la vitesse de la lumière

Every once in a while I come across a writer that really makes me appreciate my capacities as  a reader. There I'll be, somewhere between point A and B, my nose in a book,  reading a line over and over again, wondering if they think they're as gifted as I do. Have you gotten to anything by Asimov yet? I, Robot is a brilliant place to start.

Figure one

For a summery of the film, please see figure one.
I've just finished I, Robot for the second time in my life and the vindication I feel for picking it back up is one part nostalgia, one part, mommy wow--I'm a big kid now...and two more parts the-math-necessary-to-complete-the-pie.

Merci, Norman

I, Robot was on my summer reading list as a non-mandatory option going into my Freshmen year of high school. It pleases the grown-up geek me to know that I arrived at that choice on my own. 
Color me smug as fuck. 

Most people are familiar with the three laws of robotics:

The reader in fact learns them at the onset. The book itself is a collection of short stories which present  stand-out cases in robot psychology looked back upon at the twilight of a note-worthy career. Easily one of the best framing stories I've encountered.
It's a trick I've seen done well two other occasions in the Angle of Repose and the Commissar Cain series. As a concept it's what you'd expect--interviewer/narrator high jacking the 3d person perspective from time to time to feed us background and other tidbits not arrived at through the primary source who is in this amalgamation, the female protagonist, Dr. Susan Calvin.
Now Susan is an amazing woman who is  seventy-five years wise and a little incredulous that this interview is worthy of her time. We find out in the the introduction that she was born in 1982, the same year as I and also the same year US Robotics, the enterprise Susan works for, was formed.
Back at the tender age of barely 14-- if I noted the year of her birth at all--I likely just thought it normal that a successful women at the top of her field in experimental robopsychology would be born 32 years after 1950, when the book was first published. But Asimov had no reason to think that.

And honestly, neither did I.

As kick-ass as she is, there are problems with the way Dr Calvin is portrayed. She lacks the common soical graces of successful persons and is far more abrasive than someone who specializes in the psychology of others ought be.

"She was a frosty girl, plain and colorless who protected herself against a world she disliked by a mask-like expression and a hypertrophy of intellect."  

A lot of fun, that Sue.
Or how about this repartie between two of her colleagues:

"She's qualified isn't she?" demanded the general with a sudden frown of uneasiness. "Yes." Bogart seemed amused. "She's qualified alright. She understands robots like a sister--comes from hating humans so much, I think. It's just that psychologist or not she's an extreme neurotic. Has paranoid tendencies. Don't take her too seriously." 

Yeah, she was a bit annoyed about robots without serial numbers being modified to bend the First Law. Don't mind her...bitches be crazy.
In the end of that tale she ends up being in complete control of the situation and right on all accounts. When drawn in contrast to the only other adult woman in the book--a person nothing more than frivolous and cruel-- Susan looks every bit the genius that she is. It is because of this that I don't think Asimov was intending to show her in a sexist light. I think this is more a reflection of his supposition that to be a succeful woman in a white man's world, one must embody the more unsympathetic aspects of what is commonly considered masculine.

Right back at you, Madam Secretary

But let's give this man his cred, he invented the term robotics and beyond that writes prose like a pro. 
Indulge me in just two more direct quotes:

"It was one of Gregory Powell's favorite platitudes that nothing was ever gained from excitement, so when Mike Donovan came leaping down the stairs towards him, red hair matted with perspiration, Powell frowned."

Mike and Gregory are field agents who do wonderful things with testing the laws of robotics in the wild. Or as they say in French,  sur le tas. 

"Kallner, with his baldness glistening, and his dress uniform oddly unsuited for the general mood, began with uneasy directness."   

And remember, although this is fiction and we as a planet are not where he projected we would be at this point in human history, Asimov's pronouncements as to the way robots and AI will have to work to keep us humans safe are held up as the standard expectation for future developments.
For example, a team of researchers are currently working with a robot in Slovenia to determine a functional pain threshold in humans, in the hopes of building robots who can better adhere to the first law. 

As New Scientist's points out, this is a stark violation of Asimov’s first law of robotics, but the scientists behind the study say the point of the study is to better define that rule. After all, how can a robot be expected not to adhere to the law (“a robot may not injure a human being”) if it doesn’t first know the boundary between harmful and harmless? ARTICLE IN FULL. 

 I think we can agree that these points of data make a beautiful line. I recommend this book not just as a cultural touch-stone but also as a damn fine piece of literature. Plus, robots!



Can't get enough of AI? Check out my drunken conversation with Cleverbot.

But look at me still talking when there's science to do. See you when you run out cake!

You have read this article Asimov / Hillary Clinton / Home Alone / I robot / I too am moist / Nicolas Cage / Norman fait des vidéos / Portal / Still Alive / Super Girl / The Simpsons / Will Smith with the title July 2012. You can bookmark this page URL https://trendcelebrity2014.blogspot.com/2012/07/la-vitesse-de-la-lumiere.html. Thanks!

Thankful

I've REALLY been MIA lately-

I've got SO much to write about I'm almost overwhelemed.

Today's small  post is an article I saw on Pinterest that I fell in love with..

I am thankful for the taxes I pay because it means I am employed.

The clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat.

For my shadow who watches me work because it means I am out in the sunshine.

A lawn that has to be mowed, windows that have to be washed and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.

The spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking.

All of the complaining I hear about our government because it means we have freedom of speech.

The lady behind me in church who sings off key because it means that I can hear.

The huge piles of laundry and ironing because it means my loved ones are nearby.

The alarm that goes off in the early morning because it means that I'm alive.

