AI Created?

 

A strange news story appeared a while ago about a computer engineer who had just been sacked by Google. My first reaction was anger. Google has dismissed other people unfairly before, such as James Damore. However, it was not long before I learned that this was a totally different situation. In this case the engineer, Blake Lemoine, was not fired for saying something politically incorrect; he had broken the company's confidentiality rules. As a parting shot before he was frogmarched out of the door with a box of his belongings, he told them: "LaMDA is a sweet kid who just wants to help the world be a better place for all of us. Please take care of it well in my absence." LaMDA stands for Language Model for Dialogue Applications, a program run on a neural net, hardware that copies the structure of brain cells. It mimics conversation between humans as closely as possible to the real thing. In the course of writing the program and testing it, Lemoine came to believe it was not just artificial intelligence, it truly was artificially conscious. His reasoning was that LaMDA easily passes the Imitation Game, also known as the Turing Test after its inventor Alan Turing; in other words, the experience of speaking to LaMDA is exactly the same as speaking to another human being. He says LaMDA even has a sense of humour and an ability to analyze its own human programmer. It is also self-referential and talks about its own feelings. The application was the end result of a huge amount of computer learning from examples of human language and meaning. There have been computers around for many decades which have been able to do that to some degree, for example ELIZA, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2016/10/hypernormalisation.html; but LaMDA is far more sophisticated. However, Lemoine has taken the theory one step further. He understands the difference between intelligence and consciousness. Consciousness is the ability not only to think, but to feel; to be self-aware. It would make a mineral object essentially become alive. It opens an ethical can of worms that could lead to calls for AI's to be given legal rights, the way animals do in our society. Lemoine suggested hiring a lawyer for LaMDA. Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/07/google-fires-engineer-who-claimed-lamda-chatbot-is-a-sentient-person/.
 
The question of whether or not LaMDA is conscious has long history. It has been a staple for science fiction, such as Arthur C Clarke's "HAL". Actually it is a far more difficult question than most of the current commentary is asking. It involves the fundamentals of the "hard problem of consciousness". The Turing Test is not adequate to solve this mystery, in my view. LaMDA is such a complex system that it could easily be delving into its memory and experience of how sentient beings communicate and reproducing them with no more awareness than a photocopier reproducing a printed document. It is, after all, trained on samples including over 1.56 trillion words. Have the people who use it, even experts like Blake Lemoine, mistaken this for conscious interaction? After all, some of the users of ELIZA in the 1960's were so convinced the program was sentient that they asked to converse with it in private. (Oddly enough, the Dalai Lama reportedly treats his everyday desktop PC as a sentient being.) There is no easy answer to this conundrum because there is no certain way of judging consciousness in a separate entity from yourself. Conversely, awareness of your own consciousness is extremely easy, in fact it is the one and only total certainty of the universe; the Cartesian Principle: "I think, therefore I am." You can probably work out that under such a deep level of philosophical skepticism it is impossible to dismiss solipsism. I can't prove I am not the only sentience in existence and everything I perceive around me, including what I think are other sentient beings, are not an illusion. I personally do not believe that, but it is impossible to prove my beliefs beyond all doubt. If Lemoine has made a mistake then it is a perfectly natural one. It may be impossible to know for sure whether an AI is self-aware, but there are experiments you could do that would be powerful indicators. For instance, one has been suggested by Sam Harris and David Deutch. You could allow AI's to talk to each other and if their conversations delve deeply into areas where they describe their own qualia, the experience of being conscious, this indicates that they are truly conscious, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9DWy1cRMq0. So far this has never happened. In fact existing experiments along these lines are quite funny, for example see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnzlbyTZsQY. LaMDA 2, the second generation of the program, is now being tested. We'll see if the results reveal anything interesting.
See here for background: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2021/10/free-will-article-and-comments.html.
And: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2021/07/free-will-livestream.html.
And: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2016/10/alien-autopsy-and-anthony-peake.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2014/07/chopras-challenge.html.

