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Fwd: The British Government Is Coming For Your Privacy
by Andrea Trentini July 30, 2023

July 30, 2023

era passato qui? <https://hackaday.com/2023/07/30/the-british-government-is-coming-for-your-p…> -- Andrea Trentini ⠠⠵ http://atrent.it public key ID: 0xA7A91E3B Dip.to di Informatica Università degli Studi di Milano

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Mailing list offline dal 5/8 al 21/8
by Giovanni Garifo July 29, 2023

July 29, 2023

Cari utenti della mailing list, a causa di interventi di manutenzione la mailing list del Centro Nexa rimarrà offline dal 5 al 21 agosto. Ci scusiamo per il disagio e per il breve preavviso. Cordialmente, -- Giovanni Garifo IT Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino - DAUIN Via Pier Carlo Boggio, 65/A - 10138 Torino w. nexa.polito.it/people/ggarifo l. linkedin.com/in/giovannigarifo

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The Indonesian village that wants to cut off the internet | Indonesia | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo July 29, 2023

July 29, 2023

<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/28/the-village-that-wants-to-cut…> Four hours’ drive from the hustle and bustle of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, lies the secluded community of Baduy Dalam, where the trapping of modern life are shunned. The Baduy Dalam people reject money, technology and formal education, and limits tourists – banning any visitors from documenting their life. Now the tribe wants to go one step further, by cutting off the internet. Officials in Indonesia are considering a request from the group for an internet blackout, after they cited concerns over negative impacts on tribe members. The Baduy community in Lebak, Banten province, is made up of two groups, Baduy Dalam and Baduy Luar, totalling about 26,000 people. Baduy Luar people have adopted contemporary ways of living, with some relying on the internet to attract tourists and promote their handcrafts. But a letter from representatives of Baduy Dalam, dated from June and shown to the Guardian by a local official, requests that the authorities remove or divert internet signals supplied by surrounding towers. Baduy Dalam representatives also asked that officials limit, reduce or close down applications that can affect the young generation’s morals. “The existence of phones/smartphones that can be owned by everyone, including Baduy people, is considered to result in the declining morals of our generation that can access non-educating applications and contents,” the letter reads. Lebak official Anik Sakinah said that her office had forwarded the request to Indonesia’s ministry of communications and information. Ministry official Usman Kansong said his office had coordinated with several internet providers operating towers around Baduy Dalam, which were currently conducting field surveys. He also noted concerns of tourists using the internet in the area. “It’s technically feasible, obviously with some treatments such as moving the towers or reducing the signal capacity. We’re still waiting for survey results on what can be done next,” Usman said. Baduy Dalam community location map Steve Saerang, representing one of the providers, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, said it supported the Baduy people’s cultural preservation but believed the internet had positive impacts on the economy. He added that the company had run a field survey but refused to comment further. Sarpin, a Baduy Luar village official and tour guide, said that while he agreed with Baduy Dalam’s request to preserve its tradition, it should not affect the adjacent Baduy Luar and other villages. As well as businesses and tourism, Sarpin said, essential government services relied on the internet. “We are requesting better internet signals. Some areas still don’t have access to the internet. It’s becoming more important for us,” he said by phone. While the world’s largest archipelago has enjoyed rising internet penetration, reaching almost 80% of its 275 million people, an urban-rural divide persists when it comes to access to the web. Endroyono, an information technology and communications expert from Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, said that technically, operators could easily limit access in certain areas. But he suggested that the government also provide education on the positive use of the internet along Baduy Dalam borders to help younger generations cope with the changing world. “Digital divide should be addressed by the government through socio-cultural approaches. Whether we realise it or not, every citizen should benefit from technological advancement and should be protected from its negative excesses,” he said. Dubbed the Amish of Asia, Baduy people inhabit a 5,000ha area, over half of which is protected forest. There are more than 2,000 Indigenous groups with dozens of millions of members in Indonesia, according to the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago, and while they have a big role in nature conservation, they are subject to discrimination and human rights violations, especially in land conflicts. A bill on the recognition and protection of Indigenous people’s rights has stalled since 2012, depriving them of legal certainty, which activists say is fuelled by conflicted business interests.

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watermarking AI-generatet content
by Andrea Bolioli July 28, 2023

July 28, 2023

Buongiorno, condivido un pezzo di newsletter di Andrea Ng sul watermarking dei contenuti generati automaticamente (THE BATCH, 26-07-2023, DeepLearning.AI). Dear friends, Last week, the White House announced voluntary commitments by seven AI companies, as you can read below. Most of the points were sufficiently vague that it seems easy for the White House and the companies to declare success without doing much that they don’t already do. But the commitment to develop mechanisms to ensure that users know when content is AI-generated, such as watermarks, struck me as concrete and actionable. While most of the voluntary commitments are not measurable, this one is. It offers an opportunity, in the near future, to test whether the White House’s presently soft approach to regulation is effective. I was pleasantly surprised that watermarking was on the list. It’s beneficial to society, but it can be costly to implement (in terms of losing users). As I wrote in an earlier letter, watermarking is technically feasible, and I think society would be better off if we knew what content was and wasn’t AI-generated. However, many companies won’t want it. For example, a company that uses a large language model to create marketing content may not want the output to be watermarked, because then readers would know that it was generated by AI. Also, search engines might rank generated content lower than human-written content. Thus, the government’s push to have major generative AI companies watermark their output is a good move. It reduces the competitive pressure to avoid watermarking. All the companies that agreed to the White House’s voluntary commitments employ highly skilled engineers and are highly capable of shipping products, so they should be able to keep this promise. When we look back after three or six months, it will be interesting to see which ones: - Implemented a robust watermarking system - Implemented a weak watermarking system that’s easy to circumvent by, say, paying a fee for watermark-free output - Didn’t implement a system to identify AI-generated content To be fair, I think it would be very difficult to enforce watermarking in open source systems, since users can easily modify the software to turn it off. But I would love to see watermarking implemented in proprietary systems. The companies involved are staffed by honorable people who want to do right by society. I hope they will take the announced commitments seriously and implement them faithfully. I would love to get your thoughts on this as well. How can we collectively hold the U.S. government and AI companies to these commitments? Please let me know on social media! Keep learning, Andrew

