Tech News - Time Flies in VR

let's get into the news. Just as in Tuesday's episode, we will start today with some stories about global politics and global tech companies. And as I mentioned earlier this week, big tech companies are really feeling pressure points from lots of different sources due to global politics and policies. Now, sometimes that pressure comes from, you know, a government or a group of governments, and sometimes it comes from advocacy groups.

This particular story is about the latter. Numerous groups have urged Google to pull out from a cloud computing project in Saudi Arabia. The concern is that Google's efforts would help enable a regime that has committed human rights violations. So, in other words, Google might make it easier for the

Saudi government to hurt people. Those groups include Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and back in ten you might remember the terrible story of the Saudi journalist Jamal ka Shoji, who was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Instantabul, Turkey. Uh The CIA concluded that the Crown Prince Mohammed Ben

Solomon ordered that assassination. That particular event drew a great deal of attention towards Saudi Arabia and the Crown Prince, and while by no means it was the only horrific act attributable to the Saudi government, it is one that stood out and the rights organizations argue that Google's cloud product could allow the government to spy on its own people as well as people visiting Saudi Arabia, It could allow the government to limit freedom of expression, and it

could have a negative impact on due process. Humans Rights Watch published a response from Google that said the company had submitted its cloud project to an independent human rights organization in order to identify possible points where that tool could be abused, and that Google then quote took steps to address matters identified as part of that review. In the quote alright, I'm gonna chime in here now. Usually you could say that tools are neither good nor bad.

It's all on how we use them. So a hammer can be a useful construction tool, or it could be used as a weapon. And while Google might identify obvious points where they need to adjust their approach to try and prevent abuse, the fact is that if someone gets hold of a tool and they want to use it destructively,

they typically will find a way to do that. And usually it's a way that other folks just didn't anticipate because they're looking at it from a preventive standpoint as opposed to figuring out how you would use this to actually attack someone. So my point is that I'm not sure there is a way for Google to see this project through while also maintaining, you know, a spotless image with regard to any abuses the saudiast might commit. It feels a bit too close to them trying to assume

plausible deniability to me. But as of this recording, it appears like that project is still for a go. It's still still heading on. Moving over to Iran, the country's government has banned cryptocurrency mining for the next few months, in anticipation of increased demands in electricity usage. Iran has issues with its electrical grid and has seen it's seen it fail in the past due to high demand, so they've had blackouts that have hit entire regions when energy

consumption was much higher than normal. They ban on bitcoin mining and other cryptocurrency mining has already begun and it's going to last until September twenty two. Now, as I've covered several times, cryptocurrencies that use a proof of work approach to mining, which includes bitcoin, they suck up a lot of electricity. Now that's not necessarily by design. So in the old days, a bitcoin was worth practically nothing.

You might have heard the story about the guy who used thousands of bitcoins to order a pizza, for example. Back in those days, the return on investment in bitcoin mining was really low, so it didn't make sense to have a big mining operation. You would spend more money running it than you would in the proceeds you got from mining. So a relatively small number of computers were actively mining on the bitcoin system. But as interest in the cryptocurrency grew, more people wanted to get in on it,

and as demand increased. But the supply remains, you know, pretty steady. Every ten minutes, some more bitcoins are released, but it's not a huge amount. Well, that just meant that the value of the currency grew, and as the value went up, more people began to jump on board to try and mind cryptocurrency because now mining was becoming profitable,

and this led to the equivalent of a gold rush. Today, massive computer networks attempt to be the first to mind the next block for the the bitcoins that are released when you verify a block of transactions. These computers are running on super fast processors. Typically they have state of the art graphics processing units or GPUs. That in turn has had a big impact on the video game industry because it becomes really hard to get the best graphics card for your gaming rig because all the ding dang

bitcoin miners are grabbing them. Add to that the energy needs you required to keep operations cool enough so that your computers don't overheat, and you end up consuming more electricity in bitcoin mining per year than the annual amount

of electricity used by some countries like Argentina. This has been a big point in conversations about fossil fuels and climate change, as not all bitcoin mining operations are dependent upon renewable energy sources, but it's also a strain on utility infrastructure, as is the case with Iran, and according to analytics firm Elliptic, around four and a half percent

of all bitcoin mining worldwide happens in Iran. With China cracking down on cryptocurrency for various reasons which we covered on Tuesday, and now Iran putting the brakes on operations for several months, this could mean that the cryptocurrency market will still have a few more bumps in the road for you know, the near future. Now, let us pop over to the UK where things are changing with regard

to Uber. For the first time, Uber has recognized the legitimacy of a union formed by UK workers who drive for the company. The union g m B will be able to stand as a representative for UK drivers and negotiate deals with regard to stuff like earnings and benefits and pensions. This is a huge shift. Traditionally, Uber has maintained that Uber drivers are not Uber employees, They're not

Uber workers. Rather, Uber says these people are freelancers, their contract workers who work with Uber but not for Uber, and so argues Uber the company really only has obligations to provide benefits and such to corporate employees, the people who work for Uber's offices. But several lawsuits have gradually kind of reshaped this issue, and the UK Supreme Court ruled that no, you know what, actually, Uber drivers should be considered employees and they are thus entitled to those considerations.

