Cloudy Thinking

from last week...

"But our Cloud's silver lining does all kinds of work for us and helps us accomplish more things faster than we could ever dream possible. We love our Cloud. We pay money, sometimes a lot of money, to 'touch' our Cloud and have our Cloud 'touch' us. Very soon our Cloud will 'think', and 'learn' and gain 'intelligence', and help us live in a better, safer, heathier 'smarter' planet. Our Cloud will embrace our lives and help us in all things."

My observation above "Very soon our Cloud will 'think', and 'learn' and gain 'intelligence'" is flawed in that many of those in the know would argue the Cloud is already inetelligent, self-educating, and indeed thinking. More correctly, the Cloud stores information - knowledge - and makes comparative analyses for the purpose of predicting future events. You hear it all the time called 'modelling'. In that sense then the Cloud is an intelligent, thinking 'entity'. Consider the following:

in·tel·li·gent (/inˈtelijənt/) Adjective

 

Having or showing intelligence, esp. of a high level. (of a device, machine, or building) Able to vary its state or action in response to varying situations, varying requirements, and past...

learn (/lərn/) Verb

 

Gain or acquire knowledge of or skill in (something) by study, experience, or being taught. Commit to memory.

 

think (/thingk/)

1. to have a conscious mind, to some extent of reasoning, remembering experiences, making rational decisions, etc.
2. to employ one's mind rationally and objectively in evaluating or dealing with a given situation
3. to have a certain thing as the subject of one's thoughts
4. to call something to one's conscious mind
5. to consider something as a possible action, choice, etc.

 

Given these definitions, one can rightfully argue that information technology has evolved - and continues to evolve - to increasing levels of 'intelligence'.

 

Obvious, daily examples include computer modelling applied to predicting weather, financial activity, industrial processes, engineering design, disease evolution and genetic predisposition. Less visible yet critical applications include intelligence-gathering and analysis for military, law enforcement, and national security purposes popularly known as 'profiling'. The current gun-control propositions before Congress include 'profiling' existing and potential gun owners to help identify - predict if you will - individuals most likely to commit a serious violent crime. Does anyone remember the Tom Cruise movie "Minority Report"?

 

Less obvious, but nonetheless useful, are social-behavioral predictability functions including innumerable marketing research and consumer preference analytics.

My grocer sends coupons based on past purchasing patterns suggesting items they think I might also find to my liking. Barnes and Noble, Netflix, Amazon, Sears, and countless web researchers collect information to predict what might interest us, based on 'historical' consumer data. I say 'historical' with tongue-in-cheek since in most cases the predictability application is processing information real-time and making virtually instantaneous recommendations - i.e. in-store coupons printed at checkout, or eCoupons delivered to your smart phone while shopping.

 

So far, all of this seems to be a relatively positive thing. I am increasingly concerned however with the ease with which we justify information-gathering and analysis. I consider it legalized snooping. Inch by inch we are willingly relinquishing individual privacy for some higher 'good'.

 

but that's a whole other blog....

 

 

 

 

ourCloud

Historically, clouds have gotten a bad wrap I think. Sure there are always those grateful souls who appreciate the rain clouds bring, or the cooling shade they provide, or the magical way they shape themselves and weave above our daily lives. Most of us however tend to consider clouds less affectionately. Not that we wish them ill, we simpy lament their gray dark nature, the way they can quickly blacken a blue sky, and escort nasty storms that can leave damage, destruction, gloom and despair in their wake. But of course we know each unique ever-changing form in the sky is nothing more than vapor, gases and airborne matter combining together momentarily on their way to other forms of instantaneous existence.

Fascinating isn't it, that those in the technology field adopted the whistful "cloud" as the representative for what is, at its core, a technically complex, structured and ruled environment within which we move electronic information. The only plausible explanation I can come up with is that they simply couldn't come up with anything else. It's easy to imagine a group of silicon-valley-types lounging around on a grassy knoll one mostly-sunny afternoon and, upon looking skyward, one of them has an epiphany. The Cloud.

There it had been, right in front of them all the time. I can see him (or her)  jumping to his (or her) sandaled feet exclaiming "Eureka! I've discovered the Cloud!" Of course everyone else was awestruck, and envious to be sure, with this display of brilliance knowing full well that his (or her) stock options were destined for the stratosphere. With great excitement they all hurried back inside to their cubes and desktops - remember, they didn't have the portable wi-fi, my-fi, your-fi or other i-stuff back in the 90's - and got busy keyboarding out the code that would come to be affectionaly known as the Internet, the I-Ching, the Cloud of clouds, the I-Cloud (head nod to Apple).

And our lives haven't been the same since. Fortunately for those of us folks that like the Cloud because it gets us whatever we want whenever we want it wherever we happen to be, the Cloud isn't just vapor that vanishes in the blink of an eye. Oh no, our Cloud is more like those massive, ominously dark behemoths that churn overhead and seem to last forever. Like in Illinois in the spring. And in Seattle all the time.

Our Cloud has a silver lining, literally. Check it out. Look inside your desktop or laptop or server sometime and you'll discover all sorts of shiny little silver things, and other boring black silicon things too, sitting around on something called a motherboard, giving off heat and pretending to be a Cloud-ette. Somtimes they hum or buzz, sometimes they don't.

But our Cloud's silver lining does all kinds of work for us and helps us accomplish more things faster than we could ever dream possible. We love our Cloud. We pay money, sometimes a lot of money, to 'touch' our Cloud and have our Cloud 'touch' us. Very soon our Cloud will 'think', and 'learn' and gain 'intelligence', and help us live in a better, safer, heathier 'smarter' planet. Our Cloud will embrace our lives and help us in all things.

Hmm, sounds like a whole other blog...