Everyday Junglist
Bio
Practicing mage of the natural sciences (Ph.D. micro/mol bio), Thought middle manager, Everyday Junglist, Boulderer, Cat lover, No tie shoelace user, Humorist, Argan oil aficionado. Occasional LinkedIn & Facebook user
Stories (566/0)
The Importance of Precision in Language
It is generally accepted that for a machine to considered ‘intelligent’ and therefore classified as having ‘artificial intelligence’ it is only required to have a tiny fraction of the ‘intelligence’ of a human being. Nowhere that I have been able to find is this fraction quantified, nor is it suggested how such a thing is to be measured. It is difficult to quantify and measure something which we do not even agree what it is so I can’t be too hard on the AI crowd on that point. However I can and will continue to be hard on the use and abuse of the term and never stop calling out people who use it incorrectly, illogically, incoherently, and/or inappropriately.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Futurism
The I'm Sorry But
Is there anything more disingenuous or less sincere then the “I’m sorry but?” What other four words (three I guess if you consider the contraction “I’m” a single word) allow one to pretend to apologize while at the same time providing the perfect segue for a lecture explaining why one does not actually need to. In fact, in many cases the “I’m sorry buttee” is in for an educating discourse on why they should be the one apologizing. Can we please, as a collective unit of humanity, agree to stop saying this. If I might suggest an alternative, simply withhold the apology until such time as one is actually sorry, and then proceed to apologize in a sincere and meaningful fashion. Save the explanations and caveats for a later date or never. If one is not actually sorry, that is OK too, simply refrain from apologizing as described in the previous sentence. That is all.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Confessions
Man's Childhood Mom Fails To Live Up to Expectations of Current Wife AND On Dating Men with Potential
Not as Useful for Guilt Induced Chore Completion as Imagined Local man Todd Steven’s wife Mary was reportedly very disappointed this week when she learned that the childhood mother of her husband of six years was not the do it all dynamo she had pictured in her head, but rather a slovenly, lazy, do nothing, alcoholic, who mostly sat at home and smoked cigarettes when she wasn’t busy bedding at least half the married men in the small town where he grew up.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Fiction
Local Man Installs Intelligence on His Work Laptop
A historic milestone was achieved today when local man Ted Stevens became the first human person to successfully install intelligence on his work laptop. The installation of intelligence began at exactly 9:02 am EST when Ted clicked on the install.exe icon that was automatically displayed on the screen of his laptop following the insertion of a USB memory stick containing the intelligence into the back of the machine. Five minutes later, at exactly 9:07 am the installation was complete and Ted’s laptop became intelligent. “I didn’t think it would be as easy as all that.” said Mr. Stevens earlier today when reached for comment. “I got a notice last week from the vendor of an instrument I use everyday in the lab that a new software was being released and that I had been selected as a beta trial site. I asked what improvements were being made and that’s when they told me it was now intelligent. I gotta say I was a bit skeptical at first, but then I remembered reading about all the amazing advances in artificial intelligence and how they are everywhere nowadays and just figured we were finally catching up with the rest of the world. When I started the install I guess I was sort of thinking there would be some screaming or moaning or something, sort of like the pangs of childbirth. Instead all I heard was a soft ding signalling the installation was complete and telling me it was safe to remove my USB stick. As soon as it was over I asked the intelligent laptop some questions about philosophy and science that had been bothering me forever thinking it would almost certainly have the answers. No answers came though, and the laptop appeared for all intents and purposes to be exactly as it was prior to becoming intelligent. They told me this thing was educated at the best machine learning institutions in the world, but this is all I get?” At that point he sighed softly, looked down sadly at his newly intelligent laptop and hit the power off button once sending the intelligence into sleep mode. “Oh well, I guess I’ll just never understand how this artificial intelligence stuff works” This reporter was unable to obtain any comment from the intelligence itself as it has no mouth with which to give answers, or body to contain a mouth, or ability to understand questions.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Fiction
Climate Change and Human Evolution
Author's preface: This was originally published in 2017 but still rings true today. The debate I read a brief exchange about the climate change debate this morning and it got me thinking all day about the topic. One of the questions that I kept returning to in my mind related to how humans and every other species on the planet will or will not adapt to the new environmental conditions that climate change will quite probably impose across much of the globe. For other species the answer is fairly obvious I think, they will either adapt or they will perish. As has been the case throughout all of earth’s history evolution through natural selection requires that those with the traits that are best adapted to reproduce will do so and so pass them on, especially when pressed by changes in the environment. Some have argued that the changes we are seeing or will soon see as a result of climate change are occurring too rapidly for many species to adapt. In essence that evolution cannot keep up with the pace of change. Mutations simply cannot occur frequently enough to supply a wide enough variety of phenotypes of different varieties to allow for at least one that can survive the new conditions any given species may find itself in. As usual rapid changes are the hardest for the longest lived (excluding microorganisms), and slowest reproducing creatures to deal with and they face the greatest threat of massive population decrease or even extinction. I happen to think that adaptation can happen much faster than is typically believed but I am not naive enough to think that even a greatly accelerated adaptation or mutation process will be enough to save all or even most animal species from the threat of habitat loss or change brought about by global warming.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Earth
Why Aren’t You Laughing?
