Exams
Ensuring the authenticity of information requires appropriate safety mechanisms – such as for exams. Authentication can be done using biometric methods. Supervised computers are suitable as the only foreseeable inexpensive solutions, since both humans and computers can implant unwanted information.
The supervised computers must be able to identify, store and display for usage the brought along allowed additional information as such and to specifically prevent or channel access to the Internet. For this purpose, both appropriate standards and intelligent verification methods have to be developed if we want to achieve a certain level of comfort.
An easy way to do this is to specify the allowed URLs for the browser. Automatic methods for image recognition that can filter out undesirable sites are not suitable because possibly encrypted sites can only be decrypted with great effort. Thus, only sites are in question, which have a fixed incorruptible authorship and no hidden areas.
Reliable control can only be guaranteed if it is impossible to manipulate the assignment of URL and content (be careful with generic URLs!). Suitable passwords can protect additional information that has been brought along and decrypted before the exam (on the Internet). Customising the programmes for additional information must not take up too much time.
For this purpose, password-protected profiles of the programmes should be safely stored, which then only have to be read in (requires a corresponding implementation of the programmes). If the Internet should develop to the extent that every programme is available there, this problem is omitted. Since special knowledge is usually also to be checked by special programmes, it is something desirable.
Programmes that cannot be called up via the Internet may possibly be called up via appropriate controlled remote connections, whereby speed is no problem. It becomes more difficult when the exam situation requires special hardware (e.g. in surgery). There will always be exams tied to a specific location. Most exams can yet be realised on standard devices.
If knowledge from certain time units is in demand, a questionnaire is appropriate that, varied at given times, the examinees have to answer at the same time. For the success, a certain percentage of correct answers for individual fields may be demanded, which can vary depending on the field. Multiple-choice questions facilitate the evaluation on the computer, as long as the automatic language comprehension is limited.
For exams via internet, the automatically evaluated result can be announced immediately after the end of the exam. At some point, the exam possibilities and fairness require the Internet: No one can be expected to keep all the necessary knowledge in mind. The irreplaceable achievement of man is in the creative and information connecting field.
The protection of the examinee’s personality may require anonymised exams on the Internet. For this purpose, the testing centre should offer signatures on the Internet with which the examinee can subsequently be authenticated. Furthermore, the testing centre should offer anonymous (temporary) email accounts to view the exam result by the examinee using signature and password.
Voting on the Internet is also easily possible if the identity of the voter can be uniquely clarified. Everybody should be assigned a free email account at birth, to which all emails are sent that require a unique authentication. This email account would even have a higher status than the letterbox concerning security aspects.
It could be (co-) administered by the legal guardians until early infancy. For this purpose, every person would need to have Internet access if necessary (possibly in public authorities). There could be helped all those with the handling, which have problems with it. In the future, the handling must be possible voice-controlled without the need for a keyboard.
Each person should also receive at birth a globally unique (number of) identification that can be pronounced as a name (see Linguistics) and officially serves as such. This ID also serves as a (method) signature of important documents. Its clear generation from immutable biometric data is worth considering. Easier is the query in a secure database.
The consistent use of the ID allows the fast and reliable retrieval of specific content about oneself on the Internet. With increasing improvement of spam filters, the email account assigned at birth can be unambiguously and for each person ascertainable linked to the ID: e.g. [ID]@mail.world. Everybody should have free webspace available.
Contents
The latter should, for example, be accessible at www.[ID].net.world and free of unwanted content. This is watched over by administrators appointed by the future world government. Each presentation should also be available in the future world language for reasons of comprehensibility. For the official part, an obligatory profile can be prescribed. It may be linked to unobjectionable home pages.
People who do not want to post own content are represented by minimal content as e. g. can be found in an identity card. All people have to be informed about their stored data and their location. When creating their own content, people are helped by the authorities as much as possible. The ascertainability by a uniform questionnaire determines the content that can be claimed.
