There is no right thing to say to the survivors of a loved one killed in military circumstances. It is a set of circumstances that have no logical foundation. It is a place arrived at through a series of forced choices. Yet we have a POTUS who is a true child of the television culture, but who cannot come up with appropriately unoriginal things to say. If he watches a lot of television, doesn't he see the police procedurals where the protagonists say "sorry for your loss" and go on to the next agenda item. Why does he think originality and spontaneity are needed? The word, "condolences" is not the word poorly used, but the class of utterances that are offered as condolences are, in too many cases, poorly used. The KISS principle applies -- Keep it simple, stupid!
-- Kilgore Forelle
Monday, October 23, 2017
Uniquity IV
Nobody asked but ...
The biggest obstacle for general artificial intelligence (GAI), where machines can actually learn from external stimulus, is that humanity is networked imperfectly but is unique in each of its nodes. Humanity is a giant, fallible information system. It is difficult to see something like this because of its scale. I first became struck with the idea at the Knoxville World's Fair in the 1970s. The most popular exhibit was that of China. I don't remember where we stood with regard to Nixon's overtures to this vast Asian culture, but to my generation the network in that part of the world had been no man's land since FDR had handed China to Mao. Suffice it to say that the China exhibit in Knoxville was ripe with the shock of the new to us Americans. The thing that struck me most of all was the exquisite attention to detail (a skill that most Westerners had underdeveloped because of the demand for speed in productivity). At the time the population of China was said to be above 800 million, whereas we Yanks were still between 100 and 200 million. The oriental attention to detail was possible because there were so many more Chinese engaged in so many facets of productivity. The specific objects which fascinated me were paintings on the inside of small bottles. Somewhere among 800 million possibilities, someone would come up with the idea of painting on the inside of a bottle. Then the idea spread in some degree among the nodes of a relatively isolated network. The same calculus applies to Chinese acrobats, if you have ever seen them. With such vast numbers of possibilities the chances of there being people who could concentrate enough to become great acrobats was exponential. Creators of GAI are small in number, so the question is whether there will be enough innovation, networked in an auspicious way, to produce GAI. While this is a problem with quanta, the nature of the predicted result must depend on qualia from the possibilities of billions of unique units. I have tried in this series to interest you in the vast uniquity, every unit is unique. GAI is predicated on the idea of a vast sameness.
-- Kilgore Forelle
The biggest obstacle for general artificial intelligence (GAI), where machines can actually learn from external stimulus, is that humanity is networked imperfectly but is unique in each of its nodes. Humanity is a giant, fallible information system. It is difficult to see something like this because of its scale. I first became struck with the idea at the Knoxville World's Fair in the 1970s. The most popular exhibit was that of China. I don't remember where we stood with regard to Nixon's overtures to this vast Asian culture, but to my generation the network in that part of the world had been no man's land since FDR had handed China to Mao. Suffice it to say that the China exhibit in Knoxville was ripe with the shock of the new to us Americans. The thing that struck me most of all was the exquisite attention to detail (a skill that most Westerners had underdeveloped because of the demand for speed in productivity). At the time the population of China was said to be above 800 million, whereas we Yanks were still between 100 and 200 million. The oriental attention to detail was possible because there were so many more Chinese engaged in so many facets of productivity. The specific objects which fascinated me were paintings on the inside of small bottles. Somewhere among 800 million possibilities, someone would come up with the idea of painting on the inside of a bottle. Then the idea spread in some degree among the nodes of a relatively isolated network. The same calculus applies to Chinese acrobats, if you have ever seen them. With such vast numbers of possibilities the chances of there being people who could concentrate enough to become great acrobats was exponential. Creators of GAI are small in number, so the question is whether there will be enough innovation, networked in an auspicious way, to produce GAI. While this is a problem with quanta, the nature of the predicted result must depend on qualia from the possibilities of billions of unique units. I have tried in this series to interest you in the vast uniquity, every unit is unique. GAI is predicated on the idea of a vast sameness.
