US government blind to workplace automation, study warns via Factor

We, as fallible human beings, are not very good at predicting the future. We get just as much wrong as we do right. For myself, I always us the phrase that “The Future (or any particular technology) will never be as good as we might wish or as bad as we might fear.” Nature tends towards balance and I believe that is true of life and technology, too.

That said, I think the impact of robotics — and coming AI — will be quite dramatic. Perhaps not as bad as we might fear, but there will be significant disruption across the board. To ignore this seem the height of folly and points out one of my on-going issues with government in general. Too many of our political representatives are simply too old to understand the technology of the day AND, even worse, they don’t seem to seek out the knowledge of others to help them understand it. Instead, they constantly try to use old tools to address new issues. This is true to privacy, true for copyright, true for freedom of speech and many other issues. In many cases, these people are legislating something that they simply to not understand, with the expected horrible results. Government, like life itself, must enter the 21st Century and understand that every new technology has the potential to change our world in dramatic ways and these technologies should be studied and addressed at all levels. — Douglas

Read US government blind to workplace automation, study warns via Factor

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Microsoft release Outlook.com email services to replace Hotmail

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by Douglas E. Welch , techiq@welchwrite.com 206-338-5832 Reader/Listener Line As a parent with a school-age child, I often hear other parents bemoaning their disorganized existence. Along with the busy schedules of two working parents you might have art classes, karate classes, Little League, soccer and more. Add in more than one kid and organizing your life can quickly become a nightmare. This is exactly why one of my most important organizing devices is a shared calendar that reflects all the activities and events for everyone in the household...and I do mean everything. If someone -- is required to be somewhere -- at sometime, it goes into the calendar. If we are given a calendar that reflects all the events for a particular activity (say, Little League), all these events immediately go into the calendar, along with notations on whether we are providing the team snack, working in the snack bar, etc. Even events that occur anytime during the day, like family birthdays, and other rem...

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