The Total Perspective Vortex: Artificial Intelligence and Real-World Systems

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We are told that we have entered an unprecedented era. Perhaps. The more useful response is to step back. Perspective does not diminish technological achievement. It allows us to distinguish engineering from magic, capability from consequence, and a genuine inflection point from a fashionable narrative. This book is about that distinction.

Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool that can make tools. But capability is not destiny. Its value and its danger emerge only when it enters real systems: energy, software, capital, organizations, machines, biology, and political institutions.

The Point of the Point - Nicholas Mitsakos

The Point of The Point

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In Native Hawaiian, Kaiko’o means “swirling waters” which is a fair description of life itself, and mine. The double meaning is intended. A beautiful Point that inspires harmony and solitude, but also synchronicity of calmness and beauty. It is also a place to contemplate “the point.” The swirling waters of life are there somewhere, but, looking at the present, if I seize it accurately as V.S. Naipaul admonishes, it is unclear what it can foretell, if anything. But life’s dramatic and unexpected change keeps us vital and longing to see what will happen next. To experience, to travel, to be a loose-fitting component to a tightly fitted place. China, Britain, or anywhere where one can be a loose component and absorb the unique experiences of societies and cultures where we will never fit. A magnificent blur in the distance, the sun is setting at Kaiko’o. While the sunset beckons, I am not finished. It is easy to give up sometimes, especially when one feels tired, abandoned, and, like many, the best is behind me. What is the point of continuing? Like The Point, the point is to go on. One is never finished. The realm of the Gods will come fast enough.

Winning

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Luck and timing play an outsized role determining any outcome – and these are extraneous circumstances one cannot influence. As in sports, sometimes the ball bounces your way and sometimes it doesn’t.mportantly, winning should never be the goal because you can never do your best if you compromise who you are – your values and character – while achieving your goals. Whatever the outcome, it’s just the outcome. But the values and standards that make you who you are inviolate and supersede any near-term goal.