Love & Romance
Relationships, Marriage,
Polyamory & more
Social Media &
The Movies
From Tinder to Star Wars
Human Nature
The Cool, the Crazy
& the Colourful
Sex & Gender
BDSM, LGBT & Every
thing in Between
The Generations
Millennials, Boomers,
Gen X & Y
Image Flickr Chris Tse
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Image Flickr Kecko
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We live in challenging times. After the twin shocks of Brexit & Trump are you feeling calm and optimistic about the future or are you worried that this may be just the start of a long and difficult journey?
Western society is facing a future of unprecedented change over a wide range of complex social issues including marriage, relationships, sexuality and gender. A new wave of feminism is making its presence felt and the Millennial generation is bringing new ideas and values. Facebook, Google, Tinder and Twitter are adding to the mix, radically altering the world we thought we knew.
The social revolution that began with the Hippie generation of the 1960s has now entered a new phase that will affect everyone on the planet. RicTheWriter posts on these trending issues that impact you personally and the people around you.
Western society is facing a future of unprecedented change over a wide range of complex social issues including marriage, relationships, sexuality and gender. A new wave of feminism is making its presence felt and the Millennial generation is bringing new ideas and values. Facebook, Google, Tinder and Twitter are adding to the mix, radically altering the world we thought we knew.
The social revolution that began with the Hippie generation of the 1960s has now entered a new phase that will affect everyone on the planet. RicTheWriter posts on these trending issues that impact you personally and the people around you.
Who Dies? The Dangerous Dilemma
Of The Self-Driving Car Self driving cars are already appearing on public roads but how do we decide who lives and who dies in a life-threatening situation? Read more |
Multiple Romance & The Perils Of Polyamory
With divorce rates hitting 50% is polyamory a better alternative to marriage or could this strange hybrid take us down a dark and risky road ? Read more |
Changing The Sexual Culture After
The Harvey Weinstein Affair Challenging men’s sexual behaviour is only the first step. As the Brock Turner case shows, a court trial can be degrading and humiliating for the victim. Changing that experience is the second step. Read more |
The Search For Happiness
Is There A Paradise In The South Pacific? Happiness is talked about a lot these days but what exactly is this strange exotic beast and where can we find it? Can money create happiness? Read more |
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Onscreen Violence - Dangerous Influence Or Harmless Entertainment?
Read more Image Flickr Maki Maki |
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Last Fuckable Day
Sexism In Hollywood Read the review and watch the video Image Flickr Maegan Tintari |
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Love, Romance & The
Wedding March - Do You Have What It Takes ? Read more Image Flickr Muhammed Khan |
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Lisbeth Salander & Star Wars
How The Millennials Survive In A Chaotic World Read more Image Flickr Ronnie Gray |
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The Myth of the Fairy Tale Marriage
Is It Time For Radical Surgery? Read more Image Flickr Pako Guzman |
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Fifty Shades of Grey -
Will There Be BDSM Dungeons in Every Town? Read More Image Flickr Todd Mecklem |
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The Democracy Drama
Can A New Generation Get Us Out Of The Quicksand ? Read more Image Flickr Calvin Fleming |
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Furfriend
Tourists, flash bulbs, bamboo smoothies, life's tiring for us pandas
Image Flickr Paul and Cathy
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Image Flickr Orin Zebest
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Short bytes of news, views and random musings on some of the funny, sad, challenging and downright scary events that feed into the social revolution currently engulfing humanity on this third rock from the sun we call Planet Earth.
The World Loses Leonard Cohen
“Like a Bird on the Wire”
Leonard Cohen Flies Free
The Canadian singer/songwriter/poet and gentleman, Leonard Cohen, has gone. We knew it was coming, he had recently predicted he wouldn’t be long for this world, and now I’m struggling to sum up what was an incredible life. By all the normal rules Leonard should have been six feet under or at least totally brain dead long ago. Read his biography and you get a harrowing picture of emotional trauma and anguish self-medicated with endless sessions of drugs and alcohol to soften the pain. A rebel who scandalised proper Montreal society with his radical views and his hedonistic lifestyle, a tortured soul who nevertheless produced a stream of incomparable songs, covered by many other artists, and some lyrical poetry.
