The Story Behind Amazon Go

Recently, Amazon announced the launching of their new walk in stores called Amazon Go.  Many television comedians are making light of the innovative idea of walking into a store, grabbing what you want, and leaving.  The joke is that this is what is known as shoplifting, which of course is not a new idea.  However, the real joke is on us.  How?  Amazon Go marks the end of retail jobs and the beginning of a new kind of stealing.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 2,849,660 persons working as cashiers in the retail industry in November.  With Amazon Go, you have just eliminated the need for any of these costly employees.  The process of going into the Amazon Go store uses sophisticated algorithms that keep track of what you are taking off and putting on the shelf and a smart shopping cart that keeps track of your items charging your account.

This is just the tip of the iceberg however, because the next step will be eliminating the stockers and the inventory personnel.  Robotic machinery and computers can very easily keep track of items on a shelf and how many the store is required to have in stock.  You could run the whole store remotely without any need for a single employee.

Customer service representatives can be replaced by computers or remote persons working at a call center eliminating 336,230 jobs.  Eliminating the stocking and inventory crew takes care of 1,337,300 jobs.  Now to get rid of those costly supervising positions and you just cut 1,083,430 persons out.  Now to take care of the sales persons because a computer and recommender system is so much more efficient and there goes 4,311,040 jobs.  Wow, look at the money we have saved!  And who cares about all those low-skilled employees anyway?  Obviously, I am being sarcastic, so please do not leave me hate messages.

Now for the new stealing.  You could of course get some sophisticated hackers involved to confuse the process of what people are taking out of the store, but I think the meta-materials will be the real problem for these new shops.  One of the uses of meta-materials is to bend light around objects.  There is the famous picture of a spoon placed in a clear liquid which appears that the spoon is backwards in the liquid since the index of refraction is actually negative in these strange materials.  Of course, visible light is just an example and the computers at Amazon Go will be looking for light in other frequencies just like scanners at check-outs do, but essentially, you either scatter or confuse the signals and the computers cannot keep track of what you are taking.  You might line your Smart shopping cart with a bag made of these meta-materials.

Of course, Amazon will notice this, so then you will have to use different accounts probably most effectively by stealing the account information of other users.  Wow, what a bright future!  Let's all Amazon Go!

Big Questions I

Big Questions (Open Discussion):

Am I like a tenant in Hilbert's Hotel?

Which Infinite Hotel, if any do I live in?

If the Hotel is in fact infinite, is existence meaningless, when one looks at oneself from a statistical point of view, my existence compared to infinity (whatever kind) is essentially zero.  I only become somewhat significant if I exist in infinite world, perhaps like a wave extending through all universes (infinite numbers of them), but how will I ever know?  Is it possible for me to know?  Or is more like I am fundamentally connected to the infinite set, as are all of its members, and all members of the set are important, since if one was missing there would be a hole, and the whole hotel would come crumbling down, or again perhaps my existence is only as important as the local effect I have on the nearby members (nearby tenants in the hotel).

Thoughts?

Proposal to Consider: Reduce Reproduction Rates

Ok, so by now everyone is totally offended and the child-hater and witch accusations will be in full force.  This proposal is just something I hope people may think about before deciding to bring any more people into the world.

No Vacancy:  The world is full.  This is not really a joke.  There are over 7 billion people in the world.  If we do not have plans for relocation, our humanity family will and has outgrown our shack.  Human overpopulation has devastated the planet and consumed its resources.

The world is suffering: war, poverty, lack of food, lack of fresh water, lack of energy, lack of space, lack of jobs, etc.  Have you ever gotten in a crowded buffet line, and by the time you got to the front, all of the salad dressing and croutons are gone, and nothing left but a big fat fly?  The human race has become that buffet line and they ran out of croutons two weeks ago.  Maybe consider instead of bringing your village to Pizza Hut, maybe next time, just bring your best friend.  He was the only one you were talking to anyway!

The argument is simple: quality over quantity.  That is the quality of humanity's population should be the goal, not to reproduce and reproduce and consume and consume as a nightmarish virus would.  Consume and consume until we have nothing less but each other to consume.

I AM NOT saying there should be couple child limits or that children are not wonderful, or anything of that sort! I am concerned and proposing this because I do care deeply for the children, humanity, and this little marble that has been our home.

I choose to remain childless so that I will not add to the exhaustion of Earth's resources.  If the world's people made the logical decision to significantly slow reproduction rates, it would give our world the vital relief it needs to recover from our overwhelming presence and our ancestors will not have to fight to the death over the ever continuing dwindling natural resources.  Climate change could also improve, with the less people, less emissions and pollution, could allow recovery time and minimize the devastating damage we have already done.  Less people means more to go around and a the probability of a higher quality of life for all people.