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Re: [nexa] LLM (di serie "A"): possibili in Italia/Europa?
by Giuseppe Attardi July 28, 2023

July 28, 2023

Scusate se, rientrando, ritorno su questo tema per fare alcuni chiarimenti. La stima di 10^23 FLOPS, come qualcuno ha capito, è il conto totale dei FLOPS necessari per allenare GPT-3. Si tratta di stime, riportate ad esempio su https://www.hyro.ai/glossary/gpt-3/#:~:text=To%20be%20exact%2C%20GPT%2D3,am…., e riguardano le risorse necessarie per UN SINGOLO run. I costi complessivi delle risorse sono stimati in diverse centinaia di milioni di $, in quanto occorrono diversi run, per non parlare dei modelli successivi, GPT-3.5 (ChatGPT) e GPT-4. E ovviamente le macchine adesso non sono ferme, ma stanno lavorando al prossimo modello, oltre che a fornire accesso al servizio (a pagamento). Prosegue sotto. > On 19 Jul 2023, at 10:37, nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it wrote: > > Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2023 16:07:06 +0200 > From: Damiano Verzulli <damiano(a)verzulli.it <mailto:damiano@verzulli.it>> > To: nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it <mailto:nexa@server-nexa.polito.it> > Subject: [nexa] LLM (di serie "A"): possibili in Italia/Europa? [Era: > nexa Digest, Vol 171, Issue 53] > Message-ID: <737ccbae-8b9c-3adb-542d-259c837ce2ae(a)verzulli.it <mailto:737ccbae-8b9c-3adb-542d-259c837ce2ae@verzulli.it>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed" > > Il 19/07/23 13:30, Giuseppe Attardi ha scritto: >> [...] >> Le risorse di calcolo per costruire GPT-3.5 sono stimate in 10^23 >> FLOPS per un costo di centinaia di milioni di $ >> Meta, per rilasciare i suoi modelli, ha costruito un Research >> Supercluster con 10.000 GPU Nvidia, che secondo Yann LeCun è già in >> overbooking. > > > Leggo da una fonte terza (Wikipedia) che "Leonardo" [1] ormai ha quasi > un anno, è costato 240M€ e di picco fa 250 petaFLOPS (aka: ~10^17), > anche grazie ai suoi 13.824 GPU-core. La questione non è l’esistenza di cluster di server adatti allo sviluppo di LLM: ci sono quelli di Azure, che usa OpenAI, quelli di GCP che usa Google, quelli di AWS, quelli di Nvidia. Il Cineca è solo in parte diverso da questi, in quanto circa metà delle risorse sono concesse in uso a progetti selezionati ed approvati dallo stesso Cineca: https://leonardo-supercomputer.cineca.eu/access-leonardo-hpc-resources/ Attualmente la call è chiusa. Personalmente ho avuto approvato un piccolo progetto, che viene messo in esecuzione con priorità bassa rispetto ad altri. Anche Colab di Google mette a disposizione server con TPU per lo svolgimento di piccoli progetti: i miei studenti lo usano, ma si lamentano del fatto che le risorse non bastano, che i run vengono interrotti improvvisamente e vengono a chiedermi di usare altre risorse. Invece mi è stato rifiutato un progetto più grande per produrre un sistema di Neural Machine Translation multilingue, per uso in una collaborazione con la European Broadcasting Corporation. Per sviluppare LLM o AI allo stato dell’arte, i ricercatori di OpenAI, Google, Meta, X.AI e le nuove startup come Converse.AI o Anthropic AI hanno a disposizione un intero cluster. Ossia come se il Cineca mettesse a disposizione quasi tutto Leonardo per UN SINGOLO progetto o gruppo di progetti! E non sono soggetti all’approvazione di terzi. Quindi dovrebbe essere chi finanzia i progetti a mettere a disposizione le risorse per svolgerli, come fa ad esempio la NSF, fornendo crediti di calcolo cloud, per evitare asincronie e valutazioni separate. https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2021/nsf21058/nsf21058.jsp > > Leggo da altra fonte terza (Top500 [2]) che attualmente (06/2023) > risulta 4° al mondo, come potenza di calcolo. > > Leggo dal sito ufficiale [3] che: > "Leonardo's main goals are [...] The computational power of Leonardo > will boost scientific exellences and industrial strenght across Europe...." > > Non si parla di IA/ML, né si accenna agli LLM. Ma faccio comunque fatica > ad immaginare che queste tonnellate di ferro *NON* possano essere > utilizzate dalla comunita' della ricerca Italiana (...magari, in modo > coordinato con gli altri paesi EU, dove "giocattoli" simili sono > comunque presenti) a questo scopo. Ovviamente non mi aspetto che > parcheggiati davanti al Tecnolopolo ci siano una fila di TAXI, pronti a > scattare all'ordine di Cineca, per "prelevare" i ricercatori in giro per > l'Italia al fine di portarli al Tecnopolo... per conoscere il giocattolo > e iniziare ad usarlo. Come riportato sopra, il Cineca fa le sue call per progetti che utilizzino Leonardo. La gran parte delle risorse vanno ai progetti di fisica alte energie, come si desume dal Rapporto Annuale Cineca 2018. > > Certo: se il dottorando X, o l'assegnista Y (o anche il Ricercatore Z o > il docente K) sentono il bisogno di avere del ferro sul pianerottolo di > fianco al loro studio, in UNIV [come accade in UniPI, ad esempio, con i > sistemi NVIDIA qui discussi, qualche giorno fa]... allora il discorso > cambia... Non so di cosa parli: a UniPI io sono stato responsabile di un server con 4 GPU Nvidia P100 acquistato con fondi comuni di 5 gruppi di ricerca, che è installato nel Green Datacenter di S. Piero a Grado (che ho contribuito a progettare e realizzare), quando Cineca non aveva GPU a disposizione né parlava di ML e AI, ed è usato in condivisione al 100% 24h/365. Tra coloro che usano le mie GPU, ci sono ricercatori del progetto Virgo, che a quel tempo non le trovavano altrove. In generale, ho sempre parlato di un servizio cloud condivisibile con altri ricercatori europei, ma gestito dagli stessi ricercatori del settore, non da altri. Esattamente come il CERN decide da solo quali progetti sviluppare, e magari usa anche le risorse del Cineca, pagandole coi fondi propri. — Beppe PS. Ho avuto un ruolo di consulente del MISE al tempo della decisione di finanziare con 120 milioni € Leonardo, il maggiore finanziamento nazionale di EuroHPC, proprio sostenendo l’importanza di disporre di risorse per AI. > > Un'ultima nota a chiusura: sono cosciente che fra 10^17 e 10^23 c'e' > *MOLTA* differenza (a proposito: qual'e' la fonte di 10^23?). Prima di > preoccuparmi di questo, pero', attenderei di vedere che quei 10^17 > stiano lavorando almeno come 10^16 per un buon periodo di ore/mese. > Dopodiché sarei pronto ad alzare la mano e chiedere qualcosa... di piu' > performante. > > Un saluto, > DV > > > [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_(supercomputer) > [2] https://www.top500.org/lists/top500/2023/06/ > [3] https://leonardo-supercomputer.cineca.eu/ > > -- > Damiano Verzulli > e-mail: damiano(a)verzulli.it <mailto:damiano@verzulli.it> > ---

