I am Russian. The new war between Russia and Georgia is my pain. It is madness. People of Russia and Georgia have been living together for so long. How could those mad, greedy politicians from both sides let this happen….

I am going crazy…

I am crying for you Georgians, Russians, for everyone who happens to be there now.

I saw the Olympics today. Two athletes - one Russian Natalia Paderina, another Georgian Nino Salukvadze were staying together on the pedestal, holding each other. That is the symbol of Russia and Georgia!

I love you Natasha, I love you Nino! We are all with you.

The war should be stopped!

Professor, is the Chinese Room open?

Move on, buddy! It is closed.

Excuse me? Professor, are you OK?

What do you want from me? The room is closed. There is nothing here for you. It is closed and closed forever.

Is this the same Chinese Room that you have always talked about?

Yes. This is the room. It is the magical room which understands Chinese language. And now they closed it.

But why? What happened?

I do not want to talk about it.

Professor, tell me. There should be a reason for closing such a famous place.

It is all because of that guy.

What guy?

That little Chinese guy.

Professor, what Chinese guy?

You know they found that Chinese guy who has been sitting in the room all that time. How could I know? I though it was just a program which can answer questions. The program is just a formal syntactical algorithm, and so I argued that there was no real understanding of Chinese there, but now, that guy actually spoiled everything.

Oh, please, don’t take it so bad. You will get over it. Try to think about something else. What are you going to do tomorrow, professor?

I don’t know. That room has meant so much for me. I think I am moving in.

… Your power changed everything you touched. You not only turned our world upside down, you also created new worlds, worlds we have never seen before, worlds we would never have imagined before. Today, on your 60th birthday, we are all standing here, celebrating your greatness, your excellence and your undeniable influence on all of us.

Now, according to the old Japanese tradition, let us award you with this beautiful red kimono. We all wish you well and once again, thank you, thank you for all you have done for us. Please, everybody, let’s give him a great round of applause.

Hey, little one, listen.

What, Grandpa?

Why a red kimono? What does it mean?

Grandpa, I thought you knew everything. A red kimono means you can rest now, and from now on you are not responsible for anything.

Ah, that… Of course, I knew about it. I just didn’t see how it applied to me.

It is an old tradition, and we thought it was just the right way to celebrate your 60th birthday.

What a weird idea. I know all the history of kimonos. It has nothing to do with computers, absolutely nothing.

Grandpa, please, don’t take it too seriously. We thought it would just be fun.

Kimono, kimono… It doesn’t make any sense. What am I supposed to do with that stupid kimono?

Please, Grandpa, let it go. It is not about the kimono. Don’t get nervous, you know where it will lead you.

OK, OK. I don’t mind.

…

Listen, I am not Japanese.

]]> http://thedialogs.org/2008/06/25/computers-red-kimono-ceremony/feed/ http://thedialogs.org/2008/03/14/evil-carbon-tax-in-bc-is-coming/ http://thedialogs.org/2008/03/14/evil-carbon-tax-in-bc-is-coming/#comments Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:48:04 +0000 Alex Na http://thedialogs.org/2008/03/14/evil-carbon-tax-in-bc-is-coming/ Carole Taylor:

Carbon tax will start July 1, 2008 at a rate of $10 per tonne of associated carbon, or carbon‑equivalent, emissions. That works out to about 2.4 cents a litre at the gas pump and 2.8 cents a litre for diesel and home heating oil. Leading economists and scientists agree: Seeing that cost, and making it real, will give us new incentives to change the habits that created global warming in the first place.

Let me get this clear. Today we pay say, $1.20 per litre, and with the tax it will be $1.224 per litre? Am I correct?

Yes, for every litre of gas an additional 2.4 cents will be charged as the carbon tax.

And why do you think this is the right thing to do?

Because we have to act on the environment. The green house gases …

Yes, yes, that I understand. What I am struggling to get is those two numbers. Why do you think price $1.20 does not work as incentives to change people’s habits, but $1.22 does? Do you have any scientific study proving that idea?

Of course, not. It is not about the exact price people paying at the gas stations. We believe that the carbon tax will be an additional reason for people to start thinking green. And do not forget, the carbon tax is absolutely revenue neutral, so all the money will go back to the people and the corporations.

Does that mean I can request back those 2.4 cents per litre right at the gas station?

No, Kevin, it does not work this way. It means every dollar raised will be returned to the people of B.C. in the form of lower taxes. The general corporate income tax rate will be reduced from 12 per cent to 11 per cent and, over the next three years, we expect it to fall to 10 per cent — on par with the lowest corporate tax rates in the country. That puts B.C. on track, by 2012, for a total combined corporate tax rate — the federal plus the B.C. rate — of 25 per cent… the lowest among the world’s major industrialized economies, and 10 points lower than the U.S. federal rate.