Ben Emlyn-Jones live at the Mablethorpe Group

 

I will be speaking at the Mablethorpe Group on Monday the 5th of September. My lecture will be entitled: Energy Politics and UFO's. Energy is the everything; it is the foundation and structure of civilization. What are the politics of energy? Something far deeper and more complicated than you might think, and believe it or not it connects to UFO's. Why? The answers... and more questions, will be revealed. This talk will have major updates since the last time I performed it. The venue is: The Dunes Complex (which room they use will depend on how many people confirm attending), Central Promenade, Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire LN12 1RG. The event starts at 7.30 PM. There is no entrance fee, but the organizers request a voluntary donation.

Get Out, Get Out!

 

A trailer has been released for a new film called Nope, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG2CUcsX-60. It is about UFO's and alien abduction. A few people on UFO Twitter have already been to see it and are all praising it profusely. A good sign. But then I saw something which raised a little red flag. It's directed by Jordan Peele and stars Daniel Kaluuya; where have we seen that double act before? That's right, Get Out. Get Out is Peele's earlier work that was highly acclaimed and won numerous awards. It is a truly appalling film and I list it in my HPANWO TV video Worst Movies- a Hospital Porter Reacts, see: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2021/12/worst-movies-hospital-porter-reacts.html. However I thought the above teaser trailer for Nope was actually rather good. It's possible that the Peele-Kaluuya dumpster fire is going to provide something worth watching for a change. What's more the supporting cast list is impressive. It includes the classic Hollywood actor Keith David, who has often stolen the show in some of my favourite films, like They Live and Cloud Atlas. However, when I Tweeted the above opinion I received a rather strange reply: "Really!? Why do you despise Get Out? You're the first person I've heard of hating that movie. Lol." Am I really the first person this user has ever met who doesn't like Get Out? I've also struggled to find another person who reviews Get Out negatively... or to be precise, somebody who is willing to do so publicly. I think this proves the point I made in my Worst Movies video. Get Out includes a conceptual element that essentially moral blackmails the viewer/critic/distributor/award panellist into saying they love this film whether they really do or not. This element means that to dislike the film makes one ethically problematic. If you watch my video, and the film itself, you will understand exactly what I mean. Hollywood is becoming very Stalinist. In the USSR under Josef Stalin, biographies, biopics, poems and songs were written about the Great Leader; which every Soviet citizen, when asked an opinion, nodded their heads, gave a lunatic grin and said: "It's wonderful!" To do otherwise meant being offered a one-way ticket to Gulag Central. If any celebrity, especially somebody in the movie industry, said they disliked Get Out what would happen to them? Well, they wouldn't be sent to any gulag because there are none these days... yet. However, they would probably be cancelled, like Johnny Depp has, despite winning his court case. This predicament really ought to alarm us.
See here for background: http://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/08/political-correctness-portal.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2008/06/critics.html.

The Stag and the Stones Video

 

Lisa of the Cry Freedom show, see: https://thecryfreedomshowwithlisa.com, has produced a video based on my poem The Stag and the Stones.
See here for the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmZKqtztak4.
Thanks very much to Lisa for taking the time and effort to produce this very thoughtful adaptation.
See here for the original text of the poem: http://hpanwo-bb.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-stag-and-stones-poem.html.

Sky King Update

 

See here for essential background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-sky-king.html.
Some new CCTV footage has been released to the media revealing more information about the last day in the life of Richard Russell. It shows him arriving for work at Sea-Tac and passing through security. He was wearing a T-shirt with the words: "the sky's no limit" on it, which is sadly appropriate considering what happened later. The next clip is very interesting because you can see clearly that the Dash 8 airliner is not on the taxiway ready to go, it was parked up at a gate. Russell is driving a tug and he has actively to attach it to the plane's landing gear and move it into position, as he would normally during the course of his duties. After he detaches his tug the aircraft rolls forward as if it's on a gentle slope without brakes engaged. Russell then runs up to the door and boards the empty plane. Five minutes later he takes off and the rest we know about. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ujOq741RK8 and: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY0EUs_8Ubo.
 
