{"id":9445,"date":"2011-12-30T13:12:51","date_gmt":"2011-12-30T18:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=9445"},"modified":"2011-12-30T13:12:51","modified_gmt":"2011-12-30T18:12:51","slug":"human-questions-human-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/human-questions-human-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Questions, Human Answers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[Above: still images from the 2010 South Korean film Quiz King<\/em>, also known as The Quiz Show Scandal<\/em>. See the note at the bottom of this post for more information.]\n

From whiskey river<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n

We are born for wonder, for joy, for hope, for love, to marvel at the mystery of existence, to be ravished by the beauty of the world, to seek truth and meaning, to acquire wisdom, and by our treatment of others to brighten the corner where we are.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Dean Koontz)<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

You have to take seriously the notion that understanding the universe is your responsibility, because the only understanding of the universe that will be useful to you is your own understanding.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Terence McKenna)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Indeed, the only truly serious questions are ones that even a child can formulate. Only the most naive of questions are truly serious. They are the questions with no answers. A question with no answer is a barrier that cannot be breached. In other words, it is questions with no answers that set the limits of human possibilities, describe the boundaries of human existence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Milan Kundera [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

Coming Your Way<\/strong><\/p>\n

A woman walks, absorbed in the air
\nof her ill fortune, absorbing
\nthe clean breeze in the sunlight
\nof a small town, seeing what she sees
\nthrough the lens of what she\u2019s seen before,
\nas through glasses custom-made
\nfor someone else. For someone else,
\nsurely, because the events
\nthat brought her here didn\u2019t suit her
\nin temperament, conditioning, appetite.
\nWas it her fault<\/em> she\u2019d been so unhappy?
\nWere the events, the people, so bad?
\nThink of the results of good perfume
\nat the wrong time; the bitter mouthwash
\nof wine after a glass of milk.<\/p>\n

Too bad if our schedules keep us
\nup late, coffee in our cups,
\nwhen we like to turn in early.
\nOr force us to commute in bad traffic,
\nin bad air, the first and last hours
\nof daylight, small birds flying
\nout of focus on the flat white sky
\nas we idle and surge and idle, staring
\nat the changeless billboards and exit signs
\nwe can never get to in time,
\ncausing us to hate our jobs
\nand speak tensely to our loved ones,
\nwho perhaps love us
\ntoo irritatingly well, too calmly…<\/p>\n

We adjust as we can to what nears us.
\nWe turn, and turn, like leafy plants
\nto the sun of our circumstance,
\nhardly noticing the gradual alterations
\nto our tastes in music, recreation,
\nfood, even forms of intimacy.
\nWomen who live together align cycles.
\nMen who drink together every week
\nbegin to laugh in roughly the same way:
\nthe new half-scornful laugh
\nthat alienates an office superior
\nor close friend, or a wife.<\/p>\n

And now this woman whose good intentions
\nhave soured through bad alloys
\nof companionship, diet, occupation —
\nshe is new in town and is looking around
\nmistrustfully, but with a shred of hope
\nas fine as the unraveled strand of hair
\nthat lifts and falls, troubling her cheek
\nas she walks slowly but steadily
\nacross the green, heading for this very spot.<\/p>\n

She will turn to one of us
\nand one of us will turn to her
\nor away. Look at your blank faces!
\nWhy are we all gathered here
\nif not to couple souls on earth?
\nWho among us can convertJ
\nwithout a single touch
\nthe sour in her thwarted self
\nto sweet? You? You?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(J. Allyn Rosser [source<\/a><\/em><\/em>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

[British mathematician Alan] Turing proposed an experiment. A panel of judges poses questions by computer terminal to a pair of unseen correspondents, one a human “confederate,” the other a computer program, and attempts to discern which is which. There are no restrictions on what can be said: the dialogue can range from small talk to the facts of the world (e.g., how many legs ants have, what country Paris is in) to celebrity and heavy-duty philosophy — the whole gamut of human conversation…<\/p>\n

I am participating in [the 2009 competition], as one of four human confederates going head-to-head (head-to-motherboard?) against the top AI programs. In each of several rounds, I, along with the other confederates, will be paired off with an AI program and a judge — and will have the task of convincing the latter that I am, in fact, human.<\/p>\n

The judge will talk to one of us for five minutes, then the other, and then has ten minutes to reflect and make his choice about which one of us he believes is the human. Judges will also note, on a sliding scale, their confidence in this judgment — this is used in part as a tie-breaking measure. The program that receives the highest share of votes and confidence from the judges each year (regardless of whether it “passes the Turing test” by fooling 30 percent of them) is awarded the “Most Human Computer” title. It is this title that the research teams are all gunning for, the one that the money awards, the one with which the organizers and spectators are principally concerned. But there is also, intriguingly, another title, one given to the confederate<\/em> who elicited the greatest number of votes and greatest confidence from the judges: the “Most Human Human” award.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Brian Christian [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n

_______________________<\/p>\n

Note: About the Image<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, there was Robert Redford’s respectable (and respectful) drama,\u00a0Quiz Show<\/em>. Then in 2008, we got Slumdog Millionaire<\/em>, the British\/Indian “epic romantic drama adventure film” (as Wikipedia classifies it) about a contestant in the Indian version of the TV show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire?<\/em>\u00a0Then in 2010, along came the South Korean comedy Quiz King<\/em>, also called The Quiz Show Scandal<\/a><\/em>… Here’s what BeyondHollywood.com says<\/a> of it, in part:<\/p>\n

The film kicks off late one night in Seoul, with four cars getting into an accident and somehow all managing to hit the same young woman… Whilst trying to figure out the mysterious woman’s identity, the police come across a flash drive in her handbag, which once unencrypted reveals what appears to be the answer to the final, 10 million dollar question on the country’s most popular television quiz show. Of course, this still leaves another 29 questions to get through, so the motley crew all rush off to try and cram as much trivia into their heads as possible before putting themselves forward for the program.<\/p>\n

The Quiz Show Scandal<\/em> is a film very much in Jang Jin’s style, being a genre blending piece that starts off in typically eclectic fashion, introducing a disparate set of characters that include, but are not limited to, a gambling addict, a genius college student, the wife of a woman in a coma, four members of a depression support group, and two gangsters with a man tied up in the boot of their car. This certainly gives the film the feel of an old fashioned caper, as it flits between the cast as they go about their shenanigans, usually accompanied by light hearted and wacky music.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It does sound like a funny set of premises. But I haven’t seen the film, and am honestly not sure how much I’d enjoy myself for the entire two-hour length. (I finally found some clips online, but they’re not English-subtitled. General impression, however: think\u00a0It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World<\/em>, turned up to 11.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Above: still images from the 2010 South Korean film Quiz King, also known as The Quiz Show Scandal. See the note at the bottom of this post for more information.] From whiskey river: We are born for wonder, for joy, for hope, for love, to marvel at the mystery of existence, to be ravished by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393],"tags":[262,1395,1421,2524,2587,2746,2747,2748],"class_list":{"0":"post-9445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"tag-dean-koontz","9":"tag-robert-bly","10":"tag-milan-kundera","11":"tag-terence-mckenna","12":"tag-j-allyn-rosser","13":"tag-quiz-king","14":"tag-brian-christian","15":"tag-alan-turing","16":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-2sl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9445"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9454,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445\/revisions\/9454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}