Category: SOCIETY

MANAGERS

Every human being has the potential of choosing their way of dealing with life. Whatever one’s role may be, the best one can hope for is to choose what makes them the best they can be.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“essentialism” (The Disciplined Pursuit of Less)

Author: Greg McKeown

Narration by: Greg McKeown

Greg McKeown (English author, public speaker, leadership and business strategist.)

McKeown earned an MBA from Stanford University after receiving a BA in communications and journalism at BYU. He reflects on the trials and tribulations of being a manager of events in the modern world where one is faced with psychological overload. Management is the skill of being who you are and getting things done through other people. McKeown explains how to become a more effective and productive manager. It begins with a clear understanding of what self-management is and what may get in the way of that accomplishment.

As a manager of someone else’s business, the job is simpler because the goals are determined by ownership but as a manager of one’s own time it is complicated by poor personal management skill. The idea of “essentialism” is in clearly understanding the goal to be achieved and to understand oneself well enough not to be distracted by what is to be achieved and how to organize and motivate the people who are to accomplish desired results. Once the goal is clearly understood, the end must be what ownership and oneself chooses. If the goal is to manufacture widgets, the steps of manufacturing are labor to produce a product, neither more nor less than what ownership directs. A good manager is not to focus on “more is better” but on the steps of manufacturing with an eye to trade-offs that are a consequence of labor organization and productivity.

The problem from a personal perspective is that company goals are easier to understand because they are determined by others.

Clearly understanding oneself is harder because of self-interest blind spots from being both the observer and observed; not to mention– knowing what actions are required to feel fulfilled as a human being.

The best choice in life is to be who you are, not who you wish to be.

As a manager of others to accomplish a goal, there are times when the response to a worker’s idea is no. This should never be meant to diminish the worker but to keep a worker’s eye on the goals of ownership. A good manager is respectful of a worker who offers ideas but always keeps the goal of ownership in the minds of workers to make it clear that a “no” is not to discourage a worker’s labor or idea for improvement. That which does not focus on achievement of the goal should be eliminated with a “no” but with praise and protection of those who are employed to accomplish ownership’ objectives. With clear understanding of the goal and those actions that benefit its accomplishment, a good manager offers focus to labor and reduces decision fatigue for both manager and worker.

Has capitalism lost its way in America?

There is room for criticism in McKeown’s book from the perspective of labor. As an individual working for a manager, one generally does not have the authority to decline meetings called by a manager. As a worker, one is hired to do a job or task, not to work on their own schedule, or to drop what they are doing at their own discretion. A good manager listens and learns from labor but always keeps in mind the goals of ownership. A good manager looks to labor as seeds for future managers by encouraging self-actualization and promotion but without sacrifice of ownership’s specified goals. Institutional realities cannot be ignored by laborers. McKeown implies everyone is a manager when in fact, from a business enterprise’s perspective, that is not true. Some who think they are managers, are not managers and it is important for a good manager to judge others based on achieving the goals of ownership. A good manager will rise from labor based on doing what they were hired to do, not what they think they are capable of doing. This is not to discourage labor’s advancement but to encourage it through performance in accordance with ownership goals.

Peter Drucker. (A consultant who clearly understood the role, importance, and value of competent managers.)

Peter Drucker is often quoted in this book which is a tribute to McKeown’s management judgement. McKeown also mentions Warren Buffett and the principles that made him a multimillionaire. There is a great deal of good advice in “essentialism” for those who aspire to be managers. As McKeown notes, a manager can fail when he/she becomes overloaded with workplace expectations, poor labor management, ignorance of the digital age, poor organization design, or an organizational culture that demands too much from its employees. Every human being has the potential of choosing their way of dealing with life. Whatever one’s role may be, the best one can hope for is to choose what makes them the best they can be.

America’s Drug Problem

China’s 19th century corruption and the opium war are penultimate examples of China’s golden age decline. One fears Ameica’s golden age may be in a similar decline in the 21st century.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Imperial Twilight (The Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age)

Author: Stephen R. Platt

Narration by: Mark Deakins

Stephen R. Platt (Author, American historian, professor of Chinese history at the University of Massachusetts.)

As an audiobook listener and fortunate traveler of the world, books about China are an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Stephen Platt’s “Imperial Twilight” reinforces one’s understanding of how different and alike China’s strengths and weaknesses are to younger nations of the world. America is a newly born baby in comparison to China. One comes away from “Imperial Twilight” with the feeling that China is at the dawn of a new “…Golden Age” in the 21st century. Platt’s history clearly explains the fall of one of China’s earlier golden ages that is accelerated by the rise of Great Britain and “The Opium War…” of the 19th century.

Platt explains the opium trade accelerated the decline of China in the early 19th century.

The Qing dynasty arguably created a golden age in China between 1661 and 1796. Emperor Kangxi (1661-1722) consolidated Qing family rule by defeating three feuding factions in China. He manages to reach a diplomatic settlement with Russia that had been encroaching on Chinese territory. Kangxi patronized scholarship, science, and cartography during his reign. He is compared to Louis XIV and Peter the Great for the length and effectiveness of his reign. His two heirs carried on China’s golden age up to the end of the 18th century when Great Britain arguably grew into its second golden age (the Victorian Age of 1837 to 1901).

William Jardine (1784-1843, Scottish physician, merchant and opium dealer who co-founded the Hong Kong based conglomerate Jardine/Matheson & Co.)