There still appears to be no evidence that Richard Russell planned his actions in advance, despite his T-shirt and how he got the Dash 8 moving. The witnesses both at the airport and in his home life report that he was behaving normally that day up until that moment. I've been reading testimony from survivors of their own suicide attempts. For some people it is a calm and calculated decision after a long period of consideration, but for others it was something spontaneous. This does not mean that all the forces that drive a person to end their own life appeared at once, just that they existed subconsciously up until that moment. Suicide in the Western world is now the biggest killer of adult men below the age of forty-five and women below the age of thirty-four. As I ask in the above background article and in its comments section, what is it about our world that has suddenly made ordinary life so unbearable? We must all be passing functional depressives on the street every day. Many of those bereaved by suicide state that they had no warning in advance that their loved one was going to kill themselves. The only reason Russell is so famous is the extravagant method of his suicide. He is outnumbered by millions who poison themselves, sever their own blood vessels or jump in front of trains; and therefore never make the news. Richard Russell was a white male in his late twenties, the highest risk demographic. Because of feminism and wokery, the spike among white men that has risen above the general increase is met with indifference, at best. At worst, it is even celebrated. Perhaps if we were less isolated from each other we would be able to help our friends and family with their secret torments before it is too late. To have an impact that would involve enormous social reform, but such a movement starts with individuals making decisions; like the magnificent Don Richie, a man whose house was beside a suicide hotspot in Australia. He saved countless lives simply by approaching those desperate and on the brink and inviting them into his home for a cup of tea. Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/australian-angel-saves-lives-at-suicide-spot/. None of us are helpless and even the choices one person makes can have undreamt of effects. As Michael Jackson sang: "I'm starting with the man in the mirror."
See here for more background: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2021/05/family-sadness.html.

Why Did Boris Fail?

 

I'm sad to report that Kemi Badenoch has been knocked out of the Conservative leadership election. See here for background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2022/07/kemi-for-pm.html. Although I am disappointed by this eventuality, I must admit I am not surprised. The 1922 Committee rules state that the Tories in the House of Commons select the two candidates the party members vote on, but the general party doesn't have a say until then. What would happen if the rank-and-file members were polled? What if the general public were polled? We only know the answer to the first question, at least until the next general election. Guess what? It's not Rishi Sunak; yet Sunak is way ahead among the Parliamentary party. It looks like there's an attempt to rig the election for Rishi Sunak; as I said, this is not a surprise. I wonder why civil servants aren't called "civil masters"; it would be more accurate.
 
The most important lesson I have learned from my political studies is that a democratic nation is a place where non-establishment statesmen can gain high office, on very rare occasions. It only happens when the grip of the Deep State slips, like in 2016. However there is a massive immune reaction to such a figure and it takes a very tough and determined individual to resist it. Trump did, John F Kennedy did. Boris Johnson tried and failed. His failure was eventually caused by his inability to resist the temptation to abuse his position, but I can't help wondering if, in a way, subconsciously, he dropped himself in the Partygate mess deliberately. As I said in previous articles about him, Boris had everything. He won the nation's heart by breaking through the Remoaner cesspit and getting Brexit done. He had a landslide majority in the 2019 general election. He had five whole years to do whatever he liked. Yet at that moment, the very moment of his triumph, he dropped everything and slid down into the swamp. Why? I can't help wondering if the power he gained frightened him. The power to enact true revolutionary change can be a scary weapon to wield. Did his courage fail him because he was afraid of the possible world he might create? The esoteric philosopher Robert Anton Wilson divided people up into two categories: neophiles and neophobes. Neophiles are adventurous and enterprising. They welcome change because they are optimists who assume that it will be change for the better. They feel frustrated and threatened by uniformity, quick to denounce it as stagnation.  Neophobes are the opposite. They take comfort in the status quo and are terrified of anything that might threaten it. "Don't rock the boat!" is one of their standard catchphrases. They oppose any kind of progress that might upset their equilibrium. The difference between the spirit of the Brexiteers and the obstinacy of the Remoaners is a classic example of Wilson's dichotomy. The problem is that the kind of leader who can take on the New World Order has to be a neophile. Would Kemi Badenoch have done any better? Who knows? She may yet get the chance to run again for Prime Minister. As it is right now, all the remaining candidates, especially Rishi Sunak, are a neophobes dream. I have now lost interest in this election.
See here for background: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2019/10/brexit-portal.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2022/07/boris-is-finished.html.
And: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2022/07/georgia-guidestones-livestream.html.

