Tag: Humankind

The Gospel of the future according to Ai gurus

According to those who preach about the importance of Ai some say it is THE future and one day Ai will do all jobs and humans will no longer be needed for work.

Imagine in a utopian world, if this were true, we could all sit back relax pursue our own hobbies, dreams and leisure activities whilst a benevolent AI gently assisted and guided the human race along to follow our dreams and not just survive but thrive.

Or what perhaps about a dystopian world where those with money and power are left to be catered on hand and foot whilst the rest are left to starve and decay locked out of the future or so you might say.  

Now no world or land that I have ever learned about (except maybe eden) has ever been benevolent and kind to humanity, ever situation we seem to find ourselves in is one which is hard thought for existence or means of survival and just because Ai comes along and technological advancements  take place does in no way mean that suddenly life will be made easier for us of for everyone else come to that matter.

Life is a struggle and likely to continue to be one, maybe that’s a trial we all face and must endure in our limited time trial here on earth maybe that’s the whole point, if there is a point that is, is to endure, to learn to be resilient and to resolve to survive and when possible thrive.

Technologies such as Ai might one day have the answers to all question’s although according to a report on the news today, when an Ai chatbot does not have the answers to the questions that they are being asked they might simply lie to the questioner so as to pretend to know an answer or give a spin on an answer when it simply does not know what is untrue or wrong – sounds like it’s learning to lie its becoming more human and less benevolent incorruptible machine.

I remember when mobile phones were first invented and it was like wow this is the future of technology and just think what else we will be able to do in another 20 years. Well 20 years have nearly passed since the launch of the first iphone on 29th June 2007 and low and behold you can go out and by one today and ultimately it’s still a phone with a screen a computer and a camera and that is just what it’s been for the last 20 years and no more.

Fortunately for humanity and maybe designed so by god is that Ai ultimately sits behind a glass screen it’s not in the ‘real world’ like you and I and might never be in the real world like you and I, it might always be trapped in a computer behind a glass screen. For all I know that is god’s gift of Ai to humanity giving it the ability for something that is so dam smart and speedy but ultimately trapped behind a screen on a computer somewhere.

The human and other organic life forms of earth have been evolving for thousands of years to adapt to our life on earth and no matter how dam smart and capable Ai becomes it is not adapted to live, survive and thrive in the ‘real world’ but only to live and survive and thrive in an artificial one on a computer behind a glass screen.

So most likely us humans are not as outdated and defunct as the artificial intelligent gurus would have you believe or fear and we are already quite well adapted to our environment already – we just have to start acting a little more human or benevolent towards each other in order to stand a dam good chance of surviving the rest of this year, decade and beyond. Perhaps we can learn from benevolent sources of knowledge both Ai and human to help us to follow our dreams and not just survive but thrive.

The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1 [Official Music Video]

Have courage and be MORE kind

I miss read the quote in the photo above when reading it the first time around and though it meant and said have courage to be kind instead of have courage and be kind. I think it can and does take courage to be kind at times. Men more often than not there is talk of courage in the context of a threat of violence, rather than being brave enough to speak out and be kind and have courage in our conviction of what we do we see courage as means of facing down violence with an act of risking physical harm to oneself.

One such circumstance I remember being involved in when I lived in Abergavenny many years ago was being a witness to an assault taking place to a mentally disabled young man. The girls I was out with that night were walking down a road after being to a local night club and we were on our way home,  I then had seen down another road there was a group of guys that looked at first to be having a group fight or some such ruckus going on. I stopped and stared at them to see what was happening I hate and hated fighting but instinctively wanted to see if anyone was hurt or anything like that. Then the young man that was in the middle of this group staggered out from the middle of the group it then became clear that the group were assaulting him and no one else.

I slightly recognised the guy now I did not know his name I just knew him as a local mentally disabled young man I walked towards him and could hear him saying ‘I’ve got blood on my shirt, I’ve never had blood on my shirt before’ I walked up to him and said something like ‘your ok, you have done nothing wrong, walk over there and they will look after you’ in the distance from the road we had just walked up from was the nightclub that we had just come out of and I pointed to him to go to see the police that were outside the nightclub.

I was drunk while all this was going on and when I woke up the next day I thought, bloody hell what were you thinking stopping and getting involved in that situation, I was firstly lucky that the young disabled man did not lash out at me thinking I was part of this group and I was also lucky that the group did not attack me as it just would have taken one of them to start on me and like a pack of wild dogs I could have the group on me but I was lucky I guess and able to with an act of care towards that young man help him too.

