Plodding

 I feel like I'm moving slowly through resistance. I'm using computers more than in the past, but only making progress at a snail-like pace. I have improved a little. I got my grandsons' savings money moved into an investment account. I got a new laptop, though I haven't even tried to transfer files from the old laptop to the new one. I think I need to do that, because some of the files on the old laptop include bank statements, which I may be asked to share again in future. That's why I have them downloaded onto the laptop.

Are there any algorithms watching me? Do they know I save bank statements and keep track of my 401K and my grandsons' investment accounts? Do they know what I do for work, using computer-based testing, now with remote proctoring software included? And that my lectures are on Zoom, along with my review sessions for students? I don't have them on my machines, but there is now a whole batch of recordings showing the actions of all our students taking exams, one at a time. The files can show the students' answers along side their faces. What might an algorithm make from that?

I have learned that the Artificial Intelligence system that analyzes the recordings has limits in perception. It says a student is "off camera" when only the top half of the head can be seen. I can tell the student is still there, because I can see the top of the head, but the AI report says the student is not there. So the AI has some developing to do if it wants to catch up to a simple human like me in proctoring a student taking a test. Seeing these sorts of weaknesses in the tech makes me think the singularity is not very close. I understand that a supercomputer can now be programmed to beat any human at chess consistently. The same is true of some other games involving strategies. But ordinary things like determining if a student is trying to cheat on a test does not seem to be within a computer's power for now.

Of course, we're dealing with software from a company that has clients all around the country with a wide range of needs, and not a dedicated supercomputer. Maybe a system could be made that could monitor anyone taking a test in a designated location, and could accurately read all actions, gestures, sounds, and movements of the test-taker, if provided with sensors for sound and visuals from multiple points of view. But a school like where I work could never afford such a system. I don't think anyone could, except for a sort of stunt, like the chess challenge. After the victory, the supercomputer was repurposed for some other task, so the best chess players on the planet are now just program files in storage somewhere. Our knowledge that they could be revived affects our thinking about chess and computers, even though they may not be currently in operation. So the potential of such systems is as important as the daily activities of current algorithms.

But none of those potential tools seem to be making things easier for me. I'm still slogging through work the way I have much of my life, and I don't see it getting easier or faster in a time frame that will affect my career. So I will keep plodding for another decade and a bit, and then find something else to do that maybe feels less like work.