Category: reason

“Don’t! No Matter What!”

     One of the giveaways that “artificial intelligence” as it’s currently being vended to us is – pardon my Belgian – a crock of shit is the absolute unwillingness of such programs to accept a problem as stated. Problems that come with constraints are everywhere; human intellects deal with them routinely. But the “AI” known …

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Killers Part 3

     When force is made the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. – Ayn Rand      If you’ve read the previous two pieces in this little series, you’ve probably got the idea that I don’t much like governments. You’re right about that. The State, the human organization defined by its monopoly privilege of using …

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Killers Part 2

     An ancient principle of the law holds that he who aids or abets the commission or the concealment of a crime is as guilty of that crime as the perpetrator of the criminal act. Clearly, the abettor must condone the crime. Equally clearly, the abettor and the perpetrator share certain convictions, whether about the …

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Killers Part 1

     The civility cherished by the civilized men had finally been defeated by their ideas, although they did not know that this was the cause. After years of preaching contradictions and of evading principles with an anti-ideological shrug, these men were astonished to see the nation conclude that man cannot live by principles, that reason …

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The Unreasonable

     Clever title, eh? Gets the brain churning, doesn’t it? “The unreasonable who?” “The unreasonable what?” “Porretto’s playing games again, isn’t he?”      (“Again,” you say? When did I stop?)      Well, it’s all in a day’s work here at the Fortress of Crankitude, Long Island’s premier shrine to self-indulgent snark over too many glasses …

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