Some original quotations:

 

Adults are just big kids with wrinkles.

If you can hear your own heartbeat, you may  be paranoid.

I used to be younger but now I'm not.

If you can laugh, you may be human.

If you can still laugh, you may still be alive.

A third of me is a writer; another third of me is a teacher; the other half is a logician.

I used to be a genius ... then I woke up.

Smile if you have teeth; otherwise, suck on a lemon.

Keep your money in your pockets and keep your hands out of there.

My father, the rabbi, told me once that for every tear you caused, you would lose one year of life ... by my own calculations, I should never have been born.

If bartenders ruled the country, there would be more bloody marys.

If there were more bloody marys, there would be fewer bloody martyrs.

If every adult was required to vote and every vote counted equally, we would be living in another country.

Once I ran away from home and got lost and ended up back at home. That was an example of circular reasoning.

Dead reckoning is a form of navigation that involves knowing where you want to go, the shortest way to get there, and running out of gas before you arrive. 

if you failed to smile at any of these one or two liners, then go suck a lemon. 

Mike Spector

June 2022

Thoughts about the Turing test

 

Random thought of the day:

I was thinking about the Turing test while driving back to Round Rock from Denton today … perhaps due to the mind numbing news about the massacre in Uvalde. The Turing test was devised by Alan Turing in 1950 as a way to determine if a computer program could be deemed to  be intelligent – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test. Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT created a program called Eliza in 1964 that was designed to imitate a Rogerian psychologist. Weizenbaum claimed that if an observer could not distinguish Eliza from an actual human psychologist then one would have to say that Eliza exhibited intelligent behavior. Weizenbaum’s ulterior motive might have been to show that communications between a human and a machine were somewhat superficial – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA/ .

In any case, while many argued that Eliza was not sufficient to pass Turing’s test, being an arrogant young researcher at the Air Force Research Laboratory in San Antonio, I thought I could do better. I was responsible for a group led by Dave Merrill in the latter part of the 1980s that had created a program that could generate an effective aircraft maintenance lesson using existing databases in a matter of minutes and I had a lesson created by a human for a similar task. Could folks identify the one created by the program when shown both? Unfortunately, our example failed the Turing test because our program used line art available in the available databases whereas the human designed lesson used much more appealing graphic art to support the lesson which involved removing the radar from an F-16 as best I can recall. The fact that our program took only minutes to generate and was based on the latest model of the F-16 was irrelevant in that failed attempt to pass the Turing test.

Now I am thinking that there should be an alternative to the Turing test. Rather than try to compare a human-generated example from a machine-generated example for a representative task, it makes more sense to me some 36 years later to identify things a typical human can do that the best machine program cannot do. Granted, computers can beat me at chess every time, and some computer programs can even beat chess grand masters, so I do not feel so bad.

However, there are probably things a person can do that a machine cannot come close to match. What are some of those things? In my case, because I am so insecure, I think I can wonder whether I was right about X and revisit my reasoning and alternative evidence and possibly reach a different conclusion. Can a computer program do something like that? Can a computer program doubt its own output, reflect, reconsider, and re-examine things? Perhaps not yet … and then, when that becomes possible, I will wonder whether a computer can laugh at its former response and say how stupid or naïve I was.

My conclusion now is that my insecurity has finally proven worthwhile.

Mike Spector

May 26, 2022

 

Rights and Wrongs

 

There is an apparent debate between those advocating for more states rights and those seeking protection of individual rights by the federal government. The lines are not clearly drawn and there is some hypocrisy on both sides. However, there is a great deal of difference in how advocates on each side behave. One side seems to think that lies and innuendo can be used freely and loosely while another side seems to think that this is a battle of minds being conducted by gentle folk. Both sides are mistaken. There is misinformation on both sides although one side is drowning in misinformation. There is feigned respect on both sides although one side has better actors.

T. S. Eliot has a line in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” to the effect that in a minute there is time for a hundred revisions. No such time exists. The democracy is in peril. People in this country and other countries are under siege. The planet is threatened. Meanwhile, people “come and go talking of Michelango.” Getting and spending the wealthy have laid waste our powers. Will the American eagle ever stand up and fly right? Quoth the raven, nevermore.

