#emergency nursing and humanities > logic and computer science

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4 November 2024,

Rawness embodies authenticity, while truth can often be a mere illusion. The unvarnished essence of experience resonates deeply, revealing a reality that transcends the confines of accepted beliefs. In this dance between the genuine and the constructed, we find that the most profound insights arise from the depths of our unfiltered emotions.

[qubemagazine]

New Post has been published on Qube Magazine

New Post has been published on https://www.qubeonline.co.uk/lowering-covid-risk-with-smart-ventilation/

Lowering Covid risk with smart ventilation

NEWS FEATURES FIRE & SECURITY SUBMISSIONS RESOURCES

By Anu Katka, indoor environment expert, Vaisala

As countries emerge from the pandemic, it will be interesting to see what the ‘new normal’ looks like. Will workers return to their offices full time? Or will there be a new preference for more flexible hours and for hybrid working (home + office). Either way, there will be a new, heightened responsibility to account for microbiological hazards such as Covid-19 in the provision of safe indoor environments.

In the following article Anu Katka, an indoor environment expert from Vaisala (Finland), examines the role that ventilation systems will play in protecting people in offices and other work spaces from future microbiological threats. She also explains why the reliable measurement of carbon dioxide will be critically important because it is the best measure of effective ventilation.

Lessons from COVID-19

COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is transmitted in two ways by infected people. Firstly, viruses can survive on surfaces for up to several weeks1, especially at cooler room temperatures2. Consequently, fomite transmission is possible when people touch infected surfaces and transfer the virus to their mouth, nose or eyes. Secondly, the virus can spread from an infected person’s mouth or nose in small liquid particles when they cough, sneeze, speak or breathe. These liquid particles vary from larger respiratory droplets to smaller aerosols of less than 5µm diameter.

According to the World Health Organisation3 (WHO): Aerosol transmission can occur in specific settings, particularly in indoor, crowded and inadequately ventilated spaces, where infected person(s) spend long periods of time with others, such as restaurants, fitness classes, nightclubs, offices and/or places of worship.

Supporting the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted primarily by the airborne route, a recent paper in the Lancet, provided: Ten scientific reasons in support of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2. 4

By understanding the modes of transmission, governments have been able to define appropriate strategies to combat viral transmission with measures such as facemasks, social distancing, hand washing and surface disinfection. Importantly, governments have also recognised the increased threat from indoor environments, with recommendations for outdoor activity and increased ventilation.

In November 2020, the UK Government published a video5 highlighting the importance of ventilation in reducing the spread of Covid-19. Their report said: “Research shows that being in a room with fresh air can reduce the risk of infection from particles by over 70%”

In January 2021 hundreds of Canadian experts (physicians, scientists, occupational health and safety experts, engineers and nursing professionals)  wrote an open letter6 to their Prime Minister urging him to: “to update provincial COVID-19 guidelines, workplace regulations and public communication to reflect the science — COVID-19 spreads through inhaled aerosols.” One of the key recommendations in the letter was to: “Recommend and deploy carbon dioxide (CO2) monitors as a surrogate measure in case of inadequate ventilation to reduce long-range transmission risk in shared room air. During a TB outbreak, CO2 concentrations above 1000 PPM significantly increased the risk of becoming infected with TB. Improving the building ventilation to a CO2 concentration of 600 PPM stopped the outbreak in its tracks.”

The significance of particle size

The WHO says that infected people appear to be most infectious just before they develop symptoms. In addition, some infected people are asymptomatic, so it is logical to assume that in an office environment, for example, the main threat will NOT come from people with severe symptoms such as coughing and sneezing, but from those who do not realise that they have the disease. These people are more likely to exhale viral aerosols of less than 5µm diameter – particles which do not respect social distancing. These fine aerosols are roughly equivalent in size to the particles in cigarette smoke, which, as we know, do not settle readily and are able to spread widely in poorly ventilated spaces.

A recent paper published in The Lancet7 described studies of cough aerosols and exhaled breath from patients with various respiratory infections which showed striking similarities in aerosol size distributions, with a predominance of pathogens in small particles (<5 μm). These particles are immediately respirable and can remain airborne indefinitely under most indoor conditions – unless there is removal by air currents or dilution ventilation.

Humidity also affects the spread of aerosols because low levels of humidity cause aerosols to become lighter and therefore better able to remain airborne. Humidity has also been shown to affect vulnerability to viral infection because exposure to dry air impairs host defense against influenza infection, reduces tissue repair, and inflicts cell breakdown.

Risk reduction measures

Traditional health and safety risk assessments address hazards such as slips and trips, heavy objects, repetitive injury, falling, stress, electric shock, fire and lone working, but to create Covid-secure environments, organisations will need to also include an assessment of microbiological risk. It will therefore be necessary to identify potential sources of pathogenic microorganisms as well as their modes and paths of transmission.

Hand sanitizer can be made available and surfaces can be frequently disinfected. Procedures can be established to reduce the chance of disease transmission, with measures such as screens, social distancing and even disinfectant fogging. However, even with all of these measures in place, one infected person can quickly contaminate large areas. Effective ventilation will therefore be essential, and the control system will need to undertake accurate and timely measurements from each room or space so that it can respond promptly. Some systems may simply monitor CO2 in the exhaust gas, but this does not provide the ability to detect poor ventilation issues in specific spaces.

Choosing the best measurement parameter

One of the main functions of a building automation / management system (BMS) is to control thermal comfort and optimize energy usage, so temperature is undeniably the most important control parameter in occupied spaces. Some systems also measure and control humidity to maintain a level of 40-60% RH. This is for health and comfort reasons as well as the protection of computer systems and the avoidance of structural or mould-related issues in the building.

