Wednesday, October 15, 2008

9792: free will

Wow, what an uninteresting election. Added to the fact that the American election is far more interesting once again, our government is:

No one. Wow, I can hardly contain my excitement.

Thinking about it, we really have to take a look at the whole system when the country can't make their minds any better then their leaders.

The other day I was thinking about how difficult it must be. When a politician passes the torch from one person to another, he's like, here ya go, there are more people then ever before, with bigger debt then ever before, too much new technology that we know how to deal with, and the broad array of responsibilities and potential is tremendous.

And then the public starts barking. I wonder how some of these guys even sleep at night. I watched Mccain being grilled on the view, and at the point where Mccain was once again stretching for the Christian vote, he said "I pray every night."

I wonder if it would go something like this:

"Dear God, please forgive me for my sins. I'm sorry for making all women look bad by picking Sarah Palin as my vp. Thank you God, that the American people are gullible enough that even after George Bush destroyed the economy, and was rediculed more then any other president, that the American people would still consider voting for me. I'm sorry God, for stooping to a new low for trying to associate Obama with terrorism, but I mean c'mon God, he is not my friend. I mean, look at his name, why on Earth would anyone in politics not legally change their name before running for president with a name like that? I'm pretty sure he's an arab in disguise, that old lady was right!"

ok, that was a lot more funny when I imagined it.

So, I stumbled on this website with 10 films guaranteed to blow my mind. Waking life sounded interesting, so I watched it last night. It's a really interesting film with deep profound intellectual conversation.

When we try to show a dream, we can never really come close. Any movie or show is usually foggy or some cheesy effect that never really grabs that dream-like perspective.

Thinking about this, when you watch someone's representation of a dream with your eyes, your relaying it through a different medium. It's like, trying to tell someone how something tastes. Because you don't dream with your eyes, it's a similar medium, but not the same.

A dream is like an open-world simulator, where it seems like it's created by your own mind with memories and information from the conscious world, but the movie brings up interesting concepts like the crossword puzzle experiment, where we're all connected. Ideas seem to spring up in bunches, like we're gathering in our dream state and discussing things.

It got me thinking about information and where it comes from. Something I've been thinking lately, about AI and how it will never be like a human because it can't come up with anything new. It only does what it's told, and we keep adding to that, but it can't get new information like we can.

Like, if we're just systems, collections of strings, where does the new programming come from? You can see animals reacting and acting accordingly, but new ideas and human ingenuity seems to be beyond that.

The movie reminded me of a time in my life where I'd wake up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep because of something so interesting and profound that I had discovered in my dreams. I don't know why, but it doesn't happen any more. I feel like I need more stimulation, something to wake up that drive for knowledge again. I suppose a movie like this is a good start.

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