Heroes Like You

It seems so cliche to say it, but these are difficult times and 2020 has been one difficult time after another. Rather than provide a laundry list, I’ll let you fill those blanks in for yourself. Even as you try to ‘fight the good fight‘, it starts to seem hopeless and you may even find yourself questioning whether there’s any point in trying. It’s good to step back and consider that there always needs to be an island of sanity in the raging sea of madness. Sometimes, it just seems so hopeless and you become convinced that the bad guys …

Zombies are your friends, and other news.

As we enter October, the month of spooky, we turn our attentions to all the scary things that hide in the dark places. Like zombies. Yeah, I know. Zombies are scary undead things that eat brains. The whole “eating your brain” thing would be (or should be) scary enough, but the fact that you then turn into a filthy, smelly, parts falling off, undead thing yourself is also pretty bad. And even though I agree that it’s pretty bad, there’s something you need to know about zombies before you go passing final judgement. Zombies are actually just big goofy creatures …

Noah was what we call a ‘bad drunk’!

After God was done killing everyone and everything on Earth, save for what Noah was hauling aboard the Ark, it came to pass that things had to start anew. Noah, his boys, and their wives set about begetting in order to repopulate the Earth. A man needs hobbies and old Noah, who was already 600 years old at this point, got into wine making, a business I heartily approve of. He also got into wine drinking and would, from time to time, hit the sauce a little hard. Turn, if you will, to Genesis 9, verses 18 to 29 wherein …

Some Thoughts on Capitalism, Universal Basic Income, and Automation

The concept of Universal Basic Income (UBI) is not new, but surprisingly few have heard of it or truly understand the reason for it and why, now more than ever, it is vitally important. In simplest terms, UBI is a regular cash payment made to every person. You don’t need to work for it and you can do anything you want with it. Some see it as money for nothing, a lazy person’s way of getting a handout from the rest of society. Proponents, many of whom don’t actually ‘need’ UBI, see it as a necessary means to keep the …

My Research Paper with Beyoncé and Tommy Hilfiger

You may be tempted to think of Beyoncé as just a talented singer and performer just as you might see Tommy Hilfiger as nothing more than a fashion designer behind a popular clothing brand. You may be tempted, but I ask you to reconsider. Both of these fine people recently joined me in exploring a fascinating topic which has just been published in our research paper titled, “Emulating Interrupts Using Introspective Symmetries.” First and foremost, I have to say that I am extremely excited to have my name associated with such talented people, but also in knowing that the three …

Today’s Bible Quote Examined : Kings 2:23-25

If you’ve every wondered whether God and his prophets have a sense of humour, wonder no further. Harken to the word . . . 23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. 24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children …

Schrödinger’s Elon Musk

Are we living in a simulation? In various interviews, Elon Musk has famously stated that there is a one-in-a-billion chance that we are not living in a simulation. Turning that around, he is saying that we are almost certainly living in a made up universe. A hyper-realistic fantasy. He cites, among other things, the rapid increases in video game development, to show that given enough time, it should be possible to create a perfect simulation. And, if such a perfect simulation has been created, then it must be created time and time again. Some people make light of this argument, …

My Linux Nightmare

Let me tell you about a Linux nightmare I woke up from this morning. Yeah, I know, the Linux chef had a Linux nightmare. If you're looking for how to spell schadenfreude, it's schadenfreude. To be more specific, it was a Linux command line nightmare. You see, in the dream, I was locked up somewhere, with bad hombres of one sort or another having trapped me and whoever I was with in some dungeon-like room. Maybe they were aliens, like real aliens. Doesn't matter. There was no way out but there was all sorts of junk lying around. So, I …

Turing Test Failure

Yesterday, I had a weird Turing moment.  As background to this post, I should tell you that I was listening to a podcast on robots and artificial intelligence where Sam Harris was chatting with Kate Darling. Had I not been listening to this, I might have forgotten about my Turing moment. Here's what happened. Yesterday, I received a call from a telephone solicitor, trying to sell me some emergency service for my furnace, insinuating as they spoke, but they were some safety issues that needed to be addressed. At first I was confused by what he was saying, despite being …

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