Right, lower taxes. That’s what I wanted to ask you about. Firstly, introducing new tax to cover reduction in existing one is not lowering taxes at all. Secondly, 25 per cent corporate tax will place Canada into the 21st position in the world. In order to be in the first ten we need to reduce it to at least 17%. So can we really reduce taxes to 17% and can we do it now, not in ten years?

17% combined? I do not think so. In order to get there we would have to set the carbon tax in the range of $30-$50 per tonne or even more.

Minister, you don’t get the concept of tax reduction right. Tax reduction means less taxes, not less some taxes but more other taxes. Do we have any chance here?

I don’t know, Kevin… theoretically… if we increase the GST…

…That subjectivity applied to the modern physics bothers me a lot. It is not because I cannot accept the idea of our mind and consciousness are part of the system. No, not at all. I can feel my consciousness so it is part of the real world for me. At least it is real enough for me to accept that it could interact somehow with the physical world around. What bothers me is that there is no math to work with that. In a sense, the science ended at that very moment when you allow any free will to act.

What would you expect? Objectivity is the basis of science.

Yes, but I have been looking for any case when subjectivity and mathematics intersect. I hoped that if I found such an example then may be we can begin to study that subjectivity in a normal scientific way. And guess what? It looks like I found something of that sort! Yesterday I was helping my daughter to do her math homework and there was some of those ‘continue the sequence’ problems. Some short sequence of numbers is given and you have to find out what the next number should be.

O, I remember, I’ve always hated those. Every time when I gave up and somebody showed me the solution, it looked so obvious that I felt stupid.

Right. But here is what I thought: let’s say we have a sequence 2,4,8. What would be the next number?

Simple, 16, of course.

Can you explain why?

That is obvious. You can see that every number doubles, so the next is double of 8, 16.

But what if I tell you that the next number is actually 32?

32? Let me see… Ah I know. The next number is the last one multiplied by the one before! 8 is 4 by 2. Then the next one would be 8 by 4, 32. Right?

The thing is that there is no right solution for that, because your belief in some rule is part of the solution and you are free to come up with any rule you want.

Tell me, what was the answer in the textbook?

Sixteen, of course, but that was wrong. 16 would be correct if the rule of doubling the last number was given, but it was not.

I see. Interesting, but what could you make of this?

Since the solution to the problem depends on the free will of the person who is solving it, we have a clear case of subjective influence on the mathematical result. Isn’t it amazing?

Then I would not call this problem mathematical at all.

Who knows? After all, it was in a mathematics textbook.

I recognize that smile, my gentle master. That look, those sparkles in your eyes, all telling me it’s happening again. Ah, tell me what’s the name of one who keeps us on the move when all the world is having dinner?

She’s Donna Anna. I saw her in the church today. This morning, Leporello, love struck and split my heart in two.

A broken heart? It must be painful, even deadly. What can I say? Remember that one time you lost your head? You were alive and happy, and even played guitar. My master, are you feeling good?

Ah, more than that! I feel two lives instead of one. The one of me is loved and happy. Donna Anna, remembers him and all this day she has been asking everyone about him, and dreaming that they meet again.

The one of you? Then tell me of the other.

The other me will be rejected, sad and looking for a place to kill himself. Until I talk to her, my Leporello, I am both of them.

How can it be? It makes so little sense. Can I be full and hungry all at once? I’m hungry, by the way.

I’m telling you that love can make it so. You must believe me, I am two.

Could I believe that you are two?

…If only I’d be paid by both of you.

Good Afternoon, Chief. It’s nice of you to come. We have just received new fishing nets, big ones. Just as you asked last time.

Hi, Berry. I am not here for the net. I want to buy a license.

License? But you don’t need a license, do you? You aboriginal people can fish any time you want.

I know, but I decided to buy a license this year.

But why?

After many days of thinking, I have decided that it is the right thing to do. People should not have different rights based on their nationality, religion or the color of their skin. Such thing is nothing but racial segregation. I just don’t want to be part of it anymore. I decided to give up all the extra rights I have as an aboriginal. That was my decision and I am going to stick with it. Other people in my country have to buy fishing licenses; so I’m going to buy one, too.

Cool! I’ve never seen anything like it. People never give up privileges voluntarily.

Great people did. The most educated and the most progressive ones did. If not for that, then why do we need the elite in our society?

Fresh salmon stamp?

Yes, please. And Berry, no one can have greater privilege than being treated as equal, and the only way to get it is to treat others as equal first.

