ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός...

ερωτήσεις: So today I am asking questions. I am interested in Artificial Intelligence. I am interested in Mind. I am interested in Soul. I am interested in Creation. I am interested in "Man's" need for Gods, and the problematic need Gods have for us. (I suspect the later logical construction is a failure of our own, in writing our thoughts about the former... but that truly is not the subject for my questions today.) Mind you, I am not going to argue for the equation of Machines and Humans, I am interested in the differences... one being deliberately created by the other... (Perhaps a side question: Was the Creator created?) But for starters, let me take it back to the basics, switches...

δυάδικος: A switch can either be on or off (what role does variable switches play here? I am not sure yet.) We make switches. I can use a series of switches to create more combinations of complexity of on and off and can even attribute meaning to the various outcomes: on=Yes, off=No and I use a more complex set of values: integers-to-letters, and use a system for integers-to-switches, then 011110010110010101110011 can literally (and symbolically) be yes (albeit with no emphasis)... Give me enough switches and I can communicate very complex ideas. And I can employ logic to develop option-trees, conditionals, operators, etc... If x then y, else z. I can nest these options into very intricate series of possibilities, and with large amounts of observable data, create a machine with abilities to... well... I could make an  interactive illusion of sorts...

ψευδαίσθηση: Can I teach my machine to ask questions when facial recognition software observes a strained look on my face? Can I teach my machine to speak a question of concern If my temperature indicates a chemical change in my brain that is linked to sorrow? Can I teach my machine to "like" solving puzzles and develop the ability to create new code in its algorithms when presented with a new challenge that allows for the synthesis of older solutions into something effective (and therefore new)? The illusion could be made to seem quite real...


ο άνθρωπος: My brain is not made of switches. My option-trees are not simple logic, but are formed by far more experiences and feelings and personality and events than a computer program could even process... ... ... BUT perhaps I am just a measure of complexity... a superior illusion. Perhaps it is just about scope... If I made a machine with a billion billion switches such that it could not be distinguished from a person when interacted through a terminal... and then raise that number of switches to the power of a billion, could I make something so complex that it simulates a wide spectrum of inputs to create a seemingly (to my limited brain) infinite amount of subtle end results? Can I create lenses with the ability discern objects, and create code to attach meaning, and create algorithms to approximate preference, and processes of code based upon outcome such that the program can learn to "like" or "dislike" certain objects, and furthermore allow for the change of that designation "like/dislike" with loops back on the initial preference, based upon further algorithms of experience? Where does the programmed nature of a thing become indistinguishable from me?

"There is nothing more human than the will to survive.": I watched ex machina this weekend, Alex Garland's cinematic rendition of a Turing test variant, where programmer Caleb Smith must decide if an AI named Ava has consciousness. Caleb has been hired by his boss, Nathan, to spend a week interacting with Ava then report back to her creator his finsdings In the next scene, Caleb has been exposed by Nathan for having developed an affinity for Ava: an achievement of brilliant god-like creation...

NATHAN (CONT’D): You feel stupid. But you shouldn’t. Proving an AI is exactly as problematic as you said it was.

CALEB: What was the real test?

NATHAN: You.

Beat.

NATHAN (CONT’D): Ava was a mouse in a mousetrap. And I gave her one way out. To escape, she would have to use imagination, sexuality, self-awareness, empathy, manipulation - and she did. If that isn’t AI, what the fuck is?

I cannot reveal more, because although the film is not a "spoiler," the nature of Ava's awareness/or not is clearly part of the fun of watching, much like watching the use of language in Denis Villeneuve's The Arrival, a film about first contacts with alien life...  

συμπόνια: So how is Ava different from me? Does she actually have empathy, or does she know how to approximate it? If she creatively uses empathy as a means of manipulation, is that different from a child saying "I'm sorry" to sooth a parent's anger in order to affect a better outcome than feelings of guilt and having anxiety over worry about acceptance? (How tied to empathy is compassion, and is compassion a variant of love and how could a program ever know that?) Why are the bullied so often, empathetic; and why are the the bullies so often, not? While I know I am not switches, I also know that I am who I am, because of the myriad of events and conditions that I have experienced... ... ... and I imagine now, this morning, that I am intellectually in a sort of mousetrap of my own... 

