Is your toaster spying on you? - A lighthearted look at how close the race between humans and robots is getting. Isaac Assimov saw it coming.
Is your toaster spying on you? If it has a Facebook account, it just might be.
Facebook reported good results last Wednesday. More users, more profit, more employees more advertising and so on. The shares rose strongly. Facebook said it now has 2.20 billion monthly active users. I repeat, they use the word “active”.
Now let’s get back to your toaster. Is it a Facebook user? Here’s why I think it might be.
2.2 billion monthly active human users? Really?
There are roughly 7 billion living humans. Of those, only around 44% have access to the internet. That’s around 3 billion.
More than a quarter of those are under 15 or over 65.
I think it safe to assume that most of those over 65 don’t use Facebook. As for the under 15s, I think the same is probably true. What self-respecting teenager would be on the same social network as her mum?
So eliminate the young and old and that takes the number of potential human users down to 2.2 billion roughly equal to Facebook’s actual number of monthly “active” users.
Now, I don’t believe that every internet-connected person between 15 and 65 is an active user of Facebook. I don’t use Facebook. My assistant doesn’t. My spouse doesn’t. My younger brother won’t go near social media. My two adult sons aren’t on Facebook. Of course my little baby toddler still isn’t old enough yet. I don’t think we are alone in not being Facebook users. Loads of people don’t use Facebook.
Let’s be generous to Facebook and say that one in two eligible people are “active” on Facebook at least once a month. Then that would make roughly 1.1 billion active Facebook users. So who are the other 1.1 billion “active” users? Here’s where you toaster becomes a suspect.
My Advice
If your toaster is connected to the blockchain, then it could be a “spy-bot”. If in doubt, pull the plug out.
Isaac Assimov warned us about this 78 years ago
Isaac Asimov, the science fiction writer, wrote a series of short stories 78 years ago which envisaged personal robot servants. The 1940’s series of short articles was called “I Robot”.
I Robot
The series inspired the 2004 movie “I Robot*, where the plot takes place in the future, - in 2035. In the story, civil servants are now all robots. A group of rogue robots have developed a fiendish plan to enslave the human race. Luckily for us, actor Will Smith is still alive in 2035. He and his human-friendly Robot called “Sonny” single handedly take on an army of enemy robots in an epic battle.
Final score: Humans: 1, Robots: 0. (Humans win).
The three laws of robotics
Isaac Asimov also developed what has become known as the “Three laws of robotics”. Since these “laws” were developed in the 1940s, long before we had vacuum cleaners, dishwashers and toasters, he seems to be remarkably prescient (having knowledge of events before they take place). Here are the “Three Laws of Robotics” that he designed.
- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Next time you are having breakfast, you might want to ask your toaster if it knows about those rules.
The robots may have already enslaved us.
Looking at the people on the bus this morning, I think we may be already enslaved by our devices. Nobody looks up any more. Nobody looks out of the window. People miss their stops because they are too glued to their devices. Their faces are lit up by smartphones and pads. I can’t say what they were looking at, but I’ll guess it mostly wasn’t Facebook.
I have my facebook account as many users, since it was one of the first pages that revolutionized the world, currently I only go in to look for some photos and very rare I check the history mural, but there are still a lot of slave users of that page in their most young people, for example here in venezuela everyone I know uses a lot of facebook, and do not open to the world of cryptocurrencies prefer to waste time posting nonsense. Regards!!!
@swissclive Love the gif up top. Lol. I had this conversation with a friend just a few days ago. That the number of Facebook users has to be exaggerated for sone of the reasons you went into above. You did it with more factual numbers as I was kinda just pulling shit outta my ass but we came to the same conclusion. Interesting write up man. Just came across your stuff. Gonna have to go back and start reading your prior pieces. Followed!
Glad you liked it. One in the comments here knows somebody who has five catfish accounts on FB. So I guess they are not all bots.
Nutty. Right? Either way ya slice it...not individual users. I know 2 crazy wives of friends who have joint facebooks with their husbands (weak). Yet also have a separate fake one so they can stalk their ex’s and nonsense like that. If I know 2 personally that do shit like that, I’m sure there are plenty more. Those FB #’s are horseshit when you boil it down. Lol
And then there are all the mums who set up fake accounts to spy on their children.
The weird thing is my daughter is turning 15 in a few weeks and she never uses Facebook. Neither do most of her friends. They use Snapchat like crazy. That and instagram. Facebook is gonna have a problem getting the younger generation to use its platform.
facebook launched in february 2004, while steemit launched in July 2016. before steemit launched facebook users in 2012 reaches 1 billion more active users, even year after year increasing.
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when steemit launched July 2016, two years later facebook users began to decline. this is because Steemit is a social networking and blogging site on the Stein blockchain database. Blockchain Steem generates STEEM and Steem Dollars that can be used by token users to get posts, find and comment on compelling content. steemit users get rewards in the form of steam dollars while on facebook not. therefore make facebook users feel saturated and day by day diminishing. if only facebook put blogging on the blockchain data base. Blockchain that generates Dollars that can be used by token users to get posts, find, and comment on content that appeals day-to-day facebook users will increase.
Best regards
Hi Mufti, Everything you say seems to valid. For steemit to keep evolving I would like to see several new types of tokens created as follows:
‘Steem shields”: can be used as a defense against flags. The more you have, the stronger your defence.
