In Convivium I warn that AI threatens our humanity almost as much if it does work as it threatens humanity if it runs amok.
“How come dumb stuff seems so smart while you’re doing it?”
Dennis the Menace, quoted in NCC Overview Winter 2002
In BOE Report I say if climate science really is settled, it want predictions ahead of time not rationalizations after the fact.
“The person who is really in revolt is the optimist, who generally lives and dies in a desperate and suicidal effort to persuade other people how good they are.”
G.K. Chesterton in the introduction to The Defendant
“It’s not what you are; it’s what you don’t become that hurts."
Oscar Levant, quoted as "Thought du jour" in Globe & Mail August 30, 2001
“I can honestly say my respect for you has never been higher.”
Dogbert (to Dilbert, scornfully) in Dilbert in Ottawa Sun July 19, 1996
In my latest Loonie Politics column I critique the New York Times and similar outlets for saying Benjamin Netanyahu couldn’t win the Israeli election, then that he wasn’t winning, and then that he only won because Israeli voters are horribly right wing, and instead tell their readers why Netanyahu, Trump and others appeal to so many people who don’t read the New York Times.
“The general rule which we have now pretty well established among them is that in all experiences which can make them happier or better only the physical facts are ‘Real’ while the spiritual elements are ‘subjective’; in all experiences which can discourage or corrupt them the spiritual elements are the main reality and to ignore them is to be an escapist.”
C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters.