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Authors: Md. Sohrab Hossen and Md. Obaidullah
Big brother is watching you” is a repeated phrase used throughout the whole novel 1984 by George Orwell to characterise the ruler of Oceania, a totalitarian society in which the governing party, Ingsoc, has complete control over the public “for its own sake.” Every inhabitant in the society Orwell depicts is always being watched by the government, mostly through telescreens. It was the imagination of Orwell of the future London of 1984, as the book was published in 1949.
What can we say now? Should we change the phrase, or is it still valid? I would say “No”! We would rather say, “Big Brother is controlling you”. How is it so? Moreover, even if it is, why should you care?
In recent years, with the tremendous advances in every field of science and technology, some issues of personal freedom, choice of expression etc., have emerged. Big data is likely watching you, or the algorithm knows your google search history. Not only modern technologies such as 5G, AI, machine learning, big data, IoT, blockchain, cloud computing, virtual reality, and cybersecurity have been transporting significant advances in the quality of life and experience of homo sapiens, but also these sophisticated techs have brought many ominous complications.
These technologies may pose a threat to liberal democracy, and the government can use technologies to control and monitor people all the time. Dictators may use IT to exercise their illegitimate power or to violate citizens’ rights.
While the traditional dictatorship system was characterised by a single leader or group of leaders who used military power to dominate mass people, there was no scope for political pluralism and freedom of voice; big data and the advancement of AI enable the processing of massive amounts of data, which might make a centralised system. Thus, the fascinating inventions of science, such as AI and robotics, might be used to help tyrants achieve their goals by just writing a line of code. Robots do not hesitate to carry out commands. If it were the robot’s action, the Military coup attempted in Turkey against the Erdoğan government on 15 July 2016 could be successful.
Furthermore, robust surveillance algorithms can be the worst thing ever to happen to humanity if used by an authoritarian ruler. For example, in Palestine, already today, Palestinians are likely to be monitored by Israeli microphones, cameras, drones, or spy software Pegasus anytime they make a phone call, post anything on Facebook, or travel between cities.
While the Palestinian Authority administers several cities and villages in the West Bank, Israel controls the skies, radios, and the Internet. As a result, it takes a relatively tiny number of Israeli troops to successfully oversee the West Bank’s 2.5 million Palestinians. The same thing is happening in Kashmir, where even during performing Friday prayers at the local mosque, multiple police surveillance drones are seen hovering above them. Furthermore, the children’s unsuccessful attempt to bring down the drones by hurling stones high into the air took place on 23 August 2019. Followingly, it would be an injustice if we did not mention the Chinese IT-backed authoritarianism over the Uyghurs.
The Chinese government uses technology to perfect its censorship mechanisms. An AI system can filter and prevent unfavourable content from the regime. During the Hong Kong protests, the Chinese regime tightened its “Great Firewall,” eliminating subversive content from mainland China’s Internet almost promptly. To prevent opposition members from communicating, organising, or publicising their messages, digital autocracies can limit all citizens’ access to the Internet (or significant portions of it). The government successfully turned off the Internet nationwide during widespread protests in Iran.
Besides, biotechnology advancement is also seen as anti-democratic. Can you imagine a situation when you had a minor operation and someone, maybe the authoritarian ruler, has placed a micro cheap inside you that directly connects your brain and controls your ideology? What if, in this way, you become an active player of a tyrant ruler from a threat to his regime?
Therefore, we have to be careful and aware of our data. We must first be conscious and then careful so that none becomes able to misuse our personal or financial data. We should not disseminate our very personal information on the Internet or social media, yet, night and day, that is what we, homo sapiens, are doing with great enthusiasm. So, halt; otherwise, you lose the war before even you meet your enemy.
Robots and the Future
Senior Research Assistant, BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University.
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We are living in the era of “Pervasive Robotics,” where robots will be merged into the fabric of day-to-day life as smartphones are today, accomplishing many specialized tasks and often working side-by-side with humans. The robotic revolution will create a future that is more vivid and vibrant than the present. By 2022, robots will have gained such traction that they will be visible on battlefields as military robots, drones, driverless cars, and telepresence robots. Military robots are in the field today. Drones are in the skies, driverless cars are driving on the roads, and telepresence robots are allowing people halfway around the world to see each other over the Internet. However, the expanded structure of robots within the framework of human interaction has raised significant concerns about the meaning of robotic integration into human life. Making a future with customized and ubiquitous robots is a major challenge. Mark Weiser, a chief scientist at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center in the 1990s, who is regarded as the architect of so-called ubiquitous computing, said: “The most profound technologies are those that disappear.” “They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.” Computers have already achieved that type of pervasiveness. Tomorrow, robots will, too.
