TheEncogitationer

Unseen,

Uh, both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers, so the next World War could just as easily happen there as anywhere. Perhaps even more easily if Muslims more fanatical than Pakistan’s rulers staged a coup or otherwise seized the nukes.

How did Hanan Ashrawi, Ali Khalidi, and Edward Said get classified as scientists?

And just what the…[Read more]

Fellow Unbelievers,

I think at this point, we’re going to see a lot more parents send their kids to Community Colleges, Vo-Tech schools, and online universities. They can learn their Humanities on what I call an Eric Hoffer Fellowship.

Also, I can see more calls to get rid of government-backed Grants and Student Loans for these morally bankrupt…[Read more]

Robert,

Holy fuck, when you listen either to MAGA people at a Trump rally or college kids “out protesting” answer interview questions….it is a stupidity contest on who could be more closed-minded.

Agreed, but they did that before Internet algorithms when the media were TV and radio stations, printing presses, hand-written papyrus, and messa…[Read more]

Robert,

Well, if IQ is not an objective measure of intelligence, as your previous article from Norway says, then how can we rightly say that high IQ equals intelligence or success?

If I asked my nieces and nephews who are at of average intelligence, at least to locate Chad on a globe, it would take them ten minutes. If I quoted quintessential…

[Read more]

Robert,

Your articles presented not even a hypothesis of what caused the lower IQ that even mentioned algorithms once. Also the second article said that IQ is a not an objective measure like meters or liters and the top Norwegian expert on IQ Jon Martin Sundet said that lower IQs didn’t mean lower intelligence and asked “Does it really…[Read more]

Robert,

Now you’re goal-post shifting from cultural/ideological bubbles to IQ and learning.

IQs can vary within the same individual over time. Mine scored lower in High School than it was in either Elementary School or College. (I suspect is is ghe case with a lot of High Schoolers. What else could explain Porky’s, Spring Break, Meatballs,…[Read more]

Robert,

I might add, in those days, there were only 3 TV channels from ABC, CBS, and NBC, an independent station or two, a Public Broadcasting station (I call it “Welfare TV,”) and all caught by rabbit ear antennae that needed aluminum foil and proper positioning to get a signal.

Radio was AM or FM and with news mostly owned by a the Big Three…[Read more]

Robert,

I remember a time when people were connected in the same reality.

Since when was this?

Bubbles still existed. They were just configured differently.

Reg,

Once the algorithms get you to the bottom of the rabbit hole you may find yourself in a Bespoke Reality. I am placing a bet tomorrow that the term will be a contender for the Word of the Year, 2024.

Buf t’wasn’t it always thus, before there were such things as AI, computers, the Internet, or even Babbage Differential Engines?

Really,…[Read more]

Jake,

If there’s some kind of cheating going on (I know nothing about gambling or games of chance or their rules of conduct,) the fault would be with the creator of the algorithm, not the algorithm.

Let’s not outlaw Porky Pig’s Mom from writing a grocery list for him: “A l-l-oaf of b-b-bread, a b-b-b-bottle of m-m-milk, and c-c-come home right…[Read more]

Fellow Unbelievers,

Folks, algorithms are simply a list of instructions which a computer implements when a certain set of conditions are met. Algorithms are, like other inanimate, non-living, non-conscious, non-rational, amoral objects, only as good or as bad as the purposes towards which living, conscious, rational, moral agents put…[Read more]

Unapologetic,

Those look like they would be some hilarious reading!

‘Course, if a comic book back in the Twentieth Century were ever to be 100 % true to the Abrahamic and Vedic “holy” works, it would never have got past the Comics Code Authority:

Comics Code Authority–Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority

It’s just a…[Read more]

Unapologetic,

Thank you for defibrillating this old, idled thread. It gave some fond memories of the thoughtful and witty things we all had to say. I just hope all is well for ToddayYoung, Daniel W., Glen, Tom, and all the irregulars.

Reg,

You’ve outdone yourself on recommending some great reading.

The Bill Maher video scrolled beneath the Yahoo story on White Evangelicals was Bill in top form also.

Thanks for introducing me to The Freethinker. The Hina Husain story on her miseducation is more than just a one-off occurance in Pakistan. Supposedly friendly Islqmic nation…[Read more]

Strega,

‘Twern’t nothin’. I just passed on what worked for me in a pinch.