Random thoughts/comments

[confused2]

Hm. Z. had to eat marge because his family were poor. My family was relatively well off and we had to eat butter. As rediscovered recently butter becomes inert when kept in the fridge so it had to live in a butter dish kept (presumeably) somewhere regarded as cool. In reality the cool place wasn't cool enough and the butter served up was frequently rancid so I'm not a butter fan.
There's an element of what tastes good depends on how hungry you are. As an impoverished student I found you could buy half a bucket full of margarine for next to nothing and (being hungry) it turned almost anything into a feast.

Mrs C2 does buy spread from the fridge butter (marge substitute) - maybe it is cheaper than marge - probably not but I have learned not to ask questions about the supply and catering side of things.

While you can make marge out of practically anything it is possible that some qualities of tractor oil and old tyres might seep through into the final product. The upmarket stuff comes from clearings slashed and burned in the virgin rain forests of the world and is much nicer. Maybe they put cattle in first (butter) and the marge comes later. Probably best not to know.

[confused2]

Jab #2 yesterday. No bad effects at all. The jab was painless so I think I must have had a faulty jabber for Jab #1.

[Zinjanthropos]

Jab #2 yesterday. No bad effects at all. The jab was painless so I think I must have had a faulty jabber for Jab #1.

That’s great C2. I’m now 32 days since my first. How long did you wait between shots?

[C C]

Jab #2 yesterday. No bad effects at all. The jab was painless so I think I must have had a faulty jabber for Jab #1.

That’s great C2. I’m now 32 days since my first. How long did you wait between shots?

Unless my memory is playing severe tricks... A heck of a lot longer than the 3 weeks for Pfizer or the 4 for Moderna. They must at least have the 6-week interval for AZ in Canada if you're past the 28-day mark.

It's not a bad thing to experience ill effects from the 2nd-shot (as long as it's not allergy, etc related). But not something heavily expected since the immune system usually declines after the introductory 50s phase of qualifying as a senior.

Government of the United Kingdom decided to leave a 12-week interval between doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/article...preferable

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I received my first shot (Pfizer) at the start of February by going to a Native American clinic. Some of those (if not all) are distributing vaccine to everyone now. May have been doing that back then, too -- it just wasn't a light bulb that dawned on me at the time since so many members of certain tribes are interracial, anyway. Rarely a "Wazzall these white and Black people doing in here as patients?" that might come to an accompanying visitor's mind even before the pandemic era.

[Zinjanthropos]

Don’t know why but I was thinking about AI the other day. I was wondering how AI would answer a rhetorical question. Like ‘what is the meaning of life’ or queries of that nature that have no real answer. How in the devil does one program opinionated expression into a machine? Is it even possible? Will we be able to debate AI or will our language have to change to accommodate AI?

[C C]

Don’t know why but I was thinking about AI the other day. I was wondering how AI would answer a rhetorical question. Like ‘what is the meaning of life’ or queries of that nature that have no real answer. How in the devil does one program opinionated expression into a machine? Is it even possible? Will we be able to debate AI or will our language have to change to accommodate AI?

There are people online reminiscent of even lesser bots. If AI advancement has achieved their level, or that of those who miss their meds, or those who are intoxicated... then a lower tier of human standards was potentially attained.
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Can AI-powered robots have a point of view?:

[...] Piotr Mirowski ... and his colleague are the creators of A.L.Ex, an improv-performing AI system. He hosts a two-“person” show starring himself and A.L.Ex performing improv together.

Mirowski programmed A.L.Ex using a dataset comprised of millions of pieces of dialogue from movies, films, novels and TV. It picked up different phrases and language and learned how to piece together a response from the millions of previously recorded responses contained in its “memory.” It learns from every interaction it has during its improv shows and continues to hone its algorithm to more accurately replicate human speech.

I’ve watched some videos of their show, Human-Machine Live!, and well, as an improv performer, I can say the improv is terrible. A lot of what A.L.Ex says in response to Piotr’s lines are non-sequiturs that don’t advance the scene or resemble any sort of basic understanding of “Yes, and.” But that’s not really the point. As with all software, this program will eventually get better and will be able to have an interesting, life-like conversation.

[...] In its simplest form, a “point of view” is a set of perspectives and deep-seated beliefs that together help to form a person’s opinions. Even if you’re not an improv performer, your “point of view” is visible every time you have a conversation.