The Leonard Cohen we saw in his last years was quite different to that earlier persona. When he emerged after five years in a Buddhist monastery and embarked on a series of world tours which ran from 2008 – 2013 what we all witnessed was a totally changed man, serene, humble and self-deprecating, a charmer who captivated audiences with his quiet presence. Not with his voice of course, that hoarse, cracked delivery that threatened to fracture the song at every turn yet somehow conveyed the spirit of who he was and fitted with the sheer heart-wrenching impact of his lyrics.
The messages, emotions and insights conveyed by his songs were deep and powerful but for all that he was the message, an inspiration in this mad, chaotic world of ours. He touched a part of the human soul that yearns for an end to hate and discrimination, that hopes for a softer, kinder way of living. On a planet which has largely turned its back on religion he was for many people the essence of true spirituality. There’s a tightness in my throat and a heavy sadness in my heart as I think of his passing. Leonard, you’ll be sorely missed.
Image Flickr Vectorportal
Leonard Cohen Flies Free
The Canadian singer/songwriter/poet and gentleman, Leonard Cohen, has gone. We knew it was coming, he had recently predicted he wouldn’t be long for this world, and now I’m struggling to sum up what was an incredible life. By all the normal rules Leonard should have been six feet under or at least totally brain dead long ago. Read his biography and you get a harrowing picture of emotional trauma and anguish self-medicated with endless sessions of drugs and alcohol to soften the pain. A rebel who scandalised proper Montreal society with his radical views and his hedonistic lifestyle, a tortured soul who nevertheless produced a stream of incomparable songs, covered by many other artists, and some lyrical poetry.
The Leonard Cohen we saw in his last years was quite different to that earlier persona. When he emerged after five years in a Buddhist monastery and embarked on a series of world tours which ran from 2008 – 2013 what we all witnessed was a totally changed man, serene, humble and self-deprecating, a charmer who captivated audiences with his quiet presence. Not with his voice of course, that hoarse, cracked delivery that threatened to fracture the song at every turn yet somehow conveyed the spirit of who he was and fitted with the sheer heart-wrenching impact of his lyrics.
The messages, emotions and insights conveyed by his songs were deep and powerful but for all that he was the message, an inspiration in this mad, chaotic world of ours. He touched a part of the human soul that yearns for an end to hate and discrimination, that hopes for a softer, kinder way of living. On a planet which has largely turned its back on religion he was for many people the essence of true spirituality. There’s a tightness in my throat and a heavy sadness in my heart as I think of his passing. Leonard, you’ll be sorely missed.
Image Flickr Vectorportal
Bob Dylan And That Nobel Prize
The decision to award the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature to Bob Dylan has produced an emotional response with reactions ranging from outrage to a standing ovation. Here are some typical comments:
Delight The author Salman Rushdie, himself a candidate for the 2016 award – “His words have been an inspiration to me ever since I first heard a Dylan album at school and I am delighted by his Nobel win.”
Sarcastic Rage Irvine Welsh, the author of Trainspotting – “This is an ill-conceived nostalgia award wrenched from the rancid prostates of senile, gibbering hippies”. OMG
Ironic Applause The English novelist Will Self – “It cheapens Dylan to be associated at all with a prize more often awarded to a Buggins whose turn it is than to a world-class creative artist.”
So can his vast output of songs over more than 50 years really be called literature? The debate will go on forever. He may claim to be “just a song and dance man” but personally I agree with the writer who hailed him as one of the greatest poets America has ever produced. His protest songs inspired a generation and his lyrics continue to have a major influence on people around the world. The Times They Are A-Changin’ and literature too has to move with the times.