Platt argues William Jardine and James Matheson were key Englishmen that grew wealthy from the opium trade in China in the early 19th century. Britain had a massive trade imbalance because the rest of the world coveted the tea, silk, and porcelain produced by China. Jardine and Matheson capitalized on the opium trade because it was not regulated by either Britain or China with China becoming a massive importer of the deadly drug. Belief in free trade exacerbated opium sales in the most populated countries of the world with China having the greatest number of users. The Qing dynasty attempts to quell the opium trade but were met with derision by British insistence on free trade despite the addictive and deadly effects of opium.

Lin Zexu (1785-1850, Chinese political philosopher and politician who led China during the decline of the Qing Dynasty.)

Jardine and Matheson are challenged by Lin Zexu, the Qing dynasty official who is ordered by China’s emperor to suppress the opium trade. Zexu confiscates and destroys large stocks of British opium in Canton in 1839. His campaign triggers the Opium war. Platt characterizes Zexu as an intelligent Chinese patriot with imprecise information about Britain and its concern about the opium trade. The emperor of China has contradictory reports about Britain’s concerns about the opium trade and their intent to regulate or eliminate its role in trade with China.

Sir George Thomas Staunton (At the age of 12, Staunton was left by his father in China to learn the Chinese language. He became employed by the East India Company and rose to be a member of parliament.)

Platt ponderously explains the history of important British citizens who live in Canton and learn the Chinese language. George Staunton, as a young child, is left to live in China by his father to learn Chinese to become a conduit for Britain’s trade in Canton, China. Staunton eventually becomes a member of British parliament that supports the Opium war waged on China. Despite the length of Platt’s book, it is an amazing story to find a father who essentially farms out his son to learn Chinese without much financial support. The advent of the Opium war is characterized by Platt as a tragic and avoidable conflict that marked the end of China’s last golden age.

Sir John Francis Davis (British diplomat and sinologist who became the second Governor of Hong Kong from 1844 to 1848.)

John Francis Davis also seriously studies Chinese and works for East India Companies that produce most of the opium that is traded in Canton. Davis becomes Governor of Hong Kong. Davis is shown to believe Britain should stand firm in pursuit of fair trade but questions the need for military confrontation. The war is strongly supported by men like William Jardine, undoubtedly because of his lucrative opium business, but surprisingly George Staunton, an Englishman who had a lifetime understanding of Chinese suzerainty and understood the Chinese language and culture, also endorses the war.

Government corruption.

Despite the length of Platt’s book, it is enlightening to hear of the rise and fall of China and the corruption that existed before the Qing dynasty. It reminds one of reports of Xi’s efforts to eliminated Chinese corruption in the 21st century. Whether Xi will succeed in restoring another golden age for China remains to be seen. Corruption in America today seems as appalling as the history of China in the early 19th century. President Trump seems more interested in increasing his family’s wealth and creating monuments to himself than serving the interests of the American public. America, like China in Platt’s history of the Opium war, has a drug problem.

China’s 19th century corruption and the opium war are penultimate examples of China’s golden age decline. One fears Ameica’s golden age may be in a similar decline in the 21st century.

HUAWEI

There is an ongoing hybridization of American capitalism and Chinese communism. Is Trump’s authoritarianism becoming more like Xi’s communism or Xi’s authoritarianism becoming more like Trump’s capitalism? One wonders–are we growing closer together or farther apart?

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

House of Huawei (The Secret History of China’s Most Powerful Company)

Author: Eva Dou

Narration by: Nancy Wu

Eva Dou (Author, American journalist who reports on technology for The Washington Post.)

“House of Huawei” is a complex history of the growth and development of what became a Chinese multinational technology company that builds smartphones, laptops, smartwatches, and most importantly, telecom infrastructure for cloud services around the world. It is China’s version of Amazon that becomes a massive seller of tech equipment, internet use, and communication.

Ren Zhengfei (Chinese entrepreneur and engineer, founder of Huawei Technologies.)

There are many names of Huawei business leaders that are largely unknown to most Americans. Ren Zhengfei is the founder and most important person in Dou’s story. He is born in 1944 to schoolteacher parents during the Cultural Revolution. He served in the Chinese armies engineering corps that shaped his management style. He worked through famine, political purges, and the strict discipline of military service. He became the founder of Huawei in 1987.

Deng Xiaoping (China’s Chairman of the Central Advisory Commission of the Chinese Communist Party, 1982-1987)

The advance of Deng Xioping opens a capitalist door to the world for Huawei. Beginning in 1978 through 1989 Deng reforms the communist party and encourages a limited form of capitalism in China. When Xi takes over, Huawei becomes more directly subject to communist party oversight. As a company, Huawei is pulled closer to China’s government control. The Huawei network is classified as a national-security asset. Though Huawei may or may not have sought closer association with the CCP, it became entangled with state strategy.

Xi makes Huawei a national champion of innovation and semiconductor technology. It becomes a symbol of China’s technology ambitions while being a target of U.S. sanctions. Dou shows Huawei becomes a battleground for tech strategy between China and the Untied States

Sun Yafang (Chinese engineer and Chairwoman of Huawei, 1999-2018.)

Sun Yafang is a former chairwoman of Huawei. Her ties to Chinese intelligence services are viewed as a recurring controversy with Huawei’s involvement with America. Her relationship with China’s state power structure creates concern on the part of the U.S. with Huawei’s data collection as a part of Huawei’s practices in America.

