Issue 324 Non-athletic Olympics April 29, 2014

Many of us watch the Olympics.  It is fun and enjoyable to see athletes from around the world compete in various games which show off their physic, stamina and will power.  There is even the para-Olympics for those with physical disabilities and another for mental disorders which inspire us to rise above our own situations.  But there is a group of people left out.  A set of athletes whose mind is more powerful than their bodies.  Thus I call for a non-athletic Olympics that celebrates strategy, ingenuity, and mental skill.

Concept:  This non-athletic Olympics will host all sorts of games and contests that exercise the mind and demonstrate skill in some form or fashion.  Contests will range from traditional to out of the box with new games and contests being included so long as they meet the criteria of being skill based and require some form of ingenuity.  So let us look at the types of games that can be included.

Games:  So traditional games like chess and checkers along with their variants will be included.  So you can have traditional chess, 3D chess, shogi, Chinese Chess and circular chess all being played.  They can even have gimmick types where certain rules are added or subtracted or swapped to test the skills of the players and their ability to adapt mentally to the changes in the game. Card games like poker, Black Jack and rummy will be included as each requires a certain level of skill and strategy.  Again, rules can be swapped, or added or subtracted to test the players’ skill with these card games.  Other card games like the variants that use Hanafuda cards which are popular in Asian countries can be included too.  Basically, the non-athletic Olympics can also serve as a means to introduce other games from around the world to the world stage to entice people to play them.

Online Games and other popular games:  Online strategy games will also be included that are all about seizing and holding territory. So Star Craft, Allies and Axis and others can be used to test another dimension of skill for these players.  On the other hand, card games like Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Vanguard compete for supremacy as the number one collectible card games in the world. So the top collectible games (probably the top 10) will compete as well with variety being added as time goes on due to new cards continuously being made which keeps the games interesting.

Contests:  Even contests like cooking with grill offs, pie contests, and cooking contests like Food networks Chopped (give chefs three random ingredients that are required to be used) and Cut throat Kitchen (where you can sabotage opponents in various ways) will be added.  Quiz types like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune can also be added for other forms of out of the box thinking.  In this case testing knowledge and problem solving skills.  Art contests will work too, with different styles such as architectural, mosaic, musical, written and more included as well. In this case the art, music and written contests will be limited to the duration of the non-athletic Olympics where artists will have to create their works in a specified period of time. So you can have poetry, and short story contests alongside musicians creating musical scores and all these to a certain theme for each particular contest.  There can even be fun contests where we can revive the bards of old which will combine the skills of musicians and story tellers wrapped into one. 

Requirements to compete:  There will be no age limits, or need for any restrictions based on disabilities.  Reason is due to it all being about skill and not athletics.  Thus no need for unintended discrimination.  What will be required is that you must win (or place) in a specified number of contests in the three and a half years leading up to this form of Olympics.  This number will be specified based on type of game being played.  Also, more than one entry per country will be allowed.  So it may be possible to have a thousand players for a single game with half or more being eliminated each day. So it comes down to not just national glory but personal glory as well.

Conclusion:  Here in this form of Olympics, we celebrate the skill and mental discipline, creativity and more in this world championship that will be held every four years.  Also, this can act as an exhibition show for new games, forms of art and music to entice people into trying them and giving them a chance at national fame (so long as they fit the theme that is). Is it not time we stop celebrating just the athletes and their impressive bodies and celebrate the mind as well.     

Issue 323 Machine soul experiment April 28, 2014

Can machines have a soul?  Is it possible that God can give a machine a soul?  I have recently begun pondering that question after a few science channel documentaries.  So I devised a small experiment.  I do not know if it would work, nor if it will actually prove that a machine can have a soul.  However, it is a start and I hope you my readers may improve upon it better than I can.