Vague references to poetry aside, we are living through extremely challenging times when what is clearly right and what is clearly wrong are up for grabs, winner take all and leave nothing behind. What rights do individuals in this country have regardless of where they live and how much they earn? Name three. This is not a pop quiz. It is a test of your humanity. Name three. Which ones come to mind first? Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Or was it life, liberty and property? Property and wealth may not ensure happiness, so those two responses have always confused me. Shall I accept the challenge I offered? Name three. What comes to my weak mind are (a) the right to a free public education at least through high school, (b) the right to practice openly whatever religion or lack of religion I choose, and (c) the right to say whatever I believe to whomever I choose, including marriage vows, oaths of office, prayers, and much more but excluding threats, lies, and rumors designed to engender hate and violence. What are your three responses? Who are you and who do you want to become?

 Mike Spector

May 2022

Bullies

 We seem to have low tolerance for bullies in elementary and secondary school environments. There is even a federal government site to support action against bullies in school settings (see https://www.stopbullying.gov/). A great deal of attention is paid to reducing or preventing bullying in schools. There is somewhat less attention paid to adult bullying, although some institutions do have policies and training in an attempt to minimize adult bullying. 

However, there is virtually no action against politicians who repeatedly engage in bullying others. The worst adult bullying offenders may well be the politicians responsible for preserving this fragile democracy. We have recently experienced four years of bullying at the highest level of the government. This so-called democracy has barely survived and may yet succumb to authoritarian rule by bullies and by the self-proclaimed righteous right who are convinced they know what is best for everyone. 

What has happened to that golden rule found in the Book of Leviticus? It was not to rule your neighbor but to love your neighbor. The current environment in this country is to rule over others even if bullying and hateful actions are necessary. We are losing the sense of justice, domestic tranquility, common defence, general welfare, and blessings of liberty on which this country was founded. We are lost. And others around the world are also losing. 

The new mantra of the offending parties is bullies of the world unite. Perhaps the worst one has invaded Ukraine.

I just realized I am a patriot after all ... what a surprise ... 

Mike Spector

3 May 2022

I am

 I am an aging white American who graduated with honors from a military academy in the USA in 1967. I served as an intelligence office and came to believe the war there was inadequately justified. Back then I was very disenchanted with the American military and American politics. Albert Gore, Sr. had helped me gain an honorable discharge from the Air Force and later sent me a personal note to not lose faith in America. I listened and went on to serve as a senior scientist at an Air Force research laboratory. More recently, I have seen a number of honorable acts by military leaders but am seeing continuing self-serving politicians distort truth, justice and the American way. With regard to the previous occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue leading the AGC – American Gullibility Campaign – I came to believe that at least a third of Americans were simply stupid. How could they believe the lies and distortions and praise of enemies of truth, justice and the American way? How? Even members of my own family who no longer speak to me! I began to understand Socrates’ disdain for the hoi polloi … the crowd … the common people who seem so uncommonly stupid … how can they live with themselves and the lies? How? But then that false leader was not re-elected and my faith in the American people began to return … slowly and only slightly. There are still too many dissemblers and dividers in American society. What can one do?

Now there is an unjustified war in Ukraine, based on lies and distortions; and so many in Russia seem to believe the lies and distortions. How can people be so stupid, ignorant, self-serving, greedy, and inhumane? How is that possible? What can be done to end the suffering? End the invasion. Stand up to terrorists wherever they appear … Is it not time to act to preserve the life and liberty of Ukrainians? What I have come to believe is that Putin is far more evil than #45 but then things can easily go awry here in the land of the frequent flyers and the home of the brazen. It can happen here, yet we are not doing enough to save Ukraine. And I wonder what can I do?

Mike Spector

April 2022

Truth crushed to earth

 

William Cullen Bryant once wrote that “truth crushed to earth shall rise again” … but when?

Why doesn’t Lawrence Ferlinghetti tell us when the “American eagle will really spread its wings and straighten up and fly right?”

Why doesn’t Edgar Allan Poe tell us if there is balm in Gilead? The raven says “nevermore” which might just prove to be correct.

I wonder, along with T. S. Eliot, “Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”

The answer, my friend, is that they have been lost in misinformation.

The desert is not remote in Southern tropics … it is in the hearts of mothers and fathers and sons and daughters in Ukraine and in other remote places away from our fast food places and familiar faces.

We hear the words … those that ring true and the many lies and distortions … we know the truth … that life is essentially nasty, brutish and short … even for the super wealthy and those whose bank accounts have been frozen and had their yachts repossessed …

The moral is so simple as Bob Dylan said in a ballad … “when you see your neighbor carryin’ something, help him with his load” … our neighbors in far-away places are carrying more than their fare share and suffering from the arms and guns of those who wish to wreak havoc and cause them harm …

Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote that what was mysterious (beyond understanding) was not how things are in the world (currently quite messed up) but that there was anything at all … what I find mysterious is why some people believe they should dominate, denigrate and cause the demise of so many others … my father aught me that for every tear drop I caused I would lose a year of life … I should be long dead by now so I modified that advice to be that for every loss of life I caused, I would lose a decade of life … still breathing with one hand waving free …

Mike Spector

March 2022

What are Russians thinking?

