Five Planets Visible in the Sky

Posted on Monday 27 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

I missed seeing that greenish comet that was visible in the sky a few weeks ago. The latest sky event being discussed in the media — at least on TV and on websites — is a fairly rare conjunction of five naked-eye-visible planets (all except Saturn, and including Uranus, which will require binoculars to see) in recent days, with tonight, March 27th, having a prime view.

I happen to have a perfectly clear view of the western horizon from my house, and there are no major clouds today, so I’m hoping to see it.

What strikes me in the coverage of this story is the scientific illiteracy, at worst, or simply journalistic sloppiness, at best, in how this event is described. Continue reading →

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Wokeness and History

Posted on Sunday 26 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Today: some better descriptions of wokeism; how wokeness undermines the idea of eternal conservative values; and if so many other books are banned from public schools, why not the Bible?

Today’s NY Times website has this letter column: A Conservative’s View of What ‘Woke’ Means

Continue reading →

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Another Chatbot Shoe Drops

Posted on Saturday 25 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

The latest about chatbots, why they would be biased one way or another, and how there is now a conservative version of them; and recalling Conservapedia.

Our story so far: Continue reading →

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Correction to Earlier Oscar Post

Posted on Friday 24 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

It turns out that a tune I liked, which I described as having “a relentless three note descending theme, underlying colorful violin lines,” in one of the Oscar nominated films, Triangle of Sadness, that I discussed in my post of March 14th, was not an original composition by the film’s composer, but a Baroque piece by one Marin Marais, called “The Bells of St Genevieve.”

I had the local classical music station, KDFC, on in the background this afternoon, set at a fairly low volume, yet noticed this piece and thought, doesn’t that sound a lot like that track from….? *Is* it that track from…? And checked it out. The KDFC host didn’t mention the connection of this piece to that film. But I’m guessing that’s why they played it.

Posted in Movies, Music | Comments Off on Correction to Earlier Oscar Post

Harari on the Dangers of AI

Posted on Friday 24 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Also: reflecting on Arthur C. Clarke and John Brockman, wondering if there is a permanent limit to human cultural education.

NY Times, Yuval Noah Harari, Tristan Harris, and Aza Raskin, 24 March 2023: You Can Have the Blue Pill or the Red Pill, and We’re Out of Blue Pills

Harari and his collaborators discuss the dangers of AI, specifically the recent chatbots, which dangers I am coming to understand quite differently than the way such presumed dangers of AI have been described until recently. The current problem is that these new AI apps *aren’t* intelligent — they’re merely reflecting back everything, wisdom and nonsense, that they absorb from the web. Continue reading →

Posted in Arthur C. Clarke, Culture, Technology | Comments Off on Harari on the Dangers of AI

Last Questions and Possible Answers, 1

Posted on Friday 24 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

When I was browsing through several John Brockman books a few weeks ago, I decided to buy the last one he published in that series, from 2019. It’s called The Last Unknowns, and instead of gathering answers from many contributors to a single question for each book, this one is a collection of questions, the deepest, most profound questions that remain unanswered, according to the contributors. Just questions.

Typically there’s one question per contributor on each page. So you can flip through the book in about a hour. In this and a subsequent post or two, I’ll list what I think are the most interesting questions, and then give my take on the nature of their answers.

Continue reading →

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Negative News, Conspiracy-Minded Customers, Conservative Traditions

Posted on Thursday 23 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Three items for today.

  • How the negativity bias in news reporting is partly a matter of demand and supply;
  • How “the customer is always right” thinking leads Fox News and Republican congressmen to pursue outlandish conspiracy theories, because that what their audiences and constituents want;
  • And how a conservative professor wants students to honor traditional conservative wisdom, presumably excluding traditional conservative defenses of slavery and the subjugation of women and gays.

Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Negative News, Conspiracy-Minded Customers, Conservative Traditions

The Latest from Steven Pinker

Posted on Wednesday 22 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Today, a long interview with Steven Pinker about ‘progress’ despite human nature; about the value of rationality; about looking at data and not headlines to understand the state of the world; about cancel culture; about the perils and inevitability of narrative thinking;  about Bayesian thinking; about cognitive illusions and moral mythology; and about how even crazy conservative politicians don’t invoke superstitious ideas that people took for granted hundreds of years ago. Well, not all of them anyway. Progress!

Big Think, Steven Pinker, undated, The ultimate guide to rationality, subtitled “Steven Pinker explains how to cultivate greater rationality in today’s complex world.” (transcript)

Continue reading →

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How Much News Is Too Much News?

Posted on Tuesday 21 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Today: that debate, my own news consuming habits, and the negativity bias. Then: more about wokeness, and the relationship between conservatism, liberalism, wokeness, and equality; and between teaching values and indoctrination.

The Atlantic, Shadi Hamid, 13 Mar 2023: You’re Better Off Not Knowing, subtitled “The problem with dwelling on news about things you can’t control”

Continue reading →

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Progress, Happiness, Economics, and Morality

Posted on Monday 20 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Items about the reality of progress and hope that humanity overcomes the effects of climate change; the latest world happiness index in which the US ranks 15th; Robert Reich busting myths about how the wealthy right justify their wealth; and the secret fantasy of those who believe in the American Dream.

Vox, Bryan Walsh, 20 Mar 2023: The doomers are wrong about humanity’s future — and its past, subtitled “The necessity of progress.”

Continue reading →

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