Meng Wanzhou (aka Cathy Meng or Sabrina Meng, Deputy Chairwoman and CFO of Huawei.)

Ren’s daughter, Meng Wanzhou, becomes the Chief Financial Officer of Huawei. Wanzhou became known to the world when she is detained in Canada in 2018 at the request of the United States. Her arrest ironically leads to more familiarity with Huawei and its expansion in the world. The primary concern the author reveals is how dependent Huawei may be on the Chinese government for information about America’s technology services.

The fundamental concern of America, Germany, and Japan is Huawei’s use of data collection in their countries.

In the end, these countries decide to ban or restrict the use of Huawei’s equipment because of their ties to the Chinese Communist Party, government, and military. Beginning in 2019 the U.S. banned some of Huawei’s services and global chip supplies. By 2026, Huawei is banned from American federal networks, and telecom infrastructure services. Germany and Japan take similar actions between 2018 and 2026.

Dou explains Huawei’s history exposes deep contradictions with China’s government-directed economic growth.

The authoritarian and state-directed economic and political structure of China is a challenging contradiction to the idealism of communism. China’s communism is compelled to change ideologically from Marxism-Leninism to a state-directed form of capitalism. Huawei becomes a telecom giant euphemistically called socialism with Chinese characteristics. In truth, Huawei is structured to be more capitalist than communist with interventionist potential by the state if it conflicts with centralized control of the party.

Communist captitalism.

Dou explains how Party committees are created within Huawei’s management system. These committees exercise ideological control over Huawei’s executives. Huawei’s objectives are required to conform to national priorities. The development of 5G and telecom infrastructure becomes a national, not private asset of the company. This generates fear in the U.S. about security liabilities and foreign influence of China on U.S.’ and allied countries’ political and/or economic affairs. Dou notes China’s leadership insists on enforcing its security laws, data practices, and CCP’s rules of the road for Huawei’s operations.

Huawei discipline.

Dou notes that Xi’s anti-corruption campaign pressures Huawei to tighten internal governance. Executives of Huawei were disciplined for being too extravagant. The CCP organized ideological training for company employees to more fully align them with the Party. China’s government interference in Huawei’s management leads to U.S. sanctions and an arrest of Meng Wanzhou’s in Canada. The United States has effectively banned Huawei telecom and surveillance equipment. Federal agencies cannot use Huawei devices. American internet companies in the U.S. that receive federal funds must remove Huawei equipment. Though Huawei phones and laptops are not banned in the U.S., they are not sold by major U.S. carriers or retailers. The UK, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, and Canada have taken similar actions against Huawei services. Huawei product like laptops and mobile phones are not universally banned but many Western countries have barred telecom infrastructure because of national security concerns.

What is striking about Dou’s book is the history of Huawei shows both confluence and separation between Communism and Capitalism.

Both use the capitalist tools of competition, private enterprise, and global markets. Both are involved in the private sector and provide preferential treatment, political protection, and financing. Nationalism is a greater force than Marxism for both China and the U.S. American corporate discipline is similar to communist party discipline. Further, economic and political strategies of America and China have similarities. However, the two cultures conflict with each other over globalization and levels of interference or control of private companies. America leans toward transparency, partnership, open markets, and international trust. China opts for secrecy, political reliability, ideological conformity, and oversight to ensure national security. Furthermore, America thrives on risk-taking, experimentation, a free market and decentralized decision making while China emphasizes political correctness, Party control, ideological discipline, and insistence on corruption elimination.

In sum, it seems there is an ongoing hybridization of both American capitalism and Chinese communism. Is Trump’s authoritarianism becoming more like Xi’s communism or Xi’s authoritarianism becoming more like Trump’s capitalism? One wonders–are we growing closer together or farther apart?

WARNING

“The Fire Next Time” signals a political and prophetic warning to America. The continued existence of Baldwin’s observations about racial inequality are compounded by the rising gap between rich and poor and gender inequality in the 21st century.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Fire Next Time

Author: James Baldwin

Narration by: Lawrence Fishburne

JAMES BALDWIN (1924-1987 AMERICAN NOVELIST, SOCIAL CRITIC)

“The Fire Next Time” is written when James Baldwin is only 38 years old. He lives for 25 more years before his death in 1987. His book about life as a Black American is an emotional journey into the struggle of Black Americans that exposes the venality of white suppression and inequality in American history. The intensity of his writing is a brutal exposure of the consequence of discrimination that overwhelms a reader or listener. In many ways, his book is professorial but his view of life as a minority in white America is appalling.

“Learning from the Germans” tells of how post WWII Germany dealt with the history of the holocaust more forthrightly than America has dealt with racism and its evil.

Baldwin exposes the hypocrisy of American democracy, the moral bankruptcy of racial hierarchy, and the failure of American institutions to live up to the values expressed in the American Constitution. The founders argue “all men are created equal” while history shows human equality has never been achieved in America. Baldwin clearly explains America’s failures but is decidedly vague on how those failures can be corrected. He clearly disagrees with the Nation of Islam’s belief in Black self-determination through separation of the races but is ambiguous about organized movements to correct discrimination.

Racist rally in America.

Baldwin explains how white liberals are too complacent, conservatives too cruel, Black separatists to fatalistic, and American institutions too dishonest to forthrightly deal with human inequality. His foundational belief is that a fight for civil rights, and continued arguments for equality are essential requirements for America to achieve the goals that are stated and implied by the Constitution.

