Category Archives: Post Human

A Banda Aceh-based motor trail community was touring inside a local forest in Indonesias westernmost province when the rider in the lead suddenly fell off his bike due to something on the trail in front of him.

He was shocked by the appearance of a human-like figure suddenly coming out from the woods carrying a wooden stick.

In the video, the mysterious figure looked like a human being but shorter in size, tribunnews.com reported.

The bald-topless figure stopped for a while before running off really fast, leaving the group behind. Other riders tried to chase it, while the camera stayed on, but alas, the figure ran into the shrub and disappeared into the middle of the forest.

The video, uploaded by Youtube account Fredography on March 22, has gone viral and garnered more than 1 million viewers as of Sunday evening.

Many people left comments on the video, sharing theories about the mysterious figure.

There were some who suspected the figure to be a member of the Mante tribe, an ethnic group that is one of Acehs urban legends told and passed down the generations about the origins of modern-day Aceh people. However, there has not been any scientific expeditions to establish the presence of the tribe.

Local online news websites also picked up the story sparking online debates and discussion over the mysterious sighting.

Read the original here:
Human or not? Mysterious figure caught on camera in Aceh sparks ... - Jakarta Post

Last month, the Post-Gazette website carried a New York Times story acknowledging the Egyptian regimes abysmal human rights record, while also predicting increased U.S. military cooperation with that country. In light of that article, President Donald Trumps upcoming meeting with Egypts coup-installed president, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, poses an important question: Will the U.S. attempt to combat terrorism using blind, brute force or through a principled embrace of core American values?

When the two leaders meet April 3, Mr. Trump can do as expected: Double down on military support for a widely discredited authoritarian regime. But theres another opportunity: Take a clear, strong stand against the el-Sissi administrations well-documented human and civil rights abuses by withholding funding for its military.

By taking that unexpectedly principled step, the U.S. will be combating terror in two ways. First, well achieve a major win in the war of ideas, by showing moderate Muslims across the world that yes, well support core American values free press, freedom of assembly and the right to fair trial on behalf of ordinary Egyptian Muslims.

At the same time, well be saying no to the Egyptian governments own version of state-supported terror being applied to its own citizens.

Will Mr. Trump stand up for core American values enshrined in our Bill of Rights on the world stage? Will he say no to Egypts internal version of state-supported terror?

The world will be watching.

RICHARD ST. JOHN Greenfield

Continued here:
Trump can send a human rights message to Egypt's leader - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The increased media coverage of the black and latinx girls missing in DC has started a national discussion on whether the cause is human trafficking. Black lawmakers are now calling for the FBI to investigate. In part, social media has been vital in exposing the cases of many of these missing girls. Although many assume these missing cases have been attributed to human trafficking,D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Acting Chief of Police Newsham have stated that theres no connection between the cases and human trafficking. There are a total of 38 missing persons cases open in D.C. right now.

Is human trafficking a far fetched notion to rationalize the disappearance? It isnt, and shouldnt be ruled out in this situation. Many people are wondering how these young girls are being so easily lured. Traffickers sometimes call themselves pimps, and theyre very good at what they do. Most commonly they prey on runways, girls with low self esteem or with problems at home. Mainly, runways and young people are the ones who are commonly trafficked. Is human trafficking new to D.C.? Not at all, in 2015 the D.C. City council enacted a law that requires training on human trafficking to new law enforcement officers, social workers, and case workers. This came after a D.C. police officer was sentenced to 7 years for pimping teen girls.

In 2014, Linwood Barnhill Jr, resigned from the Metropolitian Police Department in D.C. and plead guilty to two counts of pandering a minor and one count of possession of child pornogrpahy. He was arrested after a 16 year-old missing girl was found in his apartment. Court documents said that in a two week span, he prepared her for sex with a man, that included taking nude photos of her. The policeman met the young girl at a mall and asked her if would she be interested in modeling. In 2013, the same officer set up a sexual encounter for a 15 year-old girl after seeing her at a bus stop and asking her if she would be interested in modeling. The officer took nude photos of her as well as clothed. He set up a sexual encounter for her in his home, then the young girl engaged in sexual acts with a man in his 40s or 50s in the officers bedroom. After the officer collected money from the man and gave the girl a portion. There was a third 17 year-old-victim to whom Barnhill did the same. The officer received a light sentence because the judge felt he didnt abuse his power as police while committing the crimes.

That same year, D.C. police officer Marc Washington was arrested after allegedly going to the home of a 15-year-old who had been previously missing, ordered her to remove her clothing and took nude photos of her all while he was on duty. He told the girl that taking nude photos of her was a part of the procedure for cases like hers. He committed suicide soon after being charged with making child pornography. Hundreds of photographs were found in his camera dating back to 2011.

You cant attribute cops to every missing girls case in DC, but it begs the question, are some of them a part of the missing cases. Are some of them actually trafficking these young missing girls? The biggest question many people wonder is how are these girls being so easily lured? Is it by someone they trust?

Its important that we continue to raise awareness about missing people who are black and latinx since theres a big disparity in the media on how much they are reported.

Read more:
A Number Of Police Have Been Arrested For Human Trafficking Could They Be A Part Of The Missing Girls In DC? - Huffington Post

Human Trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. Its the exploitation of people and involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.

Contrary to popular misconception, Human Trafficking exists in every country, including the United States. If you think its always about foreigners and poor people then its imperative for you acquaint yourself with the facts.

