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Computer
Intelligence Threat Foreseen by Hawking
Cambridge
physicist Stephen Hawking sees a future danger inherent in "computer
intelligence", the possibility that "they" could
one day, with artificial intelligence, take over the world.
This
forecast is leveraged off of what might occur based on the continued
success in doubling of computer speeds (currently, at a somewhat
steady doubling every 18 months).
To
guard against this danger, Hawking proposes that targeted human
DNA enhancements might enable humans to improve to the point
of maintaining control over computers.
Also
of importance, Hawking proposes development of direct computer
to brain connections so that increasing computer performance
(artificial brains) contribute to human intelligence rather
than competing with us and dominating us.
Sources:
- Ananova
- Independent
News [link inactive]
Young
Steering Clear of Clergy & Nun Careers in Ireland
An
average decrease of 500 clergy per year, since 1990, has occurred
in Ireland. The impact on those desiring to become nuns has
been even more severe. Nevertheless, Ireland remains one of
the most devoutly catholic countries in Europe.
Since
religion is integral in Irish culture / secular affairs, the
decrease in interest in religious careers is adversely impacting
many functions (in hospitals and schools) formerly supported
by religious entities.
Source:
- Sunday
Times [link inactive]
Harry
Potter - Both Demon and Christ?
Yet
the latest in a long list of religious conflicts conveying the
impression that religions are naught but human constructs for
human ends, the disparate and conflicting reactions of religious
entities to a popular children's book series (and upcoming movie),
the Harry Potter stories.
American
religious conservatives have succeeded in getting Harry Potter
books cast out of libraries in some southern states. A group
called The Traditional Values Coalition asserts that the books
encourage witchcraft and promote homosexuality and abortion.
They created a video regarding perceived dangers to children
who read the books. They state that "The
original witch was undoubtedly a black, bisexual warrior."
On
the other side of the religious fence, Harry Potter has been
deified by a catholic church in America. In Syracuse, New York,
a catholic church has compared Harry Potter to Jesus. The comparisons
of Harry Potter to Jesus and a description of Voldemont as "evil
and disgusting" are now part of catholic instruction adored
by children in catholic schools who are, in any case, entranced
by the Harry Potter stories.
So,
as always, religions treat everything from fertilization of
a gamete to a popular children's book series as items to be
manipulated for whatever purposes "the church" deems
apropos, and god remains consistently silent on, well, all matters,
from zygotes to Harry Potter to, well, everything.
The
clearest and all-but certain answer for the silence by god?
Nonexistence, with all the religious constructs reflecting nothing
but human desires superimposed upon a magic super-being, with
the super-being used for whatever the human imagination desires
it to be used for.
Source:
- Sunday
Times [link inactive]
Colorful
Tires - No Air Required - Totally
Recyclable - No
Blowouts
Sound
too good to be true? Well, maybe not. Goodyear, in conjunction
with Amerityre (a producer of urethane tires for bikes, lawn
mowers, farm equipment) is developing a no blowout non-rubber
tire. The tire would be designed to eliminate the risk of tread
separation which leads to blowouts and accidents.
The
basis for the new tire? Urethane, already a substance used in
running shoe treads, online skate wheels, and the tires listed
above. The material cannot go flat nor can it blow out.
The
tire being developed doesn't require air, but rides better with
a little air, about 5 psi. Also, the tires are completely
recyclable and emit no carcinogens.
Last,
but not least, especially if you're into expressions of individuality
and identity apart from black & white, the tires can be
produced in any color. Memories of the yellow tires in Roger
Rabbit come to mind ...
Source:
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Religious
Injuriousness
Hell,
one of the most injurious religious constructs ever devised,
is in fact nothing but an imaginary place / fate / state of
being in an "us vs. them" manner with "them"
always the ones destined for hell.
God is similarly naught but an imaginary being treated as if
it was real by folks willing to suspend doubt.
Both
god and hell are in fact whatever you wish them to be in your
imagination, as they're both imaginary constructs, demonstrated
in a wide array of conflicting ways in cultures documented in
recorded history.
The
christian bible is diverse in construct / composition, a human
document that's quite evidential when it comes to what the writers,
interpolators, churches, and others involved in the over thousand
year effort were up to.
To
those who claim hell is real and earned and a result of choice
of humans, not god, quite a forceful guilt-trip/god "off
the hook" posit, that. In rejecting that, first off, hell
is an imaginary place / state of being. Second off, god is an
imaginary being. Third off, choice requires evidence.
If
one stated "believe in the be-all end-all best greatest
most super most human-centered super-being one can possibly
imagine -or- burn in hell -and- believe in that entity in a
dogmatic way critical for immortality ...", would you feel
you'd been given a choice or would you feel that you had received
a threat of something anyone with the mind of a hateful and
manipulative child could dream up?
What
is hell, really? It's a critical piece of the religious pie,
an imaginary place / state of being for "them", those
not one with religious edicts / demands, invented by a wide
array of cultures / religions as a threat mechanism to manipulate
folks and force them to acquiesce to religious dogma. Put another
way, it's evidence of the blackmail motif of religious faith.
In
the beginning of the Jewish - Christian myth parade (and, much
later, a variation on same designed for an Arabic-based culture,
the creation myth of Islam) is Genesis.