“The Fire Next Time” signals a warning to America.

“The Fire Next Time” signals a political and prophetic warning. The continued existence of Baldwin’s observations about racial inequality are compounded by the rising gap between rich and poor and gender inequality in the 21st century. If America refuses to confront inequality, there will be a national reckoning that will be violent and unavoidable.

THREATS OF AI

Public input to AI policy needs to be solicited and incorporated in the direction of AI research.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Empire of AI (Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI)

Author: Karen Hao

Narration by: Karen Hao

Karen Hao (Author, American journalist, former engineer and specialist in AI and its societal impacts.)

Karen Hao knows what she is writing about. As a senior member of MIT Technology Review and the Wall Street Journal she has the skill of a first-rate journalist to profile AI. She is an independent academic with a journalist eye view of what is happening in AI research and development.

“The Coming Wave” is a startling book about AI written by an AI entrepreneur, Mustafa Suleyman, who is the founder and former head of applied AI at DeepMind.

Artificial intelligence offers reward and peril for society. On the one hand, AI can aid the world in preventing and curing disease, mitigating global warming, discovering solutions for interstellar travel, and improving the welfare of diverse cultures. However, AI opens the door to Ray Bradbury’s surveillance society, Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and Philip Dick’s “…Man in the High Castle”.

The Risk of AI development.

Ray Bradbury grasps human nature and turns it against itself by writing stories that show man’s selfishness, insecurity, wantonness, and aggression.

AI can lead to behavior monitors that detail every person’s life and predict whether a person will benefit or harm society. Artificial Intelligence has potential for centralizing control by a minority of human beings to influence and potentially control human behavior. Human discretion and actions become probabilistically predictable by AI monitoring. Aside from the fear of centralized control by AI, Hao recounts the harm being done TODAY in developing a product that no one clearly understands.

AI labor exploitation.

Hao writes of the exploitation of Kenyan data workers who are working on Elon Musk’s OpenAI for grossly unfair low wages. AI data centers are being developed in fragile natural environments that divert the use of freshwater in poorly provisioned nations like Chile. The environmental costs of AI labs on use of energy and natural resources compete with the fundamental needs of local people. The consolidation of corporate power and use of AI is disproportionately consuming global resources like labor, land, and water at the expense of basic needs of local populations.

Stuart Russell infers A.I. is at a point where gathered information changes human culture.

The theories of the utopian value of AI are, in Hao’s opinion, hiding the real harms being done to society today. AI development by a minority of businesses like Musk’s Open AI and Google’s DeepMind are changing human society today. Hao is not just predicting a future. She is reporting on present-day empire building by two companies that will impact the future of society. Hao argues massive models of AI being developed by two companies need to be modified to focus on singular societal issues rather than unfocused broad Artificial General Intelligence.

Broad international agreement needs to be created to make AI research accountable for today’s environmental impacts and tomorrows use, ownership, and influence on human behavior.

Sam Altman (American entrepreneur, investor and CEO of Open AI.)

Public input needs to be solicited and incorporated in the direction of AI research and development. The billions of dollars being spent on AI should not be limited to two or three companies without oversight. Communities and workers that are affected by AI need to have public oversight, labor, and environmental protections incorporated in the research and development of AI engaged corporations.

A HONG KONG LIFE

Like American capitalism, Chinese communism has its faults. One big difference is American capitalism offers a higher level of individual freedom with legal rights to defend oneself in a court of law (that is, of course, if you are not an immigrant).

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Red Roulette (An Insider’s Story of Wealth, Power, and Vengeance in Today’s China.)

Author: Desmond Shum

Narration by: Tim Chiou

Desmond Shum (Author, born in Shanghai in 1968, former Hong Kong businessman who lives in the UK. with a son born in the U.S.)

“Red Roulette” is an amazing personal story of a former Chinese citizen who marries a successful Chinese woman, Whitney Duan. She is disappeared by the Xi government in 2017. Shum and Duan were married from 2004 to 2015. His wife’s fate is unknown to Shum as he writes this book. Amazingly, Ms. Duan calls Shum four years after she is disappeared by China to ask him to not publish his book. Shum believes this is the first public contact by Duan since her disappearance in 2017.

Ms. Duan had chosen to capitalize on a system of doing business in China the way it had been done for many years. That system is riven with a kind of societal corruption revealed in “Red Roulette” that has grown with communism in China.

Women simply want an equal opportunity to succeed in pursuit of money, power, and prestige, i.e. all the secular objectives men take for granted.

Desmond Shum reveals surprises to many Americans about China’s culture. Despite a presumption of many non-Chinese, Shum explains power is personal, not institutional in China. One might presume that CCP’s control of wealth and power in China comes from the party and its leaders. However, wealth in China is only influenced by the communist government through a social network of beliefs. Shum explains personal relationships and connections are built on favors, gifts, and mutual obligations that are debts that carry the reality of power in China. This explains the title of the book “Red Roulette” in the sense that success in Chinese society is a game of chance based on bets placed on the value of favors, and gifts that CCP members believe have worth.

Debt for favors and gifts is in the eye of the beholder which makes fair payment a mysterious and chance driven calculation. Adding to that complexity is the power of a CCP leader to erase a citizen socially, legally, and economically. By erasure, Shum explains citizens may be detained, prevented from family contact, denied legal representation, arrested, impoverished, and isolated from any social contact. Shum explains his ex-wife, Whitney Duan, vanished for years with no charges, no trial, and no record of her disappearance.

