Survival is at Stake

In this picture, our Nation's
capital looks as pretty as Paris!

Some Words to the Wise
for these Troubled Times

1. As poet Philip Booth reminds us: “I think survival is at stake for all of us all the time. … Every poem, every work of art, everything that is well done, well made, well said, generously given, adds to our chances of survival."

2. As Oscar, from "The Office" warns us: "It's a very dangerous time. The coalition for reason is extremely weak."

3. As Samuel Beckett observes in his novel Watt: "Times are hard, water in every wine" (27).

4. As Woody Allen cautions: "Mankind is facing a crossroad -- one road leads to despair and utter hopelessness and the other to total extinction -- I sincerely hope you graduates choose the right road."

5. As the school principal tells Billy Madison: "what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

For more thoughts concerning
the first year of Trump's presidency,
please see my current post

"Water in Every Wine"

@ The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker

Dawn or Doom?

This Week at Purdue University

"We humans govern the future
not because we're the fastest or strongest
creature but because we're the most intelligent.
When we share the the planet with creatures
more intelligent than we are,
they will steer the future."

Arthur C. Clarke, 1917 - 2008
British Science Fiction Writer

Schedule of Events

For more on human weakness and lack of speed:
see my current FORTNIGHTLY blog post:
~ Safe Home ~

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PS. More about the Dawn or Doom Summit:

I attended sessions given by various faculty in agronomy, linguistics, nanotechnology, and visual arts who were all voting Dawn. However, at the end of the day, the keynote speaker, James Barrat, author of Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era could not be dissuaded from his conclusion of Doom!

Barrat quoted Woody Allen: “Mankind is facing a crossroad -- one road leads to despair and utter hopelessness and the other to total extinction -- I sincerely hope you graduates choose the right road.”

We also watched several movies leading up to the conference -- Transcendence, A.I., Jurassic Park -- and Barrat pointed out that "Hollywood has inoculated us from thinking seriously about the risk of Artificial Intelligence because we've had too much fun letting the humans always win."