Morning in America, or a Dark Winter?
Choose One
Leave a CommentI’ve been playing with some GPT-3 apps the past few weeks. I have to say I’m impressed. The little AI is growing.
Imagine what GPT-18 will look like. The scene in “HER” is becoming reality.
At some point AI will create the scenarios and dialogues for books and movies.
Leave a Comment“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
George Orwell, 1984
Leave a CommentWatching the recent protests and removal of statues, I can’t think but reminisce. I remember being in second grade when Communism fell.
The first day after Christmas vacation (the commies called it winter vacation) the teachers asked us to “rip out the first page of your books”.
The portrait hanging above the blackboard was taken down as well.
This is the portrait that we had to recite out pledge of allegiance to. A long pledge. Who is this comrade? “He is the leader of the socialist republic of Romania elected unanimously by the 26th party..”..
This was all gone.
Throughout the country statues of Lenin were taken down. A new era was upon us.
I was changed.
Going forward, I would trust less. I would double check any information, especially if it was coming from those in power. Iraq has WMD. Really? The UN inspectors are saying otherwise…and so on.
Once sacred cows are killed there is no going back to “trusting”. Groups seek to find consensus. Individuals seek to find the truth.
You can only find the truth if you kill the sacred cows.
Leave a CommentPeople are lonely and have problems coping with the quarantine because we as a species are not meant to be alone.
Religion and science both say that we humans came from one place – The Garden of Eden or The Big Bang depending on your belief systems. Either way, we stayed together.
Now we’re asked to social distance, separate and quarantine ourselves.
I, myself, find refuge in quiet times. As Marcus Aurelius says,
“People seek retreats for themselves in the country, by the sea, or in the mountains. You are very much in the habit of yearning for those same things. But this is entirely the trait of a base person, when you can, at any moment, find such a retreat in yourself. For nowhere can you find a more peaceful and less busy retreat than in your own soul – especially if on close inspection it is filled with ease, which I say is nothing more than being well-ordered. Treat yourself often to this retreat and be renewed.” – MARCUS AURELIUS, Meditations, 4.3.1
Does death always win? Or does life always win?
Is the glass half full or half empty?
Leave a CommentGoing to try to be more authentic this year. Speak my truth, as they say. How does one speak their truth? Truth changes as people change. I’m not the same person I was five or ten or twenty years ago. As Alan Watts once said: “Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.”
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The Trump administration released a far-reaching plan to force hospitals and insurers to disclose their secret negotiated rates:
“ Employers and patients are often unable to see which hospital systems and doctor’s offices are driving prices upward. Some health-care economists argue that the secrecy is a factor in why the U.S. spends more per resident on health care than any other developed nation.
The administration’s vision is to arm patients with information needed to make health-care decisions much like shopping for other consumer services. Rates potentially could be posted on public websites, where consumers would check the negotiated price of a service before they pick a provider.“
Leave a CommentThe economic expansion has enriched one-percenters to the point they now hold almost as much wealth as middle and upper-middle classes combined. I wonder how this will play out in the coming elections.
Leave a CommentGreta, Greta, Greta.
I admire your passion. You really believe what you say.
However, you have a ways to go in understanding the relationship between humans and nature.
Greta, I remember being your age. I remember thinking that we are destroying “Mother Nature”. As I got older, I realized that I had it backwards.
You see, Greta, nature doesn’t care about humans. Nature never cared. Nature has killed and tries to kill humans in every which way possible: disease, natural disasters, predators, etc.
Humans are the species that tamed nature. We’re taming diseases. Viruses.
Have patience Greta.
Technology will get better. We will become better at reducing emissions. We will cut down on greenhouse gases. Why? Because humans are the only species on planet earth that does NOT take the path of least resistance.
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