Blockchain in FinTech

~ Seamus Lam ~ Leave a comment

 

In this video, it has a very thorough explanation of how blockchain work and how it is implemented in the process of bitcoin~ problems it addresses:

  • Is it possible for people to tamper with the information in blockchain?
  • How secure is blockchain?
  • How it is applied to Bitcoin?

It is interesting to learn that each block contains 3 type of information:

  • Data
  • Hash
  • Hash of the previous block

In simple terms, the most important information that helps to make blockchain valid and secure is containing hash of the previous block. It takes time to regenerate each new block and it is nearly impossible to interrupt other users information when everyone else has a copy.

by looking into this video, it explains how blockchain will take out all the middle man such as big institutes which holds the information- since blockchain could be secure enough- we do not need to trust institutes with our information anymore.

One of the most worrying problem suggested in the level 5 explanation is that as technology is implemented, it can raise the rigidity of certain interaction. What I mean by that is that human will no longer has a room for negotiation with machines which humans can only follow rules suggested. With one of the example suggested by the expert is that a child who was facing severe medical problems do not have the access to a vehicle since his parents were behind in rent payment(etc). In this case, it has clearly shown that machines will rule out the sentimental element in humanity and I can see the society being ruthless and emotionless once technology takes over the world.

Haven’t said that in today’s society it is already very broken considering the fact that human errors can cause or even in extreme cases corruption or particular privileged relationships have on this society establish an unfair hierarchy. It is impossible to compare today’s world to a perfect world in our imagination but it is important that people adapt their mind and expectation with the application of technology in today’s world. It will be a better world for people who think this world is broken since the trust level will be better for them, and on the other hand, it will be worse for people who are in the privileged world who use their ‘privileged rights’ over the society.

At 12:30, it is very interesting to know that bitcoin is a very good system that is introduced to replace the unreliable government in terms of how they handle currencies overall. Blockchain would be a decentralised currency that helps to stabilise the crash of the economy with a reliable and secure system. It also answer the question why there is a rise in 200% to 300% value in bitcoin.

Balance between safety and freedom

~ Seamus Lam ~ Leave a comment

https://futurism.com/?p=115467

This is always controversial when people argue about government public surveillance.

On the one hand it is the government’s job to keep the public safe. On the other hand, government might use their power to restrict its citizens action (was e.g. Freedom of speech)

Which one would you prefer?

history of AI

~ Seamus Lam ~ Leave a comment

Through reading “The Quest for Artificial Intelligence” by Nils . J. Nilsson. It gives me a good idea of the history of artificial intelligence development.

An interesting incidence happened in 1921 had started to raise fear in human about robots. It was started by a Czech author and playwright, Karel Capek. He said “with outright horror, he refuses to take any responsibility for the thought that machines could take the place of people…”

Furthermore, Issac Asimov even proposed 4 laws that sets the rule for robots:
0: A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm
1: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
2: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with First and Second Law.

Reference:
“The Author of Robots Defends Himself”
http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/documents/capek68.htm

Isaac Asimov Website:
http://www.asimovonline.com/

Comments:

It is interesting to see that it has already raised fear among people in the 1921 when they havent even developed AI. The AI we are having right now has the possibilities to threaten us even more.

I am watching black mirror and it has raised a lot of question about AI ethics in my mind. Having the 4 laws that is suggested Issac hopefully wont give any grey area for AI to harm humanity or human being. And at the same time we need to make sure all machines adopt this rules.

Back propagation-algorithm

~ Seamus Lam ~ Leave a comment

This is about neural network and it might be a quite technical but I am looking forward to see what do you guys think 🙂

Reading a journal that is published by David Rumelhart, Geoffrey Hinton and Ronald Williams. They invented a technique called *back propagation*, which is an algorithm that can alter the small errors in a neural network by tracing from output to input. It also involves using differentiation (calculus) when the algorithm changes the errors.
Even though I haven’t fully digested the article, but I will try to apply this to hiking.

So imagine you walk downhill from the tip of a mountain, you will try to remove the little rocks or medium size log away from the path so hikers can walk uphill through the path easier.
However, don’t forget that the hikers only have two ways of walking (either small step (0) or big step (1)), so it is important that you remove the rocks and logs that are good enough for a person to walk through with small and big steps.

Reference: Parallel distributed processing: explorations in the microstructure of cognition. Vol.1, Foundations / David E. Rumelhart, James L. McClelland and the PDP Research Group; Chisato Asanuma … [et al.].pp 318- 362