. The lack of “innovation” is the least worrying claim. While costs are a concern, even this isn’t the largest problem. For me (and many in Silicon Valley) how GPT-3 models existing (socio-economic) problems through tainted data is the cause for greatest concern. I am worried that while we look at technology as an impartial medium, we may cast a blind eye to the unjust outcomes it may model from historically problematic data. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done in mitigating the potential misuse of such programs. However, I think that OpenAI must be given some credit for taken steps in the right direction. Not only have they delivered an impressive product but also done so in a (seemingly) safe way. I am aligned with their vision of . There aren’t many ideas as to how we can practically achieve this but for now, a conversation on this topic has begun. delivering ethical and just AI While we need to make strides on that front, we need to immediately grapple with the implications programs such as these will have on jobs. These technologies will leave millions without a job and many scrambling in a new world with the promise of . This transitioning window will cause great uncertainty and significant discomfort for many. All of these point towards the need for UBI in a world where most human jobs become automatable. It is imperative that we avoid the unfortunate fate of the forgotten human soldiers of Crete. transformed jobs

First Talos, Now GPT-3: A Deep Dive

Will the Robots (Finally) be Arriving?

On the train ride to Davos, the influential Swiss town in the middle of nowhere. I flew into Zurich from Bangkok so I was not ready for the cold at all. The economic mood hasn’t been so bright leading up to 2019’s World Economic Forum at Davos. We are very far along the risk curve and are left with a paucity of “alpha” to uncover, leaving the economy at its most fragile state after the unexpected Trump Rally. I often get asked where to park one’s treasury, and I can provide little input (not equities, not gold). The world today is still injured with the events of a mystical 2008 past, and the recent hit in the market leave us in weak confidence. Our collective memories and melodies are mystic not born in relation to reality, but transforms our rose-colored glasses into drenched red optics. Our recollections of overnight economic uncertainty grounded the necessity of order in this dystopian world of corporate manipulation and billionaire self-interest. Laissez-fair market rules could not uphold and preserve the American Dream — so rules were demanded and anger was warranted. In our fresh fear of inflicted and repelled injustices, we looked to authorities to punish the evildoers and to return to a safer past. This opposition of liberty versus mechanism recalls similarities to a more violent age: “In the age of the 30-Year War, Thomas Hobbes was moved to celebrate the Leviathan State, with the monopoly of legitimate force as the redemption of society. Surely it was better to concede to a monarchical state, in security of persons and property, than to see order drown in civil strife.” Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 If I had to pinpoint a pattern this year at Davos, however, it wasn’t about institutions or organizations. The language has shifted significantly downstream, in the issues that we discussed and the sentences we crafted. Thematically and fortunately, many of the conversations that I was personally hearing at Davos were uniquely about the in the light of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: namely I admit this may well have been selection bias, but the thematic discussion of network power is rooted at the individual-user level. We begin to look not at institutions, but in ourselves- governance in our health and in our work. It is through these convictions that we look in the year ahead of us, with the international New Year resolutions blending into our personal objectives. individual mental health, blockchain, philanthropy, free trade. WEF’s online topic map of the next revolution that was a preamble to Davos 2019 A Walk down the promenade The Promenade at Davos this year was full of lively discussion and excitement for the new year. Trump tweets were fantastic conversational icebreakers, and his absence made one less distraction for more fruitful, issue-oriented discussions. Typical discussions ranged from tech somehow solving all problems to the permanence of the US-China trade war, with an exceptional focus on mental health (+50 claps for Johnson&Johnson, Wellcome Trust, Nasdaq, and a number of others), philanthropy (anyone with +$10m) and free trade and speech (Tradeshift, nations, I guess everyone?) and of course blockchain (GBBC, Consensys, Caspian Week, Tradeshift, I guess everyone?) For especially the foremost topic, mental health, we see that social networks are not necessarily about who connected, but rather who . The structural holes emerge, the gradience of fast and slow growth in certain regions begin to appear like in the First Industrial Revolution. The type of hierarchies are inevitably being seen our new economy. At the individual level, we see similar instances of populism, antagonistic trade and degrading mental health. As much as I want to say that Davos was about tech and blockchain, it was more about what “language” will be used