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Re: [nexa] Rant against centralising e-mail in big-tech silos, and breaking the internet in the process
by Giuseppe Attardi July 28, 2023

July 28, 2023

Sacrosanta protesta. La mia università era tra le poche che fino a pochi anni fa gestiva un proprio servizio di posta per tutto l’ateneo, giustificato anche per il fatto che potesse garantire la consegna delle comunicazioni ufficiali a tutti gli interessati. Poi il nuovo prorettore all’informatica, Antonio Cisternino, ha deciso di trasferire tutto su MS Exchange, e ha anche introdotto un servizio di analisi dei link per contrastare il phishing, affidato a un prodotto commerciale di SonicWall, il quale legge tutte le mail e sostituisce ogni link con un link a un proprio server. Come riportato nel blog, questi link sono illeggibili e lunghissimi: quando ci si clicca, si viene portati sul sito del servizio che lo analizza e poi ridirige all’originale. Ciò è fastidioso perché allunga il tempo per aprire la pagina (una decina di secondi) e influenza anche persone esterne all’università se si fa un forward del messaggio. Ho protestato contro questa operazione, che ritenevo lesiva della privatezza delle comunicazioni, nella lista di discussione del mio dipartimento. Il risultato è stato, che il direttore, pochi minuti dopo, con strana solerzia, in un sabato pomeriggio, mi ha escluso dalla lista. — Beppe > On 1 Jul 2023, at 11:55, nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it wrote: > > From: Enrico Nardelli <nardelli(a)mat.uniroma2.it <mailto:nardelli@mat.uniroma2.it>> > To: Nexa <nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it <mailto:nexa@server-nexa.polito.it>> > Subject: [nexa] Rant against centralising e-mail in big-tech silos, > and breaking the internet in the process > Message-ID: <a0b8adba-ac91-9cff-071c-117cd7b192ca(a)mat.uniroma2.it <mailto:a0b8adba-ac91-9cff-071c-117cd7b192ca@mat.uniroma2.it>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed" > > Universities and research institutes used to be at the forefront when it > comes to development of the fundamental technologies that power the > internet. As early as 1965, researchers at MIT developed a kind of > precursor to e-mail. In 1978, researchers at Berkeley leveraged the > already existing unix tool 'mail' (1971) to communicate over a larger > network. Universities and research institutes were among the first to > embrace this new way to communicate with peers across ever greater > distances and eventually, with the advent of the internet, all over the > globe. > > I'm a rather dismayed to see those universities and institutes nowadays > no longer as pioneers and innovators in this area, but instead as mere > consumers of ready-made corporate solutions, following corporate > interests and centralising solutions. > > ... > > https://proycon.anaproy.nl/posts/rant-against-centralising-e-mail/ > > (è di febbraio, ma non mi sembra di averlo visto passare in lista; mi > scuso qualora fosse successo) > > -- > > -- EN > > https://www.hoepli.it/libro/la-rivoluzione-informatica/9788896069516.html > ====================================================== > Prof. Enrico Nardelli > Presidente di "Informatics Europe" > Direttore del Laboratorio Nazionale "Informatica e Scuola" del CINI > Dipartimento di Matematica - Università di Roma "Tor Vergata" > Via della Ricerca Scientifica snc - 00133 Roma > home page: https://www.mat.uniroma2.it/~nardelli > blog: https://link-and-think.blogspot.it/ > tel: +39 06 7259.4204 fax: +39 06 7259.4699 > mobile: +39 335 590.2331 e-mail: nardelli(a)mat.uniroma2.it <mailto:nardelli@mat.uniroma2.it> > online meeting: https://blue.meet.garr.it/b/enr-y7f-t0q-ont > ======================================================

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Re: [nexa] The Santiago Boys
by maurizio lana July 28, 2023

