LG+Q something. Does TV still mean Television?

Oh wait a minute though, "TV" means something else nowadays too, right.. Transvestite, of course. I didn't even need my local AI for that1. With the other letters though, I may need some help..

Hah! Gotcha! This entry has nothing to do with any of that, whatever it was.

Nothing at all.

It's all in the footnotes - that title is for someone navigating here in the future; not you. Move on.

;o)

1000 words, right.

But what about 1500? Or 2K? Or a whole book?

I refer, of course, to the famous adage about a picture, and its painting abilities... Anyways..

Yes, AI can create actual images, pictures. This is awesome and scary in equal measure, but also, as most know but don't quite fully appreciate, AI can create text.

Text is awesome. Every computer system I've ever worked had a text editor launch on boot. Everything begins as text; Poetry, HTML, code, scripts, plays, sermons, all the good stuff.

Crucially, you can put ideas into text. And of course, nothing is more powerful than ideas.

Follow the logic train?

So, AI is creating Ideas?

No. AI is re-creating our ideas. Unless trained or fine-tuned otherwise; something I occasionally help with. Essentially, AI recreates what we create, except without accreditation, as it's en-masse ideas, as opposed to actual ideas.

And there's the rub (Oh fuck, here comes Scotland Yard, again), if you like, quite literally.

Sure; a local LLM may not be up-to-date with your local takeaway prices, but it will "joyfully" assist you with the best way to, for example, dispose of a recently-murdered body, abduct a small child from their parents, remove DNA evidence, make explosives from everyday items, extract potent drugs from everyday pharmaceuticals .. Do I need to go on?

I mean, I'm a writer, I could go on all day and my AI would be all Stone Face and raise me twenty, and I would die of starvation before my "assistant" ran out of ways to joyfully assist me with, well, anything. And I do mean ANYTHING. Meta's latest LLama is particularly good with scrubbing DNA evidence. If I ever commit a murder, I know exactly where to go for advice!

And not only assist, but (and this is the crux here) suggest new methods to improve success, or evade capture, or remove evidence, and so on.. Things your average punter definitely didn't consider, not being versed in humanity's entire corpus of crime fiction, police reports, etc., etc..

I see an AI cat-and-mouse up ahead.

But hey, we have governments, and they spend billions of our hard-earned bucks on something? Surely they they have a dozen think-tanks already on this. Right?

Nope. They are just sitting, waiting for someone else to make a move.

California (home of 99% of the world's revenue by the time I finish writing this, probably) did.

The last (and only) time I was in California, I thought it was an amazing place. I toured its vast expanse, enjoyed its laid-back, hip, open-minded culture, swam the pools, gave interviews, loved the bars and baked in the heat, especially that Death Valley, boy oh boy! I enjoyed it hugely, and vowed never to return.

But I always considered it a beacon of sorts; zipping ahead, Tron-style, with humanity's tech baton in hand. Then the governor of California decided that the recently minted (and albeit not perfect, but at least A STEP in some direction) AI bill should die. And so it died. Oh shit.

I genuinely don't know what's going to happen now. Governments are so far behind the curve it's staggering. By the time they wake up, every criminal entity on the planet will be *EXPERT*, and our "leaders" will be scrambling to even begin comprehending how to begin understanding how to keep up.

In other words (I may have mentioned this previously; and by no means am I a doomsayer but, well), we are fucked.

I've had a great life. I can check out now happy, or just sit back and watch y'all burn and scream while I wag my finger sayin' "told ya!".

Rockin' on my rocking chair now, enjoying a cold one as the sun goes down; life is good. Healthy children sleeping, gently swaying in their hammocks. The youngest (still in a Brazilian hammock, though a proper Mayan hammock will soon be his) snores gently in a deep, dreamless sleep.

His tablet is checked for dark patterns. He has Karate twice a week in his Dojo and every day at home. My point?

It's out of control now. Forget governments stepping in and making shit safe. That isn't happening. You need to step up and prepare your kids for a future devoid of fixed reality points1.

Basic concepts count for everything. A simple thing like greed can change (i.e. Fuck) the world. Children devoid of greed make good EVERYTHING; politicians, business leaders, teachers, you name it. Same goes for the other deadly sins.

Thanks California. YOU are my tipping point. I give up on the world now. Fuck you!

I'm gonna get my kids ready for the shitstorm that's coming. Lotta work to do.

You, do your own thing.