in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Yes, the tech conversations were dumbed down (AI, ML, blah blah), but people give too much discredit to the conversations happening here — decision makers are open to listening, as long as they can digest the issue. is is not a bit The Lounges: I spent some time in and around the Consensys’s new clothes, Tradeshift’s very strong presence, Caspian Week’s focus on Eurasia trade beyond OBOR, all the journalism-hosted parties to NASDAQ’s nifty branding (the CEO is a rockstar) and lastly the Blockchain Economic Forum: guest speakers hating BTC (Schumer, Roubini) and the crowd loving fair governance and trustlessness of man. I like how we now default to the fact that if someone become evil, one become evil in the age of attention seekers and twitter preachers. can will The diluted “herd is coming” narrative was in 5th gear in the blockchain ride (in recent news, ) as seen by all signs at Davos. There are implications beyond just adoption, however. Perhaps there is a growing dependence on institutions in the desperation of the crypto bear market that will ultimately decenter the participant — I take a look at the obvious divides and surprising reconciliations from the conversations at BEF. Arjun Balaji’s discourse about was at full steam, but was not as bitter as one might expect. Samsung exacerbates the Kimchi premium conflicting visions Blockchain Economic Forum LAToken invited various anti-crypto dialogue despite their own blockchain— when I inquired to Matias, the Senior Content Manager at LAToken about the invitees, he said “it’s mostly good for the ecosystem to argue.” Refreshing to hear. At the tail-end of the week, I arrived at Blockchain Economic Forum, where LAToken generously invited ( ) Hackernoon to examine the review the scene: I came to report. There were a lot of conflicting thoughts and shaking heads, but also many shaking of hands and respectful follow ups that I overheard. and partnered with First, BCG Digital’s Jeff Schumacher said BTC is useless on CNBC, and reinforced it again at BEF. Looking deeper into motivations, it’s probably an indirect marketing stunt in favor of DFinity’s use-case given the group’s outsized involvement with that initiative. So, yay blockchain, nay BTC. The second highlight event was keynote speaker Roubini who always carries his controversialism with him wherever he goes. As a practitioner who started from Wall Street (but now a blockchain proselyter), I can empathize with some of his main points: central and fractional banking can indeed provide deeper liquidity pools and centralized efficiencies as long as they remain “independent” from the government (therefore a global central bank crypto currency will destroy all competitors). And he’s right, the banking system does fine— it works and worked decently well. Nevertheless, the trauma of the 2008 reverberates in his thinking. Our dependence on centralized authorities is only to disorder through the concentration of authority that was widely employed by government powers after 2008 (Dodd-Frank to REMIT to MiFID). We can not continue to put band-aids to protect the participant’s interests. forestall As Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen described, economists and sociopaths (social morons) aren’t so distinguishable given their fully utilitarian mindset — you will see on all offshore banking websites all these agreeable discussions between conspiracy theorists, fiat minimalist cryptoheads and economics PhDs. Roubini puts results over the construction process, and knows exactly what the off-chain banking system can create. Yes, it works based on empirical and theoretical values — but only in the world that we know. Central and fractional banking is indeed the current best system to reach the deep liquidity needed for a US-Leviathan world order, and one that I do not necessarily oppose. My friend Charlie at Reserve described what the daily fear intake was like during the Cold War and doesn’t sound so savory. , New York University Stern School of Business. Nouriel Roubini As expected at an event called “Blockchain Economic Forum,” the public retaliated in an distraught manner with their questions: pulling examples from New Zealand’s failed central cryptocurrency, Zimbabwe’s government-fueled inflation, and Venezuela’s need for BTC. To them, these examples illustrate the divide between the government and minting authority as a fragile, “recommended” line in the long-run, putting immutable governance at precedence over “mere” efficiency. Sure, I like the audacity, what kind of underdog-loving American doesn’t. But I don’t like how they push aside all painpoints that the banking and security industries had to go through to achieve what it is today. Most financial laws are usually reactive instead of pre-emptive — from Glass-Steagall (banking) to Sherman (monopolies) to a proper Chinese Wall (insider trading laws, which really started in 2001) — to exacerbate even more, a deeper look into insider trading rules is not that the action is “ ” but rather that it will hinder market liquidity: utilitarian over ethics. I agree with the public in the long run as reactive processes have their limits. I want to see more practical approaches. A more balance panel (which I describe later) goes into the realities of the problems in a conciliatory manner. unethical Nevertheless, at