July 28, 2023

Le Monde Diplomatique appena uscito ha un articolo intitolato «Une multinationale contre Salvador Allende» https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2023/08/MOROZOV/65981 di Evgeny Morozov "auteur de The Santiago Boys, ... , et dont s’inspire cet article" Maurizio DEUX semaines après l’élimination de Salvador Allende et de la démocratie chilienne par le coup d’État sanglant d’Augusto Pinochet, le New York Times reçut tard dans la nuit un appel anonyme. « Notez, recommanda la voix au téléphone, car je ne répéterai pas. » En cette fin septembre 1973, quelque chose d’inouï était sur le point de survenir. « Dans quinze minutes, une bombe explosera dans l’immeuble d’International Telephone & Telegraph. » La cible, connue sous son sigle ITT, n’était pas choisie au hasard : « C’est en représailles des crimes commis par ITT contre le Chili (1). » À l’époque, ce géant de la technologie devenu un conglomérat tentaculaire compte au nombre des plus grandes multinationales de la planète. À son illustre conseil d’administration siègent un ancien directeur de l’Agence centrale de renseignement américaine (CIA) et un ex-président de la Banque mondiale — un casting idéal pour propulser l’un des plus gros contractants de l’armée américaine parmi les principaux profiteurs de la guerre du Vietnam. La compagnie affiche fièrement sa position au sein du complexe militaro-industriel. « Pour voir dans l’obscurité, voyez ITT. La nuit a cessé d’appartenir à la guérilla », proclame une publicité pour ses appareils de vision nocturne diffusée en 1967, l’année même où Ernesto« Che » Guevara est assassiné en Bolivie. La compagnie fait l’objet d’appels au boycott, comme celui dirigé contre le pain industriel produit par une filiale du groupe. « Achetez du pain, achetez des bombes : ITT au Vietnam », titre alors un journal de gauche. La redéfinition du sigle en Imperialism, Treason and Terror (« impérialisme, trahison, terreur ») se répand dans les milieux militants. Mais de là à déposer une bombe en plein Manhattan... L’engin explose finalement à 5 heures 40 du matin au 437 de l’avenue Madison, siège de la branche latino-américaine d’ITT. C’est la troisième attaque perpétrée contre la multinationale en moins de deux semaines, après Rome et Zurich. Et la série ne fait que commencer... À la différence du techlash actuel — terme à la mode pour décrire l’hostilité que provoque la Silicon Valley —, les actions menées contre ITT en 1973 occasionnent plus de dégâts que des tweets indignés. Pour ses détracteurs, le groupe incarne non seulement le capitalisme multinational mais également une puissance autonome, dotée de sa propre politique étrangère, de son propre service d’espionnage et même de son propre personnel politique, un attelage d’anciens militaires, de barbouzes, de diplomates et de journalistes lauréats du prix Pulitzer reconvertis en chargés de relations publiques. ITT semble détenir toutes les prérogatives d’une puissance étatique. D’où le titre du livre paru à son sujet en 1973 : L’État souverain (2). Un jeune avocat nommé Fidel Castro Les accusations de techno-féodalisme qui pleuvent aujourd’hui sur les géants de la Silicon Valley (3) — dépeints comme des seigneurs médiévaux qui décident du sort de leurs usagers — réactualisent en réalité des griefs vieux d’un demi-siècle : même un ouvrage à la gloire d’ITT, paru au début des années 1980 (4), convoquait l’imagerie seigneuriale en invitant ses lecteurs — dès la première page ! — à remonter jusqu’à « l’Europe médiévale des années 1200 » pour inscrire les opérations de la multinationale dans un « contexte féodal ». La comparaison n’est certes pas infondée. Mais elle souffre d’une erreur d’analyse majeure : tous les États ne se ressemblent pas. Et tous n’entretiennent pas les mêmes relations avec les géants de la technologie. Or il suffit d’examiner l’histoire d’ITT pour comprendre que la métamorphose d’un humble opérateur de lignes téléphoniques en mastodonte planétaire fut la conséquence directe de la domination militaire, financière et technologique exercée par un seul et même pays : jamais ITT — ni la Silicon Valley — n’aurait bénéficié d’une croissance aussi phénoménale sans le soutien inconditionnel des États-Unis. Les frères Hernán et Sosthenes Behn fondent ITT en 1920 à New York. À l’origine, l’entreprise leur sert de devanture pour gérer les installations téléphoniques qu’ils détiennent à Porto Rico et à Cuba. Nés à Saint-Thomas, dans les actuelles îles Vierges britanniques, les deux frères connaissent bien les Caraïbes et s’emploient à y attirer les capitaux américains. Les Behn possèdent une petite fortune familiale mais surtout une ambition dévorante. Avant de s’installer à Porto Rico, Sosthenes a travaillé quelques années à Wall Street, où il a noué avec JP Morgan et ce qui deviendrait plus tard la Citibank des liens qui s’avèrent fructueux. Au cours des années 1920, ITT se propage au Mexique, en Uruguay, au Brésil, au Chili, en Argentine et en Espagne. En 1929, elle contrôle les deux tiers des téléphones et la moitié des câbles en Amérique latine (5). Cette extension fulgurante repose sur l’endettement obtenu grâce aux connexions des Behn avec Wall Street. Elle coïncide avec l’effort des États-Unis, alors en pleine ascension comme puissance planétaire, pour évincer les intérêts britanniques d’Amérique latine. Comme le reconnaît l’ancien ministre de la guerre Elihu Root devant un comité du Congrès en 1921 : « Il y a une lutte à mort pour le contrôle des communications sud- américaines. » Sans surprise, les États-Unis la remportent, avec l’aide d’ITT. Selon un compte rendu fascinant publié en 1930, la compagnie des frères Behn « a fait davantage en neuf ans pour briser le monopole britannique sur les communications mondiales que tous les autres groupes et gouvernements réunis durant un demi-siècle (6) ». Ceux qui, plus tard, interpréteront le « i » d’ITT comme l’initiale d’« impérialisme » n’auront pas totalement tort. Dans l’ensemble, la guerre de conquête se déroula sans accroc. Pour s’attirer les faveurs de Washington, de nombreux pays sud-américains déroulèrent le tapis rouge à ITT, l’exemptant même des engagements coûteux généralement demandés aux opérateurs étrangers : investir dans les infrastructures ou éviter toute hausse unilatérale des tarifs. C’est seulement durant la seconde guerre mondiale que les liens entre ITT et Washington commencent à inquiéter certains gouvernements. Le premier souci concerne la sécurité des communications. L’autre tient à la montée du nationalisme économique. Ses représentants les plus fervents, comme Juan Perón en Argentine ou Francisco Franco en Espagne, congédient ITT, non sans lui verser un dédommagement confortable. Devenue entre-temps un fournisseur important de la défense américaine, la multinationale sait que ses jours comme opérateur de lignes téléphoniques sont comptés. Mais elle entend bien céder ses actifs au meilleur prix. En attendant une offre intéressante, ITT presse la poule aux œufs d’or, fait grimper ses tarifs et bloque les investissements. De sorte que le service devient à la fois plus médiocre et plus coûteux. Les populations locales enragent, mais ITT paraît intouchable. Qui oserait nationaliser une entreprise américaine aussi puissante ? Un