YOYO English Club

Dear friends,
Happy lunar new year, and wish you all the best for the fulfillment of what you desire to do in the future new year.
It’s my honor to host the meeting on Feb.01, 20 which will be right after Chinese New Year holidays. In session one, we'll delve into a topic on internet access through a bunch of satellites and its environment cost on astronomy. For session two, we'll explore AI technology evolution, its application by cases, pros and cons for human life together.

REF: Session one - Star-linking to internet
Probably no one will deny that internet has become an essential part of our life. The extremely high speed of wireless internet service based on 5G infrastructure has been underway and is about to reshaping the world; in 2019 it was conducted with trial run in some countries such as China, Korea, Japan, USA. This year, 5 G solutions in market will take off, and gradually migrate into our life.

The actualization of the 5G service areas relies on the density of 5G cell sites on ground base where will still be limited on geography. What if the internet access through star-linking will exclude the hindrance on limitation of the ground-based approaches. Imperfection always means emerging business opportunity that an ambitious company, Starlink fund by Enlon Musk, has been working on fulfilling this dream. What’s the idea as the abstract of the article followings:
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying 60 Starlink... satellites on November 11, 2019 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Starlink constellation will eventually consist of thousands of satellites designed to provide world wide high-speed internet service, but the cost to the science of astronomy is already substantial, and is poised to rise significantly over the coming years

Launching satellites to provide services to those of us living on the ground is an essential part of modern-day living. GPS and telecommunications satellites enable our cellular signals and support our mobile internet today. With the coming upgrade to 5G services, a new set of infrastructure will be required, and that necessarily means an upgraded set of satellites equipped to provide that service must be launched.
This Is How Elon Musk Can Fix The Damage His Starlink Satellites Are Causing To Astronomy
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswith ... fa73644ccc

https://www.starlink.com/

https://outerspacetreaty.org/


REF: SESSION ONE QUESTIONS
Question 1
After reading this article, will you think it’s a good idea to provide internet access through high density of "star-linking"? Will you think it’ll be great if you go hiking to a high mountain, taking trip to a unmanned desert, or any areas devoid of IT infrastructure still being able approached to internet service while inevitable from environment cost on astronomy?

Question 2
"In astronomy, the greatest resource of all is a dark, clear night sky: humanity’s window to the universe. A new type of pollutant has begun to pose an existential threat to astronomy coming with mega-constellations of satellites."
Do you think a dark clean sky should be kind of public wealth? Or, we’ll just respect for free market mechanism. There is no sovereignty or law to outer space. What should human do to this repercussion? Can the outer space treaty function well for the "public wealth of sky" for human?

Questions 3
The article said:
“One of the first companies to attempt to serve this market is SpaceX, under the guidance of Elon Musk, which plans to initially deploy 12,000 satellites in a mega-constellation known as Starlink. Ultimately, the constellation hopes to extend to a total of 42,000 satellites. As of November 20, 2019, only 122 of these satellites have been deployed, and they've already had a detrimental impact on astronomy on a global scale.”

So many low earth orbits of satellites are on-going to be deployed to the sky. Will it gradually become a global issue and gain massive attention by international organization?

Questions 4
"On November 18, 2019, a series of 19 of these Starlink satellites passed over the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory's site in Chile, lasting for more than 5 minutes and heavily affecting the wide-field DECam instrument. Even though this only represents 0.3% of the total number of proposed Starlink satellites that SpaceX wants to launch.

The consequences are clear: wide-field astronomy designed to look for faint objects — prime goals of observatories like Pan-STARRS, LSST, and any observing program geared towards finding potentially Earth-hazardous objects — is going to be significantly hindered. "

Scientists have been working on observing for potential dangerous objects approaching to earth while their efforts will be obstructed by the light pollutants generated by so many commercial satellites. Why the US government have not taken any policy to correct it? What mechanism should be built-up to settle down above issue?

