Dovi’s Digest Volume 67
A weekly newsletter for all your intellectual, spiritual, and physical needs
Hola friends, and welcome to Volume 67 of Dovi’s Digest.
Over the course of this newsletter, I have often touched on technology and its central place in my life, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. That being said, one of the most prevalent buzzwords over the last ten years is AI. Artificial intelligence has grown in leaps and bounds since its inception, moving from a computer being able to win at noughts and crosses, to the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue beating Gary Kasparov at chess (where there are more possible combinations than there are atoms in the universe), and finally to DeepMind’s AlphaGo winning at Go, a game which has 300 times the moves that chess has. Needless to say, AI has come a long way.
These days, AI is being used all around us. It processes all the data that is stolen from you by Facebook/Google et al, and can pick up when your car may crash and take over controls (if only for a few seconds). For many years now we’ve been baited with autonomous vehicles being just around the corner. (Contrary to what Elon Musk has said, Teslas are NOT self-driving, and always needs someone at the wheel. It can technically drive itself, but there are enough accidents involving Teslas that show it’s not quite there. Rant over.) This brings up a very interesting ethics problem. What will the car do when faced with saving the driver or a pedestrian? How will the AI decide which life is more important? These are not questions that I (or basically anyone) can answer for you. But is it possible that in the future, AI might be able to determine ethics for humans? And if so, what are the implications? This week’s headline article touches on this, as well as a few other thorny questions. I highly recommend it.
Something (or someones) else that have mentioned before are my editors, without whom this newsletter would be riddled with hanging participles, split infinitives, and spelling milkshakes.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Josh Hovsha, the editor who has been with me the longest, and who coincidentally happens to be one of my dearest friends. Josh will be marrying his person on Sunday in Paris, France, and I won’t be there. This breaks my heart as Josh has been there for most of the big moments in my life, and I was hoping to return the favour. However, I will quote a little guy on a random planet who said that “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.” Mazal tov my friend.
There is also the tale of how a country without a real internet developed a crack team of hackers, a book thief (not that one), and DOGGOS, so many doggos! Plus the usual pieces on monetary policy and celebs who are great at basketball. I hope you enjoy.
There was ONE correct answer to last week’s brainteaser, well done to Kevin Levy!!The answer and this week’s riddle are below.
Keep those articles (and everything else) coming,
Have a great week,
Dovi
And now, the articles:
Can Silicon Valley Find God?
Artificial intelligence promises to remake the world. These believers are fighting to make sure thousands of years of text and tradition find a place among the algorithms.
The Lazarus Heist: How North Korea Almost Pulled Off a Billion-Dollar Hack
In 2016 North Korean hackers planned a $1bn raid on Bangladesh's national bank and came within an inch of success - it was only by a fluke that all but $81m of the transfers were halted, report Geoff White and Jean H Lee. But how did one of the world's poorest and most isolated countries train a team of elite cyber-criminals?
Why So Many Millennials Are Obsessed with Dogs
The only thing getting me through my 30s is a cranky, agoraphobic chihuahua named Midge.
An Oral History of Adam Sandler, Pickup Basketball Legend
“He was just out there drilling long threes in his shades and hitting cutters. It was really incredible.”
Apple’s Double Agent
He spent years inside the iPhone leaks and jailbreak community. He was also spying for Apple.
Bank
Fintech is far ahead of its retail competition. So why are the established financial institutions so far behind? Professor Scott Galloway takes a look in his brilliant blog No Mercy No Malice.
The Spine Collector
For years, a mysterious figure has been stealing books before their release. Is it espionage? Revenge? Or a complete waste of time?
Quote of the Week:
“How we spend our time is how we spend our days. How we spend our days is how a life goes. How our life goes determines whether we thought it was worth living.” — Keith Yamashita
Facts of the Week:
The first advert on Channel 5 was for Chanel No. 5.
Perfume is as bad for your health as car exhaust.
A Californian company has developed a perfume to make cows smell like people, so mosquitoes bite them instead of us.
Mosquitoes are responsible for half the deaths in human history.
The quinine in tonic water is effective against malaria, as long as you drink 300 gin and tonics every day.
It is harder to tell how drunk you are if surrounded by drunk people.
There are a dozen pubs in the UK that claim to be “Britain's oldest pub”.
“To be arrested by the white sergeant” is 17th century slang for a man being hauled out of a tavern by his wife.
Cartoon of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
Headline of the Week:
Brainteaser of the Week:
Today's brainteaser is dedicated to Maki Kaji, the inventor of the Sudoku puzzle, who died last week.
See if you can solve this Sudoku-type game:
Fill the grid with the numbers from 1 to 4 such that no number appears more than once in each row or column, and that the numbers in each of the two regions add to the same sum.
Last week’s Brainteaser and answer:
Two vehicles set off from the same point to travel the same journey.
The first vehicle sets off two minutes before the second vehicle.
If the first vehicle travels at 65 km/h and the second vehicle travels at 90 km/h, how many kilometres from the starting point will the two vehicles draw level?
Answer:
7.8km