So at some point, I have to ask the question that has been on my mind from the start: "With ever increasingly complexity, and as the number of programmed variables and options exceed the limits of my intellectual and emotional capacity, does the Illusion become Real?"

And the Buddhist-me over in the corner laughs at the programmer-me who spends his time thinking thusly...

A Buddhist Still Life... renewal

Is the basic teaching of Buddhism—on ignorance, deliverance and enlightenment—really life-denying, or is it rather the same kind of life-affirming liberation that we find in the Good News of Redemption, the Gift of the Spirit, and the New Creation? 

― Thomas Merton, Zen and the Birds of Appetite

---

frozen brown sharp thawing moist smell

shoots emergence simple bud dichromatic opening wow

stark white crystalline melting glistening verdant brief life

small detail awareness royal rich yielding hopeful now

---

March: As seen on the interwebs:"in like a lion, out like a bastard" ... road flares and rescue trucks, three accidents seen in white-out sleet and slushy piles... salt caked undercarriage and broken leaf springs freed to crush shocks but thankfulness for no malfunction in arriving safely into April...

April: Spring snows melt... can we be done with the bastard? (or is winter coming?) -- Red Sox on my mind, dogwoods getting ready to do their thing down the coast (and the red buds and the daffodils and the tulips and the cherries and the crocuses... oh my!) -- special days and shorter nights -- mud season yes, and wild fires too... all taken care of by the budding of green, life anew...

ahhhhh.....

A Buddhist Still Life... smiling

The "simple" things in life... 

A daughter performing on stage with seemingly no fear, and pulling it off with confidence and style...

A son digging deep in preparing for final exams to prove to himself and the rest of us watching that he can...

A brother and his family who does a less-than-24-hour turn-around visit from out of state just because they care...

Parents who are daily reminders of unconditional love and support, and what that looks like...

Friends—so many friends—who have been propping up, building up, an aging-man-turning-little-boy while he reinvents for himself the basics of living...

A walk down the street and seeing a rain glazed purple puff-ball of flower radiating in the setting sun...

Sipping a bitter macchiato at a museum after checking out some impressionists and others works of astounding beauty...

Listening to Love and Rockets and thinking "the simple things are so complicated"... 

The "good" Buddhist might say all this "just is" without value or reflection. This Buddhist says today, "It is good."... 

I guess I am a sucky Buddhist today, but I am smiling...

You cannot go against nature

Because when you do

Go against nature

It's part of nature too

Our little lives get complicated

It's a simple thing

Simple as a flower

And that's a complicated thing

No new tale to tell

No new tale to tell

No new tale to tell

My world is your world

People like to hear their names

I'm no exception

Please call my name

Call my name

No new tale to tell

No new tale to tell

No new tale to tell

No new tale to tell

No new tale to tell

No new tale to tell

When you're down

It's a long way up

When you're up

It's a long way down

It's all the same thing, no new tale to tell

It's all the same thing, no new tale to tell

It's all the same thing, no new tale to tell

A Buddhist Still Life... parenting

A Parenting Meditation...

Fashion your life as a garland of beautiful deeds.



When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky. 

Quotes by Siddhārtha Gautama

The Way...

"In Tao the only motion is returning...": So I woke up today a little anxious (ironic, as you will see in a moment). A warm pressure front has pushed into my region bringing a promise of 50+ degrees in February the day before (and to be followed tomorrow by) more freezing weather. This winter has been most disappointing... According to the NOAA seasonal snow accumulation map, we are in the 12-24 inch band. Last year at this point we were pushing 100 inches (albeit it was a record-ly excellent snow year). This latest warm front also brings with it a crushing headache on a day that I need to grade a pile of essays and wish to turn a wrench on a 40 year old motorcycle engine at the Kevin O. School of Motorcycle Maintenance... [My son says that I should say "do mechanical stuff" instead of "turn a wrench," but I do so love that turn of phrase.]

"...": I lay in bed late into the morning hoping for sleep to drag me into a little functional oblivion... but alas, it was not to be so; just dream snippets of a most fragmented nature. And so, I awoke, dowsed my night in two cups of dark roasted pleasure, and downed a bowl-or-so of honey-nut sweetness. I'll add an ibuprofen chaser soon if I my brain feels no relief from the pressure... And I was anxious that I needed to find a topic for this week's blog entry. Some Sundays there is an obvious topic that has been brewing for weeks; other Sundays I react to "the moment" I am in as I boot up the computer. Today all there was in the frontal lobe of my brain was a pounding pressure and no clear thoughts...