homme a cette audace. Au début des années 1950, un jeune avocat cubain traîne le groupe devant un tribunal, l’accusant d’avoir trahi ses engagements. Son cabinet gagne le procès, mais le dictateur qui tient alors les rênes de Cuba, Fulgencio Batista, ignore le jugement du tribunal. Le jeune avocat s’appelle Fidel Castro. Il n’oubliera jamais cette humiliation : la filiale cubaine d’ITT sera l’une des premières sociétés étrangères nationalisées au lendemain de la révolution castriste de 1959. Le geste sonnera comme une gifle pour ITT — et comme un présage. Lorsqu’en 1962 le gouverneur d’un État brésilien prend le contrôle d’une de ses filiales locales, la compagnie mobilise ses liens avec Washington contre ce qu’elle présente comme un épisode de la guerre froide — un thème qui refera surface deux ans plus tard à la faveur du coup d’État militaire. Sa campagne de lobbying se révèle fructueuse, puisque le Brésil souffre l’humiliation de devoir payer une compensation exorbitante pour la filiale nationalisée. À la fin des années 1960, l’empire ITT réinvestit les énormes profits tirés de la revente de ses biens en Amérique latine dans des acquisitions de toutes sortes — compagnies d’assurances, hôtels, et même une société de location de voitures. La plupart sont domiciliées sur place et ne courent aucun risque de nationalisation. Au tournant de 1970, les seuls réseaux téléphoniques encore aux mains d’ITT se situent à Porto Rico, base arrière historique de la compagnie, ainsi qu’au Chili, où elle s’était installée en 1927. Les engagements d’ITT auprès de l’État chilien brillent par leur imprécision, en vertu d’un contrat exceptionnellement avantageux pour la compagnie (7). Dans les années 1960, le gouvernement d’Eduardo Frei, un chrétien-démocrate élu en 1964, tente de régler le problème sans faire de vagues, grâce à un plan prévoyant de racheter petit à petit les parts de la filiale locale d’ITT. Mais, pour les opposants de Frei, c’est à la fois trop peu et trop. Le socialiste Allende remporte l’élection présidentielle de 1970 en promettant de nationaliser ITT, d’y remplacer les managers par des ingénieurs et d’étendre le réseau téléphonique dans les zones les plus pauvres du pays. ITT craignait une présidence Allende bien avant 1970. Six ans plus tôt, déjà, l’un des membres de son conseil d’administration, l’ex-directeur de la CIA John McCone, avait pesé de tout son poids pour empêcher l’élection du socialiste chilien. Quelques mois avant le scrutin de 1970, ITT se met en relation avec la CIA et lui propose de l’argent pour faire obstacle à une possible victoire de la gauche. La CIA refuse, n’étant jamais à court de liquidités, ce qui ne décourage pas la compagnie d’arroser copieusement les opposants d’Allende. Après la victoire-surprise de ce dernier, c’est la CIA qui prend langue avec ITT. La compagnie ne pourrait-elle pas mettre l’État chilien sous pression, en refusant par exemple de fournir des pièces détachées ou du personnel de maintenance ? L’objectif de l’Agence consistait, selon les mots de Richard Nixon, à « faire crier l’économie chilienne » pour inciter les militaires à sortir de leurs casernes avant même qu’Allende ait le temps d’inaugurer son mandat. Entre espionnage et finance Cette stratégie tourne court. Une fois au pouvoir, Allende préfère négocier avec la compagnie plutôt que de la nationaliser sur-le-champ, alors que sa base — dont les syndicats de travailleurs d’ITT — réclame des mesures plus radicales. Comble de l’ingénuité, il demande même à l’entreprise de détecter d’éventuels micros au palais présidentiel... En septembre 1971, Allende se ravise et prend le contrôle de la filiale chilienne d’ITT, dont les dirigeants sont arrêtés pour avoir siphonné des profits indus via des sociétés fictives. En retour, la multinationale lance une virulente campagne à Washington. Ayant ses entrées chez le secrétaire d’État Henry Kissinger, elle lui suggère dix-huit mesures à prendre pour déstabiliser le président chilien dans un délai de six mois. Et continue par ailleurs d’encourager la CIA à financer El Mercurio, le principal journal de l’opposition. Au sein même de la compagnie, certains commencent à s’interroger. La presse publie des communications entre sa direction et des membres de l’administration Nixon, poussant le Sénat à mener des auditions pour clarifier l’influence d’ITT sur la politique étrangère américaine (8). Mais l’enquête ne parvient pas à mettre en cause les responsables et nul n’est condamné. Trois mois après, Allende perd la vie dans le coup d’État de Pinochet. Pour ITT, la nationalisation ne fut pas un choc trop rude : peu de temps après le coup d’État, la compagnie reçut 125 millions de dollars de Pinochet en guise d’indemnités, ainsi que 30 millions de la part de l’administration Nixon. En dépit — ou, peut-être, en raison — du rapport non concluant du Sénat américain, les soupçons au sujet du rôle d’ITT au Chili ne cessèrent de croître. Il n’était donc pas illogique que la multinationale représentât une cible toute trouvée pour de nombreux militants. L’inconnu qui avertit le New York Times de la présence d’une bombe au siège d’ITT se revendiquait du Weather Underground, une organisation clandestine d’extrême gauche. Au bout du compte, cette publicité négative indisposa même Porto Rico, foyer historique de la compagnie : en 1974, le territoire décida de racheter la filiale. La compensation massive qui lui fut accordée ne calma pas les esprits : son siège sauta quelques mois après la transaction. Au cours de la majeure partie de son existence, ITT fut le laboratoire d’un modèle d’expansion appelé à faire école, fondé sur les liens avec Wall Street et le Pentagone. Elle fut également pionnière de la mondialisation avec sa vision d’emblée globale et sa maîtrise du conglomérat — même si les synergies entre les filiales les plus hétéroclites relevaient surtout d’astuces comptables. De plus en plus obsédés par les profits à court terme et le cours des actions, ses dirigeants négligèrent les investissements à long terme dans ses services-clés. Là encore, elle fut en avance sur son temps : la plupart des autres compagnies américaines ne succomberaient à pareille tentation qu’à partir des années 1980. ITT, elle, embrassa la financiarisation dès le milieu des années 1960. À l’époque, il pouvait paraître étonnant qu’un manutentionnaire du téléphone travaillant pour la défense préférât racheter des compagnies d’assurances plutôt que d’investir dans la recherche et le développement. Encouragés par leurs amis de la banque Lazard, ses dirigeants réussirent à convaincre Wall Street que leur gloutonnerie s’inscrivait dans une ingénieuse stratégie de diversification. Mais son désir de croissance exponentielle marqua également le début de la fin : elle ne vit pas l’intérêt des recherches longues et coûteuses qui commençaient à fleurir dans la Silicon Valley. Le coup d’État au Chili abîma son image de manière irréversible pour les décennies à venir. Paradoxalement, la proximité d’ITT avec l’État américain et Wall Street — à laquelle elle dut sa prodigieuse croissance initiale — causa son déclin. De cette erreur, les actuels géants de la Silicon Valley, pareillement pris en étau entre espionnage et finance, ne paraissent pas avoir tiré toutes les leçons. EVGENY