as we get older, the effective utility of changing is proportional to the
time we have remaining. Recently a young, eager hot-shot programmer told me
to learn a new language and improve my programming skills. My response was,
"I'm almost 50 -- well over half-way through. From here on in, I'm running
out the clock!"
Every year you procrastinate on improving yourself, the less it matters.
Now isn't that a wonderful way to frame the narrative of life?
Friday, December 07, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
The Church of Plausible Deniability
now that's a place I would worship.
Here's an interesting link -- a thread by a number of de-converted Christians. Some of their stories are quite moving really:
http://www.daylightatheism.org/2007/11/open-thread-4.html
The last line of the last post says it best:
"I stand by my conclusions on the basis of four simple principles: a) There is no evidence for the existence of the supernatural b) the Bible does not appear to be an inspired document c) the nature of the Christian God is contradictory and nonsensical and d) Christianity simply makes more sense as an evolved belief system than it does as a divine revelation[.]"
- Bill1324, ex-believer
Here's an interesting link -- a thread by a number of de-converted Christians. Some of their stories are quite moving really:
http://www.daylightatheism.org/2007/11/open-thread-4.html
The last line of the last post says it best:
"I stand by my conclusions on the basis of four simple principles: a) There is no evidence for the existence of the supernatural b) the Bible does not appear to be an inspired document c) the nature of the Christian God is contradictory and nonsensical and d) Christianity simply makes more sense as an evolved belief system than it does as a divine revelation[.]"
- Bill1324, ex-believer
Monday, November 12, 2007
Robot Dreams
I've been thinking a lot lately about robots. What they can do, what they will be, how we will create them, how they will change us. It starts from an immediate and local problem: figuring out what to do with my life. I've spent a year at Anybots, absorbing robot culture, thinking robot thoughts. Now I have to decide what I'm willing to invest in this crazy idea -- that robots are real, that they want us to make them, and that we will.
The first thing I had to realize is that building robots is not primarily a technical challenge. Sure, it's hard, but it is doable -- of that there is no doubt. Robots of one kind or another already exist, will continue to exist, and will 'evolve', in the sense that they will become more capable, more complex, and more entwined with our lives. The hard part about building robots is deciding what robot to build. On the platonic plane, there exists an infinity of robots, each one perfect in its own way. Choosing the correct perfection to strive for is the challenge, and it is, to quote Beavis and Butthead, "like hard and stuff".
What this means in practice is that robot building is not pure engineering; nor is it simply craft. It is an art. There is at least one great precedent for an art that is at the same time a craft and an engineering discipline: Architecture. It's not the only one, however; more and more, technology, culture, art, and craft are mashed up into a big paste of techno-culture gear. Cars are a lifestyle choice; iPods are a fashion statement. Robots will have feng shui.
Where there's art, there are artists. Who will be the Frank Lloyd Wright, the Karl Benz, the Wozniak & Jobs of robots? There will be big teams of people involved, of course. But, at least at the beginning, I'm pretty sure the important robots will be conceived by auteurs; individuals, or very small groups (ala the Wright Brothers), and they will drive their vision into existence with the kind of single-minded focus and persistence that large organizations can never truly muster.
Another outcome of this view is that you won't see too many typical venture-backed business models. This is going to be a 'hit-driven' business, where the utility of the product is less important than the timing, the trends, the cool factor, the buzz. In some ways that's too bad, because it means that there will be many talented, hard-working folk whose robot dreams will die on the vine. As in similar industries (entertainment, fashion), it will be possible to carve out a career without being the auteur; but for those who want recognition and success, few who are called will be chosen. There will also be the Van Goghs, the ignored geniuses whose importance is only seen later, long after the work is completed, as well as the Picassos who are lauded and feted during their lifetime. There will be the Salieris and one-hit wonders, whose careers burn brightly for a while, but who don't leave a corpus of work important enough to put them in the pantheon of true greats.
I'm not sure what to do with this realization, other than to document it in this, my perfectly unread blog. There are personal implications, such as the distinction between attempting the act of creation myself (writing the song), versus playing second fiddle to another's music (playing in the band). There is no shame in the latter, but if my ambition is to grasp the brass ring, I need to have the opportunity to pursue that path as well. If my own creations don't make the big time, at least I won't be bitter about not having taken the chance to create my own reality.