the convergence of points on where the future lie, Roubini was a bit short. He claims fintech can be the useful equipment for solving the future. I agree. Looking at history, the M1 supply was essentially created by ATMs, a “fintech” product. In the Q&A though, Roubini said we can depend on the Internet for this source of innovation and fintech-driven liquidity. Yet the internet was originally designed to be decentralized, and now he rejects that same proposition. The Internet, were it to be owned by a single corp, would never have had the J-curve Cambrial explosion without being the open portal to a public space. But it took (is taking) a while before everyone finally accepted that the Sun is the true center of our planetary system. While centralized systems may work as a robust solution with immediately beneficial effects, decentralized processes produces an antifragility that can permits immeasurable ecosystems. What arises is this mentality of an “institutional glut.” Institutional Glut In the award-winning book ( , ), the authors coin the term “institutional void”: structural pain points in emerging markets that a business should focus on paving over with ingenious solutions to unlock unprecedented value. Examples could be using order brochures + local delivery (even mule-wagons) to overcome mountainous, rural road infrastructure as a way to compete against hypermarket delivery systems. Winning in Emerging Markets Krishna Palepu Tarun Khanna Fact: The US is not an emerging market. Counterpoint: maybe it could be after self-driving trucks destroy all of mid-America micro-economy cities. To play the foil in everyone’s fantastical dreams of the institutional money coming into blockchain, is the dangers of overinstitutionalization — the same things we saw in Too Big to Fail. After 2008, we tried to “stabilize banks” but I’ll tell you being on the other side that the people that are suffering the most are the legal and credit departments in the banks than just the traders and bankers (power just moved from banks to PE shops). Prayers to those who are drowning in +1,000 page regulatory documents, those poor recent law grads to test their patience and sacrificed trees for paper (disclaimer: we at ABC Platform push for green practices). It became a worldwide movement with a bit of Hegelian dialectics playing its course: government bloats the bulge bracket banks and behemoth companies with over-swerving, reactionary laws -> the banks buy each other up and companies immediately move toward tax inversions (2013–2014), the people are then affected by downstream costs pushing the offshore banking industry. And then issues pile on issues, starting with this vicious spiral of centralized authority piling centralized issues on another centralized party. Satoshi didn’t see all this collateral damage pan out — he just saw the beginning of the fall, and decided to create a decentralized solution for a centralized issue. And centralization as Haseeb Qureshi recently placed it. But I digress. isn’t all so evil as one might suggest The mindset that Roubini holds is short term, and doesn’t acknowledge the future power of decentralized systems as a means of creating newer forms of liquidity that isn’t found in being just a globalized resource, but by dependable trust. Trusted speculation can be a very powerful force for spending. Nevertheless, the cryptocurrency defendants are so bulletproof either — they have some serious issues to solve before we come all come to a “winner.” The blockchain public sees a longer horizon with more deontological roots, putting the economic surplus created by immutable governance and uncorruptable laws superseding centralized systems in the long run. No “economic model” could have extrapolated the success of the personal computing era of the 80’s in creating the the phenomena of the internet in the 90’s. We are left to believe that we face before us an ultimatum (albeit a reductionist one) with lean pickings… We continue depend on a national central banking system (US, maybe China?, etc.) We depend on an intra-national system (UN, consortium of banking, SDRs, World Bank) We depend on a participant driven network (decentralized protocol) …but are we so pushed back to a corner? Ariel said that I shouldn’t start with “which currency” question first though, but rather “what uses” first — yessir. The synthesis is between the lines Round Table: , Author Monetary Economics in Globalized Financial Markets, , National Bureau of Economic Research, co-editor Journal of International Money and Finance , Advisor to the Governor of the Bank of Canada , Associate Professor of Economics , Assistant Professor for Financial Economics, Ecole Polytechnique CREST The Board and Monetary Policy for Decentralized Currency Prof. Dr. Ansgar Belke Joshua Aizenman Stephen Murchison Ariel Zetlin-Jones Linda Schilling This is where LAToken’s selection team did a great job in bringing together different opinions that arrived at a solid agreement. While Roubini’s arguments are often repetitive at every conference he talks in, this panel was refreshing to hear as they actively though of possible remediation to debates happening beforehand — a new framework of thinking. Ariel, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon, nails some major issues with the current blockchain regime, asking about feasibility rather than