[conspire] (forw) [OCLUG] Why Do Keynote Speakers Keep Suggesting That Improving Security Is Possible?

[Rick Moen]

Actually, I knew this would be awesome, the moment I saw the name 'James
Mickens'.  Because for five years, he's been legendary for his essay
'The Slow Winter', online here:
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mickens/files/theslowwinter.pdf

  [...]
  The point is that flying in airplanes used to be fun, but now 
  it resembles a dystopian bin-packing problem in which humans, 
  carry-on luggage, and five dollar peanut bags compete for real
  estate while crying children materialize from the ether and make 
  obscure demands in unintelligible, Wookie-like languages while 
  you fantasize about who you won’t be helping when the oxygen masks 
  descend.
  [...]

Been there.  Done that.  (And I believe 'Dystopian Bin-Packing Problem'
is my next garage band.)

Anyhow, yeah, watch da flick^w clip.  He questions some things that were
overdue.  E.g., machine learning!  Yeah, man!  Awesome sauce!  It'll give 
everyone flying cars and chrome trousers!  Trust me!


----- Forwarded message from Kyle Terrien <kyleterrien at gmail.com> -----

Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2018 21:42:43 -0700
From: Kyle Terrien <kyleterrien at gmail.com>
To: oclug at mailman.oclug.org
Subject: [OCLUG] Why Do Keynote Speakers Keep Suggesting That Improving
	Security Is Possible?
X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.16.0 (GTK+ 2.24.31; x86_64-slackware-linux-gnu)

I think I found a keynote talk you all would like.

Q: Why Do Keynote Speakers Keep Suggesting That Improving Security Is
Possible?
A: Because Keynote Speakers Make Bad Life Decisions and Are Poor Role
Models
James Mickens, Harvard University

https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity18/presentation/mickens

The talk is about the (faulty) assumptions of the “Technological
Manifest Destiny.”  In it, the speaker explores the cost of hooking up
AI to mission critical systems, how AI agents can become racist, and
how Q*Bert can find the deepest valley on a surface plot graphing
error.

My take on this from a public speaking point of view: this guy is very
entertaining.  He ties in stories about dealing with pushy magicians,
AIs becoming prejudiced by their trainers, and a rather goofy
graphical demonstration involving Q*Bert.  This is the kind of guy you
want at your tech talks.

I laughed so hard I hyperventilated.  I don’t think I laughed that
hard for that long since I watched “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”  Don’t
drink soda while watching.  You will regret it.

Enjoy,
--Kyle


-- 
You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough
other people get what they want.
	-- Zig Ziglar


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