Victims can be any age, race, gender or nationality. They can also come from any socioeconomic group. Theyre not dirty or sex mad or stupid. Theyre victims of a wide network of underground criminals.

Courtesy of NCMEC

Its estimated that Human Trafficking generates many billions of dollars in profits per year; second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable form of transnational crime.

Award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio (whom Ive previously written about in my article We Are All Jane Doe), is the producer and director of the film I Am Jane Doe. This documentary followed the heart breaking journey of several middle-school daughters, victims of Sex Trafficking on Backpage.com. Those harrowing experiences brought out the fighter in hershes not letting go of the bully pulpit any time soon.

When I first read about Jane Doe #1, #2, and #3 filing suit against Backpage in Boston, said Mazzio in a recent interview, I was struck but the fact that Child Sex Trafficking happens here within our own borders. And in high numbers that would make your head spin.

Traffickers look for people who are vulnerable, said Staca Shehan, Executive Director at National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC, a clearing house for missing & exploited children). This could mean economic hardship, psychological or emotional issues or even the desire for affection. The trauma that traffickers cause can be so great that, even in highly public settings, many do not self-identify themselves as victims or ask for help.

Courtesy of NCMEC

In 2016, NCMEC assisted law enforcement and families with more than 20,500 cases of missing children:

Of the more than 18,500 endangered runaways reported to NCMEC in 2016, one in six was likely a victim of child sex trafficking. Of those, 86 percent were in the care of social services when they went missing. Repeat: 86 percent.

Human Trafficking is nationwidein rural towns, cities and suburbs. It could even be happening in your own community: to young people you know or even members of your own family. And the law is not always on their side.

I was also struck by the fact that federal judges were excusing Backpage from all liability, said Mazzio. Even alleged criminal activity is shielded by an outdated internet freedom law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, in a particularly stunning decision, told these Jane Doe children that even if Backpage participated in the federal crime of sex trafficking, the case had to be dismissed. It simply did not make any sense to me that it was legal to host ads for the sale of children here in the United States.

The media is so focused on Sex Trafficking as an international issue, said Emily Pasnak-Lapchick, Manager of the U.S. Fund for UNICEFs End Trafficking Project. People do not realize it happens in the USA and affects US citizens. They also dont realize boys are being affected. And the assistance for male victims of trafficking is negligible at best. The misconceptions around these issues are astonishing.

Other types of crimes related to Human Trafficking include Forced Labor and Slave Labor. The International Labor Organization estimates are frightening:

You can find victims of it in legitimate and illegitimate labor industries, restaurants, hotels, sweatshops, massage parlors, agriculture and domestic service.

You might ask why it is you arent seeing much of what goes on. Thats because Human Trafficking is usually a hidden crime, its victims afraid to come forward so as to find help. Theyre forced or coerced through threats or violence; they fear retribution or fear of the safety of their families. Many have lost control of their identification documents, or they may never have had any in the first place.

Dennis and Patrick Weinert, two young filmmakers from Germany, have been documenting Sex Trafficking in the east for a number of years. Under cover as potential clients, theyve covertly interviewed pimps and prostitutes. Although prostitution is prohibited in the United Arab Emirate, it seems that officials often look the other way when money is on the table.

We risk a lot, say the brothers, but we can always back out from any potential arrangements by saying the price is too high. And were always relieved when were out of those kinds of situations.

The Weinert Brothers have encountered many who are trapped into forced prostitution and labor traffickingthe latter often within construction environments. Once these victims become enslaved, their movement is often restricted because their personal documentation is being held by their employers; theyre forced into unsanitary and stressful living conditions and receive little to no healthcare or basic services. Most of them experience significant emotional, physical, sexual, and psychological violence.

NOTE: The video below is predominantly in German. However, you can turn on Closed Captions and use the auto-translate function in less than 10 seconds: click on SETTINGS; SUBTITLES; select GERMAN; click AUTO-TRANSLATE and select the language of choice.

In the United Arab Emirates, whenever the brothers asked about the chance to meet women, taxi drivers and former hotel staff members provided the same informationany five star hotel can provide for all of their needs; the police are no problem.

A quick look at customer reviews on Trip Advisor shows just how true that is: Hyatt Regency, St. George Hotel, Moscow Hotel, York International Hotelall have reviews from disgruntled guests who were not amused by the goings on. Not every prostitute there is a victim of human trafficking, the Weinert Brothers are quick to point out. But traffickers use these places as a platform. One former victim we spoke to was forced by her pimp to work at the Hyatt Regency, amongst other big hotels, some years ago and prostitution is still going on there.

Strangely, said the Weinert Brothers, Hyatt Regency UAE claims on its website that they are proactively combating human trafficking, allegedly having been certified by Polaris. Clearly, something is wrong.

Perhaps the worst part of this is when it happens to a minor. Some are forced or coerced; others are induced to perform commercial sex acts out of desperation. Regardless, under federal law, every minor induced to engage in commercial sex is a victim of human trafficking.

Exploitation is clearly at the heart of human trafficking. With respect to sex trafficking, exploitation implies forced prostitution or sexual abuses of vulnerable men, women, and children. According to the United States Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA):

According to the International Labor Organization (the United Nations agency that deals with global labor issues), the latest global estimate show that nearly 21 million people are victims of Human Trafficking worldwide. Roughly 4.5 million of those victims are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Lack of awareness is a huge problem, said Shehan. People do not fully understand victimization. They fail to separate adults from under-aged children. So many misconceptions exist.

