iTelepathy.com
Considering recent developments in human computer interaction, it is evident that this area is heading for considerable change and innovation. In the immediate future, it appears that Kinect like visual motion recognition is likely to become the next big thing. With the introduction of 3D cameras in smart-phones, visual gesture recognition is likely to become ubiquitous within a couple of years or so.
My speculation is that the following revolution will come from a more direct interaction with the nerve system. Recent advances in biomedical engineering enable amputees to operate artificial bionic limbs by connecting to the nerves in the remaining part of the arm. The current research state of the art in this domain explores ways of passing touching sensation back into the arm’s nerve system. Clearly, these capabilities are also promising in terms of future interactions with machines and even human-to-human communication.
By adopting similar technology to the ones used in artificial limbs, it is possible to implement virtual telepathy as follows. A wearable device could read signals from the nerve system and transmit them to another wearable device held by a second person. The receiving device could translate it into voice to be played through an earpiece to the other person. Similarly to the way amputees are trained to operate their artificial bionic limbs, a person could be trained to translate a given thought or a word into the right signal sent to the nerve system. The two wearable devices could either communicate directly, or each device could communicate with the wearer’s mobile phone which will act as a relay.
Looking further into neuroscience, researchers are increasingly being able to associate various brain activities with specific thoughts, feelings, and words. The obvious step here is of course to develop a light non-intrusive wearable device that could read and interpret brain activity and transmit it to another person. These could ultimately include images, sounds, smells, etc. for a complete virtual-telepathy experience.
With these capabilities, people would in fact also be able to record their thoughts for later browsing using an “iThoughts.com” cloud service, or even store complete images and experiences on “iMemories.com”. There would probably be ad-based free versions, in which the meaning of targeted advertising would be that whenever a person feels thirsty, an urge for a can of Coke would be injected into the person’s thoughts. Better yet, in the geo-location enhanced version, the person would be instructed to go to the nearest store that sells Coke… Clearly, this capability could be used for direct brain connection to the Internet, e.g., to Web sites like Wikipedia for learning information about various topics, map services for a true never-lost service, etc.
Once these developments materialize, society would need to face the challenges brought by them. For example, the education system would need to redefine the standard syllabi and grapple with the questions of why teach basic math when all a person needs to do is to think of a mathematical equation or formula and the solution would immediately be computed and transmitted to him by an Internet based service. Why teach geography when a person can find all facts, just by thinking of them, through Wikipadia, etc.
Another interesting question, given the ability to install thoughts and feelings, would be the definition of free will. If someone commits a crime due to a hacker transmitting such thoughts, is that person guilty of the crime he committed? How about rape through transmitted feelings of consent?
Finally, the main question is who would be allowed to read a person’s thoughts without his approval. Further, how to prevent governments from installing the ruler’s opinion in the minds of his or hers subjects.
To some extent, these problems exist even today. As is repeatedly being proved in magicians’ shows, some level of thoughts and will control can be obtained even without physically connecting to a person’s brain. Still, with very few exceptions, a person is always held responsible for his or her decisions, even when these were influenced and even brainwashed by others.
As for timeline, while some of these features might seem like science fiction, they are not. My guess is that a basic virtual telepathy capability as listed above could be demonstrated within 2-3 years, with mass production in 5-10 years. As for the more involved mind reading and direct brain communication, I speculate we would see first prototypes within 10-20 years, and commercial production in no more than 50 years.
Interestingly, when I first told this to my son he was completely unsettled by this, describing this as the end of the world. I am sure many people also view this as an unimaginable nightmare. However, the temptation to follow this paths, the benefits that it brings, as well as the ease in which people are willing to let go of any bits of their privacy in favor of free Internet services they find useful, all make me believe that this will indeed become a reality.
In Search of the Innocent Talkback
As someone whose been using the Internet since its early days, I’ve seen the Internet as a whole as well as any of its feature go through a three phased process: innocence, excited adoption, commercialization and abuse. The first stage includes naïve usage by early adopters, full of enthusiasm and democratic social idealism. In the second phase, word spreads out, and the masses join in, all thinking that they have discovered America. Everybody is using the terminology to show how hip and cool they are. Finally, commercial (and sometimes political) interest move in, exploiting the easy reach the technology offers to mass crowds.
