Satellite photography

One area of technology that has made extraordinary advances in recent years is satellite imaging. Satellite technology has received enormous investment from governments all over the world over the years. Like other aspects of space exploration technology, satellite imaging technology has not been without its critics. However, the sheer power of satellite imaging has awed millions of people all over the world to such an extent that few have stopped to question where the technology will lead to. In recent years, detectives have made good use of satellite photography to solve crimes and apprehend criminals, as this article on the BBC illustrates. Satellite photography has been used by the CIA and other intelligence services organisations for decades to keep tabs on subversive activity. There is no question about the fact that satellite photography has reaped extraordinary dividends in fighting crime and terrorism. But it raises a very important question about privacy. 

Don't we all deserve the right to privacy and data protection? How will we possibly have any privacy in the future if satellites can photograph us wherever we happen to be in the world, every minute of every day? Could satellite technology bring about an Orwellian superstate in which we are monitored by Big Brother constantly? The notion of having an all-seeing god-like satellite in outer space monitoring our every move is unsettling to say the least. Yet few of us would ever wish to go back to living in a world in which satellite technology did not exist. Technology must march forward and harness every single opportunity. But it is critically important that we continue to think long and hard about privacy protection as we develop satellite technology. Privacy and data protection and fundamental human rights that nobody has any right to breach. This is not an easy problem to resolve, but it is one that must be treated with due diligence. The short video gives a brief outline of the kinds of images that NASA satellites can obtain.

Is the term 'online' obsolete?

We continue to use the terms 'online' and 'offline' on a daily basis, but perhaps the time has come to consider that such terms may be antiquated. Asking whether you have spent much time online today makes about as much sense as asking whether you have used much electricity today. We are immersed and entrenched in the web from the minute we wake until the minute we go to sleep. Few of us today remain offline for any significant length of time. Even switching off our Smartphones for any length of time is becoming unbearable for many people. We don't really 'logon' any more. We are practically logged on all day long. Whether you realize it or not, a significant amount of information about you is now available online, including your credit score. This is unsettling to many people, but that's just how it is. As we continue to embrace the Internet of Things, we may need to redefine some of our digital terminology. We are always connected, always on. In the year 2016, the term 'online' is meaningless for most of us.

Bionic limbs

Within AI, one of the most exciting and promising fields right now is bionics. With millions of amputees worldwide, the prospect of creating bionic limbs would revolutionize contemporary medicine. For years, many people were deeply skeptical about the prospect of such a thing actually happening. Now it seems, this may actually become a reality. Of course, considerable research and testing still needs to be done before this can become mainstream. But extraordinary steps are being made right now in bionics research that could radically change the lives of millions of people for the better. The video below about a bionic fingertip gives an inkling of what we can expect to witness in the future.

Quantum computing

Lately there has been huge media interest in the dispute between Apple and the FBI in regard to encryption technology. If the FBI or NSA could break strong encryption, then they would do so, copy the data and run it through a cloud of government computers to read the files. But they cannot do this because encryption works. In spite of this increasing tension between Apple and the authorities in regard to encryption, technology marches on. What is utterly indisputable is that technology will one day break today's approach to data encryption. A new field of technology is emerging from the lab called quantum computing. Quantum computing is completely different from today's digital computers but it is still in its incipient stages. Instead of using 1s and 0s like digital technology does, quantum computing uses something called a qubit, which can represent many values simultaneously. Quantum computing today is roughly as advanced as digital computing was in 1971 when Intel created the first microprocessor. But technology evolves much faster in 2016 than it did back in 1971. Quantum technology will be expensive to begin with but will get progressively cheaper and simpler, just like all technology. On top of quantum computing, quantum cryptography will revolutionize encryption as we understand it. We have a lot of ground to cover before this becomes mainstream but we are getting closer every single day. THe video by theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss below gives a brief but informative explanation of what quantum computing is. Technology marches on. 

Can we predict Oscar winners using data analytics?

In the run up to the Oscars, millions of people across the globe were intrigued about who would win what awards for which films. One of the questions people in the tech world have been asking is whether we will be able to predict future Oscar winners, based upon data analysis. Two tech firms called Cognizant and Clarabridge, are convinced that they will be able to accomplish this. Both companies looked at 150 variables, from film genre to box office takings, from review ratings to the percentage of female viewers under 18. They then applied their algorithm to data going back fifteen years to work out which of these variables were the most important. Both firms also measured the sentiment films elicited on websites such as IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. Just to give some sense of the amount of data, the tech firms looked at 150,000 text reviews and more than 38 million star ratings from IMDB alone. 