disregarding this all as impossibility — we don’t need to jettison the baby out of the bath water. The thinking was like this: Make crypto’s basic tenants work, like as a proper medium of exchange Decide if we need/want a global cryptocurrency Understanding how to manage or control the supply of tokens (not necessarily for fiscal policies, but general transactional feasibility) , Associate Professor of Economics @ CMU. I spoke with him before the event, and he’s been quite involved with a few blockchain initatives like Sweetbridge and PNC Bank —so not his first rodeo Ariel Zetlin-Jones Do we truly need a singular, global cryptocurrency? This board of governors implored a need-based first approach to the simple question: does the world require it? Why not embrace our heterogeneity over imposing this homogeneity that increases diversification risks? Does the Peruvian economy correlate to, say, Armenian trade that it would warrant that both live under a single currency? I completely agree in theory, but maybe less in format and font: this cartographic exercise is not limited to only geopolitics in the 21st century but to more creative divides such as industry vertical and common liquidity horizontals. Back in the old day, until a sovereignty was established in the past, men would seek their welfare by force. The supreme importance of state, in order to suppress such violent realities, is no longer valid in this world and, as such, should not necessarily be the contours we draw in all our policies today. Perhaps the underlying motivation for a collaborative economy is one based on a mutual interest: in virtual video gaming world or a gambling competition. Issued currency may not be tied to another nation or intra-nation, but rather economically valued intrinsically which is what we do in our own proprietary algorithms at ABC Platform. This can be a bit hard to imagine since we always price our things to the USD or EU or any other currency. But before that, we have to make sure such (crypto) currency can act as a proper medium of exchange, as the governors say. Learn more about the they should have videos uploaded this week. BEF Davos 2019 Program here, In an age past, Hobbes might have pushed for a monolithic regulatory state as it was the better option of two evils, such as anarchy. As we see the citizens of Western democratic posterchilds questioning the results of their own voting mechanisms, 2020 Davos will have an even longer list of issues to confront for their decade. We are beginning to realize that the people can no longer push these responsibilities away and must take it to ourselves to address — perhaps it is our turn to steal the golden fleece from the Argonauts but this time it cut up into shared goods, not just for Jason. For example, we at ABC Platform look at the opportunity to now exit this Hobbesian “lesser evil,” depending not on centralization processes (ie trade finance financing by government-controlled banks) and to exit and reinvent the system entirely by empowering the user-participants, not trusting overseers. Most of the world and the leaders at Davos, it seems, are thinking in this modernizing direction. I am excited to see where technology can take us, but I am even more excited to see how people self-organize in this new reality. Is the history of computers not more exciting when told through the lens of the inventors and communities? Turing, Englebart, Jobs, Gates, Berners-Lee, Neumann, etc. I was happy with the entire week at Davos. I got some lifelong contacts and made some great industry partnerships and had some fruitful conversations on ideas for our own platform, which we will be announcing through my company, , in the next few months. I thank again the LAToken platform for making this event possible and for inviting me. I wish them all the best in their next event. Feel free to learn more about what they are doing on STOs and token tradability on their website ABC Platform Hackernoon www.latoken.com. Looking forward, -D

Davos 2019: Parables from the  Promenade

Taking a detailed look at the recent upward trend of FDA approvals for medical devices that use Artificial Intelligence ( ) as well as looking at culture shifts with respect to AI and healthcare in other parts of the world such as the EU, China, UK and Canada AI 2018 was a defining year for medical devices that utilize artificial intelligent algorithms. Even though medical devices have been using ‘software algorithms’ to help assist clinicians, 2018 saw the first FDA approved medical device that uses artificial intelligence and doesn't require a clinician to interpret the input. The last 6 months have seen an increase in FDA approvals and we can expect to see even more approvals. Verbiage used in some of these FDA approvals include ‘ ’, analyzing radio-logical images using machine learning algorithms to detect and diagnose fractures ‘ ’ Using artificial intelligence algorithms, the device is able to determine whether a patient has referable retinopathy IDx-DR and ‘ ’. The verbiage is clearly encouraging as these offer another layer that can help clinicians with decision support. device provides triage or notification that is informed by machine learning, artificial intelligence or other image analysis algorithms tools Equally though there is also the fear that AI will replace e providers, for example Silicon Valley-investor said