Video from the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence. This is the only organization in the world devoted to making sure that advanced AI, once developed, doesn't wipe out humanity. Video includes PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey.
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Monday, May 21, 2007
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Political Leanings
A little more about me, my political leanings are that of a true idealist.
I love the idea that the United States of America was founded on. That is to say, the idea that we are all free men. We are the first country what granted this kind of freedom to its citizens.
For those rusty on their civics lessons or simply didn't care about it at the time, allow me to explain what this ubiquitous word "Freedom" means.
Previous to the USA, every country in the history of the world has been run by men. Men come to power and theirs is the first and last word on what goes in the country they rule, they are the "Deciders" if you will. This has more often than not resulted in a less than just system that rewards the friends of those in power and punishes those opposed, typically ignoring the citizenry at best, stealing from them and killing them at worst.
So the idea that the USA was founded on was having no man as a ruler of the country. Instead we chose to implement a system called "Rule of law". What does this mean? Well it means that the "Ruler" of our country is an inanimate set of laws. Then we have an infrastructure setup to enforce the laws, protect the citizenry from threats, foreign or domestic.
Since this country is ruled by laws, that means that no matter how well connected you are, no matter how rich, the laws apply to everyone. Whether you're the president or a vagabond, the laws apply equally to everyone.
I love that system, it is a just system. And many men have fought to the death to protect this way of life. I am grateful for those brave men in our armed forces who have fought to keep this a free land. In my opinion we should have rolled out the red carpet for our volunteer army from the beginning. VA hospitals should be the best staffed and stocked ones in the country instead of the worst.
In addition, I would be happy to support a program that gives lifelong exemption to income taxes for those men brave enough to volunteer for active duty to protect the ideals this country was founded on. I have nothing but respect for these men, I myself am of a nervous temperament and would not fare well in a battle. I'm more of an engineer type, comfortable alone in a sterile environment where I can use my creativity to contribute to society.
---- That is where I stand on these two subjects, that all said, the system today is broken ----
I've always been an idealist, and my first clue that the system I was taught that I lived in was broken came when President Bill Clinton was undergoing impeachment process. I had no problem with the job he was doing, and I had nothing personal against the man. (Even though I was Republican, society at the time had not been conditioned to hate each other based on political party) But he broke the law and was caught. He was to stand trial for this and I was so happy about it. Not because I felt he deserved it, but because we were showing the world what "Rule of law" means. It means that the law is applied to *everyone* swiftly and evenly, regardless of power, stature, wealth, connections... etc.
I reveled in the thought that when Clinton would be found guilty of perjury and punished for it in whatever manner the system saw fit, other countries would be inspired by this very public example of the rule of law at work. They would want such a system for themselves... freedom and democracy would spread around the world like wildfire.
Then to my shock and horror, President Clinton gladhanded his way out of trial. WTF?! That's not an option, it was never and should never be an option to ignore a crime in a country ruled by laws. What could have been a tremendous boon for freedom and democracy around the world turned into the death knell of freedom in the only free country. Whether I was just naive and that had been the case long before this incident, I cannot say. But it cemented in my mind that the system was broken and filled me with dread and sorrow.
To this day I still consider this an unforgivable lapse in the system, if we ever want to get USA back to good, we need justice on this point. Bill Clinton needs to stand trial for perjury. I'm not saying throw him in jail, just put him on trial... the judge can commute his sentence on the grounds that he has been the best president this country has seen (in as much as he brought us out of the recession he inherited by the president before him, gave us 8 years of peace and prosperity, financial responsibility, welfare reform. He accomplished so much for the good of this country).
Later is better than never. First priority in this country in fixing the rule of law is to make sure it is APPLIED to everyone equally... second priority would be that it is applied SWIFTLY.
----- That was only the beginning of the end of freedom... -----
Under George W Bush this country has fallen into the darkest times it has ever seen as far as freedom is concerned. Worse still he chants the word and platitudes about how we are spreading freedom, when in reality we're doing nothing of the sort. Every day of his presidency has seen increasingly bold affronts to the rule of law.
He isn't eroding rule of law, he is demolishing it. He places his friends in positions of power in all branches of govt regardless of qualifications, and has succeeded in using Machiavellian techniques to subvert his opposition. He has done away with the checks and balances. He mocks the rule of law by consistently ensuring he is above the law with the use of signing statements exempting him and his cronies from prosecution for those bills he sees fit to sign into law for the citizenry.
We are nothing less than a dictatorship now. Bush is supreme ruler, unchecked by laws... and he continues to chant platitudes about freedom. I'm aching for someone to ask him what the word freedom means in front of a camera, if he even knows (which I suspect he doesn't) he will be describing the opposite of his administration... but more likely than not he will be put on the spot trying to explain something he has no clue about... kinda like this:
I love the idea that the United States of America was founded on. That is to say, the idea that we are all free men. We are the first country what granted this kind of freedom to its citizens.
For those rusty on their civics lessons or simply didn't care about it at the time, allow me to explain what this ubiquitous word "Freedom" means.
Previous to the USA, every country in the history of the world has been run by men. Men come to power and theirs is the first and last word on what goes in the country they rule, they are the "Deciders" if you will. This has more often than not resulted in a less than just system that rewards the friends of those in power and punishes those opposed, typically ignoring the citizenry at best, stealing from them and killing them at worst.
So the idea that the USA was founded on was having no man as a ruler of the country. Instead we chose to implement a system called "Rule of law". What does this mean? Well it means that the "Ruler" of our country is an inanimate set of laws. Then we have an infrastructure setup to enforce the laws, protect the citizenry from threats, foreign or domestic.
