Thoughts on Computing and the Future

Thoughts On Week Five and Other Things 1) Prediction Markets PredictIt A good site that predicts election outcomes. This is kinda relevant with this being an election year and we can watch it play out in realtime. Metaculus Metaculus questions the occurrence of future events based on different timescales and variables. I think the site is an interesting read.  2) What’s wrong with prediction markets? A big reason why prediction markets could be wrong is just the amount of variables that need to be accounted for. It’s nearly impossible to accurately predict down to the letter what the future holds and what impact that could have on the markets.  3) The universe is not a friendly place! I think it’s important to do good things but do them without their expectation that the universe does not owe you a thing. In my opinion, this is the lesson that should be learned, you can do everything right and still have nothing and have bad things happen to you. People should do t

The Things I Learned in Week 4 1) My project my future. I have decided on a topic for my term project. As stated in previous blogs I’m building a simple machine learning program. I have not decided what input data I will be using yet but I have a few ideas in mind. This project has a lot of moving parts that need to be fleshed out before I start actually building it. I’m currently researching how best to tackle the project and what resources I want to use to accomplish it. My steps over the next few weeks will be to identify what language I want to write my project in, decide what data I want to use, outline my data set, and build my basic project framework. Research and modification will be an ongoing part of the project due to its nature and my basic understanding of what I’m getting myself into. I think as I work through some of the issues my scope will come into view, as long as I can keep the creep out I should be on schedule to accomplish it by the end of the course.

Impacts of Immerging Machine Learning/AI Tech I. - Individual Impacts. Machine learning/ai could have many potential future impacts on us as individuals. Impacts from this emerging technology are already being felt by most people in there everyday lives through the use of digital personal assistants like SERI, Alexa, Google, and others as well as self-driving car technology and drones. It's hard to think through the potential impacts on the individual level because the technology can be used in such an abstract way and weave through our everyday life without us even knowing. Some of the ways we use this tech on the day to day without much thought are through face identification on Facebook, Instagram, google image search, and others. Bots in social media recognize patterns in speech and provide tailored responses or generate responses based on a post. Handpicked advertisements based on search history, speech, and previous purchases are delivered by AI or machine learn

Q1. Estimate the doubling time of the software development productivity of the average programmer, if productivity increases at 6%/year. A1: Link to Spreadsheet: Condit_Doubling_Time The doubling time for programming efficiency based on my graph is 13 years. We start with an efficiency score of 10 with an increase of 6% a year reaching a doubling at year 13 with an efficiency score of 20.  Q2.  Discuss what topic(s) and format(s) you are considering for your term project. Topic(s) can be anything future related. Format(s) can be a paper, a creative writing story, a program, a musical performance, a skit, a video, etc. Groups or individuals are both acceptable. You can change your mind later, but this question is to get you started thinking and writing about it. Word count for this question: 200 words or more. This project will be built step by step in each HW so it is not a big crunch at the end of the semester. A2:          For my term project, I would