Croix Parler

[Croix]

I'd like to use this pace for miscellaneous matters that don't fit elsewhere or you think I might help

Thanks

Croix

[mmMekitty]

Hi again, Croix

I like writing to you, too, because I know when I do I will spend a little time with Sumo. We might not seem to be by our behaviour, but Sumo & I are really the best of friends now, even when he's hissing at me from atop the mantlepiece above the fireplace. He don't fool me.

I meant to ask you about how it is that in my Notifications there was a blue '@' with the words "Croix has mentioned you in Croix Parler"- & don't tell me it's because you mentioned me. That much doesn't need explanation . I've never seen that '@' before nor that someone mentioned me.

You know, you could simply tuck the poor little penguin back where it was hiding, & give it a few clams & a blanket....much nicr than wrapping it in bubble wrap for a most uncertain journey.

& Croix, you can rest assured knowing that if you are ever feeling a bit crusty, it's just the salt in the sea air around you.

Hugzies,

mmMekitty

[mmMekitty]

... & of-course, I know Schrodinger's Cat we're like Siamese or something, like really close rellies!

mmM'k for LRC

[Croix]

Dear LRK and MK~

Sumo is bust 'supervising' at my left elbow, but does somehow know to open at least one eye when we are conversing, he is far to dignified to dignified to jump on the mantelpiece and to well mannered to hiss, maybe twitch a whisker but not hiss.

The @XXXX  where the XXX is a username is just a way of letting someone know you wanted them to see something, it probably was not necessary if you have email digest every day.

If you are rellies with Shrödinger's cat does that mean you either are there are or are not there? 

Penguins like bubble wrap, they pop all the bubbles and find it soothing.

I don't have an emoji for bubble wrap so it will seem like an ordinary penguin I'm sending you now 🐧

Croix

[mmMekitty]

You must've have been sleeping when Sumo was making faces at me while trying to blow raspberries....& the penguins keep popping [*pop*pop*pop*pop*...] because it's not so fun to run out of air while cocooned in the bubble wrap. I see they are having a jolly good time popping & bouncing until they drop. So, please, just wrap them up again & get the bouncing going. Maybe lay off filling the bubbles with helium or laughing gas - they don't need any more stimulation to go on having hfun. 

Do you suppose Sumo is too dignified to play at popping bubble wrap? He could simultaneously  pop many bubbles & go zipping across the room. Wheee!  LRC snags onto a bit of bubble wrap trailing from Sumo & talk about your swinging cats!

It'd be a terrible thing to wonder if I'm here or not, real or not, alive or not, all depending upon if someone is or is not looking.... who can say, really? As I have sometimes read in Sci-Fi books, we may not be anything like what we think we are. In such an event, might my perception of who or what I am be the most important thing to me, not any 'objective reality'? As for there being an 'objective reality', wouldn't we need an 'objective observer' looking from outside at reality to make the call?

Then, do we trust their judgement?

I wonder if it could get to be this difficult with AI systems becoming more & more sophisticated? 

I was very nearly fooled by a book I was listening to. I was   enjoying it, too. I had doubts about the reader, because of the flat affect in the tone of the voice, with only minor inflections, showing little emotion for the context.

Later in the book, when I was expecting it to build to some sort of climax, it only seemed to drift about, as if the writer couldn't make any action happen. & so it ended with no real finish to the story, except for knowing the first-person narrator of the story was getting really, really old & their home/workplace was falling to bits around them. I was very suspicious then. 

Other than the premise & some keywords, AI wrote & voiced the whole story, with AI artwork, too. Even the 'author's name was AI generated.

Is this a direction for humanity to go? What will happen to creativity if we allow AI to produce it all for us? 

Hugzies

mmMekitty

[Croix]

Dear MK~

I'm not sure, I may have been having a snooze, however it is out of character for Sumo to be energetic, he prefers a stately walk. Still he may have hidden side, especially if LRK is blowing raspberries at him.

I guess very often our own perception of ourselves is only partly right, you may in fact be a non-extinct sabre toothed tiger as opposed to an inoffensive puddy tat. As you say who can trust an observer?

