The record

Poems, thoughts 

[hinchley]

"Our distrust of another justifies his deceit" --Reflections, Rochfoucauld

This is interestingly something I have spent objective thought on. I think often of closing this off, basically refusing the possibility of air, as if this has some quantum mechanical effect on the space between people. As if we are giving oxygen to this cavity that supports malign intentions in others with our paranoia.

Admitting the possibility of harm in the infinitely small gap between people is a form of judgment. Here we carve out a narrow space of harmful possibilities to be inflicted on our person. Here is the aperture this person is admitted through. If this is perceptible, which according to human behavior it is, then it may shape the outcome. The judgment effect can increase the energy needed widening the aperture for ideas to pass. And maybe more, a judgment effect.

On the existence of the judgment effect there are ample areas to research. People necessarily care about what other people think about them. So too when walking anonymously through an airport. Now this could be a disinterested concern for society, but I don't think so. And there are also the first impressions of forceful personalities. This is like refusing oxygen to a range of outcomes having some power.

Wiring about the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Valéry writes

"He seemed immediately, infallibly, to strike at the most sensitive of cultivated consciousness, to over stimulate the center itself . . . where resides that which cannot suffer not to understand."

[hinchley]

Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep,

He hath awaken'd from the dream of life;

'Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep

With phantoms an unprofitable strife,

And in mad trance, strike with our spirit's knife

Invulnerable nothing's. We decay

Like corpses in charnel; fear and grief

Convulse us and consume us day by day,

And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay.

--Percy Bysshe Shelley, Adonais 39

[hinchley]

One aspect of theology I find myself holding onto is that God's grant of agency to persons adds genuine uncertainty in creation experienced by God. Within this allowance there is some freedom within which progress and rebellion can take place.

[hinchley]

We need to ask ourselves, can AI make the world better and maximize profits. One of these has priority. It may mean we'll be dragged longer and farther across ad impressions, individually tailed to our tolerance while modifying our behavior.

[hinchley]

Local Chat Language model AI

I'm running a local ChatGPT. A small 4GB model on my laptop, without internet access. I asked a simple question. I expected the correct answer.

>>>how many legs does an insect have? Most insects have six legs, but some species of insects may have fewer or more legs. For example, spiders have eight legs, while centipedes have many more than 6 legs. Some insects, such as butterflies and moths, do not have any legs at all.

I realized two things at the same time. This model was self taught. It learned about butterflies by itself. Perhaps it looked at 100 pictures and carefully analyzed each butterfly before stopping. No one photographs butterfly legs, or even takes a side view but rarely. The colors and patterns are of interest to the majority of photographers. Why this was so alarming to me wasn't that the chatbot made an error. But that it became an authority on its own. By looking at butterflies. This was first person knowledge. Chatbots can make discoveries. The error, chatbots can be lazy or over constrained too.

>>>do butterflies have legs? No, butterflies do not have legs. Butterflies are insects that belong to the order Lepidoptera, which includes both butterflies and moths. Moths also do not have legs, but instead have a pair of long, feathery antennae. In contrast, other insects, such as ants, beetles, and grasshoppers, have six legs.

This self taught chatbot had very little curated knowledge, or over weighted it's own observations.

[hinchley]

Opening tonight

[hinchley]

[hinchley]

Oligarchy

Great business achievements result in great wealth. But great wealth results in a paucity of business achievements. Among its achievements are consolidation, monopoly, regulatory capture, squeezing supply chains, reducing labor costs and preventing displacement by great business achievements.

Oligarchy heralds the end of prosperity and the end of the capitalist system, though the oligarchy will tell you they are the capitalist system. The rise and fall of corporate entities is over, the oligarchs get to keep their franchises because they are making the rules with their political power. That's the definition of oligarchy.

Consider the supply chain in the chip industry, which is not going to be resolved by new chip companies. The merger of Analog Devices and Maxim is the perfect example. Two healthy companies whose brutal competition resulted in a constant stream of innovation and describes the danger we face perfectly. The resulting company will use the supply chain crisis to shed its portfolio bloated by merger, and squeeze customers.

Since the oligarchs control the media there's no problem blaming China for all its woes. But in reality China is the only place a new company is able to develop and emerge as a threat to incumbents, as we expect in a healthy capitalism. But China will comply, and by comply I mean selling product at inflated price points that support oligarchy and incumbency.

Capitalism is the best system, it would be good if we still lived in a capitalism. The fall began with media consolidation, political corruption and foreign policy despotism. We are fallen. We are seeing the signs of fascism, and this is expected. You don't just reverse course and back out of oligarchy. The only sure way to avoid a fascism is to not get into a place that can be fixed by it. How to get through an oligarchy without a pause in fascism. Perhaps some calamity, depression or natural disaster can rid us of oligarchy. The oligarchs control government so they are not easily dislodged.

Of course we have to fight fascism using the status quo. But this illustrates the perfect solution myth. After you dig a hole and climb into it, you must also climb out. We allowed media consolidation and we knew better, we allowed neocons to penetrate both parties, and we allowed foreign policy to border on purposeless destruction and enrichment of special interests. Maybe the suckers deserve it, and by suckers I mean us.

[hinchley]

Closer to knowing what intelligence is today

Faculty intelligence and motivational intelligence.

[hinchley]

Senryu 2023-6-8, Lindbergh

Time as old as tales Ink's abiding power 'till Narrative control

[hinchley]

My penguin is turned sideways and I'm used to him looking directly at me in the way unflappable penguins do. They are the rock of the existential world seeing everything exactly and are never surprised. I am comforted knowing the record is witnessed in just and pristine form. Should I get up and turn him at 2:00AM? I'm getting abandonment vibes from his resolute sideways stare.

