THE ROTARY CLUB
OF BANGKOK SOUTH
SOUTH WIND
Charter Granted 7 August 1961
President : Mike Doyle • Immediate Past President : Michael Schulz • President Elect & Membership Director : Narain Suradejvibul • Vice President : Rakesh Sodhia • Vice
President : Jon Plate • Secretary : Chip Bowness • Treasurer : John Casella • Administration Director : Stuart Lucani • Communications Director : Ron Livingston
• Fundraising Director : Tim Cornwall • Rotary Foundation Director : Krin Charnmaytesakul • Service Projects Director : Douglas Riach • Sergeant at Arms : William Fantozzi
No. 2568
13th March 2015
Todays Topic:
“IF YOU GET LOST“
PP Nart Liuchareon
THE SECOND HALF
OF THE CHESSBOARD:
IAN FENWICK
By Frank Timmons
computer won Jeopardy just
as Deep Blue had previously
become the first computer to
defeat a human chess master.
Modern computer algorithms
exist to detect 21 separate human
sentiments from photographs,
including faked sentiments, and can
also be used to accurately detect lies.
Ian explained that, just as computing power
is doubling every 12 to 18 months, so is
Data. He introduced us to the technical term
for this phenomenon “a whole shitload of
data”.
Interestingly, wetware (i.e. humans like us)
today only represent 50% of Internet Data
On Friday afternoon 6 March RCBS was
privileged to have Dr. Ian Fenwick give his
presentation entitled “The Second Half of
the Chessboard”. This presentation was well
researched and brilliantly presented, and gave
all of us a unique insight into the coming
explosion of technology and the implications
for mankind.
Adjarn Ian (not to be confused with the Thai
word Ajian อาเจียน), opened with the story
about the inventor of the chessboard. When
he introduced the chessboard to the King,
the King was so impressed, that he offered
the inventor anything he might want. The
inventor only asked for enough rice to feed
his family, 1 grain of rice for the first square, 2
grains of rice for the second square, then 4, 8,
16, 32, etc. for each subsequent square. Each
week the King would pay the Inventor for
another square of rice. The King thought this
offer was very reasonable. However, as Dr. Ian
explained, a chessboard has 64 squares. The
amount of rice represented by the second half
of the chessboard is 4 billion times the amount
on the first half. Even prior to reaching the
32nd square, the amount of rice represented
by each square becomes huge.
This parable closely follows Moore’s Law,
which states that the amount of computing
power for a chip doubles every 12 to 18
facebook.com/RotaryBangkokSouth
months. In reality, each of us is living the
parable of the Chessboard, and we are
rapidly approaching the second half of the
chessboard.
Traffic. Bots and other hardware devices
generate much of current Internet traffic;
computer algorithms execute half of all
trades on Wall Street.
Dr. Ian shared many current examples of the
rapid evolution and expansion of technology,
data, algorithms, artificial intelligence, etc.
Facebook developed the DeepFace Facial
Recognition computer in 2013 which is
97.25% accurate, compared with humans
(a.k.a. “wetware” who can achieve 97.53%
facial recognition accuracy. The Watson
Dr. Ian concluded with a very insightful
observation “everything that we formerly
electrified, we will now cognify.”
@RotaryBkkSouth
Special thanks to Dr. Ian for enlightening us
and giving us a vision for the near future of
technology.
FLASH BACK DÉJÀ VU… IS IT YOU?
Rtn. Adrian with Rtn Steve Kraus and his son, Benjamin, from RC Waseca, USA
PP Philip exhibiting the results of his motorcycle riding skills with
his nurse-minder Khun Yik from Chulalongkorn Hospital
Rtn. Jean-Maire, PN Krin, PP Krit and Rtn. Elmar enjoying liquid fellowship
The Canadian mafia... Comm.Com Ron and PP Sean reviewing the options
PP Nick and Comm. Com Ron reliquishing their donations to Miss Cosmos and
Rtn. Wolf
P Mike puts PP Philip to the arduous task of picking a lucky winner
ANNUAL PAUL HARRIS FELLOWS
AND DONOR AWARDS DINNER
Our annual Paul Harris Fellows and Donors Awards Dinner was held at the Residence, Grand Hyatt Erawan on Thursday 12 February 2015 at
which we honored our Paul Harris Fellows, Luangsit Fellows, Water Sponsors and Library Fellows for 2014 / 2015.
