Home improvement is exhausting. We have spent the last two weeks seeking quotes to replace the windows in our condo. The condo was built in the 1970s and the windows are original and should have been replaced long ago. Ever since we bought this unit, windows has been the responsibility of the association, but the cost of replacing all the windows of all the units of the condominium would result in a huge assessment, so the topic has been avoided. Now the association is planning to update the bylaws to make window replacement the responsibility of co-owners.
The cost of replacing windows is made worse by the fact that our unit, like many in our condominium, has several large, non-standard windows. For example, multiple patio doors with four foot wide panels rather than a more standard three foot wide panels. By the end of the week we will have four quotes with a wide range in price between low and high. Part of me wants to pay the lowest amount, but the other part of me does not want to risk having to replace the windows again, given that we may be living here for ten more years. We are on the fence about which direction to take.
Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should
I’ve written here a few times of my concerns with AI. Eric Markowitz expresses similar concerns.
We began to believe that because a capability exists, it must be deployed. That because a machine can replace a person, the person must go. This is an abdication of our moral duty as humans. It is surrendering our judgment to our instruments and calling it progress.
The reason this moment feels so acute, so existential, is not because AI is uniquely powerful — although it is. It’s because AI has arrived at precisely the moment when we have already hollowed out so much of what makes work meaningful.
We have already financialized everything. We have already reduced human beings to line items and disposed of them like inventory. We have already built an economy that treats people as costs to be minimized rather than as the very source of the value being created.
I also think the idea seeking meaning in their work is fools gold, intended to allow themselves to be used. Finding meaning in work confused vocation with occupation. Some times they do align, but I think only when starting with vocation.
Streaking Baseball Players
The Chicago Cubs have won ten games in a row, which is their second ten game winning streak of this season. Right now it is fun to be a fan of the Chicago Cubs given that their entire lineup is hitting and that puts a lot pressure on opposing pitchers. If the line up keeps this up, the Cubs could be a champion, but that is not likely. The key to winning divisions in baseball is stacking wins to put distance between you and other teams in the division so that you can get a large enough for when the team loses several games in a row you don’t lose your place.
I think it’s hard for me to get really excited about this year’s team because of the pitching staff. Teams that have success in the playoffs have Cy Young caliber pitchers and right now I can’t put any of Cubs starters in that category.
Going in to the season, Cade Horton had that potential, but he is injured and done for the year. Shota Imanga is pitching very well as is Edward Cabrera but the big question about both is whether they can sustain their current performance through the entire season, both have history of injuries.
Pitching wins championships and right now it’s hard to feel confident that the Cubs current pitching is good enough. The Cubs lineup and current pitching may be good enough to win their division, and perhaps even get to the National League championship series, but as teams advance in the playoffs chances of that opposing pitching will neutralize a lineup increases and that is when your pitching matters.
We had a great time looking at and smelling all the tulips in Holland Michigan. Here is an album of the pictures that we took.
It’s tulip time in Holland Michigan
In my opinion, SCOTUS’ decision in Louisiana v Callais is based on two flawed beliefs. First is that it is ok to make voting districts for partisan reasons, in other words, allow a majority party to create districts that favor their party winning seats. Second is the belief that racial discrimination is a thing of the past. I also have qualms with the idea that a majority can be discriminated against.
The refusal of seeing partisan gerrymandering and lobbying and very large campaign donations as wrong is evidence of a system functioning as desired by those in power.
A few days back I asked the question, does Apple really need to have an AI product? In this video Nate Jones reads the tea leaves of Apple’s impending re-org suggesting that Apple’s strategy towards AI may be the same as it’s strategy about personal computing 50 years ago. I think it’s the right move by Apple. However, I do wonder about what might be the relationship between local models and personal computer operating systems.
Pitching Is Hurting The Cubs
While acknowledging this as probably too much of a generalization, I think baseball games are won (or lost) by either pitching or hitting. Based on earned run average, I think that when a MLB pitching staff gives up more than four runs it did not do its job. During the Cub’s recent ten game winning streak their pitchers gave up more than four runs only once. Now the Cubs have lost three in a row, and in every one the pitchers gave up more than four runs. Worse, they have given up six or more runs in each game, therefore not giving their hitting much of a chance to win.
The Cubs do currently have a winning 17-12 record due to the fact that of the 24 games played in April, Cub pitchers held opponents to four are fewer runs in 16 games. It appears to be the case that the huge number of their pitchers on IL is catching up to the Cubs.
If the pitching trend continues and given how well the other teams in the NL Central are playing, the Cubs will end up with a losing record for the season and not make the playoffs.
I can’t help but notice that in his blog post about the value of RAM for AI and how Apple’s unified architecture has proven to be an advantage, Om does not mention the Neo. Om’s point in this post, Memory Is The Machine, is the reason why think users are going wish their first generation Neos have more RAM. Heck, my M4 MacBook Pro’s 16 GB of RAM might not be enough in three years.
Our fears about artificial intelligence are a projection of the fears about ourselves. The human ego desires to control the world, and AI is probably the biggest threat to human control we have created to date. We know that we are incomplete yet our ego insists on turning to ourselves to resolve what ails us rather than changing our mind to follow the path of Jesus.