Pasnak-Lapchick agrees. Awareness is low. We struggle with this underground industry for data, studies and estimates. Its so hard to inform and convince legislators without hard data. Its equally difficult to advocate for funding (lack of beds for kids is an example). Boys in particular face hardships.

And the lack of training for law enforcement is lamentable. Kids are being arrested as opposed to being saved because the police, teachers, social services, families and other officials dont know what signs to look for. The first step in identifying victims is recognizing key indicators of human trafficking. This can help save a life.

But lack of awareness appears not to be the only factor. The Weinert Brothers have discovered that given the right remuneration, officials in places like the United Arab Emirates will turn a blind eye to illegal activities.

Until such time as our government officials and organizations can work in a totally non-partisan manner, coming together with governments around the globe, progress will continue in baby steps.

Courtesy of UNICEF USA

I asked Mazzio, Shehan and Pasnak-Lapchick what the average person like you and I could do to move our leaders (both regional and national) to act. Here are some of their suggestions:

Excerpt from:
What is Human Trafficking? - Huffington Post

Roger Severino. (YouTube)

The Trump administration has quietly appointed a Heritage Foundation staffer who has railed against civil rights protections for transgender patients as director of the federal agency charged with protecting the civil rights of all patients.

Though the administration did not issue a formal announcement, Roger Severino is now listed on the website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as director of the Office for Civil Rights. His prior position was as director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation, where he focused on religious liberty, marriage and life issues. (The DeVos Center is named for the in-laws of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.)

The civil rights office is in charge of enforcing patient privacy protections and ensuring that patients civil rights are protected, that they are free from discrimination and that they have access to services such as interpreters.

Asked for comment, HHS forwarded a link to Severinos title and biography. In a statement, Heritage spokeswoman Marguerite Bowling said, Roger Severino has a distinguished record of fighting for the civil rights and freedoms of all Americans. We have no doubt that Roger in his new role at HHS will protect the civil rights of all Americans.

Severinos position does not require Senate confirmation.

Based on his prior writings, Severino will likely take the agency in a different direction than it had under the Obama administration. Last year, the agency issued rules banning discrimination against transgender patients, carrying out provisions of the Affordable Care Act. (A federal judge put those rules on hold on Dec. 31, siding with a Catholic hospital system, other religious health providers and five states that challenged them. The Trump administration has not sought to overturn the injunction.)

When those rules were proposed, Severino and a Heritage colleague wrote a scathing critique, saying they jeopardized the religious liberty and freedom of conscience of health care providers.

By prohibiting differential treatment on the basis of gender identity in health services, these regulations propose to penalize medical professionals and health care organizations that, as a matter of faith, moral conviction, or professional medical judgment, believe that maleness and femaleness are biological realities to be respected and affirmed, not altered or treated as diseases, Severino wrote with colleague Ryan Anderson.

In a column for the conservative website Daily Signal, Severino and Anderson wrote that the HHS rule would force doctors to perform sex reassignment surgeries. They would effectively require controversial procedures, such as sex-reassignment surgery, that respected medical professionals argue have not been proven effective in treating serious mental health conditions.

Despite the columns assertions, federal rules cannot force doctors to perform procedures for which they are not trained or competent. Moreover, professional societies support coverage for gender transition treatments.

In another column for the Daily Signal, from September 2016, Severino argued that Congress should not give money to Planned Parenthood. Instead of allowing Planned Parenthood access to new federal funding streams, Congress should be closing the spigot entirely, he wrote. Such a move would reflect the simple fact [that] Planned Parenthood has long since disqualified itself from taxpayer money because of its callous disregard for innocent human life.

A coalition of progressive groups criticized Severinos appointment.

I could not think of a more dangerous person to head up the Office of Civil Rights at HHS, JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president of policy and political affairs of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. Once again, Donald Trump is declaring war against our community by appointing anti-LGBTQ people at all levels of his administration.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights also expressed its dismay. This appointment, made without fanfare, is part of disturbing trend by the Trump administration of naming people who disagree or outright oppose the mission or role of an agency or office to leadership positions within those entities, the group said in a statement.

Before Heritage, Severino worked from 2008 to 2015 as a trial attorney in the Department of Justices civil rights division, where he handled cases involving the Fair Housing Act, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to his HHS biography. Before that, he worked as legal counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

Severino is the latest Heritage employee to join the Trump administration. Earlier this month, ProPublica reported that Heritage staffers were among 400 employees the administration has quietly installed across the government, including at HHS. Separately, a recent piece by In These Times chronicled the far-reaching influence Heritage has achieved in the new administration.

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Trump Appoints Heritage Foundation Staffer to Health and Human Services Post - Truthdig

A system of ethics requires designating some things as right and everything else as wrong. How we draw this divide depends on our understanding of a higher good, of results that are somehow greater than the immediate effects of our actions. This consideration of consequences, beyond what is best for us, in the here and now results from our ability to comprehend the future, so ethics could actually be said to serve the later good.

This later good often involves our own admittance to heaven, or some alternative destination for the soul, and the ensured dignity of our fellow humans on Earth. Recently, however, I have been thinking about the benefits of doing ethics differently. My field of study requires that I see humans as a small piece in the grand puzzle of life. Being a human has made this difficult to do, because we naturally perceive ourselves as the center of the universe, but with patient practice I have gotten better at viewing our existence in biological terms: beginning with the origin of our species and ending with our eventual extinction.

