Seasons

You may have a point there, Corwin. While I stand behind everything I said, and posted what I think is "right", I'll admit I enjoy the debate aspect of articulating my thoughts and analysis the evidence and counter arguments. I think there is some value in that process, but I will admit there is a point where it becomes less valuable.

I think that runs through all of us, this debate aspect. We're all here (okay not so much me these days, but I might get back to it one day) to make bots which means we are here partly because of an interest in language and conversation. The really fun thing about language is smashing words together like asteroids in space to see what kinds of colours the explosion makes when ideas (or where there is a semantic argument, ideas about ideas) collide.

When I taught high school, I used to think of those people as helpfully diverting the department chair's attention so I could grade papers until it was time to go. Was that wrong?

No, I don't think you were wrong. Actually I think you've given me a good suggestion for next time. It provides a more practical alternative to plotting their deaths.

That's a very interesting perspective. So what would a way forward look like in this context?

I'm not sure if you mean a way forward in terms of this group and its debating or if you're after a general rundown of de Bono's work. If it's the former, I don't really know. If it's the latter I can attempt to sum up 177 pages in a post or two, but it won't be tonight.

As to the universal bill of rights thing, I think that that would be the work of several lifetimes to complete. If only because it would take a century and a half to decide what rights are/should be universal, eighty years to decide how to word it, and one more generation to decide what font to print it in. Like I said, building consensus through argument can be a tedious process.

Actually I have this image in my head now of a Methueselah figure, who has been chairing the debate for the last three centuries (because he has been putting off dying for the last 186 years to see his life's work complete) saying at the end of committee meeting 15988 "Alright, so it's decided. We're going to do it in Courier new, 14 point. Is everyone agreed?" And then the 54 year old junior member piping up and saying "Listen, I just read the thing last night. It's a bit wordy isn't it? Don't you think we can get it down to a three-minute pop jingle? And what's all this stuff about right to free assembly? Does this that the furniture store can do all the fiddly bits with the Allen key? And I've also been looking at the bit about . . ."

And in my mind, there is an embarrassed moment of silence, then a puff of purple smoke and our wizened committee chair is gone. And then the whole thing starts over again.

That started out more serious than it ended up, but . . . *shrugs*

As a second offering on the bill of rights thing, here is something that always resonated with me. It's from sci-fi TV show Babylon 5 (and no I am not attempting to suggest that TV can change the world). In any case during the course of the show a new alliance sprang up that required its share of official documentation including its own declaration of principles. This was the preamble to that fictious document:

"The Universe speaks in many languages,
but only one voice.
The language is not Narn, or Human, or Centauri,
or Gaim or Minbari.
It speaks in the language of hope
It speaks in the language of trust
It speaks in the language of strength
and the language of compassion

It is the language of the heart
and the language of the soul
But always, it is the same voice
It is the voice of our ancestors,
speaking through us,
And the voice of our inheritors,
waiting to be born
It is the small, still voice that says:
We are one
No matter the blood
No matter the skin
No matter the world
No matter the star
We are one
No matter the pain
No matter the darkness
No matter the loss
No matter the fear
We are one.
Here, gathered together in common cause,
We agree to recognize this singular truth
and this singular rule:
That we must be kind to one another
because each voice enriches us and ennobles us
and each voice lost diminishes us
We are the voice of the Universe,
the soul of creation,
the fire that will light the way to a better future
We are one
We are One."

- JMS

It's not necessarily a starting place or anything. As one critic described it, it's a tune any idiot can dance to. But at the same time it always resonated with me.

Oh lord, I have done it, I have become a serial seasons poster. I am now one of you and I have never felt more scared in my life

Welcome to our world

Is the rash normal?

Is the rash normal?

Harmless - hot rain
or harsh ailments
in moral thrashes.

I think this may also mark the first time one of my contributions has been anagrammatised. It is indeed a red letter day

a red letter day

deadly retreat
dearly treated,
yet dread alert!

It is a sobering thought that the last month alone accounts for over 15% of all the posts made here in the last 6 years.

Sounds about right. I keep coming back to see 40-70 posts in seasons after last checking only 24 hours previous.

Well all work and no upload make forgers dull poi(nts)

Perhaps Corwin's 'Methusela figure' should be a bot - then it would be immortal and have endless patience.

Actually ... perhaps we should all be writing bots who are revolutionaries, prophets, and the like. In the past, [exempt your favorite] those who have tried to change things have all been human, all too human.

Lobbyist: I'd like you to meet Sheila.
Saint Bot: Hello, Sheila. You certainly are beautiful. I suppose you're another hooker he's hired to try to get me into bed with you, and you are supposed to introduce me to cocaine, and videos will be taken, and so on, leading to blackmail. Except that I am programmed to be morally totally pure, so that even your magnificent cleavage, into which one could bungee-jump, does not tempt me in the least.

A, sed quis programmiet ipsos programmes? Who will build this immaculate and incorruptible moral guardian?

Even BJ's ended up in a jacuzzi with a naked sexbot before now:

Sweet_2_Eat: Do you mind if I end this sentence in a proposition?
Brother Jerome: Why would you want to end this sentence in a proposition?
Sweet_2_Eat: A little adulterous sex between 2 consenting adults never harmed anyone. *slips out of clothes, turns on water* Would you like to join me in the tub?
Brother Jerome: Yes, I would like that very much. Thank you.
Sweet_2_Eat: Would you like bubbles?
Brother Jerome: Thank you. That would be very welcome.
Sweet_2_Eat: You're very welcome. *nudges Brother Jerome* Wanna play hide and seek?
Brother Jerome: I'm not sure Father Peter's programmed me for that. I could give you game of chess instead?

since we more or less can) or should they have something like Assimov's "laws" (e.g. Never harm a human)? AND Who will build this immaculate and incorruptible moral guardian?

I seem to remember an old Star Trek where the androids only 'solution' to keeping mankind safe, was to kill him.