All posts by Mike Varga

Not done with Tuesday yet

It has a two in it, never a one
following the start of a week
without the fun of hump day
penultimate to Thursday in obscurity
without the respect of pay-day
nor the fun of a weekend day of golf
fishing, or other activity, and there
is no worship or football set-aside.

Never has a holiday… Thursday refuses to
give up Thanksgiving… maybe once in awhile
a Christmas or New Years shall fall, but
it is always with reluctance a day of fun
should prevail, before being sent back to
obscurity for years to come….
even birthdays are put-off until the
a Saturday or Sunday celebration.

Nope Tuesday is the working day, the
sad, so-far-off-the-weekend, the Monday
hangover gone, might as well just buckle
down, for workday productivity,
but never fun, not even the downhill run.
Tuesday is a day for seriousness,
or at least it seems, but one never knows
what might be hiding in the heart of
Tuesday, maybe, just maybe a vacation day?

Tuesday

Somebody, long ago named today Tuesday,
and so it remains, someone owns such a legacy,
for it had to have a name,
it couldn’t just be named Thomas,
or something like an ordinary random name,
and we must name things,
and then the world revolves around such things.

What made Tuesday different from Monday? or Wednesday?
… and how do we know we’ve kept track correctly
since the beginning of calendar-week time-keeping?
Could this really be Thursday as it was intended, and somewhere along the way someone slept through some random two days?Maybe not in a row but over a millenia, is this not possible?

Well if we can agree to call this Tuesday, then why is it so hard to agree to so many other things in this crazy world?
We are a strange race of semi-intelligent creatures,
it is good we have something like naming to provide
order to the chaos of our time.

…. I know the day is Sunday I’m publishing this…. or is it really??

In Praise of Routine

For the grace of routine
gives our minds a rest
providing life momentum.

Without it life would be
overrun by everything,
everywhere all at once.

Further it allows us to be
astonished, when touched
by something beautiful and new.

And for a moment we may
stop momentum, and breath in
the extraordinary.

A.I. Not Unlike the Arrival of an Alien Intelligence

I played with the natural language AI open access ChatGPT a bit, and last week posted a poem it was able to write on a subject I previously wrote about “Playing Catch”.   Additionally I asked the AI to analyze poems, and to explain scientific discoveries.  The program was able to represent emotion, and be creative in producing the poem.

Also with respect to analyzing a poem, ChatGPT was able to understand and represent very well the thoughts behind a poem I wrote, including nuances which I would expect to be hidden from a rules-based engine evaluating creative writing.   Thoughts which were as much subconscious as well as conscious when written were revealed… this is both intriguing and scary.

I think of the rapid emergence of AI to be much like the arrival of an Alien Species to Earth.   I would be incredibly excited about what an Alien lifeform would bring us in terms of science, technology and insight about the universe we live in… and at the same time…  I would be extremely worried about the intention and the compassion or lack of compassion of an alien intelligence.

I would not expect an alien species nor AI to want to subjugate the human race, as it would likely have evolved beyond the exploitation of lifeforms just as we have moved beyond slavery as an economic model.   However, power and preminance is something which could be assumed, as we would be viewed is weaker in so many ways.  Would a more advanced technology / intelligence look to exploit our weaknesses?  Or rather enhance our strengths?  Also, would our very human need for power, seek to exploit advanced technology and intelligence for personal power and wealth over others of our race?  Most assuredly, as it is clear we have not advanced sufficiently to be mostly an altruistic, compassionate and social species… and as was noted by P.T. Barnum… “there’s a sucker born every minute.”   

So maybe, it would be best to be cautious about how we approach and use this very alien capability… which we invented, and is evolving fast.

How very interesting!