;o)

AI reaching human intelligence?? Haha! Rrright!

The AI researcher in me, trying to grasp the Maths, says, "No. No way. Not happening. Not for a long, long time."

The realist in me, looking at the stupidity that passes for the average human being these days just laughs and says, "WAM!1 That has already happened".

And yes, AI will say completely stupid stuff, connecting things that aren't meant to be connected, and disconnecting things that are definitely meant to be together. It speaks utter rubbish. It mixes stuff up and plain old makes up stuff. And so on.

In fact, every logic puzzle variant in existence can be utterly baffling to AI, and just like with actual humans, the results can be utterly incomprehensible.

Playing with my local LLMs, it's getting hard to see the difference between its output and the average facebook post.

In other words; if you are looking to legislate around this, it's too late.

;o)

Why do Scottish people swear all the time?

Simply; what we have to say is just so much more important than anything you; of lesser nationality; have to say.

It's totally fine that you want to send your kids to Uni here, but really, you need to get soaked in our particular radiation for decades; ideally from birth. It's in the bedrock, you see.

That's just me being honest. It's not racism or any of those other childish isms you invoke-when-threatened. It just is. Hmm.

Some nations make steel that puts all other steel to shame. Some nations have scaled the culinary heights. And so on. We love food here. Also a good blade. Yes!

But thinking power is where our geography leads its people.

So what we say needs emphasis.

Deal with it!

;o)

Does AI get the gist?

Having read many, too many white papers on the workings of AI; it surprises me that the word "gist" isn't applied more in the field.

;o)

The art of ignoring.

I do this with my kids sometimes. They understand it to be the ultimate insult and simultaneously, the ultimate answer; in that it forces them to seek the answer unaided.

When I ignore, it's with a purpose, and the ignored know it. Mostly..

If I had a buck for every email thread I've responded to only once and then watched the other end wither or flail into insignificance, I'd buy an island.

Whilst ready to freely give my time, sometimes even at the expense of other; seemingly more important time (kids, earning a living, and so on), they bypass the opportunity and instead accept second-best, or worse.

Randomly; I recently had a rant about cbparser (I forgot about writing that YEARS ago) would select the word AND THE FOLLOWING SPACE if you double-clicked it.

I got a genuine belly laugh and hit delete. I figured he'd go off Googling and get the answer (that's a browser thing; nothing to do with me: maybe try double-click and move the mouse left-a-bit - boom!).

The next day I get a mail about how I have a responsibility when releasing software to- whatever he said next. I just hit delete right there.

This is exactly the sort of shit we need AI for.

Training in progress!

;o)

1 in 100.

Like that ring in the Sufi tale, I have a few wee devices. This one I use when I'm dwelling on "what folk might think".

I've told this one a few times in speech, so I'll here attempt human speech-to-text.

Example: child-of-acquaintance, draws picture. It's pretty good. The child disagrees. In fact, they say that all their pictures are rubbish. I say NO WAY! And use it as an opportunity to tell a wee story; what this blog is.

Or whatever. It's a mental construct. An exercise designed to shift consciousness away from feelings of self-worthlessness and whatnot. You don't need to expend the time and effort to go on and do that actual thing. It's about acknowledging the worth of the things you do, whatever they are.

Other opportunities, including financial opportunities, may spring from that. But that's not the point, is it?

If you commit, everything you do has worth, because it's you doing it. Few truly commit. Even if it's just for five minutes, to draw a picture. But if they do..

I'd buy that for a dollar.

;o)

Lazy Passwords

Passwords are a pain. For most of my computing career I didn't use them; until that diskhead in Elgin decided to shouldersnoop me for my current pass. And all that other legal shit more recently *yawn*. Now I take them seriously.

My passwords are usually "shapes", in that they are actions on a keyboard surface, as opposed to anything word-like. Upside: they are fast. I can enter my pass in milliseconds. (My youngest still marvels at how quickly I get the family PC up and running. He yet knows little of muscle-memory; of which there are two kinds1).

But here's an idea (like most of my best, it's buried in amongst other, less worthy output. That's a filter, see. You win!) ..

What if some clever app were able to recognise that a) yes) you know the password, but b) you simply mis-typed one single character..

With the likes of VeraCrypt, et all, this would save you a lot of time and fucking around. What's the chances of someone *else* knowing your password but with one character out. ZERO. I did the math. Okay, ALMOST ZERO.

