To whom are you related?

The Committee Of UAV Replicant Trackers (COURT) argued its case in court today that UAV technology has advanced to the conscious AI stage.

The judges listening to the arguments asked for clarification of consciousness.

The government explained that a clear definition of conscious does not exists; therefore, a remote operator of a UAV is no more conscious than an autonomous UAV seeking out targets.

Lawyers for COURT brought in expert witnesses who pointed out the intelligence level of roaches with augmented reality saddles that are able to carry out covert assignments and had already been given Level 0 Consciousness designation by the World Court; therefore, UAVs should be given at least a Level 0 designation.

Upon cross-examination, the expert witnesses were unable to say whether the kamikaze UAVs sent into battle felt pain when they crashed into enemy locations or were accidentally involved in friendly fire situations.

A final judgment will be issued in the next five years about whether members of the COURT are actually conscious.

Patterns in computer monitor dust

Analysing a thought pattern: “This is a great feeling.  I want more.  I want more.  I want more.  I can’t have more?  You mean I have to get it for myself, the self which has no inherent value? Then I’ll just sit here and virtually beat myself over the head, inducing thought-based sets of pain.”

Self examination is a curious tale.

Is it really situational depression?

Why feel the need to punish myself for pure, unadulterated pleasure, which can be as simple as eating a second cookie, when one was sufficient to fill my need?

What kind of self-control mechanism is that?

At what age did I start fully understanding the thoughts of adult-level aged people?

When did I learn to pretend to be a child with some adults and an adult-like person with other adults?

As an adult now, do I see the young people who are more grownup in thought than most adults around me?

Do philosophers understand particlewave theory/practice?

Do I?

Do you understand the path of least resistance that the intersection of electromagnetic oscillations and neurochemical firings represents?

Have you studied the detriments and benefits of crosstalk?

Have you ever built a lab that contained both shielded and unshielded cable to induce the scientists and lead engineers around you to explain their understanding of theories they themselves do not know they’re talking about?

Is it my destiny to be an average writer stuck in the body of a misunderstanding person?

Are questions the best I can come up with?

Do I truly believe I am just a repeating parrot?

Will something occur 14,290 days from now or have I deceived myself (or myself been deceived)?

Does it matter what these symbols – a, b, c, etc. – originally represented?

Which parts of the fables/myths that we call history are important, if any of them?

William Shatner turns 80 today – in the trailer for Transcendent Man, he said he wants to live as long as he can.

We are the product of our times.  Our bodies and thought sets are programmed for mortality.

We are incapable of seeing the big picture, innovatively turning omnipotence and omniscience into anthropomorphised characters.

Does it make sense to you that Ray Kurzweil would embrace the writings of Ted Kaczynski, just as I have embraced the thought sets of Jared Lee Loughner and Amy Bishop?

To understand what the moment will morph into, one must erase all thoughts of bias/prejudice and try to avoid the temptation to interpret the actions/motivations of others.

It is not easy, let me tell you.

I am opposed to killing, simply because I myself do not want to die.

But there is a difference between not wanting to die and wanting to live.

2011 is the year in which I want to know what the difference is.

I want to live while I wait to die.

What if I discover that the tenets of my moral/ethical training are in conflict with my desire to live?

How do I resolve the conflict?

If I have to choose between wanting to live and not wanting to die, which one will I pick?

The future does not exist so I already have within me an answer to that question, even if I can’t see it or don’t want to admit I know what it is.

I’m glad I’m here by myself because I certainly wouldn’t be having these virtual conversations with myself in public.  It’s almost too embarrassing to admit that I don’t know everything.

The journey of one person is the only journey I know how to take.

I repeat the patterns of those around me because I found it was a safe way to divert their attention so I can focus on the self-journey to which I alone belong.

Despite the fact that I don’t exist.

Giving a voice to the many layers of social interaction available to my thoughts and against which I physically encounter, knowing some of them represent age/maturity levels I encountered as a child and continue to encounter as an adult, is really all I am.

The superficiality attached to the intersection of electromagnetic oscillations and neurochemical firings within a bigger system of electromagnetic oscillations interacting with the particlewave universe we call our own.

If I ever tell myself more than that, I’m lying.

This is today’s mantra.  Rinse and repeat as necessary.

It all comes out in the wash cycle.

Or so they promise in logically misleading adverts.

I don’t want to pretend I know what I’m talking about.

This alternate universe of a blog is as close to reality as I’ll ever get.

Why is this blog’s last entry in October 2010?

What is personhood and where can I find it?

10 FOR I = 1 TO 20

20 PRINT “hello, cruel world!”

30 NEXT I

RUN

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

hello, cruel world!

Two overworked data points

In a recent test, my programmers created an American English speaking character on a Chinese social media site.  The character commented on world news and talked about a personal life gleaned from averaging profiles of Chinese social media participants, in order to attract a certain following and sway opinions in favour of a future business deal that didn’t really exist, to see if the Chinese “friends” would suggest the business deal on their own and/or invest in the companies (the real ones) or increase searches for the companies (including fake ones mentioned by the NAmE character).

In the world of unexpected consequences, the real companies’ stock values increased significantly enough to create some relatively wealthy people in other parts of the world, thus reinforcing the valued opinions of the fake NAmE character who, in turn, said the business deal that the Chinese “friends” eventually suggested had been discovered to be a rumour the NAmE character forwarded on purpose.

The Chinese “friends” were at first offended.

However, several of them decided to play the game themselves, enlisting the fake NAmE character to create more innuendos that induce stock-price building rumours.

The groupthink intelligence spread into other social networks, so that a bunch of social friends got rich by feeding rumours for stocks that had little or no value but increased enough for the investors to use exponential investment schemes to get rich slowly enough across several stock exchanges to not attract attention.

A social science professor figured out what my programmers had done and created a superset modeling program that spread multiple versions of our fake NAmE character into social networks around the world.

Now, I’m getting rich and building an offshore bank account the old-fashioned way.

I no longer have to worry that my retirement plan will reveal the underground/illegal market slush funds I created to eventually live the life I wanted as a financially-independent, aesthetically ascetic guru.

Time to break free?

We’ll see.

Crusade, you say, or crude oil?

My dear friend, Vlad.

Why is it we have to keep meeting like this?

I offer you a joint Arctic development deal with Canada and you decide to plant a flag on your own, in your country’s name, of course.

Is it Sarkozy or Hillary that has your feathers ruffled?

Is the great Russian bear feeling shackled by his own political ambitions?

Large gas reserves and a huge land mass.  What else do you want?

Lucky for me, I have undeveloped acres of land available nearby in which I can find a few wild, untamed beings to observe and say to myself, “There is something more important than little, ol’ me.”

The KGB is no more but the CIA lives on.

Let’s put the bottle of vodka on the table between us and throw down a few nightcaps.

You may have many “comforters” waiting for you in your bed.

I tied myself to a promise of monogamy long ago.

We are who we are.

Tell us what’s really going on in your thoughts.

Old political polemics went out of fashion with poets like Pushkin.

We will all profit from new ventures.

But you already know that.

Here’s to you, comrade.  Bottoms up!