A law that is valid worldwide determines the volume of the minimum content. For example, a restriction on the publication of ID and nationality is conceivable. Given that nationality will play a less and less important role in the face of global civil society, it is quite conceivable that the law only considers the ID to be mandatorily published. We only know then that this ID exists, but not anymore.
The principle of equality has no bite here, since each person may determine the extent of the own representation in public. The authorities may save significantly more data concerning an ID to discharge their duties. People can only demand within the valid laws to view the data stored about them. Sufficient data privacy has always to be guaranteed.
Anyone publishing data on www.[ID].net.world explicitly consents to their use for all legal purposes. This includes in particular the automated processing. All people have to be informed about what can be done theoretically and practically with their data. Thus, they get a comprehensive idea and can realise the scope of their decisions.
The right to free self-expression includes that the published data need not be truthful. This should be clear to everybody. No one can demand a correction. No one can also demand that somebody corrects the truthful data published elsewhere if it does not violate the personal rights of those described.
Public persons can defend themselves to a lesser degree against depictions of themselves, as the legitimate interest of the public can conflict with their personal rights. However, a core of personal rights remains invulnerable, as human dignity must be preserved. More details are regulated by the laws of the world government and should not be subject here.
Persons may encounter untrue allegations of facts about them with counter statements. The latter have also to be published on the Internet regardless of their truth. It does not matter how often the homepage is viewed. If the representation is sufficiently corrected or withdrawn, the right to publish the counter-statements expires.
The freedom of publication allows that publications about described persons have not to be displayed to these persons, since the latter can easily search the Internet for their person by means of their ID. If these persons would like to be informed about them, then this wish should be met by mailing to their desired email address. That’s no effort!
Internet reception should also be possible on a mobile basis: via satellites or sufficiently dense distributed hotspots or similar. Internet control should be possible via voice (headset), data gloves or eye movements. The monitor is replaced by data glasses (with prompter) switched semi-transparent with possibly different content for each eye – even with 3D representations of the same content.
In future, we can arrange radio broadcasts for us or others on the Internet on our own. Newscasts can be specifically read to us (by a female, male or child’s voice). Here, the voice (such as the spouse) can be selected specifically. This also applies to musical pieces or pools. The costs are like those of radio or television.
Foreign programmes can be combined with own broadcasts (live conferences with microphone or webcam). Examples are own concerts or play stagings, art exhibitions with virtual tours and explanations, (collective) karaoke, commercial spots for own products, workshops or conference circuits. The future is multimedia almost everywhere.
Automatic simultaneous translations via Internet become imaginable with the increasing development of speech recognition and translation programmes if the introduction of the worldwide uniform planned language is delayed. The smarter the programmes are, the more likely they can correct errors in speaking, and, if necessary, interpose explanations. It remains reserved to the internet users what they allow or initiate.
In order to simplify the search processes, the existing idea of crawlers is extended to (standardised) information user profiles. The latter specify user requests for a site, which then each page can respond by appropriate queries such that the desired content is almost exclusively displayed. For this purpose, the programming language PHP, for example, or the browser could be extended.
Categories would have smartly to be formed, which could be queried. The browser should be able to summarise the content that is scattered across several sites on one site to obtain a clear representation. Ontology concepts should be meaningfully included (e.g. through query rules formulated on terms, which browser and PHP then evaluate).
The advantages of this approach are the free determination of categories that have not to occur in the site and can consist of whole sentences and of possibly complex rules, without significantly extending the search time. Since queries are based on searching in sorted data, the latter may have to be stored as suggested by Theoretical Informatics and Reference Theory.
Strap, clothes and virtual reality
Portable computers may be connected to the so-called strap, which serves as a multifunction device for authentication, is worn like a watch and takes over functions including display, telephone and key function. Almost all functions of the strap can be activated or deactivated at any time by voice or touch.