One of the things that suffer these days from this phenomenon is the “talkback”. The ability to add comments to items and articles on the Web until recently used to serve as a way for people to express their opinions, release stress, and in general was viewed as part of the great democratization offered by the Web. Reading the talkbacks was seen as a way to gauge public opinions on various topics. Unfortunately, paid talkbacks have changed this reality. A quick look at any news item and article that has the potential of swaying public opinion in some direction reveals that it is flooded with numerous paid talkbacks. Companies, politicians, government offices, are all taking part in this.
Some obvious recent examples from Israel include the massive campaign that was waged by the gas drilling companies against the Shishinski report, which called for increasing the royalties they need to pay for their recent gas discoveries off the shore of Israel. An even more recent and vicious example includes the current medical doctors’, and in particular the interns’, struggle to improve their salaries and working conditions. The ministry of finance seems to have employed paid talkback writers to flood all major news sites with abundant bashing talkbacks against the physicians’ demands and integrity.
I believe that paid talkbacks should be required to identify themselves as such by law, similarly to the way advertisements in any newspaper are clearly marked as commercial content. Otherwise, the value of talkbacks as a democratic tool would be soon completely diminished, since people will start treating them the way soviet citizens viewed Pravda.
From Tahrir Square to Hamedina Square: On the Roots, Causes, and Challenges of the Israeli Popular Protest Movement
More than 400 thousands Israelis (out of a population of 7.5 millions) took to the streets on Saturday night in the demand for social justice. All occurring in a period when the Israeli economy seems to be performing fantastically, at least at the macro level. The national dept at a record low level, much lower than many European countries, the unemployment at an all times low of 5.5%, the Israeli currency being one of the strongest in the world and the country enjoying one of the highest economic growth levels among all OECD countries. So why are so many people in Israel upset? Is this simply a part of the wave of demonstrations and revolutions that is engulfing the middle-east, or is there something deeper here?
Israel was founded as a very socialist country and has stayed this way until the early 70s. What started as a slow shift toward a free market economy has turned into a hurried stampede to privatization and porcine capitalism. In the process, state owned companies and national assets were sold at rock bottom prices for a small group of well-connected individuals, who now control most of the country’s economy and even the media and press.
And indeed, the shift was profound, but in many ways, not for the best. The highly developed public medical system is on the brinks of collapse. The education system, once the pride of Israel, has gradually degraded with the Israeli students nowadays underperforming in all major international comparative tests. Moreover, despite the tremendous economic expansion that the country has seen, the price-index adjusted average salary has in fact decreased during the last decade, meaning that the average Israeli can now buy less rather than more. Worse yet, as the public systems flop, people now find themselves paying for many things that used to be free. And while the unemployment rate is very low, a large percentage of all employees are only employed part time, many of the employees are earning minimum wage, and even average salaries are barely enough to keep a working family above poverty line. Israel has one of the highest rates of poor among other OECD countries, and one of the highest levels of social inequalities. Additionally, due to lack of competition (in almost every aspect of life, there are 2-3 companies, all belonging to one of the 20 ruling tycoons, who act as a cartel), the nominal prices Israelis pay for just about anything is at least 30% more than in countries like Germany, whereas the salaries are about 40% lower. Couple this with a 50% hike in the prices of housing within 3 years (at the moment, an average apartment in Israel costs 130 average salaries, whereas in most OECD countries the cost is only between 60-90 average salaries) and continuously growing indirect taxes, and the result is that the middle class in Israel is collapsing.
Unlike our neighbors, Israel is a democracy. Moreover, during the last 20 years, 7 governments have ruled Israel, alternating between “right”, “center”, and “left”. Yet, regardless of the name of the ruling party, the method has remained the same. This is one of the reasons for the popularity of the movement, but also one of its main challenges. Simply throwing the government would not help! Instead, the entire mindset of the public and politicians should be changed.
One of the immediate achievements of the protest is a major shift in public opinion and public discussion as it appears in the media. The blind admiration for privatization and tycoons has been replaced with sober discussions about the future of the Israeli society and the fragile state of the middle-class, which carries the country on its shoulders. Even the lobbyists in the parliament have disappeared, signaling that politicians no longer wish to be associated with the envoys of their tycoon patrons.
Yet, the government itself does not seem to be moved yet, still hoping that this protest movement will wane down and they will be able to get back to business as usual. This has been echoed by a 20% increase in the cost of electricity (fixed by the government), as well as yet another tax hike on the price of gas, reaching an all-time record high (while the cost of an oil barrel in USD is 40% lower than its record levels!) in a country that is notorious for its inadequate public transportation.
I have attended two of the demonstrations so far, the largest one last Saturday and another smaller one three weeks ago, both of which were highly appeasing sights. People of all ages and all walks of life marching in a very peaceful yet colorful atmosphere, all demanding social justice and an affordable life.
A source of appeal for the protest movement, which is also a major challenge for its continuation, is that its demands are not well defined. It has erupted as a popular movement because too many people felt that the current situation is unbearable. At the moment, any person that feels that something is wrong with the country can find his/her place in the movement. However, in order to make a real change, specific requirements must be formulated – a process that has already begun. However, as the general feelings of discontent are translated into concrete demands, many people are bound to feel disappointed. Similarly, even if the government would accept these demands, there is no truly elected leadership that could convince the public that the goals have been reached.
Looking forward, things look very blur. On one hand, Binyamin Netanyahu, the current prime minister, believes in political survival above all and some of the anti-tycoons goals of the protest are in theory in line with the declared beliefs of the ruling Likud party. On the other hand, increased social benefits for the middle-class are not, and reversing the privatization trend seems to be in contrast with the genes of Netanyahu. I personally hope that most of the demands will be met, since in my opinion the current situation is more dangerous to Israel’s survival than any external threat.
Smatphones are Changing Wrist-Watch Fashion
Perhaps one of the most subtle examples of how smartphones are making profound changes in our daily lives can be taken from wrist-watch fashion. Prior to the arrival of cellphones, wrist-watches have been the most sophisticated gadget that everyone was carrying around. Consequently, they were packed with features such as an alarm clock, speed-clock (stopper), calendar, sometimes even games, etc. At the time, features were more important than looks.
However, as cellphones and in particular smartphones become prevalent, suddenly there is a much fancier device that is carried around by everyone, a device that can do all the above in a much better way. Consequently, wrist-watches are becoming a pure fashion accessory and as such, they no longer need to be feature-rich. Elegant design is now way more important than feature, and evidently it is hard to find a wrist-watch that even has an alarm clock these days, and even simple date functionality is becoming scarce. Chronographs that are difficult to read but look great (due to their circular shape) now rule wrist-watch fashion.
The Expected End of Moore’s Law is Good News for Computer Science
It seems to be bon-ton these days to talk about the end of Moore’s law. While originally stated for the number of transistors stored on a given area of silicon, it has been quickly extended to CPU clock speed and performance as well. In general, for a long time, the number of transistors in a CPU and its clock speed used to double every 1.5 to 2 years. All this was going on until around 5 years ago. Due to laws of physics, the heat and energy grow roughly cubically in the clock speed and so increasing the clock speed above 3 GHz seemed impractical. As a result, rather than increasing the clock speed, chip manufacturers opted for increasing the number of cores in a CPU, thereby increasing the theoretical performance by adding parallelism rather than by increasing the clock speed.
Yet, even this trend may soon be put to a serious challenge, as the distances between transistors quickly become smaller than the minimal required by CMOS technology.
