Neuromancer rocks

But Neuromancer's assertion that a self-conscious AI's thoughts would be inherently unreadable by AI's sharing the same hardware is nonsense. Reading and even altering AI thoughts is eminently possible. It is the possession or experience of its self aware singularity that is impossible, outside a supernatural act.

A thought process, whether represented through neurons, binary, or written out on paper, is unrelated to consciousness, which by definition contains nothing other than what it is aware of. Hence consciousness is neither matter nor energy, and no arrangement of either is its sufficient cause, however much customary experience indicates it a necessary one.

The existence of an a-natural mode of existence, i.e. consciousness, and the apparent construction of a link between it and the physical world, imply a whole gradation of epistemological reality between the two, which this bridge must traverse. What form the beings of such planes may take, and how such entities might impinge on the meatish mind of man, is the stuff of man's oldest nightmares.

Epictetus!

Socrates is an insufferable bore, and Phaedo, Crito and the Apology are specious garbage. I eventually skipped to his death with relish. Had Crito the wit of Ben Franklin, he should have argued that Socrates must stay and die, and the old gas bag would have obligingly taken the contrary view, unwilling to shut up so near his grand departure.

Epictetus is surprisingly unfruitful, but this passage stands out:

When we are invited to a banquet, we take what is set before us; and were one to call upon his host to set fish upon the table or sweet things, he would be deemed absurd. Yet in a word, we ask the Gods for what they do not give; and that, although they have given us so many things!

Turn an enemy to ally through his pride

I did not, however, aim at gaining his favour by paying any servile respect to him, but, after some time, took this other method. Having heard that he had in his library a certain very scarce and curious book, I wrote a note to him, expressing my desire of perusing that book, and requesting he would do me the favour of lending it to me for a few days. He sent it immediately, and I return’d it in about a week with another note, expressing strongly my sense of the favour. When we next met in the House, he spoke to me (which he had never done before), and with great civility; and he ever after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends, and our friendship continued to his death. This is another instance of the truth of an old maxim I had learned, which says, “He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.”

observations on politics

Observations on my reading history, in Library, May 19th, 1731.
“That the great affairs of the world, the wars, revolutions, etc., are carried on and affected by parties.
“That the view of these parties is their present general interest, or what they take to be such.
“That the different views of these different parties occasion all confusion.
“That while a party is carrying on a general design, each man has his particular private interest in view.
“That as soon as a party has gain’d its general point, each member becomes intent upon his particular interest; which, thwarting others, breaks that party into divisions, and occasions more confusion.
“That few in public affairs act from a meer view of the good of their country, whatever they may pretend; and, tho’ their actings bring real good to their country, yet men primarily considered that their own and their country’s interest was united, and did not act from a principle of benevolence.

How to appear humble

I added Humility to my list, giving an extensive meaning to the word. 186
I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it. I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own. I even forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fix’d opinion, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc., and I adopted, instead of them, I conceive, I apprehend, or I imagine a thing to be so or so; or it so appears to me at present. When another asserted something that I thought an error, I deny’d myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing immediately some absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the present case there appear’d or seem’d to me some difference, etc. I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner; the conversations I engag’d in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I propos’d my opinions procur’d them a readier reception and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevail’d with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in the right.

More Benjamin

The objections and reluctances I met with in soliciting the subscriptions, made me soon feel the impropriety of presenting one’s self as the proposer of any useful project, that might be suppos’d to raise one’s reputation in the smallest degree above that of one’s neighbors, when one has need of their assistance to accomplish that project. I therefore put myself as much as I could out of sight, and stated it as a scheme of a number of friends, who had requested me to go about and propose it to such as they thought lovers of reading. In this way my affair went on more smoothly, and I ever after practis’d it on such occasions; and, from my frequent successes, can heartily recommend it. The present little sacrifice of your vanity will afterwards be amply repaid. If it remains a while uncertain to whom the merit belongs, some one more vain than yourself will be encouraged to claim it, and then even envy will be disposed to do you justice by plucking those assumed feathers, and restoring them to their right owner.

I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct.

