Impredicative Junkyard
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Ни один писатель, склонный описывать реальную жизнь, не избежит обвинений в антисемитизме ... чтение "Balso Snell" & "Cool Million" навеяло ...
Monday, December 27, 2004
Грани религиозного сознания ...
Sunday, December 26, 2004
... хорошо сказал некий Великий наместный мастер ложи Блистающей звезды. В речи от З1 мая 1784 года он подчёркивал, что следует отличать истинных каменщиков от "решеумов":
"Решеум, - язвил Великий мастер, - есть единый неложный ценовщик всех достоинств и недостатков. Сей то знанием своим и суемудрием своим надутый решеум приходит к вратам храма нашего и требует впущения быть в оный. Чего ищет он между нами? Премудрости ли? Ни мало нет, - ибо давно уже уверен, что имеет оную в высочайшей степени; он пришёл искать новой пищи для необузданной страсти своей учить всех с ним встречающихся; он надеется, что как скоро откроет уста свои и удостоит нас беседою своею, то все мы, усладившись его разговорами, обратимся к нему и он во всех делах наших учинится нашим прорицателем". (из примечания к №487)
"Решеум, - язвил Великий мастер, - есть единый неложный ценовщик всех достоинств и недостатков. Сей то знанием своим и суемудрием своим надутый решеум приходит к вратам храма нашего и требует впущения быть в оный. Чего ищет он между нами? Премудрости ли? Ни мало нет, - ибо давно уже уверен, что имеет оную в высочайшей степени; он пришёл искать новой пищи для необузданной страсти своей учить всех с ним встречающихся; он надеется, что как скоро откроет уста свои и удостоит нас беседою своею, то все мы, усладившись его разговорами, обратимся к нему и он во всех делах наших учинится нашим прорицателем". (из примечания к №487)
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Does not this article heading sound optimistic ... and how about the contents?
Fighting On Is the Only Option, Americans Say
By KIRK JOHNSON
Many Americans said they were dispirited or angry about the war in Iraq, but many expressed equal unhappiness about seeing a lack of options.
Fighting On Is the Only Option, Americans Say
By KIRK JOHNSON
Many Americans said they were dispirited or angry about the war in Iraq, but many expressed equal unhappiness about seeing a lack of options.
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Saturday, December 18, 2004
"Контрабандист - это единственный честный вор. Он ворует только у государства." Сказал Чарльз Лэм в Британии в начале XIX века. А вовсе не гражданин СССР эпохи застоя :)
Friday, December 17, 2004
Mark Alford, my identical twin :) From him cometh many things, and, among other's, this J.G. Ballard guy, who i've never heard of, even though his "Best Short Stories" enjoys an intro by Anthony Burgess ...
And from Alford's page through his Many worlds FAQs, David Deutsch's new and old pages, as well as his book, The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes-And Its Implications
And from Alford's page through his Many worlds FAQs, David Deutsch's new and old pages, as well as his book, The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes-And Its Implications
Here's one Michael Fumento: 
... looks like Rush Limbaugh to me ... in more than one sense.
While trying to find some info on him on Google, came across this discussion about Fumento's article "Big Fat Fake" ... also, in the same "Reason Online", Risky Journalism, and Corporate Junk Science In The Media in Zmag ... All this started with Yuschenko & Dioxin though ...
... looks like Rush Limbaugh to me ... in more than one sense.
While trying to find some info on him on Google, came across this discussion about Fumento's article "Big Fat Fake" ... also, in the same "Reason Online", Risky Journalism, and Corporate Junk Science In The Media in Zmag ... All this started with Yuschenko & Dioxin though ...
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Tokyo's Flag Law: Proud Patriotism, or Indoctrination? ... well, all the fuss about Pledge of Allegiance is only concerned with the word "God", whether it belongs there or not. Otherwise the Pledge is not questioned ...
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
"The sun isn't even up," says Sandra Foster, 42, who's been making the 85-mile trip into Manhattan for nearly a year to her job as an information-technology recruiter. "The last thing anyone wants to do is chat."