Xi Jinping (Leader of the CCP in China.)

The CCP elite govern China through relationships among themselves, not by official meetings or party leadership orders that are necessarily based on definable communist dogma. Everything happens behind the scenes. Official meetings, if there are any, are strictly “for show”. Shum’s admits in his personal story that he and his ex-wife became wealthy through a corrupt relationship with Zhang Beili, one of the CCP apparatchiks and power brokers. One may argue the CCP is similar to the Congress of the United States. Wealthy capitalists, like CCP apparatchiks, game the stock market and society through political connection with elected government officials

Deng Xiaoping launched an initial shift away from Maoist central planning despite ordering the crackdown on Tiananmen Square in 1989.

As somewhat of a realist, one understands governance is based on leaders presumed power, wealth, and political influence. Shum argues China’s economic modernization and capitalism began with Deng Xiaoping who rose to power after Tiananmen with Hu Jintao continuing China’s economic boom. Shum argues today’s Xi is increasing control of the CCP and the economy with the traditions of Chinese society. In the author’s opinion, China is reinstituting a Mao-style autocracy that is spreading fear across the country.

In fairness to Shum’s assessment of China, there is evidence of America’s slip into autocracy in today’s economy.

Zuboff’s scholarly examination of American internet mavens concludes “…Surveillance Capitalism” will lead to Orwell’s “1984” or B.F. Skinner’s “Beyond Freedom and Dignity”.

Shum believes Xi Jinping’s CCP anti-corruption campaign is only a pretext for power consolidation. In Shum’s opinion, Xi’s targeted removal of CCP apparatchiks is not because of their corruption but because they rival his power over the party. Xi’s campaign on corruption increases fear among CCP members and influencers that reinforce traditions of China’s rule by personal relationship and connection. Xi’s goal is to increase personal loyalty to himself which is part and parcel of the history of Chinese social norms. Shum’s evidence of corruption is the increase in disappearances, secret detentions, arrests of businesspeople without charges, and insistence on what is characterized as party discipline.

Whitney Duan and Shum when they were married.

Whitney Duan’s disappearance is Shum’s primary example of Xi’s Chinese governance. Duan is characterized as ambitious, brilliant, and determined. Her rise to power in Chinas is from close relationships she develops with people who have influence in the communist party. She befriends Zhang Beili, the wife of the Vice Premier of the CCP, Wen Jiabao. Because of that association, Duan has privileged access to information about land deals and major real-estate projects in China. She uses that information to make deals with advanced knowledge that result in great economic wealth for her and her former husband. Shum marries Duan and they both capitalize on insider information they gain from Duan’s relationships. One presumes the marriage ends because of the stresses and political dangers involved in their common business interests.

The quality of Kafka’s story in “The Trial” is the human desire for freedom that is not extinguished even in the darkest times of a country’s repression. This is a hope one presumes for both China and America, but human nature gets in the way.

In 2017, two years after the author’s divorce, Whitney Duan disappears. There are no charges, no trial, no public disclosure, and she is unable to contact any of her family including the son she has with Shum. No one knows if she is dead or alive. The state refuses to say she has been detained. One presumes, she is arrested because of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign and his purge of some party members like Wen Jiabao. Interestingly, just before the book is to be published, Whitney Duan calls Shum to ask him not to publish. Obviously, she is alive.

One big difference between American capitalism and Chinese communism is a higher level of individual freedom with legal rights to defend oneself in a court of law (that is, of course, if you are not an immigrant). That is a significant difference between China and America. However, both countries are impacted by bad actors that game the system based on personal relationship and influence with political leaders.

On the one hand, this story reinforces belief that Xi is trying to reform the CCP. On the other, the methodology of autocracy offers no defense against the injustice of being condemned without trial.

One concludes Whitney Duan lost in the game of Chinese Roulette by being part of a relationship that gave her inside information from the CCP. Her disappearance is proof of the theme of Shun’s book about the importance of relationships and connections to gain power and financial success in Chinese society. Like American capitalism, Chinese communism has its faults.

SUPERINTELLIGENCE?

The “Catch 22” of AGI is the potential for knowledge beyond the comprehension of the brightest human beings. Many will choose to forgo human judgement and action because of the presumed value of knowledge offered by AGI. That is the threat being explained in “The Infinity Machine”.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Infinity Machine (Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence)

Author: Sebastian Mallaby

Narration by: Vidish Athavale

Sebastian Mallaby (English journalist and author, senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Mallaby has written a biography of Demis Hassabis, the co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind. This is a somewhat frightening exploration of AGI (artificial general intelligence). The author argues AGI is being grown at a faster rate than it can be understood or managed by humans. Though science may wish to develop AGI to aid society, it may be creating a system that will end it.

Sir Demis Hassabis (British A.I. researcher, neuroscientist, video game designer, and entrepreneur.)

Mallaby reflects on the early childhood of Demis Hassabis who becomes a chess master at age 13, a video-game designer at 17, and who founded his own company in his early twenties. His life experience leads him to study cognitive neuroscience at University College London. He explores how humans construct mental models to think and act in the world. With that view of the building blocks of human thought, he founds DeepMind with help of Legg and Suleyman. Their thought is that in solving the mystery of the way human intelligence works; they could create a computer program to more rapidly and successfully improve human society.

Shane Legg, born in New Zealand, a machine learning researcher.
Mustafa Suleyman (British AI entrepreneur, CEO of Microsoft AI.

