The lovely and talented Mrs. Wright has been recognized by an award for her work:
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Archive for January, 2021
Congratulations to L. Jagi Lamplighter
Posted January 13, 2021 By John C WrightPrayer Request
Posted January 13, 2021 By John C WrightA friend send this along:
Catholic Men and other Christian friends,
We are 9 days from January 20, which is the day set by the Constitution for the next Presidential term to begin. We are in an unprecedented turmoil, chaos, deception, insurrection, and unfaithfulness. Please add this intention to your personal daily rosary for the next 9 days.
“Pray that the United States will be protected from all enemies foreign, domestic and supernatural! Pray the our Nation will repent and be restored. Pray that our rightful leader will be in power on January 20th and that he and his family will be protected from harm.”
Please send your own version of this email to all Christians that you know!
Christus Vincit! Salve Regina!
Filed in Prayer Request
The Cabinet of Wisdom V — Cheating on the Turing Test
Posted January 12, 2021 By John C WrightThe Cabinet of Wisdom
Part V: Cheating on the Turing Test
Alan Turing’s famous test for machine intelligence is often misquoted and misunderstood: Turing proposed that since thinking was a concept difficult to define, it was vain to ask whether a machine could think, but, instead, we should ask whether a machine could mimic the patterns of outward behavior routinely associated with thinking.
Turing called this “the imitation game.”
He coyly steps aside from the question of whether a machine can be designed to think, but instead addresses whether it can be designed to mimic outward signs of thought convincingly.
Please note that Mr. Turing, or so one hopes, is himself thinking when he says that thinking is difficult to define, by which, or so one assumes, he means define empirically, by measurement. So he turns to memetic patterns illustrative of thought, as if this were clearer. Note the irony of being unable to define the obvious but willing to define the obscure.
His proposed outward behavior was holding a conversation.
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Filed in Cabinet of Wisdom, Reasonings
Interesting
Posted January 11, 2021 By John C WrightFor a neat summation of the case alleging ballot fraud and irregularity, and the comparison to similar cases and other years, see here:
Filed in Musings
The Cabinet of Wisdom IV — Mind and Body
Posted January 10, 2021 By John C WrightThe Cabinet of Wisdom
Part IV: Mind and Body
In our last episode, we asked whether, in the matter of romance, does indeed the outward material manifestations of the inward subjective experience of romantic love describe, define, or cause that love?
Can the one be reduced to the other, that is to say, described completely, described with no loss of meaning? Can the inward reality be reduced to the outward manifestation?
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Filed in Cabinet of Wisdom, Reasonings
Smart as the Devil
Posted January 9, 2021 By John C WrightA reader with the rotational but secure name of Lugnut asks, “Slightly strange question: Can the Devil get smarter with time? It sometimes appears that way, as the 20th century was the worst on record for number of deaths and the 21st isn’t shaping up to be better…”
No professional theologian is foolish enough to address this question, so a professional fool such as myself must boldly answer: No, I believe the Devil gets stupider with time, because sin darkens the intellect.
The 20th Century was when the West turned its collective back on the Church, and God gave hell one hundred years to work its will on us.
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Filed in Apologetics
A Word of Encouragement
Posted January 8, 2021 By John C WrightI write this word of encouragement to those whose ears are fit to hear. You others, you have my respect, but also my pity.
Myself, my faith that Mr. Trump will serve his second term, to which he was lawfully elected by a landslide, is unaltered by recent events.
Things look dark. We live in an Empire of Lies, where all the publicly controlled information has been corrupted to the point where nothing can be trusted, not even basic information. The deception is at times blatant and at times subtle. At times, it is so subtle that even a trained skeptic on his guard can be deceived, and unwittingly adopt the assumptions language of the enemy, and spread his ideas.
In the absence of trustworthy facts, it is rational to rely on assumptions issuing from eternal truths.
More Than Christmas
Posted January 7, 2021 By John C WrightWith the week Epiphany, the Twelve Days of Christmas come to an end, and we return to Ordinary Time. Those of you who miss Christmas, and are sad to say farewell to it, can find perhaps some consolation in the other feasts to come with names that are largely forgotten.
As a public service, and to brighten the hearts of traditionalist, I here list other Masses aside from Christmas.
Other liturgical feasts with the -mas suffix are listed below:
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Filed in Apologetics, Greetings
Regarding the Events of Jan 6
Posted January 7, 2021 By John C WrightLest any be curious about my opinion, my family went to DC today to show our support for Trump, but, more to the point, our support for curtailing election fraud. Read the remainder of this entry »
Filed in Musings, Only Posting a Link
Father’s Monument, Chapter 2, Father’s Deathbed
Posted January 6, 2021 By John C WrightFather’s Monument, Chapter 2, Father’s Deathbed, is now posted.
In which an eccentric but unwell father demonstrates the proposition that time travel is inevitable, since if it ever can be invented, in this or any other timeline, it always will have had been invented.
It is not for this reason that the son takes a vow long overdue.
Chance to win a $50 Amazon Gift Card
Posted January 5, 2021 By Mrs. WrightJagi, here. John and I are helping to launch a new Christian YA Science Fiction novel, JINJANG. This charming story of cultures clashing on a distant world where a day is as long as our year, written by a lovely Catholic fan of John’s who has been tremendously supportive of our family for some time now, is being published by our son, Orville through Wisecraft Publishing.
Cabinet of Wisdom III — True Love and True Man
Posted January 5, 2021 By John C WrightThe Cabinet of Wisdom
Part III: True Love and True Man
Because this painfully obvious difference between man and mannequin, book and author, word and object, substance and shadow, is invisible to those mesmerized by modern secularism, allow me to use an extended example.
Let us use the example of romance, since the topic is one that concerns all men born of women.
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Filed in Cabinet of Wisdom, Reasonings
Cabinet of Wisdom II — Brain and Mind
Posted January 4, 2021 By John C WrightThe Cabinet of Wisdom
Part II Brain and Mind
For this essay, we should also distinguish brain from mind, which many of modern philosophers, due to the necromancy of modern secular mesmerism, apparently cannot.
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The Cabinet of Wisdom I — Metaphysics and Mechanical Men
Posted January 3, 2021 By John C WrightThe Cabinet of Wisdom
Part I Metaphysics and Mechanical Men
I trust the patient reader will allow a lengthy discourse on the topic of the possibility or otherwise of artificial intelligence and mechanical men, for the discourse involves some of the most contentious and confusing concepts in philosophy: physics and metaphysics, mind and body, man and nature, necessity and volition, truth, validity, virtue. None of these concepts has failed to generate volumes of dispute across generations of history.
This essay will be published over days to come in parts, of which this first part deals only with preliminary matters, clarifying what the topic statement means, what metaphysical arguments are, and what it might mean to say a machine is a man.
Alas, such a discourse necessarily involves concepts which the student of modern philosophy is spectacularly ill-equipped to investigate, if not crippled.
I submit that Artificial Intelligence is absolutely impossible.
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Filed in Cabinet of Wisdom, Reasonings