So now in the UK, the GMB and Uber will meet every quarter to discuss driver issues and concerns, and Uber and GM will also meet to talk about Uber's national living wage guarantee and what that looks like in the UK, as well as stuff like pensions. Drivers will have to sign up to join the union because membership is not automatic. Also, while this is potentially great news for UK Uber drivers, the company has not made any

similar moves in other countries. There are a lot of groups advocating for change, but I mean Uber actively campaigned against that in California just recently. So so far, the UK is the only spot where we're really seeing this kind of Uber working with you know, a union and and allowing their drivers to be known as employees. It's also good to remember the Uber is a company that continues to lose money on a quarterly basis, in they

averaged at about a billion dollars per quarter. Actually, when it was all said and done, they lost about six point seven billion dollars in. Now, that was bad, but still better than twenty nineteen when they lost eight point five one billion dollars. So yeah, Uper's future is one that's really up in the air. The company keeps saying

that you know, they are on track for profitability. In fact, up until the end of last year there was a hope that they were going to be able to to post a profit in but that did not happen, So maybe their year left to see. European rights organization including Privacy International, have filed complaints against a company called clear

View AI. That company specializes in facial recognition technology. The complaints say that the company scrapes image data from various websites and services and that this practice violates European privacy laws. Clear View AI has said that it has a database of more than three billion facial images and the company frequently scans content from sites and services like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn,

and YouTube. Then the company organizes that database and sells access to it to various parties like other private companies or with law enforcement agencies. So the advocacy groups say that this practice goes far beyond what users expect when they post on these websites, and that this leads to not just an invasion of privacy concern, but the potential for harassment and wrongful accusations and more. This isn't the first time groups have taken aim at clear View AI.

There are other inquiries and investigations going on in Australia, Canada, and the United States. Also, Hey, if you're curious, you can actually go to clear views website and use tools to request any data that the company might have on you. You can also tell clear view AI if you want to have your face omitted from clients searches in the future. And if a lot of people did that, it would

really undermine the value of clear Views product. I'm not telling you to do it, I'm just saying it's an option. On Tuesday, after our last tech News episode went live, which is always the way, vm Ware disclosed a security vulnerability in its v Center server tool, and simultaneously they issued a patch to address that vulnerability. This tool lets database administrators manage computer virtualization and let me give you a quick word on that in case you are unfamiliar

with that term. Virtualization allows you to virtually divide up the assets of a physical computer as if it were more than one physical computer. Now, you might use virtualization so that your computer runs as if it were a totally different type of computer running on a different operating system. That's one version of virtualization where you're not really dividing it up so much as you're having your computer kind of mimic a different type of machine because of this

virtual environment. Or you could use it to partition a computer so that different partitions have no contact with one another their siloed. This is important for the purposes of data security and that kind of thing. Well, anyway, vm Whare says the vulnerability could mean that hackers would have the opportunity to inject malware into servers running this kind

of software. If there is a port on the server that connects out to the Internet, and a lot of servers, do you know, a lot of them connect out to the Internet in some way or another, So how bad is this vulnerability? Well, according to security analysts, if you were to rank vulnerabilities on a scale of one being not very serious and tend being catastrophic. This one is

a nine point eight. It is a critical vulnerability. Anyone who works on servers and uses this software that is the v Center Server tool should immediately get the patch and install it on those servers, or restrict access to those servers, you know, disconnect them from the Internet until they can be patched. It is that big of a deal.

Instagram has been testing a feature in several countries for the past two years that it is now rolling out worldwide, and it's an option that users can select that lets them hide the number of likes and views that they get on any given post. For some on social media, likes and views that's kind of like currency. For influencers. It's a way to show relevance and potentially land sponsorship deals. But judging your own value on how many likes or views you did or didn't get on a post isn't

necessarily healthy. I mean, I know, I have fixated on that a few times, and it's always been a bad idea. I mostly do it over on Twitter, where I'll make what I think was a great tweet and then I get, you know, kind of grouchy when there aren't that many likes for it or shares or anything. Now, that's just

dumb of me to do that to myself. Now on Instagram, people can choose to hide those numbers and just use the app to share photos without you know, thinking about whether the thing they posted was the best picture at the best time or whatever. And I think for a