The two other principals in the creation of Deep Mind, Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman, have different roles in the company. Legg is a computer scientist who focuses on a framework for Deep Mind that would make Deep Mind more intelligent with a recognition of human reliance and its potential risk of minimizing the importance of human judgement. Mustafa Suleyman focuses on fundraising for the Deep Mind organization and the operational function of the company. The ultimate acquisition of Deep Mind by Google resolves fundraising concerns of Deep Mind and assures its future development.

Stuart Russell, a British computer scientist, infers A.I. is at a point where gathered information changes human culture.

Mallaby believes the speed of AGI development exceeds the ability of society to either understand or govern itself without the influence of AGI. The author does not believe most of its developers or the public clearly understand the risks of AGI development and its influence on society. The author argues AGI concentrates power in ways governments cannot fully comprehend and, without that understanding, AGI may lead society beyond the fundamental goal of human survival. The consequences of too much reliance on AGI may escalate conflicts in the world.

Shane Legg is alleged to believe “…human extinction is not necessarily the worst possible outcome…” for the advancement of AGI because of an evolutionary melding of human and machine intelligence.

The question becomes whether human beings can program AGI with a preeminent goal of human life’s value and preservation. Mallaby argues at the heart of the issue is human fallibility. This is a subtle argument because it is saying humans are not capable of encoding human values in A.I. to assure and enforce human preservation. He implies human programmers are too conflicted over how to program A.G.I. to guarantee human preservation. This is the author’s “Catch 22”; i.e. a no-win paradox because of circular logic. Shane Legg argues there is no paradox and that the future may mean the melding of human beings with AGI superintelligence.

As one ponders Legg’s belief, one is reminded of Karl Marx who wrote “History repeats itself first as tragedy, second as farce.”

Malaby compares AGI to the nuclear bomb. Proven by the nuclear bomb E = mc2 has a tremendous upside. It is the proof of Einstein’s energy formula which is the basis for belief in an inexhaustible source of energy. However, Mallaby implies AGI is like Einstein’s discovery of the equivalence of mass and energy. Like nuclear power foretells an inexhaustible source of energy it can be a destroyer of worlds. AGI foretells the possibility of a revolution in human knowledge, but with the accessibility of the internet, AGI carries the danger of human misuse and societal conflagration. Both AGI and nuclear power are only constrained by human judgement. If judgement of AGI seems to exceed human judgement, the path of AGI may mean the end of humanity because human judgement is viewed as inferior. The jury seems out on use of nuclear weapons and the same seems true for AGI.

The second atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll on July 25, 1946. The Marshall Islands, where Bikini is located, is suing the U.S. for what it calls a violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. There seems a correlation with the advance of AGI. Who is at risk, if judgement is left in the hands of AGI rather than human beings?

When AGI reaches the test of nuclear weapons, the only constraint seems the nature of human beings and their judgement. The “Catch 22” of AGI is the potential for knowledge beyond the comprehension of the brightest human beings. Many will choose to forgo human judgement and action because of the presumed value of knowledge offered by AGI. That is the threat being explained in “The Infinity Machine”.

DEMOCRACY’S STRENGTH

History has shown the greatness of both parties of American government. One takes pride in the fact that American democracy corrects the errors of incompetent Presidents.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Fourth Turning is Here (What the Seasons of History Tell Us About How and When This Crisis Will End) 

Author: Neil Howe

Narration by: Neil Howe

Neil Howe (American author, historian, economist, and consultant.)

Neil Howe argues the United States is in the middle of a crisis. He views political polarization is as great today as it was during the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Great Depression. He suggests society has broken into two “mega-identities” that is evident in the news of the day. He sees a red and blue American society with a distinct part of society being rural/suburban, evangelical or traditionalist, nationalist, anti-elite, and distrustful of institutions. The other side is urban/metropolitan, secular and pluralist, cosmopolitan, and pro-institution with a trust in expertise. (In fairness to the author, this reviewer did not listen to Howe’s entire book.)

Generational beliefs.

Howe goes on to suggest there is a generational quality to these two camps. Boomers are those born between 1943 and 1960 (my generation). Generation X born from 1961-1981, Millennials (1982-2004), and Generation Z (2005-to the present). The problem with this broad categorization of Americans is that one can see themselves in each generations view of American government and society. Americans are both Red and Blue, believe strongly in the equality of human beings, are skeptical of absolutes, and believe in common good and the importance of government. Americans are relatively free human beings who will ultimately make the right decision to preserve the health and well-being of democratic society.

Is immigration an American crisis or a discouraged opportunity?

Howe argues today’s America is at a once-in-a-century crisis. He suggests American governance has become too polarized and that institutions of government are decaying in ways that are diminishing the economic prosperity and influence of democracy in the world. Polarization is not new to America. One who has reached a Boomer’s age remembers political polarization from the excesses of America during Vietnam. The mistakes and lies of the Johnson administration are not unlike the lies of Donald Trump. Democrat’s support of Johnson’s Great Society created too many programs like urban renewal and anti-poverty that remind one of Republican’s support of Trump’s overzealous deregulation of environmental protection, finance of projects to aggrandize his reputation, and welfare policies that penalize the poor. Both Johnson and Trump show poor management of their major policy initiatives. The social and political consequence of their mismanagement has damaged America’s economy and influence in the world. Both Johnson and Trump represent what can go wrong in a democracy but is eventually corrected by elections of future leaders founded on the principles of the Constitution.