Questions 5:
"Unlike most of the GPS and communications satellites we have today, the current Starlink satellites are large, reflective, and already causing some astronomers to throw out significant portions of their data. Currently at an altitude of 280 km, where they're visible to the naked eye, they can now easily and safely be de-orbited.

But once they're raised to their operational altitude of 550 km, they become a much more permanent problem. In addition, public awareness will drop, but they will remain visible to all binoculars and telescopes: the astronomer's most essential tools. "

Are you a fan who like to use binoculars and telescopes for observation to the sky? Should there be any law to prescribe the limitation for the commercial satellites to deploy to a specific range of the altitude on the earth orbits? Any suggestions?

REF: Session two - AI application
For the second session, we’ll study fundamental terms on AI evolution, and explore AI application by cases together. What are your opinions toward AI technology? Do you think AI will make a better life for human being for sure? Or, will you suspect about impacts, risks, or other uncertainties on AI might just make our life a jumbled messes?
https://futurism.com/1-evergreen-making ... ing-and-ai
https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitivew ... a500ba4964


https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanabandoi ... f60f714a98


REF: SESSION TWO QUESTIONS
Question 1
Over the years, we have been hearing a lot about artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning. But how do we differentiate between these three rather abstruse terms, and how are they related to one another?

Question 2
"Leveraging AI in transportation helps the sector increase passenger safety, reduce traffic congestion and accidents, lessen carbon emissions, and also minimize the overall financial expenses."
Do you think so? How does it work?

Questons 3
"In simple words, AI can be defined as a technology that powers machines with human intelligence. Machines, having AI capabilities, can mimic humans, automate manual tasks, and learn on the go just like humans. What's more, AI-powered systems exhibit human intelligence and learn with time, which indicates that these machines can eventually carry out critical-thinking jobs and take decisions by themselves."
Will there be any latent repercussion or risk on AI while it brings benefits for people, especially one day the AI-powered robot might think independently and make decision their own?

Question 4
"One of the most exciting and innovative AI applications in transportation is a drone taxi. The recent demonstration of an autonomous aerial vehicle in China, where 17 passengers experienced smart air mobility for the first time, is a great indicator of similar future applications. "
Do you think above application will be widely adapted to most countries, and become part of our choices to traffic solutions?

Question 5
"We presented this problem to the engineers at IBM, and they installed a camera, which takes pictures of our beer as it exits the bottle line. This picture when combined with other data we collect during bottling operations then gets uploaded to the IBM cloud and interpreted by the Watson algorithms. Our brewers provide some specific criteria, which they find useful, and Watson looks for that needle in a haystack of data. Quick interpretation of large amounts of data has turned our company from being reactive in many circumstances to proactive and able to better pinpoint process improvements. "
Do you think it's a great idea to use AI technology to monitor manufacturing processes of beer? Will there be any other field you'll think it's good to lead AI technology to its processes as well?

Question 6
"Sugar Creek Brewing plans to be the first brewer in the world to collaborate fully with AI to create a beer from scratch. It plans to name the beer IPAi. The company also wants to connect the manufacturing data with the huge stream of consumer-focused qualitative data that is being generated via beer social media sites."
Do you think integrate consumer preference with the manufacturing of beer through AI technology is quite pragmatic? Can you think of any product or market will better fit this AI application kit as well?

Agenda:
3:45 ~ 4:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
4:00 ~ 4:10pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
4:10 ~ 4:50pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
4:50 ~ 5:10pm Summarization (20 mins)
5:10 ~ 5:15pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 10 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
5:15 ~ 5:55pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
6:00 ~ 6:20pm Summarization (20 mins)
6:20 ~ 6:30pm Concluding Remarks / Announcements
********************************************************************************************************************************************
聚會日期：列於該貼文主題內
聚會時間：請準時 4:00 pm 到 ~ 約 6:30 pm 左右結束
星期六聚會地點：丹堤濟南店
地址、電話：台北市濟南路三段25號 地圖 (02) 2740-2350
捷運站：板南線 忠孝新生站 3 號出口
走法：出忠孝新生站 3 號出口後，沿著巷子(忠孝東路三段10巷)走約 2 分鐘，到了濟南路口，左轉走約 2 分鐘即可看到。
最低消費： 80 元