Think your commute is tough?
Think your commute is tough?
Saying no to Israel is not anti-Semitism. Or is it?
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Well ... long overdue? And here's Singer again, to make it all philosophically sound: "Blue-state philosopher"
Monday, December 13, 2004
"What a hernia, what a hernia!" ...
"What a pity childish associations cling to beautiful words like hernia, making their use as names impossible. Hernia! What a beautiful name for a girl! Hernia Hornstein!" ...
"Sirrah!", the guide cried in an enormous voice, "I am a Jew! and whenever anything Jewish is mentioned, I find it necessary to say that I am a Jew. I am a Jew!. A Jew!"
"Oh, you mistake me", Balso said, - "I have nothing against the Jews. I admire the Jews; they are a thrifty race. Some of my best friends are Jews." But his protests availed him little until he thought to quote C.M. Doughty's epigram. "The semites," - Balso said, - "are like to a man sitting in cloaca to the eyes, and whose brows touch heaven." - © Nathaniel West, "The Dream Life of Balso Snell". Ерофеев ... дальше - больше
Here's very good article: Varieties of Satire in the Art of Nathanael West by James F. Light. In particular, he writes "... theme with which West’s entire art is obsessed—lies and their exposure ...", which brings to mind On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt, suggesting that may be it was not outright lies West was obsessed with ...
A few quotes:
It is that which Homer subconsciously seeks in his pursuit of the movie extra, Faye Greener, a creature whose invitation, even in the movies in which she appears as a seductive temptress, is "closet to murder than to love. If you threw yourself on her, it would be like throwing yourself from the parapet of a skyscraper
In violence is momentary joy and in death is final victory—that assertion is West’s answer to St. John’s vision of the New Jerusalem and his invitation (Revelation 22:17) to "Come, let him who desires take the water of life without price."
[Beagle Hamlet] Darwin asserts the concept of spiritual Darwinism. Beagle Hamlet Darwin’s theory states that each of us, from birth onward, is doomed to dream of being more than animal and thus to compete with the likes of Dionysus, born three times, or Christ, born of a virgin.
Darwin realizes the tragedy of the competition in which men must spend their lives, "a competition that demanded their being more than animals" (p. 55). Because of this inward need, men must forever dream, and to support their dreams they pathetically juggle the paraphernalia that they have created to justify their foolishness ... to live without dreams was worse than to exist with no dreams at all, he had no answer to this dilemma ...
Life for the likes of Faye Greener is always a deal, a business transaction, a barter, a bargain, where they see their very self as a commodity, which has a market value to be exchanged by other commodities. Tod offers her sex, which she can not see in separation from its value on the market. Once she allows herself to go off, to relax her bargaining position, it's not Tod, it's this Mexican guy. Why? I do not know. © :me:
:west: :book: :me: :quote:
"What a pity childish associations cling to beautiful words like hernia, making their use as names impossible. Hernia! What a beautiful name for a girl! Hernia Hornstein!" ...
"Sirrah!", the guide cried in an enormous voice, "I am a Jew! and whenever anything Jewish is mentioned, I find it necessary to say that I am a Jew. I am a Jew!. A Jew!"
"Oh, you mistake me", Balso said, - "I have nothing against the Jews. I admire the Jews; they are a thrifty race. Some of my best friends are Jews." But his protests availed him little until he thought to quote C.M. Doughty's epigram. "The semites," - Balso said, - "are like to a man sitting in cloaca to the eyes, and whose brows touch heaven." - © Nathaniel West, "The Dream Life of Balso Snell". Ерофеев ... дальше - больше
Here's very good article: Varieties of Satire in the Art of Nathanael West by James F. Light. In particular, he writes "... theme with which West’s entire art is obsessed—lies and their exposure ...", which brings to mind On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt, suggesting that may be it was not outright lies West was obsessed with ...
