Bot tricks people into thinking it is human – Artifical Intelligence at last? Nope, I’m skeptical

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I’ve tripped over an interesting little snippet in New Scientist where there is a claim that some software called Cleverbot has passed one of the key tests of artificial intelligence: the Turing test. Now before we proceed, lets clarify what this test actually is. It was introduced by Alan Turing (hence the name) in his … Read more

Simply Evil

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We will of course encounter numerous 9/11 comments and opinions for what are fairly obvious reasons. For me, personally, one of the simplest and clearest is the article in Slate by Christopher Hitchens. He nails it with two words … “Simply Evil” …

A decade after 9/11, it remains the best description and most essential fact about al-Qaida.
The proper task of the “public intellectual” might be conceived as the responsibility to introduce complexity into the argument: the reminder that things are very infrequently as simple as they can be made to seem. But what I learned in a highly indelible manner from the events and arguments of September 2001 was this: Never, ever ignore the obvious either. To the government and most of the people of the United States, it seemed that the country on 9/11 had been attacked in a particularly odious way (air piracy used to maximize civilian casualties) by a particularly odious group (a secretive and homicidal gang: part multinational corporation, part crime family) that was sworn to a medieval cult of death, a racist hatred of Jews, a religious frenzy against Hindus, Christians, Shia Muslims, and “unbelievers,” and the restoration of a long-vanished and despotic empire.

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Debating Evolution with the crazies – Hints and Tips

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If, like me, you engage in on-line discussions with theist crazies, then you will know that at some point Evolution will pop up. It is usually unexpected (but not always), for example yesterday when engaged in a debate with an Islamic fanatic about the existence of God (which is usually a claim that is some variation of one of the three famous arguments, the Cosmological, the Teleological, or the Ontological) we suddenly take a left-hand turn and Darwin pops up which then leaves all the non-believers thinking, “WTF, where did that come from?“, and soon we were buried in heaps of anti-evolution quotes.

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Famous Evangelist Counters Atheist Article … with silly nonsense.

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Al Stefanelli, who is the Georgia State Director of American Atheists, Inc, recently wrote an article entitled, “On Morals: Why Atheism Trumps Christianity,”. It’s a great article, I recommend it … but that is not why I’m blogging, it’s the response to this that has caught my attention. The Christian Post asked evangelist and bestselling author Jason Frenn to respond, and so of course this being the Christian Post and Jason being a famous evangelist, we can expect a well-reasoned, truly rational and robust reply, right? Yes, you guessed correctly, the correct answer is “No” OK, you can stop laughing now. Ah but wait, perhaps not, “Bestselling Author” … “Famous Evangelist” … ??? … I’ve never heard of him, and can’t find anybody who has, so I have a quibble with both of those claims, so you can carry on laughing after all.

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Chruch of Ireland Priest causes shock by entering into a formal Gay partnership

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The news is that Rev Tom Gordon, a Church Of Ireland Anglican priest, has formally entered  into civil partnership with his boyfriend of 20 years, and has also received the full support of his bishop, the Rt Rev Michael Burrows. Now normally when a couple get together it is not public news to anybody except their friends who wish them well, so why is this an exception? I need not explain, you all know, and are all familiar with the anti-gay rhetoric that is very pervasive amongst many shades of belief.

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