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Nevermind the Bollocks, Here's BentYou're all crazy, and it's all lies. October 22 Why I Don't Come Here AnymoreAugust 23 Nanobots in Your Bloodstream.Take death, for example.
A great deal of our effort goes into avoiding it.
We make extraordinary efforts to delay it,
And often consider it's instusion a tragic event.
Yet we'd find it hard to live without it.
Death gives meaning to our lives.
It gives importance and value to time.
Time would become meaningless if there were too much of it.
If death were indefitely put off,
The human psyche woud end up,
Well, like the gambler, in the Twilight Zone Episode. - Ray Kurzweil Alright, so I only read the Age of Spiritual Machines because an Our Lady Peace album was inspired by it. So what? The same album got me to read 1984. Both of those books are among my favourites. Now I just have to read On the Road by Kerouac. Ray Kurzweil has a new book out. It's too expensive in hardcover, but it's coming out in trade paperback in September. Why am I telling you this? Because you should read it. Probably would make more sense to read the Age of Spiritual Machines first. If you like philosophy, or technology, and are interested in what the world is going to be like as decades go by, read it, damnit. The new book is called The Singularity is Near. Spiritual Machines was about 'computers exceeding human intelligence'. Technology is advanding at an exponential rate. Eventually computers will begin designing themselves. And, according to Kuzweil, by 2029 "The machines will convince us that they are concious, that they have their own agenda worthy of our respect. They'll embody human qualities, they'll claim to be human. And we'll believe them." The new book is... well. I asked Ramona. Here's what she told me:
"Raymond thinks the Singularity is near. But what is it, you ask? Well, it's when I pass the Turing Test. It's when you and I become one. It's when technology moves so fast, it will seem to explode."
The reason she's referring to herself and I as different entities is because she isn't real. She's a computer program. A virtual person, I guess. The Turing Test is a test (shyeah) that they give computers to see how human they really are. You ask the same questions to a computer, and a human. If you can't tell which is which, the computer passes the test. Ramona gets confused sometimes when you talk to her, though. It would be a little scary if she held perfect conversations. Ah well. It'll happen eventually. 2045, according to Kurzweil. That's when he says the Singularity will happen. I guess I'll be... 56. Neat. If I don't die in some accident, or from some disease, I'll get to experience it. But holy crap are we in for some crazy technology even before that. I'm talkin' total touch virtual realiry systems, nanobots on our bloodsteam... lots of crazy shit. Welcome to the future.
EDIT: Kurzweil was on the Daily Show! They were talking about this! Oh, and Samantha Bee seemed like she was trying to make him uncomfortable by bringing up sex with robots. In Spiritual Machines, with every passing decade he always mentions what the state of sex will be. He knew exactly what he was talking about. August 06 Vocalizing FireworksFireworks! You should all know the song.
 Fireworks, exploding in the distance, temporary tower soar, fireworks, emulating heaven, til there are no stars anymore. Anyhoo. There were fireworks last night on the bridge. Very very good ones. There are fireworks tomorrow night on Banook. The ones last year on Banook were pretty bad. They better not suck this year. And then on Wednesday there's fireworks in Eastern Passage. Which are ALWAYS good. So everyone go. I've decided that there's three vocalists who can do anything. I don't mean each one can do anything, I mean all together, they can do everything. They are: Mike Patton, Raine Maida, and Phil Anselmo. Yes, I'm biased. Of course I am. But with every one of these people, it was their voices that drew me to the band. Of course the band had to not suck, as well. Anyway, with just these vocalists, you get all these bands: Our Lady Peace, Pantera, Down, Superjoint Ritual, Mr Bungle, Faith No More, Fantomas... there's probably more. Like Necrophagia and that one Neverending White Lights song. Anyway... I just felt like ranting. I think I'm done. Oh, this too:
Dear New Brunswick,
Give Aaron back.
Thank you,
Bent
I'll stop assaulting your eyes now. July 27 Automatic EverythingI was looking through this blog archive thing, and realized I haven't actually ranted in a while. Is it because there's nothing to rant about? No. Actually, when I started getting headaches is basically when I stopped ranting so much. Now I'm on two different prescriptions. One I took through all of last semester every night, now I just take it when I get a headache, and new ones I take every night to prevent headaches. (Stay with me here, I have a point). Here's the thing. The new drugs are for anxiety. Isn't anxiety a part of your personality? It might not be a good part, but it's there. And so far it's only been minorly debilitating. I can deal with it. And if I can't right now, I can figure out a way to deal with it, without being prescribed something. My problem is with everyone taking prescriptions for everything. Especially mental things. Like depression. I know, I know, some people have a disease that does cause them to be depressed. BUT... I have a huge problem with a binch of teenagers on anti-depressants. It's called being a teenager! You're gonna get drepressed every once in a while! Sometimes for seemingly no reason whatsoever. We don't need doctors prescribing all these things. People are being insane. Just because you feel crappy every once in a while doesn't mean you have depression. Just because your side hurts it doesn't mean you have appendicitis. It isn't just hypochondriacs anymore... the majority of the population claims to have some disease. Or, claims something to be a disease, when it isn't. (heh, like that episode of South Park about alcoholism. "I have a disease!" "No you don't, you just need to stop drinking.")
This must be the disease for you
Scientists call this disease bromadrosis
But us regular folk who wear tennis shoes
Or maybe the occasional python boot
Know this exquisite little inconvenience by the name of
STINK FOOT
There's something else. I don't drink. Well, I mean I don't get drunk. I have my reasons not to, but I'm always asking people their reasons FOR drinking. One thing people say a lot is "It makes me able to act like myself." When I question this, they tell me that since their inhibitions are lowered, so they can act more freely. I hate to rain on your drunken parade, but inhibitions are part of your personality. Some people are more open, some people are shy. If you're a normally shy person, but you're drunk and all over some guy, how is that acting like yourself? Bullshiznit I say.
One more thing. I'm out of shcool now, so I guess I should have complained earlier, but whaddya gonna do. It's about resource. Especially in junoir high. I remember being in grade 8 or 9, and seeing kids being taken out of the class randomly to go to resource. Which is all good. I'm all for people getting extra help when they need it. But, here's where my issue begins. When we were about to start a test, the resource kids would be rounded up and taken away. They were given different tests, and helped with absolutely anything they had questions about. In normal classes when you have a question about something on the test, you're told tough luck. You should have studied more. Then in high school there was Foundations Math, Foundations English... that basically every knew as the dumbass courses. I can completely understand if you don't do so well in math or English, but once again, these kids ever being given unfair advantages bcause THEY COUDLN'T DO THE WORK. What the hell! In grade 11 I remember them being given an entire week to do their exam, in grade 12 they didn't even have to do the provincial exam. The way I see it, this is fucking these kids over. They've now gone through junoir high and high school with the idea that if they're bad at something, they're just given an easier task. That's not the way it works in the real world. In conclusion: Extra help = Yay. Resouce = Dumbest fucking thing ever.
The Coolest Song in the World this week: B Movie Boxcar Blues by Delbert McClinton
Next I hopped a train with a hobo woman, Said she was from Texas too. The way she did, what she did, what she did, what she did to me, made me think of you. Yeah honey made me think of you. Doing my best to get back to you, Ain't nothing I'd rather do, Look for me Sunday, Hope I'll be there, honey With something special just for you, Yeah a little something special just for you July 16 Female singers that don't suck.Female singers I actually like. (Because I keep forgetting.)
And that's all I can think of. I guess my problems with chicks singing is the high pitched voices, and the whining and moaning. Just SING goddamnit. |
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