Entries by Berger

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7796482.stm

In the couple of times that I have actually ever believed a female avatar to be actually controlled by a female and actually sought to engage in out-of-game communication with this person I have always been deceived.  What's interesting about this about how there are also a significant about of females out there actually doing the same thing and pretending to be - or, at least, designing an avatar that is - male. 

With all the 'cyb0ring' jokes aside this actually an interesting discovery.  Whenever we use the word 'bisexual' in conversation it always brings up thoughts of (duh) sex qua intercourse.  I never actually considered creating an avatar that was of the opposite gender to yourself to be considered bisexualism qua gender.  The artificial world is an interesting place.

I gave a presentation to my Philosophy of Science class yesterday about vagueness in everyday and scientific language.  Seeing as we're all philosophically and / or scientifically inclined on Scuzz I feel that I should share it with you.  It certainly roused a lot of discussion and it was branded by lecturer (who is the biggest brain-box I know) as 'very interesting' - though he could just be referring to the debate afterwards.  I'll let you decide.

I’m just going to talk a bit about the problem of everyday language in philosophy and science in reference to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s works the Tractatus (full name: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus) and Philosophical Investigations.

Wittgenstein was a philosopher who sought to eradicate the problems of philosophy through the careful analysis of language as it was through improper use of language that these problems arise in the first place.

He famously said “anything that can be said can be said clearly”.  The importance of this is not so paramount in everyday language but when we really start to consider things like the meaning of life, free will and other things it is perhaps best that it is left to science. 

You could say that because of the greater need for accuracy in science the precise use of language has evolved towards clarity and it remains strictly protected by scientists as improper uses of scientific vocabulary tend to weasel their way into our everyday use.

Wittgenstein also said “the limits of my language mean the limit of the world” roughly translating to mean that we can only understand as much as we can talk about.  So I think you can see that if we want to know anything about the world then there is a need to be as precise as we can.

And so Wittgenstein inspires a whole new brand of philosophy and that of one of ordinary language and thorough logical analysis of the language we use to represent facts.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/us_elections_2008/7704636.stm

Obama is winning some Redneck support and in the short interview in the video, it shows that he is already changing the hearts and minds of Americans that you wouldn't have expected.  The interviewee is adamant that Obama is for the little people and that McCain is just for the rich.  I'm so glad that this hope has trickled down to these people.  My biggest fear for Obama going into this election is that there will be closet racism, much like the man says: people just voting for McCain because Obama is black.  A little bit of faith in these sorts of people has been restored and I wish this man the best of luck with his campaigning!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7678123.stm

Just a quick post before I go to work.  I read this, while perusing the BBC website.  Frankly I don't care about religion.  I find the belief in God to be wholly unscientific, I think the unfalsifiable rhetoric of religious preachers to be a pile of shit and, personally, I think anything that purports to have any sort of theosophy is a mixture of the adjectives I used to describe the first two.  Frankly saying that you have all the answers in the universe contained in a book that was apparently handed down by God thousands of years ago is ridiculous, especially when there are hundreds of other religions all claiming that they 'have the one true book'.

I do endeavour.  I
strive.  I think I do.

Life is slow at the moment. 
I’m back at uni, one and a half days a week.  But it feels slow.  It’s my final year and I’m nervous.  I’ve resolved myself not to do a Masters and
I just want to get out and get a challenging job.  I want to write my dissertation on robots,
primarily their place in society and how we should treat them.  It’s proving to be a mental challenge.  There are plenty of books to read but the
willpower is lacking.  I find myself
drowning in text with life rafts all around, but just to resolution to let
myself float on down the river towards in the inevitable fall.

The trick I think to the dissertation is to break it up into
4 or so sections and come up with a title for each of them.  In essence you’re writing four essays with a
bit of blurb at the start and finish that links them all up and delivers your
final crushing blow.  I know what my gut
feeling is: AI is an emergent technology that will eventually bridge the gap
between our desires and reality.  As
humans we so badly want so many things. 
There is plenty scientific evidence that shows that once a human’s basic
needs are met it becomes exponentially more difficult to make this human
happy.

We have become a society surrounded by our inventions.  Our symbiosis is no longer with the
environment – we have long since overcome and tamed her and now we continue to
rape her and take all we can from her. 
This has to change.  But our next
conquest is our dreams.  We’ve secured
our basic needs from her and happiness has normalised and subsequently we feel ‘unhappy’.  In reality this is nothing more than sheer
bloatedness, the taking-for-granted for all that we have.  Our rabid consumption and greed has left us
with an inflated sense of what’s ‘ours’ to the point where we have this global
ego of ‘taking what’s mine’.  We are not a collective; a hive; a chorus
singing in harmony.  We are a fragmented,
tortured group of individuals who only bring misery upon ourselves.

I don't usually watch programs like X Factor but having got sucked into the lure of judging people I don't even know on their image and ability to sing a few bars of a song I will watch it if its on and somebody else is watching it.  I really enjoy the group stages, primarily because I so enjoy seeing the weird acts - the tone deaf people who think they truly are the next big thing.  The ones who will give up their job (NB: not career), pay hundreds of pounds for voice coaching and get a complete make over just to do the show only to be turned away in horror.  "My friends / girlfriend / mum said I have a great voice" is often their retort to four people who have made millions of pounds in the industry... surely they couldn't have been lying?

This is the first scoop of crazy.  Now don't get me wrong, I do feel sorry for them, but REALLY?  DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU WERE THAT GOOD?  One thing I would suggest to them (and perhaps to anyone reading this) is just to record yourself speak or sing and play it back to yourself.  Isn't it weird?  You sound completely different.  It's because when you sing or speak you imagine exactly how the word should sound and you can almost hear it in your ears.  But it's just a fiction, something your mind has created.  I would also advise this for those people who leave those really fucking stupid comments on youtube. 

(Image hotlinked from XKCD.com)

The old idiom goes "arguing on the internet is like running in the Special Olympics: even if you win you're still retarded."

To a lot of people this will be offensive.  Not to me personally and I guess we all have our own separate buttons whether it is homophobia, racism, sexism or otherwise.  For those who don't know I'm admin on a pretty successful forum that happens to be pretty liberal when it comes to what goes.  Every second word is 'cunt'.  There are but a few rules, however, that do get enforced.  Allow me to summarise them briefly:

No porn (images, videos or links - we want to be able to view the forums at work / school), no copyrighted material (e.g. torrents - we don't want to give the authorities any reason to shut us down), no spamming, no trolling and no insightment of hatred.

That last one is something I take seriously, particularly when it takes a personal dimension.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7539062.stm

Straight-talker Sir Alan Sugar did an interview earlier for
BBC News and lasts for about 7 minutes. 
The interesting thing is that there has been some talk of Sir Alan
running for Mayor of London recently, which many think would be an ideal fit
for both Sir Alan and the city of London.  From this interview I think he proffers some
pearls of common sense not only in the things he says but in the way he says
them.  I think he has the politik-speak
down but it is also beautifully complimented by his straight up nature.  I think you can agree he certainly has a way
about him.