Hans Lovejoy
  • Home
  • Music
  • Journalism
  • Editorials
  • Consultancy
  • Contact

Enviromotional science

30/4/2012

0 Comments

 
The climate change debate has reached biblical proportions. What that means is that it’s now pursued with religious fervour,

and often teeters on the evangelical. Climate change is so divisive it means that emotions run high, so let’s call it being enviromotional. With a topic this complex it is no surprise; climate science can never be definitive, nor can sceptics claim to know any better. This was demonstrated on last Thursday’s Q&A and climate change documentary on ABC TV. Environmental campaigner Anna Rose and former Liberal science minister Nick Minchin travelled the globe – chalking up carbon emissions – to see if they could change each other’s minds on the climate. They presented each other with who they considered experts on the topic.

Minchin won the enviromotional award: some of his camp appeared both aggressive and suspicious. Perth-based sceptics Jo Nova and David Evans even employed their own cameraman to film the ABC for fear of being misrepresented.

While at least both sides agree the Earth is warming, the difference of course is whether or not it is man-made. But does it even matter? The real point is about economics. Minchin says there is no empirical evidence and that climate change policies will have enormous implications for the resource sector. He says Australia has an economic advantage because of ‘our access to cheap reliable coal’. He wants nuclear and coal-seam gas fracking too, presumably because it will meet our energy needs and will give us a job.

This argument is between those who believe economic salvation lies in free-market practices, whether they be renewable or not, and those who want our species to adapt to less-polluting energy sources.

Interestingly Rose claimed the people that Minchin introduced to her were almost all connected to the US conservative think tank, the Heartland Institute, which is funded largely by big oil and tobacco.

From Q&A’s panel discussion, the prediction was made that both the US and China believe that coal will be more expensive to produce than solar energy in only a matter of years. Another is that base-load energy (ie coal and nuclear) is now achievable from geo- thermal solar.

Questions that could have been asked include why can’t Australia develop base-load energy from geo-thermal solar right now, like other countries. It would sure go a long way in helping those who are facing a huge increase to their heating bills this winter.

Then there will be no need for dirty and dangerous coal or nuclear. One assumes it will take a while because of that great elusive rare earth commodity: leadership.

0 Comments

Trapped in a filter bubble

9/4/2012

0 Comments

 
Google’s motto ‘Don’t be evil’ was held up to scrutiny this week after CEO Larry Page defended recent changes to search results that focus on personalisation.

The company is trying to merge search results with its social networking application Google+, which is a competitor to Facebook. With 845 million users, Facebook sits on the largest amount of personal information any company has ever had. And that means finely-tuned targeted advertising.

Page says it will create a ‘more intuitive experience’. But what if a user doesn’t want that? What about random? Like randomly walking into a bookshop or library and discovering something new? Changing search outcomes based on what a computer algorithm thinks you will like may not be evil, but it is manipulation.

Online ‘filter bubbles’ is the subject of Eli Pariser’s Ted Talk, available at www.ted.com. It gives insight into the shift from the original intent of the internet to what it has become: an advertising tool. He first became aware of this when he noticed that Facebook removed his conservative friend’s posts.

He says, ‘It turned out Facebook was looking at what links I was clicking on and it noticed I was clicking more on my liberal friend’s links than my conservative friend’s links. Without consulting me, they had edited them out.’

And of course Google does it too. ‘Two people searching the same thing will get very different results. One engineer told me there are 57 signals Google looks at. These include your computer, browser and location so they can personally tailor your query results.’ News websites, such as Huffington Post and the BBC, can also be personalised says Pariser. ‘The internet is giving us what it thinks we want to see, but not necessarily what we need to see.’

He makes the point that in the early 1900s, newspapers were critical to a functioning society. From that grew ethics in journalism and now the internet is at the same point of evolution.

Information gatekeepers – once human – understood civic responsibility and ethics, but invisible algorithm filters are only programmed for relevance. Things that are important, challenging, uncomfortable and are of another point of view should also be included, according to Pariser.

Should we be surrendering our innate human curiosity to robots so easily?




0 Comments

    Archives

    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010

    Categories

    All
    Banglaow
    Brunswick Heads
    Byron Bay
    Byron Shire Council
    Capitalism
    Civilisation
    Class Warfare
    Climate Change
    Community Markets
    Conservative Intellectuals
    Corporations
    Counter Culture
    Crime
    Development
    Drugs
    Elections
    Environment
    Federal Coalition
    Federal Government
    Federal Labor
    Festivals
    Finance
    Food
    Health
    Hemp
    History – Australia
    Holiday Letting
    Human Rights
    International
    Journalism
    Language Usage
    Lobbyists
    Mardigrass Festival
    Media
    Mining
    Mullumbimby
    Nationals Party Nsw
    Nsw Government
    Piracy
    Police
    Religion
    Renewable Energy
    Social Contract
    Sovereignty
    State Coalition Party
    Technology
    The Greens
    Transport
    West Byron

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Music
  • Journalism
  • Editorials
  • Consultancy
  • Contact