Johnson’s Great Society.

There are differences and similarities between Johnson and Trump. The obvious difference is the parties to which they belong. Johnson creates bureaucratic sprawl and economic waste by expanding government services while Trump creates bureaucratic ineptitude through fragmentation from arbitrary firing of government employees. Both Presidents believe they are benefiting American society while they made decisions that damaged the economy and diminished the value of democratic governance. The extent of their damage during these two Presidents did and will take time to repair but the structure of America’s government assures democracy’s recovery.

History has shown the greatness of both parties of American government.

Lincoln is elected to take the giant step needed to put America back on the path of human equality and opportunity. Franklin Roosevelt saved America from economic collapse. Just as Lincoln is not survived by a President who reinforces equality of Americans, the same will likely be true for the next President after Trump. But, as Martin Luther King said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”. One takes pride in the fact that American democracy corrects the errors of incompetent Presidents.

LEWIS & CLARK’S AMERICA

Robert Frost wrote “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” That is the essential truth of “The Vast Enterprise” about the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Vast Enterprise (A New History of Lewis & Clark) 

Author: Craig Fehrman

Narration by: Jason Culp & 5 more

Craig Fehrman (Author, journalist, historian of Presidents and American history.)

Craig Fehrman writes an excellent history of the Lewis and Clark expedition. It entertains and informs reader/listeners of the lives of Meriwhether Lewis, William Clark, an enslaved man named York, and a tribal native named Sacagawea. From President Thomas Jefferson’s reasoning and his decision to create an expedition from Kentucky to the Pacific, one learns something new, old, and troubling about America.

Thomas Jeffereson (1743-1826, President of the U.S. 1801-1809.)

Thomas Jefferson is characterized as a shrewd, partisan, and forceful political operator who had a clear vision for the future of continental America. That prescient vision of America by Jefferson hides his blindness to the truth of human equality of Black men and women as inferior to white men. However, Fehrman notes Jefferson believes natives of this continent had the potential to be the equal of white Americans. Jefferson’s shrewdness and forceful opinion is illustrated by his understanding of the importance of trading posts as a way to expand control of land possessed by native inhabitants and held by Spanish and French interests. Lewis and Clark’s western expedition is, in Jefferson’s opinion, critical to America’s future land interests.

Meriwhether Lewis and William Clark (American Explorers.)

Both Meriwhether Lewis and William Clark are characterized as relatively educated colonial citizens suited for an expedition from Kentucky to the Pacific. Though both leaders for the expedition were heroic, their personalities, leadership styles, and temperaments were quite different. Lewis is characterized as brilliant but an inwardly volatile man, while Clark is a steady, self-confident manager of people. Lewis is the visionary who works in the Jefferson’ administration as secretary to the President while Clark is former military officer who gets things done with people who report to him. Lewis clearly understood Jefferson’s objective in exploring the west, its diplomatic purpose, and geopolitical importance. Clark’s frontier experience, military discipline, and surveying skill served Lewis’s understanding of Jefferson’s objectives.

Lewis & Clark Expedition

Both Lewis and Clark understood they were not only entering a wilderness but a continent full of other nations which made them effective negotiators and intermediaries with native tribes. Lewis’s intellectual understanding of Jefferson’s objectives is complimented by Clark’s skill in managing native tribe relationships. With the help of a Black slave owned by Clark and a native Shoshone woman married to a French trader, this former military man manages to gain the aid of the Lakota, Shoshone, and other tribes to save the Lewis and Clark expedition from failure.

Image of York (Slave owned by William Clark.)

The history of York (Clark’s owned slave) in the expedition is interesting. What the author, York, and enlisted members of the expedition show is that Lewis and Clark were dependent on their crew for the success of the mission. Men like York provide the labor and skill needed to complete the journey. As a young adult, York shows the value of all human beings to the success of the expedition while being a slave. The sad fact is that York is never released from his bondage to Clark. Despite York’s alleged inferiority, Clark relies on him for his field abilities and reminds reader/listeners of the importance of other cultures and ethnicities that make America. Fehrman infers York is a symbolic bridge between ethnic worlds; i.e. not just the Black and White world but the native and English American world. York is an example the difference of human beings in America; i.e., from people of color to native tribes in a dominant white culture. Fehrman’s story infers human difference reinforces belief that native tribes (Black, white, or other) could co-exist though not be treated as equal human beings. This is no stretch of a reader/listener’s imagination based on America’s history of Indian/American wars and slavery. There is one native American that travels with Lewis and Clark. She is Sacagawea, the only woman on the expedition. Her story reflects on America’s view of women as property despite their contribution to life and their contribution to social and economic society.

Image of Sacagawea on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Fehrman suggests Sacagawea is a full participant in the expedition. To Fehrman she represents a symbol of Native nations. Sacagawea and York became part of the diplomatic fabric of the journey demonstrating the truth of human equality. Sacagawea became pregnant from her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian trapper. Her baby is born on the expedition. Charbonneau had two native wives, the first of which did not accompany them on the expedition. Sacagawea had been kidnapped by the Hidatsa tribe in a war with the Shoshone when she is 12. Charbonneau is 20 years older than Sacagawea. Sacagawea is 13 when she is forced to marry Charbonneau by the Hidatsa. The tribe had traded goods with Charbonneau. Sacagawea and Charbonneau are reluctantly hired by Lewis and Clark for the expedition. Both act as interpreters on the expedition but Fehrman argues Sacagawea represents more than being a translator because of her heritage and knowledge of the territory through which they will travel. Sacagawea’s Shoshone tribal heritage had diplomatic value beyond mere language interpretation. On the other hand, Charbonneau seems more a liability than asset to Lewis and Clark.