At home, at work, and at play, robots have the potential to improve our lives. With customized robots in the workplace, new jobs will be created, and existing jobs will be improved. In addition, people will have more time to focus on what they find interesting, meaningful, and exciting. As people commute to work in driverless cars, they will be able to read, respond to e-mails, watch videos, and even nap. A driverless car will drop off one passenger, pick up its next passenger, and coordinate with other self-driving vehicles to reduce traffic and wait times while driving safely and efficiently.
In the future, robots will be a normal part of human lives. However, it is a matter of concern that robots have a need to be ethically as conscious as humans are in the 21st century. Yet the purpose of robotics is not to supersede humans by mechanizing; it is to uncover methods for appliances to aid and collaborate with humans more effectively. Robots are better than humans at many tasks like crunching digits, lifting heavy things, and, in specific contexts, changing positions with accuracy. Humans are better than robots at generalization, abstraction, and imaginative reflection, thanks to their capacity to explain and draw on previous knowledge. By working together, robots and humans can expand and complement each other’s abilities. The future will revolve around the interaction of machines and humans, but at the same time, it can create a dystopia of machines and automation.
We will combat a future in which robots will evaluate the boundaries of our ethical and legal processes with audacity. To meet this challenge, it is critical that intelligent machines and robots acquire the highest level of ethical and regulatory literacy in order to coexist with humans. If we want to survive in a world with robots and machines who behave more and more like humans and who make ever more “personal” choices, then we should urge that robots also be competent to communicate with us about what they learn, how they learn it, and what they desire.
Democracy and capitalism are based on two principles: people must have access to information and the freedom to make choices. In the era of “pervasive robotics,” big data provides a vast quantity of information. Robotic technologies that collect and analyze all types of information about humans without regard for ethical codes and regulations may jeopardize access to validated information and human agency. Automation technologies and human interaction could yield unyielding outcomes in the form of tainted electoral franchises and the anti-democratization of society.
A major shift has occurred in the economic markets. Classical exchanges between customers and companies are based on immediate economic exchanges: customers pay for goods and benefits, and companies deliver them. In the digital economy, however, customers profit more and more from the provision of free services. Corporations yield not by instantly charging buyers but by amassing and then monetizing data about buyers’ behavior, often without their understanding or consent. This type of fundamental data mining has become commonplace. Automation and access to information in the hands of wireless technology and computers have democratized access to information and altered the way people live and think. In the future, robots will expand this digital process further into the physical domain and deeper into everyday life, with outcomes that will be equally profound.
Today, all civil engineers are instructed to study ethics because an inaccurately planned bridge can result in tremendous public damage. Roboticists today face a similar obligation since their inventions are no longer mere academic pursuits. To make robots livable with humans in the future, it is necessary for computer science departments to follow the lead of civil engineering. This is because they must require that every designer and candidate for robotic studies has sufficient training in ethics and sociology.
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Like Ukraine-Russia war, the world is now facing another war, named semiconductor or chip war. The competition between the U.S and China becomes intense for the chip. Semiconductor is an integral part of the electronic and military industry. What are causes behind this war, what is the current situation, what will be the implications in the future and who will win this war is going to be discussed in this article.
Semiconductors, also known as chips, are the materials that have a conductivity between conductors and insulators. The semiconductors can be consisted of pure elements such as germanium or silicon. Semiconductors use in electronic equipments and devices including diodes, transistors, integrated circuits, consumer products like mobile phones, laptops, game consoles, microwaves, cars. Now it is considered as “The new oil” and ” A 21st century horse shoe nail.” Moreover, semiconductors is the core component in the manufacturing industries. The U.S.A, Asian countries like Taiwan, China, South Korea and Japan are the largest semiconductor producers in the world. Taiwan, China, South Korea’s companies account for 87% of the global market. Supply chain uncertainty, Covid-19 pandemic, the increasing demand of consumers that lead to the world in semiconductor war. Especially, the COVID-19 pandemic played a massive and dimension role in this crisis. Industries were failed to meet the supply and demand of the consumer in that climate, semiconductors companies were lagged behind and unstable to cope with the severe demand pressure from various sectors. According to the semiconductor Industry Association, the global semiconductor sales were hoped to be maximized by 20% in 2021. As demand for consumer electronics decreased, the paucity of advanced elements waned rapidly. Hence, the industry is now dealing with intense stock. The automotive chip insufficiency is now struggling to protect the unwavering supplies of chips. In 2022, they were predicted to rise 9%. The declining of semiconductors production will help to lead the production process of the electronic industries in 2023. By the end of the 2027, silicon market is expected to reach USD70 billion and annual growth rate of 5.1% over the next five years.
