Novel

I am apparently staying up all night writing this new novel. I'm thinking about calling it either, "Michelle's been out-of-town for two days" or "Super Needy Cat." Whatever its called, the sequel is going to be, "What was that furry thud?"


-- Mobile and Free

More stories

Machine world where communities of robots link up to delouse one another. The bugs that manifest in a free creative program structure like bad or abortive code snippets that crop up in complex systems and can't be analyzed by the self machine because of epitomogical limits within the kernal. And because it's good for empathy.


-- Mobile and Free

Story

I wonder if a computer which achieves consciousness would go through phases of guiding ideologies which may little by little be "corupted" by counterveiling forces coopt the system and then prepare to be challenged by the next thought. They will until the final outcome is derived. Hopefully.

I don't think you can say logical outcome because computer consciousness presumes an understanding of the illogical. Which may mean that the illogical is a primal force of the real and therefore will never be removed from approaching the final outcome of society.

Incidently, "most logical" is redundant because doing something less logical is in fact illogical therefore the most logical is the only logical.


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Home-cooked meal

When did hamberger helper become a home cooked meal? That stuff was cooked in a factory. All you do at home rub hot water on it.


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Exceptionalism

Part of a response...

I cede the pont that there is something exceptional about the united states that is derived in some part from our proud heritage. What I want to know is how should being exceptional inform our actions around the world?

But first I want to address Will's (hi Will, nice to meet you) point about net benefits. I think there is a danger in reducing this analysis to a mathematical expression. On one hand, it's clear that more benefits minus less harm reaps a net benefit for the world. But off the scratch pad, the two sides don't always cancel each other out because the benefit might not ultimately come to the person who is harmed.

For example, what you get when you pay 100 Pauls by robbing 50 Peters is 50 pissed-off Peters. In domestic economic policy that would rightfully be called a coercive redistribution of wealth. Which, as recent protests in America have shown, has a tendency rub people the wrong way.

But the real question is, as exceptionalists, what principles should we undertake and what are the guidelines we need to follow to enact those principles? Bolton starts his piece talking about exceptionalism as a value, but I don't see how he is suggesting it should be applied. In North Korea Obama's lack of action against the regime there is condemned yet his more forceful ascertions in the Israeli-palestinian conflict is also not part of exceptionalism.

Does it mean we go to war to fight for a free press (Russia,China)? Can we seize any assets we believe support despots (Saudi Arabia, Quwait)? Can we remove children from backward cultures to teach them 21st century skills? How much do we really want to support the global citizen's right to bear arms?

Again, I'm not arguing that we not be exceptional, I'm trying to discover what foreign policy principles grow out of it. I have tried to suggest in my comments that a strategic approach would be to lead by example, be exceptional in our actions with other global actors without hiding behind it as a blank check excuse to be bent to every political whim.
Exceptionalism is a capital to be invested wisely, applied judiciously because it's missapplication poisons the well a little bit more each time. It only gives ammunition to our enemies in the global struggle for hearts and minds. And, it let's the other democracies off the hook when it comes time to stand up on principle.

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San Francisco Seasons

All around the country Americans experience the passing of time by noting the changes in the seasons. They pass through a living clockwork, marking time in the color of the leaves or the freshness of the ice. But not in San Francisco. Nature condemned her to a perpetual indian summer wedged precariously between two fog banks.

Since the seasons cannot be measured by the change in the leaves, in San Francisco, it is measured by the change in the hipsters whose new fashion fads come rolling in with a trickle and steadily build to a torrent by high season. Leaving San Franciscans nothing but to gather together around the hearth and comment on what a long bearded-hipster it was this year, or I hope cheap-white-sunglasses-hipster is dry so we can get the corn in by the 4th.

The last human coders

The last human coders

A dank tech office is the last place where people still work in the
unified computer system. There a group of scholars are in charge of
coding the small bits of information that the computer can't classify.

The office is full of pasty academics chosen for there penchant for
the obscure and the esoteric. Every year they have less work to do.
Day by day they are classifying, categorizing, and identifying
themselves toward oblivion.

The building was five stories high and squated decrepidely across the
whole block at forest between eighth and elm streets. Once, the
Department of Digitization filled the entire structure with analysts
and engineers, buzzing about the business of teaching the Antel DXT
about the world.

Now the waters of this rich delta had receded all the way back the the
source deep in sub basement d. The last terminals int the building
were set up around the main cable trunk as it came in from deep
underground.

But one of the coders realizes something. She sees a thread of
information start to come in that disturbs her and leads he on an
adventure to find out.