La crise, quelle crise ?

Auteur/autrice : marc

  • Le renouveau du site…

  • Stepping over the fear…

    Going video online is not an easy feat. You will not like your voice, you will not like the way you look and you may not like at all what image you project. Here’s a quick video about my personal experience and about the 3 things that matter when you go video.

  • Atomic Data

    Atomic Data

    We often hear that data is the new oil. The implication is that they are the fuel of the economy. But, as Bernard Marr pointed out in a Forbes article, oil is a resource that is finite, unlike data, but above all, the more we use the data, the more we discover its usefulness and we can reuse it infinitely. Oil and data are therefore not equivalent, and the shortcut used until then does not reflect reality. On reflection, the data would behave more like the Atom. I put a capital A, to distinguish the atom that constitutes all matter, from the Atom in the sense of nuclear energy. Indeed, nuclear energy and data have four identical intrinsic characteristics:

    • They’re infinite
    • They can be used as energy
    • They are relatively eco-friendly
    • They have the power to destroy us

    Almost infinite sources

    Plutonium has a radioactive period (half-life) of about 357,000 years! Uranium of 703 million years! Of course, we do not know how to harness their energy during this period, but the fact is that a radioactive isotope emits energy for a very, very long time. We also know how to store this energy and use it when we need it. The data that is collected daily by billions of websites, smartphones, connected objects and computers have the same power. They are stored, exploited and provided information that is used to fuel economic engines.

    We can say that our reserves of uranium, thorium or plutonium are also limited. On the one hand, it remains today about 5 million tons of extractable and usable uranium, on the other hand, the technological evolution of its exploitation, make this ore an energy source that will last much, much much longer than oil. Nor is it impossible for science to learn, through data and quantum computers, to control nuclear fusion. We will then have an infinite source of energy this time, on a human scale.

    Almost free energy

    Nuclear power is one of the cheapest energies. Of course, the extraction of ore, its enrichment, its use and-mining are very expensive. But once again, over the life of a power plant, it is the energy that seems, for the moment, to be the most economical. In the future, the use of micro-power plants is likely to influence energy consumption. Nuclear power is set to have a bright future, despite the reservations of many environmentalists.

    Nuclear fission is a natural phenomenon. The cost attached to it is only its exploitation by man. It can also be said that the harvesting and use of data is almost free. Of course, these operations require electrical energy and human effort, but the harvest is done more and more, without it costing anything, but it pays a lot, I will come back to it.

    Ecological energy, quite

    green tree on the forest

    Nuclear power is the greenest energy, since it only releases water into the atmosphere. Of course, its extraction is not the greenest, it is dangerous and its post-use treatment still pose problems. But over its full life cycle, nuclear energy is uncommonly greener than wind or solar. Data, like nuclear power, is a green energy, especially as the many data centers that allow storage and processing are increasingly powered by renewable energy.

    Like nuclear power, however, it is a major consumer of energy over its entire life cycle and its use requires faster and faster networks that are not without effect on the ecological footprint of the Internet. But it is above all in their ability to destroy us that their potential is most identical.

    The destruction of civilization

    If civil nuclear has qualities and risks, as we have seen with Chernobyl, Three Miles Island and Fukushima, military nuclear has the potential to destroy humanity, and life as we know it, in a few seconds. The data collected has a similar power, with an invisible and unexpected twist. With Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we know that some survived the nuclear fire, but that many victims took a long time to die, affected by many diseases triggered by radiation. With the data, we now know that we can change the behavior of individuals. Two examples are Pokémon Go and the Chinese Sesame Credit social behavior assessment system.

    If nuclear power can physically destroy humanity, quickly and slowly, data can, and are in the process, destroy our free will. Georges Orwell wrote in 1984 that » war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. » B.F. Skinner told that freedom was an illusion and the fruit of ignorance. However, we do not see radiation just as we do not see the harvesting, processing and use of the data. Radiation influences the functioning of our bodies and disrupts it, the use of data disrupts the functioning of our free will and our decisions. Data is destroying civilization as we know it, at the economic goodwill of a very small number of players, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, serving purely economic imperatives, and now used by political powers, as in China, to control and monitor peoples.

    The data is Atomic!