The world may do everything it can to rid itself of the infection, known as human beings.  Super bugs, disease, violent weather, and that comet from the Oort Cloud, a super-volcano, famines, soil erosion, etc, etc, etc.

If we do not make these changes ourselves, there may come an unfortunate day when the decision may be forced upon us.  I really hope this can be avoided.  The worst-case scenarios I do not even dare to type, but they are very dark scenarios and would be a tragic end to our beautiful little dream turned nightmare.

So that pretty much sums it up.  Too many people means less for all and even less for future generations, should they survive to see it.

Time analyzed as a dimension

When most of us think of space and time we are speaking as if the two were unrelated topics.  What is time?  Is time real?  Time is a dimension, one of the four we can perceive in our everyday existence.

One may argue that you can look out into space, but you can't see out into time or back, for that matter.  We recognize time's existence by measuring changes we perceive in out space.

However it is not so that you can not look out into time.  Actually, every time you open your eyes, you are looking out into space and back in time.  Say what?  It is completely true.  Everything we see is back in time.  Nothing we perceive is happening at our particular location in time.  Case in point, the stars, of course.  You look at the stars and you are looking back in time.  No matter where you look, it takes "time"  for you to see that object, due to the limits of light speed.

What would be truly interesting is if we could see through time into the future.  I am convinced that this is a possibility as well.  Why should we be able to move through space in different speeds and directions, but not through time.  Of course, we cannot know whether what we perceive as the passage of time is the same as other persons, animals, or plants, for instant.  But, anyway, why should we be so limited to be allowed to move only forward, and to see only back?  This simple question needs to addressed and we must learn to manipulate our time travel as we manipulate our space travel.  I am convinced that as our species has succeeded in comprehending the workings of the universe, that we are capable of time travel.  I also think that it is a requirement that we achieve this  feat to ensure the continued success of our existence.

Using Robots to Optimize Learning (An idea for development)

Recently, Kirobo, a Japanese robot was launched into space in order to accompany the humans on their missions aboard the International Space Station.  Kirobo is the latest in advanced "thinking" robots.  He gathers and analyzes questions or comments made to him and replies with an appropriate response.  One example, in an interview, he was asked what he would ask Santa for Christmas.  He responded that he was hoping for a toy rocket.  Not only is this adorable in my opinion, but also very important.

How can systems using language skills such as Kirobo's serve our human society?  One very simple and practical application would be developing robots or even programs which act as tutors for individualized learning.  What an immense tool for education this could be!  Imagine a program or robot companion for every child or even adult student which could accompany the student on his or her learning journey.  The robot could even serve as a study buddy.  If a question were to come up while a student is doing his or her homework, the tutor is right there to assist.  This sort of relationship can only be achieved with advanced language skills where the robot or program can recognize the question and form a rational and correct response.  The programs  could be specialized to cover certain course material, but could additionally be connected to some sort of database or even the internet.  The program would need to perform a rapid search and differentiate between "good" information and "incorrect or irrelevant" material.

Now this program would be extremely difficult to manage and create with current levels of technology, but I am certain that robot tutors and companions will soon be common place and that these tutors/programs/companions will contribute immensely to our world's education.

A Dark Matter Proposal

I was up late, not sleeping.  I had an idea about what dark matter may be, so to speak.  I need to try to sleep so I will try to make this concise.  Basically, the Big Bang was an event that took place in a larger "space".  Just as any event starts as a point in time and then grows larger, infinitely larger so that it covers more and more space over time, which is another dimension in our perceivable Universe.

Now, Einstein's famous equation, shows that space and time are linked by the speed of light which only applies to our universe.  Our universe, is an event that is spreading out through the "outside space".  Because we are spreading out through this "space", out perceivable matter is also spreading out, so that at the beginning of the Universe, we were not really affected by the outside matter, but because we are expanding, the outside matter is affecting the matter, we can perceive, shaping and causing our universe to form as  it has, and it would make sense that the more "time" goes by, the more dense the outside matter would become relative to the density of the expanding event, or the Big Bang.

So, if anyone is still following, the Universe is like a solute in a solvent, which could mean that the dark matter's influence could eventually cause the destruction  of our perceived universe, through its overwhelming gravitational influences.  This could further explain some of the behaviors observed, such as black holes.  Anyway, I need to sleep, but I wanted to write this down first, so hopefully some may find this interesting.

The Stars

I beg, turn this dark night into a sunrise.
But I know in my heart I am not owed any such thing,
The night spirits have spoken.
They have staked their claim.

The sunrise stands only to accuse
the heart so dark,
the soul born to lose
Seek not the sun but embrace the dark

One star does not shine for you
There is an entire sky full of lights.
This seems more worthy
than reaching for a star destined to die.

You may reach out to them
long after the days men try to count
I am a stranger in this world
And a stranger still when the sun burns out.