March 31, 2008
In political elections, we sometimes see religious differences negatively impacting political hopefuls. In my opinion, if Mitt Romney wasn’t a Mormon but Baptist or Protestant or even Catholic, he would be the republican candidate. Barack Obama is having campaign problems because he is accused of racial divisiveness based on his church affiliation. Buddhists, Hindus and especially Muslims have little to no chance of being elected in this country. Electing John F. Kennedy (a Catholic) for president in 1960 was a milestone for religious tolerance in this country but we have made little progress since.

Why does religion need to be so important in politics? It is probable that the origins of religion emerged out of the need for communal cooperation, and by bonding around a mythological framework this was achieved. Today in America, some may see this method of communal structure as an imposition. With all the different cultures and religions in our country it is hard to believe that religious affiliation can hold so much weight when selecting a candidate. We seem unable to get past the old clan mentality.

Is ethical behavior more prevalent in religious people compared to people who are not? I doubt it. Of course we need ethical behavior from our politicians, but in my opinion no more then any other service person. Think about car mechanics, plumbers, building contractors all being scrutinized through the same moral prism we put our politicians through. For example, imagine that your home heating unit is broken and you find a service person who is reasonably priced and very reliable but goes to a church you find suspect. Okay, move to the next person. This person cheated on his wife. Move to the next person. This person used racial slurs. Move to the next person and the next person always uncovering an ethical indiscretions or some character flaw. Is risking you and you family’s health worth the ethical commitment? In day to day business people don't do this because it makes little sense; we just want the job done.

Why is it so different when it comes to choosing our politicians? It is my opinion that we cheat ourselves out of good public servants because too often we apply irrelevant judgments.

Minsky points out that the mind uses a necessary fiction to provide a sense of self. This could be why religion is actually created in the first place. It makes sense because ideas are always used to pull our thoughts together. If the idea works then it can be used repeatedly even if it is a fiction. I believe a good working fiction is sometimes extended out to our community by the more creative individuals. One day, we may understand why the mind needs such a method to function. When that day comes, maybe we will be more apt to judge a person's real ability to solve a problem instead of his or her ability to make us believe that we all share the same fiction in ways that just don’t matter.
Posted by Dane

March 15, 2008
I figured to get this going, I should introduce myself to those of you who don't know me… I spent most of my life as a musician interested in technology. Piano is my main instrument and passion, so whatever else I do, I will always have one foot on a piano pedal, so to speak. I was trained at Oberlin Conservatory in jazz composition (which I joke is the most useless degree, next to philosophy). We had excellent instructors, but we dubbed the jazz department the 'bald-headed step-child' of the well-known classical conservatory. Things there have changed apparently, but we used to rehearse in a gym. 'Nuff said.

After college, I spent 4 years working with my dad on a music software project at Analog Devices, Inc. My father, Barry Vercoe, wrote a popular audio processsing language called Csound that ADI decided to port to their DSP hardware. During that time, I worked my way from 'demo-guy' to 'project manager', a role I came to despise. I liked slogging away in the audio trenches, not out front doing business development.

However cocky and/or jaded, I turned from that experience to music. I began playing in groups in the Boston area, teaching and recording. I made lots of music I am really proud of, and developed great friendships with incredible musicians. After some time I decided to go back to school, doing graduate work at MIT. This came in part from an increasing interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI), but also a from general desire to develop unique ideas.

Marvin Minsky and my father worked down the hall from each other for years–the two sole Media Lab founders still walking the halls. As a kid, I knew who he was as…I even titled a tune 'Worlds Out of Mind', after a chapter in Society of Mind…because I thought it sounded cool. It wasn't until much later that I realized what he represented. At MIT, I was lucky to meet and befriend some brilliant AI researchers working with Marvin. Although I couldn't grasp all the details of their work, I 'grokked' the concepts and latched on to Common-Sense Reasoning. I felt this was the most important work being done in the field, but sadly it seemed like another neglected baldheaded step-child. Even sadder was the loss of Push Singh, Marvin's exceptional protegé. Soldiering on, I completed my thesis work, prototyping an idea I had to arrange music based on emotion. This work touched on all that had become important to me, the study of music, emotion and the mind.

Lately, I've been doing silent film soundtracks–too much fun to describe in words! Like any film soundtrack, the silent film score conveys emotion and punctuates action and dialog. But since the music is the only sound you get, it must convey everything completely and succinctly. Writing music appropriate for a scene is one thing, but recording it 'to picture' so it feels and looks just right is a real art. Back to music, emotion and the mind… Isn't that what it's all about?
Posted by Scotty

March 8, 2008
Joseph Weizenbaum died March 5th 2008, at 85 years old. Weizenbaum began as someone who would help establish AI but later changed to critic of AI. In particular, Weizenbaum’s critiques interest me because it appears he saw AI technology as a way to become even more dangerously detached from one another.

On youtube I watched, Davos Open Forum 2008 'Virtual Worlds - Fiction or Reality?' This is possibly his last documented public appearance. During this appearance he commented on Second Life, the virtual world where people can interact. Weizenbaum complained that we seem to find ways to remove ourselves from the responsibility we have to one another. He went on to say, 'we have already created a complex world that we have no control over anymore'. As an example he says, 'the programs that do the real work, not games but the actual programming foundation is not understood anymore'.

To me, this next quote from Davos had impact, 'We can create paradise on earth with knowledge we have today'. The humanity in this man is apparent. His earnest statement just a short time before his death forces me to realize that mankind continues to make empty promises for itself.

To me, AI is an important and necessary science to help us become self-consciously aware like never before. I will go on believing, that making objective that which is hidden in our subjective is a good thing. AI can help in this regard. However, I will continue to read and try to understand Joseph Weizenbaum’s warnings. Weizenbaum understood that the truly interesting connections are the connections that we have with one another exposed and natural in the real world. Furthermore, the world in which we each share a history and where all of our senses are available to us. This forces me to question my own interest. Could it be that we are creating yet another level of the ‘subjective’ in which we can further hide from the responsibility we have to each other?
Posted by Dane

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