Augmented reality has been around Smriti 2 million years!

An interesting article by Bill Davidow ..... are you just a machine? 

would be interested in your views 

By William Davidow

Author—The Autonomous Revolution—Reclaiming the Future We’ve Sold to Machines

Hominids have inhabited virtual space for over two million years. Using the tool of virtual space, the homo species became the dominant species on earth. 

Evolution provided hominids with virtual space to facilitate their survival, ability to create human society, and to improve the quality of their lives. Virtual space provided them with greatly increased access to knowledge and new forms of fascinating entertainment. 

Augmented reality was a key component of the experience.

So, let’s examine the virtual space nature created.

If a tree falls in the wilderness and there is no one there to hear it, it does not make a sound. 

If no one is in an art gallery, the paintings have no colors. 

If a perfume bottle is open and there is no one nearby to smell it, it has no scent. 

Sounds, colors, smells, tastes, and hotness are only there if they are being observed. They do not exist in the physical world. They are creations of our senses and brains. 

Our senses sense the wavelength of light reflected by the object we are observing, not its color. Those wavelengths impinge on the cone cells in our retina that are sensitive to different wavelengths of light. 

If one is observing a lemon, adjacent red and green cones are activated. Our brain processes those signals coming from adjacent cones and creates the color yellow in our brain.[i] 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s, 1910 still-life of yellow lemons and a cup is a colorless piece of canvas if no one is observing it.

In the physical world, there is no music, only sound waves. Our brains create the perception of music. Our brains create the pain we feel when we touch a heated surface. That pain is an interpretation of what our senses feel which is rapidly vibrating molecules.

Just think of it, when our senses add colors to a painting or turn a sound wave into music, our brains are augmenting reality. Augmented reality has been with us for two million years, not twenty.   

Our virtual space plays a key role in our relationships and enhances our ability to survive. 

Verbal communication facilitates relationships, enables us to organize group activity, and enhances our ability to respond to threats. Verbal communication depends on our ability to use our vocal cords to create sound waves and the ability of our senses to convert those vibrations into sounds our brains can interpret as language.

Language made it possible to organize group activities and communicate abstract ideas. Language played a key role in making humans the world’s dominant species.

Language greatly increased our access to knowledge. 

Before writing and the internet, it helped people learn from one another, made it possible to gain knowledge of what was happening in distant locations, and share history. 

Virtual space also provided new forms of entertainment. 

Language made it possible to tell stories. Music and singing all depend on our ability to hear. Colors make art more beautiful and meaningful. 

Virtual space is a mental tool, not unlike physical tools such as a hammer, knife, or fire, that put mankind in charge of the world.

 So, since birth you have been living in a simulated world—a virtual space. Of course, since we have always lived in virtual space, we thought it was real and never bothered to give it a name like “virtual space.” Today we are so confused about the virtual space we live in that we call it the real world.

Recently, mankind claimed to have invented virtual space. 

The espoused goals of its inventers were to make the world a more prosperous and better place, provide us with instant access to the world’s information, and provide us with new forms of fascinating experiences—just like nature’s form of virtual space has been doing for two million years.

The inventors of the new virtual space sincerely believe they have invented something entirely new rather than an information technology enhanced and deeply flawed version of a two-million-year-old invention. 

Nature’s tried and true virtual space came up with a system that made hominin survival possible for two million years. It accomplished that remarkable feat by unselfishly providing mankind with tools that served his survival needs.

 If the new virtual space, with less noble values, is going to be around for the next two million years, it has a lot to learn from the great job nature has done.

The Grand Old Lady is returning to become “the Jewel of Sydney Harbour

Matt O’Sullivan of the #SMH this morning shared the announcement from Transport Minister Andrew Constance who proudly stated  that The Lady Northcott will be returning to grace herself on  the harbour once again after retiring gracefully from her ferry service in 2017. The Minister said 

“The Lady will not only be great for tourists and locals, but she will provide Aboriginal youth with specialised training programs while out on the water.” 

Shane Phillips, Chief Executive of Tribal Warrior says that they have been given the honour to refurbish and repurpose the Lady to be the Jewel of the Harbour - giving cultural tours and showcasing Aboriginal culture on the waterways of Sydney! 