Temperature measurements do not generally suffer from drift, but traditional humidity sensors do, so Vaisala’s HUMICAP ® sensors are preferable because of their long-term stability and insensitivity to interferences such as dust and condensation. These thin-film capacitive humidity sensors have become the industry standard in a wide variety of applications where long-term accurate, reliable, maintenance-free humidity measurements are required.

Increased humidity levels can be an indication of human activity and poor ventilation. However, humidity varies considerably as a result of external factors (e.g. freezing dry conditions or rainy humid conditions) rather than as a result of human exhalation.

To summarize, temperature and humidity monitoring play an important role in the optimization of a BMS, but where facility managers need to take into account the occupancy of people and reduce human-generated pollution in spaces, CO2 is the ideal additional parameter for automatic ventilation control.

Using Carbon Dioxide measurement as a proxy for effective ventilation

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is exhaled by people as they breathe, so an accumulation of CO2 indicates that (a) people are in the room and (b) the ventilation is insufficient, so a good ventilation system should be able to detect this and automatically apply the correct amount of ventilation. The system must be automatic, and it must be able to ventilate individual spaces, so that each space is ventilated optimally and energy is not wasted over-ventilating or ventilating spaces that do not need it.

Non-Covid advantages of CO2 and humidity monitoring

The ASHRAE Green Standard 189.1(USA) and the European standard FprEN 16798-3 recommend using demand controlled ventilation (DCV) to reduce energy usage while promoting healthy indoor air.

From an HVAC design perspective, CO2 is an ideal proxy for indoor air quality where the building is predominantly occupied by people. Humidity would be either better or at least a useful additional parameter, especially in buildings that are used to store artwork, books, wine, historic artefacts etc., or in buildings that are themselves in need of conservation.

Typically, outdoor air contains 250 to 400 ppm CO2. In contrast, exhaled breath contains around 50,000ppm CO2 which represents a 100 fold increase over inhaled gas, so without adequate ventilation, when people are indoors, CO2 levels will gradually rise.

Both the comfort and performance of people inside buildings can be affected by CO2 levels. Occupied spaces with good air exchange may contain 350-1,000 ppm, but anything above this can induce drowsiness, with levels above 2,000 ppm causing headaches, sleepiness, poor concentration, loss of attention, increased heart rate and slight nausea. Exposure to very high levels (from oil/gas burners or gas leaks) can even result in fatalities from asphyxiation.

Recommended minimum ventilation rates are provided for a wide variety of indoor spaces in ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2019 Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality.

Several studies have evaluated the effects of CO2 concentration on cognitive function. For example, Allen et al (2016)9 found that cognitive function scores were 15% lower for the moderate CO2 day (~945 ppm) and 50% lower on a day with CO2 concentrations of ~1,400 ppm in comparison with two ‘Green+’ days (~ 540 ppm).  On average, a 400-ppm increase in CO2 was associated with a 21% decrease in a typical participant’s cognitive scores. DCV based on CO2 measurements can therefore deliver improvements in well-being and productivity that far outweigh the costs of the DCV system itself.

Choosing the right CO2 transmitter

It is important to resist the temptation to purchase the cheapest sensors that meet the required specification. This is because, whilst accuracy and range are important; the ongoing performance of the BMS will rely on the stability of the sensors.

Suppliers of HVAC systems will naturally prefer sensors that you can ‘fit and forget’. Consequently, it is necessary to select sensors that do not require frequent recalibration to prevent drift. However, the selection process is further complicated by sensors that claim to compensate for drift by implementing a software solution which assumes that the lowest measured readings are the same as the average outdoor concentration of CO2. The danger with this type of algorithm is that small errors are compounded as time passes; leading to very significant errors in the longer term. As an attempt to avoid true calibration, these software algorithm sensors are not applicable in spaces that are continuously occupied, and can also be fooled by building automation systems that aggressively ramp down fresh-air intake during off-peak hours. In some cases even the concrete in the walls may absorb CO2 and thereby ‘trick’ the algorithm and create further inaccuracy.

There is potential for a slight conflict of interest between a BMS supplier/installer and a building owner/facility manager. For the former, the system must work perfectly immediately, and for at least the period of the warranty, but for the latter the requirement is more long-term.

The cost of a good sensor fades into insignificance in comparison with the benefits that it provides. Energy savings from accurate, need-based controls can be considerable, but even more importantly, the health and well-being of people inside of the building are protected and indoor conditions improve workplace performance.

The ideal solution is therefore to opt for Vaisala CARBOCAP® CO2 sensors. This is because they employ dual-wavelength NDIR technology capable of thriving in a variety of environments and able to conduct true self-calibration with an internal reference. The cost of this technology is insignificant in comparison with the energy costs of a BMS that is not efficient or with the cost of maintenance when low-cost sensors drift or fail.

It is not uncommon for Vaisala’s sensors to operate trouble-free for up to 15 years. This stability and reliability has been recognised around the world… and beyond. Vaisala sensors continue to operate on NASA’s Curiosity Rover, which was launched in 2011, and on-board the Perseverance Rover which landed on Mars in February 2021.

In summary, here on Earth, disease prevention measures can be re-enforced by smart ventilation with reliable CO2 measurements. Furthermore, good indoor air quality can have a significant positive impact on the health and well-being of people inside buildings.

