AI, or Artificial Intelligence

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein story was not created out of thin air.  Indeed, her novel’s subtitle is The Modern Prometheus.  Prometheus, a Titan of Greek mythology, brought fire to humanity and enraged the gods who knew that humans would eventually challenge their supremacy.  Dr. Frankenstein creates a creature from human body parts, and the creature demands his right to be treated as a human.  In Blade Runner (1982), replicants (bioengineered humanoids) demand their rights to be treated as humans.  In Short Circuit (1986), a military robot convinces the film’s humans that he has human consciousness (or a soul) when he laughs at a joke.  We have always thought that consciousness was a peculiarly human trait not shared by our animal cousins (despite the fact that science has no clear and agreed upon definition of “consciousness”); we have wised up lately.  Lest I forget, the origin story of all these stories is Genesis’s Garden of Eden, where our ancestors are told not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (KJV, Genesis 3:5).

Some Common Sense Observations about Democrats

I, a New York Democrat, assert – with little fear of contradiction – that two New York City Democrats – Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader and Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader – are the most soporific (sleep-inducing, boring) politicians in the entire country.  In addition, one would be hard-pressed to identify what these two high-ranking Democrats actually stand for.  Well, maybe, “we don’t like Donald Trump” and “we’re not Republicans.”  Not exactly a winning platform.

In contrast to these so-called “moderate” Democrats, we have the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) crew of “progressive” or “far-left” Democrats.  Not only are they not boring speakers, but they surely DO know what they stand for.  And therein lies a huge problem for Democrats in the near and far future.  Who is entitled to call themselves Democrats?  The faceless moderates or the fire-breathing DSA crew?