AI

My friend and I were discussing the Sci-Fi movie AI a while back and we couldn’t help but be riotously amused that the first uses we put AI and robotics to, according to the movie, was sex. Stop frowning and watch the movie.

We fantasized about placing our order of robo-chick.

H.O.E. Robots: How may we help you?

Me: I would like a robochick, well rounded.

H.O.E. Robots: Anything else?

Me: Yeah, do you have the 2025 Model? I liked her eyes.

H.O.E. Robots: Well, those were a classic, not available except to our valued customers.

Me: What?! Am I not a valued customer?

H.O.E. Robots: Do you own a Natalie Portman© 2050?

Me: Er… No.

H.O.E. Robots: Then no, you are not a valued customer.

Me: Well, I owned the Monicah Lewinski© 2003 Model, doesn’t that count for something?

H.O.E. Robots: That counts for zip, she was only good at one thing and she couldn’t multi-task. Isn’t that why you got rid of her?

Me: No, she kept staining my clothes. She said she didn’t know why she did it. She said it was a deep seated compulsion.

(It went on for hours)

The fact is, AI is coming and yet we persist in burying our heads in the sand. We refuse to discuss the implications of it's arrival. The theme has been explored in countless novels and movies and yet this only manages to grab our attention for a maximum of 2 hrs. We have been weaned since the early Sci-Fi’s of the fifties to be afraid of AI.
(Forbidden planet,etc)

Personally, I am looking forward to having a conversation with an AI. The human thought processes are conditioned, limited due to unavoidable circumstances like the fact that we have to eat, we have to sleep, religion and that eventually we will die. But here is an intelligence unencumbered by any of those things. Here is an intelligence that can roam into areas that the human mind still refuses to discuss, like what it is to be human. Here is an intelligene that will think of the possibility of there being a god without feeling any guilt.

Here is an intelligence for which the word objective doesn’t even scratch the surface.

Cold, no conscience just logic.

I believe in studying such an intelligence, we will learn what it is to be human in finding out what separates us from that robot. AI is the very definition of Pandora’s Box. Once we let out the genie, it will never get back in the lamp, never.

Perhaps we should be cautious but as Neo was so often told, it IS inevitable.

I’m still looking forward to it though.

Government

Government is an art, not a science.

In the future, when the curtain closes on this whole shebang, those who look back with the aim of understanding government will realize one thing; good government depends not on rules, laws and procedures but on the character of the ruler.

The problem with laws is that they lack any humanity. They have no conscience and that is why a man in western who steals his neighbour’s chicken will get sentenced to life in prison while the Pattnis and the Somaias get next to nothing. The law is an arse without any guiding conscience behind it.

Laws are written, ostensibly, to protect the weak but we should know that the laws are actually written to serve the powerful. It is the powerful who write these laws so what do you expect. New governments always start well but end up falling into the trap all the rest do. They begin to lean towards autocratic forms and increasingly serving a select group. The group may vary from government to government but it always exists.

It is because of this that experiment of democratic government has, in my opinion failed. It is because of this that voter apathy is on the rise, especially among the more established democracies. The feeling that voting serves no purpose but to give the same batch of autocrats, masquerading as servants of the people, the chance to perpetuate their rule is widespread. We all know this. Think on it, nothing has really changed since our gaining independence. For a moment there was a flash of hope but that’s all it was, a flash. I put it to you that the people in power haven’t really changed. The names have changed, but the people, the ideas, the memes (pronounced meems) are still here.

If it is indeed true that good governance depends entirely on the good character of the rulers, and that the whole machinery of state will be at the behest of the rulers, then it is clear that a great deal of thought must be put into the mechanisms we use to choose our leaders. The idea of a popularity contest must have seemed good at some point in the past but now, with the benefit of hindsight, most will agree that it has failed or at least that it has been subverted.

It has been said that power corrupts. Others have amended that to say that power attracts the corruptible. I tend to agree with the latter. Now reconcile this with the idea of democratic government and you will realize that the only people who run for president are those who WANT to be president and this very trait should count against them. It is quite a dilemma.

I tend to think that our modes of choosing leaders should change. Democracy has at the very least been sabotaged and that the time for something new is upon us. I want good people to run this world. Good people who will do what is right for the majority even if the majority do not agree. Most of you will probably react with disgust at my last statement but I will not retract it.

Quis Cuodes Custodiet?

Who will guard the guardians?

Guys, do you remember GHC? I do.

One of the first things we learn about in civics is that the government is divided, supposedly, into three arms, the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. These three arms are supposed to be completely independent of each other to allow them to function for the good of the state (you and I).

This separation is supposed to make it difficult for one particular arm to lord it over the others. A recent example of the success of this principle was the outlawing of those Alcoblow© gadgets that, from my point of view, had come to be quite a menace.

To remind those of you who have forgotten, some bright spark at some police department decided that people were dying too much from driving straight into roundabouts and other vehicles. He (it might have been a she) decided that the problem was that there were too many drunk drivers at night. How else would you explain head-on collisions on one-way highways?

So this bright spark suggested to his boss “Hey, why don’t we pull guys over at random at night and see if they are drunk? Sure we won’t get them all, but at least we’ll get some.”

His boss told him not to be stupid. “I mean, there are some people out there who could be punch drunk and you wouldn’t be able to know.” His boss then passed out.

Our bright spark, being a bright spark, saw his boss’s point immediately. Thus, the Alcoblow© was bought. And for a while, it was okay. Then some other bright, drunk, spark decided that there was no way a machine could smell his breath and decide that he couldn’t get home. “Crap, I have driven home with no memories of the drive the nexsht day.”

So, to court and the cops are told by the judges “That shit is illegal, you can’t go around pointing tubes at peoples mouths and believing what you see. How will we trust that you yourself aren’t too drunk to tell the difference between red and green? Next time you want to do anything of the kind, come and ask if it is legal. Now get out. ”

The system at work eh? Doctrine has become more powerful than reason. Wrong or right, the system worked. This kind of thing is supposed to reduce excesses in government.

Another thing we learnt and have seen in action is that the parliament is the most powerful organ in the country. That is why they have the audacity to tell the government to reduce spending while the first bill they passed was "We will get more money because we need new cars and we need to look after our constituents. And do not ask us why, we are more important than you"

There IS a parlaimentary select committee that is supposed to look into government spending but hello, isn't the damn thing composed of parliamentarians and people in government? Shit, if it wasn't tragic it would be funny. Why the hell would a rational human being write a damning report on themselves? And you actually expect a good report on the Anglo-leasing scam? Pull your head out of the sand!

While the government spend that 800 million on cars, remember that every single MP got a GRANT of 3 Million to buy themselves a car. That's 600 making a total of 1.4 Billion on the cars themselves excepting allowances on fuel and maintenance.
So you see? Parliament and government are in bed together.

Then they run to foreigners asking for 2 Billion to help alleviate hunger. Shit! Maybe we should force them to eat that 4 tonne consignment of dog food.

Who will guard us from the guardians.