-- Kilgore Forelle
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
J. S. Mill's Methods I
Nobody asked but ...
From Dictionary of Philosophy
From Dictionary of Philosophy
Mill's methods: Inductive methods formulated by John Stuart Mill for the discovery of causal relations between phenomena.
Method of Agreement: If two or more instances of the phenomenon under investigation have only one circumstance in common, the circumstance in which alone all the instances agree, is the cause (or effect) of the given phenomenon.
-- A. Cornelius Benjamin-- Kilgore Forelle
Yalta Bibliography III
Nobody asked but ...
I also have written about Yalta, along with my alter ego, Verbal Vol, in previous posts to EVC. Here are the links:
I also have written about Yalta, along with my alter ego, Verbal Vol, in previous posts to EVC. Here are the links:
- http://everything-voluntary.com/biological-warfare-consequences-amazing-familiarity
- http://everything-voluntary.com/where-in-the-world-is-the-ukraine
- http://everything-voluntary.com/top-winnie-around-town-the-ring
- http://everything-voluntary.com/more-winnies-more-history-defining-religion
- http://everything-voluntary.com/the-winnies-the-euro-town-and-country
- http://everything-voluntary.com/roads-natural-statism-the-singularity
-- Kilgore Forelle
Saturday, October 14, 2017
Process Eats Product
Nobody asked but ...
There is no music that is free of the instrument. Interface dictates product. Consider this quote, "An elective despotism is not the government we fought for" from James Madison. Doesn't the current POTUS personify this misallocation of human resources? Didn't re-election become Job One as the votes were being counted in November 2016?
-- Kilgore Forelle
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Cincinnati II
As a matter of general principle, I believe there can be no doubt that criticism in time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government … too many people desire to suppress criticism simply because they think that it will give some comfort to the enemy to know that there is such criticism. If that comfort makes the enemy feel better for a few moments, they are welcome to it as far as I am concerned, because the maintenance of the right of criticism in the long run will do the country maintaining it a great deal more good than it will do the enemy, and will prevent mistakes which might otherwise occur.
— Robert Taft
— Kilgore Forelle
Cincinnati
Nobody asked but ...
It has been a long time, but as usual I enjoyed Cincinnati tremendously. Cincinnati was one of my influences in my youth. It was the largest city within reach of my Kentucky home, and it, along with Boston, was among my two favorite European-style American cities. When I graduated from college, I began my professional career in the Queen City. This, the home of the Tafts, is where I learned standing on my own, responsibility, freedom, individualism, voluntaryism, and choice. Cincinnati is a great town for these qualities. I follow with a Chōku (a Japanese verse form that starts wit a Haiku, but continues with an indeterminate number of pairs of 7-syllable lines) dedicated to Cincinnati:
It has been a long time, but as usual I enjoyed Cincinnati tremendously. Cincinnati was one of my influences in my youth. It was the largest city within reach of my Kentucky home, and it, along with Boston, was among my two favorite European-style American cities. When I graduated from college, I began my professional career in the Queen City. This, the home of the Tafts, is where I learned standing on my own, responsibility, freedom, individualism, voluntaryism, and choice. Cincinnati is a great town for these qualities. I follow with a Chōku (a Japanese verse form that starts wit a Haiku, but continues with an indeterminate number of pairs of 7-syllable lines) dedicated to Cincinnati:
Cincinnati pig-- Kilgore Forelle
Porkopolis, Ohio
Eden Park, the Reds
Krohn Conservatory, the
heights of Mt. Adams, Skyline,
the buildings and the Chili
Union Station, Music Hall
Salmon P. Chase, William Taft
Zoo, Botanical Gardens
Moerlein India Pale
The seven hills, named for Rome,
I studied spontaneous
organization UC,
United Dairy Farmers
The Newport Aquarium
Architecture Cinci-style
Residence Inn, Lytle Park.
