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Full Version: What young socialist voters want from Santa + Ethical questions: facial-recognition
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Here’s what young voters want from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the next four years
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/20/heres-wh...rris-.html

EXCERPT: ... So, with more young people engaged in the political system, what do they want to see Joe Biden and Kamala Harris deliver on in the next four years? [...] In a critical year for politics, many students said they voted for change this 2020 election — and for change to happen soon. They are hopeful for the future but will also be holding the Biden administration accountable... (MORE -details)


The ethical questions that haunt facial-recognition research
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03187-3

EXCERPTS: In September 2019, four researchers wrote to the publisher Wiley to “respectfully ask” that it immediately retract a scientific paper. The study, published in 2018, had trained algorithms to distinguish faces of Uyghur people, a predominantly Muslim minority ethnic group in China, from those of Korean and Tibetan ethnicity.

China had already been internationally condemned for its heavy surveillance and mass detentions of Uyghurs in camps in the northwestern province of Xinjiang — which the government says are re-education centres aimed at quelling a terrorist movement. According to media reports, authorities in Xinjiang have used surveillance cameras equipped with software attuned to Uyghur faces.

As a result, many researchers found it disturbing that academics had tried to build such algorithms — and that a US journal had published a research paper on the topic. And the 2018 study wasn’t the only one: journals [...] had also published peer-reviewed papers that describe using facial recognition to identify ... members of other Chinese minority groups.

The complaint, which launched an ongoing investigation, was one foray in a growing push by some scientists and human-rights activists to get the scientific community to take a firmer stance against unethical facial-recognition research. [...] In the past year, there has been growing scrutiny of universities’ partnerships with companies or research programmes linked to mass surveillance in Xinjiang.

[...] Questionable research projects have popped up in the United States, too. On 5 May, Harrisburg University in Pennsylvania posted a press release declaring that researchers there had developed facial-recognition software “capable of predicting whether someone is likely going to be a criminal”, with “80 percent accuracy and no racial bias”. The announcement triggered a wave of criticism, as had previous studies that hark back to the discredited work of nineteenth-century physiognomists. One notorious 2016 study reported that a machine-learning algorithm could spot the difference between images of non-criminals and those of convicted criminals that were supplied by a Chinese police department.

[...] Researchers who work on technology that recognizes or analyses faces point out that it has many uses, such as to find lost children, track criminals, access smartphones and cash machines more conveniently, help robots to interact with humans by recognizing their identities and emotions and, in some medical studies, to help diagnose or remotely track consenting participants. “There are a number of lawful and legitimate applications of face and biometric recognition which we need in our society,” says Jain.

But researchers must also recognize that a technology that can remotely identify or classify people without their knowledge is fundamentally dangerous — and should try to resist it being used to control or criminalize people, say some scientists... (MORE - details)
I think what young voters want isn't what they'll get. I wanted lots of things to change when I was young, did I see it all happen?..... in some ways a little but for the most part No. 

Did we get peace? No! Eradicate poverty? No! Tax the rich? No! End Gov't corruption? No! Racial equality? No! Guns off the street? No! and much more that we didn't get. 

Not saying I'm the all knowing sage on this topic but as I got older I realized some of what I was asking for was damn near impossible. Simply do not have enough time. What I mean by that is I only have one lifetime and it's short, so I got a little selfish, developing a me-first attitude. Do I still want all those things I asked for when young? Certainly but I'm ok if someone younger takes a shot at it. I'm too busy looking out for myself & family. 

Young voters eventually slip into the mainstream, get married, have kids, house etc. Just doing that exposes them to a whole different lifestyle including finances. It isn't easy to do all you wanted to do back then. There are other priorities, one of which is to survive. They will develop their own biases and the realization that change if it does happen is slow. In fact it goes backwards at times when things go from bad to worse. So many unforeseen events are going to occur that no one has given much thought to or prepared for.  You're only a young voter once or twice and if you are like me then everything seemed so easy to fix.
(Nov 21, 2020 05:06 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: [ -> ]I think what young voters want isn't what they'll get. I wanted lots of things to change when I was young, did I see it all happen?..... in some ways a little but for the most part No. 

Did we get peace? No! Eradicate poverty? No! Tax the rich? No! End Gov't corruption? No! Racial equality? No! Guns off the street? No! and much more that we didn't get. 

Not saying I'm the all knowing sage on this topic but as I got older I realized some of what I was asking for was damn near impossible. Simply do not have enough time. What I mean by that is I only have one lifetime and it's short, so I got a little selfish, developing a me-first attitude. Do I still want all those things I asked for when young? Certainly but I'm ok if someone younger takes a shot at it. I'm too busy looking out for myself & family. 

Young voters eventually slip into the mainstream, get married, have kids, house etc. Just doing that exposes them to a whole different lifestyle including finances. It isn't easy to do all you wanted to do back then. There are other priorities, one of which is to survive. They will develop their own biases and the realization that change if it does happen is slow. In fact it goes backwards at times when things go from bad to worse. So many unforeseen events are going to occur that no one has given much thought to or prepared for.  You're only a young voter once or twice and if you are like me then everything seemed so easy to fix.

There's a scary, emotional void underneath their naive idealism. Alienated and apathetic young people just have less problem with the general population being experimented upon like lab-rats. By stuff which ultimately has its source in the humanities departments, that is then coddled by the social-sciences, and finally dropped off in packages at the doorsteps of politicians and think-tank wonks.

An attitude which is indeed due to their not having acquired much to lose yet -- not just in terms of property and domestic life, but also various duties, goals, and therapeutic routines. They're still emerging from parasitism on parents, custodial government services, and older adults. Barely part of any existing social orders that they themselves eventually become responsible for maintaining (as a contributory member), that would consequently generate interest in preserving those traditions via that investment and return.

They're thus receptive to passive recruitment by both political nihilists{*} and hegemonic conspiracy theorists devoted to incremental revolution (Old Left, New Left or libertarian socialism, etc). Needless to say, the children actually born into such "perpetually militant" families may have less empty ennui and alienation if their parents and communities are not of the child-neglect sort. But instead they get indoctrinated and fixated with the systematic "oppression intrigue" stuff right from the start (a kind of para-religious zealotry).

The folly is that socialism again and again just replaces the hegemonic circumstances its advocates perceive, conceive or imaginatively discriminate in traditional society with an extreme, blanket form of oppression. It creates radical equality (in contrast to equal opportunity) by forcefully and restrictively demoting everyone to the most easily achievable lower standards and quality of life expectations. It's like venturing too close to a whirlpool -- whatever feel-good crusader, tactical altruistic, "Santa Claus will give you everything" crap is promoted at the edge/beginning will gradually pull and suck its mesmerized followers toward that behavior and speech control-freak, authoritarian monster at the center that's necessarily for it to survive.

- - - footnote - - -

{*} political nihilism: the belief that the destruction of all existing political, social, and religious order is a prerequisite for any future improvement.