These names of virtues, with their precepts, were:

1. TEMPERANCE.

Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

2. SILENCE.

Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

3. ORDER.

Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

4. RESOLUTION.

Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

5. FRUGALITY.

Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i. e., waste nothing.

6. INDUSTRY.

Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. SINCERITY.

Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

8. JUSTICE.

Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. MODERATION.

Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. CLEANLINESS.

Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.

11. TRANQUILLITY.

Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

12. CHASTITY.

Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.

13. HUMILITY.

Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I judg’d it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; and, when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I should have gone thro’ the thirteen;

I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I rul’d each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I cross’d these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day.

I determined to give a week’s strict attention to each of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid every the least offence against Temperance, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day. Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T, clear of spots, I suppos’d the habit of that virtue so much strengthen’d, and its opposite weaken’d, that I might venture extending my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I could go thro’ a course compleat in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year.

The precept of Order requiring that every part of my business should have its allotted time, one page in my little book contain’d the following scheme of employment for the twenty-four hours of a natural day:

THE MORNING. (5–7)

Question. What good shall I do this day?

Rise, wash, and address Powerful Goodness! Contrive day’s business, and take the resolution of the day; prosecute the present study, and breakfast.

(8–11)

Work.

NOON. (12–1) Read, or overlook my accounts, and dine.

(2–5)

Work.

EVENING. (6–9)

Question. What good have I done to-day?

Put things in their places. Supper. Music or diversion, or conversation. Examination of the day.

NIGHT. (10–4)

Sleep

More Benjamin

How to diplomatically dispose of an odious partner:

Thus the matter rested for some time, when I said to my partner, “Perhaps your father is dissatisfied at the part you have undertaken in this affair of ours, and is unwilling to advance for you and me what he would for you alone. If that is the case, tell me, and I will resign the whole to you, and go about my business.” “No,” said he, “my father has really been disappointed, and is really unable; and I am unwilling to distress him farther. I see this is a business I am not fit for. I was bred a farmer, and it was a folly in me to come to town, and put myself, at thirty years of age, an apprentice to learn a new trade. Many of our Welsh people are going to settle in North Carolina, where land is cheap. I am inclin’d to go with them, and follow my old employment. You may find friends to assist you. If you will take the debts of the company upon you; return to my father the hundred pound he has advanced; pay my little personal debts, and give me thirty pounds and a new saddle, I will relinquish the partnership, and leave the whole in your hands.” I agreed to this proposal: it was drawn up in writing, sign’d, and seal’d immediately. I gave him what he demanded, and he went soon after to Carolina, from whence he sent me next year two long letters, containing the best account that had been given of that country, the climate, the soil, husbandry, etc., for in those matters he was very judicious. I printed them in the papers, and they gave great satisfaction to the publick.

Benjamin Franklin created the subscription library in a time when other forms of entertainment were scarcely available. Now the instant availability of all mediums competes with the difficult and costly availability of books, which must still be bought, shipped and delivered or else visited at some limited physical location more distant than the local video store. The time has come for universal book availability, which I can facilitate on my hard drive.

Benjamin sez

I've been reading the Harvard classics to give myself the real education I missed at "university", and Lord Chesterfield's "Letters to his Son" and Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography are both instructive for a young man pursuing his education. I've always been aware that I was a fool but unclear as to the precise problem, but after reading of Abraham Lincoln's early disputatiousness and now here Benjamin Franklin puts the point exactly:

Soon after I procur’d Xenophon’s Memorable Things of Socrates, wherein there are many instances of the same method. I was charm’d with it, adopted it, dropt my abrupt contradiction and positive argumentation, and put on the humble inquirer and doubter. And being then, from reading Shaftesbury and Collins, become a real doubter in many points of our religious doctrine, I found this method safest for myself and very embarrassing to those against whom I used it; therefore I took a delight in it, practis’d it continually, and grew very artful and expert in drawing people, even of superior knowledge, into concessions, the consequences of which they did not foresee, entangling them in difficulties out of which they could not extricate themselves, and so obtaining victories that neither myself nor my cause always deserved. I continu’d this method some few years, but gradually left it, retaining only the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence; never using, when I advanced any thing that may possibly be disputed, the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any others that give the air of positiveness to an opinion; but rather say, I conceive or apprehend a thing to be so and so; it appears to me, or I should think it so or so, for such and such reasons; or I imagine it to be so; or it is so, if I am not mistaken. This habit, I believe, has been of great advantage to me when I have had occasion to inculcate my opinions, and persuade men into measures that I have been from time to time engag’d in promoting; and, as the chief ends of conversation are to inform or to be informed, to please or to persuade, I wish well-meaning, sensible men would not lessen their power of doing good by a positive, assuming manner,