  Lowering Covid risk with smart ventilation

NEWS FEATURES FIRE & SECURITY SUBMISSIONS RESOURCES

[weewoo-and-go-go-go-bot-rangers]

Scrubs

For @partylikeadalek, because she wanted more Knockout.

It took Knockout an absurdly long time to figure out that ‘General Hospital’ was in no way an accurate depiction of the human medical system. Or human culture. Or human interpersonal relationships. Or human actors. Or…anything having to do with this reality, really.

Primus, people watched this junk?!

Feeling more than a little foolish that he’d once again been bamboozled by the enigma that was Earth’s global computer network, he tried searching for medical shows with more “reality” in them. Paradoxically, these were even less believable than the soap operas. Humans mumbled out obviously rehearsed lines at one another, and then the camera would stay on the reactionary Dull Surprise of a second human before switching to a ‘confessional’ where they sat alone and spoke directly to the camera. Knockout had seen holograms with more substance than this.

The ‘Dr. Phil’ show was fun up until he realized that it wasn’t meant to be a comedy.

He had no desire to watch a documentary on the Anatomy of a Grey and skipped right past that one.

‘Nurse Jackie’ was too depressing to be snarky.

‘House’ held his attention up for a while. And then a human’s optic sensor exploded.

‘M*A*S*H’ had been promising right up until he saw how old the vehicles being used were, and he assumed that the doctors were about the preform surgery with whittled sticks.

And just when he was about to give up and return to watching ‘Friends’ and find out if Ross was the baby’s father or not, he finally came across a little show called ‘Scrubs.’

Several months later found him slouched back in his chair in the Decepticon warship’s medbay during his off-time, a cube of energon rations in hand and his feet up on the desk as he watched the continuing antics of this mousse-haired doctor (Mousse? Moose? Did humans put pieces of dead animals in their hair?) and the rest of his friends on the console monitor. He nearly snorted up his energon at the sight of J.D. clinging to Dr. Cox’s car roof and screaming “Eagle!” as the other doctor barreled down the road.

If a human had done that to him, he would have eviscerated them. Several times.

Still, the show was entertaining, and oddly reminiscent of a time millions of years ago when Knockout had started to practice medicine. Not that he had been as clumsy as J.D. Not him. Not ever.

…Yes, he’d left a laser scalpel inside someone’s engine once, but so what? Beginners made mistakes. That’s how they learned.

That’s what Ratchet had told him.

The more he watched Dr. Cox storming around the hospital, belittling and snarling at any other character that he came across, the bigger the grin on his face grew as he pictured Ratchet on the screen instead. This very well could be the human interpretation of the learning clinic where he’d been apprenticed under the Autobot medic. Dr. Cox was more mean-spirited than Ratchet and an ego-maniac, but he couldn’t chuck a wrench like him. There was a reason that all the other students showed more respect to Ratchet than to teachers like Pharma or Ambulon.

Knockout had been slow to pick up on that Ratchet didn’t like anyone matching his brand of snark. By the time he’d figured that out, he was having too much fun to stop. The rest of the students were partly awed and partly horrified whenever the two of them went at it. There was a recording of one of their arguments circling the ship’s database somewhere.

That wasn’t to say that he didn’t respect Ratchet. The medic had built the foundation of everything Knockout knew about Cybertronian physiology, and he then expanded to teach his apprentice that there was far more to medicine than repairing a frame. Sealing up a torn energon line alleviated a patient’s terror only slightly; whatever had ripped into them could plague their mind long after they were injured. Repairs were only half of what they could do to return their patients to functionality, Ratchet had explained.

The other half bored Knockout. A pat on the back and well-wishes were not his style.

He still gave the console some of his attention. Something about The Todd and his anaconda? What was an ‘anaconda?’

Neither he nor Ratchet could stand patients who came in with the most menial, cosmetic problems. When Ratchet took an offer to move to an emergency clinic instead, his then-graduated apprentice had gone with him. Everything that Ratchet had tried to teach him about keeping patients calm, maintaining hope, and accepting when saving a life was no longer possible, suddenly Knockout was using all of that knowledge on himself instead. His hands tended to shake when he had the friends of a mech on his table screaming at the back of his head, snarling at him to work faster, to try something different, swearing up and down what would happen to him if the surgery failed.

Knockout had nearly burned out early on in his career. But then Ratchet had stepped in again.

He told him that he already had a weapon to combat the terror and anger that permeated a busy emergency clinic.

…Knockout decided that he needed to show ‘Scrubs’ to Breakdown. If he was J.D., then Breakdown was Turk. He chuckled to himself at that.

It felt strange at first to take the most dire of situations with a dose of humor, but it worked. If a patient was alert when they came in, he’d tease them up and down about their paintjob. The more responsive they were to bad puns, the more likely they were to pull through. He kept himself smiling whenever possible, even if the jokes were grim. It stopped him from going insane.

He became more skilled. Never more skilled than Ratchet, of course. That old mech had another lifetime of experience ahead of him. Both of them moved up the ranks in the clinic, more likely to be pulled out of their office to work on VIPs than the common mech from off the streets. Once again they were seeing those with menial, cosmetic problems, and once again they agreed that it was time to move on.

Until the clinical became overwhelmed.

Riots were commonplace. Political entities were turning into warring factions. Cybertronians were picking fights with one another.

Cybertronians were killing each other.

Knockout’s optics narrowed at the screen. Something about Dr. Cox coming in to work drunk, but he wasn’t really watching it anymore.

He and Ratchet had returned to the lower wards of the emergency clinic. Where they once saw fragmented t-cogs and high-speed accidents, they now saw bullet wounds and weapon lacerations. And those, made purposely with the intent to kill? Those were harder to fix. They were losing more patients than they could save.