All this is great news for computer science in my opinion. For a long time, people got used to being lazy. If computers become twice as fast every 1.5 to 2 years, there is no point in investing much efforts in writing efficient code. If something does not run fast enough, simply wait for the next generation of Intel x86 and everything will be resolved. In particular, CPUs became fast enough that traditional programming languages and efficient data structures and algorithms were being abandoned in favor of high level scripting languages whose most sophisticated data structure is an associative array. Suddenly, every Joe-hoe could become a programmer developing sophisticated Web applications with no effort – no need for hard earned computer science degrees anymore.
All these could change back with the end of Moore’s law. As CPUs become parallel, programmers need to learn how to write parallel code and deal with all the intricacies of concurrent execution. They need to understand how the system executes their code, dealing with memory consistency issues, avoiding synchronization in order to facilitate parallelism etc. There is suddenly great demand for innovation in compiler technology for automatically parallelizing sequential programs. Programming models are suddenly an important topic again. Data structure libraries need to be parallelized in an efficient and scalable manner. Operating systems must be redesigned and re-architected to make an effective use of the many cores that are put at their dispense.
Moreover, as the number of transistors might be reaching a limit, this means that even the number of cores on a CPU will likely be limited. Also, given Ahmdel’s law, the maximal benefit from parallelism is in any case quite limited. Hence, writing efficient code will suddenly become important again. For this, strong background in computer science is a must!
Kids are Learning the Meaning of Facebook Loss of Privacy the Hard Way
My son sails a Laser 4.7 race dinghy. Some recent events related to other sailors in his club demonstrate the naïveté in which kids are using Facebook and the price they occasionally pay for it.
About three week ago my son’s trainer saw that one of the other sailors in the group has uploaded photos of himself smoking in a party. The trainer got angry at this sailor and suspended him for a week.
A couple of days ago, during a national regatta, one of the sailors in our club, let’s call him A, sailing a different dinghy class, wanted to protest against a sailor from a second club. To make such a protest, a sailor needs to find another sailor from a third club, which we will call SC, and indeed A found a sailor, which we will call here B, from club SC willing to testify for him in the protest procedure. However, during the protest itself, B suddenly testified completely differently and the protest was rejected. In the evening, A asked B on Facebook why she has done so. B replied on Facebook that her trainer told her not to dare testify in favor of anyone from “Haifa Sailing” and if she would do so, she will be suspected from sailing (because the trainer was mad at “Haifa Sailing” due to another unrelated protest). This Facebook correspondence was shown to the protest committee the day after, which decided to accept the protest and take disciplinary actions against both B and her trainer for non-sportive behavior.
In both cases, these teenagers were using Facebook in its natural way, the way it was meant to be, without thinking of the consequences. In both cases, they, and their friends, have learned the hard way the deep meaning of loss of privacy in Facebook, and the fact that once information is placed on the Internet, one loses control over it and what can be done with it. I am sure similar events occur all over the world. Perhaps the good news is that as these kids experience first-hand the dark side of careless Internet use, they would become more careful and informed Internet users for the future, in particular in things that may have an even more significant impact on their lives.
The Smartphone has become the Ultimate Sensor
A state of the art Smartphone such as the iPhone 4 or Samsung Galaxy S2 is loaded with various sensors, such as motion sensors and accelerometers, a gyro, a camera (or two), a microphone, WiFi and Bluetooth radios (which can be used both for communication and for sensing RF signals), Near Field Communication (NFC), a touch screen, etc. In addition, they are increasingly equipped with high performance processors, such as the 1.2 GHz dual core Cortex-A9 processor of the Galaxy S2. And of course, these phones run a fully-fledged operating system and modern developing languages such as Java. All this comes with a price tag of $500-$900.
Compare this with modern mote sensing nodes, having a memory of a few Megabytes, a terribly slow processor, and running a special purpose OS like tinyOS, which requires unique programming skills and development environments, while priced at $100-$150, with each sensor costing an extra few bucks. Given the economy of scale of smartphones and the tough competition in this market, their prices are likely to be halves within a year, as new models come in. Moreover, when cellular communication in not important, one can settle for the Galaxy S WiFi for around $400.
