Ballot karma - Bangkok Post
Re: "Democrats seize control of Congress, Senate", (World, Nov 5).
Karma is wonderful. President Trump said to vote as though he was on the ballot, and they did!
Will the Republicans learn the lesson and unshackle themselves from the Trumps? Other countries' political parties should look at this with interest.
Re: "Trump congratulates Democrats on midterms", (World, Nov 5).
A few days ago, one could hardly imagine such a headline when President Donald Trump was so civil in defeat -- truly trounced by Democrats, especially in the Senate and in the state of Texas, led by a Democrat.
This brought to mind the US Constitution, following the belief of the French philosopher Baron de Montesquieu in the concept of separation of powers with checks and balances on each power, to the extent that power cannot be supreme or "dictatorial" and not challengeable.
The surprising result proves that no power can be forever supreme in life, and even President Trump admitted that within 24 hours. But true to himself, he said he would use his veto power against any future legislatures he dislikes from the Democratic majority in Congress.
One wonders whether the Gulf of America will return to its original name, the Gulf of Mexico, or whether Lake America will return to Lake Ontario.
Re: "Setting it right", (PostBag, Nov 1) & "China's robot makers shift focus to AI brains", (Business, Nov 3).
The Bangkok Post has a number of recurring items of general interest; Jacques Fortier's letter in PostBag on Sunday tried to set things right regarding the Palestine-West Bank disputes, by intimating that Israelis were not "settlers".
The vast majority of Israel's population arrived en masse after Europe's violent geopolitical settling of age-old disputes early in the 20th century. These displaced peoples were mostly of European origin and were settled, rightly or wrongly, in Palestine by the United Nations. Historically, then, they are settlers.
The Post Business section of Nov 3 gave us insight into China's progression with their humanoid robots; this involves the development of robot brains to give them a human-like intelligence.
This is to speed up robotic skills development and essentially bring in more profit. The main idea is to have robots not driven by computer code, but by common sense. Common sense is a rare attribute; a prime example of its absence would be Donald Trump embarking on a war mission without considering the inevitable consequences.
In every debate about AI, it seems we measure its superior intelligence against our own human sensibilities. We all marvel and wonder at just what is being achieved by computer science, far outstripping our own skills. But it must be realised that there is no comparison between machines and any biological existence on this planet. Super intelligent machines, no matter how super, are different entities that have been created by an Earth-bound biological life form that evolved naturally over so many, many millions of years.
AI machines cannot themselves morph or develop any of the attributes acquired naturally by this planet's biological life, human or otherwise. AI is essentially an entity built on fictional numbers and, as such, has no conscience; it can be logical but devoid of common sense, compassion, and the other human sensibilities we use.
