Lev Lafayette's journal

On Saturday I gave a lengthy presentation on the current state of artificial intelligence. There was a fair attendance, around forty or so people, and it provided the opportunity to review presentations I have given on the subject from several years past and more. I was able to discuss popular examples (DALL-E, ChatGPT) as well as delving into some philosophical issues regarding artificial consciousness. My general position, which still seems borne out by the facts, is that anything that can be automated will be automated and that higher-level consciousness is confronted with the qualia of understanding confirmed by the mutual generation of novel shared-symbolic values. Critics of AI who argue a perspective of subjective phenomenology is somehow special (almost like magic) to biological systems don't really have a strong argument and will find themselves confronted by the everyday reality of increasingly impressive advances in rules-based programmatic complexity. It was also rather nice to mention in passing how the promise of AI and automation could promise many opportunities for a life of leisure for the world's population, but our current political economy is suggesting instead mass under- and unemployment. Apparently, that is going to be a topic for a future presentation.

The topic dovetailed quite nicely to a work presentation that I chaired on Friday with David Wilkinson discussing applied ecology for conservation work on the Spartan supercomputer; several projects were provided with the effects of the 2019-20 Australian bushfires being the most dramatic. Further, the first week of my final paper for the Graduate Diploma in Psychology at Auckland University begins this week, Social Processes, which is social psychology under any other name. I am currently on the verge of finishing all the required readings for the unit and next week will make a start on the assignments. Why am I doing this? Because this is also the week when I begin my new degree, a Master's in Climate Change Science and Policy at Wellington University and realistically I should try to minimise the overlap between the two. The add another component to the lectern, albeit on the other side, I have also received the timetable for when I'll be providing my annual role as lecturer and tutor for the UniMelb course Cluster and Cloud Computing. It is going to be a very busy and challenging month for my brain, even more so than usual. Just as well my love of learning is a life purpose.

Thursday night was the dramatic ending of The Great Pendragon Campaign. The group has played Pendragon for pretty much four years, with The Great Campaign taking over two. Next up Andrew will be running The Laundry Files. Sunday played the fourth session of 7th Sea Freiburg, which involved romance, violence, and demons. I've taken the opportunity to complete notes for the four sessions run so far.

Australia is a country sufficiently broken that we "celebrate" the beginning of the invasion by the British as "Australia Day". Local aboriginal people are unimpressed, and with the resultant health record from dispossession and endemic racism, it's no wonder that the protests will never end. Meanwhile, just to illustrate how much the current government still clings to Mother Britain's apron strings, the Prime Minister has awarded a knighthood to Prince Phillip, a rather vile individual. Even other coalition MPs can't fathom this decision. A positive upshot is the benefits it provides Australian republicanism.

Other social events for the week for caseopaya and I included having Clinton and his partner Deb over for dinner and a tour of the asylum on Saturday night. Deb was the main organiser of East Timor Women Australia and Clinton is a quietly brilliant political scientist and intelligence analyst and it had been several years (far too long!) since we had spent good time in each other's company. Somewhat related, caseopaya and I went to see The Imitation Game and the delightfully deco Balwyn Cinema today. It was a good film, a popular and somewhat fictionalised story of a one of the great contributions to ending Nazism and the invention of computing. Edit Neglected to mention that earlier this week went in to get my eyes checked, for the first time in eleven years (I'm lazy about some things). They've barely changed; if I were to get new glasses it would be pure vanity, and I wasn't vain enough to accept the $790 pair that were on offer.