KVB: Whoever Wins, We Lose

Written by Gary Whittaker


Whilerepparttar rest ofrepparttar 125944 world watches, Americans will be voting on November 2 to either re-elect George Bush, or John Kerry. You can be sure that as citizens ofrepparttar 125945 earth, we all have a vested interest inrepparttar 125946 outcome of this election. The most powerful nation inrepparttar 125947 history ofrepparttar 125948 planet is at war with terror, and terrorist organizations. This war started in New York City, onrepparttar 125949 infamous date of September 11th, and has now gone from Afghanistan to Iraq. Iran and her peoples are especially concerned, as they are most likelyrepparttar 125950 next targets ofrepparttar 125951 Bush administration. Slogans like "Vote or Die" are being shouted across that nation. The nation is almost equally divided, as history threatens to repeat itself afterrepparttar 125952 Bush-Gore controversy in Florida. Kerry has vowed not to let that happen again, but how could he possible prevent that from happening? And if he does becoming elected, will America, much lessrepparttar 125953 World, actually become a safer place?

The main thing about Bush is, you know what you get. He is a puppet on a string. A sock with a face painted on. A nothing. A nobody. His handlers and party leaders tell him what to say, whilerepparttar 125954 corporations that have bidrepparttar 125955 highest get to dictate foreign and domestic policy. But you know that, or at least you know whatrepparttar 125956 outcome will be as a result of his re-election. The Americans will continue to wage war. The gap betweenrepparttar 125957 haves, andrepparttar 125958 have-nots will widen. Jobs will be shipped to other countries. Nothing new. The same asrepparttar 125959 last 4 years. Ifrepparttar 125960 Americans didn't complain enough then, there is no reason to believe they will complain much louder atrepparttar 125961 end of another 4 years. The flip side to this is control. George Bush will maintain control ofrepparttar 125962 people. Money is power forrepparttar 125963 republicans, not opinion. There is no money is losing control over your country. Should people start takingrepparttar 125964 law into their own hands, they will be punished quickly, and severely. Bush would stop anarchy from spreading.

The Conundrum of World Improvement

Written by Martin Winer


The Conundrum of World Improvement Suppose today, your deity spoke to you and said:

“From this day forward, your job shall be to contemplaterepparttar problems ofrepparttar 125943 world. I will give you immortality for as long as you need to think and come up with a solution. During this time, you will live comfortably and be able to dedicate yourself to this quest. Atrepparttar 125944 end of your planning, you will return to exactly this day with infinite powers for a finite period to implement your solution. After this period, your solution will be ‘turned off’ andrepparttar 125945 world will only haverepparttar 125946 memory of that experience.”

Attempt 1 -- Turn All Weapons into Bananas This solution will turn all weapons into bananas. That’s right all of them. You’ll have Magnum banana’s right down to nuclear bananistic submarines. After all, how much can you hurt someone with a banana? If you try to use appendages (hands, feet, etc), they too will temporarily be turned into a banana (small mushy ones, not big firm ones). No weapon will be left on this earth that isn’t turned into a banana. After a certain period, people will learn to resolve their differences other ways.

Comedic Connundrum This will immediately lead to an oversupply of bananas, leading to a life imitating art situation whererepparttar 125947 “Planet ofrepparttar 125948 Apes” ensues, with your mission failed.

The Real Connundrum – What is a weapon? The real problem is: What is a weapon? Sure a gun is clearly a weapon and so too is a bow and arrow, but what about a knife? What about your common garden stone? Remember that historically, stones were used as a form of execution. So what is a weapon after all? A weapon is a technology or object married torepparttar 125949 intention ofrepparttar 125950 user.

From one ofrepparttar 125951 first parables ofrepparttar 125952 use of technology, we learn that technology is neverrepparttar 125953 problem; it’s our use of technology. The stone that was used to slay Abel could easily have also been a stone used to build a house for his brother.

