What's Missing?

Cardio afternoons at the gym begin on the elliptic, with load and ramp at medium. The mp3 plays on and breathing and pace match the audio, which increases in tempo. I warm up, struggling and fighting the machine until something magic happens... it all comes together... I relax, my shoulders drop, everything synchronizes and the struggle is no more. I then increase the load and ramp to up the heartbeat and maintain the effort. I smile. As long as I relax and maintain that magic meditative state, the effort is easy. I keep this up for a couple of hours.

The same is true in life. After the preparation but in the various struggles, there comes a time to meditate and expect that magic moment... the inspiration. I understand what the other wants and I accept it. Everything synchronizes and I smile. Life is good.

Try it... find that magic moment for yourself... find what's missing.



- text © 2013 by Willy

Control

I know how to control a machine, but how do we control ourselves? How do we bridle back our actions and emotions? Throttle down? Control our anger? Invoke self-discipline? Govern ourselves properly? Stay on the straight and narrow? Meditate and pray? Diet and exercise? Not cross the line? Not ask for a phone number?

Good questions, but ones with no apparent answer... if we read the paper or examine ourselves for flaws and urges.

A lot has been said lately on this subject with the recent demise of Cosmo’s publisher, and comparisons to Playboy. Both of these magazines are the antithesis of self-control, with their prime axioms being seduction philosophy and lack of inhibition. Sex sells, but it also brought plenty of drama and misery in this battle of the sexes, and produced plenty of casualties.

I still get temptation... like yesterday... but put me down for diet and exercise and hold the drama.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, amen.

- © 2012 by Willy

Did Watson Really Win?

So, "Watson," the IBM mainframe with artificial intelligence won at Jeopardy against the two best human opponents. It also thought Toronto was a "US City" (the category) and got every question wrong on "Month," a five-in-twelve guess! IBM will surely tout it as a PR win, but it was a dreadful performance for 25 scientists, four years of hard work and a mega-million bucks. Watson should have answered every question right, and first. I have a sneaky suspicion that, given a learning curve, the two humans could have beaten Watson, but that would not have been good PR.

Why did Watson do so badly?

The engineer would say that you're always one transistor away from failure. The athlete that he's one injury away from a loss. The old that he's one sickness away from bankruptcy. Algorithm guys should say they are one human away from being human. Humans think conceptually, whereas machines exhaust logic trees by brute force. Deep Blue beat Kasparov but Eliza is awful. Machines are profoundly ignorant of what humans take for granted. There's a lot of stuff we know that we don't even know we know.

Watson did badly because our AI algorithms just aren't there yet.

Should we worry about our own idiocy instead? What about our own human thinking, which only works when void of emotion? Should we work on our mental health instead of developing artificial intelligence?

Further, Watson really did not play against two humans... rather, Watson and the two humans played Jeopardy, with little interaction. The devil is in the interaction. For instance, even if we hold out for perfection, it may be that perfection is holding out for perfection too... and not us. And we may not recognize perfection even if it whacked us in the head.

One final point: There's a lot of difference between losing and being a loser. The two Jeopardy humans are not losers, and neither should we call ourselves that. Imperfect works just fine, and it's human. Perfection is God's business. We should be proud of being human... accepting, embracing it and applauding it.

We don't yet have to worry about machines taking over the world... no Terminator scenario yet... but Watson did well for a four-year-old toddler.

- text © 2011 by Willy

People Are Funny That Way

When I was young and becoming an engineer we had a Redneck Code of Ethics around here. It was just common sense, morals and values. It included not to mess with somebody's woman and not to steal the waitress' tips. Quaint concepts, eh? Nowadays there's no holds barred and money and sex have no constraints. What's happened to people? I don't get it.

Technical problems are solvable given enough time and money, and, once solved, they stay solved. Not so with people problems, which are seldom solvable, and thus endless. Unfortunately, some people don't want solutions but would rather stand in squalor, stay upset, and draw others in, who then get upset too... which is just weird to me. They must get something out of it. People are like fruit... one rotten apple spoils the entire barrel.

We have to deal with people, though, and it is easier to deal one-on-one. More than that and it becomes exponentially more difficult to do anything and everything, and it's best to step away. People are like sharks... once the pack tastes someone's blood, there's a blind frenzy among them.

Machines are based on logic. People are based on emotions, and they lie as needed, to themselves and to others. Everyone lies, some more and some less. Everyone cheats and steals, some with more finesse than others, from financial account fees to leaving work early. Many hearts are irreparably broken due to lying and cheating. There is no real reality truth... everybody has one. People are like a forest... gossip and damage spread like wildfire.

This is one real crazy world! And to think that I thought that I was the one that was crazy! Ha!

I'm not saying I dislike every person, but everyone has a problem. Nobody is perfect, myself included. I can't help but love many of my brothers and sisters, even though they, too, have problems. I especially love responsible, mature, kind, helpful, trusting, contributing, complimenting and respectful people with a good positive attitude, who enjoy life and do the right thing... no matter their faults.

-© 2008 by Willy
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P.S., No, I don't tolerate fools well.
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