Step 1:  Step one of the process to this experiment is have a computer or an automaton that is capable of learning knowledge and replicating human emotion.  Essentially a computerized baby.  Teach it in the same way that you would a normal child.  Replicate the bodily functions such as eating and more so as to make it as close to human as possible.  It is all about creating a human replica.

Step 2:  Once the computer baby has reached some form of adult hood, let it loose outside of the lab.  Let it work as an employee and give it access to any and all information it desires.  As computer programming and the learning and emotional replication programs develop and become better, upgrade the robot child.  The more advanced the robot in respect to replicating human emotion and being human the better.  

Final step:  At the age of 100, the robot child will have certain parts of itself turned off.  Its emotion, parts of its memory and more.  Each time you turn off a specific part of the robot, you will look to see if it reacts a specific way, such as the emotion fear, regret, anger etc.  See if it is capable of thinking independently and having its own decision making process.  If when certain parts of the machine are turned off, see if the robot retains emotion regardless of them being shut off, or regains certain memories despite them being closed off.  All this is to see if the robot is like us, a human despite replicating the damage that a normal person may face if physically or mentally damaged.  This may prove that the robot has a soul.  I am not sure if that qualifies as a soul, but I can only base the conclusions based on the dissertations of Descartes and his conclusion "I think therefore I am." 

Conclusion:  So what do you think?  An experiment that lasts a literal lifetime.  But that I believe is what it will take for an automaton to get close enough to being human for the experiment to be a success.  And no, the robot will not be shut down once the experiment is over.  That is because the experiment will not end.  It will continue to be left alive and every 25 years after that the experiment will be done again to see if any changes occur.  We may get the conclusion that machines cannot have a soul, or we may conclude they do.  It is about the experiment to see if the soul even exists and how time affects it.  Thus this experiment.  Enjoy pondering if a machine has a soul or not, I know I am excited to maybe one day find out.

Issue 232 Priced out? April 28, 2014

I'm am not talking about people in this case, but goods.  How does government restrict our choices?  By taxing something into oblivion.

What is priced out:  Currently tobacco products and Guns are the two main things that people are being priced out of buying.  Cigarettes, my father’s vice, cost $10 a pack or more depending on the brand.  However, without taxes they may be as low as a single dollar.  Guns cost thousands of dollars because the government taxes them in order deter us from owning things they don't want us to own.  It is why certain drugs cost more when bought behind the counter at a pharmacy rather than over the counter on the shelves.  Gambling is taxed and survives only due to how much money it rakes in.  This is how the government works.  Food, clothing, and more are taxed at varying levels to deter and steer people to buy certain things.

Works for some and not others:  The psychology is that people think based on how much money they own.  They limit themselves to within reason so that they can buy the things they need the most based on priorities.  It only does not work when people’s priorities and wants outweigh the fiscal hurdles they must overcome.  It comes family and the means to support them first and all else second.  Vices and wants play second fiddle unless those priorities align with the primary priority.  A gun is bought for defense and food in many parts of America, with any secondary benefit being bragging rights and fun.  Vices like gambling and smoking are for relaxation and fun for all need an escape. Thus while our choices become limited, people still overcome the obstacles that government puts before them.   

Conclusion:  I do not agree with this unequal taxation of goods, let alone selectively making people victims.  Sure we overcome, and sure we can adapt, but adaption is not what should be done.  In fact, resisting adaption to the government’s whims is more important.  The reason is because obeying government is the last thing that should be done.  We have our needs that need to be accomplished first and foremost.  The government does not know what is needed by the individual and that is why we should not obey.  Basic laws against murder, theft and assault are needed, but the picking and choosing of what is best for us is not.  Thus, I call for all of you to call for the equal taxation of goods and services within the country.  This will allow all goods and services to compete and thus enable us to make the choices on what we want to buy based on our own financial wants and needs, not the government’s desires. 

Issue 321 Banning Words!? April 24, 2014

Sounds nuts right?  Banning words?  The height of ridiculousness.  But that is what some of these people in Hollywood are attempting with their idealistic friends.  Let's go over why this is just plain dumb.

