Take me to your leader

Interesting Mysterious Universe released today which weirdly involved something I’ve been reading and thinking about lately…artificial intelligence.

It seems that a leading AI researcher has predicted that the event known as the singularity will happen around the year 2045. For those not in the know, the singularity is the point when computers will become self aware. I’m actually surprised that it will take this long to reach that point as technology advances exponentially.

Just this last week Watson, the IBM computer, played Jeopardy against the two best human players to ever play the game and beat them. The technology behind Watson is amazing. Sure, humans built and programmed Watson, but without human tampering Watson “listened” to the questions, “comprehended” them, analyzed them and then answered them. Here is a very cool story about Watson: http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/17/ibm-researcher-explains-what-watson-gets-right-and-wrong/

It’s all very fascinating and a little scary. Now, I’m not too worried about robots rising up and taking over, but I do worry about them further pushing humans from many menial labor jobs. Fast food service, customer service, sales…I would think that more and more of these jobs and others are bound to disappear. With a population that is continually growing this has the makings of a perfect storm.

But I guess we’ve been dealing with a human labor versus technology clash for a long time. The Internet has changed the way people shop and have succeeded in all but burying traditional brick and mortar retail venues. Video rental stores, book stores and music stores have been replaced with Netflix, Amazon and iTunes. And that’s not all, newspapers are dying, the yellow pages are dead, maps are being replaced with GPS, magazines are going bye-bye, television is slowly but surely losing ground to steaming media and traditional radio is not going to be around for much longer with things like Pandora.

Sure, new opportunities arise but I doubt that they’ll ever generate the labor numbers needed. I guess that is what technology is supposed to do though, make things easier and cheaper by eliminating manual labor. When all labor is eliminated will we all live lives of luxury and leisure or will it just exacerbate the difference between the haves and have-nots?

Well, whatever the outcome, I for one am going to welcome our new robot masters.

Link: Technology has been used in this story to catch a cat burglar…who is a cat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDX7tevXO1E&feature=player_embedded

Conservatives, you're fired!

“Here’s how wide open the 2012 race for the Republican presidential nomination is as the games begin: When Donald Trump showed up Thursday as a last-minute speaker at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, he got a standing ovation.” McClatchyhttp://www.sacbee.com/2011/02/11/3394118/conservative-crowd-sizes-up-candidates.html

What? Was there someone with even nominal political acumen standing behind him? Maybe Rand or Ron Paul? Bobby Jindal? Huckabee? Jeb Bush?

Maybe the report got it wrong. What they meant to write was: “When Donald Trump showed up, attendees scratched their heads and looked at one another in confusion.”

That would make much more sense. If it is in fact written correctly…I mean, come on conservatives, chronically bankrupt, shill for anything, reality television, multiple divorcee…that Donald Trump.

First Palin and now this, can you guys actually distinguish the difference between leaders and entertainers?

the horror and the beauty of 4chan

I’ve been surfing the dread 4chan.org, one of the most notorious Web sites on these here intertubes. The rumors are true; it is the foulest, most disgusting, misogynistic, racist, homophobic and downright vile collection of posts to ever be collected. From child and furry pr0n to crime scene photos and other violent imagery, it’s there.

Interested in destroying your ex-girlfriends life, just ask the users of 4chan to bring down her facebook page and order her 1,000 large pizzas. It’ll happen.

Want to drive your neighbor insane, post his address and phone number on 4chan and he’ll soon be the victim of hundreds of prank calls, vandalism and who knows what else.

For 4chan isn’t just a small time thug. It looks like it has played heavily in several big criminal cases: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/internet/another-4chan-user-gets-busted-fbi

Still, 4chan is not without its humanity, and even dare I say…beauty. I don’t mean someone dumping their fap folder out of the goodness of their heart. (Definition: posting the pictures and stories stored on their computer that they use for masturbation to the Web site so that others can also masturbate to them.)

I’ve witnessed depressed teens actually get real, decent advice. I’ve seen amateur artists share fantastic work and receive great praise. I’ve followed along as teams of users work together to solve a difficult puzzle. I have waited anxiously with other users as an amateur writer has spun a tale of suspense.

It’s odd, but even in a place as evil as 4chan people seem to find solace. Anonymous posters feel free to share their passions, their disappointments and their very touching stories. They invite other users into their lives to share their tragedy and their triumph, something no doubt they would never do face to face.

