Everyday Junglist
Bio
About me. You know how everyone says to be a successful writer you should focus in one or two areas. I continue to prove them correct.
Stories (714)
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It is Past Time for Computer Science and Biology to Part Ways
I have spent and continue to spend a good bit of my writing career pleading with people about the logical impossibility of “machine learning” and the dubiousness of this thing called artificial “intelligence.” It has been a lonely task acting as what feels like the lone naysayer in a huge crowd of cheerleaders. Luckily, I don’t concern myself with being popular, only being right and I am still convinced I am (mostly) on target with my criticisms. Even if I am wrong it still behooves the proponents of these things to prove me so, and they have yet do so. A machine has still not learned anything and AI researchers keep saying we are only week/months/years away from true human or animal level artificial “intelligence” each time a new computer beats a human in some game. The more “complicated” for us the game the “smarter” the computer according to them. Apologies to Wittgenstein for a vast oversimplification here but what they fail to communicate is that what makes something a game is that it has rules. A game is in fact nothing more than a series of rules. Another thing that is a series of rules is an algorithm. An algorithm is identical to a game in this respect and just like an algorithm a game (with the right rules — inputs) can have totally predictable outputs (yes, even games of chance or with random/probabilistic elements if they are played over a big enough data set/number of moves). There is at least one (probable) major exception related to the physical parts of athletic contests, but that is irrelevant to the argument (though it is another argument against the possibility of non-embodied AI I do not intend to dive into here). All games with rules are at base computational equations with specific data inputs and outputs. They are fully computable and thus it is not surprising that computers can and will continue to excel at them. This does not make them smart, nor does it make them ‘intelligent’, it just makes them excellent computers. The computers that beat the best humans at Jeopardy and Go are the most excellent computers ever built and programmed at playing those specific games. Huzzah!, we have finally built computers that excel at computing. What we have not built is an artificial ‘intelligence’ nor has a machine ‘learned’ anything.
By Everyday Junglist4 years ago in Futurism
Science, Philosophy, and Technology
As a research scientist myself nothing gets under my skin so deeply as hearing fellow scientists disparaging philosophy. Many times one hears it from the so called “popularizers” of science who spend their days not on the bench, or in the lab or the field actually practicing science, but rather on the couch or in front of a screen dispensing their wisdom upon the unwashed masses. These are the same “scientists” who praise the virtue of the technologists (who also despise philosophy for some reason(s) that make(s) no sense), and think science and technology are one and the same discipline, brothers in arms against the dark forces of religion and mysticism that threaten to overwhelm the land. In addition to their disgust with philosophy the other thing these pop-sci paragons share with the techno-elites is an ego that must constantly be fed a steady diet of adulation, praise, and recognition.
By Everyday Junglist4 years ago in Psyche
Why Is It So Hard to Not Care What Others Think About You?
Two recent stories (here and here) from a fellow writing colleague on another (non Vocal) writing platform got me thinking about the question of why exactly it is we care so much about what other’s think about us. In the first piece she described how she could accept and even like authentic jerk versus an inauthentic just about anything writing “Because it requires courage and not giving a shit about what others think or placing so much value on others’ opinions about them.” I responded by mentioning how difficult it is to actually do this, to actually not care about what others thinks about oneself, without being (at least perceived as) a complete asshole about it. In truth, it might be impossible.
By Everyday Junglist4 years ago in Humans
Residents of St. Paul, Minnesota Unhappy to Learn They Used as Consolation for friend Complaining About Trip to Omaha, Nebraska
The close to 300,000 residents of St. Paul, Minnesota were shocked and saddened to learn they were recently used as an example to console a friend complaining about an upcoming trip to Omaha, Nebraska. The conversation between longtime friends was focused on an entirely unrelated topic when small talk about recent travel unexpectedly changed to a serious discussion of upcoming business trips. “I have to go to Omaha for a week in May” said one in a tone of sadness and regret. The other responded by noting “That sucks but I have to go to St. Paul next week for a conference.”
By Everyday Junglist4 years ago in Fiction
Why Science is Wrong But Technology is Always Right
Author's preface: This article was written in response to an original piece by the author Zat Rana entitled Why Science is Wrong - It's not because science deniers are right that was published a few years back on Medium.com. I would link to the article but it has since been removed from the site for reasons unknown. To their credit Vocal sent this story back to me with the dreaded black box of "Not approved" explaining that they cannot publish articles with broken links. I have a hard time believing they check every single link in every story but they did catch this one. Of course I had called out the link as being broken in the text of the article so if anyone was paying attention it was not exactly a surprise or hard to find. On the bright side, someone was paying attention. Alternatively the bots that prescan each story for objectionable content may also automatically find broken links. Would not seem a very difficult task for any semi-sophisticated software package.