A few quotes:
It is that which Homer subconsciously seeks in his pursuit of the movie extra, Faye Greener, a creature whose invitation, even in the movies in which she appears as a seductive temptress, is "closet to murder than to love. If you threw yourself on her, it would be like throwing yourself from the parapet of a skyscraper
In violence is momentary joy and in death is final victory—that assertion is West’s answer to St. John’s vision of the New Jerusalem and his invitation (Revelation 22:17) to "Come, let him who desires take the water of life without price."
[Beagle Hamlet] Darwin asserts the concept of spiritual Darwinism. Beagle Hamlet Darwin’s theory states that each of us, from birth onward, is doomed to dream of being more than animal and thus to compete with the likes of Dionysus, born three times, or Christ, born of a virgin.
Darwin realizes the tragedy of the competition in which men must spend their lives, "a competition that demanded their being more than animals" (p. 55). Because of this inward need, men must forever dream, and to support their dreams they pathetically juggle the paraphernalia that they have created to justify their foolishness ... to live without dreams was worse than to exist with no dreams at all, he had no answer to this dilemma ...
Life for the likes of Faye Greener is always a deal, a business transaction, a barter, a bargain, where they see their very self as a commodity, which has a market value to be exchanged by other commodities. Tod offers her sex, which she can not see in separation from its value on the market. Once she allows herself to go off, to relax her bargaining position, it's not Tod, it's this Mexican guy. Why? I do not know. © :me:
:west: :book: :me: :quote:
"Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that the Holocaust was able to flourish in Germany because of Europe's secular ways." oh ... One might expect regular citizens to be ignorant of history, but a Supreme Court Justice?
На "Свободе" произошел беспрецедентный скандал, ущерб от которого едва ли совместим с дальнейшей жизнью радио – во всяком случае со здоровой жизнью. Никогда еще за всю 50-летнюю историю существования, о "Свободе" так много, а главное, так позорно для нее, не писали. AFP, AP, "Washington Post", "Boston Globe" и др. выступили с критикой деятельности руководства "Радио Свобода".
Sunday, December 12, 2004
. взял в библиотеке еще два романа West'a
. рихтовал перевод
. обед с Оськой снова
. коньяк с Яшей вечером
. рихтовал перевод
. обед с Оськой снова
. коньяк с Яшей вечером
. закончил перевод
. все постирал,сложил
. сменил постельное белье
. по магазинам, продукты, Whole Foods etc
. читал Dawkins и Годунова вечером
. сварил чанахи: баранина, оливки, помидоры, картошка
. "Apocalypse Now" с Оськой
. коньяк в большом количестве, потому что иначе не выдержать ...
. заказал билет на http://www.thefoundrytheatre.org
. все постирал,сложил
. сменил постельное белье
. по магазинам, продукты, Whole Foods etc
. читал Dawkins и Годунова вечером
. сварил чанахи: баранина, оливки, помидоры, картошка
. "Apocalypse Now" с Оськой
. коньяк в большом количестве, потому что иначе не выдержать ...
. заказал билет на http://www.thefoundrytheatre.org
Saturday, December 11, 2004
И еще одно совпадение. Всем совпадениям совпадение :) "Доверчивость - слабость взрослого, и сила ребенка.", - прочел я сегодня утром в книге английских афоризмов, которая лежит у меня в сортире. Слова эти принадлежат Чарльзу Лэму, который писал очерки в лондонскую газету в XIX веке под псевдонимом Элия. Эти очерки были изданы отдельной книгой, которую я помню в 70-е годы в Питере в русском переводе в серии "Литературные памятники". (Charles Lamb, "Essays of Elia", 1823).
Сегодня же, читая Dawkins' Unweaving the Rainbow, я обнаруживаю этот афоризм в качестве эпиграфа к главе "Hoodwink'd With Faery Fancy" ... Следующую главу, "Unweaving the Uncanny", нужно выучить наизусть всем идиотам (включая меня, натурально), которые в таких совпадениях видят нечто большее, чем совпадение.
