Filed by Bil at 7:25 pm under Fightin' Words, Love, Politics, Pop Culture, Religion, The Science
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I read a New York Times Opinion article recently about our human tendency to anthropomorphize machines and assign the badge “Artificial Intelligence” to robots that simply aren’t intelligent. (I suspect he’s referring to articles like this one.) The opinion article is a great read, but it’s kinda long and it seems to conclude in a different place than it starts out, so if I were a high school English teacher, I’d give the essay a B.

At its core, this piece is a warning to us humans not to infuse our technological advancements with religious or philosophical ideologies. And I must say, I completely agree with that statement. My favorite point the author makes is this:

In fact, the nuts and bolts of A.I. research can often be more usefully interpreted without the concept of A.I. at all. For example, I.B.M. scientists recently unveiled a “question answering” machine that is designed to play the TV quiz show “Jeopardy.” Suppose I.B.M. had dispensed with the theatrics, declared it had done Google one better and come up with a new phrase-based search engine. This framing of exactly the same technology would have gained I.B.M.’s team as much (deserved) recognition as the claim of an artificial intelligence, but would also have educated the public about how such a technology might actually be used most effectively.

It punctuates exactly what he’s trying to state before going on to make grander observations about religious wars and the concept of personhood.

However, it did get me thinking – not so much about personhood or religion, but about the meaning of intelligence.
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Filed by Bil at 12:10 pm under Fightin' Words, Social Issues, The Media
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It’s just as well that LeBron James decided not to come to Chicago. What Chicago does NOT need right now are two things: 1) continued pointless media frenzy over a national-spotlight athlete, and 2) another super-rich celebrity who doesn’t tip his waiter.
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Filed by Bil at 8:44 pm under Fightin' Words, Stuff to Read, The Media
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So - as I took a break from preparing for the future to take a glance at what’s happening in the present, I couldn’t help but notice World Cup scores. Team USA is out, but for once in our lifetime, we got closer to the cup than England, France, and Italy did. Had I been paying closer attention to Twitter feeds and Facebook status updates, I might have known that sooner.

But something struck me: I didn’t need to know that any sooner than I did. Its relevance to my life is pretty low. The World Cup is just something I take a mild interest in every four years.
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Filed by Bil at 7:05 pm under Fightin' Words, Shameless Plugs, The Arts, The Media
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The amazingest news of the week is that Dream Theatre won both Best Off-Loop Theatre Company and Best New Play (for the Agon Trilogy) from the Chicago Reader! The second part is especially amazing since “Orestes,” the third play in the trilogy, hasn’t even opened yet.

And speaking of “Orestes,” it occurs to me that June has flown by and we open in a few short weeks now. I am going to have to memorize my lines at some point.
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Filed by Bil at 11:19 pm under Fightin' Words, The Arts
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It feels pretty strange, I will admit, to switch so suddenly from show mode back into rehearsal mode. Like shifting from fifth gear to first without depressing the clutch. I even make that awful grinding noise. But back into rehearsal mode we must go, ready or not, so onward and upward…or, in this case, downward, since the whole second half of Orestes takes place in hell.

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Filed by Lance at 9:04 pm under Fightin' Words, General, Love, The Arts
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What’s the value of a critic?

What’s the value of criticism?

They’re two completely separate things.
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Filed by Bil at 4:58 pm under Fightin' Words, Stuff to Read
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I’ve been thinking about poetry lately. It’s true it sounds differently when you speak it aloud than when read inside your mind. It also sounds differently when you whisper it to yourself than when you shout it to a crowd.

I discovered the magic of whispering poetry quietly out loud for one’s own self this afternoon. I’m in the laundromat, and I whispered some poetry to myself between two noisy washing machines because I didn’t want anybody else to hear me. That would have been, you know, weird and embarrassing.

What I heard was mine and mine alone, and somehow it felt like now it existed in reality instead of just on a page. Funny, too, how it feels like if I knew anybody else had heard it, that would have depreciated the solidity of the words in the universe, as though if other people heard it, too, then it would have been just some collective dream instead of my own tangible experience. Funny, I say, because that’s pretty much the definition of crazy. But I know how I feel, and I won’t back down.

Also, I’ve discovered Darwin Deez. The weirdness and the beauty just keep coming.

Filed by Trevor at 11:52 pm under Fightin' Words, Gay Agenda, Gender Identity, Homophobia, Love
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“You’re such a sissy! What are you so afraid of? Then love the front of me, honey!” — Hedwig

I’m a total hypocrite. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I can say whatever comes to mind and you will know that we both have permission to take me with a grain of salt.

I dislike being gay. I realize that if I were a celebrity and had said this on national television, GLAAD would denounce me and Exodus International would use this as apparent proof of the feelings of self-loathing inherent in my deviant lifestyle, but as it usually is, the truth is much more complicated. I am not ashamed of the fact that I am romantically and sexually attracted to men, and I am not ashamed to be truthful about this. So I amend my statement: I dislike that being gay prevents me from having close, non-romantic, totally platonic friendships with straight men without the lingering suspicion that I am harboring much deeper feelings. I would even go so far as to say I hate this fact. In short: I want to be just one of the guys.
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Filed by Bil at 3:49 pm under Fightin' Words, Politics, Social Issues
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I swear we’re not seeking out educational links, so this is the last one for now.

Pretty much the best news I’ve heard in a long time:

Obama Wants ‘No Child Left Behind’ Law Overhauled

That’s right. The No Child Left Behind law is being expelled.

Filed by Bil at 2:59 pm under Fightin' Words, Love, Politics, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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It appears that Lance was blogging about education at the same time I was last night, only his was finished a little while before mine, so if anyone was too distracted by Pink Floyd, please take a moment and also read up on what Lance has to say.

Now that you’ve read that post and have returned here, I wanted to give a quick shout-out to Elephant & Worm, an educational theatre company that “brings kids together with professional actors, artists, and writers to take original stories written by children and turn them into plays, movies, and songs!” Fellow Dream Theatre Company member Judith Lesser is heavily involved in this company, and you know if someone from Dream Theatre is involved, it must be great!

Kudos to all involved in education at all ages, because education should never stop. Never ever.