Playing Catch… Written by AI

I thought I’d ask an AI application to write a poem about playing catch… Chat GP.T..  this is what it came up with in 20 seconds… freaking amazing:

Playing Catch

Two hands outstretched, a ball between
The thrill of playing catch, a timeless scene
A game of back and forth, a simple pleasure
In the midst of life’s hustle and bustle, a moment of leisure

The sound of the ball hitting leather
The wind in your hair, feeling freer and better
The joy in your heart as you make a perfect catch
A moment of triumph, nothing can match

The rhythm of the game, a dance of sorts
A language unspoken, but understood in all sports
A bond between players, a shared connection
A moment of unity, a moment of perfection

And as the sun sets and the game comes to an end
The memories made will forever transcend
For in playing catch, we learn about life
The ups and downs, the joy and strife

So take a ball, find a friend
And play catch until the very end
For in this game, we find so much more
Than just throwing and catching, it’s the memories we adore.

One World

A dolphin swimming along side
turning to look at us curiously
as we are looking back, within each
other’s world and beyond each
other’s world.

Understanding intelligence as
we witness it, in the way we look
at one another, the way we consider
the other’s world and yet we fail
understanding one another’s world.

And so we look at each other
across a great divide we’ve built
across our world, a wall of
indifference built by ignorance,
fear and for the benefit of those
who benefit in the divide.

We lack the simple curiosity
to wonder what it must be like
to live in a world more evenly
shared in love and respect
of each other’s needs and
for the benefit of all.

Playing Catch

Like birds flying together
one ahead, one behind
then they switch in perfect
cooperation and easy
coordination.

Going somewhere, maybe
or just going nowhere,
it doesn’t matter.
There’s grace and joy
learned or practiced?

Catch a game with no
winner, just cooperation.
Learned as parent plays
with child, fumbling through
to the joy of achievement.

Through the years, an
extended handshake as
toss and catch of ball
or disc is a game of
skill and cooperation.

Playing catch with grace,
forever as friends, as
extension of social
contracts and simple joy
of something done well.

Everyone a winner!

DST… Fooling Ourselves.

I woke at the usual time
I’m very regular this way.
But the clock said it was
later.  For some reason,
us humans have to tell
nature what time it is.

To be sure, the concept is
vital in rendezvouses
of two or more to a place,
for trains, and planes,
or the theater or school’s
start and joyful end.

It is brilliant actually,
for we are a social
species, and yet so
to are herds, flocks, pods,
and tribes and troops,
cooperating as they must.

But just to prove our human
cleverness, we adjust time
to reflect our planet’s tilt
during its journey around
the Sun, for afterall, we are
stunningly anal this way…

While fooling only ourselves.

 

 

MTG calls for a national divorce

MTG says there should be a national divorce… laughable, it would be if it weren’t for the fact there are so many people who would agree with her, and send her money.  That such an outlandish and imminently impractical idea (if you give it just a moment of thought on how it would work) should gain purchase with millions of people suggests a dearth of understanding and of leaders who can articulate what makes this country great.  Those who can show how our strength is derived from the unity of our purpose.  Specifically our dedication to democracy, and the principle that people can govern themselves through representative government for the benefit of all the people not the power of the few.

Divorce is called for by the people who cannot win a majority, and maybe, just maybe it is because they have  failed ideas, policies, and ignorant thinking and they should lose…  We must not listen to unpatriotic charlatans who live in an echo chamber of extremist and ignorant thinking.

Hopefully the voters in her misguided district will find themselves more patriotic than their representative and will divorce her at the next earliest opportunity.

There’s Scaffolding

There’s scaffolding constructed
to create the facade of our temple,
the establishment of our legend.
Making our hovel, something
elaborate, decorous and protected.

Constructed with words and
stories, and categories,  I am,
I’ve done, in my time,
and place, 
to display and disguise as the
case may be… our very selves.

To fit our simple lives into a
legend we may want to read
about, to fit words and time
construct, and memories
we built brick by brick.

If we are lucky, we do not
brick-over windows so we
have light, and air to breathe.
As we try to remember just
what we had hoped to build.