the essence of the AI revolution

ころんで背骨に３ヵ所に圧迫骨折の怪我をした弟がリハビリ専門の病院に転院となり、その世話で忙しくなりました。
さて、Yuval Noah Harariの "Nexus" を読んでいます。Chapter 6, The New Members: How Computers Are Different from Printing Pressesからの引用です。

There is a lot more to say about the power of algorithms to shape politics. In particular, many readers may disagree with the argument that the algorithms made independent decisions, and may insist that everything the algorithms did was the result of code written by human engineers and of business models adopted by human executives. This book begs to differ. Human soldiers are shaped by the genetic code in their DNA and follow orders issued by executives, yet they can still make independent decisions. It is crucial to understand that the same is true of AI algorithms. They can learn by themselves things that no human engineer programmed, and they can decide things that no human executive foresaw. This is the essence of the AI revolution.

AIはそこまでのレベルに達しているのですか？　まだちょっと信じられませんが。

ossification

Yuval Noah Harariの "Nexus" を読んでいます。Chapter 5, Decisions: The Technological Pendulumからの引用です。

Totalitarian regimes choose to use modern information technology to centralize the flow of information and to stifle truth in order to maintain order. As a consequence, they have to struggle with the danger of ossification. When more and more information flows to only one place, will it result in efficient control or in blocked arteries and, finally, a heart attack?
...
Fast-forward twenty years, and it was the Soviet system that had become unworkable. The sclerotic gerontocrats on the podium in Red Square were a perfect emblem of a dysfunctional information network, lacking any meaningful self-correcting mechanisms. Decolonization, globalization, technological development, and changing gender roles led to rapid economic, social, and geopolitical changes. But the gerontocrats could not handle all the information streaming to Moscow, and since no subordinate was allowed much initiative, the entire system ossified and collapsed.

"ossification" と "ossified" の意味を原形の "ossify " で辞書を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: ossify (something) (formal, disapproving) to become or make something fixed and unable to change: an ossified political system
・Cambridge English Dictionary: If habits or ideas ossify, or if something ossifies them, they become fixed and unable to change: Years of easy success had ossified the company's thinking and it never faced up to the challenge of the new technology.
・Vocabulary.com: Ossify means to become bony. When a baby is born, some of their "bones" are actually soft cartilage, which allows for growth. As the child grows, these soft areas ossify into actual bone. The knee cap, for example, begins to ossify between ages 3 and 6.
From the literal "to become bony" meaning of ossify, we get the more figurative meaning: to become rigid or hardened. Although you and other young people may be willing to effect social changes, many older voters have ossified in their opinions. Convincing these rigid thinkers that these changes are good for the country will be quite the challenge. If your kids sneak food to their rooms, you may find ossified cheese under the beds. Even mice won't touch that!

disenfranchised

Yuval Noah Harariの "Nexus" を読んでいます。Chapter 5, Decisions: A Brief History of Democracy and Totalitarianismからの引用です。

Hitler began sending Jews and communists to concentration camps within months of rising to power through democratic elections, and in the United States numerous democratically elected governments have disenfranchised Africans, Native Africans, and other oppressed populations. Of course, most assaults on democracy are more subtle. The careers of strongmen like Vladimir Putin, Viktr Orban, Recep Tayyip Endgan, Rodorigo Duterre, Jair Bolsonaro, and Benjamin Netanyahu demonstrate how a leader who used democracy to rise to power can then use his power to undermine democracy.

democracyと言っても問題がありますね。"disenfranchised" は文脈からすると権利を剥奪されたの意味の様ですが、辞書で確認します。

・Collins Dictionary: deprived of the right to vote or other rights of citizenship the difficulties which disenfranchised minorities face: The idea would be that small investors who have previously been disenfranchised would be given a voice.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: not having the right to vote, or a similar right, or having had that right taken away: Hundreds of thousands of teenagers and particularly teenage girls are utterly disenfranchised in this culture.
・Vocabulary.com: The adjective disenfranchised describes a person or group of people who are stripped of their power, like disenfranchised post-Civil War African Americans who were deprived of their right to vote even after being freed from slavery.
Being disenfranchised is no fun. The rules work against you, your rights are constantly violated, and you have little power to change your life for the better. The Old French word enfranchis means “to make free,” and when you add the negative prefix dis-, disenfranchised means “made unfree.” A disenfranchised population doesn’t rest easy, and often they organize and fight back against their condition to demand their basic rights and freedom.

上の引用文には出てきませんでしたが、米国のトランプ大統領も民主的に選ばれた大統領ですが、権限があり過ぎるようで、"a leader who used democracy to rise to power can then use his power to undermine democracy" の見事な見本ですね。

lacunae/lacuna

Yuval Noah Harariの "Nexus" を読んでいます。Errors: The Fantasy of Infallibilityの章のTHE DISCOVERY OF IGNORANCEから引用します。

The scientific project starts by rejecting the fantasy of infallibility and proceeding to construct an information network that takes error to be inescapable. Sure, there is much talk about the genius of Copernicus, Darwin, and Einstein, but none of them is considered faultless. They all made mistakes, and even the most celebrated scientific tracts are sure to contain errors and lacunae.

最後に出てきた "lacunae" はいかにもラテン語由来の感じですね。　辞書を見ます。

・Cambridge English Dictionary: an absent part, especially in a book or other piece of writing: However, skilful editing cannot quite conceal the notable lacunae within the book.
・American Heritage Dictionary: An empty space or a missing part; a gap: "self-centered in opinion, with curious lacunae of astounding ignorance"
・Vocabulary.com: A lacuna is a gap or missing part. If you complain that there's a major lacuna in the bake sale, the lack of brownies is probably to blame.
The noun lacuna means an empty space or a hole where something should be. It's used a lot to talk about missing parts of books or manuscripts, either because lost pages have created a lacuna, or because censors have blacked out or removed parts of them. In the study of anatomy, a lacuna is a hollowed-out place or a cavity within a bone. In Latin, lacuna means "pit or hole," and its plural is lacunae.

欠損、脱落ですね。"lacunae" は複数形で、単数形は "lacuna" でした。

Religions

小笠原船の旅から帰って来ました。クジラの潮吹きも見たし、アオウミガメは保護されている亀ですが沢山いました。船にはジムもプールもあったのですが、船が揺れるのでやる気になりませんでした。おまけに豪華な食事の連続で若干体重が増えました。今日からジムで走るぞ。さて、Yuval Noah Harariの "Nexus" を読んでいます。Part 1, Chapter 4 Errors: The Fantasy of Infallibilityの章から引用します。

In our personal lives, religion can fulfill many different functions, like providing solace or explaining the mysteries of life. But historically, the most important function of religion has been to provide superhuman legitimacy for the social order. Religions like Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism propose that their ideas and rules were established by an infallible superhuman authority, and are therfore free from all possibility of error, and should never be questioned or changed by fallible humans.

宗教についてこの様に説明していますが、これは宗教が "intersubjective" であり、"objective" では無いことも意味しています。