Category: Grimace & Giggle

AlphaGo and Lee Sedol, My Thoughts

Posted on by D. L. Keur

The world just changed.

I watched all five games of the DeepMind challenge match between AlphaGo and Go Grandmaster Lee Sedol. I started out neutral in Game 1, was pleased with AlphaGo’s performance–that it stood up to the task. 

Game 2 had me firmly in AlphaGo’s camp. I wanted AlphaGo to win.

Then came Game 3 and I was again neutral.  But, when AlphaGo won, something hit me: the world had just changed, and not just the world of Go. There was a sadness, but, then, a day later, there was joy. too, at what mankind had built.  But the implications were and are huge. Still, I was pleased in Game 4 when Lee Sedol rallied and defeated AlphaGo.

But Game 5 had to go to AlphaGo. It had to.

Why?

Because, if AlphaGo hadn’t won, then the question would remain open–had the DeepMind team really succeeded, or was AlphaGo just another failed attempt.

That Lee Sedol failed to defeat AlphaGo in a heroic attempt to do so (that included using the flaw he discovered in its programming during Game 4) demonstrated that, yes, DeepMind had accomplished the breakthrough in AI that has been long sought. Bravo. And, while I feel for Lee Sedol, I think what will be the reality is that AI will, at Go, only be able to defeat top Go players 50% of the time, at least in the foreseeable future.

So, the game of Go will get even more interesting, the skills and understanding increasing because of AlphaGo, and mankind will benefit from technology’s advance, technology mankind developed to enhance and expand our own capabilities. How awesome is that?!  Of course, meanwhile, we have political, economic, and environmental disasters teetering on the brink of damning all but those most well-insulated, if them.

What an interesting time we live in.

Brain Silence

Posted on by D. L. Keur

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“The brain never sleeps.” That’s what one neurologist said to me during a break at an event I attended several years ago. I listened, nodding and smiling when appropriate, but, all the while, I was thinking, “This is news?”

It’s too obvious to me that my brain never sleeps. But it does go silent on occasion. I’m having one of those ‘occasions’, right now–brain silence.

It may be because I finally am going to get a verdict on something that’s been hanging over my head since December, something that could completely change my life. It could be that it’s just a ‘time-out’ after months upon months of often frenetically-paced ‘doing’.

It could be that I’m fed up, too–fed up with fellow-citizens, national and global, who seem bent on self-destruction, a self-destruction that was completely foreseeable as a consequence since I was in high school.

I’m not sure why my brain has gone silent, but it’s an interesting experience. I’ve had this happen a few times, mostly just before I’ve had huge perception shifts, not when some life-changing event occurred. During those times in the past, I was more robot than human, I think…just doing by rote the day-to-day ‘have-to’s, not-thinking. And I’m good–very good–at not-thinking. But this feels different. Not ominous. Rather, it feels like what is to follow is inevitable…immutable.

It’s strange.

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“A Great, Raging Bloodbath”

Posted on by D. L. Keur

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“…A great, raging bloodbath….”–that’s what a reader gloated about in a review they publicly posted. Those were the first words of their review.

I blinked, a crinkle furrowing my brow. My brain did a cross between a ? and an !, not so much in surprise at the fact of it, (I know graphically depicted sex and gore sell very well, thanks.), but because it was a gloat–an adamant one. And not just by one reader. Many readers of the same book and the same series of books expressed those exact sentiments…just not quite as concisely.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Back to that one review that brought me pause.

The reader/reviewer only gave the book four out of five stars. Why? Because of “unbelievable scenes” and “too convenient” plot answers. Plus, the reader admitted that the end was a “cheat.” In other words, the story was poorly written, but that didn’t matter much–one star subtracted–because of the visceral satisfaction the writing delivered to that reader.

Reading other reviews of this highly popular book, both the positive and the negative, I found similar sentiments among those ranking the book three stars and above. The positive reviews outweighed the negative by far, and all of the positive ones had one common thread: the one element that drove readers’ ecstasy was what that one reviewer succinctly summed up as one “great, raging bloodbath” of a book.

