Occasionally, we all get asked the question: Do you believe*** in God? Lots of people have no problem answering this: Yes. Others, such as myself, are tempted to answer the question with a question: What do you mean by "God?" That has been my strategy for many years, but now I'm beginning to think it misses the issue. Let me put aside those who define "God" any way they like and assert that they "believe" in whatever that is. That boils down to linguistics- a dispute about words. ** The important issue is whether you believe in the God described in the major "theistic" religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam.) This, in turn, is a question of whether you accept the mythology, theology and rituals of the given religion (whether or not you actually participate.) So, if your answer to the key question is "no," then you are claiming that all the actions based on religious motives are based on nothing . For example, prayer is pointless, ...

" This is the first time in history that we have no idea what the world will look like in 10 years" Great interview with Lex Fridman. Numerous great books: "What is suffering" rather than "meaning." Observe what is happening when you observe suffering  Very good advice on mindfulness Deep insight into the role of stories in the way we see the world Insight into where AI is going and how it's surprising even though he's been writing about it Fear of death and how we die a bit when we lose anything People expect a story to answer fear of death

This was a good time to update my old essay on intelligence . It is now possible to ask real AI (CHAT-GPT) if it can "understand" analogies. It's also possible to get AI assistance with the essay using Grammarly . Grammarly suggested that I rewrite several sentences for clarity. All of its suggestions were accepted. I hope you enjoy the rewrite. CHAT-GPT (Slightly corrected by Grammarly) Summarized the essay as follows: The SE-I (Surfaces and Essences Intelligence) definition of intelligence is the ability to rapidly and accurately identify the core elements of a new situation by drawing upon insightful precedents stored in memory. This involves finding strong and useful analogies. In contrast, the commonly equated intelligence quotient (IQ) focuses on individual performance on standardized tests, which may only partially capture the essence of intelligence. SE-I suggests that intelligence can be developed and is influenced by culture, and it emphasizes the importance of ...

  Don't Worry; Nothing to See Here . Don't worry; people will all be out of work, and tremendous social upheaval will happen but AI will solve all conceivable problems. Lots of talk about what "we" need to do.

  Never mind what this script is supposed to do. As written in line 7, character 9 produces a syntax error. But the line looks perfectly Ok to me.  The problem is defining "i" while defining the for loop. It turns out this is not allowed in LSL, but it *should* be (in other similar languages). The following small modification fixes things: But no matter how often I told C4 there was a syntax error, it kept re-writing the script with the same error. So the question arises, does C4 know LSL syntax? When this is explicitly pointed out to C4, we get this amusing dialogue: C4 admits its error and correctly rewrites the script. There are lessons to be learned here, but I'm unsure what ... It's clear that the user here (me) needs to be fairly proficient with LSL and isolating errors. It may be that C4 parses and generates LSL according to syntax rules that are similar to other languages but not identical. It's a bit cool that it makes the same mistake I would have. Artif...

 This script was written by CHAT-GPT based on plain English specifications: default {     state_entry()     {         llSetLinkPrimitiveParamsFast(LINK_THIS, [PRIM_COLOR, ALL_SIDES, <1, 0, 0>, 1.0]); // set the color of all faces to red     }     touch_start(integer total_number)     {         integer face = llDetectedTouchFace(0); // get the index of the touched face         list current_color = llGetLinkPrimitiveParams(LINK_THIS, [PRIM_COLOR, face]); // get the current color of the touched face                  vector new_color; // create a variable for the new color                  if (llList2Vector(current_color, 0) == <0, 0, 1>) // if the current color is blue         {             new_color = <0, 1, 0>; // set t...

 This relates to Covey's advice along these lines. We need to channel our energies to: Things that concern us. Don't waste energy "renting yourself out" or giving in to "moral outrage"; Things where we can make a difference; Things we understand. What's new in this post is the last item: things we understand. This aligns with another Covey dictum: Seek first to understand