that machines will substitute 80 percent of doctors in the future in a healthcare scene driven by entrepreneurs, not medical professionals, or when , the godfather of neural networks said that it is ‘ ’. In fact, in May 2017 the Professor of Radiology and Biomedical informatics at Stanford University, mentioned how he received an email from one of his students saying he was thinking about going into radiology but did not know whether it is a viable profession anymore healthcar Vinod Khosla Professor Geoffrey Hinton quite obvious that we should stop training radiologists as image perception algorithms are very soon going to be demonstrably better than humans The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, asked JASON to consider how AI will shape the future of public health, community health, and health care delivery. is an independent group of elite scientists which advises the United States government on matters of science and technology, mostly of a sensitive nature. JASON is a reference to Jason, the mythical Greek hero who was the leader of the Argonauts. JASON Jason of the Argonauts The report states that the design of future health care information systems revolve around questions that need to be answered, one concerned with computer science and the other with fundamental biology. two The computer science question is_, whether an entire medical database can be created and used with the data maintained in a form accessible to human cognition, avoiding the cumbersome and costly translation from analog to digital._ The fundamental biology question is whether the natural coding of information in a human brain is basically analog and not digital. One known fact is a mathematical theorem proved by Marian Pour-El and Ian Richards in 1978. The theorem states that analog computing is in a precise mathematical sense more powerful than digital computing. Pour-El and Richards display a number that is computable with a simple analog device but not computable with any digital device as defined by Alan Turing in his famous paper, “ ’’ in 1937. On Computable Numbers . Their discovery gives us reason to hope that a new generation of computers operating as analog devices may give us databases more user-friendly to us than our present-day digital databases The second fact, supporting the view that the human brain operates as an analog device, is our subjective experience of perception and memory. We experience the visual operation of our brains as a rapid and effortless scanning of pictures moving in space and time. To our subjective view, the brain appears to be primarily a device for the direct comparison of images. We see the images as whole scenes with shape and style, not as collections of pixels. Our perception of continuously moving images does not prove that our brain is an analog device, but it makes this a plausible hypothesis. The question is why now? The truth is there was already a lot of innovative focus on developing AI medical solutions (whether effective or not), but lacked support from effective approval processes. FDA approvals basically mean that you can get paid for services rendered. There has also been a large amount of investment for example Healthcare organizations surveyed by said they planned to invest an average of $32.4 million over the next five years on artificial intelligence. Optum A number of factors are responsible: firstly the was signed into law on December 13, 2016 and was designed to help accelerate medical product development and bring new innovations and advances to patients who need them faster and more efficiently. More specifically the Act specifically exempted certain software products from the definition of ‘medical device’. 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act) Secondly, Scott Gottlieb became FDA commissioner in May 2017 and under his leadership the FDA has made fighting the crisis of opioid addiction a top priority, advanced initiatives on addressing drug pricing, banned the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes in tens of thousands of convenience stores and gas stations across the country and is expected to propose a ban on menthol in regular cigarettes. He was named “ ” by Time magazine and ranked No 6 by Fortune Magazine's annual survey of the “The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” in 2018. He also believes that machine learning can help advance healthcare. 50 People Transforming Healthcare in 2018 ‘ ’ Scott Gottlieb, M.D, FDA Commissioner One of the most promising digital health tools is Artificial Intelligence, particularly efforts that use machine learning. There have also been other notable non-AI based advances from the FDA this year such as the approval of 45 novel drugs and biologics which has been the most approved in more than 20 years. Clearly, the FDA is encouraging an environment of innovation. Equally important are the advances in the development of fast hardware Graphics Processor Units (GPUs) allowing for the training of much larger networks, the availability of large labeled datasets both of which have given rise to the ‘data-driven paradigm’ of Deep Learning (DL). Unlike previous eras of excitement over AI, the potential of AI advancement in health may make this era different because of the merging of the following three forces: 1) frustration with the legacy medical system, 2) ubiquity of