New Political Review

17/11/2024

In life we should imagine more, not less, even if our imaginations lead us nowhere, are unfeasible or unrealistic.

As famously said by Albert Einstein, imagination is more important than knowledge. I would say here that maybe not always, certainly knowledge have a very important role, and actually knowledge and imagination are not mutually exclusive.

But without imagination, we definitely wouldn't have the world we have today, we all our innovations, our accomplishments, our Science and more.

Imagine in a way that approaches reality and the possibility of changing it, to the better obviously, but also to try to approach ignorance or lack of knowledge in a way that minimizes risks and helps solve problems.

17/11/2024

A good 30 minutes watch Howards Marks from talk about Risk, risk taking for investment firms, its management and perhaps even risk within broader contexts of life settings. How to think about risk was always important, but with increasing complexity it becomes ever more important.

It is quite illuminating some aspects of what Howard Marks says, because it might overturn most of our assumptions, and what is often erroneously disseminated about Risk.

How to Think About Risk with Howard Marks

Oaktree co-chairman Howard Marks explores the true meaning of risk in a new ten-part video course. He discusses the nature of risk, the relationship between...

17/11/2024

Today I watched this video from the Bloomberg Television series, featuring Emily Chang, named Posthuman. It passed through my mind that we are witnessing the beginning of a major Evolutionary process with Humans and perhaps beyond. And going beyond the normal fears and perplexities with Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Robotics, I think it rather intuitive to see that humans and animals will blend with machines in their Evolutionary future.

This process will be led by Human Beings for a long time, and now what must all strive to guarantee is that when a supposed Singularity happens - meaning a time when machines will Evolve by themselves -, those future machines will have Human Minds and Natural minds blended with it. With all values, if possible. Maybe even with all the unpleasant traits as well...

What Happens When Robots Don’t Need Us Anymore? | Posthuman With Emily Chang

Emily Chang meets some of the world’s most advanced, and most intelligent, robots. Will the creation of a synthetic species with human-like intelligence impr...

16/11/2024

When I read some text I am willing to be transformed. When I write some text I am willing to transform.

15/11/2024

Good Read from the 'pen' of SpaceNews. 🙂 👍

AI takes aim at tedious tasks in government contracting

The newer generation of AI tools is specifically designed to navigate the complex world of government contracting, where security protocols are strict and the stakes are high, as a single proposal …

09/11/2024

Open-ended 'infinite' cultural evolution is the key distinct factor which separates human beings from the rest of the intelligent, tool-using and even language using examples in animals. Our brains are endless cultural, learning and 'innovation-obsessed' biological machines.

Why Human Culture Never Stops Evolving

A new study proposes that human culture’s unique power lies not in its ability to accumulate knowledge, as once thought, but in its "open-endedness."

07/11/2024

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07/11/2024

Is it really possible to encode human positive emotions or feelings into AI/ML reward functions ?! Perhaps, yes. With important good Ethical and Moral implications.

Building Altruistic and Moral AI Agent with Brain-inspired Affective Empathy Mechanisms

https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.21882?fbclid=IwY2xjawGY5TFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHekV1q5jeOsIRigYGD1375qrbztBA9reuZ_uGaLLk82IhSTDaKN9BS36LA_aem_lwDWywV8EiwxyzlCZ3WGhg

As AI closely interacts with human society, it is crucial to ensure that its decision-making is safe, altruistic, and aligned with human ethical and moral values. However, existing research on embedding ethical and moral considerations into AI remains insufficient, and previous external constraints....

04/11/2024

Thoughts. Sometimes I think that the democratic process should evolve beyond the logic win-lose. On matters of high complexity, a simple dichotomy where one administration supported by only one political program take to implement it and the losers must not have a say or even see through some of their good policies also enshrined makes little sense.

Democratic regimes are good because they peacefully reach a consensus on policies and political programs voted and recognised by a majority. But the best Democracies are also ones where pluralism of ideas are understood with tolerance and evaluated as to their merit. Why should good ideas with merit be eschewed away, just because were part of the side that 'lost' the vote..?!

I would support a Democracy of the future where good ideas, the ones that pass through a rigid/rigorous process of trial/error never 'lose'. In Democracies of the future there will not be losers and winners. Only good ideas/policies that are taken, and bad ones that are left behind/dicarded.