lot of users that's actually really helpful. Now, obviously, for influencers, it's probably not something they're going to use very often, even though I think a few folks of the influencers category might benefit from taking a break of quantifying their own worth based on how people interact with their content. But hey, I'm just a grumpy old dude who shakes

his fist at passing clouds. Right, I'm an old content creator who thinks sometimes it's good to kind of distance yourself from that, because otherwise it can lead you down a pretty dark mental pathway. If you would like to activate this feature, then you can log into Instagram. You can go to settings, You go to the posts section, and and you should see an option to hide like

and view counts. Boom sordid. People will still be able to like and view your stuff, obviously, but you won't have that number in plain sight, you know, mocking you or nagging you to do better, which for me, I mean that sounds ideal. It's not for everyone, but for people like me, I think it's a great feature. Well, I've got a little bit more news to go, but first let's take a quick break. We're back and hay,

do you use Twitter like a lot? And do you rely on Twitter to do stuff like make connections, sell your brand or try to get Neil Gaiman to notice you. Well, if you're like me, the answer to those things is yeah, and you probably feel a little sad about it, like I do. Anyway, Twitter has a new service coming aimed just at people like you and me. It's their premium service, so yes, that does mean you will have to pay

to get access to these new features. Features like a bookmarking feature and an undo tweets feature, which sounds like it's the closest thing we're ever going to get to, an edit button, and you know, there might be other features as well, but like, we don't know. Because all this news comes from an app researcher named Jane man Chun Wong. She came across this information and shared it.

Twitter itself has not yet commented on this planned service, but apparently, at least right now, it has the name Twitter Blue and the subscription is a low two dollars n cents per month. This, by the way, is a separate offering from the already announced subscription based service that Twitter is going to offer up that will allow you know, Twitter users to set up a paid for tier of

access for their followers. So this would be like, if I set this up, then followers who really liked me could subscribe to this exclusive feed and get you know, special data, special content that I'm only posting to that version of my Twitter, and they're doing it for a recurring fee, and Twitter takes a share of that subscription price.

That's something you're not likely to see me use, because let's face it, I'm not important enough and I would spend way too much time just trying to figure out what I could say in those like two dly characters that would be worth paying for. But these efforts show

how Twitter is looking to diversify its revenue sources. The company has had issues attracting new users that that number has kind of plateaued, which means it's tough to grow revenue and generally speaking, in modern day business, that's a bad thing. It's not good enough to make money. You

need to make more money than you made last year. Hi. Facebook has announced that the social media platform will begin to use its algorithm to counteract misinformation, which, you know, I think it's a nice change of pace, since that algorithm so far has really helped elevate and propagate misinformation.

The company says that now it will both label posts appearing to contain misinformation and d prioritize those posts from appearing in the feeds of other people, but it will also lower the visibility of the users who are sharing

those posts. So if I start sharing posts that have been found to contain outright lies and misinformation, what should happen is that from that point forward, if I've done it enough, all of my posts, not just the ones containing misinformation, will start to show up in fewer feeds. So would be kind of like if I found myself in a glass cage of sadness that's sound proved, and meanwhile that cage is in the middle of a big

old party, and that's going on all around me. I could yell at the top of my lungs what's going on? Or you know I could I could try and spread misinformation from inside my glass cage, or or even I could just say I'm thinking of getting pizza tonight, and folks around me wasn't here because Facebook's disincentivizing the spread of misinformation. There d prioritizing those messages so they don't

pop up for most people. And I actually feel like this tactic, assuming the system works, is a pretty good one. It helps cut down on the echo chamber effect, and it means that the people who try and spread misinformation

purposefully are going to find their influence diminishing as a result. Now, the way this will work in practice is that Facebook will keep tabs on people who have repeatedly shared posts that Facebook fact checkers have flagged as containing misinformation, So if you do that enough times, you'll find yourself essentially demoted. Do I think this is going to solve the problems

of misinformation spreading across on Facebook? Probably not. A lot more has to happen for that to be a thing, which might require a massive change in how advertisers work with Facebook in order for that to come about, But I think it might be a step in the right direction. Possibly, we'll have to see how it actually plays out when it's being put in use. Okay, let's go back to England, shall we, because our penultimate story is one that's all

about fusion. Stars are giant nuclear fusion reactors in which elements fused together and in the process release enormous amounts of energy. Or, as the somewhat apocryphal song goes, the sun is a massive incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace where hydrogen is built into helium and a temperature of

billions of degrees. That's somewhat misleading, but still catchy. So with with the son, you're talking about four hydrogen atoms that fused together to form a helium adam Well, scientists and engineers have been trying to make a sustainable, trollable, usable fusion reactor here on Earth for years, and if

they succeed, this could lead to an energy revolution. So remember when I was talking about concerns about how much electricity cryptocurrency requires, Well, if we have working fusion reactors, that wouldn't be as big of a concern as long as the actual infrastructure of power lines and transformers, you know, all the physical stuff that conveys electricity. As long as that could hold up to the demand, we'd be pretty good.