Tribal Warrior is a Redfern Charity which has an amazing history and a track record of mentoring many young Aboriginal people who went on to secure permanent positions in the maritime industry.

The Lady has accumulated many passionate  supporters over the past 40 years - including  over over 20 engineers, deckhands and Masters who have created  a Whatsapp Group called “friends of Lady Northcott” and the “Yarning Circle’s #bbgforum” who have worked with Tribal Warriors to make this dream come true! 

Graeme Taylor, from community group Action for Public Transport, said the return of the Lady Northcott to Sydney Harbour was a “win-win for everyone”.

“The boat is as solid as Fort Denison,” he said. “The Lady-class ferries were an integral part of the image of the city. They were enormously popular and carried millions of passengers during their working lives.”

Shane Phillips Chief Executive of Tribal Warriors said 

“Through cultural tours of Sydney Harbour, we want the Lady to bring people of Sydney together as a community and create a legacy - so that our children will tell the story. Let’s prove we can do this as a community - by our actions - and help this  Lady to be a Vessel  for us to give back to the City of Sydney.” 

Shane saying  Thank You to the  Friends  of Lady Northcott and the Yarning Circle .

Sydney Morning Heralds article this morning 

“One of Sydney’s last grand dames set to return to harbour https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/one-of-sydney-s-last-grand-dames-set-to-return-to-harbour-20210115-p56uhi.html”

The Power of sharing Stories at our Diversity Equity and Inclusion #bbgforum - our “Yarning Circle”

May 2021 

April 2021

Inspiration at the same firm for 40 years - is it possible in the Nexttech Revolution

Congratulations Hazel Lerman 

It is very seldom these days for someone to be at the same firm for 40 years!

There is some serious magic in this video!

What is the magic formula that will enable a firm to continually enthuse, engage and inspire their biggest asset.... the right people .... to stay and grow with them?

The average millennial will now have 20-30 jobs and a number of career changes over hos/her/their life! 

What do you need to do  to stay relevant in the #nexttechrevolution ?

You need to be up to date with the rapid changes that are happenning - 

• You need to continually learn.
• You need to build your network of alliance partners that you know like and trust
• You need to give back
• You need to have a spirit of generosity

You need to be a lifelong learner

The Nexttech Revolution in the Financial Services Sector

The financial services is in the process of major disruption - where those that will survive will need to shift from being  product-centric to customer-centric. 

Maybe a solution is for them to  partner with data-centric tech firms whose core focus is on the customer.

These data-centric tech firms (DCTF) lack the legacy, invest in new technologies, and understand how best to manipulate data to deliver positive commercial outcomes for the customer.

They can hold and process volumes of data far more efficiently than financial institutions, with this efficiency increasing exponentially - faster than Moore’s law!

The banks have something that DCTFs want -  strong existing customer bases, which trust them to safely and securely hold their money and their most sensitive data. 

A financial institution working with a DCTF to combine elements of the traditional supply chain into a single integrated delivery platform will be deadly and potentially solve a wicked problem! 

Let’s create the “Nexttech  Financial Services  Forum” which will explore strategies to connect DCTFs with financial institutions and help negotiate this positive change - to  shift them from a product-centric to a customer-centric delivery model, and investigate new ways to provide personalized services for clients and customers.

What banks need to do to add massive value 

• Have a mindset of collaboration and Embrace partnership. Hyperscales have the funding, scale and capacity to support and accelerate the transformation of legacy businesses. They focus on a frictionless customer experiences

• Educate senior leadership. The financial institutions’ C-suite leaders must develop an understanding of new and evolving technologies, such as cloud. Only with this clarity of knowledge around critical technologies can leaders best evaluate the opportunities that these technologies present, their potential impacts to business and operating models, and the best strategic direction for the organization.
• Consider the impacts and implications of new technologies on the business model, the financial institutions will have to disrupt and transform - this will be done through collaboration with hyperscales. Maybe create financial services and technology forums - where they cam intersect and explore  new services, products and markets, empowered by access to the right data and APIs and a focus on the customer 
• Improve the storage of legacy data by working with technology firms or collaborating with fintech cloud providers. Maybe Blockchain solutions to avoid holding data? 