"...The only useful quality, weakness...": So I took a stab at a simple google search on a trusted topic of my interest in Buddhism. I typed "Buddhist Wisdom, images." I was hoping for a piece of text or an image to inspire ongoing thoughts I am having about how to behave or react in relation to the world around me. Perhaps I would see something to convey "peaceful acceptance," or "insight gained." I might even follow up after hunting down some words from Thich Nhat Hanh's poetry—not lyrically all that good, but packed with well intentioned kernels of revelational truth. His peace is like a resonating bell in my soul...

"...": I scanned the images and memes that flooded my screen, disappointed in what I was seeing. Much of it was all too cutesy; lots of smoothed imagery of stones, Siddhartha's head, or the Dalai Lama and sparse text. In the midst of this was a cartoonish depiction of Lao Tzu and a quote that read like wisdom from the modern age of self help rather than that from a philosophical Chinese sage. Although Lao Tzu's philosophy influences Buddhism as it moves through China on its way to Japan, Lao, himself, is considered the father of a different tradition. I was looking for Buddhism, not Taoism. But google is less concerned with accuracy than with an algorithm based on popularity (clicks), and anticipating my intentions. The quote on the image did not bother me so much. It was about anxiety, and I was feeling anxious. The focus on the moment was a refreshing thought for finding my Buddha-self, but the language and context was not right. [Not to mention that so much of my peace comes from positive memories, and so much of my hope comes from looking optimistically to the future. Sometimes living in the present can be quite un-peaceful.] This language attributed to Lao Tzu reminded me of something heard in an Alcoholics Anonymous room, "If you have one foot in yesterday and one foot in tomorrow you are ready to [poop] all over today." I love Lao Tzu. I have read his Tao—four score nuggets of poetic philosophy that forms the foundation of the entire tradition—several times. I could not for the life of me remember ANY passage even remotely similar to this translation...

"...For though all creatures under heaven are the products of Being...": So I continued my google searching looking for the true author of the quote and found my way to several blogs on the same realization I had. One that I particularly enjoyed reading is called Scripturient: Intellectual Brownian Motion, by Ian Chadwick. He writes:

Poor Lao Tzu. He gets saddled with the most atrocious of the New Age codswallop. As if it wasn’t enough to be for founder of one of the most obscure  philosophies (not a religion, since it has no deity), he gets to be the poster boy for all sorts of twaddle from people who clearly have never read his actual writing.

This time it’s a mushy feel-good quote on Facebook (mercifully without kittens or angels) that reads,

"If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present."

"...": What follows is a fun, half intellectual/half rant about the very quote I was researching. I was hooked with the words "codswallop" and "twaddle." I disagree with Chadwick's outright dismissal that this quote is "nonsense,"—he argues the quote as junk philosophy and is insultingly critical of those who would find value in it—but his underlying critique that people post without verifying their sources echoes a frequent complaint I have in the internet age. He writes:

Wisdom isn’t a series of quotable sound bites. Or a poster with kittens.

Stop sharing stuff if you haven’t verified the source.

"...Being itself is the product of Not-being.": It's easier to say "Stop sharing stuff if you haven’t verified the source" than to do it. How do we know when what we read is not accurate? How can we find time to verify every last thing we hear/read? So often we find the "right" thing to say, offered by others, and pass it along. I think we need to develop a "Spiedy-sense" that something is wrongly quoted or attributed, or that a statistic seems out of whack, or that a story seems implausible. The best defense for this is to be a healthy skeptic, and to read and dig a lot. The power so share easily on the internet may create part of this problem, but the solution is also in the relatively easy action of searching the internet for verification as well. Sadly this very simple solution is easily atrophied in an age when a quick question into the butt of one's iPhone yields just as quick answers to so many of our questions...

"...": So here is some of the wisdom I was originally looking for, taken from the work of Thich Nhat Hanh. When a bell sounds...

Listen, listen,
This wonderful sound
brings me back to my true self.