The first thing I had to realize is that building robots is not primarily a technical challenge. Sure, it's hard, but it is doable -- of that there is no doubt. Robots of one kind or another already exist, will continue to exist, and will 'evolve', in the sense that they will become more capable, more complex, and more entwined with our lives. The hard part about building robots is deciding what robot to build. On the platonic plane, there exists an infinity of robots, each one perfect in its own way. Choosing the correct perfection to strive for is the challenge, and it is, to quote Beavis and Butthead, "like hard and stuff".
What this means in practice is that robot building is not pure engineering; nor is it simply craft. It is an art. There is at least one great precedent for an art that is at the same time a craft and an engineering discipline: Architecture. It's not the only one, however; more and more, technology, culture, art, and craft are mashed up into a big paste of techno-culture gear. Cars are a lifestyle choice; iPods are a fashion statement. Robots will have feng shui.
Where there's art, there are artists. Who will be the Frank Lloyd Wright, the Karl Benz, the Wozniak & Jobs of robots? There will be big teams of people involved, of course. But, at least at the beginning, I'm pretty sure the important robots will be conceived by auteurs; individuals, or very small groups (ala the Wright Brothers), and they will drive their vision into existence with the kind of single-minded focus and persistence that large organizations can never truly muster.
Another outcome of this view is that you won't see too many typical venture-backed business models. This is going to be a 'hit-driven' business, where the utility of the product is less important than the timing, the trends, the cool factor, the buzz. In some ways that's too bad, because it means that there will be many talented, hard-working folk whose robot dreams will die on the vine. As in similar industries (entertainment, fashion), it will be possible to carve out a career without being the auteur; but for those who want recognition and success, few who are called will be chosen. There will also be the Van Goghs, the ignored geniuses whose importance is only seen later, long after the work is completed, as well as the Picassos who are lauded and feted during their lifetime. There will be the Salieris and one-hit wonders, whose careers burn brightly for a while, but who don't leave a corpus of work important enough to put them in the pantheon of true greats.
I'm not sure what to do with this realization, other than to document it in this, my perfectly unread blog. There are personal implications, such as the distinction between attempting the act of creation myself (writing the song), versus playing second fiddle to another's music (playing in the band). There is no shame in the latter, but if my ambition is to grasp the brass ring, I need to have the opportunity to pursue that path as well. If my own creations don't make the big time, at least I won't be bitter about not having taken the chance to create my own reality.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Artificial Reality
When I started this blog, I called it Artiphys, because at the time I was working with Ed Fredkin on discrete physics (* footnote). I had this idea that one could turn Ed's theory, that the Universe is a digital computer, upside down: create a digital universe of our own, and see what happens in it. Maybe that's why ours exists in the first place (as good a cosmology as any perhaps?)
Lately, I've become involved in a project that may have the potential to realize some of these ideas. OpenSim (www.opensimulator.org) is an open-source implementation of the Second Life protocol, meaning you can use it to run your own Second Life-style 'grid'. In case you didn't know, Second Life uses multiplayer videogame technology to create a 3D world where you can interact with the environment and other characters (called Avatars). It's on the Internets.
My involvement with this project has centered mostly around the physics engine, though my interest in the technology and its implications is much wider than that. But the physics is a great place to start, because it brings up a bunch of interesting intellectual and philosophical questions relating to this whole area, which I like to call "Artifical Reality".
Artificial Reality is different than Virtual Reality in the following way: it doesn't just aim to duplicate our reality in virtual form; it aims to be something 'real' in its own right, with its own rules, entities, interactions, and outcomes. Where VR has always had the connotation that you transform into a digital version of yourself and interact with a digital environment, AR implies a world that exists without you or any 'real' entities, independently. It is a persistent world, that does not stop existing because you take off your VR headset and remove the glove.
Second Life is presently at a stopping point between VR and AR. I think of it as Web 3.0 (see previous post) -- adding presence to information and identity. It also has persistence (it exists when you're not there), but that is mostly due to other flesh-and-blood people who are logged on when you're not. Artificial Reality (I will not submit to the temptation to bump the web version number at this point) adds autonomy and independence to the picture. So we have a heirarchy of information structures that leads from the existence of bits and bytes up to an independent reality that takes its own form and structure:
level 1: information
level 2: identity
level 3: presence
level 4: persistence
level 5: independence
To get to level 5, we need more than just pretty avatars, cool graphic bling, and a slapped-on overlay of videogame-style physics. We need the logic of object interactions to be precisely defined, and that logic has to have some very specific properties if we want the resulting world to be interesting, coherent, and stable. My ultimate dream is to create an alternate reality so rich that it can exhibit some of the features of real reality that I find fascinating, such as the emergence of order out of chaos. This has to do with information theory, entropy, discrete vs. continuous, reversibility, A-life, and a host of other subjects. There is a distinct chance that all of these elements can come together to form something completely new and unexpected. Wouldn't that be fun?
