AI and the Pace of Change
Because of AI, are we on a slo-mo path to losing our humanness?
Gender Balance
If your company does not have gender balance, are you just being stubborn, or even worse, stupid?
Can we change for the better?
In my lifetime we stopped carrying guns into the saloon… more
Let’s put an end to hate-mongering.
Letter to Editor, News Gazette, December 29,2019
If we live in a 50-50 country, do we hate each other?
Evangelicals, how long do you apologize for Trump’s lies and vulgarity?
Liar, Liar
“Yes, I know Trump said (tweeted) this, and it is not something I would’ve said, but…..”. We’ve heard this lame apology thousands of times by thousands of apologists. How many apologies does he deserve?
Trump is a pathological liar in that he has told lies every day for 3+ years of his presidency. But if you’re going to tell me all politicians lie, then what do we tell our kids? Do we continue to try to teach them to not lie, but in the case of politics, it’s okay to lie? How absurd is that!
Let’s face it, we all need to accept the truth that the president is a liar, we need to stop apologizing for it or trying to spin it away, and we need to make him accountable for it. Otherwise, what kind of spineless parents and citizens are we?
C’mon, Trump knows exactly what he’s doing. He doesn’t care about you any more than he does about me or anybody else. He’s in it for himself.
In Dystrumpia, we are all Trump’s Chumps.
Further reading: control the meme, control the narrative: Information Warfare Scott | fake news: American Pravda O’Keefe | human interaction: Talking to Strangers Gladwell | skepticism & conspiracy: Alex Jones’ Infowars | social media: Antisocial Marantz, The Misinformation Age O’Connor
America, who are we?
Balancing Towards Peace, Equality, and Freedom
The world is constantly trying to balance itself both in nature and society. Countries and the people within those countries (haves and have-nots, minorities, poor, marginalized) that have had far less than the United States are hungry to work hard to achieve equivalent power, wealth, and quality-of-life.
That would seem fair if you put yourself in their shoes, but people currently holding the power and money don’t just freely give it away, You have to fight for it, so the process of balancing is rocky, mistakes are made, and the pendulum sometimes swings too far, but over time the balancing will happen and stability is achieved.
The world will always be in flux when it is out of balance. Balance is the ultimate truth and state for world stability and peace and that knowledge should drive our decisions as a global community. Over time, nationalism must recede and acquiesce to the inevitable globalization and balancing of our planet if we are to (a) stop fighting each other all the time, and (b) sustain ourselves as a species.
Free Speech
Should America defend a person’s right to free speech against China? If not, how deeply will China intrude into and muzzle our society?
Is White Nationalism in control of the White House?
We Don’t Hate You
Letter to Editor, News Gazette, December 29, 2019
Americans stand shoulder-to-shoulder with people of all races, religions, nationalities and political affiliations to do the work of the nation. In CU we have the good fortune to work with people from all over the world, which reminds us we all want the same things: to have good jobs, to take care of our families, and to enjoy happy and healthy lives.
So when I hear Representative Stewart (R-Utah) say, “They hate those of us that voted for him,” I cry foul because that would mean we the people — red, white, and blue — hate our families, friends, neighbors and co-workers, and that is an outright lie.
“They hate those of us that voted for him.”
Liberal and conservative politicians come and go and while their words and actions seem loud and bold for the moment, the country eventually absorbs the consequences of their decisions and their political legacies recede over time.
But what IS constant are the contributions of every American citizen. It’s the American people who make the economy spin, educate our children, take care of the poor and sick, volunteer for good causes, and enlist to defend the nation. Politicians may take credit for the results, but it’s the American people and the organizations they support that do the work.
To the American people I say, “Thank YOU for your service!”
Don’t ever let a mean-spirited politician try to speak for you and put hateful words in your mouth which serve to further divide and damage our democracy.
Let’s end the hate mongering and restore civility!
Should Trump be removed from office?
What is a Hero?
Heroes take a risk (their jobs, their lives) and display courage and self-sacrifice for the greater good. Colin Kaepernick took a risk and single-handedly started a conversation that may inspire constructive solutions to unjustified police violence.
But the bitter irony is that Kaepernick has been ostracized and blackballed from playing in the NFL. Some may say he got what he deserved. Some may say he is a hero. Time will tell and history (the people) will be the judge.
first they ignore you,
then they ridicule you,
then they fight you,
then you win
Gandhi
When corporations fear their highly profitable businesses are threatened by new, loud voices for social justice and change, owners/shareholders react swiftly with any means to protect their assets and profitability. In these scenarios, constitutional fairness is pushed to the sidelines. This is when capitalism shows its most pure and ruthless face in spite of higher principles in play.
It’s Not Impeachable!
Democrats have no sense of humor. They were appalled when Trump mocked a disabled reporter in public. Sure, his humor is edgy, but it’s not impeachable!
Democrats whine about Trump’s illegal use of his charity, defrauding Trump University students, and filing for 6 bankruptcies. It’s not easy running an empire, and it’s not impeachable!
I’m sure many democratic men would like to have sex with porn stars (“you can grab them by the” you-know-what) while they are cheating on multiple wives, but they just couldn’t pull it off like the Donald, and it’s not impeachable!
Democrats think Trump is mean, but they confuse that with being tough. I bet if you were separated from your kids at the border, you’d think twice about doing that again! He’s just making America great again and by golly, that’s not impeachable!
Democrats should read Trump’s “The Art of the Deal”. Even though he’s being played by Putin, Rocket Man, MBS, Erdogan, Trudeau, Merkle and Johnson, that’s his “stable genius” strategy at work, and that’s not impeachable!