MOROZOV Auteur de The Santiago Boys, [https://the-santiago-boys.com/] une série de podcasts en neuf épisodes basée sur plus de deux cents entretiens, produite par Chora Media et Post-Utopia, et dont s’inspire cet article. Il 23/07/23 10:25, nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it ha scritto: > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2023 08:51:56 +0200 > From: "J.C. DE MARTIN"<juancarlos.demartin(a)polito.it> > To: Nexa<nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it> > Subject: [nexa] The Santiago Boys > Message-ID:<d068ff21-3db5-8f84-c7c0-08985a7484ef(a)polito.it> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed" > > E' online The Santiago Boys, il nuovo, splendido progetto di Evgeny Morozov: > https://the-santiago-boys.com/ > Qui sotto l'annuncio. > > Inoltre, oggi "La Lettura" dedica quattro pagine (!) all'iniziativa e > ieri il Guardian da pubblicato un articolo a uno dei protagonisti della > storia, Stafford Beer: > https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/22/stafford-beer-chile-allende-t… > > Bravo, Evgeny! > > juan carlos > / > > //The podcast that took 2+ years and 200+ interviews to produce is > finally online!// > // > //You can listen to it on the main podcasting platforms (including > Spotify and Apple Podcasts). // > // > //The website of the Santiago Boys offers plenty of extra materials for > those of you who want to dig deeper: footnotes, backgrounders, sources, > videos, a glossary, and so much else. // > // > //And we are also publishing the interviews with the many people we > interviewed (check out, for example, this interview with Brian Eno where > he talks about Stafford Beer and his own fascination with cybernetics). // > // > //Many thanks to dozens of people who worked on this ambitious project; > you can see all their names here. // > // > //I hope you take a break from the Barbenheimer hyper and spend some > time with the Santiago Boys instead! // > // > //Evgeny Morozov/ > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL:<http://server-nexa.polito.it/pipermail/nexa/attachments/20230723/7c590db9/a…> > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2023 10:07:13 +0200 > From: "Federico Guerrini"<federico.guerrini(a)hushmail.com> > To:nexa@server-nexa.polito.it > Subject: [nexa] Artificial Intelligence: A New Frontier for > Surveillance Capitalism? > Message-ID:<20230723080713.3D66B80E2BB(a)smtp.hushmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > "If you ask Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant AI system, whether > Amazon is a monopoly, it responds by saying it doesn’t know. It > doesn’t take much to make it lambaste the other tech giants, but > it’s silent about its own corporate parent’s misdeeds. When Alexa > responds in this way, it’s obvious that it is putting its > developer’s interests ahead of yours. Usually, though, it’s not so > obvious whom an AI system is serving. To avoid being exploited by > these systems, people will need to learn to approach AI skeptically. > (...) As a security expert and data scientist, we believe that people > who come to rely on these AIs will have to trust them implicitly to > navigate daily life. That means they will need to be sure the AIs > aren’t secretly working for someone else. Across the internet, > devices and services that seem to work for you already secretly work > against you. Smart TVs spy on you. Phone apps collect and sell your > data. Many apps and websites manipulate you through dark patterns, > design elements that deliberately mislead, coerce or deceive website > visitors. This is surveillance capitalism, and AI is shaping up to be > part of it." > "Imagine asking your chatbot to plan your next vacation. Did it choose > a particular airline or hotel chain or restaurant because it was the > best for you or because its maker got a kickback from the businesses? > As with paid results in Google search, newsfeed ads on Facebook and > paid placements on Amazon queries, these paid influences are likely > to get more surreptitious over time. > > If you’re asking your chatbot for political information, are the > results skewed by the politics of the corporation that owns the > chatbot? Or the candidate who paid it the most money? Or even the > views of the demographic of the people whose data was used in > training the model? Is your AI agent secretly a double agent? Right > now, there is no way to know." > https://theconversation.com/can-you-trust-ai-heres-why-you-shouldnt-209283 > > Ciao, > > Federico > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL:<http://server-nexa.polito.it/pipermail/nexa/attachments/20230723/945774f2/a…> > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2023 10:24:58 +0200 > From: "J.C. DE MARTIN"<juancarlos.demartin(a)polito.it> > To: Nexa<nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it> > Subject: [nexa] RFC "Reflections on Ten Years Past the Snowden > Revelations" > Message-ID:<f2d5a90c-b839-e654-20b7-369919bf9ff9(a)polito.it> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed" > > RFC 9446 > *Reflections on Ten Years Past the Snowden Revelations** > * > > Stream: > Independent Submission > RFC: > 9446 > Category: > Informational > Published: > July 2023 > ISSN: > 2070-1721 > Authors: > S. Farrell > Trinity College, Dublin > F. Badii > Digital Medusa > B. Schneier > Harvard University > S. M. Bellovin > Columbia University > > *Abstract** > * > This memo contains the thoughts and recountings of events that > transpired during and after the release of information about the United > States National Security Agency (NSA) by Edward Snowden in 2013. There > are four perspectives: that of someone who was involved with sifting > through the information to responsibly inform the public, that of a > security area director of the IETF, that of a human rights expert, and > that of a computer science and affiliate law professor. The purpose of > this memo is to provide some historical perspective, while at the same > time offering a view as to what security and privacy challenges the > technical community should consider. These essays do not represent a > consensus view, but that of the individual authors. > > https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9446.html > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL:<http://server-nexa.polito.it/pipermail/nexa/attachments/20230723/1c545016/a…> > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > _______________________________________________ > nexa mailing list > nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it > https://server-nexa.polito.it/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nexa > > > ------------------------------ > > End of nexa Digest, Vol 171, Issue 63 > ************************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------------ quanti nella loro vita / si fecero custodi delle Termopili, / sono degni di più grande onore / se prevedono (e molti lo prevedono) / che all’ultimo comparirà un Efialte / e comunque i Persiani passeranno Kostantinos Kavafis, Termopili ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maurizio Lana Università del Piemonte Orientale Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici Piazza Roma 36 - 13100 Vercelli

