June 2008 Archives

The military lies

If you're male, live in the United States, and are between the ages of 16-25, you have definitely received a phone-call or some other form of obnoxious solicitation attempting to get you to join the military.

Don't get me wrong, there are cases (though very few) where war is justified -- but the U.S. hasn't met these cases for along time (at least, not in my lifetime). If you're in the lower-classes, then this problem becomes two-fold:

1. Fighting for "freedom" or "your country" is the right thing to do.
2. The military will pay for your school, plus a bonus signing offer.

These are lies.

The fight for "freedom"

Everyone has an inclination to fight for something higher than themselves,everyone wants to fight for a greater good than themselves.
Unfortunately, the military, any military (with the exception of a few extreme scenarios) feeds an idea of defense. In the United States, this is the defense of freedom and liberty.

In Iraq (as is our current dilemma) this defense is of your country and your family's lives. In Iraq, you or someone you know has lost a life, a home, a job, or their dignity to violent "Americans." Though we don't intend this to be the case, sadly it becomes the case: in war people die. The blame of course, will be shifted around, but in the end, it is your fault. As an invading party getting into or supporting the fighting, you hold the blame. Their perception is actually reality.

Iraqi sectarian violence is only the result of  a U.S.presence that creates and catalyzes an uneasiness about those forced into power. It exemplifies the differences and causes war. These people can't go outside without the fear that their head will be separated from their body, that they may never see their children again.

Insurgents do not fight because they fear their own deaths, for why would they commit a suicidal act? No, it isn't the fault of their fear, but a fear of their children and family. They believe that this is the only way to protect their lives and as long as the US remains committed to its war of terror, they are right.

Well, before I begin this post, let me first fill everyone in on my new academic pursuits. Namely, Cognitive Science at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. For those not in the know, (like everyone I met from Syria, and numerous others here in Utah) Cognitive Science is the study of the mind that combines the main streams of linguistics, philosophy, computational science, and psychology. One of the main pursuits is building a computational model of the mind: AI (artificial intelligence). Along with this, I'm hoping to add the little biology experience I have in order to progress this field.

With all this in mind, I've been thinking a lot about our definitions of artificial intelligence lately. You see, one of the greatest problems of artificial intelligence is that we probably won't know we have it when we do. The problem of cognitive definition isn't new either; one of the greatest issues in ethics is abortion, and this stems mostly from when a fetus becomes a "child." I'm not going to make a political statement on this issue, but only use it as an example.

The reason this is such an issue stems from our current computing capabilities. That is to say, we may have stumbled upon a road to artificial intelligence; an indefinite singularity -- and not even know it! I was speaking to some Google employees, and a discussion came up on whether or not datamining  is one of the "senses" of the artificial intelligence. They told me (and I'm not going to name names here) that there is a running rumour that the google servers may reach its own singularity in the next 15 years.

Just stuff I've been thinking about. Let me know what you think in the comments.

So, on this fateful day, I have installed a CMS system. This will make it easier to manage biolyrics, and hopefully allow posts to go up more quickly. Also, Comments, FTW.

Let me know your thoughts.


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