03/11/2024

Well, a 'technofeudalistic' app just recommended to me this YouTube channel with book reviews on relevant Economics topics. It is interesting to listen and reflect with the speaker on the topics covered in the video below. It paints a good picture of our times for sensible Political Economy issues. The development of Artificial Intelligence platforms will further deepen these issues, but perhaps we should not go about, like Mr. Varoufakis, with quick judgements on a certainty of knowing what will happen...

A great title, but not a great book! - Book Summary and Review - Technofeudalism by Yanis Varoufakis

In Technofeudalism, Yanis Varoufakis claims that the era of capitalism is over as we've entered a new form of political economy in which cloud capital enable...

28/10/2024

Esta é uma notícia reveladora dos actuais problemas sérios que as economias da Europa Central atravessam. Para além de não estarem a ser muito competitivas na transição digital e em capacitar todas as importantes fileiras industriais para um paradigma de Software Engineering deixando o legado passado do Hardware para trás (em termos de paradigma apenas entenda-se...), as economias Europeais têm também de resolver o problema dos custos de produção e de energia que se agravaram com o conflicto no Leste. Por outro lado a integração de vários 'mercado's únicos' da zona Euro continuam com problemas de melhorias no funcionamento e eficiência. E ainda não existe o mercado único de capitais, de que tanto se fala...

Mas, como todo o otimista, nos problemas devemos ver as soluções, e as novas oportuidades de mudança e do começar de novos ciclos de prosperidade. Assim o queiremos... :)

Volkswagen planeia fechar três fábricas na Alemanha.

A construtora automóvel alemã Volkswagen prepara-se para encerrar pelo menos três fábricas na Alemanha, colocando assim em causa dezenas de milhares de postos de trabalho, e reduzir permanentemente a capacidade de produção das unidades que restarem após este processo, foi esta segunda-feira a...

27/10/2024

Fareed Zakaria is a remarkable Political Analyst. Always spot on, comprehensive and well documented or informed. Worth listening and reading through. (Y)

Fareed explains why we are seeing a political realignment

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria explains that the great divide in America today is not economic class but social class, defined by college education.

27/10/2024

A good quote for your Sunday morning. To change may not be easy, often. But we should view it not with fear, but in a way that understands that change itself is dynamic and we are actually always part of it, whether we are more or less conscious of it. To be more conscious of change is to be more of a protagonist of it.

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

— John F. Kennedy

19/10/2024

Good read from . As always straight to the relevant points of current issues with our Liberal Democarcies and global politics. (Y)

Strong Gods And Demagogues

Family, faith and nation challenge the open society.

19/10/2024

Interesting article to read here with Magazine depicting an experiment done in the United Kingdom on the use of Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) on Deliberative Democracy Assemblies. It points out two interesting conclusions: generally random people on average can have nuanced sophisticated opinions about sensible complex political issues, and also on average they tend to trust more an AI Agent rather than a human consensus conclusion... Quite interesting.

This points to the future of Democracy, where deliberations will maybe have the help of these new technological agents to reach a more consistent and reasonable consensus on difficult complex political topics/issues. Human beings tend to be inconsistent and ultra-biased on emotionally/ideologically divisive topics. An LLM Agent does not have emotionally/biased opinions, and can be made rational and consistent (obviously solving for the potential hallucinations....). WoW :)

AI can help warring political camps find common ground

Virtual mediation of a mock citizens’ assembly generated more accurate, less biased consensus statements than humanmade ones

17/10/2024

Taking the 'ideological' proto-anti free market jargon and bias out, the UK is designing a strategy for key Engineering and Manufacturing industries worth to pay attention to. People like me - believer of the free-social-market practices of advanced liberal economies - will follow through without ideological 'complexities', with the conviction that markets will ultimately 'arbirtrage' away excessive public expenditures that find no utility or value. At the same time paying high for everyone, be it in cash or in kind high-value added knowledge and synergies. (Y) (Y)

UK government targets growth with launch of industrial strategy green paper

The Engineer

An UK industrial strategy green paper invites businesses around the UK to share their thoughts on how best to drive growth across industry