Nuclear fusion, unlike nuclear fission, does not generate dangerous radioactive waste, but nuclear fusion does have some big challenges. For example, to get fusion reactions, you're typically working with systems that have to generate enormous amounts of heat and pressure. So we're talking about conditions that could be even more intense than what you would find at the core of the sun.

That requires a lot of energy to do, which means that many prototype fusion reactors have encountered the problem that it can take more energy to generate the fusion reaction then you get out of the other side of it. Another challenge, one that some scientists in the UK think they've really overcome, has to do with exhaust gases that incredibly hot helium gas that gets generated as a result of fusion. Now, these gases are in more than a hundred million degrees of celsius hot. I mean they are

insanely hot, hotter than the surface of the sun. Hot. That means they're also going to cause a lot of damage to elements of reactors as they exhaust out, like they come into contact with the sides of the reactor, they can start melting tiles, even tiles that are made out of very melt resistant materials like tungsten. So getting fusion reactions efficient is one area of research and we've seen a lot of progress there. And now finding a way to cool those exhaust gases faster so that they

cause less where and tear is another big one. The exhaust system the scientists developed has a cool name, which I mean, I guess that's fitting because it's cooling gas and it is the super ex diverter. It diverts generated helium from fusion reactions down a long pathway to cool and the cooling happens pretty fast. I mean like that energy losses is quick, and because the helium is traveling down sort of a straightaway, it's not banging into the

tiled sides of the reactor structure. And this is a great step, but we're still looking at a long term implementation plan for fusion reactors. The estimate is that we're not going to see a commercially viable fusion reactor for at least another twenty years. So while they are promising and if they work out, they will transform the world, we still have a lot of work to do to address our energy needs in the meantime. Finally, let's talk

about our perception of time. Now, we have all experienced the fact that we perceive time passing at different rates depending on what's going on. That our perception isn't a constant. We're not like a reliable clock that is just ticking down each second to incredible precision. So when you're in the middle of doing something that you don't really want to do, time just drags on. When you're enjoying yourself, time zooms by I mean, we've got that phrase right.

Time flies when you're having fun. But now researchers have seen through some experiments that in certain virtual reality experiences, a user's perception of time slows down, and the researchers believe that this is a fundamental aspect to the experience of VR that's not related to whether or not you're enjoying yourself while you're in this virtual experience, but rather it's the anchor point of the virtual reality experience itself.

So in other words, while you are in VR, you'll perceive that a lot less time has passed for you. Then what the clock would tell you when you take the heads that off that lion clock. So here's how they conducted the experiment. Test subjects were to complete a maze, you know, a virtual maze as a like a computer game version of a maze. There was a VR version of this maze, and there was another one that used

just a classic computer display. And the users were supposed to try and complete the maze, and then they were supposed to tell administrators when they felt that five minutes had gone by. So, you know, they're working on the maze and when they think, oh, I felt like about five minutes, they'd speak up uh, And there was a reminder for them to actually do this that would flash

on screen every eight seconds. However, the subjects were not told the frequency at which this this reminder would flash, so if they had, they could have used that as a way to measure the passing of time. So they just knew that this message kept popping up. They didn't know that it was, you know, an eight second delay

between messages. Anyway, at the end of it, the scientists said that those who were using the VR version on average suggested that five minutes had passed at around the six and a half minute mark, or the way they put it, was that quote an average of twenty eight point five percent more real time passed for participants who played the VR game than for those in the control group, with no difference in perceived duration end quote. Now, there have been other studies kind of related to this issue.

Some of them have conflicting results that that sort of uh, you know, they don't align with this this experiments results. So this is by no means the definitive answer as to whether or not we perceived time to pass more slowly in VR than in real life. Also, researchers have noted that if you're talking about extended play sessions like half an hour or more, this effect has been seen not just in VR, but in all sorts of gameplay

modes like traditional computer gaming and otherwise. So in other words, it does look like we get back to that time flies when you're having fun, saying that there really is some element of truth to that, in the sense that our perception of time is uh, is different while we're having a good time and we think, oh, that was just five minutes, and then we look up and realize we've been playing Civilization for four days straight. Just one more turn, all right, that wraps up this episode of

text Stuff. If you have suggestions for topics I should cover in future episodes, reach out to me. The best place to do that so we're on Twitter. You won't even need to subscribe because I'm not gonna do a subscription based thing. You won't even need the premium version of Twitter. Just regular old Twitter will do. And the handle we use is text stuff H s W and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff is

an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows