Social Considerations for A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) 

According to Dennis Gorelik, a Senior Developer at IBM, a weakness of an AIS (meaning, an artificial intelligence society, consisting of computers trained to 'think') is that it was not born through natural selection as human beings are. But one could view whether this is a disadvantage or an advantage from a couple of sides. Within human natural selection, there are biases based on upbringing, genetic factors and how ultimately one responds to social events. For example, if one came from a violent past/childhood and ended up being a psychopath, this could override any INTELLECTUAL, socially beneficial learning that this person ultimately gets. It can cause them to make decisions based not on logic, but by their own emotional biases. 

With strong AI, this factor is at least on paper removed on a grand, world-based scale, with the Machine being the sum of all par7ts, all people connected. In WIRED magazine’s new issue, for example, writer Kevin Kelly describes the internet’s home for AI as being a breeding ground for a single consciousness by billions of people and situations. So, while in a individually controlled AI environment, the AIS might by function – or by purposeful ‘programming’ – take on the biases of an INDIVIDUAL user, within the framework of mass contributions, it becomes a gigantic collector of information. I imagine that the ideal, if AIS is to work for human advantage, is that the emotional side of the Machine would take on so-called ‘normal’ emotional states of the people and systems it serves. People do not wish to be abused or stolen from or killed en masse. 

In short, natural selection is a hit-or-miss thing on purely intellectual and emotional basises. “Love is blind,” “there’s no accounting for SOME people,” “There’s a sucker born every minute,” etc. With the large amount of data an AIS civilization would collect, there would in theory be a checks-and-balances library for more and more questionable, dubious, socially detrimental things, regardless of the user. It would become a servant to the population – not to any one particular group, person or thing. 

I like to think of the example of open source software development, or mainstream sites like Wikipedia that allow the people at large to update information at will, and seed out vandals. Humans are fallible in emotional/logical ways that a Machine would not be. At the same time, the AIS is fallible by the simple inadequacy of it FULLY capturing the entire range of every mental/emotional/psychological impact of natural occurrences – from a mad girlfriend, to the effects of a tsunami, to why your college roomie likes to play the Black Dragon calypso album five times a day. The Machine, for all its exposure to the world, cannot know what people think – only what we do. So, tweaks in its activity can be monitored and adjusted by a world at large – much better than trusting the maintenance to a possibly megalomaniacal techno-whiz who might want to take out the planet because he hated his daddy. ;) 

A possible serious weakness to AIS is its adaptation to a world where it becomes more and more dependent on its use, from medical use to financial markets to solace for lonely, desperate people. In the Great Depression, people so dependent on the old stock exchange during the crash literally killed themselves. When the World Trade Centres were smashed down, the stock exchange similarly was affected. 

We all know what possible consequences are if a massive blackout nullified even the back-up systems of hospitals, heat and light, even food and water production. And many people now live out their social lives via the Internet (see the perp who almost succeeded in a mass suicide with lonely female members of his chat group.) In the event of a cataclysmic system crash for a fully-integrated, fully-indispensable worldwide AIS, all of could become instant bedlam. So, the social importance of an AIS in that scenario would have to be very closely monitored by thinking, reactive humans after all. We will still have to use our good ol’ noggins, because you can’t eat or drink silicone chips, and what good is a mechanical AI heart in your chest if it stops working? 

One more point about the implications of a fully-functional AIS, and this stretches to religion and spirituality. All of the world’s religious texts were written by the hands of men. Whether the belief in God came through divine revelation (as the religious/spiritualists like me believe), or simply through man’s childlike imagination (as the atheists attest) is a history-long argument between these two groups. 

From a philosophical point of view, however, the question takes on a different route. If man indeed invented God, the argument could go, the issue might be how technology affects the understanding of what God is. The point might be made by the philosophers that God was written into the books by human beings, mainly to attempt to understand the meaning of life, of who we are as a species, and to help us just get by life. If systems of thought and technology can be upgraded to higher levels of understanding, why couldn’t there also be a God v.2.0? After all, they may argue, the old model was a Lord who we couldn’t see or touch – it’s a major leap of faith to know that God exists. The old text was written in parchment and dictated morality -- today's dominant medium is multi-bit, encrypted and often imposes morality in internet law, chat room behavior and advice columns on how to be a better spouse or member of a community. 

The internet was created by us by through a vision of connecting humans to the universe. So, many people who sit on their butts for hours a day making sure their social and financial prayers are answered, may choose to be on their knees to what they consider an alive-acting, omnipresent, all-knowing, all-seeing, instantly accessible Diety – God for a new millennium. What effect this possible stream of thought will have on our flesh-and-blood world, so connected to a universe-wide savior to so many, remains to be seen.

Spyware is the virtual plague of the new Millenium. You no longer have to receive emails with viruses in them or even click on dangerous links on websites. Simply surfing the web can now leave you wide open to the scourge of spyware. You may also hear spyware referred to as malware. 


What is spyware? 
Spyware is when a program is placed on your PC without your consent. The most common way for this to happen is when you install a separate application such as a file sharing program or free download utility on your computer. The program you install also places some "extra" programs on your PC. These extra programs perform tasks from recording what websites you visit to popping up ads on your screen. More worrying are the spyware programs that record everything you type on your keyboard. That's right. Your most private instant messages, emails and chat room discussions can easily be stored and transmitted without your approval. Scary stuff! 


Are there different types of spyware? 
There are many different classifications of spyware but the following are the most dangerous types: 


Adware 
The most common type of spyware. These are small programs which sit on your computer waiting for you to go online. Once the adware detects that you're connected to the Internet it starts sending you popup, popover and popunder ads for anything from airline tickets to porn site membership. Not only that but information on your viewing habits is then sold on to marketing companies who will then send you more junk email and popup ads than you ever thought possible. 



Browser Hijacker 
These are just plain annoying. These install themselves on your computer and change your default homepage and search engine to something else. Every time you start your web browser it will bring you to a page filled with ads, porn or other unwanted material. This interrupts your web browsing and is intensely annoying. Most browser hijackers are also data miners. A data mining program reports your web browsing habits to a central database. This information is then sold on to marketing companies. 



Keyboard Logger 
These programs are designed for one thing - theft. When you log in to your online banking these can record your PIN number. When you check your private email account these programs can record your password. Keyboard loggers are potentially one of the most damaging pieces of spyware because of the potential financial dangers and theft of personal information. 



Modem Hijacker 
Potentially the most costly spyware. Modem hijackers are also referred to as diallers. Diallers normally install themselves to your computer via a virus infection or from warez, mp3 or adult websites. A dialler is a small piece of software that will dial long distance, premium rate phone numbers when you're not at your PC. These phone numbers are normally for adult chat line services located in Russia, China, South America and the Phillipines. I have personally seen unlucky victims receive $2,000 bills for one month of telephone calls. 




How do you remove spyware from your PC? 
Thankfully several responsible companies have made it their mission to help eradicate the menace of spyware. You'll need 2 - 3 programs to remove spyware from your PC. The first of these is Ad Aware which is a free download. The second application is Spybot Search and Destroy which is also a free download. Last but not least I'd recommend also getting yourself a copy of CrapCleaner 1.0. These applications can only remove the spyware already on your PC - they cannot protect your PC from being cluttered with new spyware. 



How do you stop spyware infecting your PC? 
1. Do not click on links offering free movies, competitions, prize draws, free software or anything that looks suspicious. If it looks like a dog, smells like a dog and walks like a dog... well it's a dog. 

2. Install firewall software. This is absolutely critical for Broadband or Highspeed users. All computers connected to the Internet today should have firewall software installed - regardless of your connection speed. 


3. Make sure your antivirus software is updated. Good antivirus software can find and delete the most harmful types of spyware. 


If you'd like more information on fighting viruses drop by www.affiliate-advocate.com for our spyware fighting guide

The internet is a growing and dynamic entity. Growing in exponential rate everyday and changing as just as fast. Naturally companies try to offer access to internet in growing number of ways. Dial-up, Broadband, Wi-fi and such. But we'll talk about broadband today and is it really that necessary to switch from dial-up to broadband. 

Is it worth it to switch to broadband service? As most things are, it depends on you're situation. Dial-ups are cheap, today it's almost dirt cheap. That’s it's advantage, but don't expect to surf the net in cruising speed. If speed is what you want then broadband is significantly faster that dial-ups. 

Back to the question. What really helps in deciding if switching to broadband is a must. Is try to ask yourself "How do I use the internet for?". By the way I’m a big fan of the saying “Questions Are Answers”. 

If you're using the internet for: 

- checking and sending e-mail 
- chatting (without video) 
- surfing for text based information 

Then switching to broadband is a waste of money. like most people, they just use the internet for checking and sending e-mails. Dial-up will work for you just as fine. 

If you're using the internet for: 

- Downloading movies and music 
- Watching streaming videos 
- Chatting with video and voice 
- Playing online games 

Just like me. I use the internet for online games, checking my websites, downloading music and videos. So broadband was a huge help for my internet life. 

To conclude. The internet is becoming the wave of the future. Easy access to information and services. But switching to broadband is up to you and you're needs. So I suggest that you ask yourself "How do I use the internet for?". Knowing the answer would be a great help in deciding if broadband internet is for you.

Before we start getting deep into the meat of this article it's important to explain some standard terminology to make sure the rest of this article makes sense. 


*An IP address is a number which identifies your location on the Internet. 

*A blacklist is a list of IP addresses which your antispam software uses to block incoming spam. 

*A whitelist is the exact opposite of a blacklist. 


A whitelist is a predefined list of IP addresses that are allowed to send email to and receive email from each other. Blacklists exclude known and suspected spammers. Whitelists can be used to exclude everyone except known IP addresses. Think of it like this. A whitelist is a like having a phonebook which is owned by a small group of people who only wish to speak directly to each other. They don't want just anybody ringing them. Not only that but the entire group need to approve new phone numbers before they appear in this exclusive phonebook. 


To send email to a whitelist you must be approved by the owner of the whitelist. This is a lot like the double optin systems used by legimiate ezines and mailing list owners. Whitelists are the nightclub bouncers of the virtual world - if you ain't on the list you ain't getting in. Simple but very effective. 


A real world example of a whitelist would be if two companies wanted to exchange email only with each other. These companies could implement a whitelist that contained the IP address for just the two email servers that want to send email to each other. That would mean that any email coming from an IP address not on the whitelist would be returned to sender. For companies they can ensure that employees are only dealing with work related email and not chatting with their friends. 


The benefits of whitelists are many but proper management of the whitelists is equally important. Misuse of whitelists will only lead to more headaches for everyone involved with missing email, irate customers and IT departments doing overtime just being the tip of the iceberg.