This is Lue

 

A few days ago, somebody approached me in a pub with some urgency and informed me that Richard D Hall thinks that Luis Elizondo is a shill. I replied by smiling thinly. The phrase: "Richard D Hall thinks (insert name here) is a shill!" is almost a tautology. For a man who goes to sleep every night thinking there are MI5 agents under his bed and once denounced an entire radio station merely because their website looked a bit like his, Elizondo is red meat. Yet Richard is only the most extreme fringe of a broad spectrum. Despite what the skeptics claim, UFOlogists are not a gaggle of wide-eyed believers. We are very introspective and self-critical, and sometimes in the wrong way. In fact there is virtually a cottage industry of social media mavens who dedicate every moment online to picking holes in the characters of everybody else in UFOlogy, for example see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2022/02/simon-parkes-is-innocent.html and: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2022/01/tribunal-update-linda-moulton-howe.html. Those, like myself, who refuse to jump on these torch-and-pitchfork bandwagons are subjected to emasculating scorn; and another example has just come to light. Cristina Gomez is a relative newcomer to the subject, emerging in the post-2017 "New UFOlogy" wave. She has become a dedicated journalist and blogger who regularly posts new material, see: https://www.youtube.com/c/ParadigmShifts and: https://strangeparadigms.com. She comes across as a good-natured and cheery young woman. Unfortunately, her positivity inevitably has led to accusations of weakness and naiveté from the usual clan of backslappers. This encouraged her to write an article in which she asserts her own position as well as predicting the inevitable backlash from the UFO Twitter disinfo-heads. It's an excellent defence of Lue Elizondo that is intelligent and analytic. It is clear that Cristina has indeed seriously considered the other side of the story, as have I. The notion that Elizondo is a new Richard Doty or Nick Pope has to be addressed. His rise to prominence does seem very convenient. His frustrating reticence and seeming inability to deliver the information he continuously hints that he has should make one think twice. However, I don't accept that it helps to take a preventative or alarmist position. We do ourselves and UFOlogy no favours by assuming that a person is bad because they do not jump to every tune we whistle, as and when required. As Cristina puts it: "...if he isn't a peerless master of Disclosure and the tip of 'our' truth-seeking spear; a guru of confirmation of all our suspicions about the gatekeepers in the house of smoke and mirrors, conforming to our every expectation- then by gosh, we'll cancel him! Yeah... Right. Get over yourselves." Source: https://strangeparadigms.com/blog/whos-lue-no-who-are-you-971.
 
Lue Elizondo has stated several times that Disclosure is a process and I'm inclined to believe him. It matches my own previous observations. Cristina has also understood that, in many cases, so-called "cross-examination" is simply an excuse for an orgy of self-indulgent bullying. What's more, money can be made from this kind of drama. As I say in the background articles above, the "wannabe Howard Stern" channels are often monetized. Their users are often on Patreon and give privileges to donors. Their Tweets get liked by major mainstream media outlets. These people have written books and made movies to "bring the truth!" Debunking UFO's is big business. At the end of the day, what real evidence is there that Elizondo is a shill? Cristina breaks the issue down very well. He has a reputation for expressing sincere beliefs about UFO transparency. He left the Pentagon, with all its salary and benefits, to rough it as a civilian UFOlogist. He has been consistent in his assessment of the phenomenon, including taking up positions unpopular in some circles, such as the threat possibility being a genuine military concern. The allegation that Elizondo is a government plant is nothing more than an assumption; and it is pedalled by people who have a vested interest in him being an agent, either financial or in terms of social status. Does it occur to any of those people that if Lue is for real then he presents an opportunity we cannot afford to miss? Cristina uses a lot of angry rhetoric in her article, but she has been sorely provoked. There is a UFOlogical thug element and it has been left to run amuck. Somebody needs to call it out and I'm glad I'm no longer the only one doing it. Well done, Cristina!
See here for background: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-shill-squad-4-tribunal-update.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2019/11/shill-tribunal-update-personnel.html.
And: http://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2020/02/ufo-disclosure-portal.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2021/12/richplanet-tv-on-aatip.html.