Incredible, but credible?

[Akira]

Yes I do. It is an interesting place to be these days. I’ve worked in semiconductor companies for the past 20 years and the recent developments are as exciting as anything I’ve seen in all that time. I’m not a big block chain fan though. I think it is extremely wasteful among other things.

That would be exciting!  I was amazed to know that GPU could be used for other purposes than the rendering of the graphics.

As for the block chain, I wonder how much the process over the internet is affecting its overall traffic.

[Jack Dahlgren]

That would be exciting!  I was amazed to know that GPU could be used for other purposes than the rendering of the graphics.

As for the block chain, I wonder how much the process over the internet is affecting its overall traffic.

I don’t think it has much internet traffic compared to things such as streaming videos or other common uses. Most of “work” is computation at the client side and constant communication is not that high. Volume of transactions is also nothing compared to services such as YouTube.

GPU’s have evolved to really become a massively parallel processor, and by providing a software language by which each of those can perform some function (computation of one sort or another) the use has extended beyond 3D graphics.

[Akira]

I see.  Thank you for the explanation, Jack.

[Ann]

Jack:

Could you explain what a "Block Chain" is; and what it is used for?

The expression is new to me.

[Lorne]

One of the fundamental things about photography used to be that IT DID represent reality or something very close to it; and so people believed what they were seeing.

I agree that it is now much easier to manipulate a photograph in order to deceive. However, is not the image already manipulative in the sense that it is 'snap shot' taken by a photographer with a particular world view of a scene in a particular location? And that the choice of shutter, aperture, lens, all contribute to express the photographer's intent.

Magnum photographer Peter van Agtmael explains far better than I:
http://time.com/4326791/fact-truth-photography-steve-mccurry/

[Jack Dahlgren]

Jack:

Could you explain what a "Block Chain" is; and what it is used for?

The expression is new to me.

I’m sure someone on the internet has said it better, but the idea is that each transaction is recorded in an encrypted public ledger. The security or integrity of this is that this same ledger is distributed to all participants and consensus is used to determine which version of this ledger is correct. The way this is protected from fraudulent transactions is that the calculation is hard and that there are many participants, so you can’t make a fraudulent transaction in that chain and get it verified by the entire group.

The mechanics of how this happens are too complex for me to relate here.

[Ann]

Thank you Jack: that explains "Block Chain" both succinctly and sufficiently!

 

[Anthony]

I agree that it is now much easier to manipulate a photograph in order to deceive. However, is not the image already manipulative in the sense that it is 'snap shot' taken by a photographer with a particular world view of a scene in a particular location? And that the choice of shutter, aperture, lens, all contribute to express the photographer's intent.

Magnum photographer Peter van Agtmael explains far better than I:
http://time.com/4326791/fact-truth-photography-steve-mccurry/

Ethics and art are both about where you draw the line.