Democrats have never lied (what!). So what if Trump plays fast and loose with the truth (has Mexico sent their check for the wall yet?), he gets things done, and that’s not impeachable!
Democrats don’t have the guts to call Republicans “human scum” (whoops! Trump was having a bad hair day), but they don’t. We are so blessed to have this wild and crazy guy, and he’s not impeachable!
He’s the chosen one, so get over it!
Approval Voting
I believe in and vote for ideas, principles and character, not a party, because our two-party system — fueled by tribalism and fake news — has devolved into a poisoned institution that is like a badly divorced couple that demonize each other at every turn.
The campaigns, backed by enormous capital, have become killing machines that are not past doing anything to scuttle a candidate and the other party’s ship. They mirror the overall problems we have with BIG BUREAUCRACY in general with too much unchecked wealth and power, and when and where that happens, waste, cronyism, corruption, and fraud fester and grow in plain sight.
We can solve this by migrating away from our system of plurality voting (vote for only one candidate) to a system of approval voting which provides open access to the political arena for all deserving parties and independent candidates. An approval voting system allows people to vote for several candidates for an elected position, and the candidate with the highest number of votes is declared the winner. Approval voting can become a check-and-balance against the cumulative abuses of the two-party system which is whipsawing our democracy in a destructive fashion.
The Disruption of Being Lost
algorithms drive mobile drive people drive groups drive society drives cities drive countries drive…
…our world
When she looked back on it, she could see that even though society pushed hard to innovate and make progress and make life easier and more fulfilling through machines and computers, the unintended irony was that the more progress was made, the more a piece of our brains was going dark forever. But in the beginning, it was happening in slow motion so we didn’t notice it and were not aware of it. And then the acceleration of technology became a blur which brought changes to our lives so fast that it was overwhelming.
— a few years earlier —
One fine day she was taking a walk with a friend who said something that shook her up.
“Do you realize that for the first time in human history we will never be lost?” her friend said, holding up his smartphone. “I mean, with this smartphone and GPS and maps, we will never be lost! Being lost was a big thing in our day. It was part of the randomness of life; it was risky; it could make you break out into a cold sweat.
People got lost all the time. It could really strike a deep fear in you. If you got lost in a strange city, you could be in some deep shit. If you got lost in the forest or on top of a mountain, you could die! But if you got lost and eventually found your way back using your survival skills and instincts, it was the most tremendous feeling of relief that you had skirted disaster but made it through. You had an exciting story to tell all your friends and it felt good like you were really living life out there on the edge.”
“And so, what’s you point?” she asked.
“Well, that’s all gone! I mean, think about our kids. They will never know the fear and exhilaration of being lost. If fact, the definition of the word won’t mean anything to them. Lost is forever disrupted by technology. Don’t you feel that something fundamental to the edginess of life is now gone? Lost is lost! So many things are now gone having been replaced by a technology that is accelerating faster and faster by the day.”
She looked at her phone and the MAPS icon on the face and said, “Wow, this really snuck up on mankind, didn’t it?”
“Yeah!”
They stopped walking and stood facing each other contemplating the significance of it all.
“This is incredible!” she said. “There should’ve been a worldwide announcement, a tickertape parade on Fifth Avenue, massive midnight fireworks in every megacity on planet earth. But we were all so absorbed scrolling our Twitter feed that we missed it.”
They walked over to a bench next to the running path and sat down and stared silently for a while watching the runners, dog walkers, and skateboarders pass by.
“What the hell does this mean?” she said. “Is this not that big of a deal, or is it a very big deal? Or is it that we have become so used to a new innovation on our smartphones almost every day, that we have become desensitized to the acceleration of it all and we’ve lost our perspective of the big picture. Nobody seems to care because we are all so delighted in our devices and technology and apps and everything that is being done for us. Why are we not at least a little skeptical of this? Just because we can, doesn’t mean that we should. But it’s hard to resist these apps. They’re very addictive which I assume is the strategy.”
Her friend nodded his head and said, “The speed and complexity of our days – I think it’s getting to everybody. And what’s scary is there’s no way to slow it down.”
Her friend leaned over and picked up a twig on the ground and started to make two vertical and two crossing horizontal lines for an old-school game of tic-tac-toe in the dirt. He looked up and said, “You know what I can’t do anymore? I can’t compute change in my head when I’m ordering food at the counter. And I can’t remember anybody’s phone number. I used to be able to remember everybody’s phone number but I just can’t do it anymore. But, who needs to?”
“And nobody really writes anymore,” she said. “I saw an online course being offered for Rediscovering the Lost Art of Sentences. Nobody cares much about spelling or grammar. It’s a 280-character bullet and off you go. Which reminds me, I’ve got to get back to the office.”
She pulled out her smartphone and opened her UBER app and then looked up and said, “And you know what else is lost? Forgetting!”
“Forgetting what?” her friend asked.
“Anything!” she said, holding up her smartphone in answer to the question as the UBER driver pulled up.
Further reading: AI-generated software: bayou | app economy: Apptopia | automobiles: Tesla patents | blockchain platform: Blockchain for the Enterprise Gupta | cognitive offloading: Augmented Human Papagiannis | development platform: GitHub | distributed computing: hadoop | essay: Why Software Is Eating The World Andreessen | find the right software: Capterra | hardware: Open Source Hardware Association | value stream management (VSM): Tasktop, Value Stream Kennaley