Can Russians really be so simple-minded or stupid enough not to see the unjustified horror that Putin is unleashing on the people of Ukraine?

Do international laws have no meaning ...no teeth?  Bombing civilians ... lying about what is happening ... okay ... America is not fault free on the world stage but we are innocent babes in the woods compared with Putin and his henchmen. 

How long will the world let itself be held hostage by a nuclear maniac?

It is so discouraging to be living through these times ... with a person we tolerated at the head of our government for four years who did a lot of damage to American society and now see a Russian leader wreak havoc on the world ... so discouraging ... I thought things could not get worse after the 1960s and 1970s but they have gotten much much worse ... I am feeling hopeless.

When will truth crushed to earth rise up again? Is there balm in Gilead? Quoth the raven ... nevermore.

I was just thinking ...

Yes ... thinking .. it occasionally occurs during waking hours ... more occasionally as I grow older ... too bad one cannot grow younger ... I tried growing corn once but just did not have the ears for it (my apologies to the huskers)... anyway, I was thinking that laughter is really the best medicine ... although I am not sure what the ailment is ... perhaps it is being too full of oneself ... laughing at oneself is a particular talent not capable in those who made it past the third grade ... my mother did not make it past the third grade ... she had a great sense of humor ... you either laughed at her jokes or had to repeat the third grade ... a sense of humor may be a sign of intelligence ... the ability to laugh at oneself is a sign of a possible brain tumor ... not really ... I know people who are simply not able to make fun of themselves ... they often seek elective office so that others can do the laughing ... the wisest and most intelligent people I have known were able to laugh at themselves ... so I laugh at them hoping some of their intelligence will rub off on me ... In actuality I was really just thinking about the few people I detest, and without exception they do not exhibit the ability to laugh at themselves ... I suppose I am biased (can you hear the silent internal laughter) ... they often laugh at and belittle others, however ... I am wondering whom you would put on that short list ...See Abou Ben Adhem for directions ... https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44433/abou-ben-adhem

Regression to the Mean

Regression to the Mean Something must be wrong with me as I went from thinking about regression to the mean to something else ... I seem to recall that regression to the mean is a statistical phenomenon about how data measurements taken once that are extremely higher or lower than the mean will likely be found closer to the mean on a second measurement. Sir Francis Galton, a British scholar who studied a wide variety of things including human differences with regard to a variety of characteristics, documented this phenomenon. The idea was published in Galton’s Natural Inheritance published in 1889 (see https://galton.org/books/natural-inheritance/pdf/galton-nat-inh-1up-clean.pdf and look at Appendix E). In the 1880s, Galton was noticing that some researchers attributed causes to events that were just as easily explained by the highly common regression to the mean with regard to extreme cases. It is now 2021 and researchers still make the same mistake that Galton saw so many years ago. Failure to understand regression to the mean is still all too common. Such failures are all too common, especially for a commoner like me. Another regression comes to mind today, however. Namely, regression to the meanness. This too is all too common. Witness how quite reasonable statements such as “I will nominate a black woman” are treated as a form of creating a ridiculous criterion that amounts to favoring someone who cannot distinguish a law book from a J. Crew Catalog. Since I have no clue what a J. Crew Catalog is, I suppose I would also have trouble distinguishing a law book from a J. Crew Catalog. The meanness of the criticism is apparent. From the statement to the criticism involves a regression to meanness. Another criticism was that the statement implies that the majority of people are not qualified to be considered nominess for such a prestigious position. After all, most people are not black women. The meanness is again apparent overlooking two hundred years of racist mistreatment and abusive treatment. Perhaps the white person making that criticism is only three fifths human … or perhaps that is overly generous to someone exhibiting this form of regression to meanness. But it is a reminder of the dark history of racism that many would like to ignore and prevent children from learning. Oh, what a tangled web they weave when first they practice to deceive (my apologies to Sir Walter Scott). By some counts, DJT lied more than 30,000 times during his time as the official resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It is not about just one big lie. It is about 30,000 lies and official government paper documents torn up to get rid of damning evidence. We had eight years, more or less, prior to number 45 but then there was the regression to meanness … not just in the white house but in the dark hearts of so many people I once considered friends and even family. I want to think about things that are central to learning and education but then my mind takes me down that path paved by the regression to meanness … such a dark path shrouded in that tangled web of hate and venom … and it causes me much anger and anguish … anguish because I do not see a movement back to normalcy … the tipping point has passed and the demons are out of the closet … burn the books … lie to our children … don’t let those three fifths people vote … Birmingham Sunday has become the American Mourningday … lest we forget … forget the six million who died … there were good people on both sides … forget all those hangings that were all too common … and forget those children who died that Sunday in Birmingham … this is the land of the free and the home of the brave … at least those who are carrying their AR-15s … oh yes … the “truth” they are telling is just the “truth” that is selling … sold American … sold down the dark drain of hate and bias and the wrongheaded confidence in one’s own infallibility … while the choir keeps singing of freedom. Okay. I will go away and hide … along with all those buried truths … truth crushed to earth will rise again. mike ... cowering in the state of denial called Texas ...

