Monthly Archives: May 2024

It’s all about what is important – the thirties

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Another in the series taken from a book mariner wrote about 25 years ago. The book addresses the fact that what we think is important is not important. In the section about aging, this extract covers the thirties:

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The Thirties

What’s important about turning thirty is that it’s not important. Turning thirty is like getting a warning ticket from the traffic cop. No real fine, just a warning that a real ticket could happen soon. In fact, at thirty there are many professional and recreational games that present themselves and this is probably what seems most important. Otherwise, being thirty is like going through a second puberty — other than your vitality, you’re not worth a lot to anyone. You’re too old to be young and too young to be experienced.
The most fun is the singles game. The years around thirty are a hodgepodge of coed softball, amateur politics at the office, music, obligatory hours at work, weekends at a beachfront motel with someone, even someone who’s an acquaintance, and sports of all kinds. What’s important is singles bars, sports bars, sports cars and volleyball. The thirties game is important only for a few years but it burns plenty of energy. What’s important when you’re thirty is flaunting your maturity at the late teens and early twenties. You got your warning ticket, though, so you do not want to be older anymore. The thirties game is over when the potbelly emerges and the thighs thicken.
Some thirty year-olds play another game called marriage and kids. Oddly enough, this game passes the twenties and early thirties as rapidly as the singles game. What’s important is a partner who is predictable and dependable and both of you procreating more people to play the age game. While the singles game never lets you forget you’re growing older, the married with kids game lets you forget for a few years. Kids and secondary school make time stand still. The game is over when the potbelly emerges and the thighs thicken — or the kids bail out.

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Stay tuned for middle age.

Ancient Mariner

Twentieth Century

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Roughly speaking, the European era of colonialism existed from the 14th century until the 19th century. A weakening of colonialism began with the creation of the United States in the late 1700s. It was an era when the European nations played a role very similar to today’s venture capitalists. Europe didn’t want there to be too much war because war doesn’t necessarily generate profit. Instead, through political and especially religious domination, Europe invaded cultures rather than territory. Capitalism was the only political game.

It took two world wars to reorder the international relationship from economically constricted nations to an era of independent nations. The twentieth century, all 100 years of it, was a process of restructuring economic theory, redividing political authority and launching an unprecedented pursuit of technology from automobiles and interstates to landing on the moon.

As much as can be expected, democracy bloomed around the world. While wars continued, they were regional, e.g, Vietnam war. The economic reordering of the world economy based on independent nations increased gross domestic profit in all civilized nations, ergo, the richer nations could finance regional wars as a means of political influence.

The concept of power through financial support of war continues into the twenty-first century. Like an addiction, too much war can be bad for the planet. It is clear across all news platforms that war seems not to solve twenty-first century issues. Human society in general struggles with the last century’s version of venture capitalism, democratic concepts being stressed by instant global communication and a restructuring of political power based on stressed natural resources as common as drinking water.

The elephant in the room for the twenty-first century is global warming. Virtually everyone still would rather keep the twentieth century values than have to start over again with a new era. But at what price?

Corporations have moved on and are not controlled by twentieth century democracy. Governments around the world struggle to identify new international relationships. Wealth continues to grow despite the deepening economic crisis around the world. Dictators are leveraging public fear as the world shifts.

Unfortunately, no one knows how things will work out but there are indications that human strife cannot afford to continue paying for the twentieth century.

Ancient Mariner

Watchamacallit

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The more mariner reads about the depth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its ability to understand human language and nuance, the more he believes it may be up to the job of communicating with humans. The more examples of AI misrepresentation mariner observes, the more AI seems the same as how humans garble things. Does the reader think AI knows what ‘chaduin’ means? Would AI speak similarly if it were composing conversation? Would AI and Fats Domino understand each other or even someone from Baastn?

Mariner wears hearing aids. Hearing aids are capable of stringing whole sentences into one long string of incomprehensible noises. That sounds like something AI could do. Can AI use euphemisms like ’till the cows come home’ without literally waiting for the cows to come home? Some folks use AI to create procedural documents, instruction manuals and legal briefs. The odds are pretty good that these documents are no more comprehensible than human versions.

These aberrations can be entertaining but newer capabilities like replacing chunks of human brain with an AI look-a-like brain may make it difficult to to trace one’s life history. Further, how does one ascertain who garbled a word, AI or the human?

Mariner also is concerned about AI’s ability to hallucinate, interpret delusions or speak non-answers to questions. Will AI ever comprehend Marjorie Taylor Greene or Bernie Sanders? If AI can’t handles this, politicians will never be automated – mentally – mariner can imagine voting for robots.

There’s a trope that says “It’s a brave new world”; Can one be brave and automated at the same time?

Ancient Mariner