Will not work:  For one you have to have everyone agree to ban the word in the first place.  And you know what, that is never going to happen.  Curse words, racial slurs and more despite being frowned upon are still said by both polite society and those who seek to harm.  They continue to use these words to express their feelings, and even alter the words meaning based on the situation.  For instance "f--k yea" is different from 

"f--k you" (notice I didn't actually right the word because even I find it stupid to say).  Words are malleable and thus subject to change and meaning.  Context is also highly important as well.  The only time a word is no longer spoken is because a different word has replaced it.  

Insults:  What the Hollywood people want to ban is the word "bossy" because apparently they feel it is insulting to women.  Fact is, you better be prepared to be called worse.  People will not stop using the word bossy for it is a descriptor of an individual who is, well for lack of a better word, "bossy".  Try banning the word stupid, idiot, and so on.  It will not work.  If we could ban all the insulting words then it probably would have been done by now (with no words left for us to speak for that matter).  Insulting words do not and will not disappear, they simply change.  These sensibilities on wanting to ban such words are naive.  Words cannot be banned as much as the word poor, homeless, handicapped and so forth will fade in and out as insults and descriptors.  People saying ban this or that because of some emotional connection or displeasure with a word will not solve anyone's problem.

How to really handle insulting words: Talk to the hand. I don't care.  Give them the cold shoulder.  Or just ignore it.  Words can hurt, that we can all agree with, but some are worth getting pissed off at more than others.  The reason you should react this way is because you diffuse its power over you.  Sure people will still talk behind your back and poke fun at you.  But you know what, unless it is constructive criticism, then you should just ignore it.

Conclusion:  Forget banning words.  It is a waste of your time as those words will only be abandoned in time or their meanings changed as time goes on.  This is how the language works, it alters and changes with time.  Focus more on your future and family than this waste of time. 

Issue 320 Bad Racial Profiling April 23, 2014

As promised, I will discuss the dangers of racial profiling.  It can and has been abused.

Racism:  The most typical form of abuse is harassment.  The police officer may be a legit racist or just looking to get be rid of some boredom.  So harassing the individual with the excuse of following the law is tempting for such individuals as they feel they can be protected by the law themselves.  

Mishandled:  If the data is misinterpreted (a failing of all forms of statistical data) or old (in which it no longer applies) it ends up hurting a community rather than helping them.  Basically, it could cause police to stop and frisk individuals who have nothing to do with criminality more often which hurts the trust between the police and the community at large.  As such, all the data must be kept up to date at all times.

Targeting:  Some leaders in a police organization may use the racial profiling and other techniques to harass a particular group or an individual.  Very similar to how the racist cop targets individuals under the guise of the law, but in this case a particular individual or group is targeted at the expense of the others caught in this crossfire.  So an officer who does not like the Muslims in his community (who are predominately black) may be targeted at the expense of the rest of the black community in the area.  An individual of a particular race would also be targeted in the same fashion.  It is very sad when officers of the law sink this low, especially as they will usually have to be complicit in the act.

(Note: I simply chose the most convenient and easily recognized example)

Government tyranny:  The final most basic is when government targets a specific group for political attack.  This can be immigrants, people of a specific ethnic community or just a general group.  The profiling will be used in a disinformation campaign to paint the group of individuals as criminals, violent and worse so as to isolate them from the larger populace.  This allows the government to essentially do what they please with these individuals without fear of the populace speaking out.  The best examples of this are in America when the government removed Native Americans from their land, and in Nazi Germany when the Nazi's launched a disinformation campaign against the Jews to make them into the "enemy within".

Conclusion:  This is a basic list and description on how racial profiling can be abused.  Obviously the government and individuals must be watched so as to protect the people from government and bad officers going out of control and carrying out such horrendous acts.  So this issue will serve as a template on what to look for when individuals in power seek to harm others of a different race, color or creed.

