Blog archive
June 2023
Communications Project with Cal State LA
06/02/2023
Creative Aging
06/01/2023
May 2023
One Villager's Story
05/31/2023
Pasadena Area Literary Arts Center
05/31/2023
Pasadena Village Responds to Rainbow Flag Burning at Pasadena Buddhist Temple
05/31/2023
Plan Ahead - And Be Prepared
05/31/2023
Tuesday, May 23 Pasadena Celebrated Older Americans
05/31/2023
Rumor of Humor #15
05/28/2023
Reparations, Social Justice Activity
05/24/2023
Rumor of Humor #14
05/19/2023
Rumor of Humor #13
05/12/2023
Issue #12
05/09/2023
Science Monday - Review of Meeting on April 10, 2023
05/09/2023
Conversations Re African American Artists Before 1920
05/08/2023
Beyond the Village – Suzi and Phil Hoge
05/01/2023
Congratulations Wayne April! Honored at UNH
05/01/2023
Table Topics
05/01/2023
Volunteer Appreciation at the Village
05/01/2023
“ACCIDENTAL HOST—The Story of Rat Lungworm Disease”
05/01/2023
April 2023
Jumbo Joy
04/24/2023
Pasadenans Recent Experience With Racism
04/23/2023
Recent Events Reflecting Racism
04/23/2023
Fig and Goat Cheese Bruschetta
04/18/2023
Photography for Social Justice
04/11/2023
Issue #8
04/07/2023
BEYOND THE VILLAGE - Catherine Deely
04/06/2023
Creative Writing in Older Adults
04/06/2023
Gifts of Love
04/06/2023
March 2023
Issue #7
03/31/2023
Issue #6
03/26/2023
Great Decisions update
03/14/2023
Dominion Lawsuit, South Africa and 710 Stub
03/08/2023
February 2023
2023 DEI Progress
02/27/2023
BEYOND THE VILLAGE - Doug Colliflower
02/26/2023
CONVERSATIONS WITH ART
02/26/2023
GREAT DECISIONS
02/26/2023
OLDER ADULTS RESOURCE FAIR
02/26/2023
The Important, Influential Books in our Lives - Revisited
02/26/2023
History, Resolution of the 710 Freeway
02/19/2023
Eminent Domain, 710 Highway
02/13/2023
Bernard Garrett, 710 Freeway
02/06/2023
Men's Times Gatherings
02/03/2023
January 2023
Pasadena's Senior Commission
01/30/2023
BEYOND THE VILLAGE - JIM HENDRICK
01/27/2023
GRATITUDE - IT'S GOOD FOR YOU!
01/27/2023
JEFF GUTSTADT - FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST
01/27/2023
Bernard Garrett, Incredible Black Entrepreneur
01/17/2023
What is the "Spirit Talk" Group About?
01/16/2023
Same Ol’ New Year, Brand New Me
01/12/2023
Review of 2022, Consideration of 2023
01/06/2023
BEYOND THE VILLAGE - PATTI LA MARR
01/03/2023
FROM THE CHAIR
01/03/2023
WALK WITH EASE
01/03/2023
Science: Optical Illusion
By Bob SnodgrassPosted: 07/23/2022
PASADENA VILLAGE SCIENCE Monday, summary of June 13 meeting,
Attending: Barbara, Bruce, Sharon, Dick, Bob
We enjoyed a cordial meeting; Barbara led off with an interesting presentation on optical illusions that she had sent around to the group: This Optical Illusion Has a Revelation About Your Brain and Eyes, From the NY Time article It was found that the stronger a participant’s reaction to the elusive photo, the more their pupils would dilate,
The main illusion is one of a pattern of black dots promoting the illusion of moving into a central dark hole. researchers hypothesize that the illusion works because the gradient on the central hole makes it look as if the viewer is entering a dark hole or tunnel, prompting the participants’ pupils to dilate.
This illusion has nothing to do with optical parameters although it is influenced by the color of the dots. It relies on the brain trying to predict what’s ahead, based on past experience.
Sharon followed this up with a study of myopia or near sightedness which is more common in Asian people. Myopia is interesting because it is both highly heritable and also much influenced by environment or activity. There are two basic forms of myopia: the eye is too long from front to back or the cornea is abnormally shaped, being excessively curved. Abnormalities of the lens may also cause myopia. Outdoor activity which need not be vigorous exercise, reduce myopia and tends to promote changes toward hyperopia. Increasing the number of hours of outdoor activity can slow the progression of myopic changes in the eye. How outdoor light exerts this effect on the structure of the eye is so far not known.
I closed with a review of the issues revealed by the very recent claim by Google Engineer Blake Lemoine that the Google software system, LaMDA, short for Language Model for Dialogue Applications, has achieved independent consciousness and has become his friend. He asked the company to hire a lawyer for the system to promote its rights. LaMDA is a chatbot system based on advanced large language models that mimic human speech by analyzing text from the internet. Large language models can predict which word should come after another, based on context. LaMDA technology is widely used in conversational search queries and auto-complete emails. It can be run on a variety of powerful computers. Mister Lemoine didn’t claim that his computer was sentient; he attributes this to the powerful software system. He says that his analysis is based on his religion.
It’s interesting to note how computing and artificial intelligence has progressed since Alan Turing proposed the test in 1950, based on the inability of a human observer to distinguish which party, a human, or a computer, communicating by text was the human. For decades, no computer or artificial intelligence system could pass this test. Not mentioned is the need for the human today, to be conversant with the abilities of these chat bot systems. Things have gotten quite complicated and the public has been left behind.
Lemoine said in a recent tweet “I’m a priest. When LaMDA claimed to have a soul and then was able to eloquently explain what it meant by that, I was inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt,” Lemoine said in a recent tweet. “Who am I to tell God where he can and can’t put souls?” This illustrates the dilemma. If Lemoine is convinced that the system has a soul which can be transferred from one computer to another, how could you prove him wrong? We can’t prove the existence or nonexistence of a soul, but many humans, including quite a few scientists, are absolutely convinced that souls exist. When we read of sentient computers, the first step is to investigate who is making the claim.
Our July meeting will be held Monday, July 11 at 4 PM. I hope to see many of you and to hear of new claims or reports that you have brought to our group.’ Our goal is to go beyond friendly conversation.
Bob Snodgrass