Given the cost of programmers, with the exception of extremely large deployments, it is cheaper to use smartphones than sensor nodes. In terms of lifetime, sensors can typically survive longer than smartphones. Yet with an extra battery, one can dramatically prolong the latters’ capabilities as well and still be affordable.
Even more interesting is the ability to utilize smartphones for crowdsourcing sensor networks. Consider for example earthquakes. When an earth quake occurs, naturally all phones in the area will shake. Hence, by having all phones that shake beyond some threshold report to a cloud server both the magnitude and nature of the shaking as well as their position, either over their data channel or by SMS, the server could compute whether an earth quake is happening and what its magnitude is. Based on this, warnings can be sent out to other areas to prepare for the earthquake, e.g., by shutting elevators and power plants, securing hard disks of important computers, and the likes.
Similarly, mobile phones can be crowd-sourced to detect noise hazards, excessive RF radiation, etc. One company that already does something along these lines is Waze, which crowd-source mobile phones to detect traffic jams. I am sure others will soon follow.
Feelings of (Web) Insecurity
I am always amazed by how insecure the Web is. It is a well known fact that a large fraction of all web sites, possibly even the majority, are vulnerable to the simplest SQL injection attacks. This easy form attack can be executed by any teenager spending a couple of hours googling and experimenting; it can be used to obtain personal data of a Web site’s users and activity, potentially credit card numbers, as well as run havoc in its content. Interestingly, it is even possible to find many of the Web sites that are vulnerable to SQL injections by searching in Google for usual error messages returned in such cases. In fact, there are even Web sites that utilize this trick to provide more targeted search capabilities for such Web sites. (I’d like to thank Eran Yahav for this info.)
Recently, I have discovered that a Chrome extension provided by an Israeli bus company, which was accompanied by an extensive ad campaign includes vulnerabilities that let an attacker find personal information of users that install it. This includes, for example, obtaining the passwords saved in the browser for various Internet web sites and e-mail accounts, being able to redirect all the e-mails of the user to an external server, etc. These come from a couple of naive (or shell I say stupid) mistakes in the JavaScript code.
Similarly, it turns out that the White pages telephone directory service operated by the largest phone company in Israel, and which includes all registered phone numbers in Israel, can be queried in a way that provides a reverse phone numbers lookup service. Of course, this is not officially exported or linked to from their Web page since providing such a service is illegal. Yet, a simple URL structure inserted into any Web browser activates it.
And these are just minor examples of the extent of the problem.
Why is it happening? I think this is a result of several factors: First, most Web developers have little formal IT training. Second, Web development languages and platforms are highly insecure by nature. PHP, JavaScript, SQL, and the likes make Web development a breeze, but at the same time they provide very little protection to the programmer. Third, highly trained university graduates often despise Web development, considering it an inferior form of software development. Moreover, even in universities security is not adequately stressed. Finally, there is hardly any legal incentive to invest in Web security. Free web sites and free software come with a license that exempts the developers, or service providers, from any responsibility.
So, what can be done? In my opinion, it is up to the major universities to change this situation by performing the following: At the education level, both computer security and Web development courses should become a mandatory part of any B.Sc. degree in IT related programs (Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, etc.). Additionally, we should aspire to publish guidelines for best practices in Web development. Moreover, official free-to-use security benchmarks should be developed. Once they are developed, legislators should be pressed to change the laws such that releasing Web sites or Web applications that do not pass these free security benchmarks would be considered a criminal offence, and expose their developers to personal liability law-suits, regardless of the End User License Agreements (EULAs) they come with.
Why should these benchmarks be free? Because otherwise legislators would be reluctant to pass such laws, claiming that imposing them would curtail Web innovation, which is so important for the economy.
So who should maintain them and who would pay for this? The development and maintenance of these benchmarks should be done by leading university researchers, and be funded by special government grants. The cost to the tax-payer of doing so is miniscule compared to the cost of leaving the situation as is.
Would it solve all security flaws? Of course not. But it would greatly limit them. This is similar to having a heavy door with a sophisticated lock at your home. While it cannot prevent a very determined and very experienced thief from braking in, it works great in keeping most unwanted intruders out.
