Richard Robertson

The sun’s been driving climate for billions of years. It’s physically impossible for anything on Earth to have more of an impact. I think I know what you meant to ask in the survey, but I won’t take it as worded so imprecisely.

Even the statement on CO2 is ambiguous. Of course it’s good for plants, but “good for all life on Earth”, what does that…[Read more]

I just heard a description of Trump, and laughed: Unfettered by Facts.

I don’t believe that even the most rabid “law-and-order” enforcers and politicians, other than Trump himself and a few small groups, would accept “CW2” as an option. The death and destruction of CW1 was not ignited by just a spontaneous, twitter-run flame-fest kind of…[Read more]

Raising children is an investment in a country’s future, so women should be appreciated and compensated for their contribution to families. Then men, too, working for families at home. Imo the state should provide support and compensation per child, from -9 (or more) months of age through high school years. Requiring businesses, especially small…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
[…] I play in some rock bands. This virus has turned some members into tRump fanatics, miracle cure advocates, 2nd amendment wing nuts, WHO haters, Chinese conspiracy dimwits all at once. Not sure I care to play music with them anymore. They will soon break curfew to assemble and I will not be part of it.

That was from April…[Read more]

Glen D wrote:
Must there always be an odd number of judges.

Oddly, the US Constitution doesn’t define the number of judges, nor does it define the number of representatives in the House except “according to a proportion of population” [parphrase]. Republicans have installed about 3/4 (or something terribly lopsided like that) in the past few…[Read more]

Glen D wrote:
Seems there’s an assumption that sentience for AI is inevitable.  No convinced that is the case.  However, I’m most interested in learning the basis for such an assumption.

Same here, at east for a while. Meanwhile AI could “appear” to be sentient, and be sold to buyers as such. And then the inevitable R&D on trying to dupli…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
It isn’t just paranoid looney-tunes who are warning us about AI, it’s some of our best and most creative thinkers.

Hmm yeah I expected Pinker to give the optimistic “it won’t necessarily naturally evolve” badly for us [paraphrase]. Thing is, all AI won’t be designed or owned by the same people, so there will be “variation in the spe…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
The series “Humans” is worth a watch on Netflix – not sure if available in USA though.

I like the series, but hope they’ll add more (“realistic”, imo) bad-guy AI, eventually. (It’s on Amazon here, as Unseen mentioned.)

Blade Runner was ahead of its time on a similar theme, as are some of the time travel themed serie…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:

A plea to PopeBeanie and all who want to enumerate points: Do not use the n. format (1., 2., 3., …) because to someone like me wanting to embed responses in the original text, it becomes heck on Earth as the software thinks it’s being called on to repair the numbering. Instead, use this format: 1), 2), 3)… to make it easy on respo…

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I watched it. I was disappointed with the drama injected about 3/4 of the way through, and have seen some (techie) people totally turned off by it to the extent of calling the whole production a fraud. If they had just not added that drama, I think the rest of the production would be taken more seriously, as it should be.

Minor note as I watch the video: I think he’s only partly correct that we care more for dogs than (say) flies because dogs are more intelligent. We relate to dogs/cats and other animals not just with intelligence, but with empathy, and sharing of feelings with each other. Cognitive intelligence plus emotional intelligence, if you will. This point…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
PopeBeanie and Unseen, I know it does sound utopian. […]

And that’s ok! I don’t do enough reading on these things but still develop my own ideas. I’m thinking, e.g. that new “parties” will be willing to join forces one day to overcome the hurdles of running against the two party system. The theme, at least at first,…[Read more]