footnotes
* Ed's website, www.digitalphilosophy.org, appears to be down; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_philosophy for background. The paper we wrote together at Carnegie Mellon can be found here: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/danbmil/salt/
Ben Goertzel has been talking about similar stuff, to a much wider audience (see my link to his blog). To my knowledge, he has not proposed a concrete model that addresses the low-level discrete physics issue.
There are a number of sci-fi works that touch on this subject:
- The Matrix -- obviously (here's hoping our emergent AGI's aren't as malevolent as Agent Smith). Note that the paradigm of the Matrix still clutches tightly to the idea that a 'real' body must exist somewhere (the people are all kept alive in vats). What's that about?
- Permutation City, a novel by Greg Egan
- Non Serviam a short story by Stanislaw Lem (reprinted in Hofstaedter's The Mind's I
Lately, I've become involved in a project that may have the potential to realize some of these ideas. OpenSim (www.opensimulator.org) is an open-source implementation of the Second Life protocol, meaning you can use it to run your own Second Life-style 'grid'. In case you didn't know, Second Life uses multiplayer videogame technology to create a 3D world where you can interact with the environment and other characters (called Avatars). It's on the Internets.
My involvement with this project has centered mostly around the physics engine, though my interest in the technology and its implications is much wider than that. But the physics is a great place to start, because it brings up a bunch of interesting intellectual and philosophical questions relating to this whole area, which I like to call "Artifical Reality".
Artificial Reality is different than Virtual Reality in the following way: it doesn't just aim to duplicate our reality in virtual form; it aims to be something 'real' in its own right, with its own rules, entities, interactions, and outcomes. Where VR has always had the connotation that you transform into a digital version of yourself and interact with a digital environment, AR implies a world that exists without you or any 'real' entities, independently. It is a persistent world, that does not stop existing because you take off your VR headset and remove the glove.
Second Life is presently at a stopping point between VR and AR. I think of it as Web 3.0 (see previous post) -- adding presence to information and identity. It also has persistence (it exists when you're not there), but that is mostly due to other flesh-and-blood people who are logged on when you're not. Artificial Reality (I will not submit to the temptation to bump the web version number at this point) adds autonomy and independence to the picture. So we have a heirarchy of information structures that leads from the existence of bits and bytes up to an independent reality that takes its own form and structure:
level 1: information
level 2: identity
level 3: presence
level 4: persistence
level 5: independence
To get to level 5, we need more than just pretty avatars, cool graphic bling, and a slapped-on overlay of videogame-style physics. We need the logic of object interactions to be precisely defined, and that logic has to have some very specific properties if we want the resulting world to be interesting, coherent, and stable. My ultimate dream is to create an alternate reality so rich that it can exhibit some of the features of real reality that I find fascinating, such as the emergence of order out of chaos. This has to do with information theory, entropy, discrete vs. continuous, reversibility, A-life, and a host of other subjects. There is a distinct chance that all of these elements can come together to form something completely new and unexpected. Wouldn't that be fun?
footnotes
* Ed's website, www.digitalphilosophy.org, appears to be down; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_philosophy for background. The paper we wrote together at Carnegie Mellon can be found here: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/danbmil/salt/
Ben Goertzel has been talking about similar stuff, to a much wider audience (see my link to his blog). To my knowledge, he has not proposed a concrete model that addresses the low-level discrete physics issue.
There are a number of sci-fi works that touch on this subject:
- The Matrix -- obviously (here's hoping our emergent AGI's aren't as malevolent as Agent Smith). Note that the paradigm of the Matrix still clutches tightly to the idea that a 'real' body must exist somewhere (the people are all kept alive in vats). What's that about?
- Permutation City, a novel by Greg Egan
- Non Serviam a short story by Stanislaw Lem (reprinted in Hofstaedter's The Mind's I
Sunday, September 23, 2007
the unspeakable
“A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. Suck it, Jesus, this award is my god now!”
-- Kathy Griffin, award acceptance speech at the Emmys.
E! entertainment cut the clip, refusing to air it. Jesus, doesn't anyone have a sense of humor anymore? It's just a fucking religion. Get over it.
