#dailyprompt – The Corrigan Encore

Rebuild

February 7, 2023 John Corrigan

The sanctity of life is a belief that sentient life is the most valuable force on earth. When the sanctity of lifde is questioned then society has a tendency to fall apart.

I watched the 2014 movie Dawn of Planet of the Apes (spoiler alert). In the movie the Apes have been genetically modified and can speak. The apes form a human like society and make rules like the Code of Hammurabi. The major rule is “Ape no kill Ape”. THere is an ape named Koba is is totally anti social and killing other living beings. The movie has a pivotal fight scene between the protagonist Caesar and Koba. Koba is hanging on for dear life and looks up at Ceaser and repeats the number one rule. “Ape no Kill Ape”. Ceaser tells Koba he is not an ape and lets him fall

When he allowed Koba to die Ceaser choose to rationalize his behavior by stripping away Kobas ape status. In Ceasers mind Kobas life was not as valuable as an apes life because Koba was acting in an un ape like manner.

Six people in Goshen California were brutally murdered. Among the murder victims was a 10 month old baby. Because of the heinous nature of the crime’s law enforcement in Goshen is asking that the death penalty be used. The last time the death penalty has been used in California was to kill the prisoner Charles Ray Allen. It is unclear if the death penalty will be used in California but the brutality of the killings of the six souls in Goshen definitely strip away the status of human being from the people who killed them. Right now two people are in custody for the murders and will son face trial. The trial will decide the accepted guilt or innocence not really actual guilt or innocence. The only people who know what happened are those who have experienced and or observed the action. Observation can be an issue because of a bunch of reasons. Eyewitness testimony is very unreliable. The elusive nature of guilt makes most people object to the use of the death penalty. What if we got it wrong? In 2022 more than 260 people were exonerated in the United States. an average of 3.94 people on death row are exonerated per year. A wrongful conviction can be overturned and someone can be let out of prison but no one can be brought back from the dead. The argument for mistakes is there for a case against the death penalty and then there is the morality of taking sentintent life. A very good rule for life is that, it is never ok to kill a sentient life.

It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.
Albert Einstein

When society tries to apply value to lives in an effort to justify taking them society is experiencing a moral failing.

On February 26 2012 George Zimmerman followed a 17 year old boy through a neighbourhood. Zimmerman confronted the unarmed minor and murdered him. A court case commenced to decide if the death of an unarmed 17 year old boy byu an armed adult was justified. This court case was a moral failing. There is truly no justification for killing an unarmed child.

Some historians argue that there are tipping points or critical points in the narrative of history that determine what the era will be like. It has been ten years since the death of Trayvon Martin and the justification for killing an unarmed boy was made by society and it has been ten years of violence and destrutcion of life in the United States. It feels like Trayvon Martins death was a tipping point for the destruction of the moral fabricate in the United States. SAome activist started the Black lives matter movement to counter the tipping point and I am hopeful that this will work but as long as society finds ways to justify murder I am skeptical that much will change.

Started with a red paper clip

February 6, 2023 John Corrigan

If you are ever in Saskatchewan Canada visit the Paperclip Cottage Cafe . If the food is half as good as the story concerning the cafes origin you are in for a real treat.

Kyle Macdonald look at a red paperclip on his desk and thought about the game he played in school called, “Bigger and Better”. In the game you would trade up for items that were bigger and better. Kyle put the red paper clip onCraigslist in an effort to trade up and in one year and fourteen trades later Kyle had a house. You probably guessed it but that house is now teh Paper Clip Cafe in Saskatchewan Canada.

I am not going to spend this blog retelling the trades, however you should watch the Ted Talk with Kyle in it. He retells the trades in great detail and during the talk he has pictures of people from each trade. I like two things about this story most first is the humble beginnings and second is the pictures.

It all started with a tiny paper clip but Kyle knew it would be big and was big. I assume he knew because he took pictures. As a kid we are often taught about consequentialism. The idea that no effort or actions are wasted and they all have consequence. This can be easy to forget especially when we fall into routines and do the same things everyday. The tasks become route and seem inconsequential but they are not. We would do well to consider the consequences of our mundane and route tasks. If a task is routine and consequential at work many efficient managers would find ways to automate and supervise the task. Supervision and not performance of the task should free up time for the employee to engage in tasks that are more complex and not quite routine. The tasks though never go away.

Realizing that every choice we make in life has consequences can seem pretty scary however a better way to handle this responsibility is to take a picture of each thing we do and celebrate our choices (as long as they are moral).

Every trade Kyle made was a chance to meet new people take pictures and celebrate. If you haven’t watch his Ted Talk it’s really good! Kyles enthusiasm is contagious. today at work home or play realize and celebrate the actions you are part of and have fun with it! Take pictures and enjoy the ride!!