By Everyday Junglist4 years ago in 01
Can We Stop Writing Articles with Titles That are Questions Now Please?
From: Is Activated Charcoal Messing with Your Medications? The writing article titles in the form of a question fad has followed a predictable trajectory. It started as an innocent though tired and cliched way to try and make listicles stand out from the crowd. Then came the juices, supplements, and claims that writing article titles in the form of a question detoxifies your body and makes your writing better.
By Everyday Junglist4 years ago in Journal
Science, Technology, and Magic
As a practicing Mage of the natural sciences I am afraid I must object to the contention that scientists and especially technologists could or should be at all likened to modern day mages. I freely admit that many scientists would appreciate the sentiment. Their egos sufficiently stroked they would nod contentedly and respond “finally, someone appreciates us, gets what we do, we are not nerds, you may have mocked us mercilessly at one time, but lo, see what we have become, modern day practitioners of magic, the mages of our modern world.”
By Everyday Junglist4 years ago in Futurism
Always Remember That You Almost Certainly Have Average Writing Talent at Best
Don't feel bad, so do the vast majority of other writers. The fact that most people fall into a given category is what makes it an average. Plenty of average, and even a few downright bad writers have had long, successful, and personally satisfying careers in writing. Likewise plenty of superstar talents get discouraged and quit before ever getting the chance to make a try at a career in writing. In writing, like with most things in life, luck, determination, and hard work (in that order with hard work falling into a far, far distant third) play much larger roles than talent when it comes to success. Don’t ever forget that personal satisfaction, joy, and happiness in writing all come completely from within, and are freely available for any writer, even those who have no professional success to speak of. Of course, that is easy for me to say and none of those things pay for little Johnnie's pair of dress pants needed for his first day at Catholic school. It helps to always remember the four laws of talent and success.
By Everyday Junglist4 years ago in Journal
I Have a Friend
I know this guy, I won’t give his name for the sake of anonymity but suffice to say I know him very well. He has always been a good friend, honest and trustworthy, and lives what appears to be a very normal life. One day we got to talking and for some reason I can’t remember the topic of psychic powers came up. I laughed and dismissed any and all such claims as bogus and assumed my friend would do the same, but he did not. In fact, to my great surprise, he got real still, looked me in the eyes and said, “Dan, I’m a believer, people can and do have psychic abilities, and I happen to be one of them.” Immediately I began to chuckle thinking he was playing some sort of joke on me, but after a few seconds, when he did not join in, I awkwardly coughed, apologized, and asked him to explain. “OK, buddy, I’m intrigued, tell me exactly what this so called psychic power of yours is, and of course I am then going to need to see a demonstration.” He gathered himself for a moment and I could tell he was thinking deeply, trying to determine the best way to explain himself. After a few moments of silence he began.
By Everyday Junglist4 years ago in Fiction
Censorship as Protection
Thank you Vocal.media for keeping safety top of mind for all your content creators and vast and growing readership! Truly, you are a great friend of the people and so very wise and benevolent. As a creator myself, I count myself lucky to have my stories censored by you. There can be little doubt that many of the stories you rejected for objectionable graphic or religious content, would have have resulted in some very unsafe outcomes, had they been published in their original, highly unsafe form. I can barely imagine the horrors that may have unfolded if the brave censorship boards at Vocal had not caught my unsafe writings before they were recklessly published on the internet for anyone to see and use for whatever unsafe and no doubt nefarious purposes they might.
By Everyday Junglist4 years ago in Journal
Life’s Stupid Mysteries
Has a question ever occurred to you that is totally stupid? I mean really, really dumb. A question so inconsequential and meaningless that it is barely worth the effort to ask, yet alone take the time to find an answer. A question so ridiculous that it may have occurred to at most ten people in the entire history of the world. Welcome to life’s stupid mysteries (LSM) a new series in which I ask, and sometimes bother to try and answer, depending on how lazy I am feeling, questions no one else is asking and no one else cares about.
By Everyday Junglist4 years ago in Feast
