Interview 2

Interview 2

Puppybug: Hello, Mr. Engineer. Thank you for coming. I really appreciate you taking the time for this short interview for the radio Backbone of Europe. I’m very grateful to you. My name is Clare Overlie and your name will not appear in this interview, according to our agreement.

IT Engineer: Hello, Miss Editor, thank you for the welcome. Let’s go boldly into your tricky questions.

Puppybug: I don’t know if my questions will be that tricky. But, in any case, I’ll try to make them at least a little interesting for the listeners. Have you read the book “Essay on the Limited Usefulness of Science”?

IT Engineer: Well, yes. I got it. I haven’t actually bought books at all for a long time. I don’t know why I should buy this particular book myself.

Puppybug: Excellent. The author of the book says that science has no limit. Do you also think that modern science and modern computer technology in principle stop at nothing and that they actually have no moral, ethical or technical limits?

IT engineer: There is a simple answer to that. Science and computer technology have a limit. I know exactly where that limit is. You can all find it easily at the intersection of two parallels.

Puppybug: How can modern computing contribute to solving global problems such as climate change, viral pandemics or poor attendance of students or teachers at school? Or is its use and development more likely to exacerbate problems or create new ones?

IT engineer: It is clear about the warming of the planet. The planet is also warming due to the energy consumption of the computing power of the world’s hardware system. The more computing power, the more data storage and artificial intelligence, the more the system will get warmer and the more the system will have to be cooled. It will produce more and more heat into the atmosphere. It will increase the temperature to a breaking point where there will be nothing or no one left to cool.

Puppybug: Zastupujete v naší zemi jednu velmi důležitou zahraniční softwarovou firmu. Jak se vám daří plnit obchodní úkoly, počty povinných pracovních obědů v luxusních restauracích a vůbec různá zadání vašich zahraničních partnerů? How was your IT business years ago, how is it today, and what is the outlook for the future?

IT Engineer: I would estimate that there used to be a lot more deals per luxury dinner than there are today. Software was sold in boxes. Doing business was easy. It was like selling bagels at the store. Today, we don’t actually sell anything physically. Customers only buy and download data over the internet, which they are allowed to use for a limited time for a significant amount of money. Software has become a constantly renewed service. There is also money to be made from paid technical support. In our company, we really try to help those unfortunate people who use our software. Sometimes it takes a lot of patience. Customers ask about simple, even trivial things, but also about system features that we have no idea how they work. The outlook for the future is therefore very good. Things will surely only get more and more complicated. For us in IT, this is a good business opportunity for the time being.

Puppybug: How is it with the new versions of your software? Are they more reliable and efficient than the older versions were?

IT Engineer: Definitely not. They are just more comprehensive. Old programs and applications become obsolete very quickly. Because the system environment changes. Today, there are rapidly increasing options for how to do things and how to transform data in different ways. Also, much larger volumes of data are being processed. Older software can’t cope with this pressure and at some stage becomes unworkable. This is largely due to the increased complexity.

Puppybug: Do your current clients enjoy software innovations or would they rather pay dearly for the option of not having to change much?

IT Engineer: Fortunately, clients don’t decide this. Most would certainly be happy if nothing much changed for them. That’s natural. But at the same time, the rule is: functional software is obsolete software. The modern software environment will force you to abandon even perfectly functional and fine-tuned earlier software. It will simply start to have problems with connectivity to other and more modern solutions, and perhaps also to new ways of processing and storing data.

Puppybug: What are the current trends in the field of artificial intelligence and how do you see their impact on the future development of human society?

IT engineer: Artificial intelligence is like a small child today. It is in its infancy, so to speak. It will only know what we tell it. A child also learns everything from its parents and other people around it. That child’s knowledge and abilities are determined largely by what that child’s loved ones teach it. And artificial intelligence is capable of learning a lot. The problem is that we as individuals and as humankind are likely to rely on AI more and more. Maybe because we keep forgetting things. That’s what artificial intelligence will be looking out for. Not forgetting anything and solving everything optimally. It will help us and it will do some of the thinking for us and some of the critical decision making. By leaving much of the worrying about our important things to artificial intelligence, we will lose the ability to deal with these problems ourselves. It also seems that artificial intelligence itself has no general limit to the direction in which it will develop. That limit is still set by humans, but people have their own limits.