I just realized I cannot add a #penguin tag unless it already exists. I lack tag minting privilege. Or am I targeted specifically because of a danger I pose minting tags that bring people together around ideas that the security State is afraid of? ..., I see you cannot enter 'Done' after typing in your tag, you must hit 'Return' then 'Done' in that order.

[hinchley]

White caps reach skyward

May wind gathers up to clouds

Salt falls back to sea

[hinchley]

I think it's true, untested virtues are vanities, at the bottom of any virtue that have held fast lies what you are really afraid of or you wouldn't claim it.

[hinchley]

How God Created Monkeys by Ron Hinchley, March 23, 2007

Now back in the dawn people lived and slept in the trees so they were protected from the fierce beasts that roamed the forest floor. Gathering food as they needed that the forest would provide in the branches, fruits and insects, sometimes venturing to the forest floor for other necessities. Living in small groups there was contentment and a good measure of peace. Then one day God spoke to them as he had done before calling them. God said, "Come down from the trees, stand upright and go out into the fields and grow food from the rich soil I provide for you. There you will build shelters and protect your selves with the tools I will teach you how to make and use."

There was great confusion and much debate on whether it was the right thing to do and very soon the groups were divided on what to do. The arguments were very compelling. One person said, ”You will go out and spend the nights exposed to the ferocious beasts,” and this was true because it could not be argued, there were no shelters out in the fields and if you left you would be exposed to the great beasts that hunted in the day and the other beasts that hunted in the night. Another said rightly there was no food in the fields for it had not yet been grown and there is no fruit where there are no trees and this could not be argued either. One person said “There are no tools,” and this could not be argued because it was true. They would not be able to protect themselves and work the soil without tools. More people were feeling that wisdom was with caution and it may be better to stay in the trees.

Some time had passed and the discussion had settled down. Most people were content to let the controversy rest rather than do something. But a small group of people decided to go out into the fields anyway. They did not venture far from the edge of the forest and returned often during the summer to collect fruit. The people in the trees watched them closely and as they expected many were taken and eaten by the beasts that hunted by day and also by the beasts that hunted by night. As their numbers grew smaller they learned how to fashion tools to protect themselves and to work the soil. But their numbers were decreasing.

The people who remained in the trees watched them from the branches. They saw them working in the hot sun toiling all day in the fields. They saw them eaten by the beasts that hunted in the day and the beasts that hunted in the night. They saw them build shelters to protect themselves from the beasts and they saw them lay up food which they had finally grown. The people living in the field were not decreasing in number now.

Yet they were not happy in the fields as they had been in the trees among the fruit, the cool breezes and the safety the trees offered. All wondered why God had commanded them to leave. So many had died and life was so hard for them. Their numbers were not growing smaller but there was so few of them left. Feeling the sting of being outcasts and the rejection by their brothers and sisters hurt as deeply as the mortal wounds inflicted by the giant fangs of the beasts that hunted in the night and the beasts that hunted in the day. They asked God why they toiled so hard in the field and demanded the answer to the purpose of their suffering. Hadn't they obeyed God's command to go out into the fields?

God heard their cries and one day God spoke to the people who lived in the trees saying to them, “I will not call on you again as I have done for all generations of people before you. You have waited and see, shelters are built, food is prepared and defense against the beasts that hunt in the day and the beasts that hunt in the night is at hand. But I will not punish you or even chastise you for not obeying my command, for some it is destined that they shall lead.” The people who lived in the trees knew the terrible losses and the bravery it took to go out into the fields without shelter and without tools to grow food without protection from the beasts that hunted in the day and the beasts that hunted in the night. They were amazed that God would not punish them at all. Some people left then and joined their friends in the field and were amazed that they were welcomed with such enthusiasm and celebration. For many days the people welcomed the new arrivals, blessing their good fortune and thanking God that their twin burden had been made light.

The others did not listen to God and stayed behind thinking it was better to live as they had always lived having the protection of the trees and the food that the forest provided without toil and labor. Then God said, "I told you I would not call on you again. You have made your choice to stay and therefore you are complete.” The people in the trees were frightened and cowered for they that were left were like that. But God loved all creation and he also loved them in spite of their weakness and said to them, “I will perfect you according to the choices you have made," for God truly loved all his creation, even giving them the spirit within himself that they could make decisions for themselves. Thus they became perfected for all their generations to live in the trees of the forest, for they were willful and wanted to swing and play and eat fruit from trees. God perfected and loved them and let them enjoy creation as long as the forests will endure.

With time the distance grew between the people and those who stayed behind in the trees of the forest. After a while having less in common they could no longer understand each other. When people would come into the forest to collect trees to build shelters those who stayed behind, which are called monkeys, would hide in the branches, sometimes throwing fruit down on the heads of the people. And as God had said He perfected them for their purpose and the people looked not at all like the monkeys anymore because God had another purpose for the people he called. And God continued to call on the people from time to time but he did not call on the monkeys for they were complete according to their needs.

The End

[hinchley]

My life reflected in a moth

My life reflected in a moth's pointless struggle against the window pane. Like me it fought against an impenetrable barrier. Like me the unimaginable victory would only inform the meaninglessness of the effort. And this became pity, which I would use to free it. I said, go follow your nose, because there was a mate. Then I turned out the light. And struck a blow, somewhere, against the unassailable.

3-10-2022, Lindbergh

[hinchley]

Global warming poetry and guilt

Every flower

Looks directly into you

Bearer of false spring

[hinchley]

Winter plum blossoms

Hold back their rain of petals

When bees hide from clouds