Knockout’s humor turned even darker. He pressed himself to keep going, but he knew that he was on the losing side. There was no winning this. Pit, other clinics taking care of Decepticons or Autobots exclusively were getting bombed by now. When would they be next?

And then he’d received an offer from Shockwave.

…He didn’t regret taking it. But leaving Ratchet’s side had been tough.

Ratchet had done all he could to make him stay. He’d appealed to what little honor he had, telling him that there were innocent mechs on the street who needed him far more than soldiers seeking to kill one another. He’d belittled him for choosing the side that, in his opinion, had started the civil war that was slowly encompassing the entire planet. He tried to bargain with him. He’d pleaded. He’d even smacked him with his good wrench a few times, “to knock some sense into him.”

But Knockout was done with being a loser.

He’d made other friends with the Decepticons. He was proud that he was fighting for a cause. Shockwave had allowed him to dive into the other Cybertronian sciences, saying that it would be logical for a top-rated medic to know more than just repairs. Knockout was enjoying himself again, and he hoped to continue his studies after the war ended and he’d have more time to leisurely explore the Archives.

…The end of the war never came.

Before Cybertron was evacuated, he ran into Ratchet one more time. Both the Autobot and Decepticon factions were clashing over some artifact at Tyger Pax. He’d joined the team planet-side, working as a field medic and making rapid patch-repairs before sending the soldiers right back into the fight.

They’d all stopped at the sight of the All-Spark being rocketed off of the planet, lost to the stars. Shortly after it had disappeared, Megatron had dragged out the Autobot scout that he’d unsuccessfully been able to interrogate in time to stop the launch of the All-Spark, and ripped out his vocalizer, destroying the vital energon lines running to his head in the process. Knockout had automatically taken one step forward to assist the dying mech, then thought the better of it, and instead turned to leave with the rest of his squad.

He’d turned back when he heard Ratchet shouting the scout’s name.

The medic was there, now with an Autobot insignia on his chestplate. Knockout remembered swearing at his former mentor’s hypocrisy, and hoping that when, not if, when the scout died, Ratchet would give up and go back to the clinic, or join the Neutrals and escape the war.

Millions of years and a planet later, and the old medic still hadn’t given up. And neither had the scout.

They were on the losing side. They wouldn’t last much longer. He was already working on a list of puns he’d make about Ratchet when the medic finally kicked the bucket.

Knockout finished off the rest of his rations in one gulp, and smacked the cube down on his desk with more ire than he’d intended. The console rattled, and his attention returned to the screen.

The TV show had still been running while his mind had wandered.

J.D. was sitting with Dr. Cox at his apartment. The older doctor was wrapped up in a blanket, clearly depressed, and J.D. spoke up.

“I guess after all this time, I still think of you as this, like, superhero that’ll help me out of any situation that I’m in. I needed that.”

Knockout refreshed his optics.

“I guess I came over here to tell you how proud of you I am.”

The Decepticon medic gave the monitor a long, hard stare.

And then he switched it off.

And then he deleted the queued links to the rest of the ‘Scrubs’ episodes that he’d saved on his console.

He was on the winning team. He couldn’t allow himself to doubt that.

He got up, pulled another ration out of the cabinet, settled back down in his chair, and scrolled through the other human TV shows that he had on his console.

He could find better shows than that drivel.

…Starscream had flagged a database called ‘Desperate Housewives?’ Hmm…

(The episodes that Knockout was watching were "My Lunch" and "My Fallen Idol.")

[personsofnote]

3. Math Kid, Soldier

I became radicalized during the summer of my junior year, I was seventeen years old. At the time I was on academic exchange in Northern England, conducting research of minor importance on the pretense of scientific giftedness. My brilliant peers have pruned my confidence, so I stumped and sulked in the coldish air. I could not communicate properly with my advisor, a loving Frenchman who is battling for tenure, because he does not care for mathematical terms in English. Decidedly, I wanted to exploit what was left in my life, so I began to take walks in the diagonal of the college campus. The campus being a perfect square with hundred-meter sides, the diagonal was the only radical path in the campus square, and on my morning walks I often encounter Taki. I have been meaning to make friends with her, for I found her the least miserable and anxious out of all my peers. Soon I learnt that Taki will not joke around with me, but she meant all the best and would gladly talk about any scientific topic. The formality and rigor of our friendship is surprising, but certainly welcome.

I had just began writing my exposition in mathematics, when I became one with the symbology. When I began what my advisor called my projet petite, I wished to find an analog of the spiral of Theodorus in complex numbers. The plenitude of radicals signs, half-bent roofs over numbers, reminded me of the temporary nature of our lives. I thought about the sick and dying in nursing homes, including, perhaps, distant members of my own family that I was too preoccupied to know by name. Presently, I began to see all numbers as ugly and writhing in skeleton and flesh. Although only ten basic forms existed, the infinitude of naturals, integers, rationals, and reals were allelic for the finite mess of ways to be human. I was shaken and endeared, and I was unable to sleep, and I kept making correlations. For example, the number seventeen over thirteen is a newborn from Singapore born in the hospital of this very university, and the number six point five five is my dear advisor. The ubiquitous e, I felt, was simply the blue-collar worker. I had read about these types of people on Facebook, the crockpots who claim they see through mathematics into universal truth. I had never doubted their madness — for mathematics is only one pathetic language among many — but upon my vision I feared becoming one of them. To forge a personal, almost familial relationship to symbology was the first sign of my radicalization, but I denied it to be a symptom. After writing two more pages of my exposition, I was convinced that my logical faculties remained unclouded despite my vision. I decided against telling Taki, for I was sure she would take it as a joke, and I feared losing her friendship. For the next week I indulged in my vision whenever possible, writing down a summary at the end of the day for the pairings I have produced. The most significant were: the constant pi for refugees, migrants and people in movement, the number zero for Ethiopian women who live to be eighty years old, the number one for an Austrian violinist turned Tibetan monk, and the number three hundred forty two point six five for myself. After performing a preliminary bivariate test, the correlation between location, gender, or occupation and the nature of the numbers were perfectly random. Complex numbers were surprisingly absent from my vision, perhaps because they were the subject of my thesis. My writing was uncannily successful, and I finished my exposition a week ahead of time.

