Battlestar Galactica – Observations and Misunderstandings

Interplanetary Establishment Stooges

29/10/202029/10/2020 Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

This was going to be a piece on the EHRC report into anti-semitism within the Labour party. If I was attempting to be a super duper up to the minute journalist then it probably should be but instead I’m just some guy who likes to spout his limited opinion on various things on a daily basis. Tomorrow I have a long journey to Athens and as there is so much stuff coming out on this purge I would like to digest it first. Also, and more importantly, far more important than any of this power politics nonsense which I’ll get myself worked up about tomorrow and a day late, is an article in The Independent that says scientists “have found a “rogue” planet floating through our galaxy, untethered to any sun”.

What the fuck?! What the actual fuck?!! And how the actual fuck is something like this not a bigger story. Apparently it is the smallest rogue world ever found and has a mass somewhere between Earth and Mars. There are rogue worlds?! What the…you get the point. The universe is incredible and not just because I’m about to watch the last two episodes of Battlestar Galactica. I always thought planets revolved around a sun but there appears to be loads just floating around freely. It does beg the question though, what if it’s a Death Star? It probably isn’t but saying it definitely isn’t is surely a rational or logical impossibility. We exert so much energy arguing and worrying over the most stupid little things and there’s planets, which haven’t been proven not to be Death Stars, just floating around out there. In all seriousness though, why do we limit the possibilities of existence when we’re constantly proving how little we actually know. Socrates got it, he understood.

It doesn’t take away from the fact Keir Starmer isn’t just another establishment stooge doing other people’s dirty work. He’s a total prick let’s be honest. This whole attack on Jeremy Corbyn is incredible to observe. Just step back from it, detach yourself and observe it objectively. He challenged real power and they’re destroying him. You can see the mechanisms grinding away, the people and institutions involved. This is the type of thing you see on some television series. Yet this is real life and it’s absolutely blatant. It’s fascinating, it’s horrifying. It does show how exposed they are in this modern day world with the internet. Won’t mean a lot though when this new planet settles in our orbit and we discover we’ve got neighbours. I wonder how quickly Starmer will decide to worship his new masters.

Coffee & Ambling

21/10/2020 Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

Today was a remarkably contemplative day. I went for a long walk. There is nothing like a good amble when we need a think. I can’t remember the book, but I remember reading about various people from history who in their journals used to write about having their best ideas when walking. I feel compelled to agree with them. Contemplation isn’t always easy, in fact it can be a real challenge. What it is is unclear but perhaps the movement involved allows for the removal of stagnant energy clouding our thoughts. As we’re refreshed from the walk, which is also not too energetic that we’re distracted, or thoughts are refreshed with it. I also had a bamboo cane I found on the beach as a walking staff. I’ll make a good contemplative old man one day.

In other news brexit brexit brexit, covid covid covid, corruption corruption corruption. If it wasn’t for the fact it had such a potentially life threatening affect on our lives it would be so mentally beneficial to just block it all out. Such energy always clouding our minds. I did watch football last night though and it was a good result. An hour prior to kick off I started looking at the football news and seeing what was going on. Prior to that I hadn’t looked at a single football related thing since I suggested I would give up football news a few days ago. The interesting thing was that I got bored after half an hour of reading about stuff and just wanted to start watching the game. I don’t miss it. I love the game but I don’t miss all the other stuff.

Unfortunately my procrastinating is no different. I have given up the football and found myself binge watching a series. That’ll pass, admittedly only when I finish it or run out of data but it’ll pass. Importantly when it does pass I won’t have football to fall back on. I’m still so full of excitement about all the things I’ll replace football news with. Although as I said yesterday we only have now and I should probably take that into consideration and not this addictive series. Do I just need a vice? Maybe I should just become an alcoholic instead. I’m not designed for a life of purity I suspect. I’ve given up giving up coffee, maybe I’ll just stick to that. How boring life would be though if coffee was your worst vice. Surely life should be slightly more reckless than that. Might get in the way of all the ambling though.

Artificially Intelligised

19/10/2020 Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

We’ve all watched or at least know the premise of the Terminator movie franchise. It feeds on a fear we have over the creation of free thinking killer robots. I’m currently watching the series Battlestar Galactica which deals with a similar theme. There are a seemingly infinite number of films or series dealing with this topic to varying degrees of success and infamy. I’ve just watched this video produced by the independent media organisation Double Down News. To suggest it’s intention is to scare you would be unfair but be prepared to be scared.

Worried yet?

What it does do though beyond that is raise an important point on the programming of artificially intelligent robots. It is important to start from the premise that we will not be able to create fully self-aware and conscious robots. We do not understand the brain enough to fully understand consciousness, so being able to create it within a computer programme in actuality is not possible. How the programme is written then is what we need to understand. As the video suggests the computer would be programmed to kill all humans or to convince all humans not to reproduce and ultimately see them die out as a species. Even I could probably write the code for the kill all humans although teaching them to recognise what a human is would be the tough part. Could a computer write that programme, not unless it had been taught the basics in the first place.

It’s the human input we need to be concerned with. The computer may be able to learn but in and of itself it will only learn what and how as it has been programmed. If we want to detach ourselves, it is easy to suggest a little like people. The video raises an interesting point too that I had never considered before. If people can easily create malware to infect your computer, what about the artificially intelligent version of that, or a robot with a virus. We shouldn’t be naïve enough to believe our governments only have our best interests when they produce anything but we should also fear the malware version of an AI robot. What if it simply malfunctions?

And of course there are the nanobots that will land on your head and kill you. Suppressing an unruly populace will be pretty straightforward if you have that kind of technology. As someone who has always romantically believed in the possibility of a good revolution one day that is rather concerning. What then too if someone hacks these miniature killing machines and the virus infecting them leads them to kill everyone. Or more positively the current people in power trying to kill the partisans. Maybe there is hope after all. No matter what one side does it simply forces the other to step up and be creative. Food for thought.