Issue 319 Reactive Racial Profiling April 22, 2014

Reactive racial profiling is much less controversial than its active counterpart.  In fact you yourself have probably heard it numerous times on the news and not even realized it.  So let's discuss what you probably did not know was racial profiling in the reactive.

Reactive racial profiling:  This form of profiling comes after a particular indecent has occurred.  That incident is a crime of some variety.  How this form of profiling is applied is very simple, when the officer describes the physical features of the suspect in the indecent in question.  So when an officer says the suspect is white, black, hispanic or other, it is reactive racial profiling.  Very simply, it allows the officers who are perusing the individual to narrow down the number of possible suspects.

Application: Just as described, it is applied to narrow down the suspects when they are searching for any and all perpetrators to a criminal act.  Let's face it, the cops already have enough problems searching for criminals in a human haystack.   The last thing they need is to complicate matters by treating every single individual as a suspect. That is the sole function of this form of racial profiling and there is really nothing else left to say on the matter.

Conclusion:  This form of racial profiling is essential to police work.  It keeps people like you and me of all races, colors and creeds from being arbitrarily targeted by cops. Narrowing down the search not only makes it easier to find the criminals at large, but also gets the criminals off the street faster.  Thus, without a doubt, I support this form of racial profiling.

Issue 318 Active Racial Profiling April 21, 2014

There are two sets of racial profiling.  One active and one passive.  In this case as you may have surmised, I will talk about active racial profiling.  So let's get started.

Defined:  Active racial profiling is the type that has caused controversy.  Here police and other statisticians take crime data and overlay it with community data in combination with that community’s racial and ethnic makeup.  The goal is to get an idea of where in the community a crime is going to occur and by which group of people of a given racial or ethnic background.  In short, who in the community with a given skin color is likely to commit a crime and where.  Other data is thus factored in to try and achieve success in predicting where the crimes might occur.

Usage:  This data is then given to police so that they will send out more patrol cars to a given area where the crime is most likely to occur.  As such, the chances for illegal activity diminish.  

Another application is when it comes to such programs as stop and frisk.  Police will target the given ethnic group in a given area where those individuals are more likely to have drugs or illegal weapons on their person.  Standard police tactics of questioning are applied so as to reduce the need to search an innocent bystander.

Continued use:  Active racial profiling is controversial because you are singling out a particular race and ethnicity in a given community.  Thus it has been maligned as overtly racist and brings up bad memories when the police where harassing people of a given race rather than protect them.  As such, numerous laws have been passed to ensure that such data is not exclusively reliant on racial profiling, but used in combination with other prediction data on criminal acts to thwart crime.

Future:  The United States is becoming more and more a police like State which fears terrorism and strife more than anything.  From this fear (despite the negative feelings on the issue) racial profiling in the active is here to stay.  Unfortunately, the primary reason for this is due to the rise of radical religions and cults that seek to do us all harm.  As such racial profiling helps to root out the smaller dangerous elements in the communities at large in an effort to protect the community as a whole.  However, this form of profiling will be still combined with other forms of data to get the most accurate picture of a terrorist or worst.  

Conclusion:  I do not doubt that active racial profiling is here to stay. While politicians denounce it as evil because it is politically expedient, it will simply be given a new name or be included in other data gathering techniques to compensate.  The result is a predictive software to aid us in stopping crime and other forms of criminality.  As a libertarian though I am fearful of its misuse and misinterpretation.  It may lead to a more insecure society and more racial strife if applied wrong.  I like the idea of it being combined with other data so as to offset any overtly racial connotations, but I still fear it as a whole. I want smaller government, but this may allow the government to embrace tyranny. As such, so long as this is not used for nefarious purposes (which I will go over in a separate issue) then this technique will prove useful and thus I will support it until a better ( and maybe more reliable) alternative appears.