Free Speech on Social Media

 

This Land Is Your Land

There was a big, high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said "Private Property"
But on the backside, it didn't say nothing
This land was made for you and me

This Land was made not for you and me as individuals, but for us as a group.

Woody Guthrie wrote the song This Land Is Your Land in response to the philosophy in Irving Berlin’s God Bless America.  In it, he stated his philosophy that there was no such thing as Private Property in the seldom sung fourth stanza.  The problem is that not only is there public property, Our Land, but there is also private property. And public property might also have no trespassing signs.

The fact that you are a member of a group does NOT give you the right to use the property of the group.  And the fact that you are not an owner of private property, means that the owner of that property, not you, can control that property. 

The problem on the Far Right is that those who are controlled from Public Property, think that because they are a member of the public, they have control on that public propety.  E.g. the issue of private grazing on public land.  The problem on the Far Left is that those who are forbidden from private property, insist that there is no Private Property.  E.g. the issue of occupying private spaces.  Both are wrong.

The public can control access to public property, whether it is forbidding grazing on certain public land, or licensing the public airwaves.  Private owners can control who speaks, carries guns, assembles, etc on their property.  Those spaces are private spaces over which the public has no control.  The fact that you were invited into a private space did not change it into a public space.

Thus while you have a right of free speech in public places, X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, etc. are NOT public spaces.  An individual’s public rights have no standing in these private spaces.  Every thing that is not your private property is not public property.  It can be private property owned by another.  And the fact that you are a member of a group does not mean that the group’s property has become your private property.  

And yes, Donald Trump, us, a group, is U.S.  IOW, United we stand, divided we fall! So stop trying to divide us.

Acceptance

 

Smile 

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it's breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through for you 

In other words, say the Serenity Prayer!

The Vinegar Tasters is a traditional subject in Chinese religious painting. The painting depicts the three founders of China's major religious and philosophical traditions: K'ung Fu Tzu, who has been latinized as Confucius; Buddha; and Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism.  

K'ung Fu Tzu has a an expression of resolve, because the vinegar is sour and needs to be dominated, by the following of strict rules. 

The Buddha has a sad expression because vinegar is sour like life, but like life it must be endured. 

Lao Tzu has a smile because he has accepted that vinegar should taste sour like vinegar. 

Smile!

New and Improved!

 

This Old House

Ain't got time to fix the shingles
Ain't got time to fix the floor
Ain't got time to oil the hinges
Nor to mend no window panes
Ain't gonna need this house no longer
I’m gettin' ready to meet the saints

But if it ain’t broke, DON’T fix it!

A basic rule in engineering is “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.  Doctors follow the same instructions in the Hippocratic Oath but it sounds better there,  “First, do no harm”.  Unfortunately beginning with Thomas Watson, Jr., IBM and all tech companies, have been violating these rules.

Tech companies have constantly “improved” their offerings with frequent updates.  While this was supposedly to benefit the users of these programs, all too often it is at the expense of dropping features that were previously included, or putting features that peviously existed behind a pay wall or other “protections”. Also there is always a user cost to these improvements.  There is a learning curve to unlearn the old ways, and learn the new way, of doing things.  The more you know, then the more you have to unlearn, so the cost is borne particularly by long-time users.

Does anyone remember the “New” Coke marketing fiasco of the 1990s.  Coca-Cola corporate honchos though it would be a good ideas to introduce a “New” formula for their soft drink.  There was nothing wrong with the Old Formula.  They just wanted to improve it.  Their customers revolted and forced the reintroduction of Classic Coke and eventually New Coke disappeared.  

I could do without the new upgrades that are made by tech companies where they are forcing their users to accept that it wasn’t broke, but they fixed it anyway.  Thanks for nothing tech companies.  I guess the tech companies had the time because they aren’t “gettin’ ready to meet the saints.”

Christian Nationalists?

 

Onward Christian Soldiers

Onward, Christian soldiers!
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before.

“Christian” soldiers is about as accurate as the “Freedom” Caucus! 

In George Orwell’s novel 1984, there is a warning about the lies that those in charge can use to try to deceive us, such as “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”  The “Freedom” Caucus is more about slavery than freedom, and “Christian” Nationalists are about themselves, not Christ.

Would Christ say that he came to ensure that the laws of the Old Testament were enacted as the law of the Land? I believe that he said that “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven”.  What is important is righteousness, NOT the law. 

If the Christian nationalists say the Rapture is imminent, then how can that be squared with Christ's own words “no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself"?