    Photo by Dan Meyers, Dhruva Reddy on Unsplash

  • Les données sont Atomiques

    Les données sont Atomiques

    On entend souvent que les données sont le nouveau pétrole. Le sous-entendu est qu’elles sont le carburant de l’économie. Mais, comme le soulignait Bernard Marr dans un article de Forbes, le pétrole est une ressource qui n’est pas infinie, à l’inverse des données, mais surtout, plus on utilise les données, plus on en découvre l’utilité et on peut les réutiliser à l’infini. Pétrole et données ne sont donc pas équivalents et le raccourci utilisé jusqu’alors ne reflète pas la réalité. À y réfléchir, les données se comporteraient plus comme l’Atome. J’y mets un grand A, pour distinguer l’atome qui constitue toute matière, de l’Atome au sens énergie nucléaire. En effet, énergie nucléaire et données possèdent quatre caractéristiques intrinsèques identiques :

    • Elles sont infinies
    • Elles peuvent être utilisées comme énergie
    • Elles sont relativement écologiques
    • Elles ont le pouvoir de nous détruire

    Des sources quasi infinies

    Le plutonium a une période radioactive (demi-vie) d’environ 357 000 ans ! L’uranium de 703 millions d’années ! Certes, on ne sait pas exploiter leur énergie pendant cette durée, mais le fait est qu’un isotope radioactif émet de l’énergie pendant très, très longtemps. On sait aussi stocker cette énergie et l’utiliser quand on en a besoin. Les données qui sont collectées quotidiennement par les milliards de sites web, de smartphones, d’objets connectés et d’ordinateurs ont le même pouvoir. On les stocke, puis on les exploite et elles fournissent des informations qui servent à alimenter des moteurs économiques.

    On peut se dire que nos réserves en uranium, en thorium ou en plutonium sont limitées également. D’une part, il resterait aujourd’hui environ 5 millions de tonnes d’uranium extractibles et utilisables, d’autres parts, l’évolution technologique de son exploitation, font de ce minerai une source d’énergie qui va durer beaucoup, beaucoup plus longtemps que le pétrole. Il n’est pas non plus impossible que la science apprenne, grâce aux données et aux ordinateurs quantiques, à contrôler la fusion nucléaire. Nous disposerons alors d’une source cette fois infinie, à l’échelle de l’homme, d’énergie.

    Une énergie quasi gratuite

    Le nucléaire est une des énergies les moins chères. Certes, l’extraction du minerai, son enrichissement, son utilisation et le démantèlement des installations coûtent très cher. Mais une fois encore, sur la durée de vie d’une centrale, c’est l’énergie qui semble, pour le moment, être la plus économique. Dans le futur, l’utilisation de microcentrales aura sans doute encore un effet sur la consommation d’énergie. Le nucléaire est appelé à un bel avenir, en dépit des réserves de nombreux écolos.

    La fission nucléaire est un phénomène naturel. Le coût qui y est attaché concerne uniquement son exploitation par l’homme. On peut aussi dire que la récolte et l’utilisation des données sont quasi gratuites. Certes, ces opérations nécessitent de l’énergie électrique et des efforts humains, mais la récolte est faite de plus en plus, sans qu’elle ne coûte rien, mais qu’elle rapporte beaucoup, j’y reviendrais.

    Une énergie écologique, ou presque

    green tree on the forest

    Le nucléaire est l’énergie la plus verte qui soi, puisqu’elle ne rejette que de l’eau dans l’atmosphère. Bien évidemment, son extraction n’est pas des plus vertes, elle est dangereuse et son traitement post utilisation posent encore des problèmes. Mais sur son cycle de vie complet, l’énergie nucléaire est sans commune mesure plus verte que l’éolien ou le solaire. Les données, comme le nucléaire, est une énergie verte, d’autant plus que les nombreux centres de données qui en permettent le stockage et le traitement sont de plus en plus alimentés par des énergies renouvelables.

    Comme le nucléaire cependant, elle est une grosse consommatrice d’énergie sur son cycle de vie complet et son utilisation nécessite des réseaux de plus en plus rapides qui ne sont pas sans effet sur l’empreinte écologique d’internet. Mais c’est surtout dans leurs capacités à nous détruire que leur potentiel est le plus identique.

    La destruction de la civilisation en ligne de mire

    Si le nucléaire civil a des qualités et comporte des risques, on l’a vu avec Tchernobyl, Three Miles Island et Fukushima, le nucléaire militaire a le potentiel de détruire l’humanité, et la vie telle qu’on la connaît, en quelques secondes. Les données récoltées ont un pouvoir similaire, avec un twist invisible et inattendu. Avec Hiroshima et Nagasaki, on sait que certains ont survécu au feu nucléaire, mais qu’un grand nombre de victimes ont mis du temps à mourir, affectés par de nombreuses maladies déclenchées par les radiations. Avec les données, on sait maintenant qu’on peut modifier le comportement des individus. Le jeu Pokémon Go et le système chinois Sesame Credit d’évaluation du comportement social en sont deux exemples.