The United States of America is the semiconductors race leader in the worldwide market whose market share value was at over $200 billion in 2020. They are also a harbinger in the export of semiconductors 50% of the world market.Basically, semiconductors are the top export goods of the United States of America and they invest more than one-fifth of the sales on research and advancement, second only the pharmaceutical business. America still depends on Taiwan for exporting semiconductors. On the other hand, China is now an emerging major participant in the semiconductor race. Its semiconductor industry has been expanding since 2015. The Semiconductor Industry Association hopes China to excel Taiwan by 2030 with a 24% market share and supported by its ” Made in China 2025″ initiative. China has already devoured Taiwan in the semiconductor business during the previous two years. America always wants to halt China but China’s semiconductor industry continuous to advance at the 9%, its annual sales might reach $114 billion by 2024. In order to Taiwan’s geopolitical kismet precarious, both America and China are racing to make their own malignance as well as self-contained in the semiconductor industry. China works for long to catch up America’s advanced technologies and competes in microchip. The rise of techno-nationalism in china will lead to both the competition and conflict with the U.S.
The U.S has recently passed the CHIPS Act that involve Impressive financial support for science and technology because their main goal is to maintain a magnificent, competitive benefits over China. The most panorama controls on chip imitation, the U.S Department of commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) implements. On October 2022, the Biden Administration amplified its controls on the exports of semiconductors associated inputs and equipments to China. On December 6, Biden visited the site of Taiwan semiconductor Manufacturing Co. new plant in Arizona and called a potential project for the U.S chip supply chain.In mid December, The U.S administration included 36 additional Chinese chip makers from entrancing U.S chip technology, including YMTC. Not only 40Billion investment delineates the U.S endeavors to attain hegemon over China in chip industry but also America has stepped to strength entrance to flourished semiconductors technology by Chinese companies. It is now crystalline that America has announced a semiconductor war on China.
Now it is a question of trillion dollars who will win the chip war? Chip war is now a war more than the geopolitical conflict. It is very difficult to determine the winner of the chip war. As the U.S is the global hegemon, some countries will try to make a coalition with the U.S and its allies. The U.S will dominate the semiconductors technology for artificial intelligence and military installation. China takes the conduct in microelectronics like cloud computing and electronic devices. According to some Economists, there will be no winner, only losers will remain. And the ultimate losers are the consumers.
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Will moon mineral extraction soon be underway? The National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to build a moonbase. What makes it so anxious about such a new goal?
Compared to the vast universe, human beings are undoubtedly less than grains of sand. Although space exploration has been going on for more than half a century, the extraterrestrial bodies on which humans have set foot are limited to the moon, which is the closest to the earth. Moreover, only the United States of America has achieved manned moon landings and there is still a long way to go for human space exploration.
At the same time, space exploration activity by the People’s Republic of China has gradually expanded in recent years. Moon sampling, the Tianwen-1 space mission to the red planet, the Martian rover Zhurong and the Tiangong (Celestial Palace), a Chinese modular space station under construction, part of the fourth permanent space station programme in history (after the Saljut, Skylab, Mir and the International Space Station), all are important symbols of China’s turning into a space power.
However, with the progress of the Chinese space industry, NASA – which is on the other side of the Pacific Ocean – is also feeling much pressure, with its desire to initiate a plan to go back to the moon and maintain its leading position in space technology thanks to the Artemis project.
Faced with pressure from Chinese moon landings and space station research, NASA has announced that it will go back to the moon in 2024. This time, with the return to the moon, the United States of America has set two main goals for itself: a new manned lunar landing; and the return to the moon to look for ways to enable humans to live permanently on the surface of our satellite and exploit it scientifically and for mining.
The Artemis project aims to establish a moonbase in the meteorite crater near the satellite south pole, named after the explorer Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922). This is the first task. Once the moonbase is successfully established, NASA will be able to obtain in advance the technology for the future construction of the base on Mars.