networked smart devices in our society, 3) acclimation to convenience and at-home services like those provided through Amazon. But…what is Artificial Intelligence? Yes, this may be old news…but how does the US government describe AI? A report by the Executive Office of the President National Science and Technology Council Committee on Technology stated that And will today’s artificial intelligence still be tomorrow’s artificial intelligence? As software becomes increasingly capable, tasks considered as requiring “intelligence” are often removed from the definition, for example, optical character recognition is usually excluded from ‘artificial intelligence’ has become routine technology. This phenomenon is known as the AI effect, which can be described using Tesler’s Theorem “ ” “There is no single definition of AI that is universally accepted by practitioners. Some define AI loosely as a computerized system that exhibits behavior that is commonly thought of as requiring intelligence.” AI is whatever hasn’t been done yet. What does the rest of the world think about health and AI? EU The EU is also introducing new regulations that will apply as of May 26, 2020, s. This means that AI software that currently is excluded from being regulated as software medical devices under the existing regulatory regime, because they do not provide a treatment recommendation, but only a prediction of risk to or predisposition of a disease, may in the future be reclassified as medical devices. regulations that contain additional provisions that specifically address software medical devices. Of particular relevance, software with a medical purpose of “prediction and prognosis” will fall within the scope of the Regulation The European Commission outlines a $24 billion (€20 billion) investment between 2018 and 2020, with the expectation that those funds will come from public and private entities INVESTMENT: China On August 31, 2017, the State Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) released a new version of the “Medical Device Classification Catalog”, which came into effect on August 1, 2018. The original version of the catalog increased from 15 pages to more than 150 pages and the number of name examples increased six-fold to 6609, of which the proportion of medical imaging equipment increased significantly. . The CFDA has also added a specific category corresponding to artificial intelligence-assisted diagnosis, which is embodied in the catalog of analysis and processing of medical images and pathological images China is investing at least $7 billion through 2030, including $2 billion for a research park in Beijing. The Chinese government foresees a $150 billion AI industry at that time. INVESTMENT: UK The UK government announced earlier this year that it plans to invest millions of pounds of government funding to develop AI that is able to diagnose cancer and chronic disease before symptoms have developed, potentially saving 20,000 lives each year. Prime Minister Theresa May challenged health charities, the National Health Service (NHS) and the AI sector to pool data in order to transform the diagnosis of chronic diseases. In response to Theresa May’s challenge Jane Rendall, Managing Director of NHS imaging technology partner Sectra UK & Ireland, said: “ ” The NHS has practically unused archives of millions of diagnostic images that could become one of the most powerful clinical data sets in the world if artificial intelligence is used effectively. Our health service has a wealth of imaging data that it can use to start teaching machines how to recognize parts of the human anatomy, and more importantly, how to recognize abnormalities. The UK government’s ‘ ' published in May 2018 listed the following mission: Use data, Artificial Intelligence and innovation to transform the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases by 2030. Grand Challenge Policy Paper UK announced a deal between private and public groups that would bring more than $200 million of AI investment into the country INVESTMENT: Canada In 2018 Canada introduced the ‘ ’ initiative, Health Canada established a new division within the Therapeutic Products Directorate’s Medical Devices Bureau to allow for a more targeted pre-market review of digital health technologies, to adapt to rapidly changing technologies in digital health, and to respond to fast innovation cycles. The initiative focuses on a number of key areas including AI. Regulatory Review of Drugs and Devices The Canadian government has committed $125 million to AI research INVESTMENT: List of US healthcare companies that have FDA approved AI medical devices Companies that got FDA approval for AI algorithms in 2018 The Role of the FDA The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) assures that patients and health care providers have timely and continued access to safe, effective, and high-quality medical devices. What is a medical device? A is any apparatus, appliance, software, material, or other article, whether used alone or in combination, including the software intended by its manufacturer to be used specifically for diagnostic and/or therapeutic purposes medical device Medical devices are classified into 3 classes based on the risk, Class I, Class II, or Class III, with Class I being the lowest risk and Class III the highest risk. 3% of devices are are not yet classified by the FDA. % Classification of FDA approved Devices (source: FDA.gov) The FDA regulates over different devices, which are manufactured by more than firms in more than medical device facilities worldwide. 