Archives for category: Computing/Internet

AI Is Here, But Will It Rule Us?

September 27, 2022 //

Are we, the masses of mankind, doomed to become useless appendages to our technological creations? Will artificial intelligence get so smart as to take over everything? Is there to be almost no space for individuals? Workers? Thinkers? Producers?

Are we obsolete?

There is a new book out by Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith that answers these questions. The authors make a startlingly bold claim, and back it up with something more than the hand-waving b.s. we are used to on this subject. The book is titled Why Machines Will Never Rule the World: Artificial Intelligence Without Fear, just out from Routledge.

David Ramsay Steele, who is CEO and Editorial Director of Carus Books, and its imprint Open Universe — as well as author of From Marx to Mises: Post-Capitalist Society and the Challenge of Economic Calculation, Orwell Your Orwell: A Worldview on the Slab, and The Mystery of Fascism: David Ramsay Steele’s Greatest Hits — is an enthusiast for Landgrebe and Smith’s effort. He has long been skeptical of many of the more outlandish claims for AI, and he read the manuscript of the book as it approached publication. He suggested that the LocoFoco Netcast team interview Jobst and Barry, and I agreed with no small amount of enthusiasm.

But I agreed mainly on the condition that David do most of the interviewing. I am in way over my head on this issue, and do not really know much other than what I read in science fiction — which is hardly a reliable guide on such issues. He agreed. He has, after all, been featured by the LocoFoco at least twice, if not three or four times. And with David asking the most acute questions, that would allow me to ask the Dumb Guy questions.

So last week the four of us chatted for an hour and a half. I have edited that chat down just a bit, and present it on SoundCloud and Rumble and YouTube:

Yes, at least one of my questions was indeed Dumb Guy dumb. My intro, too, will not win awards for accuracy, my characterization of Elon Musk’s AI goals being offhand and parodic — and considering the august company I had on, perhaps I should have postponed my mirth. But the other participants are as eloquent — and their comments as apposite — as one could hope for.

I had read one of Dr. Barry Smith’s books before this discussion, by the way — Austrian Philosophy: The Legacy of Franz Brentano — and own another that I have occasionally consulted. He is a major scholar of Continental philosophy, and I was delighted to read something by him on an issue of current popular interest. Somehow discussions of Edmond Husserl, Alexius Meinong and Roman Ingarden (the latter mentioned in this episode, and by Jobst), cannot be expected to obtain a wide readership.

Actually, I should say, “delighted to begin to read something by Dr. Smith,” since, as I confess in the podcast, I did not make the requisite time to read the whole of the pre-publication copy David had sent me. Even after all these years using iPads, it often takes quite an effort for me to read a whole book in ebook format, especially a PDF. This means I will “be forced” actually to buy the book!

I know some people insist that podcasts be published unedited. I am not one of those people. Before Dr. Smith joined our Zoom conversation, Jobst, David and I got to know one another informally, discussing such things as the books in our respective backgrounds: my green books (Loeb Greek/English editions) and Jobst’s red set of books that look so similar, and are also about history, but in German, and may not have an English equivalent. We also discussed science fiction, Stanislaw Lem and Philip K. Dick, specifically. For some reason I did not bring up Samuel Butler’s Erewhon. Now that would have been relevant. I may include this conversation as a future extra on LocoFoco.Locals.com.

Jobst Landgrebe earned his doctorate in medicine, and has worked as both scientist and entrepreneur in the field in question, artificial intelligence. As he mentions in the podcast, it was he who conceived the idea for the book and the need for collaboration with a philosopher. Jobst had been encountering too much nonsense being said about AI.

I hope that, after listening to this podcast, every listener goes out and buys the new book. This is an important subject. It should not be left to rumor-mongering by “futurologists” and others who do not know the science or understand the philosophy behind the issue.

And note: thanks to James Littleton Gill for two examples of his image work with the artistic artificial intelligence DALL-E. And yes, Barry Smith and Jobst Landgrebe both discuss DALL-E in our conversation.

twv

Categories Computing/Internet, iTunes, LocoFoco.Locals.com, Phenomenology, Philosophy, Podcast, SoundCloud, Spotify

Attacked!

December 21, 2020 //

Donald Pleasance as SPECTRE’s Ernst Stavro Blofeld, *You Only Live Twice* (1967).

Major cyber attack, we are told. “Russian,” we are told.

That latter is likely spin. Our leaders definitely do not want to play up the possibility that the Chinese did it. Or, for that matter, “SPECTRE.”

I cannot think of one reason to believe attribution at this point.

Attribution must be uncertain in accuracy, but certainly manipulative.

Russia is weak, globally; China is strong. So working up an image of a dangerous Russian Bear distracts the weak-minded voting population, allowing our leaders not to confront a threat that cannot likely be overcome.

I mention these things not because they are arcana, but commonplace — or should be.