In an odd way 4chan is the worst of the Internet but also shares some of the Internet’s most redeeming qualities.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I would never suggest anyone visit 4chan; it is an awful place and the small points of light to be found must be mined from piles of putrid human detritus. But, in a weird way, maybe that’s part of 4chan’s “charm.” When you visit, you never know what to expect and you’re always bound to be shocked, in other words, every visit is a horrifying adventure.

fanatically interested in religion

A new study says that Atheists and Agnostics know more about religion than do religious people. Now, the study doesn’t say that the godless know more about, say Christianity than Christians, but about religion in general. It’s hypothesized that the reason for this is that most Agnostics and Atheists were religious at one time and that their choice to become nonbelievers was one they really studied and thought hard about, this includes studying what others believe.

I know my own godlessness came only after a thorough review of many religious beliefs, including those of Catholicism and Protestantism, the two religions in which I was raised. If I can toot my own horn and that of other Agnostics and Atheists, this seems both an intelligent and thoughtful way to look at the issue. After all, this is a choice which many consider to be of soul-saving importance.

This is exactly what bothers me about the conclusion of this study. It leads me to believe that religious people studied no other religions before they decided to adopt their one true faith. More than likely their parents indoctrinated them at a young age and they just continued on believing. This seems a bit odd when it comes to, like I said, a decision of soul-saving importance.

The study also shows that many don’t know some of the basic tenets of their own faith. Again, it doesn’t say that Jews know more about Islam than Muslims, but that Muslims may not know all that much about Islam. This doesn’t particularly surprise me in that many of the most fanatically religious seem to only know and really stick to certain tenets of their religion. For example, for some Catholics of a certain ilk it’s not important to know every one of the 10 Commandments but they’ll memorize every single psalm, stanza or verse in the bible that damns homosexuality (and they will endlessly spew them out whenever they get the chance.) Whoops, sorry about that. Assholes have been getting on my nerves during this election season.

Veering away from the results of this interesting study to my own personal babblings, I think it takes some balls to be fanatically religious. Why? Well in the first place, there isn’t a lot of fact/proof to back up religious beliefs. When questioned about their religion, the intelligent religious will say that it’s all a matter of faith and leave it at that because there is no 2+2=4 in religion. To argue anything else reminds me of the arguments of those with deep beliefs in most conspiracy theories when they are called on to defend themselves. For example, I would expect the same reasoning from someone defending their fanatical belief in UFO’s as I would from a fanatical Mormon practitioner.

The second reason I think it takes balls to be fanatically religious is the constant contradictions that they have to live with. For example, in the King James Bible, there are the straight forward crazy things like rules for stoning women who aren’t virgins on their wedding night (Deuteronomy 22: 13-21) contrasted with the commandment “Thou Shall Not Murder.” Come on, can I kill her or not? What about my neighbor who mows his lawn on the Sabbath? Can I punish him for not keeping it holy or will god do it later?

Then there are the contradictions the religious must deal with that aren’t so black and white. Can someone who follows the teachings of the bible support wars where people will be killed in their name? Can they vote for a politician who supports said war? Can they live in a country where their tax dollars go to buy bullets that will be used to kill others?

No doubt these are tough questions they must think about, and these are only some of the most obvious contradictions from only one religion.

Even as a godless heathen I find the topic of religion fascinating, and with examining this little slice of it even more so. I think a little more study is in order.

Love your Geek

Geek Love: A Novel
By Katherine Dunn

What do you do if you run a freak show and you start running out offreaks? Well, if you're Lil and Art, you impregnate Lil and then have her eat, drink and smoke everything pregnant ladies shouldn't get within 10 feet of. Sure, you'll end up with a few mistakes, or miscarriages as some people like to call them, but there will also be a few successes. Lil and Art get lucky a few times and have a boy with flippers where his arms and legs should be, an albino dwarf daughter with a hunchback and a pair of Siamese twins who share a pair of legs.

Sounds pleasant, no?

Yeah, Geek Love: A Novel is pretty crazy. It's not so much a horror novel but it has many of the genre's characteristics. There are malformed human sociopaths, murders, dismemberment, maggots, cults and sex. On top of this, the whole thing has that greasy feeling, like how your hair feels after you don't wash it for a few days.

The book follows the Now-and-Then story style in that it's the story of an Albino Dwarf Hunchback during two phases of her life. The first phase encompasses her youth, as her and the rest of the family freak show travel around the United States enchanting locals with their, well, freakishness. Things are great until Lil and Art have another child, a boy who seems to have no deformities but is telekinetic. While this might seem to present a whole slew of opportunities, it instead heralds massive family turmoil. Artie the flippered Aqua-Boy begins a cult, the Siamese twin sisters begin experimenting with sex and somewhere along the line a half-dead horse has its legs surgically removed but still manages to run around the circus.

Yeah, it's unpleasant stuff and can only end badly and it does.

