Monday, August 5, 2002
Although the mocha/espresso thing didn't deter me, I may be switching to another free email server if yahoo doesn't take down the large picture of a fetus. Speakingof ... according to Sunday's Post, a man filed a lawsuit requesting that his former girlfriend carry her pegnancy to term. "Luzerne County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Conahan issued the temporary injunction on Wednesday. He did not say when he would issue a final ruling but has asked both sides to submit briefs by Monday. Until then, Meyers, 22, who is 10 weeks pregnant, has been forbidden from having an abortion. "

on a lighter note, check out this item on the Buddyhead Gossip page:
Tim Owen of Jade Tree records has phone sex with cast members of “The Real World”. HIT THAT SHIT TIM!

Saturday, August 3, 2002
Browsing further, I found some of Ray Kurzweil's stuff. At first glimpse he's a little kooky, but the essays are very clearly written, defining a new philosophical realm. Also scroll down to the worthwhile discussion forums

Now let's pursue this train of thought a bit further and you will see where the dilemma comes in. If we copy me, and then destroy the original, then that's the end of me because as we concluded above the copy is not me. Since the copy will do a convincing job of impersonating me, no one may know the difference, but it's nonetheless the end of me. However, this scenario is entirely equivalent to one in which I am replaced gradually. In the case of gradual replacement, there is no simultaneous old me and new me, but at the end of the gradual replacement process, you have the equivalent of the new me, and no old me. So gradual replacement also means the end of me.

Saturday, August 3, 2002
The provacative, though regretably sentimental AI has got me thinking more about binary code vs. the brain process. A few links lead me to this criticism of John Searle.

Searle, sitting on the opposite side of the debate, argues that it is not computation, which causes consciousness, but, rather, consciousness, which causes computation (1994, pp. 218–219). Computation, he implies, requires a set of symbols and symbols require a conscious brain. Without a conscious activity of this kind already in operation, on Searle’s account, there are no symbols and, hence, no computation, just physical activities which may or may not lend themselves to the symbolic representations of a conscious observer (1995, pp. 64-65).

Searle invites you to look inside of a computer. Look as hard as you may, you will not find any zeros or ones (1994, p. 210). You will find, instead, physical systems designed to conduct electrical current in such a way that the positive and negative charges can be made to correspond with a binary code of zeros and ones. The zeros and ones are not in the machine. They are in our minds. Likewise, if you open up a human brain and look inside, you’re not going to find any numbers. Rather, you will find a biological organism. (Searle, 1994, p. 90). The brain is not a computer, Searle concludes (1994, p. 247). Rather, computing is one among many things that the conscious portion of the brain does (Searle, 1999, p. 38). This does not mean that there could not be other conscious entities besides the human brain, but merely that such entities would not be essentially computers.

The bases of Searle’s arguments are fairly simple. Similar causes, he argues, yield similar effects. Disparate causes yield disparate effects (Searle, 1994, p. 218). Computers and conscious brains are disparate causes; therefore, computers and conscious brains yield disparate effects. The confusion, given Searle’s account, seems to stem from a failure to distinguish between the metaphors we use to describe a physical reality and the reality itself, much like lapsing into the belief that a Weeping Willow tree is shedding actual tears. When we talk about neurotransmitters in the brain "processing information", we are using a metaphor. This is okay, given Searle’s account, as long as we remember that we’re using a metaphor, and not lapse into the belief that these physical processes are literally engaged in computation (Searle, 1999, p. 38).

Friday, August 2, 2002
Joanneuary: we get 70 unique hits a day!
Joanneuary: most people end up there looking for porn and find us
Diplomacy101: oops!
Diplomacy101: guilty

Friday, August 2, 2002
The Wilson Quarterly hasn't got a link for Joseph Epstein's "Snobbus Americanus," but the book from which the essay is adapted, is on my immediate to-read list. Epstein's well-supported thesis is that "snobbery thrives where society is most open." There is little record of this behavior when people graciously accepted their social status as iron-clad. Enter democracy and the concept of social mobility, and there you get an undeniably pretentious society with "much room to exercise condescension, haughtiness, affectation, false deference, and other egregious behavior so congenial to the snob." Epstein's a clever guy, so don't take his criticism as anything anti-democratic. He checks Mencken and Tocqueville and rightly hates the playaz, not the game.

Friday, August 2, 2002
I haven't gotten around to reading antiwar lately, but Zoe Mitchell has brought to my attention Justin Raimondo calls the Independent Media Center "crunchy granola" in a recent column. He has a lot more to say in the article concerning Saudi conspiracy against America.

America's desire to control Central Asian oil and natural gas reserves is hardly a secret: the Clinton administration set up a special government agency to promote the "Caspian Initiative" and appointed Richard Morningstar to a new position: Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State, for Caspian Basin Energy Diplomacy. The Clintonites invested millions in taxpayer dollars and a lot of their own political capital in agitating for a particular pipeline route, from Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, to Ceyhan, a Turkish port on the Meditteranean.

The "free market" Bushies have carried on this corporatist crusade, and the project, run by a consortium headed up by British Petroleum, is near realization, with construction scheduled to begin next March. While the economic benefits to the US are doubtful – almost none of the actual oil will ever reach American shores – Ambassador Morningstar always explained that the increase in the total amount of oil on the world market would, somehow, increase our own "energy security," and the Bush administration has generally followed in this path. Although Colin Powell has downgraded the diplomatic status of the Special Advisor, the Great Game continues to be played, with the US insisting on the technically dubious and horrifically expensive Baku-Ceyhan project, when a pipeline through Iran would be far more commercially feasible.

Friday, August 2, 2002
Also in TCS is a new article from Pacific Research Institute's Sonia Arrison on the Peer to Peer Piracy Privacy Prevention Act. I like her.

The Peer to Peer Piracy Prevention Act, sponsored by Hollywood-area Representative Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and House subcommittee on intellectual property chair Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.), would allow copyright owners, such as the film and recording industries, to secretly hack into users' computers and unleash new technologies to thwart unauthorized trading of movies or music on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.

Security experts worry about how authorized hacking could spread viruses, destroy data, and invade privacy. Providers of P2P technologies, like Steve Griffin, CEO of StreamCast Networks, say the bill is tantamount to "cyber warfare" against consumers. Indeed, Rep. Berman indicated that the entertainment industry wants to target consumers because litigation against providers of P2P networks has become futile.

Friday, August 2, 2002
Tech Central Station takes on Israeli-Palestinian alleged death counts in this article. An unweighted report will give the total deaths in two years as 561 Israelis and 1,499 Palestinians. A new study from the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), tells that "about 579 non-combatant Palestinians (just over 38 percent of all Palestinian casualties) were killed by Israelis and 433 non-combatant Israelis (about 80 percent of all Israeli casualties) were killed by Palestinians."

The ICT explains the pattern of Palestinian fatalities by pointing out that Palestinian men and boys on the brink of manhood "engaged in behavior that brought them into conflict with Israeli armed forces" and should have been aware "that they were placing themselves" in danger. In addition, the ICT suggests that Palestinian efforts at "indoctrination" which glorify "martyrdom" encourage Palestinian teenage boys and young men to take such risks.

I report this to resolve any confusion about my beliefs as expressed in earlier posts. I am not pro-Palestine at all, but even less so do I support Zionism. The perpetuation of unaccountable enormous amounts of US tax dollars to Israel is unacceptable, and of all lobbies within the Beltway, AIPAC wins my vote as the shadiest.

Friday, August 2, 2002
Of the graffiti on the washroom wall at the Raven, my favorite has to be "I just got hit on by a US Senator"