Saturday, October 7, 2017
Words Poorly Used #108 -- Information
It's just a system. It is independent of ideas of right and wrong. Data goes in and it gets transformed in the process that awaits it. The output is a direct result of the process. The process can be tinkered with to produce relatively true or false information. The output is just in formation -- in a formal structure. That formal structure, presentation, sometimes fools its patrons -- if it looks orderly (and truth should be orderly) then it must be true. Watch out for data dressed formally.
-- Kilgore Forelle
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
I Need To Concentrate ...
(To the tune of "You're All I Think About These Days," sung by Patty Loveless, written by Gary Scott Burr)
I try to think about Freedom
Owning
Self-posession through the day
I try to think about indiv-
idu-
ality built in the clay
I try to think about ideals
And real deals
Anything to get me through
I need to concentrate
Free will, I think about these days
I try to contemplate the cosmos
Mottoes
Self-possession through the night
I try to rely on my brain
All reigns
Finally going out of sight
I try to avoid the headlines
News whines
Every time I think I might
I need to concentrate
Honesty, I think about these days
My mind wanders where I will
When it sets on what to do
I well know what I should say
I well know what I should do
I try to think about Rothbard
Life's hard
Tardigrades, Robert Heinlein
I try to think about don't-do's
Real news
Quotations and well-wrought lines
I try to think about podcasts
The past
But I guess I should have known
I need to concentrate
Voluntarily I think these days
Voluntarily I think these days
I try to think about Freedom
Owning
Self-posession through the day
I try to think about indiv-
idu-
ality built in the clay
I try to think about ideals
And real deals
Anything to get me through
I need to concentrate
Free will, I think about these days
I try to contemplate the cosmos
Mottoes
Self-possession through the night
I try to rely on my brain
All reigns
Finally going out of sight
I try to avoid the headlines
News whines
Every time I think I might
I need to concentrate
Honesty, I think about these days
My mind wanders where I will
When it sets on what to do
I well know what I should say
I well know what I should do
I try to think about Rothbard
Life's hard
Tardigrades, Robert Heinlein
I try to think about don't-do's
Real news
Quotations and well-wrought lines
I try to think about podcasts
The past
But I guess I should have known
I need to concentrate
Voluntarily I think these days
Voluntarily I think these days
Murder
Nobody asked but ...
Are we in an echo chamber? Certain sounds are coming back. Sounds like, "We must control guns because guns kill," are everywhere. How effective have been all such prior cries? And yet a madman smuggles 2 dozen firearms into a perfect vantage point to kill 58 people (and counting). High vantage points are associated with projectile deaths -- let's outlaw all structures over the average human height -- tall structures kill. Below, from an article based on Center for Disease Control statistics, "5 things cause two-thirds of U. S. deaths:"
-- Kilgore Forelle
Are we in an echo chamber? Certain sounds are coming back. Sounds like, "We must control guns because guns kill," are everywhere. How effective have been all such prior cries? And yet a madman smuggles 2 dozen firearms into a perfect vantage point to kill 58 people (and counting). High vantage points are associated with projectile deaths -- let's outlaw all structures over the average human height -- tall structures kill. Below, from an article based on Center for Disease Control statistics, "5 things cause two-thirds of U. S. deaths:"
Five things kill more people in the United States than anything else: heart disease, cancer, lung disease such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis, stroke and unintentional injuries such as those on roads or caused by medication overdoses. {emphasis added}Wow! Neither firearms nor illegal drugs are on that list! Why don't we find something that is associated with heart disease and outlaw it. Obesity comes to mind. Why don't we find something that is associated with unintentional injuries, like automobiles, and ban them. Let's outlaw death, let's outlaw guns! But wait, isn't murder already against the law?
-- Kilgore Forelle
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Yalta Bibliography II
Seven Fateful Moments When Great Men Met to Change the World, By Charles L. Mee Jr.