I would have thought epidemic realism were commonplace a year ago. People are so easily fooled, so easily made to forget what they had known mere days before (amnesia; abulia; apathy). So stressing the obvious is worthwhile. As a counter-agent.

After all, do not forget the context: last week the big story was the cracking of a major Chinese spy ring, which had compromised prominent Democratic Party politicians (Swallwell; Feinstein) and (though almost no one dares say it) the Clintons and (most obviously) the Bidens, too. So the timing of this current disclosed cyber attack is worth mentioning. The spin to play up Russia sounds like a way that (here I turn to complete speculation) Trump can “negotiate” with Democrats — or the Dems can fight Trump, who now has grounds to overturn an election. I mean, think of this: America appears to be at war, what with two major espionage events revealed within one month, and a “Manchurian Candidate” was just “elected” — and one with deeply corrupt ties to one (or more) of the malign powers.

Pretending that the current epoch is “normal” and “safe” would be insane.

I of course have no idea how deep the lies run. Remember, in America, as elsewhere, the chief purpose of an intelligence agency is not gathering information but seeding disinformation. Why? There is a logic to it. We have known what that logic is since William B. Casey explained it to Ronald Reagan. We forget the lesson at our peril.

twv

Scott Adams’s representation of the current bias.

Categories Computing/Internet, espionage

Voting Options

August 6, 2020 //

Voting security and electoral integrity would seem to be important things in a democracy.

But of course, for politicians and large interest groups, what’s more important is a widespread belief in voting security and electoral integrity coupled with actual, in-play clever ways to rig and game the system.

I disapprove of electronic voting machines, since such systems have been repeatedly shown to be easily compromised.

The fact that one almost never hears about this is astounding in the way that almost everything in our hyper-politicized time is shocking.

I think there should only be two ways to vote:
1. A secret ballot on election day at a registered polling booth.
2. A public online ballot, completely transparent, with the ability to vote early, and change one’s mind often, right up until election day, at which point your last vote is sealed.

A public, non-secret ballot should be the only remote way to vote, no mail-in ballots or any of that easy-to-compromise nonsense.

I support open, non-secret balloting for the same reason that John Stuart Mill did. I support secret ballot as an option for the same official reason to introduce the method originally.

A person should have some identification to vote, of course. The arguments against such things are amusingly racist.

And a person, registered for online voting, should be able, on election day, to click a button saying one will head to the polling place and vote there. The polling station should be notified and the whole security arrangement should remain secure through sensible protocols. Votes should be hand-counted and the totals should be checked against polling station rolls, as usual.

twv

Categories Computing/Internet, information vs misinformation vs disinformation, Institutional Reality

A New Podcast in the Works

November 10, 2019 //

I am involved in a new podcast. It has only debuted on SoundCloud, so far, but it will roll out to the usual podcast publishers, such as iTunes and Stitcher and Google Play.

Note, “I am involved” means that I facilitate. This is Paul Jacob’s show. In 1999 he began making radio spots, and kept them going for a decade. I was at Liberty magazine at the time, and knew nothing of them, but one does catch up eventually. Which Paul has done — “catch up” — by re-entering the audio/video realm with this new project.

SoundCloud is a superior hosting platform for audio, and I have been using it myself for a long time, if in an excessively humble way. Stay tuned for more podcast projects from me.

The second of Paul’s podcasts put up on the audio streaming service.

Last weekend’s episode of “This Week in Common Sense.”

Categories Computing/Internet, Politics

Initiative Q?

May 25, 2019 //

And now, for something completely different….

Initiative Q is an attempt by ex-PayPal guys to create a new payment system instead of payment cards that were designed in the 1950s. The system uses its own currency, the Q, and to get people to start using the system once it’s ready they are allocating Qs for free to people that sign up now (the amount drops as more people join – so better to join early). Signing up is free and they only ask for your name and an email address. There’s nothing to lose but if this payment system becomes a world leading payment method your Qs can be worth a lot. If you missed getting bitcoin seven years ago, you wouldn’t want to miss this.
Here is my invite link: https://initiativeq.com/invite/SrKsEoy3m
This link will stop working once I’m out of invites. Let me know after you registered, because I need to verify you on my end.

Categories Computing/Internet

Something About Google

August 25, 2018 //

Google has somehow commandeered my Mac Pro’s Safari browser.

When I open a new tab, Google shows up, that is, the Google search page.

I checked Preferences: New tabs and pages were set to open up to blank pages. So I set the homepage to DuckDuckGo and then set new pages and tabs to open up to the home page.

Google still opens up.

What?

Google IS EVIL.

Is there any other explanation?

Maybe this is a result of having switched to Firefox as my main browser, a month ago. The problem does not show up on Firefox. But, alas, Safari works better on a Mac using WordPress, so I still must use Safari every day.

On my G5 running OS X Leopard, I use TenFourFox, of course.

twv