It also works without a computer connection and replaces an implanted chip. When it is laid down, it triggers an alarm after a predefinable period of time if it is not activated again in a certain way. Certain functions should always be disabled for security reasons if the strap is laid down. The alarm can have the integrated transmitter send messages to security forces.
We can also adjust the strap via black box so that the events of the last few hours around us are recorded and can be sent out when an alarm occurs, or we request that. In order that criminals have no possibility to stop the transfer process, a running and sufficiently quick (encrypted) transfer to a secure computer is suitable.
Since our coordinates are also transferred, the last abode before a possible kidnapping is always known. Versions of the strap may also be used as an electronic ankle monitor. We should consider carefully which functions of the strap are enabled or disabled, since many conclusions regarding our behaviour are possible – if the transfer may be still so secure.
Modern clothing can also be used to convey information: the body surface can absorb patterns of different pressures or different temperatures. Thus, images and language become easily transferable to deafblind. If the garment is connected to a rangefinder or corresponding image recognition software, even blindman’s stick can be omitted.
The connection of the garment with other measuring devices allows the inconspicuous evaluation of pollutant concentrations, magnetic fields and everything else, which can be measured as a scaled substance or can be evaluated by programmes (e.g. fluctuations in the voice or the skin or the eye contact of the opposite, which can give indications of certain emotional states).
If the garment is programmable (input via voice, touch or evaluation of the viewing direction), the measured variables can be easily changed, whatever we want to measure. A connection to the Internet and databases increases the range of information once again. However, prices also will rise with the requirements – and decrease with a high number of units again.
The path to virtual reality can lead in rooms (CAVE) not only to projection methods onto suitable coated surfaces but also to programmable and controllable (as above) wallpapers. In this case, a computer determines the image to be projected for existing objects in the space (distortion compensation). Even 3D effects can be achieved (higher dimensions as a projection).
The surfaces of the room can be segmented for different content and can be individually addressed. However, the limited ability of humans to parallel processing sets limits. As long as they are not cyborgs, they remain dependent on computer assistance. Direct influence on the brain is therefore so attractive because impressions have not to be communicated materially (sensory organs).
Transport and machines
For the fast and reliable delivery of goods from warehouses and collection points, partly underground express connections are suitable. The volume of goods is at most 0.125 cubic metres (0.5 m)3, larger goods may need to be transported more slowly. Computers calculate optimal network utilisation and collision avoidance. They inform the technical staff about occurred jams.
Transport mode could be for example magnetic levitation technology in combination with vacuum tunnels. The goods may be collected and posted at easily accessible shipping points. A transport (with a different technology) to the households is conceivable. Food can be, for example, centrally prepared at the collecting points. By centralising also unusual wishes can be fulfilled.
The individual containers for transport can be streamlined. Integrated chips control the unmanned system. Only a few minutes pass by between order and delivery. The transport fees amount a fraction of the value of the goods if the containers are filled well: driving should be more expensive. Robots or computers will undertake many occupations that we know today.
Man will be still in demand, where complicated conversations with people arise, where creative performance, years of experience and special skills are needed and where complex organisation and coordination is required. Physical work and everything, for what rules can be laid down, is vulnerable to replacement. Our world will be managing with significantly fewer people in the face of rising needs.
Human beings and machines become more and more similar until they merge. They will die if they want to: to enter the subsequent world – at a point they have chosen. Fatal accidents will continue to occur – but less often. The question for the domination through the machines will arise: for this, however, man will have to find a solution or will perish.
One solution is control and monitoring. Programmes have to constantly check the information in a machine. Certain functions in a machine may not be disabled without disabling the machine itself. This involves an interdiction of coding in certain areas. Alternatively, a coding of certain programmes must be able to be decoded simultaneously.
Machines need a central, unforgeable and regularly renewed approval that can be checked at any time – such as the overall status of the machine. Simpler checks must be possible by owners and police, more complex ones may be reserved for specialists. Laws against crime by machines are to be issued and the liability is to be clarified.
© 2008-2019 by Boris Haase