Yalta Bibliography I
Nobody asked but ...
The Yalta Conference of 1945 has been shrouded by inattention from mainstream historians. As I find writings on this neglected but critical point in history, I will share the references here in this Blog.
THE GHOSTS OF YALTA STILL HAUNT THE WORLD,
The Yalta Conference of 1945 has been shrouded by inattention from mainstream historians. As I find writings on this neglected but critical point in history, I will share the references here in this Blog.
Seventy years ago, during the week of February 4-11, 1945, the most momentous conference of the Second World War was held at Yalta in the Crimea between Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. Their decisions have affected much of the world ever since.
-- Richard M. Ebeling
THE GHOSTS OF YALTA STILL HAUNT THE WORLD,
The Future of Freedom Foundation, web site, February 4, 2015
-- Kilgore Forelle
The Yalta Fault Line
Nobody asked but ...
Is it a coincidence that one of the most seismic occasions in human cultural history occurred at a place that is characterized by catastrophic geological phenomena. The Black Sea is a stunning medley of tectonic effects, happening over geologic time scale epochs. But the outcomes of the Yalta Conference in 1945 have reverberated throughout the latter half of the 20th Century and the first part of the new millennium. It should be enough to say that the Cold War emanated from Yalta. The history books are nearly silent about this conference in the Crimea, but the mid-century rise of both Stalinism and Maoism can be traced directly to deals made at Yalta. Humanity will continue to feel the ripples throughout their entire future.
-- Kilgore Forelle
Is it a coincidence that one of the most seismic occasions in human cultural history occurred at a place that is characterized by catastrophic geological phenomena. The Black Sea is a stunning medley of tectonic effects, happening over geologic time scale epochs. But the outcomes of the Yalta Conference in 1945 have reverberated throughout the latter half of the 20th Century and the first part of the new millennium. It should be enough to say that the Cold War emanated from Yalta. The history books are nearly silent about this conference in the Crimea, but the mid-century rise of both Stalinism and Maoism can be traced directly to deals made at Yalta. Humanity will continue to feel the ripples throughout their entire future.
-- Kilgore Forelle
Monday, October 2, 2017
Catalunya
Nobody asked but ...
Catalunya! How dare such a region express its independence!
-- Kilgore Forelle
Catalunya! How dare such a region express its independence!
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| https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/4D89/production/_98094891_8ec64a5a-ec35-46d9-a7ea-50daa7b60b1c.jpg |
-- Kilgore Forelle
The Golden Rule
Nobody asked but ...
I don't get it. Isn't the Golden Rule simple and straightforward enough? I heard a young girl in the Ophthalmologist's waiting room this morning, "Why can't people just treat each other as they would like to be treated?" There's the confusion -- why do people suspend the Golden Rule? Why do they take killing implements, with malice of forethought, to a high floor of a hotel overlooking an open air concert, to shoot more than a quarter of a thousand people? Too soon? Then, when is it a good time to address why the Golden Rule is observed too often in its breach. Children and thoughtful adults want to know. Gun control is not the answer -- guns do not observe the Golden Rule to the good or the bad. It is people who forget the Golden Rule.
-- Kilgore Forelle
I don't get it. Isn't the Golden Rule simple and straightforward enough? I heard a young girl in the Ophthalmologist's waiting room this morning, "Why can't people just treat each other as they would like to be treated?" There's the confusion -- why do people suspend the Golden Rule? Why do they take killing implements, with malice of forethought, to a high floor of a hotel overlooking an open air concert, to shoot more than a quarter of a thousand people? Too soon? Then, when is it a good time to address why the Golden Rule is observed too often in its breach. Children and thoughtful adults want to know. Gun control is not the answer -- guns do not observe the Golden Rule to the good or the bad. It is people who forget the Golden Rule.
-- Kilgore Forelle
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