-- Kathy Griffin, award acceptance speech at the Emmys.
E! entertainment cut the clip, refusing to air it. Jesus, doesn't anyone have a sense of humor anymore? It's just a fucking religion. Get over it.
Sunday, September 02, 2007
"Yes, Julie -- there are dogs in heaven!"
This just came to me in the middle of the night. It seems so right to say it.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
why we code
"I have been reading, with great satisfaction, the many articles in magazines about Linux free software. People in the business world are not able to comprehend why the computer people give their work away. I am unable to think about this without becoming emotional. It is no mystery to me why they download their intellectual ideas into the vast, evolving and continually improving computer operating system. It is because their thoughts will live forever as part of the "genetic code" of the computer program. They are putting themselves into the program and their “intellectual DNA" will live forever in cyber-space. As the program evolves and changes, the code they wrote will probably remain hidden deep within it. It is almost like a living thing that is continually evolving and improving. For both me and for the programmers that contribute to Linux, we do it because it makes our lives more meaningful."
-Temple Grandin
-Temple Grandin
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Monday, July 02, 2007
the yoke
What is happening in the Islamic world? The last holdouts are fighting the yoke of modern civilized domestication. Their culture will be subsumed; their values replaced; their traditions discarded or, worse yet, converted into cute token museum pieces. They will eventually take their place at the table of capitalism, consumerism, and pseudo-freedom sans privacy, anonymity, individuality. They better get used to it; everyone else has.
It's all good.
It's all good.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
The time has come
the walrus said, to speak of many things.
From a mailing list I'm on:
> The best book on programming for the layman is Alice in Wonderland;
> but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.
This just reminded me of my maternal grandfather, who 'turned me on' to Lewis Carrol when I was maybe 7 or 8. He also exposed me to Scientific American (when it mattered), of course leading to Gardner's columns on Life (cellular automata), which led me to meet Ed Fredkin years later, which led to...
He also did two other things I can never forget: 1) he explained what Ninkompoops were (people who invested in his inventions but didn't really understand their true potential, and wouldn't cough up that last $10 million). and 2) showed me how an electric motor worked, by building one from scratch, using plywood, metal, and wire.
A life-long atheist, his soul burns brightly still within me, and it's all done without a lick of magic.
-dbm
From a mailing list I'm on:
> The best book on programming for the layman is Alice in Wonderland;
> but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.
This just reminded me of my maternal grandfather, who 'turned me on' to Lewis Carrol when I was maybe 7 or 8. He also exposed me to Scientific American (when it mattered), of course leading to Gardner's columns on Life (cellular automata), which led me to meet Ed Fredkin years later, which led to...
He also did two other things I can never forget: 1) he explained what Ninkompoops were (people who invested in his inventions but didn't really understand their true potential, and wouldn't cough up that last $10 million). and 2) showed me how an electric motor worked, by building one from scratch, using plywood, metal, and wire.
A life-long atheist, his soul burns brightly still within me, and it's all done without a lick of magic.
-dbm
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
quote of the day
"Soon after the article appeared, an Iranian cleric - angered by its depiction of Islam as a violent religion - offered his house to anyone who killed the journalists, Reuters reported on Friday."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9806DBD9-777C-42B2-A740-BC9991C195DF.htm
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9806DBD9-777C-42B2-A740-BC9991C195DF.htm
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
balance
I'm working on balance.
My day job is teaching a robot to walk on two legs; that takes balance.
My antidepressants stopped working; an issue of chemical balance.
The guy who just shot 33 people in Virginia was not, I suspect, balanced.
Who to blame? So much blame, so little time. I'll throw this one out: cultural values that force people to repress their feelings, conform or be rejected, fit in our be an outcast, do not promote inner balance. They are by their very nature unbalanced creeds; they insist that one size fits all. "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down" they say in Japan. There are elements of this in almost all formal religions; in science and academia, in professional circles, in nations, within ethnic cultures, in high school, summer camp, support groups, political parties, virtual communities (Second Life), and so on. Pretty much everywhere humans get together, there is a sense of belonging for some, coupled with the meme that there are others who simply don't belong.
There's nothing wrong with wanting to interact with like-minded individuals. But, why does that seem so often to lead to a feeling of superiority and/or subjugation? The idea that it's a zero-sum game: us, or them. Sunni/Shiite; Aarab/Iisraeli; democrat/republican; east/west; religious/secular; black/white.
