In this day and age, I am not shocked or concerned that Robert Kennedy Jr would pull over to the side of the road, with his kids in the car, to cut out the penis of a road kill raccoon, to take it home to study.   

The thing that I find shocking is that he has kids.  Who the hell would want to have sex with a man with a brain worm who has an obsession with animal penis? 

 

At least the raccoon's penis was small enough to take in the car.  The whale's penis had to be tied to the top of his car.

This is who Trump picked to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Why not?

the Ol'Buzzard

 

  

LOOKING FOR INTELLIGENT LIFE

 

 

I am in my late eighties.  I have lived for almost a century, and at this time of life, I tend to look back rather than forward.  The thing that stands out the most to me is the stupidity of a human race that considers itself intelligent.

 

About six thousand years ago, the great apes and humans had a common ancestor.    We are basically advanced apes.

 

We have evolved a brain capable of functional intelligence. A majority of humans are capable of training to perform a task and functioning in a loose society.   We have not invented flight, mass transit, and electronic technology; a tiny, small percentage of us have the advanced intelligence of thought experiments, and have dragged the rest of us, kicking and screaming, into the future we now live in.

 

Our future should look exciting; but we are the only animals, except for chimpanzees, our closest cousin in the animal kingdom, that regularly conduct wars and genocide against their own kind.  That propensity will be our own destruction. 

 

Our greatest fear should not be AI or asteroids.  The inevitability of a theology with a nuclear weapon will be more likely to bring about the sixth extinction. 

It wasn’t enough in Jonestown for true believers to drink the Kool-Aid; they had to bring along all the others with them.

 

Religion is a frightening force, impervious to, and immunized against, mere reasoning. 

Thoughts of an old man in the wee hours of the morning

the Ol’Buzzard

ARTEMIS II

 

From out there on the moon, international politics looks so petty, you want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say

"Look at that, you son of a bitch."

Edgar D Mitchell

Apollo 14 astronaut

the Ol'Buzzard

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

 

At a time when people seem to be getting dumber and dumber, Artificial Intelligence is needed more and more. 

Let me clarify that statement:

We tend to laud our achievements: that we have developed technology and modern medicine, and we have sent men into space; but 98% of us have done fuck all.  Two percent of our population (the bright 2%)  have envisioned and actually made these advancements, while the rest of us have been dragged along, often kicking and screaming. 

For the last two or three years, I have been hearing about AI (artificial intelligence), but only vaguely understanding what all the hype was about. 

I just finished reading The Age of AI, by Kissinger, Schmidt, and Huttenlocher, and still didn’t get my basic questions answered. 

I don’t actually give a fuck about the history, the math, or the philosophy of AI and humanity.   But to sate my curiosity, I would like some simple answers.

My questions are basic:

·       Does AI think

·       How is AI programmed

·       How does AI learn

·       Can AI teach itself

·       Can AI experience

·       Can AI become self-aware (alive)

·       Will AI lie to us

·       When we think of Singularity as in The Matrix, will AI intelligence expand exponentially – become god-like

·        Will AI ever be able to write its on codes – no need for human input

·       Can’t we just unplug AI if it becomes too controlling

·       What about power consumption

·       How will it be used in war: make a decision on its on to kill humans

·       What are the positive aspects that might outweigh the danger of a machine that is smarter than its creator

I have found some of these answers on YouTube in the following Star Talk clip that includes input from Jeffrey Hinton, the Nobel Prize recipient in Physics.

Unless you are interested in the concept, history, and mathematical concepts, I suggest you fast forward (select to begin) at the thirty-five-minute mark of the presentation. 

Note: the constant ad interjections are aggravating, but hang in there.

 

One of the statements that stood out to me was that AI's relationship with humans might become that of a teacher to a kindergarten class.

the Ol'Buzzard