My conversations with Taki slowed my deterioration. We took to sitting on the donated bench after our morning stroll, although we walked in opposite directions. I did not care for her iPod and the classical music within it, but we discussed amicably over scientific ideas that we both understood. The dead fairy godfather of our park bench is one William Shortstorm, who apparently lived a very fruitful forty six years and was survived by his widow Edith. As a Southeast Asian I was unaccustomed to the nuanced mood of the climate, the paradoxically sunny coldness of a British summer. The English was fond of discussing the weather, and I found it justified. The personable gusts accompanied our conversation with equal gusto, and its waking strength reminded me of the youth in Taki’s life and my own. It had not crossed my mind to apply my vision to Taki and assign a number to her. Our friendship was short-lived, and by the end of the program we despised to see each other.

My doomed epiphany came the night before the submission of my exposition. Per my kind advisor’s request, I would read over my writing one more time and make sure that all notation is correct and sound. This fated task, it would seem, sealed the second coming of my inexplicable vision. Performing mathematics, for me, had become emotionally difficult. Although I was able to write down my calculus exercises without question, upon rereading these pages of numbers I was rendered helpless by my visions. The crass pages of my hasty exercises became intricate sketches of central train stations, where all walks of life came to share the misery of waiting. To have all sorts of numbers huddled so close to each other, such kaleidoscopic characters at once! It was difficult to not infer relationships between these people, even for a logical person such as myself. To this end it dawned on me that the mathematical notation represented relationships, not in the sociofamilial sense but in the emotive sense; as a summary of feelings between these number-people. Thus the rereading of my exposition became the disastrous peripeteia of my self-evidently trivial life. I stared at the multitude of radical symbols down the page. It resembled the check sign, as were the German blank cheques given to Austria a century ago, as were all likely struggles between true and false from computers to statehoods to exercise papers like my own. The undiscriminating stoicism of this open symbol, reducing and sheltering whoever comes its way, the same monk, the same privileged children, save the negative numbers — those who refuse to accept who they are. In time, I too, became sheltered under a radical symbol of my own, and I saw how absolutely correct it was. My own square root — could they be my children? Oh, I did not mind, whoever they were — my own square root crawled and seeded within my chest. An immense sense of insecurity and pity came over me: to be sheltered, to be loved, to be cared! — Yet so many could not afford it in this world. For the global capitalist machine had hijacked these numbers and symbology for its own benefit, just as its sentience had robbed life of its meaning. I realized that the precise ingenuity of capitalism was that it used mathematics to eliminate the very truth represented by mathematics. Capitalism, with its monstrous sentience, imposed its own truth upon these number-people, so that mathematical symbology no longer hold meaning beyond the pecuniary for people; for people who are numbers themselves. Truth is no longer truth when truth convinces itself of another truth. I identified it at once: that to eliminate this kidnapper of mathematics was the only means to global emancipation, the only means by which numbers could mean themselves again. Capitalism was an invisible enemy, for it existed around and beyond mathematics but not within mathematics itself. For us, it would mean organized resistance, it would mean armed resistance, it would mean theory-writing and interpretation of Marx and Goldman and Bakunin. Already I am in ruins and shudders. I have not known these names before — I do not understand who they are, save for the numbers they represented. Yet I had never been surer of the next step forward. The radical sign told me to leave mathematics at once: the language of truth had done all it could for me and this world. But my radicalization was not yet complete — as such, nothing is truly complete until it has been set in action.

Impassioned by my newfound mission, I found its actual execution beyond difficult. I could not leave the program, which drags on for one more week; among the daily science lectures and exercises I had emerged as one of the more hopeless of my peers. Taki’s academic standing is mediocre amidst these geniuses, although still above me nonetheless. Yet she does not look down on me: she had asked me to check the calculations in her exposition on astrophysics. But I found that I could no longer complete tasks as simple as these. After taking her pencilled notes and printed exposition back to my room (with plenty airy dandelions on the way, the wind still cold but embracing), I read over it carefully. But I could not edit it — I began to cry. I have not seen any scene as tragic as this — an entire people, an entire people of diversity and voluptuous history, subjecting themselves to suigenocide in defiance of — well, of Taki’s treatment of them. Why does she subjugate mother to son and invert families and ages? Why does she tie them up and feed them their own body parts? Why does she project one number upon another and doing so, destroy both heartlessly? There were but scientific sweet nothings on the page, but I saw concrete blood and corpse and innumerable human suffering. I could not believe that any dictator, fascist in human history could write anything half as cruel as this — and certainly not Taki. She had been nothing but polite and poignant during our friendship — how could I have known of her hidden cruelty! Indeed, how could herself be aware, and how could she understand my vision? Of course, I had no nuanced understanding of my unique situation back then. All I could do was rush to Taki’s room and knock on her door and give an infuriated spiel. I called her, indeed, worse than Hitler. Taki took great offense to this — and rightly so — her Japanese-American family had suffered considerably in the Second World War, and Taki does not forget easily. She had every right to react this way, for I had not explained properly. Nor had I time. When I returned to my pathetic room it was midnight, and I decided that my friendship with Taki had been destroyed sacrificially. With Taki gone, I had nothing to tie me down to the world anymore. I was past the point of inflection. From now onwards, along the t axis, nowhere but onto infinity.

