News & Articles

Perhaps AI can provide direction

Let’s face it.  We (humans) are not particularly good at some kinds of decisions. Examples abound: planning for the welfare of future generations, limiting population growth, environmental protection, inter-species dependency or even something as simple as deferring gratification. We tend to rely upon emotion, short-term goals, quarterly reports and what “seems to make sense at the moment.”

In one sense, poor decisionmaking may be chalked up to ignorance or laziness, but it is so ubiquitous that it appears to be built into human nature. Perhaps evolution has prepared us for chasing the tiger out of our cave or finding the best place to gather nuts, but has been ineffective in preparing us for sustaining the jungle or achieving symbiosis with the plants and animals we depend upon.

Of course, our poor decisionmaking leads to problems. We are becoming a global community, with complex interdependence on other countries, cultures, environments and species. Poor decision-making looks like a luxury we cannot afford. In fact, if civilization is not to be overwhelmed by climate change and resource exhaustion (to select two of many candidates), we will need to reframe our decisionmaking for long-term survival. We will need to be wiser. 

In this context, the emergence of AI (artificial intelligence) in decisionmaking algorithms is intriguing. AI, which can be programmed and directed by humans, has the potential to improve our priority-setting, and may even provide some guardrails for the future. When considering projects that will have long-term impacts – on the earth’s air, oceans or rain-forests, for example – AI might be valuable in envisioning and weighing alternative courses of action that take future generations into account.

Frankly, we need to do a better job. Our short-term decisions – economic, political, environmental – are taking us into a dead end. Perhaps AI can help us to be wiser.
Charles Gessert
Duluth, Minnesota 

It’s time to wake up

By now most people know that Biden and his criminal gang have sent and continue to send weapons to Netenyoyo, the criminal president of Israel (all of them are) who is using them to murder/genocide against the real owners of that part of the world-Palestine. We-American taxpayers- are funding this genocide. This Biden fellow along with most Senators and Representatives including Klobuchar, so called Democrats, are basically right-wing fascists and should all (those that send weapons to Israel) be impeached and tried under the International Criminal Court and sent to prison. Most of our “leaders” are criminals representing the rich corporate interests top on the list being the weapons industry.

We know that Amerika has killed well over 45,000 good people in Palestine and it doesn’t even bother them in the least. The media is basically in cahoots with these murderers but despite that Americans are starting to see what’s going on.
Schools, universities, clinics, hospitals, homes are all targets and none of that makes any difference to the fascists in the Senate, House, and White House. I taught English in Gaza and the West Bank of Palestine. The university where I taught in Gaza was bombed and destroyed.
It’s easy to blame the Israeli government but their horrendous crimes would not have happened had it not been for the criminal nature of the United States government wanting to control the world and take from it what is not rightly theirs. The Israeli government does what the U,S, wants it to do.
A government of and by the people? America is a democracy? A government representative of us? All of that is pure unadulterated bull-%&##! And More Americans better wake up if we want to become a nation that loves peace and good heartedness. We ain’t there yet-someday. I feel nothing but shame for the US government. And I hope that more Americans will get their heads out of their $%##$@ and WAKE UP!!

The murder/ genocide continues. The enemy of humanity is the United States government. Israel is its dirty little brother. Wake up Israelis! Wake up Americans!
Steve Johnson
Ely, Minnesota