The Robots are Coming

I have been privileged to receive a pre-publication draft of The Robots are Coming from the author. This has nothing to do with any aptitude for literary review or interest or fear of robots on my part. Rather the author is my oldest friend. This is therefore not an unbiased review. The author will show up at my doorstep with beverages and conversation more often if this book sells well.

And since our friendship has always been built on friendly argumentative exchange, I won’t try to suggest that this book is without fault or that I fully embrace its conclusions. There were a few spots where the argument sounded too much like Glenn Beck for my taste though I didn’t mind the occasional political jab.

The robots are coming Actually, we all know that they are already here. We know about the ones that man the auto assembly lines and we know about the ones the police use to probe and destroy shopping bags left behind by careless tourists. We also know about armed and unmanned drones flying over Pakistan providing not so silent security for wedding parties and such.

And we know about endless loop, mind numbing, talking software that substitutes for customer ‘Service’. The robots are here alright. We built them to do useful or profitable things for us and we tolerate them because we like the convenience it brings (or we really are desperate to get through to customer service).

We all also know about the internet and the growing power that is Google. We know about 2001 a Space Odyssey , The Matrix and The Terminator films and we know that we are not ‘there’ yet. At least we think so. This book shows that we’re a lot closer than you think. The author provides a well-documented look at exactly where robot technology is at today, how quickly it has gotten there and how few the steps are and how quickly they might occur that will send us hurtling willingly into the matrix.

The author warns in bold type from the first page of the introduction that when the robots come for you “your neighbors will help it happen” I’m one of the unwitting neighbors; happy to turn over to iTunes and the cloud information about my complete music collection (and likely whether it was obtained legally). Happy to allow their software to pick the music I listen to in exchange for the pleasure of hearing my music in novel and interesting sequence and the convenience of not having to sort through 100’s of CDs to do it. I don’t mind giving Pandora Radio my thumbs up or down clicks as they learn my taste in music. I like the end result. Radio that reads my mind (and yes I do occasionally succumb to targeted advertising and buy new music). Without the cloud I would have never heard Lucinda Williams sing Dylan’s Positively Fourth Street.

And I can’t neglect mention of the irony of how utterly indispensible Google and the cloud were in producing a book warning of its imminent threat. Or the role that a company named after a river in South America might play if it is to be successful.

This 20 minute TED Talk video demonstrates why you should read this book.

Quoting the author of The Robots are Coming:

“In this powerful talk, the world‘s foremost robot expert shows how the widespread use of robots in war is changing the realities of combat. He shows us scenarios straight out of science fiction -- that are no longer at all fictitious.”

Cordoglio, L'Aquila

Fontana Luminosa, L'Aquila

This photo was taken in March of 2002. The fountain is located just 7.6 km from the epicenter of this morning's earthquake in central Italy. My heart goes out to the people in the beautiful city of L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy. Cordoglio.

Remembering John Cephas

Legendary bluesman John “Bowling Green” Cephas dies at 78

“More than anything else, I would like to see a revival of country blues by more young people … more people going to concerts, learning to play the music,” Cephas once said. “That’s why I stay in the field of traditional music. I don’t want it to die.”

I met John Cephas in the early 90’s at Oliver’s Pub in Hagerstown. A genuinely friendly man, he spoke of how much he enjoyed playing in Hagerstown.

From his agent, Piedmont Talent’s Steve Hecht

A descendent of slaves, Cephas was born in Washington, D.C. in 1930, and acquired his “Bowling Green” moniker from his childhood days in Bowling Green, Virginia. Cephas discovered gospel as a child, but soon learned the blues from a guitar-playing aunt while his grandfather taught him about eastern Virginia folklore.

I have put together a little playlist of John Cephas clips on YouTube. The clips show him solo and as part of Cephas & Wiggins with long time partner Phil Wiggins on harmonica. The clips show him doing what he did best, playing and teaching. Spend a few minutes and check them out. Or if you are too busy just minimize this window and enjoy the music of John Cephas for a few minutes.

Fellow Hagerstownian Grudnik captured a nice shot of John Cephas at the Western Maryland Blues Fest in 2005. See it on his Flickr photostream.

Note that links in this post open in a single new window.

One Day in the Life

"gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart."

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Blagoveshensky Cathedral, Kazan

Alexander Solzhenitsyn died yesterday at age 89.

The obituary in on BBC’c Web Page is worth a read.

From the Guardian

Solzhenitsyn's wife, Natalya, told Interfax that her husband, who suffered along with millions of Russians in the prison camp system, had died as he had hoped to die.

"He wanted to die in the summer, and he died in the summer," she said. "He wanted to die at home, and he died at home. In general, I should say that Alexander Isaevich lived a difficult but happy life.

His book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of my all time most memorable reads.