This perspective makes political conversations difficult, because while most people prefer policies that help humans right now, I have become more concerned with a policys capacity to ensure our existence a hundred years from now. Add to this that my interlocutor and I dont even agree on what is right and wrong and the picture becomes pure dialectical disarray.

While theyre doing ethics as a human, from an anthropocentric mindset, I like to imagine that I do ethics as a post-human, from post-Earth. I say post-human because I attempt to judge us as another intelligent life form existing after our extinction would. Likewise, I say post-Earth because Earth is just a name that refers to the planet as we know it. When humans disappear, our conception of the Earth will go with us, but this miraculous planet will remain.

To explain how this works, well need a quick Magic School Bus moment. Imagine that we wind forward the clock to a time shortly after humans have gone extinct. All that remains of us are the ways we effected the planet and the other species that inhabit it. On a calm afternoon in what remains of Central Park, a sleek silver sliver of a spaceship coasts gently to a stop. Inside is Munimohnon, an extraterrestrial student studying Earth for her doctoral degree in E.T. ethics. Her job is to judge humans by how our species treated the planet and considered the companion species that we shared it with.

As she brings her vessel to a halt slightly above the ground, its solar cells begin collecting the energy shell need for the long trip home. Having already seen the maimed mountain tops created by our mineral-madness, the barren basins of once-blue lakes drained for our irrigation needs and the suburban human-honeycombs made up of geometric hospitals and homes, she gazes bewildered upon the big, decaying apple that was once New York City.

When I do ethics, I use Munimohnons final report of post-Earth as my later good. Instead of asking how a deity would judge our actions, I ask how the choices we make now will affect the post-human planet and its non-human life. Put another way, I ask myself whether or not I will be proud of the human species single chapter in the multi-volume book of life. Were it to be read by another intelligent life form, I want our justifications for right actions to still hold.

This method may at first seem to neglect humans, but it actually prioritizes us. We are a species with the power to permanently alter this planet, an ability that has earned the current geological age the name Anthropocene. Thus, to continue existing on Earth, we need to ensure that we arent harming it and hurting the other species that share this common home. Aside from keeping us company, they sustain our existence in more ways than we realize, so failing to consider them in our later good is also failing to consider ourselves. In this way, doing what is best for the rest of life on Earth is also best for us.

Now, Im not trying to argue that a Munimohnon-based ethics system is more accurate or valuable than any alternative ethical orders. To tend solely to the environment at the cost of human life is wrong. Equally so, however, is the blind pursuit of what is best for God, nation or corporation, if it means ignoring the Earth. Justifying any lone later good by simply discounting the others will always be wrong.

Although we know this, we often forget it. Rather than considering multiple ethics in concert, we skip the symphony for a single solo. Nations neglect to cut emissions, businesses engage in poor labor practices and people blindly reject human equality. Each is justified in its own right, but none can negate the others. No later good alone stands superior to the rest, and all systems of ethics need to be heard in harmony.

That being said, in attempts to comprehensively critique the production put on daily by our lives, we must recognize that some voices are louder than others. Power decides prevalence in the chorus of ethical considerations, and on an Earth where humans are seen as separate from nature, the majority of life is currently mute. If we can adopt a post-Earth ethic, we can make some serious sound.

Matt is a junior studying anthropology. His favorite animal is a human, his favorite potato is a sweet potato, and his favorite milk is almond milk. Feel free to contact him at mwilli41@nd.edu with any questions or comments about this article and, in the meanwhile, dont forget to be awesome.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

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Ethics from post-Earth - Observer Online

Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli historian and theinternationally best-sellingauthor of Sapiens, has a new book out about the future of humanity, called Homo Deus.He recently sat down with The WorldPost at a Berggruen Institute salon in Los Angeles. In the following interview, he discusses the new authority of dataism and godlike powers of science to redesign humanity and create an inorganic, new species artificial intelligence.

WorldPost: In your previous book, Sapiens, you observed that humans are the only species that can organize themselves around abstract ideas or codes myth, religion, ideology. In your new book, Homo Deus, you argue that a new ideology has arisen dataism that is the new organizing principle of humanity.

When big data is married to biology happening as we speak you worry that it will reduce the biological organism to a set of information that can be organized by programmed algorithms to seek a desired outcome. Those who subscribe to this view that the organism is an algorithm believe that the genome of humans and other species can be designed to order and that, if computers can process and place into patterns more information than the human brain can, then we can also create a new non-biological species artificial intelligence.

To be sure, deciphering a deadly virus to stem a spreading plague is something humanity would welcome. But what does it mean to be human in the age of the algorithm if all that it means to be human love, empathy, creativity, agony falls between lines of code? Are such godlike powers then a great benefit to humanity, or do they portend a dark future?

Yuval Noah Harari: Like every major invention, it has both a good and bad potential. But the scale is completely different. I titled the book Homo Deus because we really are becoming gods in the most literal sense possible. We are acquiring abilities that have always been thought to be divine abilities in particular, the ability to create life. And we can do with that whatever we want.

