Lojban as AI Language

Can machines feel pride? Not sure question means anything. But you've seen dogs with hurt feelings and Mike had several times as complex a neural network as a dog. What had made him unwilling to talk to other humans (except strictly business) was that he had been rebuffed: They had not talked to him. Programs, yes--Mike could be programmed from several locations but programs were typed in, usually, in Loglan. Loglan is fine for syllogism, circuitry, and mathematical calculations, but lacks fl...

 The Unknowable

This girl was perhaps not born of a mother. But blossomed in a peach tree: Her love fades Quicker than peach-flowers. Although I know her soft body I cannot sound out her heart; Yet we have but to make a few lines on a chart And the distance of the farthest stars In the sky can be measured.

 If You Really Want to Know, You Go to Science

[I]magine you want to know the sex of your unborn child. There are several approaches. You could, for example, do what the late film star ... Cary Grant did before he was an actor: In a carnival or fair or consulting room, you suspend a watch or a plumb bob above the abdomen of the expectant mother; if it swings left-right it's a boy, and if it swings forward-back it's a girl. The method works one time in two. Of course he was out of there before the baby was born, so he never heard from cust...

 "Romeo & Juliet" Was Not About True Love

TO BE FAIR WE MISTAKE INFATUATION FOR LOVE ALL THE TIME. EVEN AS ADULTS. WHY THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD WORK OF LITERATURE OF ALL TIME IS WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO & JULIET. TO THIS DAY, IT IS SPUN INTO SOME SORT OF CAUTIONARY TALE TO PARENTS AND SOCIETY NOT TO STAND IN THE WAY OF TRUE LOVE FOR THEIR RIDICULOUS PREJUDICES! AND WHILE IT IS CERTAINLY THAT, IT IS ALSO AND COMPLETE AND UTTER INDICTMENT OF THE STUPIDITY OF INFATUATION. THEY'RE LIKE TWO FOURTEEN YEAR OLDS WHO LOVE EACH OTHER AT ...

 The Give and Take of Gender on Evolution

Trivers and Willard realized that the same general principle of sex allocation, which determines the gender of nematodes and fish, applies even to those creatures that cannot change sex but that take care of their young. They predicted that animals would be found to have some systematic control over the sex ratio of their own young. Think of it as a competition to have the most grandchildren. If males are polygamous, a successful son can give you far more grandchildren than a successful daugh...

 The plural of anecdote is not data

A common way anecdotal evidence becomes unscientific is through fallacious reasoning such as the Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, the human tendency to assume that if one event happens after another, then the first must be the cause of the second. Another fallacy involvesinductive reasoning. For instance, if an anecdote illustrates a desired conclusion rather than a logical conclusion, it is considered a faulty orhasty generalization.[10] For example, here is anecdotal evidence...

 The Insane Clown Posse is Hilariously Ignorant

"No," sighs Violent J. "I figured most people would say, 'Wow, I didn't know Insane Clown Posse could be deep like that.' But instead it's, 'ICP said a giraffe is a miracle. Ha ha ha! What a bunch of idiots.'" He pauses, then adds defiantly, "A giraffe is a fucking miracle. It has a dinosaur-like neck. It's yellow. Yeah, technically an elephant is not a miracle. Technically. They've been here for hundreds of years..." "Thousands," murmurs Shaggy. Violent J shakes his head sorrowfully. "Wh...