Сегодня же, читая Dawkins' Unweaving the Rainbow, я обнаруживаю этот афоризм в качестве эпиграфа к главе "Hoodwink'd With Faery Fancy" ... Следующую главу, "Unweaving the Uncanny", нужно выучить наизусть всем идиотам (включая меня, натурально), которые в таких совпадениях видят нечто большее, чем совпадение.
перевод закончен. Ай-да Пушкин :)
Friday, December 10, 2004
And here comes ... Gawker
Famous Atheist Now Believes in God
NEW YORK Dec 9, 2004 — A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has changed his mind. He now believes in God more or less based on scientific evidence, and says so on a video released Thursday.
...
Flew said he's best labeled a deist like Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people's lives.
...
This week, Flew finished writing the first formal account of his new outlook for the introduction to a new edition of his "God and Philosophy", scheduled for release next year by Prometheus Press.
...
Last week, Richard Carrier, a writer and Columbia University graduate student, posted new material based on correspondence with Flew on the atheistic www.infidels.org Web page. Carrier assured atheists that Flew accepts only a "minimal God" and believes in no afterlife.
And here's quite a continuation - with even more here.
NEW YORK Dec 9, 2004 — A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has changed his mind. He now believes in God more or less based on scientific evidence, and says so on a video released Thursday.
...
Flew said he's best labeled a deist like Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people's lives.
...
This week, Flew finished writing the first formal account of his new outlook for the introduction to a new edition of his "God and Philosophy", scheduled for release next year by Prometheus Press.
...
Last week, Richard Carrier, a writer and Columbia University graduate student, posted new material based on correspondence with Flew on the atheistic www.infidels.org Web page. Carrier assured atheists that Flew accepts only a "minimal God" and believes in no afterlife.
And here's quite a continuation - with even more here.
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Маковецкий 
похож немного на 
Jeremy Irons, который играет в "Лолите" ... новой. A тот на одной из фотографий похож на Приемыхова.
похож немного на Jeremy Irons, который играет в "Лолите" ... новой. A тот на одной из фотографий похож на Приемыхова.
Robert Conquest (yes, "The Great Terror") is unhappy about modernism ...
What can i say ... i agree mostly. The article is rather dull, but considering allusions to Popper (Anthony Burgess said flatly that “Art begins with craft, and there is no art until craft has been mastered.”) and some interesting quotes ... specifically, about Free verse:
Freeish verse has been with us for some generations (when I was young, my sister’s school magazine was full if it). Most poets of this century have written it, sometimes only rarely. Again, successes are possible, though uncommon—Robert Frost compared writing free verse to playing “tennis without a net”—and again, it depends for its effect on being under the protection of the guns of the main tradition. ...
and obscurity:
Even if its proponents did not say that all obscurity is profound—and some came near to saying that—they certainly implied that all profundity is obscure. But a muddy puddle may pretend to any depth; a clear pool cannot. ...
it's still worth reading.
Опять же, напоминает
"Как в пулю сажают вторую пулю,
Или бъют на пари по свечке ..."
да и "хищный глазомер простого столяра" ...
What can i say ... i agree mostly. The article is rather dull, but considering allusions to Popper (Anthony Burgess said flatly that “Art begins with craft, and there is no art until craft has been mastered.”) and some interesting quotes ... specifically, about Free verse:
Freeish verse has been with us for some generations (when I was young, my sister’s school magazine was full if it). Most poets of this century have written it, sometimes only rarely. Again, successes are possible, though uncommon—Robert Frost compared writing free verse to playing “tennis without a net”—and again, it depends for its effect on being under the protection of the guns of the main tradition. ...
and obscurity:
Even if its proponents did not say that all obscurity is profound—and some came near to saying that—they certainly implied that all profundity is obscure. But a muddy puddle may pretend to any depth; a clear pool cannot. ...
it's still worth reading.
