I Have Wept

I have wept

For how small we really are

How far we have come and how far we have gone

I have wept

For all we have done To one another

And for all we have done For one another

I have wept

For what we will achieve

For what we may not get the chance to attempt

I have wept

For the arrogant and the humble

For freedom and oppression

I have wept

For how little we know

And for how much we want to discover

I have wept

For the hardships overcome and the tradgedies too

Tears of Joy and Sorrow

I have wept for humanity

BE PREPARED 2: Rise of the Machines

When the first nuclear bomb was detonated, Robert Oppenheimer quoted the Bhagavad Gita saying, "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds!" Unless you're Hindu, that's probably the only part of the text you've ever heard. In our time, this is what we learn about one of the fathers of The Nuclear Age. But lost in the shuffle of history to most of us is the quote of Oppenheimer's colleague Kenneth Bainbridge who, upon seeing the awesome and terrible power of what he had helped create, turned to Oppenheimer and said, "Now we are all sons of bitches." Gotta love that quote! Today, computing power doubles ever 18 months... it's the law! "Moore's Law" to be more specific! Circuits and chips get smaller and faster and cheaper... In my life time we went from the floppy diskette (you know, the big black ones that were really floppy) that you needed three of just to play Oregon Trail to external hard drives that you can slip in your pocket and have more space... about 80KB to 1TB in your pocket... look how far we've come! And it's not going to stop! You've maybe heard about "The Singularity"!? The basic idea being that one day, we'll build a computer so fast, and so good that it will be able to design, without the assistance or guidance of a human mind, a better and faster version of itself... the rise of artificial intelligence. The point at which humanity ceases to be of practical importance! And somewhere out there...probably alive today, is the son of a bitch who's going to build/program it! He might just be some little kid, building his first science fair volcano or powering a light bulb with a potato or learning his times tables... but that little son of a bitch will be the end of us all! (Just as a side note...can you tell I've been watching/reading a lot of Terminator franchise oriented material lately?)

The Price of Poon

I have admitted before, and I will do so again here, that I occasionally cruise craigslist looking to get laid! What I've learned from this exercise in futility is that I'm not successful enough, in shape enough, white enough or gay enough to get laid in South Carolina! Very disheartening, I know! But, what I've also learned is that there are a lot of hookers out there! Out of a sense of curiosity I responded to one of those ads and inquired as to the price. ... Fine, I was, at the time, considering paying for it! But I suppose that's what this is all about...the price! Now, one might assume that it was more money than I had (quite possible, I do live check to check), or that it was more money than I was willing to pay (not every prostitute can be Belle de Jour or Julia Roberts) and it doesn't seem worth it to pay a girl to have sex if you don't want to have sex with her. But that wasn't the case! Rather, the price seemed too low! (I KNOW! How is such a thing even possible) Which got me thinking...what is a good price to pay?