‘Steem tags”: The more you have, the more tags you can use.
wow this time i got information about 'Steem shields "and' Steem tags":.
please give me knowledge @swissclive because i am a beginner in steemit. would @swissclive teach me ..? thank you
Well @muftii, all the knowledge on the planet is out there written down. You can easily search for anything you want to know, such as “Beginner’s guide to steemit”. You will find many lessons that way. Later when you want to know something specific you can search for that too, just as I did to know how to align my text correctly on the left and right when I wrote this post.
If after making the effort to find an answer you are still foxed, then many steemians may be able to help, including me of course.
thanks @swissclive for giving me a good explanation, I will try to find out all that for my good in the future. I also want to ask you if I write an article so I have to use what tags to make my posts visible to you ..,
greetings from me. thank you
@swissclive I appreciate the level of knowledge you have pertaining to this subject matter. Honestly, I haven't given this issue serious consideration. Your writing style is also commendable, it's simple and makes the post easy to understand.
Isaac Asimov really looked beyond what was happening in his days and he predicted the future correctly. It looks like you really follow his work.
You can take me, but you will never take my bunghole, Hm heh.... For I am the Great Cornholio Hm heh I have no bunghole, hm heh...
This post was so well put together! First off the hilarious title drew me in so well done with that. Just as I was starting to lose a little interest I was roped back in with you talking about I,Robot because I absolutely love that movie. "The robots may have already enslaved us." was such a great closer presenting a new point [albeit a funny and sadly true anecdote as well] and wrapping up the article just like how a well wrote essay would finish!
Thank you for that. Good blogs require alot of work to get them “just right”.
My only regret with hindsight was to miss out @jerrybanfield. He would have been there rallying the troops to sign up for the army of genuine steemians to defend against the bot invasion.
Good blogs need an intro, body, and conclusion. I try to do that.
I think that more people are NOT being active on facebook.
Take me for instance, I used to be glued to FB. But now, I only post once in a long while. Some of my friends have even deleted their FB account and focused on Twitter or Instagram!
Now that I am on steemit, I can hardly keep up with other social apps coupled with work.
The last part of your article is an unfortunate phenomenon in the world now!
I try to peel my eyes away from my phone to have a good conversation with my parents.
I have given myself time to check my social apps.
Experience life my dear friends!!!!
I'll conclude by saying these famous words.
'Stop and smell the roses'
Really good advice. I don’t think I am screen addicted, but I do turn it on when I wake up, watch it on the bus, peep at it when the boss isn’t looking at me, study it over dinner, take it to bed with me and fall asleep watching it. Oh, yes, I also take it to the lavatory with me. When I take a shower or brush my teeth I stand it where I can see it. I barely look at it more than 4 times in the night. Honestly I could give it up any time.
hahahahahahaaaaa. OPPOSITE!
Hehehee couldn't really hold back my laughter while reading this. Funny to conclude that our toasters could be connected to the blockchain...lolz
You raised very valid points though because if really those below 15 and those above 65 don't use Facebook and also those found in the middle don't all use Facebook or are not active users ,then where did they get their statistics from? Could it be a hoax? Well, might not be far from it.
If this is a recent News then we have a problem. Lately, there has been a campaign for people to delete Facebook and join steemit and it's been trending all over Twitter, all thanks to @stephenkendal. So how come did the number of users increase even with the scandal and all? Phew.
I think what Issac Assimov said is finally coming to pass as i can relate with what you said concerning we being glued to our devices and letting it control us. People no longer have good facial chats. You sit beside someone for hours and he doesn't even know you are there. Ita crazy but that's the world we find ourselves in today....The jet age.
I loved the comic relief as well.
I’m 61. I just remembered that when I was a kid we called it... “the jet age”. I think today it’s got a more modern name like “the internet age”
Facebook is exaggerating. I guess they just made up the statistics so as to still put up a face.
I never accused them of exaggerating.
I am just making the point that when they said “2.2 billion monthly active users”, they wisely didn't say “human users”.
No normal human has the time to read what you had for breakfast, except that hot looking person on the other side of the planet who you accepted as a “friend”. Probably a robot.
Well, they might be true because the active users might not only be humans.
You are so right. I doing guilty of this. I've missed my bus stop several times just because I was glued to my phone. In fact, there was a day I was sick and I missed by bus stop on my way to the hospital just because I was pressing phone. I has to trek a long distance back to the hospital with my condition.
You also guess right. Mine was not facebook as facebook cannot make glue to my phone that much. The only thing that has made me missed my bust stop several times is no other than steemit. I'm so much addicted that any small opportunity to press my phone, you see me on steemit.
Steemit is fine, because the posts are interesting. Nobody writes about what they had for lunch, or that their baby was crying because his fist tooth is coming through.
Firstly I must say Facebook is a time waster compared to steemit where your time is valueable. And this the most reason why I join the campaign #DeletefacbookJoinsteemit
Facebook is a manipulative database in form of social media. Collecting some personal datas into its database making it the largest database in the world with the so said number of active users 2.2billion. This cunny database updates itself everyday by asking you to share your daily story in the status feed.
About robots, some feared that the machines {AI} Artificial intelligence are smarter, stronger and faster than us. They feared someday this machine will start to come alive , becoming aware of their environment and attaining self control will wage a war against us and take over making us become active and not passive slaves that we are now. This was also portrayed in the movie I Robot .
If robotic development were to stop here, we’d be just fine. Even artificial intelligence is fine. The thing to fear is when that artificial intelligence turns into consciousness. Then we will be dealing with power struggles, despots, megalomaniacs, terrorists and so on, and all in the form of robots.