注意事項：
1. 文章是否需要列印請自行斟酌，但與會者請務必自行列印 Questions for discussion。
2. 與會者請先閱讀過文章，並仔細想過所有的問題，謝謝合作！

給新朋友的話：
1. 請事先準備2~3分鐘的英語自我介紹；會議結束前可能會請你發表1~2分鐘的感想。
2. 請事先閱讀文章以及主持人所提的討論問題，並事先寫下自己所欲發表意見的英文。
3. 全程以英語進行，參加者應具備中等英語會話能力，對任一討論問題，能夠以5到10句英文表達個人見解。
4. 在正式加入之前，可以先來觀摩三次，觀摩者亦須參與討論。正式加入需繳交終身會費 NT$1,000。

bring to top

When it gets to the extreme of science and technology, you wonder what is real. Are all the stars in the universe “more real” than the satellites deployed by humans? Who knows how natural or how artificial of the whole universe really is?
The concept of managing our outer space is not new. It exists in all the science fictions, but sure, it’s always good to be proactive and with preventive thinking.

As for the coming AI world, it offers so much possibilities. Some of them have been realized without our acknowledgement and consensus, and some will be implemented probably even more rapidly again in both positive and negative directions to human beings. Navigating through the AI paths, there is so much to explore its full potential, but in the meantime, so much unknown to prepare (or prepare to accept) for its consequences.

Astronomers are no strangers to adverse impact of human activities on their livelihoods. Since the invention of electrical bulbs and worldwide rapid urbanization, observatories have been forced to relocate at rather undeveloped locations, literally in the middle of nowhere, to avoid artificial light pollution from interfering their observation. Governments, companies, and even consumers have a long history of ignoring how man-made light pollution have costed the progress of astronomy and I see no sign of immediate shift in attitude. The sad prediction is, like it or not, SpaceX will change themselves for astronomers when hell freezes over.

Iris Wu 寫:When it gets to the extreme of science and technology, you wonder what is real. Are all the stars in the universe “more real” than the satellites deployed by humans? Who knows how natural or how artificial of the whole universe really is?
The concept of managing our outer space is not new. It exists in all the science fictions, but sure, it’s always good to be proactive and with preventive thinking.

As for the coming AI world, it offers so much possibilities. Some of them have been realized without our acknowledgement and consensus, and some will be implemented probably even more rapidly again in both positive and negative directions to human beings. Navigating through the AI paths, there is so much to explore its full potential, but in the meantime, so much unknown to prepare (or prepare to accept) for its consequences.

Iris, thank you for your sharing views to the topics. You might share with us how the science fictions depict the solution for outer space management at the meeting. It is probably quite innovative. Yes, there are so many unknown potential in AI fields to be explored. We’ll wait to see what fresh stuff engaged with AI technology in the coming future.

Kooper 寫:Astronomers are no strangers to adverse impact of human activities on their livelihoods. Since the invention of electrical bulbs and worldwide rapid urbanization, observatories have been forced to relocate at rather undeveloped locations, literally in the middle of nowhere, to avoid artificial light pollution from interfering their observation. Governments, companies, and even consumers have a long history of ignoring how man-made light pollution have costed the progress of astronomy and I see no sign of immediate shift in attitude. The sad prediction is, like it or not, SpaceX will change themselves for astronomers when hell freezes over.

Hi, Kooper, you are right. It looks like the light pollution inducing impacts on astronomy has long been ignored. For the examples you mentioned such as electrical bulbs and worldwide rapid urbanization are all ground base of pollutant sources while SpaceX further extend the light pollutant by those satellites over sky. Let’s study it at the meeting. Thank you.

Participants 17: Gloria, Kooper, Morris, Jason, Tim, Iris, Luis, Tom, Christine, Sabrina, Jerry, Steve, Julian, Holly, Jennifer, Carmelo, Winston