Every coming day I itched for the program to end so I may board the flight home. I continued taking my daily stroll along the diagonal, one of the few activities that still grounded me to reality, and I noted Taki’s natural absence from the route. My advisor was surprisingly delighted with my paper, given that he had contributed zilch to its inception or completion. He told me that he would pass the paper around to other advisors and discuss potential publication. I did not care for his propositions, all I wanted was for this meeting to end, and thus for all math things to end. On the final day of the program I was awarded the best written exposition award. This came as a surprise for myself and an upset for my peers, for nearly everyone had rightfully looked down at my mental faculties. I saw Taki when I went on stage to accept the award. She was clapping; she was still angry. I have not seen her since.

As I landed in the airport of my home country, I immediately destroyed my cellphone to avoid being found by my chauffeur and parents. I counted the money I have on me, which was a comfortable sum. I purchased a second cellphone and SIM card, and I immediately knew who to contact. She was invited to my school to do a presentation on activism, which I yawned over at the time, and she was scantly remembered by my peers. Strangely, I did save her phone number — I was a number hoarder long before my epiphany. I called her at once: I addressed her as prophet, sage and saint. I told her that I was a student at her presentation, and that I am enlightened and I am ready to devote all myself to her cause at once. She was generous enough to not enquire further, but she gave me her address. I called a taxi there at once. Upon arrival at the polished middle-class home I proceeded into the attic and threw myself onto her. I told her about my vision and I sobbed incessantly. This group of strange old hippies must have decided that I was properly mad, but still of proper usage to them. They were Trotskyites, terrorists. I told my matrons that I could stay indefinitely.

Obviously, I had partially thought this through: my father and grandmother wield considerable political power in the city, so a public search ad would be out of the question. On the other hand, my presence under the wings of this underground group could be an immense threat to my life. I hid my passport from them and used a general name. I was not asked to justify why I attended a private preparatory high school. They were merely glad I joined the cause.

I proceeded to spend three months in her basement helping to organize violent strikes and protests around the city. I was a secondary voice in the protester’s earpiece: I helped ‘reconnaissance tasks’ and aided avoiding the police and disposing evidence on scene. I pointed out routes of escape and made sure the choreograph was executed to perfect timing. I lived modestly and comfortably in a room of my own, with an old lady taking care of all my chores. They treated me excellently despite their insistence that I work twelve hours a day — (as a student I am used to much more than that) — they told me that I should just ask if I needed anything. To that I only pleaded a copy of Baby Rudin so I may continue to study mathematics in my free time, which was duly fulfilled. But for all my skills in proof and logic, I faltered at programming: I couldn’t make the Internet my oyster. No matter how excellently we coordinated a strike, more protesters seemed to die every month. As I viewed the latest metro worker’s strike in the central station on my screen, I felt great discomfort at the grand tapestry. I tried very hard to ‘inversely’ apply my vision to translate people to the numbers they correspond to. Although I was successful in finding a trove of irrationals, these numbers were meaningless when arranged together. They revealed no mathematical truth like the human truths I discovered through reading Taki’s thesis, and they were grossly cacophonous when placed alongside the number of Trotsky, the beautiful integer of twenty. I thought all this wrong, so I resolved to leave. I had no possessions with me except Baby Rudin. When the frail old lady attempted to stop me and wake the other women, I simply bashed the hard cover over her head. The book was not thick enough to kill her.

I returned to my family and I told them that I was kidnapped by the Trotskyites. When asked why have they not issued a blackmail, I stated that they were looking for the right time. Our domestic worker bathed me and I saw how harrowed I looked in the mirror. My entire person was swollen and pale for the plethora of unhealthy calories and lack of sunlight. I determined to look better, I determined to find the lean cleanliness of the self before my fateful summer. I gave my father the address and everything was swiftly taken care of. There were no more strikes in my city, and therefore no workers to die a protester’s death. Due to the perceived traumatic nature of my circumstance I completed my final year of high school at home, during which I became greatly invested in my father’s career. I had told him that I also wished to join politics, but both of us did not follow through. I slugged in my study of mathematics: the sight of numbers now make me tremble. I had not read Marx, Goldman or Bakunin. I had betrayed e, the ubiquitous blue-collar worker, a truly transcendental number. To return to the real world was altogether possible: the real world inundates you. We are all, after all, real numbers; and I am a rational number among them.

After a year of fruitful studies I joined a pretentious university abroad. I could find no sincerity and care in my classmates while searching for a secondary Taki. I was able to finish my mathematics degree, although others stopped regarding me as talented and were surprised to hear that I authored that little curio of a paper as a teenager. After university, I have channeled my energies into other pursuits: a capella, gardening, interior design, astrophysics, electrical engineering, anthropology. Tried as I have, I could not become the type of person entailed by their career. It was at this time that I realized that people’s numbers change over their lifetime, and that my vision does not exclusively bind people to number. Mine, however, remained the same. I did not venture into politics. My father retired to our ancestral city, laden with honor's spoils. I made money to sustain myself till I could not anymore.