Why only Web development? Why not all software? Web development is a much more restricted domain than general software security. Hence, there is a much higher chance of succeeding in developing meaningful security benchmarks for it. Also, the problem is much more acute there, due to the nature of its usage. Finally, one has to start somewhere…
The Legal Bully
My father, who is an elderly person, has recently been signed up to a private emergency health care program by a visiting salesperson. The following day, my father changed his mind and decided he would like to cancel the subscription. This is allowed in such transactions under the Israeli law for a period of14 days. Still, the company refused to cancel his subscription and started threatening him with a law suite in case he does not pay. When we talked to a lawyer about this, he told us this is a known common phenomenon. Typically, once these companies receive a warning letter from a lawyer, they stop their procedures and move on to the next elderly person. In fact, it turns out that this conduct has become quite common in additional sectors such communication and others, trying to obtain concessions from customers by the threat of a costly law suite.
On a seemingly different note, there are quite a few stories about large companies who filed patent infringement, or other IP related, law suites against small companies who were gaining too much momentum on the former’s turf. All this despite the fact that the large company did not really have a case. However, due to the tremendous costs of legal defense, the large company managed to bring the small company to bankruptcy, thereby eliminating it as a business threat.
What is common about these stories is that in all of them, organizations are trying to use, and in fact abuse, the legal system as a weapon in an unfair manner and to win an unjustified battle. In the first case, it is the threat of legal action against elderly people, most of which are unaware of the law and too poor to obtain legal help that is suppose to do the trick. In the second, the deep pockets and/or larger legal department of one corporation is used to defeat the other, not by a judge, but rather through the bank.
I think the way to prevent these is the same. Namely, such abuses of the legal system should be declared a criminal act. If executives of corporations such cases would know that they could be sent to jail for such actions, it will make them think twice about it.
Of course, one can ask what the border between legitimate use of the law system and illegal use of it is. My answer is that there are many situations in life where the border between legal and illegal conduct is blur, so this case would be no exception. A prime example is of course the difference between legitimate courtship and sexual harassment. In a similar manner, in deciding whether the use of the legal system should be viewed as legitimate or criminal, one could weigh the difference in power between the sides as well as the grounds for applying the legal system. In our first case, it is clear that the threat of the company was bogus, because it is clear that they were in fact trying to impose something that contradicts the law. In the second, it would be up to the government prosecutor/district attorney to decide if the case was an abuse or not, and then up to the judge.
Hi-Tech, Low-Tech, and those that are in Between
It is customary to refer to everything related to computers as the hi-tech industry. However, a more careful look at today’s startup scenes reveals a somewhat different picture. The proliferation of powerful scripting languages coupled with the ease of software dissemination over the Internet, not to mention using Facebook, enable rapid and simple development of sophisticated software with extreme ease. Moreover, the availability of extremely powerful and cheap hardware as well as advanced runtime environments manage to run such software fast enough to make them useable and even highly scalable.
Consequently, I claim that the fact that something includes a software program and runs on a computer should not qualify it to be called “high-tech”. Specifically, the “hi-tech” industry nowadays consists of two different industries: a true hi-tech one and a low-tech one. The former deals with true technical challenges, and requires a great deal of engineering efforts and scientific knowledge. In the latter, on the other hand, most of the innovation is in the business model and/or marketing. Yet, it requires very little technological sophistication, and can be developed without any significant knowledge of computer science or software engineering.
It is important not to confuse between the two concepts. Of course, if a low-tech software company/application reaches a critical mass of users, then it may require re-engineering, and in the process real hi-tech might be needed to move forward.
It appears that as an entrepreneur, it is easier to get rich with the low-tech path. It usually requires a smaller capital investment and the time-to-market is much shorter. On the other hand, IT professionals who prefer to be employees rather than entrepreneurs seem to be better off in the true hi-tech path, as salaries for “real programmers” seem to be 2-4 times higher than for scripting languages and web developers. So ultimately, there is still a payoff for somewhat who is willing to spend 3-4 years studying for a computer science/software engineering degree.