Oh America

Autonomous Weapons are the wave of the Future This is scary stuff, but it is going to get real. The following is an article that points to a video that demonstrates the carnage autonomous weapons can inflict: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/UC-Berkeley-killer-robots-artificial-intelligence-12368152.php The video is produced by  UC Berkeley professor Stuart Russell and references the website:  http://autonomousweapons.org/ The organization takes a very "Western" centric view of this issue. Furthermore the proponents of the ban are missing the point entirely. We have past the point of no return. The Genie is out of the bottle. Drone strikes are being conducted by State actors. With miniaturization, this capability will be available in the hands of hobbyists. An anonymous "hit" can be executed by person who remotely controls a little drone with a lethal injection or chemical to get rid of a target in sight while sitting in a car that is eithe...

While technologists point to the advances in automation that will displace many jobs that humans perform, economists are scratching their heads and are not looking beyond the near future. Sociologists haven't a clue other than forecasting an ominous future. Educators are noting that we are moving towards an unstructured world and our current education system is tailored to a factory oriented assembly line. Technologists, economists, sociologists and educators focus on their own silos of expertise and don't look at the complete picture. Opinions are expressed in the context of the silos of each opinion maker. Politicians are concerned about getting elected, responding to the immediate needs of their constituents and responding to crisis. There needs to be some thought given to what children born today will encounter when they reach middle age and their senior years. There are competing predictions. However there is no analysis that ties it all together in a socioeconomic...

John Maynard Keynes, wrote an article in 1930 titled - Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren where he takes “wings into the future.” What can we reasonably expect the level of our economic life to be a hundred years hence?  His basic premise is that productivity will continue to increase rendering more and more humans jobless. http://www.econ.yale.edu/smith/econ116a/keynes1.pdf 2030 is more than a decade away and John Maynard's forecast is amazingly on target. Advances in automation, is affecting workers in developed countries and the impact is undeniable. “ Nonemployed - As robots grow smarter, American workers struggle to keep up”: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102270242 This trend will continue to pick up pace and in the future we will see more and more jobs being performed by robots. So what does the future hold? Watch this video on humans need not apply: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU And the alarm it raised for the author of the fol...

Once upon a time there was a family that lived on a hill. The history of the Amerigo family dates back many generations. Their ancestors braved long and arduous journey and many adversities to arrive at and claim this hill as their very own. The hill they lived on was rich in minerals and the surrounding land was very fertile. The Amerigo family used their good fortunes and innovation to produce all kinds of merchandize consisting of agricultural produce, manufactured goods, minerals etc. Beyond the Amerigo’s land were a number of Villages. Over the years, healthy trading of goods developed between the Villagers and the Amerigo family. Often times the trade consisted of exchanging items, things like shovels were bartered for apples. This bartering system worked fine until things got complicated. And so it was agreed that the Villagers would buy things from the Amerigo family and pay them with slips of paper and little disks (coins). They called this money and referred to it as curre...

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that  all men are created equal , that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are  Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness .

God save America! New world of glory, Newborn to freedom and knowledge and power, Lifting the towers of her lightning-lit cities Where the flood tides of humanity roar. God save America! Here may all races Mingle together as children of God; Founding an empire on brotherly kindness, Equal in liberty, made of one blood. God save America! Brotherhood banish Wail of the worker and curse of the crushed; Calling the nations to glad federation; Leading the world in the triumph of love. God save America! ’Mid all her splendors, Save her from pride and from luxury; Throne in her heart the unseen and eternal; Right be her might and the truth make her free.

The Star Spangled Banner  Oh, say! can you see by the dawn's early light  What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming;  Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,  O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?  And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,  Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:  Oh, say! does that star-spangled banner yet wave  O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?  On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,  Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,  What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,  As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?  Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,  In fully glory reflected now shines in the stream:  'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh, long may it wave  O'er the land of the free and the hom...

God bless America, land that I love Stand beside her and guide her Through the night with the light from above From the mountains to the prairies To the oceans white with foam God bless America, my home sweet home

O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea! O beautiful for pilgrim feet, Whose stern, impassioned stress A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness! America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law! O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved And mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine, Till all success be nobleness, And every gain divine! O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed His grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!