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Never mind the delivery..
by Luigi Scorca July 26, 2023

July 26, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/never-mind-the-delivery-more-online-consumers-…

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Traduzione inglese dell'articolo "L’esperienza del Centro Nexa su internet e società" | A&RT - Atti e Rassegna Tecnica | Di Juan Carlos De Martin e Marco Ricolfi
by Nexa Media July 25, 2023

July 25, 2023

Gentilissime, gentilissimi, Vi segnaliamo che è disponibile online (open access) la *traduzione inglese* dell'articolo "L’esperienza del Centro Nexa su internet e società" <http://art.siat.torino.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/A_RT_LXXVI-demartin-ri…>, scritto dai co-fondatori e co-direttori del Centro Nexa *Juan Carlos De Martin* e *Marco Ricolfi*, e pubblicato all'interno del numero speciale LXXVI, 1-2-3 - Cultura tecnica e cultura umanistica. Il caso torinese <http://art.siat.torino.it/lxxvi/> della rivista*A&RT - Atti e Rassegna Tecnica*, la rivista della Società degli Ingegnerie degli Architetti in Torino (SIAT). Leggi la traduzione integrale e aggiornata dell'articolo al seguente link: https://nexa.polito.it/the-first-15-years-of-the-Nexa-Center-for-Internet-a… Grazie per l'attenzione, Cordiali saluti, <https://nexa.polito.it/articolo-esperienza-centronexa-demartin-ricolfi> -- Anita Botta Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino – DAUIN Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 - 10129 Torino web: https://nexa.polito.it/ mail: anita.botta(a)polito.it tel: 011 090 7219

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Re: [nexa] “Emergence” isn’t an explanation, it’s a prayer. A critique of Emergentism in Artificial Intelligence
by Giuseppe Attardi July 25, 2023

