Tag Archives: Jeopardy

Together We Stand

Many times, I have heard the words ‘together we stand, divided we fall’. Those words are truer than most people think. In any combat situation it takes all members of the operation to come together as a unit to survive. If a member decides to go it alone the entire unit is in jeopardy of dying. With the unit fighting as one, there is a good chance that the unit will survive.

               There are two major situations before the citizens of the United States, and both need our immediate attention. COVID-19 and The President of the United States. There are people that do all the precautions, up to and including wearing masks to prevent and stop the spread of COVID-19. The other is the present man in the White House inciting the siege on the U.S. Capitol. In fact, both concerns greatly involve the President.

               The President have told everyone that listens to him that the virus is a hoax, bleach and other things would clean the body and cure the virus, stimmed information on what is happening and what to do about the virus, not to wear masks because he was not going to wear a mask, and many other untruths about the virus. Those people that reported the truth or leaked truthful information were fired. This was from our President and the Republican party, his underlings, and his followers did as they were told and did not try to stop nor correct him. Everything that is happening is on them as much as it is on him.

               Sedition and conspiracy against the United States of America is the worst thing I have ever seen and heard in my lifetime, except in third world countries. I saw and heard the President tell his base, that were present for his speech, to go to the Capitol. He knew what they were going to do, and he encouraged them to do it. They had inside help, I am sure. The Capitol was lightly manned with protection and the warnings that was conveyed was disregarded. While grocery shopping, I heard two men talking, not loudly but slightly louder than normal. They were talking about a civil war and how the election was stolen, etc. I did not confront them, my wife and I got what we were in the area for and walked on. I noticed others looking at them and they also walked on.

               Our country is divided and if that seam of contention is not sewn together, we will fall. It reminds me of the book ‘The Fall of the Roman Empire’. Looking back at history and, in most cases history can and will repeat itself, I find that the downfall of the nations is done through division. Like in a combat situation, divide and conquer. Because the President can not be a dictator or supreme ruler, he wants to take the nation down and his followers can not see this nor do they have sense enough to care. His followers, especially those in government (Congress, staffers, etc.) should be investigated, fined, and jailed as soon as possible.

Watson

Looking back, I can see many things that were, years ago, thought to be either science-fiction or someone’s imagination or just plain entertainment because it was considered an impossibility. To give an example (young people don’t know about this) just look at Dick Tracy from the comic strips. He had a wrist watch that he could not only talk into and hear but he could see the person he contacted and the person could see him. I was always fascinated then and can see all of it now. For those of you that can’t remember when Dick Tracy was printed, try the 1950’s and ’60’s.

Quite a few things have come from the original Star Trek Series (Capt. James Kirk, Mr. Spock, etc) that, at the time, had my head spinning. There is so much that have come from the imagination of others that wanted to entertain us but, instead, were ahead of the world they were in. They jumped to another sphere. A sphere that no one, not even them, could have seen without a crystal ball into the future. And the then future is still coming, little by little.

We seniors, if you think a little, can see things that came about when we were young that boggled the mind, but, were thought about years before that. The people that were proposing those things were said to be crazy or were completely ignored. And, just think, the not so imaginary things are still coming about. Remember Lost In Space? Remember the robot in Lost In Space?

There is a lot of work being done on AI (Artificial Intelligence). That is the project being done on robots and making them super intelligent. They are making robots that can think, never forget and get smarter on it’s own. Also, they are making robots that are making robots. I can still remember watching Lost In Space on a black and white television and saying to myself that it was impossible for a robot to do the things that it did.

The computer that was on Jeopardy and won the game (named Watson) was a hit for quite some time. Watson is still around. Wrap your head around this; Watson is being used in a hospital diagnosing ailments and proposing a course of action. Watson has read everything there is to read about medicine and every medical journal that comes out. A doctor can not do that nor remember the entire written material. Watson can and did. Watson not only reads written material, it can also look at x-rays, MRI’s and all the other things. I remember reading comic books about that back in the early sixties.

I also remember reading, and seeing movies, about computers going amok, taking over the world and treating humans as slaves. There are scientists who are now thinking the same thing and is getting a lot of resistance to that idea. As a senior citizen, I don’t have to worry about that. I don’t have that much longer in this world and robots aren’t developing that fast. Or are they?

Some people are saying robots are not around them (I guess they are thinking about machines running around doing things) but I beg to differ. I’ll name a few things and, believe me, there are so, so many more things I could name. There are self driving vehicles, cell phones, television (broadcasting units and viewing apparatus’), all sorts of computers, and to put things into a nut shell, everything that is anything has some type of electronics in it. These things can or almost can operate on it’s own or remotely, by another human or by another computer.

All of us at Imperial Plaza utilize some sort of computer (robot) each and every day, from the time we awaken (does a robot (alarm clock) awaken you) to the moment we go to sleep (does the computerized TV or radio put you to sleep), whether we realize it or not. It is a beautiful thing. Or is it? Will the robots take over Imperial Plaza? Will they take over the world? Time will tell. More time than I have left.