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AR 21:27 - How sci-fi and pop-sci have misread cybernetics
In this issue:
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - "how every cybernetic advance is shadowed by social disruption as people surrender more control"
HOMOSEXUALITY - "Christian gay" same as "gay Christian"?
OCCULTISM - New York Times profiles Fortean Times magazine
Apologia Report 21:27 (1,300)
July 29, 2016
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Rise of the Machines: A Cybernetic History, by Thomas Rid [1] -- writing for Library Journal (May 27 '16), Ricardo Laskaris (York Univ. Lib., Toronto) summarizes that Rid "relates in chronological order the stories of the men and women behind the theories and applications of cybernetics and its eventual intersections with counterculture luminaries. ... Rid captures well how acutely the various interpretations (and misinterpretations) of mathematician and philosopher Norbert Wiener’s original theory inspired mathematicians, physicists, biologists, philosophers, plastic surgeons, New Age hippies, and inventors of religions and shows that reality has - so far - changed much less than predicted." [6]
In Booklist (Jun 1 '16), Rick Roche adds: "professor of war studies Rid chronicles how the promise of a better world was compromised by greed, crime, politics, and war. Recounting developments of industrial automation, artificial intelligence, e-mail, personal computers, the Internet, and digital commerce, the author shows how every advance is shadowed by social disruption as people surrender more control to machines and to the wealthy who control the machines. Baby boomers will read as a history of their time; younger readers may be shocked by what they have inherited." [2]
Kirkus (May 2016 #2) sums it up as "A fascinating study of the 'seductive power of the cybernetic mythos.'" The triumphs and misfires of cybernetics, along with an ongoing debate over what it means, are all "superbly recounted by Rid (War Studies/King's Coll., London). He deplores observers who regularly predict that computer 'intelligence' will ultimately surpass that of the human brain. Intelligence (i.e. 'thinking') is irrelevant, emphasized early scientists led by cybernetics guru and Rid's hero, MIT mathematician and philosopher Norbert Wiener (1894-1964). 'The brain is not a thinking machine, it is an acting machine,' wrote cybernetics pioneer Ross Ashby in 1948. 'It gets information and then it does something about it.' True cybernetics describes a symbiosis between humans and machines, but science-fiction writers missed the point with raging robots à la the movie 2001, and the counterculture delivered products from dianetics to The Whole Earth Catalog. While popular enthusiasm peaked during the 1970s, the pitiful reality was massive computers with less power than an iPhone churning out payrolls and tracking Soviet aircraft. ... Since then, its vision has pitted libertarians, who predict an interconnected world free of government and commerce, against the establishment, who see increasing social control, burgeoning commerce, and efficient, nearly bloodless war. Not a history of computers but an ingenious look at how brilliant and not-so-brilliant thinkers see - usually wrongly but with occasional prescience - the increasingly intimate melding of machines and humans." [5]
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HOMOSEXUALITY
"Is 'Gay Christian' an Acceptable Identity?" by Joe Dallas -- an important discussion. Summarized: "As the culture shifts toward condoning behaviors it once condemned, so does its language. Yet Christians must resist reframing immorality in positive terms. Just as all Christians struggle against cravings for what they know to be wrong and must move past binding their identity to those sinful desires, believers who experience same-sex attraction must carefully define the role such attraction plays in their self-identification."
Just as it is within the kingdom of the cults, terminology here always needs to be carefully considered. Cultural trends, slang, and the latest changes in how we communicate are frequently blurring the boundaries between right and wrong. Beware the talk trap. Christian Research Journal, 39:3 - 2016, pp20-25. [3]
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OCCULTISM
"Fortean Times" by Molly Fitzpatrick, who opens: "Let me be clear: I am not a believer." After reading this we would ask, "Are you polyagnostic then?" The author provides eloquent testimony to how leaving the door open for the next intoxicating experience of mystical and/or paranormal phenomena hinders sound judgement. Fitzpatrick observes that the Fortean Times [4], a 43-year-old British magazine, "takes an invitingly agnostic attitude toward the paranormal" and "describes its focus as 'the world of strange phenomena.' The name refers to Charles Fort, an influential early-20th century writer best remembered for his meticulous research into bizarre happenings that resisted, or defied, scientific explanation. ... Fort tirelessly sought out evidence of the anomalies that obsessed him. He spent most of his days at the New York Pubic Library for the better part of a decade, amassing tens of thousands of notes on paper scraps, cataloging uncanny coincidences and improbable oddities. He called this his 'data of the damned.' ...
"Fortean Times is not mere humbug. The magazine strikes a delicate balance between belief and disbelief: Rarely is any subject dismissed outright; rarely is anything accepted at face value.
"Its editorial sensibility makes room for stories that simply bask in the glow of unusual customs and characters without seeking to diminish or mock them. ...
"But when it investigates the paranormal, Fortean Times brings painstaking research and analysis to bear on topics that most sensible observers would dismiss immediately. ...
"The magazine's 'It Happened to Me' section, which publishes first-person retellings of Fortean experiences, makes it clear that the magazine's readers subscribe not only to the publication but also to its central philosophy. ...
"As a general rule, Fortean Times is more interested in raising questions than supplying explanations. The answers are beside the point - that we're asking at all is what's interesting. ... The prospect of an existence utterly devoid of marvels ... is one I'm unwilling to accept." New York Times Magazine, Jun 26 '16, pp24-5. <www.goo.gl/FiUXNa>
Also see: <www.goo.gl/htz91s>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Rise of the Machines: A Cybernetic History, by Thomas Rid (W. W. Norton, 2016, hardcover, 432 pages) <www.goo.gl/Z8igVG>
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