Scattershots – 17apr12

George Rebane

The Financial Times reports (here) that Spain’s central government is looking to federalize financially distressed regions of the country.  (Greece essentially succumbed to such central control early on so as to avoid the rush.)  RR has anticipated a similar fate for California and states like Illinois, New Jersey, … under equally astute financial management by their state governments.  It’s all part of the European model that Team Obama is forging for us.

On another and more earth-shaking note, artificial intelligence may be at the threshold of passing the Turing Test (q.v.).  The new direction taken in AI recently depends on being able to manage ‘big data’.  That is, being able to organize and draw cross connections and correlations similar to what humans are able to do, and to do this much better than IBM’s Watson (q.v.).  the 12apr12 issue of Wired reports (here) that “there is reason to believe that code kernels for the first Turing-intelligent machine have already been written.”

The anticipated breakout is due to “Two revolutionary advances in information technology (which) may bring the Turing test out of retirement,” wrote Robert French, a cognitive scientist at the French National Center for Scientific Research, in a 12apr12 Science essay. “The first is the ready availability of vast amounts of raw data — from video feeds to complete sound environments, and from casual conversations to technical documents on every conceivable subject. The second is the advent of sophisticated techniques for collecting, organizing, and processing this rich collection of data.”  The pre-Singularity threshold for hiring human workers continues to inch upward.

Meanwhile the Senate Democrats failed in their attempt to pass the ‘Buffett Rule’ tax increase.  This much ballyhooed piece of snowball’s-chance-in-hell legislation is the centerpiece of Obama’s campaign initiative sold to the sheeple under the rubric of “fairness” in solving our debt and deficit  problems in coming years.  But without even going into the examination of ‘fairness’, the Buffet Rule tax will accomplish none of this, and serve only as the transom to massive tax increases on the middle class (some history here).  The Heritage Foundation covers more detail on this.

The facts of the Buffett Rule are simple. The President wants millionaires (and small businesses taxed as individuals) to pay a minimum tax of 30 percent. For all of his rhetoric that the measure would "stabilize our debt and deficits for the next decade," the Buffett Rule would bring in only $47 billion in revenue in ten years. To put those numbers in context, President Obama's budget calls for adding $6.7 trillion to the national debt. So the Buffett Rule would cover just 0.007% of all of Obama's debt and .001% of Obama's spending.

We shudder to contemplate that there are millions of Democrats with sufficient deficits as to make such election year demogauging a profitable enterprise for their progressive elite.  No one doubts that they know their constiuents.

Comments

[Douglas Keachie]

So, 100,000,000 million Americans, maybe the ones who pay "no taxes" could each make and send to the government $47 dollars each, per year, to get the same results. Of course the Buffett Rule payers will need to create 100,000,000 hours worth of work for this to happen. They've have 10 years plus of tax cuts, supposedly to make such jobs. Time for them to take responsibility for the promises so far unkept.

[Douglas Keachie]

Should be using new Gravatar, hmmmm. Delete this note.

[Russ Steele]

A Creation Myth for the Computer Age

The link has video interview with George Dyson about his new book, Turing's Cathedral.

The book is a fascinating, meticulously researched account of the effort to build the first universal Turing machine, under the leadership of the mercurial John von Neumann, at the Institute for Advanced Study during the second world war. The resulting computer, called the MANIAC, was used to perform thermonuclear calculations that fueled the development of the atomic bomb, and, in spare moments, to perform mathematical calculations on principles of symbiogenesis and evolution.

The story has a personal side for George, who spent his early years at the Institute, where his father Freeman Dyson worked as a professor, and he remembers playing with some of the parts discarded by the engineers working on the computer project.

[Account Deleted]

Doug - you've swerved into something there. The "little guy" that has to come up with 47 bucks a year to make up for the lack of an increase in taxes on the wealthier crowd. How much extra in food, gas and utilities have these same good folk had to pay because of Obamanomics? Probably 47 a week, but hey - who does math anymore? Obama has already admitted the Buffet rule won't even come close to balancing the budget, but he gets votes on it from folks like you and that's the whole point. It was the Dem controlled Senate that wouldn't pass it and the Dem controlled Senate that wouldn't cast one vote for BO's budget. Now Obama is telling us the oil speculators will be facing increased fines. And the govt will watch over them more closely. He's already admitted it probably won't bring down gasoline prices, but it's fun to point fingers at others when you're screwing up.

[billy T]

Speaking of artificial intelligence, some kids had fun messing with it. Schools out in Spokane in early May.http://www.krem.com/news/local/Spokane-School-online-database-crashes-grades-and-curriculum-not-backed-up-147841105.html And I thought only dummies like me don't back up data. Scott, I am not concerned about Obama's latest enemy, the oil speculators. That is a given. At first I thought we were finally going to wean ourselves off foreign oil. Silly me, we are weaning ourselves off all oil, aka fossil fuels. No, the one that worries me is natural gas. The falling natural gas prices have put a crimp in the solar panel industry. We have more home grown natural gas than we know what to do with. But, natural gas will be the next thing on Obama's enemies list as it is seen as a threat to his energy policy. Exciting times. Just this year we have Obama's enemies list grow from Israel, the millionaires, The US Supreme Court, the Congress of the United States, fossil fuel, and Rep. Ryan.

[Douglas Keachie]

I did mention that the jobs would pay $47/hour and last for one hour, no?

[Douglas Keachie]

Avatar still not changing?

[THEMIKEYMCD]

From Hedgeye: "The French election is critical because: A) Hollande is a Socialist, B) Hollande is a Socialist, and C) Hollande has stated that if elected he will renegotiate the EU budget compact and that he will not accept austerity as rule for countries. Things are about to get a lot more challenging politically in the great monetary union that is the Eurozone."

[Ian Random]

I wish the Buffett rule was voluntary, that way all those really generous rich folks can opt to pay more easily. I think that Massachusetts had something like that.