Author: admin

Little boys throwing tantrums

Two people, who are arguably the two most powerful individuals in the world were until recently bffs. Now they are currently squabbling and hurling insults at each other like little boys throwing tantrums in a schoolyard.

Interestingly, just yesterday in a news conference, one of these little boys, who happens to be the president of our country, aptly described the behavior of himself and his former friend (this is a direct quote):

“Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy. They hate each other, and they’re fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart. They don’t want to be pulled. Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.”

I had no idea the man had such a depth of self knowledge. Now isn’t that precious?

Poetic Justice

DOGE was supposed to reduce government inefficiency, aiming to save between 100 billion and $200 billion. That was the goal, anyway.

In fact, it ended up saving essentially nothing, and might end up costing us all money in the long run, while effectively dismantling the ability of many parts of our federal government to function. Collateral damage has included the unnecessary deaths of several hundred thousand children around the world (so far), after the United States government, which had pledged to help look after their health and well-being, suddenly pulled away that help without making any provisions for a backup plan.

But it turns out that there was indeed a reduction of between $100 billion and $200 billion. The reduction occurred in the personal wealth of Elon Musk, after his shenanigans caused TESLA stock to lose about 50% of its value.

So while our government has now been rendered incredibly screwed up and ineffectual, and we have managed to help contribute to suffering around the world, at least there has been some poetic justice.

So there’s that.

A house without walls

I was having a dinner conversation with some friends this evening, and the topic came around to magic mushrooms, and similar “spiritual drugs” that people use to expand their consciousness. We agreed that trying such things was a bad idea.

I understand the intention. If only we could lift the barriers that prevent our minds from seeing deeper truths, perhaps we might have greater insight into the Universe and into ourselves.

But as I told my friends, those doors that separate one part of our minds from another are there for a reason.

To put it another way, living in a house with no walls would not be an experience of liberation. It would be an experience of not having a home.

One pixel over

Yesterday I was putting up curtains at home. If you’ve ever done that, you know that the key is accuracy.

You need to take your time with measuring tape and a level, marking everything carefully on your wall before drilling the first hole. And then, just to make sure, it’s a good idea to check your work after every step.

I prefer to use a metric measuring tape. It’s simply easier for me to take and remember exact measurements in millimeters, rather than trying to work with eighths or sixteenths of an inch.

There was one moment when I was using my metric measuring tape, and I realized that something was slightly off. And I found myself saying to myself “just one pixel over.”

Hearing that thought in my head, I realized that I was working through this as a problem in computer graphics. Only in this case, the pixels happened to be in the physical world.

A measure of grace

Today is the 70th anniversary of the landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, in the wake of its Brown v. Board of Education ruling, to order district courts and school districts to enforce educational desegregation “at all deliberate speed.” That was one of the high points in our nation’s checkered history.

When we look for positive things to say about America, that event is surely near the top of the list. It was a day when our nation showed itself to be capable of kindness, caring, and able to rise above prejudice.

How different from the order of the day today. If our glorious experiment in democracy is indeed destroyed in the next few years, as seems increasingly likely, at least we will be able to point proudly to a moment in time when our nation achieved a measure of grace.

House

A computer software system is like a house. You need to keep it in good repair.

From time to time, surfaces should be dusted and polished, and you have to put stuff away after you use it. You’d better know the difference between the kitchen room and the garage, and you need to remember to take out the trash.

If you don’t keep your software project in good shape, eventually stuff starts piling up in the corners, and you find yourself stepping over things without quite remembering what they are. Eventually, you might find it easier to just move out.

But with a little bit of tidying up and software maintenance, it never needs to come to that.

Intimations of immortality

There are many interesting questions around the (still theoretical) concept of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). To me, one of those questions concerns what happens after you die.

Suppose, using some future technology, we were able to create a replica of some individual human’s mind that passed every possible test for sentience. Then the person in question dies.

From a legal and philosophical perspective, are they still alive? Does the A.I. retain any of the rights of the biological original?

For example, do they have the right not to be switched off or erased? Do they have the right not to be replicated?

And then will people be granted an inherent right, under the law, to have an A.I. back-up made of their mind? Or will that become a service you need to pay for — so that it might be available only to the wealthy and privileged?

Suppose it does turn out that a post-life A.I. can attain legal personhood. Does that mean we will have entered the age of human immortality?