Author's note: This was first published way back in 2016. I recently stumbled across it while clearing out folders on an old desktop PC. I still agree with what I wrote then though it has now been a very long time since I have read the work which is the topic of the below story.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Geeks
Eye Contact is Not All It’s Cracked Up to Be
Whether it be in romantic relationships, public speaking, or day to day interactions with friends, family, and strangers the importance and positive influence of eye contact is so often mentioned that we have become blind (nice pun, right?) to the actual facts of the matter. As a person with a reserved and shy nature I have always struggled with meeting another persons gaze for an extended period, and have continually kicked myself for my poor performance in this regard. For as long as I can remember I have blamed it, at least partially, for all manner of shitty outcomes in various relationships throughout my life. After all, according to everything I had read, people simply did not trust others who did not look them in the eyes when they spoke, or averted their gaze too soon.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Humans
To Be Honest
There are a number of specific phrases that lying persons are said to use when exaggerating the truthfulness of their spoken or written words. One of the most commonly mentioned of these is the phrase “to be honest.” The use of this particular phrase reveals an overemphasis on truthfulness which is often listed as an indicator that someone is lying. Recently a friend called me out during a discussion for using the phrase, and suggested I was likely lying because of it. I am no different than any other human being alive, and cannot claim that I never have, or never do, lie, however in this case I was being perfectly honest (and there I go again overemphasizing my truthfulness, am I lying about not lying? No I am not.) Later I caught myself using the phrase again in an email and again, in that particular case, I was not lying, or dissembling, or misleading in any way.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Psyche
Global Scientists Remain Puzzled By Findings from Extraterrestrial ‘Film’
In what has become a source of great anxiety for the entire planet top scientists from around the world announced no progress in their quest to understand the Alien Atlas (AA), the alternate universe earth ‘film’ received six months ago from somewhere near the Andromeda galaxy (M31). It is presumed that the AA was sent to earth deliberately by an intelligent alien species though the purpose remains unclear. Included in the transmission containing the atlas were instructions to decrypt the alien files in every currently and formerly spoken earth language and the foreboding phrase “learn from this or yours will be a similar fate.”
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Fiction
The Man Who Never Fell
There did once live a man who never fell. When I say he never fell I do not mean that in a metaphorical sense, as in never failed or screwed up. He definitely did plenty of that, but he never actually fell, as in he never once fell down physically so that both his knees and both his hands touched the ground against his will. Perhaps you suspect that this man must have been wheelchair bound his entire life or maybe he was a super star athlete with incredible balance. Neither were the case, and he had no physical handicaps to speak of, nor did he have any great physical abilities. His motor skills were well within the normal range for male humans of standard physical build and average height and weight. He was in fact very average in all respects physically including in the looks department which (partly) explains why he only married once and it lasted only two years. Mentally he was much the same, average. Not too smart but not exactly dumb either. He lived for 82 years in various location around the United States and even spent 1 year ‘living’ abroad after he graduated from college with his degree in sociology. Remember what I said about him not being too smart. He worked four different full time (forty hour per week) jobs over the course of his career until he retired at age sixty two and a half. None were particularly interesting, or made him very much money, but none were terrible either. It would be fair to say that much like everything else in the mans life they were average.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Fiction
Belts With Holes Are Dead - The Complete Chronicles
In one possible dystopian future the fall of man was brought about not by a nuclear holocaust or alien invasion, nor by a biological agent unleashing a zombie plague or a global economic collapse, but rather by an event so mundane, so random, so seemingly inconsequential that not even the wisest of men could have predicted it. This is the world of belts with holes are dead. A world ended when the last belt with holes suddenly disappeared from our planet earth. A hellish nightmarescape where the ability to keep one’s pants up even if they are too large is no longer an option for most. The rich seclude themselves in future belt enclaves where they live in relative luxury and wear whatever size pants within +/- two sizes they desire while the poor live in squalor, suffering from constant pants droppage or doing anything they can to just get by. The lowest of these, the so called “below the knee cutters” are the worst off by far. Their misery was so great that they actually took scissors to every pair of pants they owned and cut them off below the knees. Sick I know, do not read on if you are faint of heart. The only hope left are the so called Pioneers of Future Belts. Will they arrive in time to save our once beautiful planet and usher in a utopian paradise where everyone, regardless of means, can choose to wear whatever pants they want, no matter the waist size or inseam length? These stories represent the collected works of just some of the people who lived through those dark times. Pray their future does not become our own.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Fiction
Dear Vocal Reviewers
Dear Vocal Reviewer's Let me start by giving you a ton of credit for the job that you are doing. I can only imagine how much awful, terrible, craptacular writing you must encounter on a daily basis (e.g. see this very sentence) and I give you mad props for maintaining your sanity and faith in the general goodness of humanity in spite of it all. I have not doubt that when you graduated from college with a degree in English/creative writing/history/philosophy/fine arts you never thought you would have been given the opportunity you now have in front of you so early in your career. For most people, the chance to be a professional censor does not happen until much later in their lives when they become old fuddy-duddies, but you are tasting the intoxicating power that comes with holding the power of digital life and death in your very hands right out of school. You have proven all the naysayers, including your very 0wn friends and family wrong, and gotten a real job with a degree from an actual 4 year college and not obtained online. And, you did not study data science or machine learning or artificial intelligence like your grammie and granpa insisted you needed to do if you wanted to "go anywhere in life." Who's going somewhere now grammie? Who? You, that's who.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Journal