Опять же, напоминает
"Как в пулю сажают вторую пулю,
Или бъют на пари по свечке ..."
да и "хищный глазомер простого столяра" ...
The "Left Behind" series, the best-selling novels for adults in the U.S., enthusiastically depict Jesus returning to slaughter everyone who is not a born-again Christian. The world's Hindus, Muslims, Jews and agnostics, along with many Catholics and Unitarians, are heaved into everlasting fire: "Jesus merely raised one hand a few inches and . . . they tumbled in, howling and screeching." - from Nicholas D. Kristof, `Apocalypse (Almost) Now,` New York Times, 041124.
See all 2006 customer reviews...
See also comments from NYT readers, like this one, for instance:
To the Editor:
Nicholas D. Kristof's comparison of the ''Left Behind'' series to the preachings of Muslim fundamentalists is unfair.
The ''Left Behind'' books apparently provide a warning to Jews like me (and others who are not ''born again'' Christians) that we will suffer in the future for our failure to convert. Muslim fundamentalists, on the other hand, see Jews and other infidels as a threat to be eliminated now. If they simply provided friendly reminders of eternal damnation, I'm sure we would get along just fine.
Peter Freeman
Washington, Nov. 24, 2004
See all 2006 customer reviews...
See also comments from NYT readers, like this one, for instance:
To the Editor:
Nicholas D. Kristof's comparison of the ''Left Behind'' series to the preachings of Muslim fundamentalists is unfair.
The ''Left Behind'' books apparently provide a warning to Jews like me (and others who are not ''born again'' Christians) that we will suffer in the future for our failure to convert. Muslim fundamentalists, on the other hand, see Jews and other infidels as a threat to be eliminated now. If they simply provided friendly reminders of eternal damnation, I'm sure we would get along just fine.
Peter Freeman
Washington, Nov. 24, 2004
Сравнительно сбалансировнный очерк про Kevin MacDonald, Ph.D. и его историю с David Irving ... Его же (Кевина) отзыв на Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
и Jack Vettriano, ясный пень :)
Он, конечно, пошловат довольно основательно ... Не его ли я видел в много лет назад - сцена у фортепиано, дверь открыта в соседнюю комнату, там гости ... :)
Он, конечно, пошловат довольно основательно ... Не его ли я видел в много лет назад - сцена у фортепиано, дверь открыта в соседнюю комнату, там гости ... :)
хмм ... оказывается, не только Иван Грозный интересовался у Английской королевы вопросом предоставления ему убежища ... но и Борис Годунов. Дела ...
Mind/body problem: everybody saw a body without mind. Has anybody ever seen a mind without body?
Also: restricted Turing test. Say a computer is programmed to paint screen with a color, which is entered from the keybord. Say a person types "red" - and the screen becomes red. First question: where's the concept of redness to be found in the computer? :) The answer is obvious in this case, the concept of redness resides in the computer memory.
Now, after saying "red", "green", etc - and seeing the screen becoming the respective color, the person types "maroon" on the keyboard, and there's a reply on the screen "What's this?". Apparently, nobody programmed this color into computer. One can type on the keyboard "Here's maroon" and put something of an appropriate color to the input device.
Is this not - exactly - what happens with a human being?
Also: restricted Turing test. Say a computer is programmed to paint screen with a color, which is entered from the keybord. Say a person types "red" - and the screen becomes red. First question: where's the concept of redness to be found in the computer? :) The answer is obvious in this case, the concept of redness resides in the computer memory.
Now, after saying "red", "green", etc - and seeing the screen becoming the respective color, the person types "maroon" on the keyboard, and there's a reply on the screen "What's this?". Apparently, nobody programmed this color into computer. One can type on the keyboard "Here's maroon" and put something of an appropriate color to the input device.
Is this not - exactly - what happens with a human being?
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
These are my adventures moving with my husband and 15 year-old-son from Scottsdale, AZ to Moscow, Russia.