You talked earlier about how humans create networks of cooperation around abstractions. I dont like the word abstractions very much because most people dont think in abstractions. That is too difficult for them. They think in stories. And the best stories are not abstract; they are concrete. If you think about the great religions that have united large parts of humankind, people believe gods are very concrete there is an angry old man in the sky, and if I do something wrong, he will punish me.

In the book, I use the term fiction, not abstraction, because what really unites humans are fictional stories. That is also the case with the new revolution that is now unfolding. It is not going to be an abstract revolution but a very concrete one.

The basic idea of dataism is a shift in authority. Previously, authority resided above the clouds and descended down to the pope, the king or the czar. Then for the last two or three centuries, authority came down from the clouds and took up residence in peoples hearts. Your feelings became the highest source of authority. The emotions of the voters in a democracy, not his or her rationality, became the number one authority in politics. In the economics of the consumer society, it is the feelings of the customer that drive every market. The feelings of the individual are the prime authority in ethics. If it feels good, do it is the basic ethical ideal of humanism.

So authority came down from the clouds, moved to the human heart and now authority is shifting back to the Google cloud and the Microsoft cloud. Data, and the ability to analyze data, is the new source of authority. If you have a problem in life, whether it is what to study, whom to marry or whom to vote for, you dont ask God above or your feelings inside, you ask Google or Facebook. If they have enough data on you, and enough computing power, they know what you feel already and why you feel that way. Based on that, they can allegedly make much better decisions on your behalf than you can on your own.

WorldPost: Is that the ultimate objectivization of reality that which reduces your identity to only what data is known or collected? Or is it the opposite: subjectivization as the pure reflection of personal choices and preferences fed back to you? Or, compounded by the subjective bias of the algorithm inputs, is it both: subjective objectification?

Harari: Do you mean is it true?

WorldPost: What Im getting at is that there seems to be a double movement going on simultaneously. Data-absorbing, peer-driven social media enables the collection of massive information on a person organized into the ultimate objectification of reality through mathematical algorithms. At the same time, we are seeing an explosion of the subjectivization of facts alternative facts, fake news that is unmoored from any objective reality other than the likes or dislikes of your very similar peers.

Harari: I dont think the subjectivization of facts is anything new in what is happening now. This has been going on for thousands of years. All the big religions have been organized around fake news. Just think of the Bible. Fake news lasts forever in some cases.

WorldPost: Eternal fake news

Harari: In big historical struggles, history does not go to the truth. It goes to the most effective story. And very often, the most effective story is not true. The idea that people sooner or later will discover that something is untrue usually doesnt happen, as in the case of all the big religions.

With regard to the algorithms, there is a good chance, too, that this will be just a myth that they are the highest source of authority with all the answers. But people will believe that. They will voluntarily, consensually, give the algorithm that kind of authority. And that will be the reality in which we live.

We see it happening all around us. If you apply to the bank for a loan or for a job at a big corporation, very likely your application is being processed by an algorithm and not by a human being. Lets say the algorithm refuses you, and you are not hired. You go to the company and ask why, and they say, Because the algorithm said no. And then you ask, Why did it say no? And they will say, We dont know. If we thought we could get a good reading by ourselves, we wouldnt need an algorithm.

The thing about the new generation of computer algorithms is that machines are now able to learn by themselves. They sift through immense piles of data and they, at least allegedly, find patterns that humans are unable to find, including whether you are a good fit for that job. And we trust that more and more.

Newscast via Getty Images

There are some very good things about this, but also some big dangers. In the 20th century, we had this big fight over statistical discrimination against entire groups of people African Americans, women, gays or Jews based on faulty information.

People now look back to those days and say, We must refight those battles. Yes, perhaps some of them need to be refought. But as a military strategist, I know that people tend to prepare themselves for the previous war, and they miss the coming war. The much bigger danger in the coming decades wont be this group discrimination, but something far more Kafkaesque discrimination against individuals. It doesnt give you a loan. It doesnt hire you. The algorithm doesnt like you. The algorithm is not discriminating against you because you are Jewish, Muslim or gay, but because you are you.

There is something about your data that the algorithm doesnt like. It is not about some category you fall into you. It is only you. There is something that is different about you versus everyone else that raises some warning sign. And you dont even know what it is. And even if you know what it is, you cant create a political movement around it because there is no one else in the world who suffers from this particular discrimination.

The other side of the coin that is being talked about widely these days is the capacity to individualize. You can write a book for one person. You can compose music or a movie just for one person. So we are developing the capacity to create for one person but also the capacity to oppress just one person.The Israeli military is extremely excited about the potential of having the first total surveillance system, to be used in the occupied territories. They will actually be able to follow each and every person instead of relying on statistics.

WorldPost: Here, too, we have the same dialectic: by missing all those intangibles that make each of us a person, all those things that fall between lines of code that dont fit into the pattern being searched, individuation by an algorithm is actually a form of depersonalization.

Doesnt this kind of depersonalization particularly when big data and the algorithm merge with biology to reduce being to nothing more than an immune system prepare the way for a Brave New Biocracy that will manage human life from sperm to worm, womb to tomb? In short, individuation by an algorithm diminishes, not advances, human autonomy, no?

Harari: Yes. But again, there is both a danger and a promise. There are many good things about these medical algorithms. Today, you have hundreds of millions of people around the world who have no health care. They dont have a doctor to diagnose a disease and to recommend treatment. Within a very short time, you will be able to have a much better AI doctor on your smartphone in a village in Colombia than the president of the U.S.has today from human doctors.