Shoshone Tribe in western America.

Fehrman shows the expeditionary Americans were not dominant actors in their relationships with native tribes. In the wilderness, they acted more as guests or supplicants in their dealings with various tribes. They recognized they were outsiders that needed political alliances with native tribes because they had meager knowledge of the territory and customs of indigenous tribes who controlled the river lands they explored. Their need for food, horses, guides, and knowledge of the land depends on their relationships with indigenous tribes. Without tribal help and guidance, they would have no protection or chance of safe passage. Native tribes provide horses and information that kept them on their course to the west and saved them from starvation and death. It is a combination of Jefferson’s somewhat arrogant plan for the country’s consolidation for the expeditionary force to be dependent upon indigenous tribes who are repeatedly deprived of their land in America’s growth as a nation. It is the explorer’s humbleness and humility that allows Lewis and Clark to succeed in growing an American continent that historically suppresses indigenous land ownership and use.

Most Shoshone Tribes appear more southwestern than northwestern.

Indigenous tribes were politically naive in their aid to American explorers. Without tribal’ naivete, the early days of America’s influence and growth as a singular nation would have failed. One presumes, the continent would have remained a land of tribal ownership and internecine conflicts over land and natural resources. In the early years of American government, it is humbleness, humility, and the growth of trade between natives and early Americans that transform a land of native tribal presence into a singular nation among nations. In Fehrman’s opinion the prime mover of that accomplishment began with Thomas Jefferson and “The Vast Enterprise” of explorers like Lewis and Clark.

The last chapters of Fehrman’s book leave listener/readers with notes about Lewis, Clark, York, and Sacagawea that are sad to read or hear. Lewis becomes an alcoholic and commits suicide. Clark refuses to give York his freedom. York dies from cholera while Clark lives a life of success and power. Clark becomes governor of -Missouri Territory and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Sacagawea is leaves her French husband and dies at Fort Manuel in 1812.

Robert Frost (1874-1963.)

Robert Frost wrote “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” That is the essential truth of “The Vast Enterprise”.

NON-FICTION BOOKS

Kenneth Davis does more to add than subtract from one’s understanding of what others have written. Davis’s reviews of non-fiction books seem objective, but they are subjectively chosen.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The World in Books (523 Works of Great Short Nonfiction) 

Author: Kenneth C. Davis

Narration by: Adenrele Ojo & 2 more

Kenneth C. Davis (Author, lecturer, contributor to The New York Times, Newsday and other publications.)

A criticism of Kenneth Davis’s “The World in Books” is its spartan overview of nonfiction. On the other hand, these reviews are an important overview of many of the most politically and socially important subjects of life.

Circle of Life statue in Norway.

Religion, humanism, sexism, and racism are the most eminent of Davis’s subjects. Like all brief summaries of important writers of the past, one’s personal views interfere with fundamentally important subjects. Of course, our personal biases seep into our own writing and understanding of other’s beliefs. What seems missing from Davis’s book is not wide analysis of different political and social beliefs but a perspective on the negative consequences of known forms of government or societal beliefs. Of course, criticism of his choice of works is unreasonable because of the wide number of non-fiction books from which to choose. Fairness is in the eyes, ears, and memory of the beholder.

The aristocracy of government.

On the one hand, one sees Davis’s view of communism, democracy, authoritarianism, and humanism as important constructs of society. On the other, Davis offers little consideration of their societal impact. One may argue societal impact is not Davis’s objective. He alludes to race, gender, and climate consequences but does not explore connections with a broad analysis of government or society. As with all writers of history, his own bias is in his choice of non-fiction books. He writes of Socrates, Plato, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Elie Wiesel, Malcolm X, George Orwell, Virginia Woolf, Alice Toklas, Gertrude Stein, Mary Wollstonecraft, Ernest Hemingway, and others. He recognizes liberal humanists for their ideological and social contribution to human understanding, not for expressed personal opinion but for broad exposure to good or great writers.

“Books That Have Made History” is a series of lectures given by Fears that dwells too much on God but delightfully entertains all who are interested in living life well.

General criticism of Davis seems unfair because he offers historical information about a “…World of Books” that are often ignored by reader/listeners of non-fiction writers. How many of us have read ancient texts, or modern writers like Elizabeth Kolbeert, Frankl, Harriet Jacobs, Isabel Wilderson, Simone de Beauvoir, and other less well-known writers about human society. Davis seems to represent a host of lesser-known works to simply offer enlightenment to reader/listeners. He provides excellent summaries of many books this reviewer has never read or listened to.

All reviewers bring their own biases in reviewing another’s book.

Davis does more to add than subtract from one’s understanding of what others have written. Davis’s reviews of non-fiction books are objective, but they are subjectively chosen. The author may have had a curation bias. How could he not; i.e. there are too many non-fiction books for one person to know; let alone review. Davis may or may not have an ideological liberal humanist bias, but it is because of the sheer volume of published non-fiction books. Every person has a point of view. The point is that a reader/listener is benefited by an author like Davis who intends to be objective about what non-fiction authors hope and try to tell reader/listeners.