Genesis
wasn't even the first book written in the bible. Genesis is
full of myths from preceding Mesopotamian cultures. The God
of Genesis is clearly a superstitious stab in the dark, nothing
but a human created substitute for unknowns, like all the other
creation myths whipped up by cultures across the globe.
God
and hell are human created myths. Both were created out of ignorance,
fear, hate, desire for power, desire for manipulation, desire
for control, temptation to fill in unknowns with superstition
and "make believe" rather than the humbling "I
don't know", desire to come up with explanations for unknowns
where none in fact existed in a pre-scientific mindset, and
other needs conducive for those able to use said stances / superstitions
for status, control, power, personal gain, authoritarianism,
and influence.
The
references to hell in multiple human cultures, including the
christian / jewish / islamic ones, are revelation of the factors
iterated above. The bible is simply an amalgamation of borrowed
/ copied myths from multiple cultures, by human writers over
more than a 1,000 years.
Thanks
in no small measure to Alexander the Great's conquering most
of the known world, Greeks were really big in that picture,
both in interpreting the Jewish works of the Old Testamyth and
in constructing the myths of the New Testamyth.
Those
efforts were inspired by Greek exposure to a cornucopia of myth
factories in their own culture as well as the Mesopotamian,
Persian, Indian, Egyptian, Roman, and other cultures of the
day and age in which the Old Testamyth was translated into Greek,
and the New Testamyth was written in Greek.
Jesus
is a caricature of assorted son of god stories prevalent through
the myth steeped cultures of the day and age in which, in Greek,
the synoptics and John were put together.
Of
note, the Jews, Christians, Muslims have widely variant, and
impossible to reconcile, versions of the Jesus character, so
the answer to the Jesus questions reside not in religion, but
in rational skeptical inquiry, for which, other than religious
writings and interpolations from next-to-'nil documents, there
is no evidence the character is anything but religious fiction
placed amongst the goings on of the time period the fiction
was placed in.
As
for the hell used by writers of the New Testamyth, simply put,
the writers and the follow-up church entities fed off of a fiction
of immortal torment for reasons of control, manipulation, survival,
perpetuation, hate, and evil. Clearly, the historical record
is evidence of this fact.
The
willingness of religions to leave the evil aspects of the bible
'as is', even in the modern age, demonstrates the inability
and/or lack of will of the church entities to do away with the
threat / torment aspects of their litany of myths.
Refined
in a digestible way, evil perpetuated and manifested in the
myths upon which the church (a.k.a. churches, religions, synagogues,
monasteries, temples, faiths, mosques, etc.) depends on for
its very
survival.
Keep
in mind, the nuances of allegory / make believe / human construction
/ metaphor / myth are lost by "bible is word of god"
types, children, fear of god positers, innumerable bible passages,
"hellfire and brimstone evangelizers", and other fear-based
dogma inherent in a submission to almighty being motif which
is the cornerstone of faith-following.
Life
is precious by virtue of human nature discerning it as so. No
human myths are required or desired to treasure life.
We
live in a natural world in which now, each and every now, is
all you'll ever have. Such is the nature of that which is. Nothing
can be experienced outside the now. Now is the nature of the
eternity of our experience. Everything you are, everything you
can be, always takes place in the now.
The
past - irreversible ...
The
future - unknown ...
The
now? All that is.
The
ultimate meaning of life is to find the veritable ultimate meaning
of life. Sex, food, drugs, rock and roll, drink, status, social
contacts, art, freedom from authority, emotional fulfillment,
education, philosophical exploration, love, child-rearing, and
a whole host of other concepts offer humans meaning on many
levels apart from and intertwined with absolute or ultimate
ones.
To
exist, ah, therein resides the fulfillment of that which is
the eternal now.
One
might ask, how does one know there is no god? One might add,
how does one know there is a finality to that which is this
eternal now?
To
the first, I would reply that the evidence is clear that humans
created the concept of god and placed it (and continue to place
it) in innumerable boxes, confined by human expectations, wants,
fears, desires.
To
the latter, I would reply that one cannot know oblivion, although
one can determine that based on all that is, the destiny for
each of us may very well be oblivion.
We
are offered samples of oblivion each and every night, in our
obliviousness to all that takes place outside our sleeping departure
from the world of consciousness. Also, recall that each of us
emerged from a world of oblivion prior to that precious initial
conscious moment when each of us, for the first time, felt alive,
emerging from nothingness.
We
are no more and no less, on an absolute and ultimate level,
than the totality of all that is. What is that totality? Unknown,
but some of the brightest human minds on the planet are working
on it (and those minds are focused on finding ultimate answers
via scientific pursuits, not via the empty promises and inherent
limitations of religion).
A
better way than religious injuriousness?
A
seeking mind ...
(divorced
from faith/belief, accepting of the verity of a natural world,
at one with that which is the ultimate natural destiny for all
of us, apart from all the brainwashed fear of imaginary beings
that most have been exposed to 'til now by bible/church/peers
and our society) ...
yields
an opportunity to be at peace with that which is the reality
of our natural / ongoing / ever-progressing / eye-opening /
mind-expanding / thrilling and inspiring ...
revelation
of that which is a natural world of wonder ...
and
mystery ...
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