Dermott Hayes's Blog: Postcard from a Pigeon, page 8
September 24, 2017
The Empire Strikes Back with a Coordinated War on Crypto
Bitcoin’s recent travails are not the teething problems of a crypto-currency, according to Hacker Noon’s Daniel Jeffries. They are part of a power struggle between the old masters of power and wealth and the new forces forging a new measure of power and wealth through the internet and technology.
September 22, 2017
LEAF
His editor was a prick, the publisher, a walking, waking nightmare. So when he greased their wheels, tweaked their brakes so they couldn’t make that curve on the drive home, he felt he took a leaf out of their book in return for the forest they’d taken out of his.
September 21, 2017
CITIZEN KEN -let the truth be out.
This story began about the death of my good friend, Ken Doyle but instead, it’s a rant against futurist denial people and self important and patronising academics with the gall to believe understanding transhumanism is beyond mere mortals.
I went to the wake of an old friend yesterday, a man I nicknamed ‘Citizen Ken’ because he was a man of the people, the kind of guy who would never say no and fought with his every breath for the rights of every citizen to be a citizen. Ken was the kind of person I hope we should all aspire to be. Then he died.
Life’s like that, apparently. There are an increasing number of people who might argue to the contrary. like, for example Max More of Oxford University and his letter to Mother Nature .
On the other hand, even though I, a mere mortal not an academic, might recognise this, it goes on. Check out Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence by Hans Moravec. And without rigorous academic examination, shock, horror.
It is tiring and depressing when so called intellectuals dismiss your thoughts or contributions with platitudes and patronise you with,well, bullshit.
Everyone likes and longs to read seminal works, those definitive stories that allow neophytes to determine their authenticity and this achieve acclaim and mutually agreed academic authority.
Isn’t it a pity then when I recommended a certain book -Mark O’Connell’s To Be A Machine, as a useful introduction to transhumanism, for it to be dismissed as a ‘Travelogue’ , a determination I’m sure came from a quick browse of the book’s pr blurb rather than any rigorous examination and thus below academic interrogation.
Why? because in that so called travelogue he chose to confront as many of the forerunners and primary protagonists of the transhumanists he could find. If the truth were told I could name at least a half a dozen more.
To them, the so called academics, it doesn’t matter. What will happen has been determined and they’re not concerned with unintelligible gibberish from peole who never really saw anything from their point of view, anyway.
I nicknamed Ken, ‘Citizen Ken’ because that encapsulated what he was, a man of the people. He fought for the right for people to be people, no paramaters defined or included. If it could be worked out, it would be. That was his genius as a politician.
As for academics who might dismiss his admonishments, theories or development plans as ill thought out nonsense, Ken would nod and say, ‘fuck off’ and then facing those who believed in him, he’d say, ‘the only truth I known is you.’
pic credit: Darren Bolger
September 19, 2017
TENTATIVE
‘Tentative? What kind of wishy washy, namby pamby, the cheque’s in the post, suck but don’t swallow bullshit is that?’
‘No, you must engage them, scare them, thrash them. Take no prisoners.’ His eyes sweep the room.
Coach’s methods were considered extreme for an under-12 team, but they got results.
September 17, 2017
AI: Scary for the Right Reasons
Just as brokers are claiming Artificial Intelligence is as important for the future as the discovery of electricity has been for the 19th and 20th centuries, philosophers, physicists and tech leaders are warning us to consider the implications. This is a REBLOG from Medium’s Hackernoon thread.
By Vinod Khosla
Medium: Hackernoon
Artificial intelligence, AI, has grabbed headlines, hype, and even consternation at the beast we are unleashing. Every powerful technology can be used for good and bad, be it nuclear or biotechnology, and the same is true for AI. While much of the public discourse from the likes of Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking reflects on sci-fi like dystopian visions of overlord AI’s gone wrong (a scenario certainly worth discussing), there is a much more immediate threat when it comes to AI. Long before AI goes uncontrollable or takes over jobs, there lurks a much larger danger: AI in the hands of governments and/or bad actors used to push self-interested agendas against the greater good.
You are already Living in a Computer
Futurists predict a rapture of machines, but reality beat them to it by turning computing into a way of life.
Suddenly, everything is a computer. Phones, of course, and televisions. Also toasters and door locks, baby monitors and juicers, doorbells and gas grills. Even faucets. Even garden hoses. Even fidget spinners. Supposedly “smart” gadgets are everywhere, spreading the gospel of computation to everyday objects.
Reading rewires your brain
Fitness headlines promise staggering physical results: a firmer butt, ripped abs, bulging biceps. Nutritional breakthroughs are similar clickbait, with attention-grabbing, if often inauthentic—what, really, is a “superfood?”—means of achieving better health. Strangely, one topic usually escaping discussion has been shown, time and again, to make us healthier, smarter, and more empathic animals: reading.
September 15, 2017
BARBECUE
Guest writer vibe, Rocco Terrinoni and Conor Stephens. Spontaneous, uninterrupted prose from two young lads with talent . Here’s what I said, write me a story. Five minutes later they gave me an answer.
It sizzles, it pops, it skin burns like a roasting chimney. Mum burns the sausages to crisp, my brother shouts but Conor flies in on a cape, puts out the fire , with fresh sausages, and saves the day. Cape aflame and by now on bbq. Conor…what a crackle nut.
This story was written by Rocco Terrinoni and Conor Stephens
September 13, 2017
Even Racists Got the Blues
Straight to the chase, the Geeky Gaeilgeoir nails fools who take things literally
OK…I have to say that, most of the time, I feel a little bit sorry for people who make horrendous translation mistakes. This is not one of those times.
This pic came across my desk about nine months ago, and it may just be the worst example of a self-translation disaster I’ve ever seen.
In fact, it’s so bad, and so out of context, that most of my Irish-speaking friends had no idea what this person was trying to say with those three Irish words: “Gorm Chónaí Ábhar.” It’s beyond gibberish. It even took me a few minutes.
The sad thing is, in order to “get it,” you need to be familiar not only with the ways in which people make translation mistakes (which are legion), but also with a particularly unpleasant segment of U.S. politics.
What this person was trying to say, with this mess of…
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