Leon on Everything

(A previous version of this essay was published here 5 years go) During these past few years (2014-2020), Artificial intelligence has been mentioned a lot in news stories and movies. This was mainly fuelled by the success of one branch of AI known as Machine Learning, and specifically its subbranch Deep Learning (Neural networks). With these successes and naming the technology “Artificial intelligence”, a lot of experts have engaged in a global discussion about its dangers as well as its potential. The most alarmist voices have talked about Terminator scenarios and the risk to the future of global employment, especially when the day that most white-collar work will be automated by these AIs. Billionaires like Elon Musk are funding projects to make AI safe for humanity . Some famous scientists like the late Stephen Hawking have warned us that the end was near with the advent of the thinking machine. Other computer scientists like Ray Kurzweil have talked up the coming of a t...

The crucible of an adult is how they deal with adversity. Life throws all sorts of disappointments and challenges our way. We should accept that as the nature of reality. No one is shielded from trauma. No one is shielded from sadness. We are introduced early on to death and understand that life will end in tragedy, whether we like it or not. We sometimes look at people from the other side of the fence and think, “Wow, they have got it made. They have a better job. They have more money. They have a better-looking girlfriend. They have healthy smart children”. And then look at ourselves and think we have so much less. Yet, we don’t see the adversity that those neighbors might face: death, disease, divorce, losing a job.   A Christian saying is that we should always be thankful for what we have, lest we anger God and see our lives take a turn for the worse. Some might ascribe this Christian thinking to the slave mentality that Nietzsche so railed ab...