July 25, 2023

Nei LLM, il concetto di "emergent ability” ha una definizione precisa: An ability that is “not present in small models but is present in large models.” https://www.jasonwei.net/blog/emergence Non mi pare che in questo contesto sia mai stata considerato di: "use it as a hypothesis to predict the outcome of a complex, unknown system, with the hope that a desired property will emerge;” Che il comportamento sorprendente e non facilmente spiegabile dei LLM, vada oltre le capacità per cui sono stati allenati, è un fatto appurato anche se controverso. Ne ho parlato con Giorgio Parisi, che sul tema dei sistemi complessi ha vinto il premio Nobel, e ha concordato con me che il fenomeno possa essere appunto spiegato come l’applicazione su larga scala di una semplice legge di probabilità: in questo caso la probabilità delle prossima parola in una sequenza. — Beppe > On 19 Jul 2023, at 10:37, nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it wrote: > > Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2023 14:36:59 +0000 > From: Daniela Tafani <daniela.tafani(a)unipi.it <mailto:daniela.tafani@unipi.it>> > To: "nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it <mailto:nexa@server-nexa.polito.it>" <nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it <mailto:nexa@server-nexa.polito.it>> > Subject: [nexa] “Emergence” isn’t an explanation, it’s a > prayer. A critique of Emergentism in Artificial Intelligence > Message-ID: <8aced3bd15f24f548084f82dbf280719(a)unipi.it <mailto:8aced3bd15f24f548084f82dbf280719@unipi.it>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" > > “Emergence” isn’t an explanation, it’s a prayer > A critique of Emergentism in Artificial Intelligence > <https://ykulbashian.medium.com/?source=post_page-----ef239d3687bf----------…> > [cardboarddreams] > > Emergence is the notion that in a complex system, the interactions of the whole may exhibit properties that are not present in the individual parts. It is most often applied to examples in physics and nature, such as the collective behaviours of ant colonies, the self-organizing principles of social groups, or the macro properties of molecules. In the last few decades, it has given rise to emergentist perspectives of human cognition<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1756-8765.2010.01116.x>, and even of consciousness<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7597170/>. These are based on the recognition that the complexities and mysteries of the human mind, being a part of nature, may be characterized as emergent phenomena. > > This approach has an intuitive appeal. It is supported by the superficial facts: the brain — the source of intelligence and consciousness— is most certainly a complex of interconnected neurons. Emergentist interpretations of human behaviour may also boast some recent wins—the proliferation of LLMs (e.g. ChatGPT) may be seen as one such success. This has reignited the discussion of whether emergence is the best way to frame intelligence. > > You may have noticed that the last paragraph switched between two subtly different uses of “emergence”. The first use was to describe an observed emergent property; consciousness, we have seen it, likely emerges out of neuronal interactions. The second was to use it as a hypothesis to predict the outcome of a complex, unknown system, with the hope that a desired property will emerge; e.g. intelligence will arise from the interactions of artificial neurons at scale. The latter example is the driving motivation behind the multi-million dollar Human Brain Project<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Brain_Project>. The project justifies its cost by leaning on evidence from observed instances of emergence. Doing so paints emergence as a theory; that is, existing observations can be used to justify future predictions. > > But emergence is not a theory. Emergence can only be ascribed to a phenomenon in retrospect, once you already know what has “emerged”. The higher-level properties that emerge are qualitatively different from those at the lower-level — otherwise it wouldn’t be “emergence”. So by necessity they could not have been predicted from the lower-level ones. The properties of “intelligence” could not have been logically foreseen from the properties of neurons unless you had already observed that property emerge in a similar substrate. And even then it’s just a guess that is likely to be wrong given the complexity of the interactions involved; small differences can easily invalidate the hypothesis. In both cases emergence gives no new information: when explaining existing examples it gives you no new insights about the processes except that they happen; and when predicting unknown behaviours it gives very poor guarantees that anything you expect to happen will do so. > > Emergence is only really valid as a general metaphysical classification of certain phenomena. It’s a metaphysical category, like “cause”, “effect” or “change”. Using the word when explaining cognition is not wrong per se, it just has no real meaning or explanatory force. It’s like having a theory of “thing-happened-ness” — it’s correct, but void of content. Take, for example, the following quotes from a review article on emergence: > > This process gives rise to an emergent tendency to facilitate perception of items consistent with the patterns of English orthography, without explicitly representing this knowledge in a system of rules, as in other approaches. > > … > > However, such modes of thought themselves might be viewed as emergent consequences of a lifetime of thought-structuring practice supported by culture and education. > > Emergence in Cognitive Science, McClelland<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1756-8765.2010.01116.x> > > If you removed the word “emergent” from the above two sentences, would anything important change? Indeed any sentence that includes “emergent” would give the same information if you removed it; “it gives rise to emergent properties” means the same as “it gives rise to properties”, or “there is an emergent tendency” is not substantially different from “there is a tendency”. > > Adding “emergent” to any sentence doesn’t increase its useful information content.¹ > > Emergence has no information that fundamentally differentiates it from a “miracle”. If I were to say that applying transformers<https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762> to Neural Networks creates intelligence through a miracle, I would be ridiculed. Were I to say that they create intelligence through emergent interactions, suddenly they gain an air of scientific credibility — but what have I added to the conversation with the use of that word? What quantifiable scientific facts are entailed in the term “emergent”? There are none. > > In cognitive science, emergence is regularly used to “explain” the connection between two phenomena, when it is otherwise complex and difficult to predict: e.g. how neuronal firing gives rise to consciousness, or transformers to the appearance of language comprehension. Where there may be a connection, but nothing more is known or can be proved, emergence is a placeholder that fills the gap. The word gives weight and gravitas to what is essentially a blank space. > > Despite emergence contributing nothing of substance to the discussion, as a concept it admittedly has a compelling intuitive appeal. There is a wonderful feeling about the notion of emergence. It does seem to be adding something valuable, as if you’ve discovered a magical ingredient by which you can explain mysterious phenomena. That’s the reason it continues to be popular, and gets inserted into scientific discussions. It convinces the listener that something has been explained with scientific rigour when all we’ve done is to say “it’s complicated”. > > Besides the good feeling, however, emergence is void of any explanatory power. And so it has no scientific value in a predictive capacity. You can’t use it to say anything about what an unknown system will do; only what you hope it will do. When applied to pie-in-the-sky AI futurism, emergence has become synonymous with “I’m sure the system will work itself out”. It indicates that the author has a feeling that a complex system will align at some point, but no clear sense of how, why, or when. Insofar as intelligence does manifest in a specific instance, “emergence” doesn’t tell us anything interesting about how it happened. And insofar as intelligence hasn’t yet manifested, emergence doesn’t tell us when it will or what direction to take to get there. > > In the field of AI development, emergence is invoked whenever someone encounters a phenomenon in the human mind and has no idea how to even start explaining it (e.g. art, socialization, empathy, transcendental aesthetics, DnD, etc). If said researcher already has a working theory of AI, this realization is disheartening. So they look deeper into the matter, find some point of overlap between the existing theory and the missing behaviour, and assume that with enough time and complexity the missing pieces will emerge. > > Emergence is attractive in such cases because it puts the author’s mind at ease, by making it seem like they have a viable mechanism that only needs more time to be vindicated. It placates their inner watchdog, the one that demands concrete, scientific explanations. Emergence, being related to complexity and superficially validated by experiments such as Conway’s Game of Life, is enough to lull that watchdog back to sleep. > > This justifies continuing to ignore any shortcomings in a theoretical model, and persisting on the current path. Like the proverbial man who searches for his lost keys under the lamplight, because that is where the light is, he hopes that with enough persistence his keys will “emerge”. The only other alternative is to admit failure, and to give up any hope of accomplishing what you want within this lifetime. > > Scientists, it seems, can have superstitions too. And emergence has a powerful narcotic effect: it feels so reasonable and credible on a gut level². There are many factors that prevent a given researcher from investigating emergence too deeply and realizing that it lacks any substance. First, there appears to be a lot of external evidence to back it up in the natural world. This, as was pointed out, equivocates between retrospective and prospective uses of the term, and so legitimate uses are being conscripted to justify the illegitimate ones. Secondly, the fact that emergence exclusively concerns itself with intractably complex systems means anything behind its curtain by definition can’t be studied. So it conveniently excludes itself from exactly that analysis which would reveal it to be hollow. > > In the end emergence isn’t an explanation; it’s an observation combined with a recognition of ignorance. Wherever emergence shows up there is an implicit acceptance that everyone involved is at a loss for how to approach the topic. It’s not that properties like intelligence won’t emerge from neural activity, it’s that emergence is a placeholder that justifies and promotes a lack of interest in exploring the details behind the connection. It discourages investigation. By invoking the term, we are merely thanking the nature gods for granting us this emergent property (aka property), and trying not to examine their gifts too profanely or with ingratitude. This impulse is understandable, since we don’t think we’ll discover an answer if we were to dig in. But we shouldn’t allow our insecurities to masquerade as science, or else they may become ingrained to the extent that they are difficult to uproot. A false answer stands in the way of a true one. > > ¹ This used to say ‘You can remove “emergent” from any sentence and it would mean the same thing’, but that has caused some confusion, so to clarify: the word “emergent” when used as an adjective doesn’t add new or useful information; you won’t know any more about the subject than you did before. > > ² A self-aware researcher should notice if they have a strong intuitive or emotional reason for holding on to the idea. If you ever feel that emergence is so self-evident that it can never be disproved, that should give you pause — perhaps you have strayed outside the bounds of scientific inquiry and into metaphysical expositions. Not that there’s anything wrong with the latter… > > > https://ykulbashian.medium.com/emergence-isnt-an-explanation-it-s-a-prayer-…

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