solohikertoo

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Why are they called 'human rights', when they are only taken away by other humans? I think what is really meant is the age-old battle between good and evil, but we've stopped calling it that. Maybe that's why it feels like we are losing the battle.

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Progress

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Last one out ....

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Brother

Only in memory, now, after you've gone

Do I realize I never really saw you

As your own person

Just my image of brother who had always been there

My expectations that you would be like me

How painful it must have been

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AI

We'll know we've achieved Artificial Intelligence, at least if we define "intelligence" as in "human intelligence", when machines start killing each other.

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Inevitable

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Virus

Several of the lower gods were sitting around one day, talking about their projects: worlds they were working on, worlds they’ve created, and so on. One of the younger, not-so-bright gods said: “I had made a world that was just about perfect, but then I think I blew it”.

“What happened?” asked the other gods.

The young god said: “Well, it was so beautiful: fantastic scenery, diverse life, great ecological balance... I was so proud of it that I wanted to create a being that could appreciate it”.

“Hmm, sounds tough” said the others.

“Yeah, it didn’t work out at all. The being turned out to be incomplete. It had enough awareness to know about itself and to manipulate it’s environment, but not enough intelligent awareness to maintain balance, either with others of its own kind or with the environment.”

“Sounds like trouble.”

“For sure. Because of their lack of full awareness, they make fundamental mistakes and inflict a lot of pain in bringing up the next generation. This only makes them more destructive over time. So, even as their ability to manipulate the environment get more and more sophisticated, they just end up inflicting more damage on each other and on the world. Not only that, but it’s very painful for them. They actually seem aware of their incompleteness, but not fully aware or intelligent enough to understand and solve the problems that they create.”

“Whoa, that’s really messed up. How could you be so cruel?”

“I didn’t mean it. Anyway, it’s getting worse all the time. It’s so sad to see my beautiful world being ruined.”

The others said: “Wow that’s too bad. Sounds like that world is a write-off. They’ll probably completely destroy themselves and the world soon enough.”

“Umm, maybe, but there is a possible problem.”

“What’s that?”

The young god said: “Well, umm, they have the beginnings of the capability to go into space. So there’s a chance they might reach other planets before they completely destroy their home world.”

“Whaaaat??” The others jumped up in alarm. “You created a virus? Oh, dude, you are in big trouble.”

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Sadness

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Memories

different classes of memories

some are solid, well worn stepping stones along the path you call your life

others are like faint side-trails

usually forgotten, surfacing briefly, unexpectedly

leaving you wondering if they really happened, or if they were a dream, or belonged to someone else

their mystery suggests some insight

of other possible paths

not taken for reasons of expedience, convention, or circumstance

but which may have led to

a truer self

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Glance

a fleeting glance of a beautiful face

a stranger passes, eyes meet, brief look of almost recognition

then move on

like a glimpse into a crack between parallel universes

of what might have been