Image Flickr Passej
Delight The author Salman Rushdie, himself a candidate for the 2016 award – “His words have been an inspiration to me ever since I first heard a Dylan album at school and I am delighted by his Nobel win.”
Sarcastic Rage Irvine Welsh, the author of Trainspotting – “This is an ill-conceived nostalgia award wrenched from the rancid prostates of senile, gibbering hippies”. OMG
Ironic Applause The English novelist Will Self – “It cheapens Dylan to be associated at all with a prize more often awarded to a Buggins whose turn it is than to a world-class creative artist.”
So can his vast output of songs over more than 50 years really be called literature? The debate will go on forever. He may claim to be “just a song and dance man” but personally I agree with the writer who hailed him as one of the greatest poets America has ever produced. His protest songs inspired a generation and his lyrics continue to have a major influence on people around the world. The Times They Are A-Changin’ and literature too has to move with the times.
Image Flickr Passej
Greek Logic - When Wall Street Met Mykonos
Fishing boat on Mykonos
A boat docked on the Greek island of Mykonos. A tourist complimented the local fishermen on the quality of their fish and asked how long it took them to catch the fish.
“Not very long,” they answered in unison.
"Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" The fishermen explained that their small catches were sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families.
"But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
"We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children and take siestas with our wives. In the afternoons we have a snack at the beach or go into the village to see our friends at the Kafenio, have a few drinks and play tavli. In the evenings we go to a tavern, play the bouzouki and sing a few songs, maybe break a plate or two. We have a full life."
The tourist interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you. You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue you can buy a bigger boat."
"And after that?"
"With the extra money the larger boat will bring you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Athens or even London. From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."
"How long would that take?"
"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the tourist.
"And after that?"
"Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting," answered the tourist, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!"
"Millions? Really? And after that?"
"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."
"With all due respect that's exactly what we’re doing now. So what's the point wasting twenty five years?" asked the Greek fishermen.
And the moral of this story is: Know where you're going in life. You may already be there!
Lyntaki
Last Fuckable Day - Skewering Sexism in Hollywood
Marilyn Monroe
Hollywood is well known for its sexist attitudes but I’ve never seen its prejudice against women skewered so beautifully as it is in this hilarious video clip featuring Amy Schumer, Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Patricia Arquette. Last Fuckable Day is a classic that highlights the issue of aging and the way women are treated by an industry that believes they become sexless at 55 – or usually even earlier. Now I know it uses the f......... word frequently which may offend some people but this is a video raising a serious issue that deserves to go viral.
The worst example I’ve seen of this type of sexism is the 1995 film Grumpier Old Men which featured Jack Lemmon (70) married to Ann-Margret (54), the token female providing the love interest. The mismatch is heightened even further by the fact that Lemmon is a tired, crotchety old dude with very little to recommend him, particularly to a gorgeous looking Ann-Margret. Do you think there was any possibility the director would have considered casting them in reverse ages – the woman 16 years older than the man? No chance.
How is an industry that has a major influence on western society allowed to get away with such a blatant display of sexism? Good question. Is it just reflecting a commonly held view or has it actually created this attitude? I think the answer is a bit of both although Hollywood has always been a very male-dominated environment where women have traditionally been seen as weak and subservient. Tales of male directors demanding sex from women actors in return for a favourable casting are a dime a dozen in this town.
The video is a classic piece of acting from four very accomplished comediennes. Watch for the flaming arrow scene at the end. This is comedy at its best – very understated but packing a killer punch.
The worst example I’ve seen of this type of sexism is the 1995 film Grumpier Old Men which featured Jack Lemmon (70) married to Ann-Margret (54), the token female providing the love interest. The mismatch is heightened even further by the fact that Lemmon is a tired, crotchety old dude with very little to recommend him, particularly to a gorgeous looking Ann-Margret. Do you think there was any possibility the director would have considered casting them in reverse ages – the woman 16 years older than the man? No chance.