Inspired by a KPMG article https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2018/02/tech-giants-in-financial-services-fs.htmlwritten by Anton Ruddenklau - global co-leader of fintech at KPMG 

Sense of Belonging

Kala Phillips talks to Desi Australia - a multicultural magazine for the Indi- Australian community 

 https://www.desiaustralia.com/sense-of-belonging/

Every day I continue to navigate a world that has been both fundamentally changed by recent events and is now making a more intentional effort to end systemic racism, discrimination by religion, colour, race, gender or sexual orientation, social injustice, and inequality. It is my hope that we start thinking of ourselves as global citizens and as a human race.

There are millions of languages, religions, races, castes, cultures but the common thread between us all no matter where we come from is that we are human. Diversity leads to differences, some of us make the effort to tolerate and accept, others work on inclusive practices, but we need to enable a sense of belonging.

As migrants and now citizens, we live in a lucky country where endless opportunities lead to life changing journeys. We have the ability to do what we love, learn without limitations and adapt what is authentic and inspirational to us. We bring with us our rich tradition and heritage, and we also embrace the new future, its wonderful history and where we will be forming our next generations.

The last 16 years, I have tried to learn new cultures, walked a mile in someone else’s shoes and listened to someone else’s story that changed my perception of a whole community. It has made me see others through a different lens, given me peace and purpose, made me more grateful for my life and family, and allowed me to give back to the less fortunate.

I am part of a forum called “The Yarning Circle ” where we founding members are from all walks of life – First Australians, LGBTQI+, women, migrants, refugees, or physically challenged. We work for the community and for change. One of my projects is to listen to the stories of some incarcerated women, who suffered years of domestic violence and out of desperation they committed crime. I found purpose in helping them to find a job, to be financially independent and gain their dignity. 

My perception of them changed when I walked a mile in their shoes. I knew I had to UNLEARN my presumptions and hear their stories.

“We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion.”—Max de Pree

It’s all about lifelong learning in the Nexttech Revolution

An article by Marc Tucker. What “Building Back Better” Might Mean for Education and Job Training in the United States - NCEE has given us food for thought and initiated some interesting discussion amongst our “i4j brains trust!” Initiated by Miriam Freedman and Curt Carlson 

Summary 

• The education system has to change to accomodate Nexttech Revolution
• The winners and losers of the post covid era
• Other countries overtaken USA in quality of education 
• Where to from here - what we need to do to change this paradigm 

Some Questions

Is the attack on merit, hard work, and achievement. universities and all K-12 schools killing our country? 

Is the USA fiddling while the world is moving forward? 

Is the existing education system adequate? 

Do we need a New education system designed to providing competence and meet the needs for the Nexttech Revolution - and not the  industrial economy for which it was designed a century ago? 

Does the USA have a problem - and does it start at building competence at schools? Is the USA “losing the war” or merely destroying itself? 

What is competence in the Nexttech Revolution?

What do we have to teach our kids and our existing workforce? 

Is the education system of our schools that have been optimised for the industrial Revolution still relevant? 

Does our existing system achieve this competence during the precious few hours that we have in school for about 180 days a year (pre-COVID. Now, so many fewer....)?

The Solution - cater for the lifelong learners (all of us) - make them competent 

We have a choice. Advance globalization and automation and increase the skills of our workforce or have a lower standard of living.

Upskilling and reskilling our Students, Citizens and Nation  - and “making them competent” should br front and centre” when forming our educational policy.

We know there will be and continue to be massive changes in the way we do things - and what we know now will be redundant soon .... and that the average millennial will probably have 17 different jobs in a variety of “different professions”  - so what do we need to do to educate ourselves - how do we equip ourselves and make us competent for the future .

The answer , my friends, is to make you competent to become a lifelong learner . 

Teaching and learning real knowledge and skills so students become competent to cope in the Nexttech Revolution - should be a primary focus for all students--we need to get back to our roots of teaching,  learning and competence.

Doing a 4 year course at university learning a trade or profession  - when that competence will be different and superseded in a few years - needs to change

Do we need to learn how to learn?