The second phase of the story follows the Albino Dwarf Hunchback in her later years. She works in radio, secretly stalks the daughter she had with her Aqua-Boy brother and becomes friends with a woman who pays beautiful women to permanently disfigure themselves.

Again, this can't end well and it doesn't.

So many bad endings...see it's a bit like a horror novel. Anywho, Dunn's writing is strong and the characters are interesting. There are two plot lines, the first (the Then part) is a bit stronger but the second (the Now part) isn't bad but seems like it was tacked on. It could easily have been its own short story.

The problem I had with Geek Love was that I had to suspend my disbelief a bit too much for my liking. Sure I can go along with things like crazy hillbilly cannibals and heroes who forget to bring maps when they enter the Soul Sucking Forest of the Dark Lords in a horror or action novel but in a more realistic, sort of dramatic novel (that was actually a finalist for the National Book Awards) I demand a bit more. For example, who is going to join a cult where the ultimate goal of membership is to have all your limbs amputated so all that is left is a torso? It might be me, but I just don't see that many people lining up for that kind of elective surgery.

In all, Geek Love did keep me reading. I was anxious to see what crazy thing would happen next and Dunn doesn't disappoint. The crazy train just keeps chugging along!

There, but not there

There’s a newish theory out there that some, if not all paranormal entities (aliens, Sasquatch, Loch Ness Monster, ghosts) are actually creatures from other dimensions. These creatures are said to occasionally fall into, peek into or visit our dimension on purpose or by accident.

I find this theory very intriguing. It explains all the weird things people see and why there is never any solid evidence of these paranormal entities found.

See, on the one hand I believe that too many people have seen too many weird things to discount them all. The Mothman, dragons, Spring Heeled Jack, the Houston Batman, the alien dirigibles of the 1800’s, UFO’s, Loch Ness, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, demons and on and on and on have been reported for years. Sure some people are just making up stories for attention, but all of them? No way, I just don’t see the numbers adding up for everyone lying or seeing something that isn’t there.

On the other hand, I’m also someone who needs more proof than a badly edited video or a blurry photo. I want Sasquatch bones or an alien skull.

If these creatures are from another dimension I’m clear on both fronts. I can believe that people are having strange encounters with otherworldly beings but that these creatures are non-corporeal and don’t stay long enough in our world to leave their mark.

Fear and Mosques at Ground Zero

Everybody is up in arms about the plans for building an Islamic mosque/Muslim Activity Center at New York’s Ground Zero.

In a way I can understand the opposition; I mean the evil bastards who flew planes into the World Trade Center towers believed they were honoring the precepts of Islam.
Islam + Mosque at the Site Where Radical Muslims Slaughtered Thousands of Americans = Anger.

I would think Anger is a pretty normal reaction in situations like this. For example, I don’t imagine that Muslims and Jews were too happy when Christian crusaders sacked Jerusalem and started building churches everywhere.

On the other hand, what could be more in the spirit of American acceptance and tolerance than a mosque at Ground Zero? Wouldn’t it show that we’re open minded and don’t damn the majority for the actions of a few? That we, as Americans, truly accept our tolerant Muslim brothers and sisters?

But, we don’t. Click the link above and you’ll see that 62 percent of New Yorkers oppose the mosque plans. The public won’t say it, but many Americans fear and mistrust Muslims they don’t personally know. Again, while I don’t condone these thoughts, I understand where they come from.

At the moment, Islam is not coming off as a bright shining bastion of all that is “good” in the world. I’d argue that few religions do, but Islam is doing a particularly horrible job of it right now, a bit like Catholicism during the age of the Inquisition.

Sure the deck is stacked against it, and much of the deck has been stacked by us (unending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, dependence on oil, refusal to believe that Israel can do anything wrong). But even if Americans ignore everything that is happening in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, we can’t ignore the Muslim father in Arizona who ran over his daughter because she was too westernized, that many mosques in the United States are still intolerant of women or that MF’er who killed US soldiers in FT. Hood. Why? Because it’s happening right here on American soil, right here in front of our big-fat American faces.

I’m well aware that violence and intolerance run rampant throughout all religions but we seldom get it here on camera and on home soil. All this plus knowing that Muslims committed the worst attack on American soil ever is just too much for some folks.

Now a group of Muslims want to build a mosque/activity center on Ground Zero….of course people are going to be pissed off. They don’t like or trust Muslims for all of the above reasons.

But is building a mosque on sacred ground a good idea? Yes, it would symbolize all that is good and right about America.

Should the mosque be built? No, of course not. Many people will view it as another Islamic kick in the American crotch. It’s poking at a hornets’ nest. It’s bad PR, really bad PR and it’s going to cause some Americans to dislike Muslims even more.

Whomever is heading these plans is doing a real disservice to kind and decent Muslims in America.