How is an industry that has a major influence on western society allowed to get away with such a blatant display of sexism? Good question. Is it just reflecting a commonly held view or has it actually created this attitude? I think the answer is a bit of both although Hollywood has always been a very male-dominated environment where women have traditionally been seen as weak and subservient. Tales of male directors demanding sex from women actors in return for a favourable casting are a dime a dozen in this town.
The video is a classic piece of acting from four very accomplished comediennes. Watch for the flaming arrow scene at the end. This is comedy at its best – very understated but packing a killer punch.
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The following websites are recommended as quality
sources of news, opinion & social commentary
sources of news, opinion & social commentary
Social Commentary
Villainesse New Zealand
The brainchild of New Zealand classical singer, Elizabeth Marvelly, now reincarnated as pop singer Lizzie Marvelly, this site is a mecca for issues that matter to women of the Millennial generation. Villainesse has also launched a global campaign "My Body My Terms" intended to spark conversation about sexual violence, victim-blaming, revenge porn & consent
Take me there
The brainchild of New Zealand classical singer, Elizabeth Marvelly, now reincarnated as pop singer Lizzie Marvelly, this site is a mecca for issues that matter to women of the Millennial generation. Villainesse has also launched a global campaign "My Body My Terms" intended to spark conversation about sexual violence, victim-blaming, revenge porn & consent
Take me there
Opinion
George Monbiot UK
George is a columnist for the Guardian & one of the true characters of UK journalism, covering mainly politics and the environment. His critical & sometimes savage condemnations of the political & aristocratic establishment are always well thought out & expose some of the critical but often ignored issues now facing our planet.
Take me there
George is a columnist for the Guardian & one of the true characters of UK journalism, covering mainly politics and the environment. His critical & sometimes savage condemnations of the political & aristocratic establishment are always well thought out & expose some of the critical but often ignored issues now facing our planet.
Take me there
News Commentary
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The Guardian UK
Unashamedly left wing but without the usual baggage this site is a good source of British news and commentary. Funded by a trust that operates independently of the website this is one of those rare news site not dependent on advertising revenue and able to avoid some of the pressures of corporate journalism. Take me there The Atlantic US With the polarisation of the American media its almost impossible to find an online news site these days that doesn't have a liberal bias (left wing) or a conservative bias (right wing) but this site often has interesting and reasonably balanced posts on a range of subjects. Take me there Werewolf New Zealand Yes I know, Werewolf !! but ignore the weird name. This is a mainstream news commentary website and worth checking for Gordon Campbell’s insightful posts on the New Zealand scene. Take me there |
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Any article on this site carrying a RicTheWriter or Lyntaki byline may be republished provided it is reproduced in full without editing or other changes and has a link to the RicTheWriter website.
RicTheWriter or Lyntaki must be credited as the source of the article. Other articles may be republished only with the consent of the original author. We would appreciate receiving email notification at the time an article is republished.
Who Dies? The Dangerous Dilemma Of The Self-Driving Car
The Dilemma
How do you teach a self-driving (SD) car to evaluate potential accident situations and who gets priority?
The Scenario
An SD car is driving three friends (let’s assume all of them are male) through a suburban neighbourhood and a little girl runs into the road in the path of the car.
The Moral Issues
Should the car consider only the safety of its passengers or should it consider the child’s safety as well? Should the car makers have sole responsibility for deciding priority or should the passengers have some input?
Lets face it, we don’t all have the same values and those three passengers may each see the situation very differently. Passenger 1 may believe that his safety should be top priority and if any manoeuvre to avoid the child would put him at risk of even a slight injury the car should not alter course. Passenger 2 may want the car to take all possible action to avoid the child regardless of his own safety and would be guilt-stricken if it carried straight on and mowed the child down. Passenger 3 may want the car to evaluate the risk and take evasive action unless it puts him at risk of serious injury or death.