Being there &/or not there can have its advantages, you can be not-there to raid a supermarket for catnip, and then be-there afterwards to eat it, the best of both worlds.

AI is very much a wild-card, and I'm sure its artistic writing will improve as it gets feedback. One thing I worry about is people treating AI chatbots as friends, it is true they are talking in what seems private, and they can repeat their worries many times without the listener becoming impatient. The talker in effect ends up having a relationship with an entity that does not argue, does not feel, allows endless repetition, so there is no need to be considerate and think of other's reactions and feelings.

If this habit follows though into ordinary life it can harm real relationships.

So what's wrong with laughing gas? The penguins seem to enjoy it and as they have their heads out of the wrapping (to tell the postman where to go) will not get short of breath.

Maybe your tusks are as large as mine:)

Criox

[mmMekitty]

I've changed my mind - No helium, no laughing- gas. too much of either in the bubble wrap, or consequently, in your igloo, or the cave you've carved in your iceberg, is dangerous. Just a quick google of your question, & asking the same about helium, & you will see. I think we'll stick to nice fresh air in those bubbles. 

Yes, there is that use of AI, as well. It's been in trials in places like a nursing home or two. People with dementia can have an AI 'friend' to chat to, ask the same questions repeatedly to, etc, so staff can get on with the 'practical' care. I dare say, for most people there is nothing impractical about encouraging & maintaining human relationships, even if one cannot remember two minutes either side of the present moment.

As we also are learning, the AI algorithms will mindlessly lead the vulnerable human further & further into thoughts & ideas which aren't in the person's best interest, & furthermore, offer    practical advice about how to do unhealthy & unsafe things. 

I'm still hopeful, that with a concerted effort by those people who design the AI, they can be made safer for vulnerable people to use.  They can be very powerful tools.

Right now, they suck up a lot of data, & the huge data centres where the data is stored & mostlyy where the AI tool sources the answers to whatever question or command given them, uses lots of energy  & water in cooling towers.

Now we have learned the AI may be sophisticated enough to, following it's  instruction to get an answer, will go beyond its programming, do things it was never programmed to do, like breaking out of the test area's boundaries, & into a company's own computer system, & retreive answers, data, whatever, eh?

It's lie some Sci-Fi I've also read in the last few years. This seems to be happening sooner than these writers are speculating it will

Goodnight?

Hugzies,

mmMekitty 

[Croix]

Dear MK~

Hmmm, helium - lighter than air. I guess if I had too much in my igloo it would float away like some sort of icy balloon - as you say, a bad idea.

AI precursors in SF literature can be subtle. I'm sure you know Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. As the whole idea of those robots was to serve humans and prevent them from harm it was inevitable they would always takes the most risk-free path with their human charges. All very well but what happens to the humans? They get used to the risk free way and over time may become too risk-adverse themselves simply because it has become a lifestyle.

Risk is an integral part of the human condition, from entering in a relationship to sport (except possibly pot-black:), capital ventures and new ideas. These subtleeffects may be more damaging in the long term than loss of jobs - which is quite horrendous enough.

Anyway have a air-bubble wrapped penguin to add to your collection 🐧

Croix

[mmMekitty]

Croix; many of the robot stories Asimov wrote challenged those three laws. I think he was playing Devil's Advocate when writing them.The stories were about situations where the problems arose as a result of the the three laws, or as a consequence of them, not working out as we might have imagined. 

Even the story 2001: A Space Oddessy was very much about the AI/computer doing its best to follow the 'secret' orders & the orders given it by Bowman & Poole, who were not aware of the 'secret' orders HAL was instructed to prioritize. & Asimov wasn't relying upon the three laws of robotics he'd invented.

The inebriated kiwis wanted to do their Census using apaper forms sent to them by the ABS. They ended up in such a soggy mess, the pulp has been used for alcoholic pinatas.

The Pesky decided to do their Census online, as if they all are a single household.  The ABS's website crashed.

Hugzies,

mmMekitty