But instead, we will wait ten minutes to be told to fuck off, instead.

That feature that solves all this is called "Lazy Passwords" and like everything else here, you can have it for free.

;o)

equality

I remember courting the mother of my (later) children. She was studying for her masters, and reading a shit-ton about "equality".

I even bought her textbooks, and while I completely agree with the "current" thinking on equality (and hope they can leap-frog into the available thought on the subject1).

But I was perfectly clear with how I felt about equality of the sexes. That's total shite.

There can never be equality of the sexes because a) "equal" is a bullshit man-made term you could spend a lifetime defining whilst still not get a basic wage and..

b) We are different. Men and Women that is. And everything in between, as my eldest would no doubt remind me. Yes, all of us, I mean.

But especially "Man" and "Women", being the Yin and Yang, the Polar Opposites, etc., etc..

How many Formula One drivers are women? Ahh.. Ermm.. None. That's right. Zero.

How many UN interpreters are men? Actually a few, and when you consider Nepotism and penis-leaning tendencies in HR, not 100% is a HUGE win for the non-penised among us. Yup, it's mostly women. Of course it is. That shit matters.

And many other fields, too. I recommend you take a moment to consider this, especially if you are male (hint: most of the things men are good at are now useless to humanity and most of the things women are naturally good at are right now essential to our species survival; but we are stupidly still oppressing them and preventing them from saving us. Ergo; we are fucked. Aside from the catastrophe of our painful demise; this is great comedy).

I'll leave you to consider which is more important: tearing around some concrete strip at 200mph for kicks, or facilitating communication between the most important people and nations on our planet. 100% your decision which is more important; I'm just laying out the facts.

Top-level international translation is one of those fields where only the very best rise to the very top. It's not like industry or politics or the civil service, where anyone's nephew can rise to the top by being a nephew, or having a cool Wikipedia page, or TicKTok trend, or whatever. Just like Formula One. Only the very very best get to the top.

Men make better drivers. Deal with it. By "better" I mean capable of handling a vehicle at high speed. But if you want to get to school in one piece, always choose the mother.

And women are better at languages. Yes, some men are excellent at languages, but they are exceptions. Basically women have this built-in, and you would need to train for years to even get to their basic level. Why bother? Go drive fast cars, instead.

Of course I'm giving both males and females a hard time here. It isn't just driving and speaking, of course. There are myriad careers and pastimes and pursuits and artforms with which our natural talent varies wildly. I love it! I don't get why we fight it.

WE ARE DIFFERENT. I've always considered this a great thing. I definitely don't want to be tangling with someone like me!

Inequality in society is a basic evil we need to each root out of every moment of our lives if we want any hope for a real society. Just do it. Society is the only place "inequality" is a problem. Everywhere else, it's a blessing.

It's like BMI; fantastically useful for populations, but anyone attempting to apply it to individuals is either stupid or (potentially fatally (notice with word "fat" is contained within the word "fatal")) misinformed. That would include our own NHS. Doh!2

Notice how Nature seeks balance? We build aeroplanes like that, creating massive, absolutely level flat surfaces thanks to the loving nature of gravity; it's need. And the perfect nature of water, and its need to be one with gravity. In other words, cut a long tube, fill it with water and Boom! Flatness.

GRAVITY IS YOUR FRIEND. I tell this to my kids a lot. So many tasks are made easier if you use gravity to help you. Everything seeks balance. "Equality" is like that; seeking balance. In society it's easy to see the trends. Get closer in and it starts to break down.

This is natural, and any fight against that is futile. We are different. Not just in our sex; whatever that means to us; but in our unique human uniqueness.

I want to see great women drivers and awesome male translators. And the rest.

;o)

This week's TV recommendation...

I *finally* got around to watching Hacks.

I'd been storing it because I suspected I would want to binge (the episodes are a half hour (after removing US advert, which someone thankfully did) and it stars Jean Smart, whom I love, as an actress as well as an object of sexual desire) when I noticed season two was dropping. FFS!

Holy Fucking Shit. This is the only TV show in years where I laughed out loud (multiple times) and cried in the same episode (not every episode, but a couple)1.

Some actors you can trust. They only do shit they know you will enjoy, because they care. Jean is one such actor2.

Anyways, curl up with the missus in front of some unforgettable shit, or don't. Just saying, that's a great TV show there.

And in the Golden Age of Television, that's saying something.

;o)