Marc Tucker talks about the winners and the losers in the Nexttech Revolution - which will be beyond borders .

2 types of workers post pandemic the winners and the losers 

The winners

Those that work from home - seamlessly - with computers snd tech - highly educated and technically adept

Productivity up - time saved commuting 

Pollution down

Traffic better

Moving to holiday homes in country and working remotely ;from anywhere on the world)

Automation will increase the demand for the educated 

Those with a high degree of technical skill to their jobs Will  be using automation and intelligent technologies to make them  more productive. 

Health care workers, caregivers,  hair stylist—are not going to be replaced anytime soon by someone at the other end of an internet connection.

The losers 

Those with minimal education and little technical education - decimated by covid 19 

• Workers in  restaurants as cooks, servers and dishwashers; 
• clerks and cashiers; inventory takers, pitchers and packers, stickers and fitters; n malls and department stores as stockers 
• Assembly line workers in factories 
• cruise ships - bar keepers,  cleaners, crew and entertainers. 
•  Drivers - trucks, limos, Uber’s  and taxis, 
•  Carers of our kids in child care centers
• Miners 
• Farmers 
• Pickers and packers on farms 
• Butchers 

Many of these humans have been decimated by COVID-19, many lost their jobs and can’t find other ones.  

Many of the jobs they lost will not be coming back, now or ever.  

The truth of it is that this was always going to happen and covid-19 just accelerated the process - Automation , AI VR and machine learning , outsourcing to other countries - for more efficient production 

Restaurants will come back, but a growing number will have iPad terminals for customers to place their orders and automated machines preparing the food. 

Machines don’t require social distancing and special air conditioning and will not sue if the company is not strictly following CDC recommendations. 

Many that served the commuters will simply disappear. We will get self-driving trucks and self-driving cars,

Millions of workers will be put out of work by automated machines.

Will companies invest in hiring people back to do the work or buy machines that will do it?

Education and learning in the USA and the global stat of play 

According to an analysis of data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) done by the Educational Testing Service, the basic skills of millennials in the American workforce are the lowest or tied for lowest among all the countries they surveyed. 

Workers in the United States are now competing with countries in Asia whose workforces were largely illiterate 40 years ago, but whose high school graduates leave high school now with the equivalent of as much as two-and-one-half years more education than our high school graduates. 

The USA high school vocational education system has almost vanished. 

The USA community colleges have adjusted to the poor performance of their  high school graduates by offering a curriculum that would be regarded as a high school curriculum by the standards of any country leading the OECD league tables. 

The quality of the technical training available in most of USA community colleges is far behind the quality of vocational education in Switzerland, Singapore and many other countries.  

USA firms are investing much less in staff training than they used to. 

The US Army, which was once a major source of middle-level technical skills for the whole country when young people were being drafted, now keeps the people it trains, so they are no longer available to the civilian economy.

Competition from off shore 

Young people in countries on the other side of the world are better educated and more than willing to work for much less, because their wages will go much farther there than they will here. 

The internet has made  it possible for well-educated people in those countries to work for American firms without leaving either their country or their home. 

Those people in those other countries who are better educated will be coming for USA  jobs - And they won’t have to move.

Competition from automation 

There have been stunning advances in natural language processing, machine learning, sensing, the ability of the machines to handle things that are fragile and more. 

Machines  can now write music, stories, and news reports and invest money and destroy military targets and drive trucks and mine ore and cook food in ways that rival the best that humans can do

But the American education and job training system. And the performance metrics has stayed the same  while one country after another plows right past us.

What the USA needs to do to change this paradigm 

Marc Tucker’s conclusion

“My message to the Biden administration - 

Make it possible for millions of unemployed people to get the training from the nations’ community colleges and other providers that will make them more attractive to employers offering jobs and, while you are doing it, give them the income support they and their families will need to stay afloat while they are in training.”

Almost all the growth in employment from now on will be in high- skill, high-wage jobs. That is impossible to do with the education and job training system we have.  

We need to create the kind of education and training system the country needs in the long-term to build widely shared prosperity for everyone.

Put in place the  key elements of the continuous lifelong learning system that we will need to move forward. 

Tags: education policy, globalization, politics, system design, workforce