Since this country is ruled by laws, that means that no matter how well connected you are, no matter how rich, the laws apply to everyone. Whether you're the president or a vagabond, the laws apply equally to everyone.
I love that system, it is a just system. And many men have fought to the death to protect this way of life. I am grateful for those brave men in our armed forces who have fought to keep this a free land. In my opinion we should have rolled out the red carpet for our volunteer army from the beginning. VA hospitals should be the best staffed and stocked ones in the country instead of the worst.
In addition, I would be happy to support a program that gives lifelong exemption to income taxes for those men brave enough to volunteer for active duty to protect the ideals this country was founded on. I have nothing but respect for these men, I myself am of a nervous temperament and would not fare well in a battle. I'm more of an engineer type, comfortable alone in a sterile environment where I can use my creativity to contribute to society.
---- That is where I stand on these two subjects, that all said, the system today is broken ----
I've always been an idealist, and my first clue that the system I was taught that I lived in was broken came when President Bill Clinton was undergoing impeachment process. I had no problem with the job he was doing, and I had nothing personal against the man. (Even though I was Republican, society at the time had not been conditioned to hate each other based on political party) But he broke the law and was caught. He was to stand trial for this and I was so happy about it. Not because I felt he deserved it, but because we were showing the world what "Rule of law" means. It means that the law is applied to *everyone* swiftly and evenly, regardless of power, stature, wealth, connections... etc.
I reveled in the thought that when Clinton would be found guilty of perjury and punished for it in whatever manner the system saw fit, other countries would be inspired by this very public example of the rule of law at work. They would want such a system for themselves... freedom and democracy would spread around the world like wildfire.
Then to my shock and horror, President Clinton gladhanded his way out of trial. WTF?! That's not an option, it was never and should never be an option to ignore a crime in a country ruled by laws. What could have been a tremendous boon for freedom and democracy around the world turned into the death knell of freedom in the only free country. Whether I was just naive and that had been the case long before this incident, I cannot say. But it cemented in my mind that the system was broken and filled me with dread and sorrow.
To this day I still consider this an unforgivable lapse in the system, if we ever want to get USA back to good, we need justice on this point. Bill Clinton needs to stand trial for perjury. I'm not saying throw him in jail, just put him on trial... the judge can commute his sentence on the grounds that he has been the best president this country has seen (in as much as he brought us out of the recession he inherited by the president before him, gave us 8 years of peace and prosperity, financial responsibility, welfare reform. He accomplished so much for the good of this country).
Later is better than never. First priority in this country in fixing the rule of law is to make sure it is APPLIED to everyone equally... second priority would be that it is applied SWIFTLY.
----- That was only the beginning of the end of freedom... -----
Under George W Bush this country has fallen into the darkest times it has ever seen as far as freedom is concerned. Worse still he chants the word and platitudes about how we are spreading freedom, when in reality we're doing nothing of the sort. Every day of his presidency has seen increasingly bold affronts to the rule of law.
He isn't eroding rule of law, he is demolishing it. He places his friends in positions of power in all branches of govt regardless of qualifications, and has succeeded in using Machiavellian techniques to subvert his opposition. He has done away with the checks and balances. He mocks the rule of law by consistently ensuring he is above the law with the use of signing statements exempting him and his cronies from prosecution for those bills he sees fit to sign into law for the citizenry.
We are nothing less than a dictatorship now. Bush is supreme ruler, unchecked by laws... and he continues to chant platitudes about freedom. I'm aching for someone to ask him what the word freedom means in front of a camera, if he even knows (which I suspect he doesn't) he will be describing the opposite of his administration... but more likely than not he will be put on the spot trying to explain something he has no clue about... kinda like this:
Thursday, May 3, 2007
FIRST!!11eleventyone1!
Greetings blogosphere,
Here to add my voice to the chorus, areas of interest/expertise are as follows:
Relational Databases
Anthropology
Sociology
Psychology
Philosophy
Electronics
Software Engineering
Cognitive Science
Evolutionary Psychology
Neuropharmacology
Cosmology
Quantum Physics
Theoretical Physics
Ok, that's enough of a list, these are my main areas of expertise/interest... a little about me, I've worked for most companies in the top ten list of technology and telecommunication in some engineering capacity or another. I have patents filed under some of these for technology that will probably never see the light of day because it renders obsolete some of their biggest money makers. Too bad financial concerns take precedence over technological progress.
Before I go off on too much of a tangent, I should just leave my first post at this. I value my anonymity so I will more often than not scrub my posts of anything which would identify me.
I welcome all points of view, and enjoy a good debate... I look forward to discussing my favorite subjects with everyone!
The name of the blog is Big Rock Candy Mountains... after the song from O Brother Where Art Thou that dreams of a new eden for the modern era. Don't we all?
Here to add my voice to the chorus, areas of interest/expertise are as follows:
Relational Databases
Anthropology
Sociology
Psychology
Philosophy
Electronics
Software Engineering
Cognitive Science
Evolutionary Psychology
Neuropharmacology
Cosmology
Quantum Physics
Theoretical Physics
Ok, that's enough of a list, these are my main areas of expertise/interest... a little about me, I've worked for most companies in the top ten list of technology and telecommunication in some engineering capacity or another. I have patents filed under some of these for technology that will probably never see the light of day because it renders obsolete some of their biggest money makers. Too bad financial concerns take precedence over technological progress.
Before I go off on too much of a tangent, I should just leave my first post at this. I value my anonymity so I will more often than not scrub my posts of anything which would identify me.
I welcome all points of view, and enjoy a good debate... I look forward to discussing my favorite subjects with everyone!
The name of the blog is Big Rock Candy Mountains... after the song from O Brother Where Art Thou that dreams of a new eden for the modern era. Don't we all?
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