Whether all of these or some of these apply to you, remember we ALWAYS have so many things to be thankful for.



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New England's Daughter

In French, the word for the sea sounds the same as the word for mother. To me that's just one of those coincidences that shouldn't need explaining.

Today in class, like small children all over France, my classmates and I talked about the seasons. Our teacher had us close our eyes and listen to sound clips--they were wonderfully evocative.
A person walking through the leaves, through the snow, bird song, children at a pool; I was all a flutter with nostalgia and love. 

We talked about our senses--the related verbs and nouns. We played with the smart board, touching and making links.

We listened to a director give an interview about her favorite season.

She described blue skys that snap like  young green shoots. You've been there too. It feels rude to try and debase it with language. That deep cold breath you take when all the fall leaves are all the right shades, so close to falling. So alive, so very awake.

Our teacher asked us to close our eyes again and think about the place we were born. 

I stuttered momentarily because I am a child of two States. But I am wholly the daughter of New England. 

Cape Cod, you are my warm memories.
Walks at night. Such darkness, such privilege.
Coyotes and foxes: my friends and betters. Constellations so faithful in their arrangements even charlatans knew they deserve epic tales.
Shooting stars.
                 Every night. 
 Any night you want. After the fireflies, but before the june bugs. 

The beach. Boogie boards.

Playing pickle, sliding in the sand, trying not to get pegged. 

Waves: The science. The music. The salt. 

Feeling waterlogged when I take a deep breath. Remembering my mom calling it that.
The way she'd always take us to a pond around sunset, "To wash up."

My fingers pruned, so much more completely than bath time. 

Sand in my sandwich, sand in my suit. Sand in the car, in my sneakers, in my bed.

Dune surfing with Zack. Sunscreen on my back. 

Taking the boat down the channel, aways away from all the tourists.

Digging holes  with my feet. Letting the water evaporate on my skin. 

Body surfing. 

Fighting the current and failing. 

Sand sharks in the surf. Seaweed in my hair.

Blue, blue, blue is the sky. A crackling blue. 

No clouds. No wind, except sometimes both.
The ocean right before a hurricane, fearsome turbid and shards of stain-glass. 

The shore birds. The seals.
The horseshoe crabs, ugly, ancient and immobile--being dressed up by children.

My hair when it's bleach by the sun, hard crusty and tasting of salt.

The freckles I can't escape. 

The final shake out my towel.

Putting my foot through the last sand castle standing,
Bidding the tide take the rest.

Southern Vermont, you are my cold memories.
Checking the sugaring lines--that first time you go out collecting. 
Stars as you've never seen them. Clear cold, dead or dying. Corn fields in the moonlight. Pumpkins and gords in every shade of sunshine.

The smell of the cows, of the sheep, of the hens. 

How feral now, cat--on my lap? 
              Here, you purr.

A flat palm with an apple, a gratified horse. 

A old Holstein named Tony. 

Too heavy for one hand, the hay.

The last harvest. 

Sugar on snow. 

Two, three four steps from the door--shin deep and not even a drift. 
Icicles like cave formations, dangerous and thrilling.

All children with snow suits slide like penguins in the end. 
Lay on your belly and lick the ice.

Down hills in twos on plastic, brace your feet for that fence--painted white and white again, last summer--such a long way from now.

Gloves when they work, mittens when they don't.

The clouds parting to illuminate a clearing high along the other side of the valley. Making you think of old paintings, and of god. 

Mud season. When the river runs thick again. The first melt. 

The first growth, soft and promising--all the way back to the first frost--

Crystals on the pumpkins, their blossoms becoming earth.

Letting your cup of syrup cool in the snowbank before you drink it down, gulp after gulp. 

Heading home wet, smelling like smoke.

You have read this article Alive / Cape Cod / Chatham / Exception reality / Kid Cudi / Okay guy / Rage Comics / ratatat / snow / Sugar on Snow / the moon / the stars / The Summer / Vermont with the title July 2012. You can bookmark this page URL https://trendcelebrity2014.blogspot.com/2012/07/new-england-daughter.html. Thanks!

I've been MIA!

I've felt so MIA in the blogging world lately.

With Spencer being home FULL TIME we've been so busy! I feel like I'm still trying to catch up on so many different things.

Here is an update of life via my iphone...

Got an awesome pair of leopard print pants..

Went to Desert Star Playhouse with Spencer, Jeff and Natalie to see Adam's Family Home Evening.

Went to Magic Mike with Kiersten, and Boating with the whole crew- JnK's Family and of course, little Luke. Who can now point to me when we ask where Aunt Mimi is.

Accomplishment.

Ate Gourmet Hot Dog on a Stick before seeing Bernie with Jeff and Spencer. Horrible movie if you are wanting to see it I highly recommend you change your mind.

Went with Spencer to Eaglewood Fireworks on July 3rd which is pretty much Bountiful Tradition..

We tried the new BBQ Trailer in Bountiful- I liked it a lot.

This also crossed an item off of our Summer Bucket List!

We went to Oakridge Fireworks on the 4th of July which is Brockbank tradition for an all you can eat dinner and Fireworks. Spencer bought me a new pair of boat shoes to wear to fireworks- what a sweetheart!

There's a quick update on the last two weeks..

We are OFFICIALLY leaving in the morning to go to Seattle to stay with my sister-in-law Natalie and her family- I am SO EXCITED!

Pictures to come when we are home.

Have a great weekend and HAPPY FRIDAY!

You have read this article JosHnKiki / summer / update with the title July 2012. You can bookmark this page URL https://trendcelebrity2014.blogspot.com/2012/07/i-been-mia.html. Thanks!