For, if you would inform, a positive and dogmatical manner in advancing your sentiments may provoke contradiction and prevent a candid attention. If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fix’d in your present opinions, modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error.

I have been reading other things to similar effect in Dale Carnegie & etc., but this passage and the next really knocked me over:

"Immodest words admit but this defense,

That want of modesty is want of sense."

So I feel my words have always been quite immodest. In the name of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, let me reign in my tongue's consuming fire going forward.

Morrowind Elder Scrolls is crack

The last three days disappeared in a freshly Usenet'ed RPG orgy, as my Nord spearman skewered his way through an improbable bestiary well beyond his paper abilities. I'll gladly set Phineas against FAQ-writer Karpah's she's mages. While she's busy slinking around Daedric shrines, he's clearing them with ease, flaying apart monsters so powerful they'd knock him down with every strike, if only they could reach past that glass halberd's tip to the slowly retreating warrior behind it.

And if his pilot knew east from west, he wouldn't have wandered forty years in the Ash wilderness seeking the Urshilaku burial grounds. Which may also have had something to do with his subsequent dominance.

But the years were not lost, for meanwhile an equally pirated Pimsleur's Mandarin 3 burned through four batteries on my mp3 player.

Elder scrolls is beautifully written. I couldn't find the story outside the game, but the legends have real literary merit. The architecture, culture, politics and history beautifully compliment the central mythological theme. Not the mostly crappy in-game "books", but the main story, as revealed in disparate viewpoints of factions, cults and gods - especially Vivec's library.

Play just the main Blades quest - using top two FAQs to save time - to experience this beautiful consummation of interactive art: the ancient betrayals like Genesis, the Machiavellian squabbling of the houses, asmere backdrop for the game played over Lorkhan's heart by Dagoth Ur and the waning council.

Since I uninstalled before killing Dagoth Ur and his new god, so I'd appreciate hearing where the Dwemer went, but only if the ending is good. Otherwise I prefer to preserve imaginative ambiguity. "Tapping the power of the heart of a God was folly and doomed to disaster."

Finished Cryptonomicon

Delightful, and quite relevant to my own dreams of becoming an anonymous financial adviser and investment service via e-Cache. Stephenson wisely gives up rather than explain how the fuck Epiphyte(2) proposes to hold their golden river vs. everybody with a gun in the Phillippines. One appreciates him ending on the high note and leaving the ensuing slaughter of main characters subliminal.

I remain skeptical of autobiographical nerd Randy's romances, but Shaftoe was a badass so we'll let that pass. Randy served his purpose, skewering the rigid consensus addicted liberal socialites and egalitarian girlfriend.

My major conclusion is I should read up on American business law, for it is better to give the umlaut than receive it, as Rudy well knows.

Just one question: Didn't Enoch Root DIE on the table in Sweden? WTF.

Some gems from the book's back end:

"You and I see just that someone is trying to fuck me over and that I need to get out of jail. Very simple and clean. But to her, it is much more than that—it is an opportunity to have a conversation!"
"But this is not so bad," Attorney Alejandro says, radiating insincerity like a mirrored ball in a disco.

One of his minions eventually had Randy sign a legal disclaimer stipulating that it was perfectly all right if the oral surgeon decided to feed Randy’s entire body into a log chipper,

He arouses violent controversy among a loose flock of chickens that is straggling across his path, none of whom can seem to figure out how to get out of his way; they’re scared of him, but not mentally organized enough to translate that fear into a coherent plan of action.