OK. Here it is. 51 dollars total.

Thank you, Berry. Goodbye.

Chief!

What?

You know the regulation for today is just three coho maximum.

I know, I know…

Mike! Hi, buddy! I am back!

Ah, Mr. Bregg. Good morning.

Why are you so official?

We think it’s appropriate for a big company like us. Don’t you think?

Hmm, I don’t know. That is something new. Should I call you boss now?

Mr. Scott would be OK. And, please, this t-shirt saying “Vodka: Connecting people” is not quite appropriate.

I always wear what I like. Do you want me to wear a suit, or what? I am a programmer after all! By the way, how did my program behave? Remember, I stayed up all night working on it, almost missed my flight.

Your program? We don’t use it anymore. Mr. Hue came up with a better way to do the calculations.

Who the hell is Mr. Hue?

The new guy we hired instead of Julia. What a smart guy.

But what happened to Julia?

Julia? She moved to Toronto with that guy John.

Hmm… She never mentioned him. How the hell did all this happen? I was out for just two weeks and I feel like it was a year.

It is all relativity, Mr. Bregg. While on vacation it’s been a couple of weeks, here on Earth, a whole lifetime has passed.

I am so angry! I hate to be angry! How could she say that? After all these years!

Stop it. She didn’t mean it, you know.

I hate it when she talks to me like that!

You started yelling first, you know.

What she said was stupid! Stupid! Stupidity makes me mad!

Listen you smarty, if you are so smart you should notice that it was her second day. She is always unbearable those days.

Interesting, if the milk was not white, what color would it be?

I’m telling you, if she starts that again, I don’t know, I will … I don’t know. Green.

Why green?

After the grass, of course.

Eh, boring!

OK, green in the summer but yellow in the winter.

Right, yellow as hay. That’s better.

Interesting, I have never seen anyone drinking milk through a straw.

If it was orange, that would be quite natural.

I know! I know! It should be all the colors all together; then people would call the rainbow the Milky Way!

Nice. And if you stir it well it would turn white!

It is white!

Ha-Ha-Ha!

Very funny!

OK, I’m going to eat something now.

Here is this young man Alan Turnet who is called the father and founder of the Church of God Who Does Nothing. Alan, tell us how all this started and what exactly is the Church Of God Who Does Nothing?

Jay, it all started as a joke, and honestly I still consider it to be a joke. One day we had a discussion about the new paradigm shift in understanding of intelligence and as it often happens among MIT students, we went quite far off topic.

What is that paradigm shift you mentioned?

Traditionally, intelligence was understood as intelligent behavior. That view on the subject suggests that we can judge an object’s intelligence based on the way it acts. The essence of that approach was formulated by Turing in his famous intelligence test. His idea was simple, if we cannot find the difference in behavior of a machine and a man we have to admit that the machine is intelligent.

That sounds quite logical to me. What was the problem with that approach?

The problem is that it does not help us understand the nature of intelligence. For many years researchers were focused on building intelligently behaving machines and did not make any progress in understanding what intelligence actually is. The new approach to that matter suggests that acting is not a necessity of intelligence.

But what would be an example of intelligence which does not reveal itself by way of some intelligent act?

Imagine a paralyzed person who cannot move, cannot speak, cannot act in any possible way. He is lying in his bed all the time. Every day a nurse comes to his room to take care of him: feed him and clean the room. Every day that paralyzed person is waiting for the nurse to come. He is lying in bed and listening until he hears her steps in the corridor. He thinks: “It’s her. She will come in in a moment. After that she will turn on the light, come to me and say, “Good afternoon my dear patient, how are you doing today?”. I think we have to admit that there is a lot of intelligence in making such a prediction.

Interesting, so what is intelligence?

Intelligence is the ability to analyze the world, understand it and make predictions about what is going to happen. That prediction might lead to actions, but it is not always the case.

OK. Now tell me how God comes to the picture?

What little we know about human intelligence should also be true of any other possible type of intelligence. If we assume that some kind of metaphysical worldwide intelligence exists then it should not necessarily produce any activity. And vise versa, lack of such an activity does not necessarily prove the lack of intelligence.

I see. In other words, God might exist even if he has never produced any divine intents in our world. So, the Church Of God Who Does Nothing is a group of people who believe in the existence of such an inacting God, right?

Correct.

Interesting. But, Alan, I do not understand this: usually when people believe in God they hope that their God will do something for them, ether in their life or after it. You should not have any hope on such matter. If your God never acts, then what do you get from your belief?

Oh, we get a lot from it. It is such a great feeling to believe that there is someone who actually understands what is going on.