The big battle in this regard in the 21st century will be between privacy and health. And health will win. Most people will be willing to give up their privacy in exchange for much better health care, based on 24-hour monitoring of whats happening inside their bodies.

Very soon people will walk around with biometric sensors on or even inside their bodies and will allow Facebook, the Chinese government or whomever to constantly monitor whats happening in their bodies. The day the first cancer cell starts to multiply and spread, someone at Google or at the health authority will know and will be able to very easily nip the cancer in the bud.The day a flu epidemic starts, they will immediately know who are carrying it, and they can take very effective, quick and cheap action to prevent it. So the promises are enormous.

posteriori via Getty Images

The dangers are also enormous. Just think of a place like North Korea. People will be walking around with biometric bracelets. If you see a picture of Kim Jong Un on a wall and your blood pressure elevates, which the algorithm correlates with some emotion like anger, then that is the end of you.

WorldPost:China already is developing a system of social creditthat correlates all your observable behavior what you buy, who you talk to, whether you throw trash on the ground and gives you a score that will follow you through your life as you apply for college or a home loan. It will also be used to assess political loyalty and monitor official corruption.

Harari:We will see more and more of that everywhere. With all the genuine objections and worries that you have expressed, what will ram such a future through the wall is health. People will voluntarily give up their privacy.

WorldPost: Health care is the idol that confirms belief in the god of dataism.

WorldPost: How does your idea of dataism relate to the notion of the singularity? Do you see singularity as a kind of scientific Tower of Babel of hubris, a kind of Anthropocene surge, an algorithmic imperialism over all life? Ecology, on the other hand, proposes an equilibrium between nature and human potential. Where does your idea fit within that matrix?

Harari: Dataism is very close to singularity. I see singularity as the point beyond which our imagination completely fails because our imagination itself is only the manipulation of what we so far know. There are many things that can bring about the shift to singularity. It could be advances in bioengineering, in machine intelligence or a combination of the two. It could be some completely new technology not yet on the horizon. The key point is that you reach a certain level of technological development that renders all of our assumptions about everything we know about humans and the world irrelevant, because all that can be changed.

WorldPost: The ecological perspective is more about the equilibrium it would seek to balance the promise and perils of dataism so we get more of the benefit and less of the darker downside. You seem to be saying we ought to just go with the flow and commit to our mutation.

Harari: Im not saying singularity or dataism are good. I am only looking at the long trajectory of human history. Humans have been getting more and more out of equilibrium as we advance in time. When you try to manipulate the system even more to bring back balance to an earlier state, you solve some of the problems, but the side effects only increase the disequilibrium. So you have more problems. The human reaction then is that we need even more control, even more manipulation.

Go back to the 19th century and read Marx and the Communist Manifesto he says,All that is solid melts into air.His reading of history is that the key characteristic of modern society is that it requires constant change and disruption. The implication is that you cannot live in equilibrium. For modern society, equilibrium is death. Everything collapses if you reach a point of equilibrium. In the case of the economy, it depends on constant growth. If we reach a point of zero growth and continue with that for more than a few years, the entire system will probably collapse.

WorldPost: Your book Homo Deus, it seems to me, is really a brilliant update of Goethes Faust. In that masterpiece of literature, the Earth Spirit puts down Faust hubris as a great achiever of earthly accomplishment by saying, You are equal to the spirit you understand, meaning humans limited understanding is not at the level of the gods. Do you agree?

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Harari: Not really. Faust, like Frankenstein or The Matrix, still has a humanist perspective. These are myths that try to assure humans that there is never going to be anything better than you. If you try to create something better than you, it will backfire and not succeed.

The basic structure of all these morality tales is: Act I, humans try to create utopia by some technological wizardry; Act II, something goes wrong; Act III, dystopia. This is very comforting to humans because it tells them it is impossible to go beyond you. The reason I like Aldous Huxleys Brave New World so much is that it plays with the scenario: Act I, we try to create a utopia; Act II, it succeeds. That is far more frightening something will come that is better than before.

WorldPost: But success is a failure that destroys human autonomy and dignity?

Harari: That is an open question. The basic humanist tendency is to think that way. But maybe not.

WorldPost: But all of history up to this point teaches that lesson. You are saying it is different now?

Harari: Going back to the Earth Spirit and Faust, humans are now about to do something that natural selection never managed to do, which is to create inorganic life AI. If you look at this in the cosmic terms of 4 billion years of life on Earth, not even in the short term of 50,000 years or so of human history, we are on the verge of breaking out of the organic realm. Then we can go to the Earth Spirit and say, What do you think about that? We are equal to the spirit we understand, not you.

Human history began when men created gods. It will end when men become gods.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

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Historian: Human History 'Will End When Men Become Gods' | The ... - Huffington Post

WASHINGTON The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights heard from civil rights and other advocacy groups on Tuesday about their concerns with the Trump administrations immigration policies.

Commissioners said they hoped to hear from the government, too. But they couldnt the federal government skipped the hearings, which officials said was because of ongoing litigation.

Advocates and observers said the move was highly unusual and sent a concerning message about the new administrations respect for international bodies such as the Organization of American States, of which the commission, or IACHR, is a part. Multiple experts said the U.S. almost always attends and hasnt skipped a hearing in at least eight years.

Todays no-show is a new low, Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Unions Human Rights Program, said at one of the hearings, calling it an unprecedented show of disrespect to the international community that will alienate democratic allies.