Which option would you choose? In reality if you or I were sitting in the driver’s seat of our own car in this situation it would be impossible to predict in advance what our preference would be due to all the variables in play - our mood at the time, our evaluation of the risk (which can vary from person to person), the time it takes us to see the risk and react (reaction times vary with age, driving experience and weather conditions), the other vehicles on the road and their speed. And even if we thought we could predict what our attitude would be, when death stared us in the face (me or the child?) we could find ourselves reacting very differently.
Developers of SD cars claim these vehicles will be able to assess all the variables and slow down in time to avoid accidents but there will always be times when speed and other factors make this impossible. What happens if an SD car is passing a large bus parked on the roadside which obscures side vision and a child runs out from in front of the bus into the path of the car? Should an SD vehicle avoid a motorbike by swerving into a wall, considering that the car passenger would have a much greater chance of survival than the motorbike rider? Should the decision be different when children or a 3 month old baby are in the car? And is it possible to programme a car to take account of these variables?
What the Developers are Thinking
Already there appears to be a growing divide between developers and consumers on many of these issues. The American Automobile Association claims that three quarters of US drivers are suspicious of SD cars. Developers on the other hand can seem very gung ho in their attitudes, convinced that no problem is too great for them to solve. One executive was quoted as saying there were no problems, only solutions and another described the SD car’s capabilities as superhuman.
There may be grounds for this level of confidence about the technical and mechanical problems to be resolved but the moral and ethical issues remain controversial. German scientists have carried out a study which suggests that it may be possible to teach SD cars to make moral choices using clues as to how humans would act but this research is in its very early stages and final development may be years away.
Waymo which is a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has been working on a project aimed at teaching SD cars how to handle traffic situations at tricky intersections. Using computer simulations and data from other SD cars the aim is to enable the car to make tactical decisions such as when it is best to inch into the intersection and when it is best to accelerate through it, teaching it to mimic real driving. Sounds great but there are complications. A computer has been programmed to play the Chinese game “Go” using the same methods and has been beating the acknowledged masters of the game. However this experiment has now progressed to the stage where some of the moves the computer is making cannot be explained even by expert human players. That sounds more than a little scary.
There is plenty of discussion online about the moral issues involved with SD cars. Google “self driving cars moral and ethical issues” and you’ll get a good indication of how the debate is going. But there is very little debate about whether the SD development companies should be left to make these decisions or whether the government should be the final arbiter. This is the $64 million question and in the current political climate in America the Trump administration will almost certainly leave it to the developers to self regulate.
The Reality of Corporate Muscle
That could work with some companies but when the developers are giants like Google, Uber and Tesla the rules change. The reality is that these companies are now so powerful that their interests will override everything else. Taking account of all the competing interests my guess is that the safety of the car occupants will get top priority on the basis that they are the people fronting up with the cash.
In business terms this may seem the right decision, particularly as supporters of SD car development claim one of the big advantages will be a substantial decrease in the number of road accident deaths. But if a big decrease in vehicle passenger deaths is matched by a substantial increase in pedestrian deaths it would be a safe bet that there could be public pressure to change the rules.
The current stand-off with Google and Facebook due to their failure to prevent racial, sexual and other forms of online abuse provides a good indication of where this argument could go. The debate could become intensely emotional and if the SD developers dug in and refused to budge it could end up in a very public brawl.
Science Fiction
Interestingly, Isaac Asimov was one of the first people to address these issues when he published his classic collection of science fiction stories, I, Robot, way back in 1950. The first law of robots was:
“A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”
It may have seemed a practical and logical rule at the time but try to apply the first law to robotic vehicles (SD cars) and the complications surrounding human use of robots immediately become obvious.
Some Other Viewpoints
The following comments come from someone who has experience of working with artificial intelligence in the medical field and has some interesting insights into the problems.
1. An artificial intelligence of the type being built into SD cars is only as good as its teachers. It is not programmed, it learns by using either explicit algorithms or black box algorithms that teach it to observe experience and come up with the best way of meeting a certain goal. So if the input from the teachers is flawed the outcome will be flawed as well.