Is mineral extraction part of the programme? NASA plans to build a moonbase. The peaks on the rim of Shackleton Crater are continuously exposed to sunlight, but the interior is permanently shaded. Scientists also call it the crater of eternal night. The permanent shadow inside leads to a low temperature, which has captured and frozen volatile components emitted by celestial bodies when they hit the moon. The Lunar Prospector, launched on 7 January 1998 by NASA, found a higher than normal amount of hydrogen gas in the craters during its measurement mission to the moon, indicating the presence of water ice. The Lunar Prospector, was designed for a short polar orbit analysing our satellite, mapping the surface and any polar ice deposits, measuring the magnetic field and gravity, and studying lunar events.
Once the water ice extraction technology is achieved, the construction of both the moonbase and the Mars base can be greatly improved. The water ice can break down into hydrogen and oxygen, the main components of rocket fuel. In the future, the moonbase could also serve as a space service station.
With a view to developing moon mining technology, NASA has also launched a competition called Break the Ice Lunar Challenge. Well-known technology companies such as Masten Space Systems, Lunar Outpost and Honeybee Robotics have currently joined the challenge.
They plan to use rocket engines to design a moon mining vehicle weighing over 800 kilograms. When the moon mining vehicle reaches a site containing water ice, its engine enclosed in the dome will start up, launching the water ice-laden debris into a vacuum device that separates and stores the water ice particles.
According to the plan, this moon mining vehicle is capable of mining operations from twelve craters per day. Each crater can produce about 100 kilograms of ice and more than 420,000 kilograms of lunar water ice can be recovered each year.
Besides lunar water ice, the Artemis programme also includes research into the extraction of helium-3. Helium-3 (He-3) is a very valuable resource in space, and its presence on earth is rather limited. It is formed by the decay of tritium (hydrogen-3, the third isotope of the element hydrogen, after protium and deuterium). In the soil of the moon surface, there is one million tonnes of helium-3.
Helium-3 can continuously supply energy to the moonbase. If the fusion energy of helium-3 is used, just 200,000 tonnes of helium-3 can enable a population of nearly one and a half billion people to use electricity for an entire year. It is also very likely that this type of space minerals will change the energy process of rockets and cause a qualitative transformation of human space technology.
NASA has quickly embarked on the project to return to the moon, mainly because the satellite soil collected by the Chinese probes on the moon contains this type of future energy.
NASA must also complete the technology to withstand space radiation for the Artemis project. The surface of the moon, like the surface of Mars, is not protected by an ozone layer. This is precisely the reason why space radiation there is very high. Studies have shown that space radiation can easily penetrate the bulkheads of manned spacecraft and pass through crew members’ bodies. Space radiation can damage the DNA of crew members, causing a number of irreparable consequences.
With a view to solving the threat of space radiation, NASA approached the research institutes of the University of Washington and Harvard University to ask for collaboration and participation in studies. In the high-tech competition, they found a very powerful small molecule. It plays an important role in repairing DNA damaged by space radiation and in restoring muscle and skeletal loss in weightlessness.
This molecule is involved in the synthesis of cofactors in human cells and is a substance found in the human body and in nature. People can restore or increase the level of cellular cofactors in the body by supplementing the molecule, which is able to restore declining mitochondria and repair damaged DNA. Likewise, astronauts can also repair damaged DNA by supplementing the molecule after having been exposed to space radiation.
NASA has collected a large amount of data on the radiation exposure of astronauts during space activities over the past decades. Based on this data, the Ames Research Center – one of NASA’s ten largest centres, located in California’s Silicon Valley at Moffett Field Airport – has developed a roadmap for radiation resistance in the human body. In the roadmap, NASA plans to use modern gene editing technology to modify astronauts’ DNA so that they can adapt to the high-radiation space environment.
Judging by the current level of technology, however, when we return to the moon in 2024, it is estimated that gene editing technology will not yet have reached the point where it can affect astronauts’ DNA. NASA can rely on the aforementioned molecule, which will be safe and reliable only after marketing. A few years ago, some biological companies focused on studying molecules against ageing and on restoring levels to cope with mitochondrial diseases.
Scientific tests and marketing have demonstrated the molecule safety, and NASA wants to use this material to complete the relevant tests on the moonbase before it can be used in large-scale space activities.
The moon is the closest celestial body to the earth, and is a unique outpost for humans to improve space technology. Although it looks desolate, it contains a lot of energy that the earth does not have. Humans can probably improve aerospace technology on the moon to a higher level than on earth.
It must be said, however, that if we are serious about mining or other activities on the moon, concluding relevant binding treaties is essential, and all countries carrying out space activities must be able to comply with them. In this way, the moon is protected and severe consequences are avoided for what will happen “in the sky” if there is conflict on earth.
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