Dr. Jackets

Catholic social ethicist of new technologies, special focus on AI and transhumanism and the plight of the poor. International, but from US West Coast

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

I suppose if I'm going to review 70s sci-fi, I should make the threads accessible somewhere. So I'll be putting them here.

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

@BVLSingler Guy who models machines off of his very narrow understanding of intelligence: humans aren’t the only intelligent things anymore!!

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

@ike_mauga Reminds me of this:

https://t.co/riG8YsJtkj

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

Which level of technological mediation is this?
#SPT2023

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

@TechneSPT Interesting. HK also tells us to put the lid down before flushing, but the authorities have quarantined apartment blocks based on sewage samples

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

@TechneSPT Do you believe in lunch after lunch?

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

Most important philosophical statement at #SPT2023

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

Like saying “AGI” (the fantasy de jour among uncreative types) is smarter than us like we are to ants is just such a stilted analogy. It does disfavors to both us and ants, and it shows most AI guys really don’t know what they’re talking about

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

One of the worst parts of sci fi/comics writing is when we make something “super” (e.g. strength, speed) we have some sense of what that looks like, but the writer’s “super intelligence” is always just what the writer thinks is smart, which is usually uncreative and stilted.

[Siméon @Simeon_Cps]

If ants were trying to design homo sapiens to make sure it never smashes them, would they succeed?

The sad answer is: probably not.

Do we have reasons to think we'll do any better with AGI?

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

Well, kabukicho was an experience. Solicited by 3 Madams and 3 bar scammers while walking around on my own. Lots of theme bars and restaurants. Saw a dead rat on the street in the morning. Fits the bill of “seedy,” but has its own charm.

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

@ethicistforhire Meta was an unmitigated disaster for Facebook, showing that the people who wanted to be on Second Life were for the most part already there. Apple is notorious for having poor support for video games. Is this intended to lower their stock value?

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

@putzmanmusing @Joshuak_Smith Minsky is a great example though because he was thoroughly enmeshed in sci fi fantasies to be unable to distinguish reality. I think it’s why he didn’t like Dreyfus: Dreyfus cut through the bullshit and Minsky’s wild promises never came true.

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

@Joshuak_Smith I’m happy to take your recommendation, but you’d be more convincing if you could articulate the point yourself. If I have to wade through a bunch of Jungian archetype nonsense that has nothing to do with what I said, I’m going to be disappointed.

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

@Joshuak_Smith Its many frames under recognized entities? What entities? Recognized by whom? And how does that change the fact that it’s a misleading term divorced from its origin?

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

@putzmanmusing @Joshuak_Smith The term came from William Gibson’s Neuromancer, which adapted Klein and Clynes’s “cyborg” to computer-created virtual reality, and their term was adapted from Wiener’s cybernetics but adapted to prostheses.
That definition is totally decontextualized.

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

@Joshuak_Smith I’m not sure what to make of this response

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

@Joshuak_Smith Cyberspace itself is a bad choice of words since it, for the most part, has little to do with cybernetics and nothing to do with space.
It was a nifty sci fi neologism, and just like robot fiction, it caught the imagination of tech bros who couldn’t separate fact from fiction

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

Another gorgeous summer morning in Hong Kong

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

@ethicistforhire It wouldn’t be capitalism if “passing exams” weren’t twice as expensive as “education and learning.”

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

@GhostowlMTG @catholickungfu Definitely demonstrates the best potential for what a game can do, imo. Gorgeous visuals, great use of surround sound to create a sense of what Senua’s going through, and powerful narrative that isn’t drawn on (I finished in 14 hours).

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

My favorite was “Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.” The game was beautiful and challenging, but the creators used surround sound effects and visuals to create the feeling of paranoia and anxiety.

[Dr. Jackets @CheckettsLevi]

Although this message is ironic coming from Strickland, it is very important to tel our LGBTQ siblings not to compromise the truth of who they are to be loved by bigots in society.

[Bishop J. Strickland @BishStrickland]

“From the desire of being loved, deliver me Jesus”, this line from the Litany of Humility is hard to ponder. Everyone wants to be loved and that is good, but compromising the truth in order to be loved is sinful and harmful. Humility calls us to bow to the truth, always.