Data crunchers are able to measure sentiment more precisely these days thanks to Big Data analytics and pattern spotting algorithms. Cognizant and Clarabridge expressed a 64% certainty that 'The Revenant' would win an award. In view of the awards given to Leonardo DiCaprio and Alejandro González Iñárritu, it would seem their prediction was bang on the mark! This certainly raises some interesting questions about Big Data analytics. Could data analytics predict Oscar winners of the future with 100% accuracy? It's certainly a possibility. But would we really want to know this in advance? Wouldn't this spoil the atmosphere of the Oscar awards ceremony? Only time will tell. One thing for sure is that Big Data is becoming ever more sophisticated at predicting competition outcomes. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is an open question right now.  

The promised land of fraud prevention

Israel has become a major investment hub within the technology industry. Within the last decade it has earned a stellar reputation internationally as a fertile breeding ground for hi-tech startups. Lately, Israel has also begun to excel within the fields of identity verification and fraud prevention. This is a hugely important area right now and Israel is at the forefront of cutting edge technology within the space. Companies like Forter and I Am Real excel at fraudulent user detection and identity assessment respectively. The IDF Unit 8200 develops systems for gathering intelligence, sifting through data to detect dangers and escalating serious threats for manual review.

What differentiates Israel from most other countries at the cutting edge of technology is the fact that Israel has faced an existential threat since its very inception in 1948. Surviving against hostile neighbours has necessitated implementing a world class military intelligence within Israel. Mossad is arguably the most feared and hated intelligence service on this planet, and the IDF is undoubtedly the most highly trained army globally. What this has meant is that Israel has become exceptionally good at espionage and intelligence gathering. In the day and age of Big Data, this is highly advantageous. While the rest of the world is only now awakening to the power of reliable data and high-level security, Israel has been aware of this for decades. In essence, Israel has had a headstart in relation to devising cutting edge security technology. Israel's very existence has always been reliant upon having reliable security systems in place. 

As the world gears up to embrace the age of Big Data and the Internet of Things, opportunities for deception and manipulation will abound within technology. Identity verification and fraud prevention will become enormously important to organisations the world over. Israel demonstrates superb prescience by investing heavily within these areas. With decades of experience in tackling the most brutal terrorist organisations known to mankind, Israel has invaluable knowledge and expertise in regard to security. One can expect to witness very exciting developments emerge within this field from Israel in the coming years.  

Electronic voting

2016 is the presidential election year in the United States and many people all over the world are eagerly waiting to see who the next President will be. One area which is undergoing change as a result of technology is of course voting. In recent years, considerable interest has been generated in relation to electronic voting. However, electronic and/or online voting is inadvisable for several reasons. Anonymity is a critical aspect of voting in any democracy. Anything that compromises voting anonymity can lead to corruption or bribery. With that in mind, here are few things to bear in mind in regard to electronic voting machines.

1. The first problem is how to audit the electronic voting machine. How can you really ensure that whatever software you decide to use on the voting machine, will actually be the software on the machine on election day? However secure you may think the voting machines are, they cannot be absolutely secure.

2. Votes in transit. Whatever way you decide to transmit the voting data from the machines to the final count will contain risk of interference. However securely you may try to transmit the voting data, risks will be involved.

3. The central count program. This is the program that will take all of the voting numbers and calculate the final result. This program will be susceptible to hacking, however securely you try to protect it.

In view of the fact that somewhere between 5% and 50% of all desktop computers worldwide are infected with some kind of virus, we must be extremely careful in regard to how we design electronic voting software or hardware. The video below carefully addresses the points above and explains why electronic or online voting is inadvisable. As we embrace caution, it is important that we proceed with caution, particularly as it relates to politics. There is a huge incentive for people to skew electoral results so that they can ensure that their chosen candidate or party gets into power. In view of the political turmoil all over the world right now, this could be potentially disastrous. On top of that, we must never lose sight of the fundamental principles upon which democracy is based, namely accountability, transparency and control of the abuse of power. 


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