Attempt 2 -- Turn All devices used as a weapon into a Banana Great well, now we’ve solved it. If someone picks up a stone and uses it to try and attack another person, artificially intelligent software that monitors all objects in real time will detectrepparttar 125954 imminent attack and turnrepparttar 125955 device into a banana moments beforerepparttar 125956 attack occurs. This way we can still have rock gardens without having to worry about being stoned anymore, unless we smoke herbs fromrepparttar 125957 rock garden.

Possible enhancement: Change objects into random food items If we changerepparttar 125958 objects used in a violent attack into random food items, we solve two world problems with one stroke: violence and hunger. It is said, “man will not rebel on a full stomach”. Now, should man grow hungry, angry and rebellious and take objects into hand with which to rebel,repparttar 125959 objects will be turned into food items in that second and quellrepparttar 125960 rebellion instantaneously.

Problem: Are all weapons physical items? With our revised banana scheme, we can eliminate physical violence in this world; That is, at least, open direct combat. However, this presupposes that all violence is physical.

Stalking Inrepparttar 125961 hands of a stalker, a telephone can be a weapon. What algorithm shall we now use? If one person calls another more than 3 times with that person hanging up on them,repparttar 125962 phone shall then turn into a banana? This algorithm becomes increasingly complex very quickly.

Demographic War What about a demographic war? When people realize that they can’t defeat their enemies with weapons, they may realize that they can outbreed them. By out breeding them, they may maintain a majority onrepparttar 125963 planet whereby they can wield political, and numerical supremacy. What do we propose to turn into bananas here? I shudder, as a man, to answer.

Political Battles What about political battles whereby one party seeks to destroyrepparttar 125964 life or career of another person? What of slander? We can’t turnrepparttar 125965 press nor words into bananas.

The real problem – It’s not justrepparttar 125966 use of technology, it’srepparttar 125967 intention The real problem with allrepparttar 125968 proposed solutions is that they look at material solutions torepparttar 125969 problem. The problem isn’t with objectsrepparttar 125970 problem is to do with intention. Objects are just one of many methods we use to actualize our intentions. Ifrepparttar 125971 fault lies in our intentions, then we must research ways in which our intentions can be prevented from gettingrepparttar 125972 best of us.

Attempt 3 -- The Intention Buster Recall that we are given an unlimited amount of time to solve this problem. Thus we can devise very sophisticated systems to use in our solutions. What if we research and develop a device which interfaces withrepparttar 125973 human mind and detects negative intentions?

Take for example a child who plays with a magnifying glass, and discovers thatrepparttar 125974 sun focused on a banana peel (there are a mysteriously large number of them about, for some unknown reason), causesrepparttar 125975 peel to burn. The child has been burnt before and realizes this is an unpleasant sensation. Suddenly an ant passes by andrepparttar 125976 child is curious to see what would happen torepparttar 125977 ant, realizing that it might be unpleasant forrepparttar 125978 ant, but not completely sure of exactly what will happen. Suddenly, his/her hand will be prevented from moving just asrepparttar 125979 sun is about to be focused fatally onrepparttar 125980 ant. The ant will crawl away safely, but will our future?

How do we learn about intentions andrepparttar 125981 effects of our intentions? The problem with this solution is that when we turn off our solution,repparttar 125982 child who was unable to fryrepparttar 125983 ant, hasn’t gained any insight as to why this is a wrong action. The child never got to seerepparttar 125984 ant turn into smoke and imagine what that may feel like. S/He never hadrepparttar 125985 opportunity to complete this action and possibly feel remorse. The child never hadrepparttar 125986 experience to develop empathy and only knew that s/he was prevented from taking this action. Thus when this solution is turned off,repparttar 125987 child, perhaps an adult by now, never had a chance to learn aboutrepparttar 125988 consequences of intentions because those intentions were prevented externally. So when this solution is turned off, we return to a world inrepparttar 125989 state it was at best, however, likely much worse than it was.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use