Latest news with #GAFA
Time of India
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Of Betrayals, Victories And Blockchains
Comms wars are shaping our reality, but we can fight back We are in the midst of a communication war. From what we consume on TV and internet to our visits to shopping malls and our news consumption patterns, there is a constant battle for our attention. Surprisingly, the same mechanisms that influence our choices offline also nudge our decisions online, providing a powerful tool to communicators. So what is the truth? Do we really have a grip on reality? In The War For Reality: How to Win in the World of Fakes, Truths, And Communities, Dmytro Kuleba, the former foreign minister of Ukraine, approaches the subject from the unique perspective of his country's war against Russian aggression. While the book provides deep insights into the communication war being waged in Ukraine alongside the physical war, the lessons learnt can be applied universally. The book says that the truth lies somewhere between fakes and real truths because everyone can have a different version of the truth. The internet is the natural battleground for communicators. Particularly because of the innate power of images and videos to evoke responses from our brain. This is also the reason behind the rise of GAFA – Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple – who have figured out how to hack into our brains. Note that these organisations have no qualms about working with local govts of any kind. And authoritarian countries like Russia have taken advantage of this, says the book. But can blockchain tech rid us of our sin? It certainly narrows the scope for manipulation. But the 51% rule and blockchain oracles present a dilemma. The requirement of approval by 51% participants to change a fixed blockchain fact is a high bar, but not impossible to overcome by corporations, billionaires and govts. Similarly, blockchain oracles have to rely on users and available data to adjudicate a contestation over a fact. For example, Ukraine claims that Russia occupied Donbas, whereas Russia insists on a civil war happening there. Both sides would want to introduce their facts in blockchain. But for blockchain oracles to make a decision it would have to rely on data that itself might be manipulated or incomplete. What about persuasion? Can critical thinking be incentivised? As Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman postulated, human thinking can be of two kinds – instinctive and rational. The former is immediate and emotional. The latter needs to be constantly switched on by human effort. Therefore, people often make the easiest, and not the most rational, choices. Yet, it's possible to nudge people towards making desired decisions. Supermarkets in Ukraine started to mark Russian goods with the Russian flag after the beginning of the war in 2014. This immediately saw Ukrainians refuse to buy these goods. So, apart from internal effort, rational choices can be facilitated through external nudges, the book says. Of course, manipulators also have the same tools at their disposal. This is why it's important to control our emotions. The book says communicators of aggression and temptation are aware that sex, internet and drugs have just the same impact. The goal is to produce dopamine. In this context, betrayal is also a very powerful emotion, while peace is meaningless to those who have not known war. Therefore, 'betrayals' and 'victories' are easily controlled by the toggle switch of communications. Politicians know this very well, and now have sophisticated tools to manipulate people more efficiently. So, what should we do? Filter emotionally charged news and conspiracy theories, actively search for positive information, don't look at the world through the lens of 'betrayals' and 'victories', and don't get tired of fighting for real values: tough but doable. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New alliance could be 'transformational' for women's sport
A new alliance of world-leading sports scientists could be "transformational" for women's sport, according to one of Britain's most successful Paralympians Emma Wiggs. The Global Alliance for Female Athletes (GAFA) will see leading representatives from Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand join forces to share best practice resources and make their research freely available all in one place. The aim is to educate and empower female athletes, and address the gender gap that exists in sports science research, something three-times Paralympic champion Wiggs believes has held women back. "When I stared my career everything that was being prescribed to us as female athletes was based off male research," says the 44-year-old. "This alliance will be transformational. It'll be a real turning point for female athletes across the globe to have a trusted, relevant resource to go to that isn't just something you see on social media." The initiative has been driven by Dr Richard Burden, female health and performance lead at the UK Sports Institute. "We just don't understand enough about many of the challenges that female athletes face," he said. "For example 'how does the menstrual cycle influence performance?' Because no one has a good grasp of that, there is no competitive advantage to protect. "That could change in the future [but right now] it's not really a conversation, which underlines just how far behind research into female athlete health is compared to male athletes. "The intent is to be able to provide for female athletes around the world who don't necessarily have access to the same sort of resources that athletes in the UK do. "We intend to breakdown economic barriers, language barriers and cater for different impairments. If we're successful we'll get engagement from all corners of the globe." To help close the gap, future research projects will be carried out collaboratively rather than in silos. Dr Rachel Harris from the Australian Institute of Sport believes the alliance will lead to even greater results on the world stage: "The gap in knowledge, coupled with wide-spread misinformation, means athletes often miss the early warning signs and go undiagnosed or are inadequately treated for conditions like endometriosis," she said. "Athletes are then forced to miss training days which reduces their chances of making competition or in some cases sees them leave the sport altogether. Our goal is to change this."
BBC News
07-03-2025
- Health
- BBC News
New alliance could be 'transformational' for women's sport
A new alliance of world-leading sports scientists could be "transformational" for women's sport, according to one of Britain's most successful Paralympians Emma Global Alliance for Female Athletes (GAFA) will see leading representatives from Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand join forces to share best practice resources and make their research freely available all in one aim is to educate and empower female athletes, and address the gender gap that exists in sports science research, something three-times Paralympic champion Wiggs believes has held women back."When I stared my career everything that was being prescribed to us as female athletes was based off male research," says the 44-year-old. "This alliance will be transformational. It'll be a real turning point for female athletes across the globe to have a trusted, relevant resource to go to that isn't just something you see on social media."The initiative has been driven by Dr Richard Burden, female health and performance lead at the UK Sports Institute. "We just don't understand enough about many of the challenges that female athletes face," he said."For example 'how does the menstrual cycle influence performance?' Because no one has a good grasp of that, there is no competitive advantage to protect."That could change in the future [but right now] it's not really a conversation, which underlines just how far behind research into female athlete health is compared to male athletes."The intent is to be able to provide for female athletes around the world who don't necessarily have access to the same sort of resources that athletes in the UK do. "We intend to breakdown economic barriers, language barriers and cater for different impairments. If we're successful we'll get engagement from all corners of the globe."To help close the gap, future research projects will be carried out collaboratively rather than in Rachel Harris from the Australian Institute of Sport believes the alliance will lead to even greater results on the world stage:"The gap in knowledge, coupled with wide-spread misinformation, means athletes often miss the early warning signs and go undiagnosed or are inadequately treated for conditions like endometriosis," she said."Athletes are then forced to miss training days which reduces their chances of making competition or in some cases sees them leave the sport altogether. Our goal is to change this."
