Confessions of a Conservative Atheist
The world’s only one man media empire
However appealing it may sound on the surface, Artificial Intelligence in particular and computers in general simply don’t work the same way they do in the movies, making any comparison completely useless. There used to be an old expression that truth is stranger than fiction, but I don’t think anyone ever thought truth to many… Continue reading We’re not living in the Terminator franchise and supposedly intelligent people should know the difference between fact and fiction
An unknown researcher, a viral post, and demands for regulations won’t stop the race for Artificial Intelligence anymore than nuclear non-proliferation treaties prevented the spread of the atom bomb. Last week, a social media post from a purported AI researcher who recently resigned from Anthropic went viral under suspicious circumstances when he predicted the end… Continue reading No, you can’t stop the future of AI or anything else, however hard you try
Whatever you personally believe about the state of the world or our prospects for the future, humans simply don’t get to choose. You are here and will remain here until you aren’t whether you like it or not. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” Charles Dickens began his immortal A… Continue reading This Labor Day, it isn’t the best of times or the worst of times, it’s simply the only times we have
They used to say country over party. Perhaps, we should put the future over politics, and rather than behaving like craven fools politicians should lead. If you’ve been looking for an issue that finally unites Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives alike, opposition to so-called AI datacenters might be it. As the Associated Press characterized… Continue reading The datacenter delusion
How can 70% of people be against the infrastructure for what most use on a daily basis and are only likely to use more? Has there ever been a useful, time saving technology we simply stopped using or have we tended to simply keep complaining while using it? If recent polls are any indication, Americans… Continue reading The irony underlying widespread opposition to AI and its equally widespread usage
For some reason, the experts are claiming we can translate animal speech that doesn’t really exist in the same sense as human speech, and they are proposing to do so with only half the necessary data, the sounds alone without the show, so to speak. Late last year, the Coller Dolittle Prize announced that researchers… Continue reading No, AI cannot translate animal sounds into human speech because animals don’t freaking talk
In a world where computers are creating content, from text to images, video, even writing songs, can they rightly be considered artists, or is there still something that makes humans unique? Today’s Artificial Intelligence software can create new things, generating content that has never been produced before, from the written word to pictures, videos, even… Continue reading Artificial Intelligence, the nature of creativity, and the difference between humans and machines
Can octopuses feel pain and pleasure? What about crabs, shrimp, insects, and spiders? The phrase “thought provoking” is frequently overused, but Professor Jonathan Birch’s new book on animal sentience and what we can do about it deserves the accolade and then some. When I was asked to review an advance copy of Professor Jonathan… Continue reading The Edge of Sentience and the beauty of being wrong
Surprise, surprise, the experts and the media suddenly discover that the internet age and the rise of Artificial Intelligence requires a lot of energy and other natural resources, contributing to global warming and threatening the environment. It’s a common trope in science fiction, one that needs no introduction to anyone familiar with the genre: Computers… Continue reading Computers are killing the planet
You might not ever be gathered with the same people in the same place, not next year, not ever. So this Christmas, sever yourself from the past and the future, stop calculating everything, and simply enjoy it. It may seem like a bad dream only two short years later, but the experts recommended we cancel,… Continue reading This Christmas, celebrate the magic of the moment
