Is it that time already? Lap number 64...
It is hard to believe that a year has passed, and that in just a couple weeks, I will be starting my 64th lap around the Sun. Just a few observations that reflect no one's opinion but my own...
I have been a voting adult for 45, soon to be 46 years. During that time, I have heard from both major parties about how each tax and/or spending bill was going to end life as we know it. All I know for sure is that I have had to pay on April 15th a few years, but that in most years, I have gotten a refund. I doubt that this one will be any different. All of the hyperbole from both sides is an insult to my intelligence. How about yours?
Speaking of hyperbole, I often speculate that, if hyperbole could be harnessed as an energy source, Washington DC alone could power the world, and instead of paying the utility companies, we could pay the media for transmitting it.
Last year, I resolved to generally refrain from partisan politics, and I have discovered that it is quite liberating, and that I am a lot less angry. If you talk with someone of a diferent opinion, you will get angry. Even if you are talking with a like minded individual, you get angry. Who wants to be p.o.' ed all the time? I will keep my friends, my dignity and my rationality, thank you very much!
I am still amazed at (anti) social media. It is so pervasive, and yet so ridiculous in the long run. (Full disclosure--I use Twitter on occasion, but my use is very limited, and I do not hide behind a screen name.) There is a bit of folk wisdom, maybe from Ben Franklin, or maybe from the Bible, I am not sure, that says that it is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. Even if you use a pseudonym on screen, you might still be making an ass of yourself in front of God and everyone else. And there are people making tons of money from it.
Does anyone understand the Bitcoin phenomena? I think that if you believe it exists in any but a 'virtual' sense, you probably believe in fairy dust and unicorns.
I read everyday about artificial intelligence and machine learning. To be sure, computers are very, very good at digesting and analyzing lots and lots of data, but they lack some things that only real live human beings can have. Like the Tin Man they lack heart, and like the Cowardly Lion, they lack courage. I am not convinced that they even have a "brain" in the sense that the Scarecrow desired.
In short, they do not, and cannot, have a "soul."
C.S. Lewis once speculated that intelligence without morality just makes for a "more clever devil". Amen!
Speaking of computers, if some idiot sets off a nuke in the atmosphere, the resulting electromagnetic pulse will render all the artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency non existent, and we will need the things that make us human in order to survive.
I will look at my grandkids if I want to see "the future." I most defintely will not look for the latest from Silicone Valley.
I have been a voting adult for 45, soon to be 46 years. During that time, I have heard from both major parties about how each tax and/or spending bill was going to end life as we know it. All I know for sure is that I have had to pay on April 15th a few years, but that in most years, I have gotten a refund. I doubt that this one will be any different. All of the hyperbole from both sides is an insult to my intelligence. How about yours?
Speaking of hyperbole, I often speculate that, if hyperbole could be harnessed as an energy source, Washington DC alone could power the world, and instead of paying the utility companies, we could pay the media for transmitting it.
Last year, I resolved to generally refrain from partisan politics, and I have discovered that it is quite liberating, and that I am a lot less angry. If you talk with someone of a diferent opinion, you will get angry. Even if you are talking with a like minded individual, you get angry. Who wants to be p.o.' ed all the time? I will keep my friends, my dignity and my rationality, thank you very much!
I am still amazed at (anti) social media. It is so pervasive, and yet so ridiculous in the long run. (Full disclosure--I use Twitter on occasion, but my use is very limited, and I do not hide behind a screen name.) There is a bit of folk wisdom, maybe from Ben Franklin, or maybe from the Bible, I am not sure, that says that it is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. Even if you use a pseudonym on screen, you might still be making an ass of yourself in front of God and everyone else. And there are people making tons of money from it.
Does anyone understand the Bitcoin phenomena? I think that if you believe it exists in any but a 'virtual' sense, you probably believe in fairy dust and unicorns.
I read everyday about artificial intelligence and machine learning. To be sure, computers are very, very good at digesting and analyzing lots and lots of data, but they lack some things that only real live human beings can have. Like the Tin Man they lack heart, and like the Cowardly Lion, they lack courage. I am not convinced that they even have a "brain" in the sense that the Scarecrow desired.
In short, they do not, and cannot, have a "soul."
C.S. Lewis once speculated that intelligence without morality just makes for a "more clever devil". Amen!
Speaking of computers, if some idiot sets off a nuke in the atmosphere, the resulting electromagnetic pulse will render all the artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency non existent, and we will need the things that make us human in order to survive.
I will look at my grandkids if I want to see "the future." I most defintely will not look for the latest from Silicone Valley.
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