This is another worrying sign that the Trump administration is not only launching an assault on human rights at home but is also trying to undermine international bodies charged with holding abusive governments accountable, he added.

The governments absence was noted multiple times by commissioners, who said they werent sure why it happened. IACHR President Francisco Jos Eguiguren Praeli told reporters that U.S. government officials informed the commission on Monday that they would not be in attendance at the hearings, one dealing with President Donald Trumps executive orders on travel and immigration enforcement, the other on treatment of asylum-seekers.

Suffice it to say that it is a pity that this is the situation, IACHR Vice President Margarette May Macaulay said during one of the hearings, while noting the government had declined to attend and answer questions.

Commissioner Paulo Vannuchi, speaking in Spanish at the other hearing, said he regretted the absence, which is what would have made it possible for there to be a democratic exchange of opposing views being aired.

The State Department, which has a permanent mission to the Organization of American States, said the government did not attend because it is not appropriate for the United States to participate in these hearings while litigation on these matters is ongoing in U.S. courts, acting spokesman Mark Toner said.

The United States has tremendous respect for the role performed by the IACHR in safeguarding human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the hemisphere, including in the United States, he said in a statement.

The State Department did not provide examples of other instances in which the government has declined to attend hearings last year, officials were present for a separate hearing that dealt with asylum-seekers or exact litigation. The presidents temporary ban on entry to the country for refugees and certain foreign nationals is subject to pending litigation. Another State Department spokesperson, who declined to comment with their name, said participants at both thematic hearings included parties to such ongoing litigation.

The spokesperson said the departments decision not to participate does not have any bearing on current or future U.S. engagement with the Commission.

Neither the Justice Department nor the Department of Homeland Security, which were also expected by the ACLU to attend one or more of the hearings, responded to requests for comment.

Experts said it was far from normal for the government to skip a hearing. Ariel Dulitzky, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law and former assistant executive secretary of the IACHR, said in an email that it is highly unusual for States not to participate and that under former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, the U.S. attended hearings.

Marselha Gonalves Margerin, advocacy director at Amnesty International USA, said it is the first time in the past eight years that the U.S. did not attend an IACHR hearing. She has litigated before the commission and been a close observer for about 16 years, she said.

Countries that skip hearings generally do so to send a message, she said, noting that Cuba, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic have declined to attend at times when they did not want to talk about accusations of human rights violations.

Does America first mean disengagement of its human rights obligations? asked Gonalves Margerin, who was not at the hearings.

The IACHR issued a statement on Wednesday calling it troubling that the U.S. government did not send representatives to its hearings. Cuba and Nicaragua also decided not to participate in hearings, according to the commission

The Inter-American Commission underscores the importance that the States participate in all hearings, in good faith and with adequate substantive information, in order to work constructively toward solutions to human rights problems in the region, the commission said in a statement. The inter-American human rights system is strengthened by the active participation of States, victims and their representatives, and civil society organizations.

Sarah Paoletti, director of the University of Pennsylvanias Transnational Legal Clinic, said during the asylum-seeker hearing that those present were extremely disappointed to not hear from the government.

We fear this is a further reflection of their disregard for the human rights of migrants, she said, and hope that they will fully engage in future hearings and prove us wrong.

Because the U.S. government wasnt there, no one presented counter-arguments to a dire picture put forward by advocates, who argued the presidents executive orders on immigration were discriminatory, dangerous and presented a potential for abuse by Customs and Border Protection agents.

At the asylum-seeker hearing, advocates who criticized Obama on treatment of vulnerable people apprehended at the border as well said they were concerned things would get even worse under Trump. Commissioners seemed sympathetic Macaulay said they agree that detention of families, asylum-seekers and children is completely contrary to international norms and standards.

In no way can the commission accept these acts of violations which are occurring and which seem to be multiplying and becoming more and more serious as each day progresses, she said.

This story has been updated with a statement from the IACHR.

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Trump Administration Is A No-Show At Hearings On Human Rights - Huffington Post

Stephen Hawking observed a milestone when he turned 75 earlier this year. A man who has achieved remarkable things and shown a remarkable nature from the very beginning of his career, his advancements combine work in the fields of gravitation, cosmology, quantum theory, thermodynamics and information theory. This synthesis of disciplines in search of answers secures his place as the leading genius of modern physics.

Part of Hawkings legend rests not only on his influence, but also to his willingness to harness as well as to push forward the technology that has helped to make that influence possible. Dr. Hawkings achievements are so remarkable and his interfacing with technology so seemingly natural, that it begs the question, what benefits does that interface hold for the rest of us?

With the advent of cognitive technologies, we are seeing a flowering in AI-based advancements: self-learning computers, conversational interfaces (like Siri), and self-driving cars that represent technology serving humanity. We have designed tech in our own image so that it behaves more and more like humans, but, as technology becomes prevalent in our lives, we behave more referentially to it and are viewed by some as victims being shaped BY technology. Trying to leverage this technological determinism for gain, there are even companies offering digital detoxes, with the goal of achieving momentary respite, metaphorically freeing space on our hard drives.

But academic interest in AI grows rapidly. Our analysis shows that global research on machine learning has doubled, going from 6,766 publications in 2011 to 13,405 in 2016. Within the AI field, themes including effective computing, knowledge representation and deep learning have emerged as the most popular. In the case of deep-learning research, data shows a quintuple increase in global research output in five years.

