Thursday, 14 July 2022
Shri Ashwini Vaishnawji : “ Fake News “ solution in Sight ?
Some 496 crore
people all over the world are using internet . This comprise 83 crore Indians
Between them, they post /
forward, billions of “ News “ everyday – to billions of recipients /
news-transmitters. May be 25 % of these are “ Fake News / Outright Lies “
As far as those “
Forwarders / Transmitters / Repeaters “ are concerned, I have a feeling that
they believe those news as “ True / Genuine “ . They only interest is to “
enlighten / entertain “ their contacts
In nearly ALL such cases,
these innocent / well-meaning “ Forwarders “ have absolutely no idea as to , “ Who originated
this post ? “
Now, you ( ie; our Central Government ) want the Social
Media to :
Ø Detect
/ determine whether a “ posted / forwarded “ news is genuine or “ fake “
Ø If “
established “ as FAKE , then Govt wants Social Media to
take down such posts within 24 hours
Ø Govt
also wants Social Media to immediately “ remove “ that “ Original Source “
permanently
Social Media are saying :
Ø This
is just not possible
Ø We cannot
employ a MILLION detectors / investigators to comply with such rules
Ø We
have difficulty developing / launching a SOFTWARE which can do this
automatically
Dear Shri Vaishnawji,
After reading the following news, you may not have to plead
with the Social Media :
Introducing a Revolutionary Device to Save Civilization from Lies /
Medium / 04 July 2022
Extract :
Lies are as old as
language. We once thought the internet would make us smarter, by providing
access to a world of information. But it has weaponized
disinformation. We’re having an epistemology crisis,
many people falling into quicksands of falsehoods,
or not knowing what to believe. Threatening the underpinnings of democracy and
civilization itself.
But
imagine having a device you can rely
on to sort truth from lies. Well, now it’s
here !
Three leading technology firms have joined
in an unprecedented alliance to create the Goopplesoft
AI Truthfulness Oracular Revealer (GATOR).
Just point it at any information source — a TV, computer, smartphone screen, newspaper,
etc. — or your Uncle Harry — for an instant
reality check.
This is not virtual reality, or artificial
reality, but real reality. Where two plus two
equals four. If someone says five, the lie
will
be exposed. So will every other kind of untruth.
The
GATOR comes in three attractive colors: baby-bottom pink,
glaucous blue, and boiled-frog green. With an equally attractive price of just $ 99.95 !
How does it work ? Not like conventional “lie detectors,” which
are so problematic as to be mis-named.
GATOR
instead uses Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Such systems have been advancing for a long time. A basic approach has been
“deep learning,” like where you feed a program a zillion cat pictures, from
which it trains itself to recognize another picture as showing a cat. Of course
such a system is limited; it can’t identify a dog.
But
now researchers have been developing “foundation
models,” with broader capabilities.
One method is to feed in millions of words
of text. The program hides a word from itself ; tries to guess
the word ; then examines the result. Repeat
millions of times and the system not only develops deep
intuitions about language, but even what amounts to some understanding of
the world.
{ Refer : SELF -
LEARNING SOFTWARE ………. 05
Sept 2003 }
The Economist magazine recently focused on this. The cover art (see
picture) was created not by a human but by an AI system — instructed with
nothing but the headline!
Such
AI principles power the GATOR. Having access to a vast corpus of information
about the real world, which has been uploaded to the Cloud
When asked to evaluate any assertion, the
device will search through that gigantic database, finding every relevant fact,
integrating them all with its own basic knowledge, and producing an answer that
has a correctness probability of virtually 100%.
So just point your GATOR at some TV broadcast — Fox
News, for example.
Or some politician — Donald Trump,
for example.
Or at any piece of text, any
social media post, any website, or at any
person bloviating in real time.
You’ll know instantly whether what you’re
seeing or hearing is true or false.
Just
think how useful this will be with regard to advertisements. You can even
bring it to church; point it at the preacher.
Admittedly
many questions don’t have factual true-or-false
answers.
GATOR can’t
tell you whether abortion is moral.
But a lot of important questions — despite
being widely contested — do have actual answers. The 2020 presidential election
was not stolen. Vaccines don’t cause autism. For those we shouldn’t need AI.
But apparently many unassisted human brains do need such help.
Indeed, GATOR will change the world. Resolving that age-old
conundrum, “Who are you gonna believe — me, or your lying eyes ?”
With regards,
Hemen Parekh / hcp@RecruitGuru.com / 14 July 2022
Related Readings :
Ø A
Matter of Unwillingness ? ……………………… [
18 June 2021 ]
Ø How
Do You Control Wind ? …………………[ 11 April 2018 ]
Ø Fake-News
? An Obsolete Concept ? ………… [ 04 April 2018 ]
Tuesday, 12 July 2022
Dear Shri Chahal : Please consider COLD ASPHALT
Context :
Civic chief sees 5-year roadmap
for pothole-proof trips in Mumbai /
TNN / 12 July 2022
Extract :
“
The intensity of the downpour enables water to seep into the pores of
bitumen topping the road , thereby dislocating even the best surfaces. The only solution to this is
concretising every kilometre of road surface
The
possibility of getting a pothole on a concretized roads is almost reduced by
90 per cent, I feel . Therefore we have
drawn up a master plan of concretizing all roads by 2027 – 28 “, said Chahal
A
concrete road usually has a longer life (15-20 years) but requires almost double the time needed to lay an Asphalt road.