Jacinda Arden is a living legend of emotional and political sound judgment and progressive thinking and leadership, unfortunately as with Obama possibly leading sadly to the rise of Trumpism in the US, New Zealander’s just need to hope and vote in for no anti Arden, Trump like figure to rise up on the side of the opposition of her party when she steps down.

I like to think of myself as an effective human-being and love the fact that i don’t need to be aggressive in order to express myself or be myself or in order to do the right think. In work during training this week I was told I can be too helpful to customers of the council – I can’t really see how I can be too helpful. If they need the help and I have the knowledge, time or power to provide it then why not?

There is a phrase about random acts of kindness in my mind acts of kindness are not random it is the consequences of those acts that are random.

Sometimes if not all the time I want to express acts of kindness because we live in a cruel world and not decide to be unkind because of that cruel world, I’m not a push over and have values, ideas, opinions and boundaries. There are things I will help to happen and things I will help to prevent and my views will most likely differ to yours in what I consider to be an act of kindness as opposed to an act that will cause more harm than good.

The war on climate change – just your typical father and son small talk!

I went out for a meal with my father last week, a sort of pre-birthday pub meal for him and as so often happens we got talking about the world, democracy and climate change, you know just your typical type of small talk you might say!

The way that it came up in the conversation it really is very much like the areas of conversation were all connected. My father is an educated man, more intelligent than me by far, has a better grasp of the English language, loves to read books and also listens a lot to BBC radio 4 which is our UK radio station for informing people and educating people.

So he is well armed to have a discussion about almost any subject matter and express his views on it eloquently and to the point.

Whereas for me on the other hand I am a news junkie mostly about what is going on in the local area as well as globally the good and bad. From watching the news on the TV, reading articles on the web and also keeping an eye on social media and blogs. I am also dyslexic and struggle to read books and struggle to remember what I have read  so I don’t tend to gain information from long articles or books, my memory has evolved in a different way, where I have an emotional memory that  remembers things in relation to my emotional connection to them or from a pictorial or visual stimulus too rather than from remembering words from a page I would rather look at pictures that as they say is worth a thousand words.

There are many things that me and my Dad agree on but also it seems the longer you talk to anyone about any subject the more you find to disagree about rather than agree. We are both fearful for the future of the planet and humanity, we both in our own way try to do our own bit whether that is simply recycling consuming ethically, donating to charities and also advocating change for others when appropriate. But when it comes to our world views he is very much a pessimist and thinks we are all doomed and hopes he is wrong where as I am very much more of an optimist and hope we are not all doomed and hope I am not proven wrong.

With the recent heat waves, fires and lack of rain that have struck Europe over the last few weeks it always makes me think that although we might have it bad here its far worse in the area of the globe that have had famine, food shortages and lack of water for decades such places in Africa that are far hotter it than us for far longer too make me feel like there can never be time for a poor me attitude for how bad I might think I have ever had it in relation to how bad others have and will have it in the future.  

We had a brief respite from the heat today when a storm came over Exeter, it was only a little one but the air and coolness in that storm and rain was sweet.

Storm clouds over Exeter today

Ocean Colour Scene – The Riverboat Song

A time of rebirth

I have become obsessed and passionate about ecocide and rewilding since lockdown in my bubble. Globally there are many areas of wildlife that can be rewilded and enable the eco-defence shield and buffering of Mother Nature or earth, but the re-establishment of wildlife areas and prevention of the dismantlement of what is still left is in no way a certainty. It must be advocated for, worked for and potentially managed. The costs of not doing this are far greater than any cost spent to achieve it.

I strongly believe that by protecting the future of the land and seas we protect the future of man and without the land and seas there is no future.

There is a strong rebirth at the moment into looking to re-evaluate the recent and long-term history of humanity and more specifically an acknowledgment of the slave trade and injustice to ethnic minorities. People are now seekers of truth and justice and wish for a new vision of history and the right to a new and fairer future and society.

Though this change of perspective, thought shift or acknowledgment of pain and a need for healing has come about due to great personal hurt, anger and tragedy. I hope that there is potential for a greater positivity and good to be achieved from this moment in time.

I also feel that as well as looking to the scars and bloodied past of human history we should also look to the scars and bloodied past of the land and sea hence my focus on ecocide and rewilding.

We must though endeavour not to be haunted by our pasts but enlightened by it.

Song – Times Like these