2. If an SD car is not taught how to handle a particular problem it will not know how to react. What does an SD car do when it sees a drunk driver? I doubt it will have much experience. How would it go in Shanghai or Manila? Remember western countries are almost irrelevant now. The vast majority of the world is Asian and the majority of the world’s social and technical progress is from China, Korea, Japan and India. If the US did not have military might it would be ignored, as most European countries are today.
3. Artificial intelligence in practice already does much better than humans in technical tasks such as defibrillators, weather programmes and research programmes around games like poker etc. Google SD cars are already proving to be much better than the loose cannons and drunks on our roads who do most of the damage to themselves and others. As long as they continue to have good teachers I think the situation will be better than today.
4. Corporate muscle is more often flexed at other corporates than at society. US big auto is lobbying hard to stop electric vehicles and self-driving cars as much as Japanese car companies are pushing them. Who will win? Who do we want to win? The most extensive tram system in the world was in Los Angeles until it was bought by big auto in the 1950s who then dismantled it. So on these issues it’s Uber versus taxis, Tesla versus big oil, and Google versus big auto.
How do you teach a self-driving (SD) car to evaluate potential accident situations and who gets priority?
The Scenario
An SD car is driving three friends (let’s assume all of them are male) through a suburban neighbourhood and a little girl runs into the road in the path of the car.
The Moral Issues
Should the car consider only the safety of its passengers or should it consider the child’s safety as well? Should the car makers have sole responsibility for deciding priority or should the passengers have some input?
Lets face it, we don’t all have the same values and those three passengers may each see the situation very differently. Passenger 1 may believe that his safety should be top priority and if any manoeuvre to avoid the child would put him at risk of even a slight injury the car should not alter course. Passenger 2 may want the car to take all possible action to avoid the child regardless of his own safety and would be guilt-stricken if it carried straight on and mowed the child down. Passenger 3 may want the car to evaluate the risk and take evasive action unless it puts him at risk of serious injury or death.
Which option would you choose? In reality if you or I were sitting in the driver’s seat of our own car in this situation it would be impossible to predict in advance what our preference would be due to all the variables in play - our mood at the time, our evaluation of the risk (which can vary from person to person), the time it takes us to see the risk and react (reaction times vary with age, driving experience and weather conditions), the other vehicles on the road and their speed. And even if we thought we could predict what our attitude would be, when death stared us in the face (me or the child?) we could find ourselves reacting very differently.
Developers of SD cars claim these vehicles will be able to assess all the variables and slow down in time to avoid accidents but there will always be times when speed and other factors make this impossible. What happens if an SD car is passing a large bus parked on the roadside which obscures side vision and a child runs out from in front of the bus into the path of the car? Should an SD vehicle avoid a motorbike by swerving into a wall, considering that the car passenger would have a much greater chance of survival than the motorbike rider? Should the decision be different when children or a 3 month old baby are in the car? And is it possible to programme a car to take account of these variables?
What the Developers are Thinking
Already there appears to be a growing divide between developers and consumers on many of these issues. The American Automobile Association claims that three quarters of US drivers are suspicious of SD cars. Developers on the other hand can seem very gung ho in their attitudes, convinced that no problem is too great for them to solve. One executive was quoted as saying there were no problems, only solutions and another described the SD car’s capabilities as superhuman.
There may be grounds for this level of confidence about the technical and mechanical problems to be resolved but the moral and ethical issues remain controversial. German scientists have carried out a study which suggests that it may be possible to teach SD cars to make moral choices using clues as to how humans would act but this research is in its very early stages and final development may be years away.
