REFLECTIONS

Last night I watched the movie Deliver Us From Evil.  It was a frightening story about a cop and a priest.  The policeman gave up his belief in God because of all the evil in the world. The priest looked at the question from a different perspective.  He told the policeman that the question should really be why is there so much good in the world? While the movie was an unbelievable Hollywood story, with an exorcism at the end; what the priest said made sense to me.  God gave us free will so why aren't 't people more evil? Every day most people do good, or at least try to be good. Today I had lunch at Chic-fil-A, fast food restaurant and dropped my tray of food.  My cane caused me to lose my grip. Strangers helped me wipe the floor and pick up the tray. One man said they should have helped me to my table.  Another man went up to the counter to get a replacement for my meal and the manager was glad to oblige. I thanked everyone. I was embarrassed but happily surprised by

It's going to happen and soon.  I'm only hoping that computers will never be self-aware . From Wikipedia: Self-awareness  is the capacity for introspection  and the ability to recognize oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals.  While consciousness  is being aware of one’s environment and body and lifestyle, self-awareness is the recognition of that awareness.  (my highlight) If computers and artificial intelligence never become aware of their awareness then maybe they would have no self-motivation ( Motivated to achieve something due to one's own interest)   to dominate humans. Disaster could still happen but it would be due to a mistake in programming. But if computers and artificial intelligence become self-aware beings then we could be in even more danger. There's an excellent lecture with interesting ideas on this topic.  It's about 16 minutes long. Here's the link: Nick Bostrom- What happens when our compu

Missile carrying drone (A  remote-controlled pilot-less aircraft.) I came across an article about unmanned aircraft which will fight our future wars.  These fighters can fly at speeds that would make a person unconscious due to the tremendous gravitational forces.  These planes will not require a cockpit with oxygen and escape hatch.  They will be controlled by a human the way drones are now controlled. What scares me is the ability to manufacture fighters with artificial intelligence. (The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.) These planes would make decisions and take action on their own without human control.  They are called Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) Eventually they will be able to outwit their human creators; the way Artificial Intelligence can now beat a human at chess. Navy X-47

My last post was about "Women's Ideal Body Types Throughout History". This video is about the men.

Young Woman Holding a Mirror by Giovanni Bellini Date  of Creation: 1515 This video shows how women with full figures (considered overweight by many) were often regarded as having the ideal shape in their time.  An example of the opposite was the extremely skinny shape of the model Twiggy. The descriptions in this video are difficult to read because of the white print on a light background. The speed of the film is a little too fast.  It may be good to stop the video every so often so you can read the descriptions.

Here is a video of an eagle in flight with a camera strapped to its back. This is truly amazing! There are more videos on YouTube.