190,000 18,000 21,000 Problems with the current process The FDA’s 510(k) approval process dates from 1976, The 510(k) pathway is the most commonly used premarket review process. In 2017, the FDA cleared 3,173 devices through the pathway, or 82 percent of all devices cleared or approved. Close to 20 percent of current 510(k) approvals are based on predicate devices that are more than 10 years old, a process that could be holding back medical device innovation. Under the 510(k) pathway, device manufacturers use comparative testing against predicate devices — devices already on the market — to show that a new device is as safe and effective as the predicate device. FDA Advances The FDA introduced the De Novo classification for new, novel devices whose type has previously not been classified. It’s for devices that would otherwise be classified into Class III, and provides a means to classify into Class I or II. The De Novo pathway provides a vehicle for establishing new predicates that can reflect modern standards for performance and safety and can serve as the basis for future clearances. As a result, we expect to see more developers take advantage of the De Novo pathway for novel devices. The future of AI in healthcare An Optum survey revealed that 91% of 500 US healthcare leaders said they expect to see a return on investment (ROI) for AI over the next few years. Hospital execs expect to see the ROI in four to five years, while health plans hope to see ROI in three years or less. 36% of respondents said they expect AI to improve patient experience, 33% think AI will decrease per-capita cost of care, and 31% believe AI will improve health outcomes. “Analytics isn’t the end, it’s the beginning — it’s what you do with the insights to drive care improvement and reduce administrative waste,” said Optum Enterprise Analytics SVP and COO Steve Griffiths. “For AI to successfully solve healthcare’s biggest challenges, organizations need to employ a unique combination of curated data, analytics and healthcare expertise.” Artificial intelligence in healthcare does present a whole new set of challenges around data privacy, security and ethics — challenges that are compounded by the fact that most algorithms need access to massive data sets for training and validation. These algorithms in some cases also ‘predict’ outcomes without the full knowledge of how the prediction was made. They are subject to bias and not fully transparent. This is leading to an emerging field of aims to create new AI methods that are accountable to human reasoning. explainable AI Balancing the risks and rewards of AI in healthcare will require collaborative effort from technology developers, regulators, end-users and consumers. Amrit Virdee Machine Learning Engineer | Health Informatics | Pharmacist | Mapping Medication. Some of my other posts: _Before any predictive ML models can be applied to a data set it is important to thoroughly understand the data. Using…_hackernoon.com Visualizing State Drug Utilization Data Sets _Experimenting with simple data augmentation parameters to get the best results_towardsdatascience.com Data Augmentation Experimentation References: _Source: Thinkstock - Healthcare organizations surveyed by Optum said they planned to invest an average of $32.4 million…_hitinfrastructure.com Healthcare Firms to Spend Average of $32M on Artificial Intelligence _In July, the Food and Drug Administration issued guidance on three topics important to the future of medical…_www.forbes.com Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, And The FDA _For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration has approved marketing a medical device that uses artificial…_www.modernhealthcare.com FDA grants first approval to autonomous AI-powered medical device _Remarks by Scott Gottlieb, M.D.Commissioner of Food and DrugsAcademy Health's 2018 Health DatapaloozaWashington…_www.fda.gov Transforming FDA's Approach to Digital Health _Eighty years ago today, President Roosevelt signed the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act ("FD&C Act"). In…_www.healthlawadvisor.com 21st Century Cures Act | Health Law Advisor _Machines will replace 80 percent of doctors in a healthcare future that will be driven by entrepreneurs, not medical…_www.wired.co.uk Vinod Khosla: Machines will replace 80 percent of doctors _Hype and fears surround artificial intelligence taking jobs in healthcare. Will it render physicians obsolete? Will it…_medicalfuturist.com 5 Reasons Why Artificial Intelligence Won't Replace Physicians - The Medical Futurist _The UK government has announced plans to invest millions of pounds of government funding to develop AI that is able to…_thejournalofmhealth-com.cdn.ampproject.org UK to Invest Millions in Healthcare AI _The Industrial Strategy sets out Grand Challenges to put the UK at the forefront of the industries of the future. As…_www.gov.uk The Grand Challenge missions _The United States and China currently dominate the world of artificial intelligence, but used very different approaches…_qz.com AI is the new space race. Here's what the biggest countries are doing

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