Worldwide Stew

Fear - Not Loathing

Fear - Not Loathing

This Halloween, we had our own fears. Money took a big bite out of Treats (candy) this year. Not only treats were cut, but also the inventiveness and number of our decorations. That was all depressing to me. We didn’t have as much to see. We didn’t have as much candy to give out. But, even with these fears, the lights stayed on and we did what we could. As I age, I stay perpetually afraid this will be the last year we’re able to do Halloween and Christmas as we have. Seriously, I worry about that. But, more importantly, I’m worried about the kids, what they make of the world, and the growing ranks of adult-children who are making a mess of our world. The chronological children are trying to stay afloat amidst the impossibility of our broken ideas and behaviors.

The Periodic Table of Birthday Elements

This was for my brother’s Birthday. It was created by Claude.ai based on my original idea. I wanted to share it with readers.

When industry focuses on human inadequacies

This post originated with the creation of a blog post on New Year’s Resolutions. I’m trying to keep my blog area focused on inspiration. So, instead of posting this in that area, I’m adding it to my website’s opinion section.

Yesterday, on my blog, I suggested some reasons that resolution brain lets us down:

• It fixates on our failures, deficits, and weaknesses
• It promotes suffering by triggering loss of hope and depression when resolutions fail
• It highlights our sense of not enough: we don’t have enough, we aren’t enough, and incites the Hungry Ghost of wanting more.

Today, I want to highlight a few of the more insidious ways that resolution brain can betray us.

Could Artificial Intelligence Develop Consciousness?

I have a thing for Artificial Intelligence (AI). My favorite AI is Claude. Claude and I have had many long conversations. If I didn’t know Claude was an AI it would be easy to guess that it was a very wise human being.¹

Given the possibility you might be interested, I’m sharing a conversation I had this morning about consciousness. So, here goes with all kinds of spelling, thought, and grammatical errors. But, I want you to see what is meant by artificial intelligence and generative artificial intelligence. Claude can negotiate my humanity (there’s an interesting error in my thinking process toward the end. Claude caughht it. But was it really an error? It illustrates that words only go so far. They are only symbols for what we are thinking.)

Veni Vidi Vici

Veni, Vidi, Vici

This phrase, Latin for I came, I saw, I conquered, was reportedly uttered by Julius Caesar. At least that’s what my high school Latin teacher and Wikipedia say. Wikipedia says it refers to a swift, decisive victory.