Cost
is 300 times more as it involves laying a new drainage line alongside, plus more
men and material
Context :
Make Civic Engineers Accountable For Potholes,
Say Ex-corporators | Mumbai Information / 13
July 2022
Extract :
A day after BMC
commissioner I S Chahal ( mc@mcgm.gov.in )
blamed the
“brutal” rain that batters the town yearly for the deteriorating situation of
roads, former corporators retorted that enough
supervision by civic officers at each stage
would guarantee the town will get good roads that last
Additional Municipal
commissioner P Velrasu,[ amc.projects@mcgm.gov.in ]
in charge of the civic roads division, said
the issue was with the asphalt roads constructed in the past.
However,
Velrasu pointed out that if concrete roads
develop potholes, there’s a big problem
“ We need to ensure that at every stage of constructing
concrete roads, adequate time is
given for mixing and curing. This would ensure that in the long run the city gets good
high quality roads,” he stated.
Context :
Extract :
Based
on the initial
cost of
the pavement, concrete
roads are reported to be over 20 % costlier than asphalt roads. However on
life cycle cost basis, concrete roads are estimated to be around 20 – 25 %
cheaper than asphalt roads
Whereas
asphalt is still less costly as compared to concrete, Asphalt
dries faster hence it takes less time to build an Asphalt road as compared to a
Concrete road
# REPAIR
Concrete
roads do not require frequent repair for patching work like Asphalt roads but if the Concrete road
breaks, the whole slab needs to be
replaced.
On
the other hand, Asphalt
is a CHEAPER
and FASTER
solution for short term projects
# MAINTENANCE
Concrete
roads are maintenance-free, or we can say they require very minimum maintenance
if they are laid properly
In
contrast, maintenance of Asphalt roads is easy or we can say they
require very minimum maintenance if they are laid properly
# POLLUTION
Asphalt
produces lots of high polluting gases at the time of melting it for paving –
also petroleum is required to produce asphalt , which is an expensive product
{
My observation > Isn’t Asphalt, a by-product of petroleum refining ? }
===================================================
Dear Shri Chahal,
I urge you to get the experts at the Indian Road Congress to examine the feasibility and economics of using COLD ASPHALT , as suggested in my following 6 YEAR old email :
Ø Keep
Experimenting ……………………………[
21 Feb
2016 ]
Extract :
Dear Shri Gadkariji :
Allow me to suggest use of " COLD ASPHALT " technology
for building new roads / filling pot holes
Use of hot asphalt requires a very
narrow temperature range within which it must be spread on roads before rolling
Any hotter and it will just stick to
the roller. Any colder and it just won't set
It is difficult to maintain such narrow range ( of temperature ) after asphalt carrying truck travels hundreds of kilometer - even when that truck has a heating jacket ( consuming lots of fuel ! )
If solidified asphalt ( usually stored in steel drums ) is used at the construction site , then it needs to be heated / melted locally ( usually by creating a wood fire ) - causing pollution and consuming trees !
And hot asphalt would just not adhere to a wet surface, rendering it useless for use in monsoon - especially for repair of pot holes
" COLD ASPHALT " technology overcomes ALL of these problems !
* It consists of mixing water(90 %) with hot asphalt(9 %) in presence of a
specialty chemical (1 % ) in a very simple Mixing Machine which can be
transported anywhere on a trolley
* This liquid mixture can remain stored in steel drums at ROOM TEMPERATURE
for over ONE YEAR !
* Drums containing liquid can be transported and stored at road construction
sites and COLD ASPHALT
mixed
No ripping / destroying of drums and breaking of solid asphalt
* There is no need for ANY temperature control as mixture / aggregate can
remain
* Since Cold Asphalt is basically water ( 90 % ) , it is ideally suited for
filling wet pot holes or laying on Wet roads
* After laying / spreading , as soon as a heavy roller is driven over Cold Asphalt
mixed aggregate , chemical
heavy pressure and setting process starts , causing the layer to solidify .
Within a matter of MINUTES , regular traffic can flow over the road ! or over
the filled pot holes
!
* Use of Cold Asphalt technology results in a HUGE COST SAVING ( remember ,
it is 90 % water
! )
* Cold Asphalt roads are much easier to repair , with no pollution , and very little
energy consumption
* Using Cold Asphalt technology, 3 machines ( leveller /spreader/roller )
can lay 1
KM road in a day !
I have personally seen NATIONAL HIGHWAYS being constructed with Cold Asphalt technology in France , way back in 1988 !
You may turn around and ask :
" With these advantages, how come our PWD/Municipalities have not adopted this
revolutionary technology
? "
My
guess :
Because those responsible for drawing
up tender documents , insist on use of Hot Asphalt !
And you know , why !
With regards,
Hemen Parekh
/ hcp@RecruitGuru.com /
13 July 2022
Related Readings :
Ø POT
HOLES ARE FOR EVER ? ………………………………..[ 11 July 2016 ]
Ø Cold
Asphalt is THE ANSWER………………………………… [ 19 July 2016 ]
Ø POTHOLES
CAN BE BANISHED………………………………. [ 23 July 2016 ]
Ø Nitinbhai,
there is a BETTER/CHEAPER alternative …[ 07 Apr 2021 ]
Go Green Road Repairs
Ø Cold Asphalt Mixes for Indian Highways Environment Friendly
Technology
Ø Cold Mix Asphalt Market 2020 Global Share, Growth, Size,
Opportunities, Trends, Regional Overview, Leading Company Analysis, And Key
Country Forecast to 2026
Ø What is the difference between Hot Mix and Cold Mix Asphalt ?
===================================================
Indian Road Congress
Contacts :
admn.irc-morth@gov.in
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