By the time I was thirty years old I had left polite society. I later joined guerrilla fighting in the newly independent South Sudan. I cried upon hearing of our new unity government. My vision made a powerful return amidst the immense happiness of my fellow soldiers: they rejoiced in a fashion that fulfilled the Euler formula, which glared over our tins and tents. At first I dismissed this vision due to its simplicity; I have known the Euler formula since I was twelve years old. Why not the isomorphism of groups? Why not the Peano Postulates? But then I was humbled: simplicity is elegance, and elegance is beautiful. I was content. From then onwards, there was nothing complex under the sun.

[web-apps-blog]

Parliament of Australia: Select Committee on the Future of Work and Workers

This has just been made public.  Artificial Intelligence and the Future of WorkProfessor Toby Walsh, UNSW SydneySubmission to the Senate Select Committee on the “Future of Work and Workers”. Executive summaryPredictions that around half of all jobs at risk of automation in next couple of decades need to be treated with caution.Nevertheless, technologies like AI and Robotics will create significant disruption to the nature of work.We can identify many skills and jobs that will likely be safe for automation that can help direct policy.AI will impact not just work but every sector of the economy (private, public and voluntary). Many of the leading nations around the world have drawn up national AI plans. Australia needs one urgently otherwise it risks falling behind.  Jobs at Risk:Many fears about job displacement can be traced to a 2013 study from the University of Oxford by Frey and Osborne on the impact of automation. This made a much quoted prediction that 47% of jobs in the US were under threat of automation in the next two decades. Other more recent and, in some cases, more detailed studies have made similar dramatic predictions for the US as well as other economies including that of Australia. However, the conclusions of even the most careful of these studies need to be treated with caution.  There are many factors typically not considered by such studies (e.g. new jobs created by technology, new jobs created via economic growth brought about by technological change, jobs that we can be automated that we choose not to automate, the impact of changing demographics, reduction in the length of the working week). In addition, if one looks closely at the data, clear errors are visible. For instance, Frey & Osborne predict with high probability that bicycle repairperson, model and pilot will all be automated in the next two decade. The first prediction is technical very unlikely (repairing bicycles would be a difficult and demanding job for a robot), the second misses the point (we don’t care what robots look like in clothes), and the third ignores society’s acceptance of change (we could automate flying a plane but we will probably prefer to have a human pilot even if much of their job is automated).  Nevertheless, technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Robotics with create a large disruption in work. There are many parts of jobs that will be automated in the near future for the first time, and it won’t just be blue collar jobs that are at risk. Even high skilled jobs like radiologist will be impacted. It is already clear that there are some jobs like taxi and truck driver where it will be far safer and far cheaper for machines to do them. A few edge cases (e.g. negotiating road works) will not keep humans employed as drivers. Only a small percentage of drivers currently employed today will be needed to drive remotely when an autonomous vehicle cannot proceed safely on its own. Any taxi or truck driver should be asking themselves the question: “What other skill besides driving do I have that people will be willing to pay for?” Jobs of the Future:We can already identify many skills and jobs that will likely be safe from automation, an important step in creating policy that prepares for this future of work. A “triangle of opportunity” emerges from this analysis. At the top apex are technology jobs, inventing the future. There is a future in inventing the future. However, not everyone needs to be a coder. Indeed, there will be limited opportunities for coders when computers can, as they will be able to, code themselves.  There are, however, quite different opportunities at the other corners of the triangle. At one of the bottom corners are jobs requiring people skills. Computers have limited emotional and social intelligence, and are likely to have so for a long time. And even when they do, we will simply prefer interacting with people compared to machines. Teachers, nurses, general practitioners, and salespeople are, for example, all likely to be relatively safe from the tide of automation. The third and final corner of the triangle represents artists and artisans. Computers have limited creativity, and are likely to have so for a long time. And again, even when we have figured out how to make computers to be creative, we will prefer things made by humans, that speak to the human experience, that can’t be mass produced. Ironically, one of the safer jobs on the planet is one of the oldest, carpenter.  Policy implications:These changes suggest a number of policy responses. First, it is clear that the jobs of the future will require different skills to many of the jobs being done today. And many of the skills for the jobs of the future will involve technologies yet to be invented. Therefore these are not skills that can be taught directly at school or university now. An appropriate policy response then might be to support lifelong learning (e.g. incentives to the individual and to industry to re-skill), as well as to adapt the curriculum to support this (e.g. learning to learn, teaching robustness & adaptability). Second, we need to re-consider the safety net provided to those put under pressure by technological change. This happened with the Industrial Revolution when we invented trade unions, labour laws, and the welfare state. We may need to consider potentially radical changes like universal basic income, or negative tax rates to provide that support. Third, we need to ensure that the productivity benefits provided by automation are shared. At present, gains are being concentrated into the hands of a few rich individuals and corporations. Australia’s “Google Tax” is an example of the new sort of policy needed to ensure that inequality does not increase, and the benefits of technological change are shared across society. Fourth, there are a number of groups within society at especial risk. Indeed, if we are not careful, technology may increase racial, gender, age and others forms of discrimination in the workplace. This requires significant policy response. Finally, the threat posed by countries like China cannot be ignored. China has a clear intention to lead the world in AI by 2030. It is betting its economic (and military) future on this. Digital marketplaces often lead to natural monopolies. Without suitable response and coordinated policy, the benefits of AI will flow out of Australia into those countries winning this race.  Conclusions:The impact of AI will be felt not just within the world of work. It will touch almost every aspect of society: defence, education, taxation, trade, transport, health, and leisure, to name just a few. Almost everything that government does will need to adjust. This needs a coordinated response. A number of leading nations already have an AI plan in place (e.g. US, China, UK, South Korea, Canada). Australia will fall behind if it doesn’t make such a plan and start acting on it. Carpe Diem! Biography: Toby Walsh is Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of New South Wales. He has been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. He has won the NSW Premier’s Prize for Excellence in Engineering and ICT. His new book, “It’s Alive!: Artificial Intelligence from the Logic Piano to Killer Robots” covers many of these issues in greater depth. 