    Si le nucléaire peut détruire physiquement l’humanité, rapidement et aussi à petit feu, les données peuvent, et sont en train, détruire notre libre arbitre. Georges Orwell écrivait dans 1984 que « la guerre, c’est la paix, la liberté c’est l’esclavage, l’ignorance c’est la force ». BF Skinner disait lui que la liberté était une illusion et le fruit de l’ignorance. Or, on ne voit pas les radiations tout comme on ne voit pas la récolte, le traitement et l’utilisation des données. Les radiations influencent le fonctionnement de notre corps et le dérèglent, l’utilisation des données dérègle le fonctionnement de notre libre arbitre et de nos décisions. Les données sont en train de détruire la civilisation telle que nous la connaissons, au bon vouloir économique d’un tout petit nombre d’acteurs, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, au service d’impératifs purement économiques, et utilisés maintenant par les puissances politiques, comme en Chine, pour contrôler et surveiller les peuples.

    La donnée, c’est Atomique !

    Crédit photo Dan Meyers, Dhruva Reddy sur Unsplash

  • 10 rules of life…

    10 rules of life…

    … for a peaceful, chosen and happy life.

    Almost eleven years ago, I started this blog. Nearly 800 posts later, while in the early morning I was teasing the muse, I thought it was time to revisit a series of posts I had written about the 10 rules to get through the crisis. 2008 was the year of the subprime crisis, which had swept the finance world with violent repercussions on the economy and everyone lives. Since then, the world has changed, little it would seem in appearance, yet a number of currents of the depths emerge: artificial intelligence that cajoles, threatens and fascinates, uberization that created more precarity while offering new opportunities, dominance of the digital giants, GAFAM in the U.S., BAT in Asia, monitoring our actions in the digital and real worlds, the rise of terrorism and of course the climate emergency with the proven warming of our planet.

    We can therefore say, without a doubt, that our world is in crisis, not a financial one like in 2000 or 2008, but in a global crisis. We can get into the alarmist camp and cry wolf. We can get into the optimist’s and think that everything is going to get better. One can put ourselves in that of the realist’s who acts at his/her level for the better- of his environment, the common good and his/her own happiness. It is to this last camp that I try to belong, applying some precepts of life, that are the 10 rules that I had laid out in 2008 and that I repeat here, because they have evolved a little, but not that much.

    Living your life

    I subtitled this post, for a peaceful, chosen and happy life. I have long weighed these three adjectives:

    • Peaceful, because the world is violent. Of course, and lots of things are getting better, armed conflicts are diminishing, murders too, but there is a constant tension that you feel immediately when you read the news. Tension between Iran and the USA, tension between Shiites and Sunnis, tension between Muslims and Islamophobes, tension between pro and anti global warming, etc. However, with a zest of benevolence, active listening and an awareness of one’s own cognitive biases, we arrive at a much more harmonious and peaceful life.
    • Chosen, because the influences have increased exponentially. The piece of plastic and glass that forms our mobile phone has become the compass of our lives. Like anything else in life, you can rejoice or throw the baby out with the bathwater. It is essential, in my opinion, to recognize the influence that technology has in our lives and to decide, in full conscience, to limit it in order to regain the essence of our being and our short lives in this universe.
    • Happy, because it is happiness that we all aspire to. Whether through our frantic race for material possessions, more or less esoteric experiences or positions of power, our quest for happiness is universal and timeless.

    Unfortunately, I think that the world that is presented and exposed through the media is tense, constrained and unhappy. Without adhering to the conspiracy theory, a large number of opposing forces push us to be permanently dissatisfied and to seek the object or experience that will, temporarily, appease us and give us the illusion of happiness, until the next point of influence injects us with the venom of dissatisfaction and desire.

    Living, simply

    Eleven years ago, I gave rules of « good conduct » to pass between the drops of the crisis and even use it for, I quote:

    • getting rich
    • changing your life
    • doing business
    • partying
    • taking back control of time…

    Eleven years later, the objectives are, after all, the same. These goals are defined by each of us, according to our desires, our needs, our culture, our environment, etc. But in the end, they should be congruent with our vital need to live, to the best of our ability, and to offer our family, friends and community the best possible life, without our freedom encroaching on that of others and allowing everyone to live his/her life. So, over the next few weeks, I’m going to go back to those ten rules.

    As I said, they can only vary. On the other hand, they have become even more necessary and the discipline behind them is more pervasive. You can always go back (there are 784 posts on this blog) in search of these rules or wait wisely each week to discover the new ones, for the next two and a half months. This is what I propose: to find slowness, surprise and time for reflection. It is also a way for me to pause, to reflect on the inflection of our lives over time and to measure how far we have come, consciously and with pleasure.

    In the meantime, I wish you a good future reading and wonderful weeks, peaceful, chosen and happy!

    Photo George Pagan III on Unsplash