А что же есть? А есть, как совершенно справедливо отметила Л.М. Алексеева, “интерес обеих сторон”. Потому и заявку правозащитники “подают на ту деятельность, которая интересует” руководство американских фондов. И тогда возникает вопрос - каковы же “взаимные интересы” российских правозащитников и руководства западных фондов?
Для поиска ответ на этот вопрос обратимся к самим западным “благотворительным” фондам.
Для поиска ответ на этот вопрос обратимся к самим западным “благотворительным” фондам.
"... influence of a prediction upon the events predicted." - Popper, in "Unended Quest", pg 121. "I had called this an Oedipus effect" ...
Monday, December 06, 2004
А.В.Бялко, доктор физико-математических наук Институт теоретической физики РАХ, журнал "Природа", которому тоже было не скучно, пишет по поводу торсионных полей вот что:
"ТО, ЧТО в смутные времена повышается восприимчивость людей к псевдонаучным идеям, - известный психологический факт.
Публикация статей на такие темы в респектабельных, но далеких от науки изданиях прискорбна, и все же обяснима. Однако когда подобные рассуждения проникают на страницы научной и научно-популярной литературы, это настораживает, поскольку ложная концепция как бы получает благословение со стороны специалистов.
Так, в печати продолжают появляться утверждения о существовании неких торсионных полей со свойствами, якобы не укладывающимися в рамки общепризнанной физической теории."
Подробнее - вот А.В. Бялко "Торсионные мифы" ... see also Конференция Гордона and СВЕТСКИЙ ГУМАНИСТ
"ТО, ЧТО в смутные времена повышается восприимчивость людей к псевдонаучным идеям, - известный психологический факт.
Публикация статей на такие темы в респектабельных, но далеких от науки изданиях прискорбна, и все же обяснима. Однако когда подобные рассуждения проникают на страницы научной и научно-популярной литературы, это настораживает, поскольку ложная концепция как бы получает благословение со стороны специалистов.
Так, в печати продолжают появляться утверждения о существовании неких торсионных полей со свойствами, якобы не укладывающимися в рамки общепризнанной физической теории."
Подробнее - вот А.В. Бялко "Торсионные мифы" ... see also Конференция Гордона and СВЕТСКИЙ ГУМАНИСТ
Sunday, December 05, 2004
- простой хороший капиталистический парнишка, честный и открытый, хорошо играет в покер. Он мог бы стать юристом, но быть юристом - это занятие еврейское, причем для тех евреев, которые в силу некоторой испорченности не стали раввинами, и тем повергли в безутешное горе своих родителей. За что родители перестали с ними общаться ...
Да, так вот, хороший американский парнишка любит играть в покер. И выигрывает. Потому что он очень умный. Впрочем, он говорит: "The worse person you are, the better is your game." (или что-то вроде этого). Играет он честно. Все остальные вокруг тоже играют честно. Включая страшного главаря русской мафии в Нью-Йорке ... Жульничает только один плохой американский парнишка, за что его лупят другие (честные) американские парни, а так же честная русская и латиноамериканская мафия. Время от времени его сажают в тюрьму. И вообще, у него нет ambition. Поэтому он обречен in the long term.
А вот у хорошего американского парнишки есть цель. Мечта. Выиграть миллион долларов в покер. И он к ней стремится. В процессе наплевав на подружку и карьеру адвоката. Такие дела.
"Grifters" ... "Rounders" ...
где там Paul Newman героически в биллиард играл? Вот на этом бы и следовало остановиться :)
Более неприятным было следствие, согласно которому для особи в некоторых случаях причинение себе вреда оказывается полезным с точки зрения адаптации вида, если при этом другим особям причиняется больший вред. Прайс назвал это «злобным» (spiteful) поведением. Для особи может оказаться полезным убийство другой особи, находящейся с ней в отношении «отрицательного родства», даже если в процессе этого данной особи причиняется вред. - в процессе перевода статьи Death of an Altruist
Saturday, December 04, 2004
"Любая жена, я полагаю, имеет право требовать, чтобы ее отвезли в Париж." Интересно, что на Google "Sidney Smith aphorism" сначала дает Сидней Смит, и только потом Sidney Smith ...