When it comes to communicating, thinking about one’s point of view is a helpful way to prepare a person to speak about a topic, especially if he or she doesn't have a lot of time to prepare a script or plan remarks. Having a firm grasp of one’s opinions and perspectives on a topic will help guide a speaker to communicate his or her thoughts in an organized way.

This brings us back to the question at hand: Can robots have a point of view? The answer is unclear. Some scientists are looking into ways to program certain ethics or values into an AI robot’s coding. The idea is that if AI shares our values, the decisions it makes autonomously will have been generated through a process that takes into consideration the same things that a human would care about.

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Similar to worship of idols or animals in archaic days, it still doesn't take much to convince us that something non-human has the answers...

https://www.scivillage.com/thread-10159.html

[stryder]

At the core of language is syntax, which in turn can be defined as mathematics. For instance a simple sum:

2 + 2 = 4

We have the syntax and the mathematics to create the result to the equation. The result in this form is empircal (It's absolute), it's only when we substitute the values for algebra variables to make a formula that we can then potentially have different results.

At the root of an Artificial Intelligence Construct is going to be formula's that attempt to create a result. Originally the problem with most AI was it was limited to using Single Core systems with a single thread, which meant it was limited in what result it would give.

As our computers have become more powerful and people have developed more Neural Networking and Parallel Processed implimentations, it's possible to have the same input applied through multiple variations of formula and then equate "common denominators" as fuzzy logic from the collective results.

The main problem that we have though for the answers to the meaningful questions is the very same thing that Douglas Adams considered when he coined the result of "42". The very nature of how the question is handled would be so different from our perception and "gutt feeling" that we would not either understand the answer, or even the makeup of question (the formula that derived the answer).

[C C]

Jab #2 yesterday. No bad effects at all. The jab was painless so I think I must have had a faulty jabber for Jab #1.

That’s great C2. I’m now 32 days since my first. How long did you wait between shots?

Unless my memory is playing severe tricks... A heck of a lot longer than the 3 weeks for Pfizer or the 4 for Moderna. They must at least have the 6-week interval for AZ in Canada if you're past the 28-day mark.

[...] Government of the United Kingdom decided to leave a 12-week interval between doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/article...preferable [...]

UPDATE: The dose gap conundrum: UK reduces gap between 2 vaccine doses after India increases
https://www.newsx.com/national/the-dose-...eases.html

INTRO: In light of the detection of Indian variant of Covid-19, which is officially called B.1.617.2, in countries such as South Africa, Brazil and others, UK has decided to accelerate its vaccination drive and reduce the gap between two vaccine doses. In a press conference held on Friday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the time period between two vaccine doses for above 50s and clinically vulnerable will be reduced to 8 weeks, rather than 12 weeks. He emphasised that UK is “likely to face some hard choices” that can pose “significant distruption’ to easing the lockdown.

UK’s decision to reduce the waiting time between two vaccine doses comes at a time when India has gone ahead to extend the gap between 2 doses of Covishield from 4-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks for better results, thereby raising questions on the efficacy and logic behind the difference.

It is also speculated that the Indian government’s decision to extend the gap between two vaccine doses is to mask and cope with the vaccine shortage in the country. Several states have reported a shortage of Covid-19 vaccine while several vaccine centres have been shut, causing inconvenience to the general public, who have been trying hard to secure a vaccine appointment as soon as possible... (MORE)

[confused2]

Me (UK) - jab #1 Feb 21st, jab #2 May 9th. We have a rather complex calendar system (why not have 100 days in a year?) but I make that about 10 weeks.

Added
Of about 100 people visible in the departure lounge only 1 was conspicuously BAME when there should be around 5%+.

[C C]

[...] Of about 100 people visible in the departure lounge only 1 was conspicuously BAME when there should be around 5%+.

It's curious that the police have a national, ethnic identity code system. Seems to make it effectively opaque to the concerned parties as to how they're being classified in that way. Though that depends on if officers use it for verbal reports over the radio, too, not just written documentation.

The US apparently uses race/ethnicity codes, but they're not universal. They can potentially vary by region and city. The San Jose Police Department, for instance, once had it this way:

A=Asian American ... B=African American ... H=Hispanic ... I=Native American ... O=Other ... P=Pacific Islander ... S=Middle Eastern/East Indian ... W=White

That single-letter simplicity seems far too revealing and easy for sensitive residents to remember, compared to the UK codes.