This profusion of research indicates an increasing willingness to explore a myriad of interfaces with AI. This is positively revolutionizing how we make decisions and live life, making AI an extraordinarily powerful tool for improving our connections to each other in ways that could only be imagined just a few years ago.

Consider the impact on medicine. As Satava and Ellis wrote as early as 1994, The increasing use of robotics, computers, and virtual realitywill become easier to use and enhance the surgeon--the technology must adapt to the surgeon, not the reverse. Since then, medical technology has flowered, designed to meet human - read: patient - needs first. Robotic surgery has become commonplace and conferred immense benefits. Electronically controlled prostheses and functional neuromuscular stimulation radically transformed limb-replacement technology, and amputees interface with technology becomes ever more beneficial and less noticeable as part of that benefit. The use of computer graphics, 3-D imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, and laser technology point toward new directions in medicine in disciplines across the board, with all technologies created or adapted to meet caregiver and consumer need or abandoned by the wayside.

And, while medicine has embraced artificial-intelligence-based data analytics with less alacrity than the financial industry and other sectors, the benefits of machine learning algorithms are allowing physicians to treat patients based on a combination of their own knowledge and data from the cases of all other patients facing the same disease. Predictive analysis leading to early intervention is an unheard of benefit; for example, Google DeepMind has created a machine learning algorithm designed to detect diabetes and macular degeneration by analyzing case data from a million patients, allowing doctors to treat before these conditions emerge. As part of the interface, AI is providing doctors with predictions based on deep data analysis, which from the outside may look very much like experience-based deduction.

Predictive analysis also works at micro-level interfaces. Dr. Hawking communicates through an open-source program called ACAT, which provides a software keyboard on his computer screen. He selects letters by moving a cursor with his cheek (that movement is detected by sensor on his eyeglasses). ACATs SwiftKey word prediction algorithm, programmed with Dr. Hawkings writings, offers word choices after he types only a couple of characters. When he has a whole sentence, Dr. Hawking sends it to a speech synthesizer. His interface is personal, highly customized and built to help him deal with the particular challenges of motor neurone disease. Most importantly, it frees him to communicate and connect in way that wouldnt have been possible in the recent past.

Technology does not determine human action; human action shapes technology. As we push forward into this age of the marriage of data and technology, we must apply the basic principle that technology needs to serve humanity, first and last. Armed with that guiding principle, we can create opportunities for individuals and communities to achieve, while at the same time, overcome the fear that too often accompanies the introduction of complex ideas, and advance with positive optimism and open curiosity.

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Benefits of the Human-Technology Interface - Huffington Post

Human development is a process of enlarging peoples choices. But human development is also the objective, so it is both a process and an outcome

Mar 23, 2017- Nepal has graduated to medium human development grouping in the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI), indicating Nepalis are growing healthier, becoming more educated and earning more.

Nepal secured a score of 0.558 in HDI in 2015, as against 0.548 in 2014, says the Human Development Report 2016 published by the UN.

With this score, Nepal secured 144th position in the HDI among 188 countries surveyed by the UN. This ranking is same as that of the previous year. The slight improvement in the score also helped Nepal to escalate to the medium human development group from the low human development group.

The HDI integrates three basic dimensions of human development, according to the UN. Life expectancy at birth reflects the ability to lead a long and healthy life. Mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling reflect the ability to acquire knowledge. And gross national income per capita reflects the ability to achieve a decent standard of living.

Life expectancy at birth of Nepalis on average rose to 70 years in 2015 from 69.6 a year ago. Similarly, expected years of schooling of every Nepali stood at 12.2 years in 2015, while mean years of schooling hovered around four years. Likewise, gross national income per capita increased to $2,337 in 2015 from $2,311 a year ago. These HDI values, however, are way below that of Sri Lanka, which leads the HDI league table in South Asia. Nepal also lags behind the Maldives, India, Bhutan and Bangladesh in terms of human development.

Human development is a process of enlarging peoples choices. But human development is also the objective, so it is both a process and an outcome, says the UNs report titled Human Development for Everyone. This implies people must influence the processes that shape their lives.

In all this, economic growth is an important means to human development, but not the end, says the report, adding, Human development is the development of the people through building human capabilities, by the people through active participation in the processes that shape their lives and for the people by improving their lives. It is broader than other approaches, such as the human resource approach, the basic needs approach and the human welfare approach.

The 2014 Nepal National Human Development Report had found wide variations in HDI values across population groups in Nepal, although the trends are towards less inequality. The Newar people have the highest HDI value, 0.565. Close on the heels are Brahmins and Chhetris, with HDI value of 0.538. This was followed by Janajatis, with HDI value of 0.482, Dalits (0.434) and Muslims (0.422).

The variations in HDI values are even significant within these groups, depending on where they live. The highest inequalities are in education, and this may have pronounced long-term effects on capabilities later in life.

Yet Nepal has been trying to bridge this gap in education.

The Welcome to School Initiative, for instance, led to an increase in net enrolment of 470,000 children, 57 percent of them girls, within a year of its implementation in 2005. The programme primarily focused on girls and disadvantaged groups. Nepals policy on adolescent girls was initially centred on health and education but now encompasses needs in employment, skills development and civic participation, says the report.

Published: 23-03-2017 10:56

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Nepal graduates to medium human development grouping - The Kathmandu Post