[businessliveme]

Artificial Intelligence: Opening New Vistas

The rapid expansion of technology and digital applications that characterises the ‘4th Industrial Revolution’, is changing the way we live, work – and learn. It’s a revolution driven by the fusion and amplification of emerging breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, automation and robotics, and multiplied by the far-reaching connectivity between billions of people with mobile devices that offer unprecedented access to data and knowledge. Autonomous vehicles, cloud computing, robotic nurses and surgeons, chat bots etc. are manifestations of this growing trend.

Online shopping, online games, email, social networking and media sites all have AI embedded into their applications, and the list of products and services continues to grow. Homes, cars, and financial and healthcare services are embracing machine learning to improve products and services.

Education systems, teachers and curricula need to be responsive to these changes. The 4th IR creates a demand for new skills and competencies, while automation and AI puts jobs at risk. This then creates a need to train and retrain people to utilise new technologies. National education systems have the opportunity to focus in on and hone inherently human competencies that are crucial in this rapidly shifting environment, such as problem solving, communication, critical thinking and collaboration.

Technologies, such as AI, can be utilised to support formal education and lifelong learning by promoting the development of adaptive learning environments, with tools that are flexible, inclusive, personalised and engaging. Examples include blended learning spaces where digital technologies and traditional classroom activities complement each other, and personal AI tutors that can strengthen inclusiveness by providing intelligent support specifically tailored for each learner’s needs. However, AI tools lack the socio-emotional interactive communication skills that teachers can use to get the best out of their students. To maximise its potential, education systems must not get seduced by technology; the focus should be on learning.

CAREERS IN AI

A career in artificial intelligence can be realised within a variety of settings including private companies, public organisations, education, the arts, healthcare facilities, government agencies and the military.

Examples of specific jobs held by AI professionals include – software analysts and developers, computer scientists and computer engineers, algorithm specialists; research scientists and engineering consultants; mechanical engineers and maintenance technicians; manufacturing and electrical engineers; surgical technicians working with robotic tools; Medical health professionals working with artificial limbs, prosthetics, hearing aids and vision restoration devices; military and aviation electricians working with flight simulators, drones and armaments; graphic art designers, digital musicians, entertainment producers, textile manufacturers and architects; post-secondary professors at technical and trade schools, vocational centers and universities.

SKILL REQUIRED FOR AI

Automation, robotics and the use of sophisticated computer software and programs characterise a career in artificial intelligence. Candidates interested in pursuing jobs in this field require specific education based on foundations of mathematics, technology, logic and engineering perspectives. Written and verbal communication skills are also important to convey how AI tools and services are effectively employed within industry settings.

To acquire these skills, those with an interest in an AI career should investigate the various career choices available within the field.

The most successful AI professionals often share common characteristics that enable them to succeed and advance in their careers. Working with artificial intelligence requires an analytical thought process and the ability to solve problems with cost-effective, efficient solutions.

It also requires foresight about technological innovations that translate to state-of-the-art programs that allow businesses to remain competitive. Additionally, AI specialists need technical skills to design, maintain and repair technology and software programs. Finally, AI professionals must learn how to translate highly technical information in ways that others can understand in order to carry out their jobs. This requires good communication and the ability to work with colleagues on a team.

So what are the educational requirements that students need to look at for a career in Artificial Intelligence?

Basic computer technology and a background in mathematics form the backbone of most artificial intelligence programs. Entry level positions require at least a bachelor’s degree while positions entailing supervision, leadership or administrative roles frequently require masters or doctoral degrees.

An AI coursework involves the study of the following:

Physics, engineering and robotics

Computer science, programming languages and coding

Cognitive science theory

Mathematics including probability, statistics, algebra, calculus, logic and algorithms

Bayesian networking or graphical modeling, including neural nets

Candidates can find degree programs that offer specific majors in AI or pursue an AI specialisation from within majors such as computer science, health informatics, graphic design, information technology or engineering.

AI and machine learning involve software that has been programmed to interact with the world in ways that would otherwise be thought of as human. AI depends on knowledge about the world as well as programs or algorithms to intelligently process that knowledge.

Today, most AI programs are specifically coded to do one task. This sparks fears of the ‘singularity’ of AI, where the technology will be able to redesign and improve itself, or design more powerful AI, a popular theme in science-fiction books and films, such as Terminator, I, Robot, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Ethical questions are raised, not only around how we utilise AI, but the ethics of such technologies. One fear is that these technologies will centralise power, deepening inequality. Depending on how AI has been programmed, it may analyse a situation and implement solutions detrimental to people or the environment.

Since AI is a reflection of its creators and those who have programmed it, we need to make sure that these technologies are aligned with our moral and ethical values.

Despite these concerns, AI holds immense potential for students for an interesting and rewarding career. From its inception in the 1950’s through the present day, artificial intelligence continues to advance and improve the quality of life across multiple industry settings.

As a result, those with the skills to translate digital bits of information into meaningful human experiences will find a career in artificial intelligence to be sustaining and rewarding.

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