If we are supposed to turn immigrants away from our border, then isn't that in conflict with the Parable that Christ told of the Good Samaritan?

If we are supposed to eliminate the national debt, bury our wealth,  then how can that be squared with Christ's Parable of the Talents?

Christ would have told the Handmaid’s Tale as a warning, not as a blueprint.

It sounds to me like “Christian” Nationalists are not very Christian, but that sounds so much better than "Satanic" Nationalists.  Not as true, but we are living in the world of "alternative" facts, aren't we.

Flat?

Bare Footin’

Hey little gal with the red dress on
I bet you can barefoot all night long
Take off your shoes and throw them away
Come back and get them another day
We're barefootin', we're barefootin'
We're barefootin', we're barefootin'

 What about Flat- footin’?

To an individual human on the earth, the surface looks flat.  However, this is only because the distances that the individual enounters are probably much smaller than the radius of the Earth.  To an ant on the surface of a beach ball, its surface may also appear flat. But just like the beach ball, the surface of the Earth is actually spherical.  If it WERE flat, then a stick perpendicular to the ground at the equator would cast no shadow at noon, and that same stick at a higher latitude, say London, should also cast no shadow. ( The shadow in London would be shortest at noon, but there would still be a shadow.)  If the Earth were flat, then the highest points (e.g. the mast) of a ship on the horizon would NOT ALWAYS be visible before the rest of the ship.  These, and other apparent paradoxes, can be explained if the Earth is round but can not be explained if the Earth is flat.  Thus the perceptions of an individual are NOT the truth.

It is assumed that space is flat. This, however, is also just an assumption. If the surface of space is hyperbolic, curved, then any conflict betwwen the age and distance of the universe, the Planck Length, the rotation of galaxies, the inflation of the early universe, etc. may all be explainable.  But that requires giving up the perception that the space is flat.  Space may be bare, but that does not mean that it is flat.

AI

 

They All Laughed

They all laughed at Christopher Columbus
When he said the world was round
They all laughed when Edison recorded sound
They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother
When they said that man could fly
They told Marconi
Wireless was a phony

Is AI a laughing matter?

AI is no different than: a written alphabet, the printing press, a camera, or copy and paste.  Each of these were accompanied by social upheavals, so why should we expect AI to be any different. AI is a tool invented by humans to make it easier to tell, process, and preserve stories.

But as a tool it is perhaps misnamed.  IMHO, it should be Artificial INFERENCE, not Artificial INTELLIGENCE.  It is only making inferences from the data that it processes, and it is only as intelligent as those who wrote the algorithms in the AI to do that processing.

So what is the difference between an inference and intelligence?

Before Copernicus, it was inferred that the Sun and the planets revolved about the Earth.

Before Kepler, it was inferred that the planetary orbits were perfect circles, not imperfect ellipses.

Before Wegner, it was inferred that the continents did not drift and that what we observed were the fixed position of the continents.

Before Darwin, it was inferred that life was created and while evolution can destroy species but it can not change them.

Before Einstein, it was inferred that the speed of light could be exceeded.

In each of these and other instances, INTELLIGENCE only means OBSERVATIONS, as in military intelligence, not that the observations, or the inferences from those observations, were intelligent and correct.

And because AI is an inference from observations, anything that was not observed is NOT part of the AI.  If there is confidential or copyrighted information that is being observed, then those inferences otherwise might be theft/a security breach/copyright infringement.  If that protected information, or any information, is being excluded from an AI, it does not mean that it did not happen, just that it was not observed and considered by that AI.

It is important to remember each of these when using AI so that people will be laughing with you and not at you.

 

Moving Pictures

 

Pictures of Lily

And then one day things weren't so fine
I fell in love with Lily
I asked my dad where Lily I could find
He said, "Don't be silly".
"She's been dead since 1929"
Oh, how I cried that night
If only I'd been born in Lily's time
It would have been alright
There were always pictures of Lily to help me sleep at night
Pictures of Lily to help me feel alright

And even better today we have moving pictures of Lily.

Ginger Rogers passed away in 1995. Lauren Bacall passed away in 2014.   Audrey Hepburn passed away in 1993.  But whenever I want, I can see them dancing in “Swing Time”, whistling in “To Have and Have Not”; or eating “Breakfast at Tifanny’s”.  While I was born in their time, you might not have been. While I am still here, thanks to the movies it will always be their time, so it is always alright. And it is more than just their pictures.  It is their moving pictures.  "Mona Lisa" move over, and "Hurrah for Hollywood".