Checking the rest of the novels in the series, I discovered that, yes, that one element drove all the books in that series to crest the best sellers lists, and the reasons given were that the books all satisfied readers’ tastes for pain and misery vividly and viscerally portrayed, fulfilling their fascination with the depraved, their obsession, even craving, to witness hate mercilessly enacted in the worst kind of viciousness and violence, all very graphically rendered.

The genre was Science Fiction, a genre I like to read a lot, but now find myself either avoiding or, at least, exercising extreme caution and care when choosing a next novel for reading.  …Because the genre is filled, first, with Sword & Sorcery dressed up like SF, and, second, because it is now laden with what I call ‘gruel’–gore and cruelty–and, of course, right with it, perverse sexual depredation.

These are not the kind of books I read. They are not the kind of books I write, either. But what makes my brow furrow isn’t that my preferred reading, that my own writing and published novels, can’t draw that same level of popularity among readers. (I’m not writing for those kind of readers.) No. What bothers me is what this signifies about where the prime time tastes of the culture of which I am a part has taken itself. I wonder about my fellow humans and my fellow citizens, a large majority of whom embrace this kind of ‘entertainment’ as preferred.

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It’s the Possibilities

Posted on by D. L. Keur

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One of the questions I’ve asked most in my life, from the time I could first form the word, is ‘why’? Drove my mom nuts. Drove my bad teachers nuts. Gave my good teachers a thrill, and they delighted in spurring on my curiosity. I was reading adult newspapers at three years of age…and comprehending them. I was doing algebra before third grade, quadratic equations and calculus by fourth. I read the Encyclopedia Britannica from Vol 1 through the addenda the company sent each and every year. I explored…and I’m still exploring. I’m still asking ‘why’.

For me, it’s not the answer that’s most important. It’s the question and where that question leads…to other questions. It’s the potential possibilities inherent in those questions that most intrigue me.

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Is Politics Your Only Criteria?  Really?

Posted on by D. L. Keur

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Someone I follow on Facebook posted a very cool image of Prez Obama responding in sign language to a deaf person’s sign-speak.  One of his followers/friends spoke out in astonishment that Tom and he were definitely on opposite sides of the fence, politically.  This should matter?  …It shouldn’t.  Not at all.  It was a post showing a wonderful very human moment that sets a great example of what should be.

(And, btw, I’m not an Obama fan. To me, he’s just yet another politician’s politician, unwilling to lay it on the line and stand up for what he believes when push comes to shove.  I don’t like wimps.  Not in my country’s leadership.  Neither do I like the fact that, the day he took office, he simply continued Bush’s policies.  Gone were the campaign pledges.  And then there’s the problem that the only people and lives he really cares about are city-folk, especially Black city folk.  That really galls.  As soon as he took office, wolves got the shaft.  So did the environment, in general.  Instead, what did we get?)

Lately on FB, I’ve been attacked and harassed for posting pro-Bernie stuff, pro All-Life stuff (as in that not just all human lives matter, but animal and plant life, too, along with the living biosphere).  Startlingly and viciously attacked to the point I blocked the worst offenders that started stalking me.  And it amazes me.

A lot of you who know me know that I’ve got a foot in two canoes, one heading right, the other heading left.  I’m not a moderate, by any definition, but rather have strong opinions on Constitutional issues like separation of church and state, the right to bear arms (and, yes, I mean civilians owning guns without being put on somebody’s watch list), capital punishment, anti-Affirmative Action (make everything based on merit, please), and the like.  On the other hand, social Darwinism and unfettered capitalism lead to a meaner, more vicious predatory existence for everyone.  I’m pro-choice, an environmental preservationist, anti-discrimination of any kind, and so on.  So you can’t call me a Lib or a Rightie, either one, because I’m both–legitimately both–with strong, solid rationales behind my positions.

Here’s the thing that bothers me about the U.S. and all the divisiveness going on–all of it sponsored by the power-brokers,with the specific and very effective intent to divide and conquer so they can finalize their enslavement of us:

Politics and differences of opinion, whether religious or social, should never terminate friendships.  Debate is good; differences of opinion and perspective are good;  Listen more; find alternatives that satisfy, as much as possible, everyone’s needs, and, even if you can’t, keep the lines of communication open and hands extended in empathy and good will.  Lose the us versus them attitudes. It will ultimately lead to everyone’s downfall, including yours.

JMO (just my opinion)