2bsirius's Weblog

Are there any conceptual limits to the possibilities of artificial intelligence?

2008 will be remembered as the year we all suffered and suffered BIG TIME. Financially it was the worst year since 1931. And in saying that I’m speaking about the track record for financial data that dates back 183 years. Yes, since 1825, only 1931 was a year in which the S&P declined more than 50%. WONDERFUL…

There were food riots, political unrest in seemingly stable countries like Greece. The underpinning of the civilized structure of the world seems to be under attack, but it is under attack from sources that are hard to find and harder to stop.  What can we expect next? OMG I hate to even consider what 2009 will be bringing us.

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I’ve been thinking about where human beings are in their drives to survive and from that about the future of our species…I find I agree with John McDowell who contended that we have two natures.  The first nature is strictly Darwinian and is concerned only with fitness for survival.  It is the nature we inhabit through our genes and it is a nature that is sometimes very rough.

But we also have a nature that we have been creating and it is still a work in progress. It is the nature that comes from our culture.  And cultures can be good or bad.  They can go wrong and sometimes they do in very atrocious ways…And so what this tells us is that we have a lot of possible conflicts. We need to try to solve that conflict and we have a lot of risks. But at the same time, we now have a measure of control .  In other words, it is really for us to lose the ability to direct our own future.

Yes, every source of ancient wisdom tells us that we must meet our survival needs first. Yes, the fitness imperative for survival is the first priority…BUT it is far more complex than that.  But we also need environments where human beings can thrive. Where they can develop their talents, find friendships and form deep emotional bonds that are more complex than those driven by simple crude survival.

I don’t like to write about things political in this blog, but I feel the necessity write to this one entry . The McCain/Palin and campaign have been following the advice of Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels is the man credited with a savvy political strategy of telling the big lie.

In their latest political ads they have feigned outrage at Obama’s criticism of McCain’s proposals in which he said the “lipstick on a pig”. It is obvious that Obama was referring strictly to McCain’s weak proposals for “change” but in a cynical bid for votes, the McCain people have pretended to believe that Obama was referring to Gov. Palin. They know better! They know what they’re saying is a fraud and a lie, but they have been engaged in political vote pandering for such a long time that they refuse to do the honorable thing and tell the truth.

The situation is nauseating, and it is destroying the fabric of American life. Because their strategies seem to be working, they see no need to inject integrity, decency, or truth telling. They are doing what is expedient. They will do anything for votes.

Obama is trying to counter act their sleaze by issuing denials in the form of emphatic statements about his intentions and is also adding words about his determination not to be a swift boated. It is unclear whether Americans are awake enough to understand what is being done to them. If they don’t understand that the battle is lost.

We’ll know more on November 5.

I’m doing this by dictation and seeing if I can get it to publish.