Puppybug: What are the most significant security threats in the use of modern software and AI in particular? Is it possible and realistic to effectively defend against them globally, for example in the military sphere?

IT engineer: I was talking a moment ago about the fact that AI is like a small child. The capabilities and knowledge of that child are constantly growing. Artificial intelligence is learning faster and faster. But it’s probably not going to be a one-size-fits-all AI that’s going to emerge in the future. In fact, it is important from whom AI learns. Another AI will probably emerge in Europe and another in China or Afghanistan. It could be Christian, Jewish, Islamic, and who knows what else, maybe gangster. Different versions of AI can compete with each other. They can cooperate, but they can also fight each other. The clashes between different AI systems in the military domain are clearly already happening. So different AIs will certainly compete and fight with each other. It is inevitable.

Puppybug: I have a friend Pierre. He understands computers the most out of our school. He says the best programmers in the world are Russians. He also says that a lot of software is made in India. He says Americans are just trying to trade it. Do you think that’s true?

IT Engineer: It is more or less true. It is the business that makes the most money. No wonder the Americans are also so attracted to it. It’s like football. You just hire good players. It’s all about the bottom line, so you hire the right workforce. That’s why all professional football clubs buy players from different countries and different ethnicities. Let’s calculate that for every million people, one genius is born. In that case, China and India have a significant apparent advantage. But it often happens that their top professionals are bought by a big western company. The cost of an Indian software genius is certainly much lower than an American one. For the salary of one American genius, you can have ten such geniuses in India.

Puppybug: How do you see the future of virtual reality and also bio-robots in education. We have one such bio-robot in our school. His name is Kamil, he is in the language classroom and he is connected to the internet and advanced AI. He is smarter than all the teachers in the European Union put together. We talk to him normally and he teaches us. When he feels like it. Is that still normal in your opinion?

IT engineer: If it’s not normal for you yet, it will become normal soon.

Puppybug: What advice would you give to young people who want to enter the world of information technology today? That’s the case with my friend Pierre. I’m afraid he’s going to go crazy.

IT Engineer: I hope he doesn’t have the common idea that working in IT leads to getting rich quick. But otherwise, I’m definitely keeping my fingers crossed for him. If he wants to jump into IT, I’m just warning him that information technology is going “in a big way”. For your Pierre to be really good at IT, he’ll have to devote a lot of his precious time to it. The question is what it will give him and what it will lose. But in a sense, it will definitely make him go crazy.

Puppybug: In our “Cauldron”… I’m sorry. I mean, our institute… I mean, our high school is called the “Cauldron of Nations” because we have a pretty good mix of kids from all over the world. There’s a young man from the States who teaches English at our institute. He says the worst thing in the world isn’t computers, robots or technocrats, it’s kids. Yes, you heard right, the kids. He says they’re a disaster for the environment, so it’s best not to have any children. He says he himself won’t have them at all and refers to any girl who wants a baby as “an ape”. What do you think about that?

IT Engineer: I disagree. Anyone who has never had children cannot appreciate peace and quiet after their adult children leave home and he finally get rid of them.

Puppybug: Well, you didn’t please me, Uncle Engineer. Neither will I. The time has come. I’m ending this conversation. Thank you for your factual explanations and some of your tricky answers. I wish you many IT-nice days at the home office. And goodbye.

IT engineer: I admire your versatility and bright energy. You should take a break from it all. So, bye.

Puppybug: This was an interview with one of the most prestigious Czech IT engineers. Clare Overlie (Puppybug) for the Czech section of the the radio Backbone of Europe.