Why did we teach that

January 26, 2023 John Corrigan

There is new software available it is called chatGPT and it is making some noise in the academic world. Some students are successfully using ChatGPT to write their essays. Teachers are upset and calling this cheating (which it is). There have been bans and some IT departments for school have worked to disable the use of ChatGPT on the schools WIFI (this works until the students go home).

Cheating is nothing new and the fight against cheating will continue to take place at schools all over the world. A university student at Princeton spent his spring break writing an application that spots essays written by ChatGPT as well as any other AI technology. This is a cat and mouse game the cheaters find a new way to cheat and the teachers catch on and stop one way then two new ways open up. The major difference about this new cheating, using the AI to write an essay, and the older cheating paying the nerd to do it is that AI is that the new AI is almost indistinguishable from human writing. ChatGPT has gotten that good yes.

Thinking about cheating and essay writing got me questioning AI technology and essay writing altogether. I began to wonder why teachers use essay writing at all? What is the purpose for having a student write an essay?

When a student writes the essay they engage in critical thinking, they conduct research. Critical thinking is crucial in our daily lives and research is unavoidable. The better you are at both of these techniques the easier life will be for you. The debate rages on concerning whether or not essay writing is the best delivery method for teaching these techniques to students.

The reasons for teaching essay writing Critical thinking and research are important no doubt but is essay writing as important as it was once thought to be? Maybe teachers should write essays defending essay writing assignments. I love to ask what if? So if not an essay what should be used to teach critical thinking and research? Can the new delivery system be cheated as well? No doubt yes and cheaters will get better at cheating so I guess the real question is whta do teachers and professors prefer as a delivery system?

I am not good at writing and a slow reader however I love to do both, I imagine if I where a professor I would continue to assign essays and use the applications to check for cheating and plagiarism. Maybe as pennace for cheating I would assign a new task to the cheater. The cheater needs to write an essay explaining how the AI technology works and how they were caught. The paper will require research of the technology and critical thinking for answering the question.

Writing teaches critical thinking and is a way of engaging in what feels like intimate communication. For now most of the communication is with humans but maybe in the future our AI will engage us just a intimately as the humans do. If we cannot tell it is AI has the AI passed the Turing test?

Leisure Time

January 25, 2023January 25, 2023 John Corrigan

List five things you do for fun.

In 1998 Matthew Perry and Chris Farley starred in a film titled “Almost Heroes”. Matthew Perry plays Leslie Edwards an officer in the US Army who wants to beat Lewis and Clark to the Pacific coast. Leslie elicits the help of Bartholomew Hunt, a bumbling trapper, played by Chris Farley. The movie is a comedy and was blast to watch. There is a scene in the movie where Leslie Edwards asks the team, while sitting around a campfire what they do fin their leisure time. The team answers the leader and their answers are foolish and hilarious. The first thing I thought of when I read List five things you do for fun, was that scene from “Almost Heroes”, lets see what are five things I do for fun?

I enjoy visiting new places with my wife “You two are always going somewhere new. That’s why we love seeing your facebook feed.” That was the comment made by my wife’s aunt at a family function. When my wife and I were dating we would go to a movie theater and buy tickets for the movie that was showing at the time we arrived. I love spending time with my wife and I love doing new and different things with her. There was recently an article published that gave the secret to slowing down our perception of time. The secret was to do new things. Who better to slow down time with than my best friend?
I enjoy walking my dog My dog is my second best friend and when I grab his harness and leash I can see and sense the excitement he has. I have had to use the words down boy while holding his leash more times than I can count. His joy becomes my joy and I fell the endorphins. While walking he gets to smell our neighbourhood and lall the other wildlife and I can chat with the dog listen to tunes and just relax after a day of work. Walking is also a great way to improve and maintain good health.
I enjoy reading Good or bad books, newspaper or magazines, Comic books or blog posts. I love reading every medium. Reading is an almost intimate act between the writer and the reader. The writer has spent time effort and thought in their writing and now I get to get a glimpse into this person or team of people’s psyche. How cool is that? It is very cool and if the story or story and art (comic book) is compelling than, I am in heaven. Reading is also very good for brain health.
I enjoy the theater with my wife or by myself Live theater is pretty awesome. It can be Broadway in Manhattan or the community theater at my local theater. I love seeing people perform something that they practices together> With theater you get to hear the writers voice and see the actors emotions. The movie theater is alos a favorite of mine. The movies are sanitized version of live theter though and I kind of enjoy the chaos and unpredictibality of the live shows a little more than the movies, don’t get me wrong though I will watch a movie in aecond of course.
Learn and do new things A project is a lot of fun. Creating something new can be thrilling. I love to learn and build new things. By things I mean every and anything. One year I built a boat out of lumber in the garage. I have written software applications for my website, computer and phone. I wrote a book. the art of creation gives you a sense of accomplishment and lets you learn new things about the world you live in and how you navigate it. Creation is fun and exciting and it also improves your health.

So there are five things I do for fun. I try to find fun in all life but if I get the chance to seek out and engage in fun in my own way on my own terms this is what I would do.