Waymo which is a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has been working on a project aimed at teaching SD cars how to handle traffic situations at tricky intersections. Using computer simulations and data from other SD cars the aim is to enable the car to make tactical decisions such as when it is best to inch into the intersection and when it is best to accelerate through it, teaching it to mimic real driving. Sounds great but there are complications. A computer has been programmed to play the Chinese game “Go” using the same methods and has been beating the acknowledged masters of the game. However this experiment has now progressed to the stage where some of the moves the computer is making cannot be explained even by expert human players. That sounds more than a little scary.
There is plenty of discussion online about the moral issues involved with SD cars. Google “self driving cars moral and ethical issues” and you’ll get a good indication of how the debate is going. But there is very little debate about whether the SD development companies should be left to make these decisions or whether the government should be the final arbiter. This is the $64 million question and in the current political climate in America the Trump administration will almost certainly leave it to the developers to self regulate.
The Reality of Corporate Muscle
That could work with some companies but when the developers are giants like Google, Uber and Tesla the rules change. The reality is that these companies are now so powerful that their interests will override everything else. Taking account of all the competing interests my guess is that the safety of the car occupants will get top priority on the basis that they are the people fronting up with the cash.
In business terms this may seem the right decision, particularly as supporters of SD car development claim one of the big advantages will be a substantial decrease in the number of road accident deaths. But if a big decrease in vehicle passenger deaths is matched by a substantial increase in pedestrian deaths it would be a safe bet that there could be public pressure to change the rules.
The current stand-off with Google and Facebook due to their failure to prevent racial, sexual and other forms of online abuse provides a good indication of where this argument could go. The debate could become intensely emotional and if the SD developers dug in and refused to budge it could end up in a very public brawl.
Science Fiction
Interestingly, Isaac Asimov was one of the first people to address these issues when he published his classic collection of science fiction stories, I, Robot, way back in 1950. The first law of robots was:
“A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”
It may have seemed a practical and logical rule at the time but try to apply the first law to robotic vehicles (SD cars) and the complications surrounding human use of robots immediately become obvious.
Some Other Viewpoints
The following comments come from someone who has experience of working with artificial intelligence in the medical field and has some interesting insights into the problems.
1. An artificial intelligence of the type being built into SD cars is only as good as its teachers. It is not programmed, it learns by using either explicit algorithms or black box algorithms that teach it to observe experience and come up with the best way of meeting a certain goal. So if the input from the teachers is flawed the outcome will be flawed as well.
2. If an SD car is not taught how to handle a particular problem it will not know how to react. What does an SD car do when it sees a drunk driver? I doubt it will have much experience. How would it go in Shanghai or Manila? Remember western countries are almost irrelevant now. The vast majority of the world is Asian and the majority of the world’s social and technical progress is from China, Korea, Japan and India. If the US did not have military might it would be ignored, as most European countries are today.
3. Artificial intelligence in practice already does much better than humans in technical tasks such as defibrillators, weather programmes and research programmes around games like poker etc. Google SD cars are already proving to be much better than the loose cannons and drunks on our roads who do most of the damage to themselves and others. As long as they continue to have good teachers I think the situation will be better than today.
4. Corporate muscle is more often flexed at other corporates than at society. US big auto is lobbying hard to stop electric vehicles and self-driving cars as much as Japanese car companies are pushing them. Who will win? Who do we want to win? The most extensive tram system in the world was in Los Angeles until it was bought by big auto in the 1950s who then dismantled it. So on these issues it’s Uber versus taxis, Tesla versus big oil, and Google versus big auto.
Multiple Romance & The Perils Of Polyamory
Polyamory, the word rolls smoothly around the tongue and has an intriguingly exotic ring to it but what is this strange animal? There are clearly many different variations but the common ingredients are an intimate relationship between three or more people, total honesty and openness from everyone involved and an agreement that marriage is not on the agenda.
With divorce rates around 50% in the western world and the arrival of the millennial generation, many of whom think marriage is the invention of a drunken fool, polyamory has suddenly become trendy. I
With divorce rates around 50% in the western world and the arrival of the millennial generation, many of whom think marriage is the invention of a drunken fool, polyamory has suddenly become trendy. I