Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
Nelson King, George Alleyne
Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, June 21–27, 2019 BQ
By Hazel Henderson
ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida,
June 17, 2019 (IPS) - We
humans are at the absurd
stage in our technological
evolution when we seem to
have abandoned our common
sense. Billions are
spent by governments, corporations
and investors in
training computer-based
algorithms (i.e. computer
programs) in today’s mindless
rush to create so-called
“artificial” intelligence,
widely advertised as AI.
Meanwhile, training our
children and their brains
(already superior to computer
algorithms) is underfunded,
schools are dilapidated,
sited in run-down,
often polluted areas while
our teachers are poorly paid
and need greater respect.
How did our national priorities
get so skewed?
In reality, there is nothing
artificial about these
algorithms or their intelligence,
and the term “AI”
is a mystification! The term
that describes the reality is
“Human-Trained Machine
Learning,” in today’s mad
scramble to train these
algorithms to mimic human
intelligence and brain functioning.
In the techie magazine
WIRED, October 2018, we
meet a pioneering computer
scientist, Fei-Fei LI, testifying
at a Congressional hearing,
who underlines this
truth. She said, “Humans
train these algorithms”
and she talked about the
horrendous mistakes these
machines make in mis-identifying
people, using the
term “bias in — bias out”
updating the old computer
saying, “garbage in — garbage
out.”
Professor LI described
how we are ceding our
authority to these algorithms
to judge who gets
hired, who goes to jail, who
gets a loan, a mortgage or
good insurance rates — and
how these machines code
our behavior, change our
rules and our lives.
She is now back at Stanford
University after a time
as an ethicist at Google and
has started a foundation to
promote the truth about
AI, since she feels responsible
for her role in inventing
some of these algorithms
herself.
As a celebrated pioneer of
this field, Professor LI says
“There’s nothing artificial
about AI. It’s inspired by
people, it’s created by people
and more importantly, it
impacts people.”
So how did Silicon Valley
invade our culture
and worldwide technology
programs with its shortterm,
money -obsessed values:
“move fast and break
things”; disrupt the current
systems while rushing to
scale and cash out with an
IPO?
These values are discussed
by two insiders in
shocking detail, by Antonio
G. Martinez in “Chaos Monkeys”
(2016) and Bloomberg’s
Emily Chang in “Brotopia”
(2018). These authors
explain a lot about how /
training these algorithms
went so wrong: subconsciously
mimicking their
mostly male, misogynist,
often white entrepreneurs
and techies with their money
making monopolistic
biases and often adolescent,
libertarian fantasies.
I also explored all this
in my article “The Future
of Democracy Challenged in
the Digital Age,” CADMUS,
October 2018, describing all
these issues of the takeover
by AI of our economic sectors;
from manufacturing,
transport, education, retail,
media, law, medicine, agriculture,
to banking, insurance
and finance.
While many of these sectors
have become more efficient
and profitable for the
shareholders, my conclusion
in “The Idiocy of Things”
critiqued the connecting of
all appliances in so-called
“smart homes” as quite hazardous
and an invasion of
privacy.
I urged humans to take
back control from the overfunded,
over-invested, overpaid
computer and information
science sectors too
often focused on corporate
efficiency and cost-saving
goals driven by the profit
targets demanded by Wall
Street.
I have called for an extension
of the English law,
settled in the year 1215:
“habeas corpus” affirming
that humans own their
own bodies. This extension
would cover ownership
of our brains and all our
information we generate in
an updated “information
habeas corpus.”
Since May 2018, Euro-
By Dr. Tartania Brown and
Dr. Lyndonna Marrast
Recent news headlines
described a novel gene therapy
and potential “cure” for sickle
cell disease (SCD). These findings
are truly groundbreaking
and demonstrate the optimistic
future for SCD therapeutics.
In contrast, the current
health care experiences of SCD
patients are heartbreaking.
Many disparities exist in
the way doctors manage SCD
patients and their pain symptoms.
Several factors have
played a role, including physician
comfort, knowledge, experience,
and bias. Most recently,
the misguided application of
controlled substance policies
that are intended for the general
population to stem the
opioid crisis, have created limits
on SCD patients’ access to
medications that are the mainstay
of therapy in treating their
painful episodes.
SCD is a genetic disorder
that is defined by misshapen
red blood cells. These misshapen
red blood cells cannot
perform their proper function
of delivering oxygen to the
body and vital organs. Patients
not only experience debilitating
pain but also fatigue and
a cascade of complications. A
compromised immune system
causes susceptibility to infections
like pneumonia. Multiorgan
damage and strokes
starting in childhood can also
occur. Although a relatively
infrequent occurrence for most
of the general population, visits
to a doctor’s office or emergency
room, are common occurrences
for SCD patients. Some
adult SCD patients have been
interacting with the healthcare
system longer then some of
their healthcare providers have
been in clinical practice.
Individuals of Mediterranean,
Middle Eastern, Indian
and Latin descent are affected
by SCD; yet, the disease
largely affects those of African
ancestry. SCD patients receive
a lower standard of care and
race may play a role in these
disparities. Studies have shown
that SCD patients have longer
wait times in hospitals, receive
lower doses of pain medication
and medical professionals question
or doubt reported pain levels
in emergency rooms.
Patient care should be standard
throughout the medical
system, and many in the general
population, and medical
community assume that it is.
But large discrepancies exist in
all avenues of the medical system
ranging from emergency
OP-EDS
In reality, there is
nothing artificial
about these
algorithms or their
intelligence, and
the term “AI” is a
mystification!
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Continued on Page 58
Continued on Page 60
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Let’s train humans first …
before we train machines
Policies that hurt:
Having Sickle Cell
Disease in the era of
the Opioid Crisis
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