Mercury Ville
540 Ploenchit Road
Chidlom/Langsuan Intersection
Ground Floor BTS: Chidlom
Open Daily 9am - 10pm
Tel. 02-658-6688
salads, wraps, sandwiches, paninis, pasta, soups, smoothies
Order delivery through:
#dressed_dressed
dressedthailand
Franchise Inquiries: [email protected]
Siam Paragon
991 Rama1 Road
Ground Floor (Opposite MK Gold)
BTS: Siam
Open Daily 10am - 10pm
Tel. 02-610-7714
Empire Tower
Second Floor
Sathorn / Narathiwas
Intersection
BTS: Chong Nonsi
Tel. 02-670-1898
Khun Khob’s Club Almanac # 2568
13 March 2015
Happy Birthdays:
Alastair Timblick PP Koichiro Ishihira Gerard Geraets PP Ole Madsen March 13
March 14
March 17
March 18
Wedding Anniversary Greetings:
Mark C. Wolf
March 14
Prasobsook Thawilvejjakul March 14
Prasob Snongjati
March 15
Gerard Geraets
March 16
Attendance for 6th March 2015: 64%
Present 47, Make-up 5, Absent 29, Exemption 31, Total 112
Invited Guests:
Benjamin Kraus
Jeff Guo
Ola Holmgren
Roy Howard
Introduced by:
P Mike Doyle
Adrian Topham
AG Andrew MacPherson
Chip Bowness
Recent Makeups:
RC Bangkapi, 3rd March 2015: PP Mark Butters, Patrick Gauvain,
Prasert Mangkornkarn
RC E-Club One, 6th March 2015: Thanakorn Telan
Makeups:
Membership, 5th March 2015: AG Andrew MacPherson,
PN Krin Charnmaytesakul, PE Narain Suradejvibul,
PP Ole Madsen, Rui Belo, PP Vichai Tantrativud
Visiting for 6th March 2015
From Abroad
Ismo Niiranen
RC Helsinki Vuosaari-Nordsjo, Finland
Steve Kraus
RC Waseca, MN, USA
Water Trip to The Beaumont Foundation School,
Chaiyaphum, 5th March 2015: : PP John Quarmby,
PP Mark Butters, P Mike Doyle.
CLUB CALENDAR
Friday, 17th April – Classification Interviews (TBC)
Sunday, 15th March 2015 – Fellowship Party at Adrian’s
Friday, 20th March 2015 – Gregers Moeller
“Opening a Nudist Resort“
Friday, 27th March 2015 – Dr Suvarn Valaisathien
“Inheritance Tax“
Thursday, 2nd April 2015 – Kids Out
Friday, 24th April 2015 – Scott Berry
“AIDS – The New Pandemic in Thailand and Asia“
Saturday, 25th – Sunday, 26th April 2015 –
District Conference in Jomthien (Ambassador Hotel)
Friday, 1st May 2015 – No meeting – Public Holiday (Labour Day)
Friday, 8th May 2015 – “Edwin Wiek – Wildlife Protection in
Thailand – a New Beginning?”
Friday, 3rd April 2015 – Classification Interviews – PP Narinder
Sachdev and PE Narain Suradejvibul “Do Each Other“
Friday, 15th May 2015 – “TBC“
Friday, 10th April 2015 – Jay Jhingran
“The Hangover Part 2 – Inside Story“
For more information about Bangkok South events contact:
rotarybangkoksouth.org/calendar-of-events
The Crowne Plaza Bangkok Lumpini Park Hotel, 952 Rama IV Road, Bangkok 10500 Thailand
[email protected] | 02632 9160 | www.rotarybangkoksouth.org
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