"Для терпимости отведены специальные дома." В.И. Ленин.
"Для терпимости отведены специальные дома." В.И. Ленин.
Friday, December 03, 2004
This phenomenon is interesting on a number of accounts. The first is that it rather dramatically overrates the influence that American money, or American "democracy-promoters," can have in a place such as Ukraine. After all, about the same, relatively small amount of U.S. money has been spent on promoting democracy in Belarus, to no great effect. - surely The Washington Post knows what it's saying ... а вот и продолжение банкета:
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration has spent more than $65 million in the past two years to aid political organizations in Ukraine ... U.S. officials say the activities don't amount to interference in Ukraine's election, as Russian President Vladimir Putin alleges ... But officials acknowledge some of the money helped train groups and individuals opposed to the Russian-backed government candidate."
... and, very conveniently, here's Mr. VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO, sharing with us his (very independent) thoughts in the Editorial Pages of WSJ ...
и, наконец: Doctors Say Ukrainian Candidate Was Poisoned
... а вот и продолжение банкета:
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration has spent more than $65 million in the past two years to aid political organizations in Ukraine ... U.S. officials say the activities don't amount to interference in Ukraine's election, as Russian President Vladimir Putin alleges ... But officials acknowledge some of the money helped train groups and individuals opposed to the Russian-backed government candidate."
... and, very conveniently, here's Mr. VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO, sharing with us his (very independent) thoughts in the Editorial Pages of WSJ ...
и, наконец: Doctors Say Ukrainian Candidate Was Poisoned
"... cosmos emerging from near chaos." - also sprach Karl Popper. On Bach. I would say the same about Bruegel the Only.
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Сергей Юрьевич Кузнецов - and here: Sergey Kuznetsov's Journal ... and through his journal - nothingness.org
Something is brewing, i am telling you. I feel it in the air.
And here is an interview with Chalmer Johnson.
And here is an interview with Chalmer Johnson.
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
"The Wild One" остановил на середине ... не могу больше такие фильмы смотреть. А фильм отличный. Текст замечательный, хоть весь на цитаты растаскивай ... и очень реально все.
The newcomer is indoctrinated. He's told never to betray his colleagues and to mainain the wage rate. If a worker does not accept a price [for a job] and leaves the shop, no one in the house should do the job for a smaller price. Those are laws among the workers.
Faithfulness and probity are recommended to him. Any worker, who betrays the others, when something forbidden, called maron [chestnut], is being printed, must be expelled ignominiously from the shop. The workers blacklist him by circular letters sent around all the shops in Paris and the provinces ...
Aside from that, anhing is permitted: excessive drinking is considered a good quality, gallantry and debauchery as youthful feats, indebtnedness as a sign of wit, irreligion as sinceriy. It's a free and republican territory in which everything is permitted. Live as you like, but be an honnete homme, no hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy turned out in the rest of the narrative to be the main characteristic of the bourgeois, a superstitious religious bigot. He occupied a separate world of pharasaical bourgeois morality.
The Great Cat Massacre by Robert Darnton. Funny enough, i translated История странных прыжков, будущее неожиданностей. some time ago.
Faithfulness and probity are recommended to him. Any worker, who betrays the others, when something forbidden, called maron [chestnut], is being printed, must be expelled ignominiously from the shop. The workers blacklist him by circular letters sent around all the shops in Paris and the provinces ...
Aside from that, anhing is permitted: excessive drinking is considered a good quality, gallantry and debauchery as youthful feats, indebtnedness as a sign of wit, irreligion as sinceriy. It's a free and republican territory in which everything is permitted. Live as you like, but be an honnete homme, no hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy turned out in the rest of the narrative to be the main characteristic of the bourgeois, a superstitious religious bigot. He occupied a separate world of pharasaical bourgeois morality.