What are we telling our students? (AKA, leaking gray matter)

The standard message we deliver to our doctoral students in Learning Technologies is to identify a gap in the research in an area of interest to them, and then to propose a first step study to address that research gap. Find the gap and do something about it. We are sinking in the gaps and not just gaps in the area of educational research. What other gaps might be addressed, not just in our professional academic lives but in our personal and social lives? As J. Alfred Prufrock says, “I grow old… I grow old… I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.” As someone older than dirt, I am starting to recall the lessons of my youth … lessons so few seem to have learned. For example, there is a passage I recall from Vayikra (Leviticus) in chapter 19 that many repeat: “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself … ” But there seems to be a huge gap between the people a typical person loves so dearly and so clearly (namely, members of one’s immediate family) and one’s neighbors along with those who live in neighboring or distant countries as well as those who seem different from one in terms of color, class, religion, and so many other differentiating factors that allow so many to hate so many others. Love thy neighbor … so often repeated buy so seldom realized. And what captivated my interest for years was the Book of Job … Job … a man from the land of Uz … a man challenged with many adversities who admits that G-d is great but admits that we cannot know Him as Job expresses his despair and lack of understanding for such punishment in return for having been so devoted. And then there is the answer from the Whirlwind asking Job where he was when the foundations of the earth were laid. Indeed, that is the one book in Jewish liturgy that I embrace. The lesson I have taken away is that it is precisely the limitations of our knowledge that makes religious belief possible. The irony is that so many religious people claim to know G-d’s mind. And then the notion of origins of the universe comes to mind … namely, the big bang theory … a notion about how the universe began. And it is so in line with opening of Berasheet (the Book of Genesis) … in the beginning there was chaos and the void … things beyond our understanding … and it is also in line with Aristotle’s reasoning that there had to be a first cause because it was impossible for humans to understand an infinite regress of causes … a couple thousand years later came the big bang theory where our reasoning and understanding comes to a halt, as noted in the opening of the first book of those five books of Moses. There are limits to our understanding and our knowledge. As O. K. Bouwsma noted in an unpublished journal, it would be a remarkable coincidence if the limits of his imagination happened to coincide with the limits of reality. Or, as Wittgenstein noted in the Tractatus that it is not mysterious how things are in the world (our experience and science informs us about how things are, at least when we are willing to listen and learn) but what is mysterious is that there is anything at all … it is beyond our understanding. And yet so few people seem to admit the limits of their knowledge and understanding and have wrongheaded confidence in so many of their beliefs, as Bouwsma so often reminded us. And I stumbled into classical scepticism in my studies and Sextus Empiricus’ Outlines of Pyrrhonism with one of the basic principles being that different impressions come from different sources which is a cause of withholding judgment … but so few are so often reluctant to withhold judgment … and then Edgar Allan Poe asks the raven if there is balm in Gilead … and the raven answers with the one word it can utter – nevermore. What can we change. The poet laureate says it “was never my intention to remake the world at large” and he reminds us of our duty when we see a neighbor carrying something to help him with his load. And T. S. Eliot has the Rock remind us that “The desert is not remote in southern tropics, The desert is not only around the corner, The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you, The desert is in the heart of your brother.” Hello neighbor … what gaps do you see … gaps between the have lots and those who have a lot less … gaps between love and hate … between disdain and respect … between ignoring and searching … between I and thou … so many gaps … so little time … having taken a bite of that apple,what I really want to understand is why we must imagine Sisyphus happy. I close with Wittgenstein’s Tractatus 7 – “what we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.” These remarks leaked out of aging gray matter … hush my mouth and bite my fingers.