The Great Cat Massacre by Robert Darnton. Funny enough, i translated История странных прыжков, будущее неожиданностей. some time ago.
A short visit to the Chinese Room:
In the former case, although if he executes the procedures correctly he may make the right verbal responses in Chinese, he will never get the joke and feel the laughter because he, John Searle, still doesn’t really understand a word of Chinese, whereas in the latter case he will get the joke, find it funny and laugh because he genuinely does understand English.
It's really strange how seriously this Chinese Room Argument (CRA)is taken, and how long it is being discussed, while it's nothing more than just a much less general form of Turng Test. Turing very clearly (though implicitly) indicated very important things:
- intelligence is a continuum (an agent can be more intelligent, less intelligent, much less intelligent etc);
- intelligence is subjective: a 5-year old may find an agent to be intelligent, while a university professor would hold a different opinion);
- a physical nature of an agent is not important, irrelevant as far as intelligence is concerned.
- deterining intelligence of an agent is a process; never ending at that. There always may be a point when the agent is ruled to be a fake.
Getting back to CRA. Neither Chinese nor room is relevant, it should be very clear to anybody. One crucial thing is missing from the whole CRA discource: a concept of memory. No agent would pass Turing Test unless it does possess memory. To introduce concept of memory in CRA means changing the whole mode of operation: adding writing devices and capabilities. This, in turn, means very important thing: Chinese Room, as a whole, becomes dynamic, instead of being "preset". Or, to put it differently, it becomes "alive" - as opposed to "dead".
The main question, posed by Searle in CRM, is "where the understanding resides". Surely this question is completely irrelevant. CRM, if it operates correctly, i.e. fools the observer into thinking it intelligent, becomes an intelligent entity. Intelligence is a property. To ask where the intelligence (or understanding) resides, is the same as to ask where the weight of a body resides.
And, surely, if Chinese Room is smart enough to "make correct response to a joke", that is, to produce an answer, indicating that the joke is funny, adding a device with "canned laughter" and switching it on when making a response should not present an insurmountable problem ... see also
In the former case, although if he executes the procedures correctly he may make the right verbal responses in Chinese, he will never get the joke and feel the laughter because he, John Searle, still doesn’t really understand a word of Chinese, whereas in the latter case he will get the joke, find it funny and laugh because he genuinely does understand English.
It's really strange how seriously this Chinese Room Argument (CRA)is taken, and how long it is being discussed, while it's nothing more than just a much less general form of Turng Test. Turing very clearly (though implicitly) indicated very important things:
- intelligence is a continuum (an agent can be more intelligent, less intelligent, much less intelligent etc);
- intelligence is subjective: a 5-year old may find an agent to be intelligent, while a university professor would hold a different opinion);
- a physical nature of an agent is not important, irrelevant as far as intelligence is concerned.
- deterining intelligence of an agent is a process; never ending at that. There always may be a point when the agent is ruled to be a fake.
Getting back to CRA. Neither Chinese nor room is relevant, it should be very clear to anybody. One crucial thing is missing from the whole CRA discource: a concept of memory. No agent would pass Turing Test unless it does possess memory. To introduce concept of memory in CRA means changing the whole mode of operation: adding writing devices and capabilities. This, in turn, means very important thing: Chinese Room, as a whole, becomes dynamic, instead of being "preset". Or, to put it differently, it becomes "alive" - as opposed to "dead".
The main question, posed by Searle in CRM, is "where the understanding resides". Surely this question is completely irrelevant. CRM, if it operates correctly, i.e. fools the observer into thinking it intelligent, becomes an intelligent entity. Intelligence is a property. To ask where the intelligence (or understanding) resides, is the same as to ask where the weight of a body resides.
And, surely, if Chinese Room is smart enough to "make correct response to a joke", that is, to produce an answer, indicating that the joke is funny, adding a device with "canned laughter" and switching it on when making a response should not present an insurmountable problem ... see also