Whatever happened to Yin/Yang?
My day job is teaching a robot to walk on two legs; that takes balance.
My antidepressants stopped working; an issue of chemical balance.
The guy who just shot 33 people in Virginia was not, I suspect, balanced.
Who to blame? So much blame, so little time. I'll throw this one out: cultural values that force people to repress their feelings, conform or be rejected, fit in our be an outcast, do not promote inner balance. They are by their very nature unbalanced creeds; they insist that one size fits all. "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down" they say in Japan. There are elements of this in almost all formal religions; in science and academia, in professional circles, in nations, within ethnic cultures, in high school, summer camp, support groups, political parties, virtual communities (Second Life), and so on. Pretty much everywhere humans get together, there is a sense of belonging for some, coupled with the meme that there are others who simply don't belong.
There's nothing wrong with wanting to interact with like-minded individuals. But, why does that seem so often to lead to a feeling of superiority and/or subjugation? The idea that it's a zero-sum game: us, or them. Sunni/Shiite; Aarab/Iisraeli; democrat/republican; east/west; religious/secular; black/white.
Whatever happened to Yin/Yang?
Monday, March 05, 2007
The Path
I had a bad day.
It started with a root canal that is acting up. That's strange, because they supposedly took out all the nerves. Phantom nerves that feel pain -- what a concept.
Then I had to drive the kid to work because the wife felt sick. Six hours of sleep is simply not enough anymore. I was dragging the whole day.
My dream job has recently become... less dreamy. People are involved, and let's face it, they fuck everything up. If it wasn't for people, the world would be a perfect place.
Alien robots have replaced my Zoloft with a placebo, as part of a controlled experiment for the galactic equivalent of the FDA (this is not a joke).
It's starting to feel personal.
On my way home, I took a back road that passes by some wetland preserves. A few weeks ago, Brax and I hiked down a trail there until some mud puddles obstructed our way. On a whim, I parked the car and started down the trail. I just needed to get out of myself for a second; to feel something other than the slow, stifling wet blanket of civilized suburban decay.
I crossed the mud puddle, and it was wet. My nice pants and crappy sandals were soaked. I kept going, resolved to find the end of the trail once and for all. In my mind, there was a clear demarcation: path's end; a full stop. Perhaps a postcard perfect photo-op of the bay? (I can get that at Fisherman's Wharf). At least a T into the bayside trail.
Instead, the path just faded away. First, there was more mud and water; then, at some point, the trail itself just... petered out. Slow dissolve into non-trailness. A consequence, no doubt, of the uncountable numbers of persons like myself, inclined to follow this path to its end; each of us, independently, learning that our path leads somewhere slightly different; the sum total result being a delta of roads less travelled, fanning out into the muddy virgin swamp.
I could have pushed on, gotten wetter and muddier... but it was time for me to head home.
-dbm
It started with a root canal that is acting up. That's strange, because they supposedly took out all the nerves. Phantom nerves that feel pain -- what a concept.
Then I had to drive the kid to work because the wife felt sick. Six hours of sleep is simply not enough anymore. I was dragging the whole day.
My dream job has recently become... less dreamy. People are involved, and let's face it, they fuck everything up. If it wasn't for people, the world would be a perfect place.
Alien robots have replaced my Zoloft with a placebo, as part of a controlled experiment for the galactic equivalent of the FDA (this is not a joke).
It's starting to feel personal.
On my way home, I took a back road that passes by some wetland preserves. A few weeks ago, Brax and I hiked down a trail there until some mud puddles obstructed our way. On a whim, I parked the car and started down the trail. I just needed to get out of myself for a second; to feel something other than the slow, stifling wet blanket of civilized suburban decay.
I crossed the mud puddle, and it was wet. My nice pants and crappy sandals were soaked. I kept going, resolved to find the end of the trail once and for all. In my mind, there was a clear demarcation: path's end; a full stop. Perhaps a postcard perfect photo-op of the bay? (I can get that at Fisherman's Wharf). At least a T into the bayside trail.
Instead, the path just faded away. First, there was more mud and water; then, at some point, the trail itself just... petered out. Slow dissolve into non-trailness. A consequence, no doubt, of the uncountable numbers of persons like myself, inclined to follow this path to its end; each of us, independently, learning that our path leads somewhere slightly different; the sum total result being a delta of roads less travelled, fanning out into the muddy virgin swamp.
I could have pushed on, gotten wetter and muddier... but it was time for me to head home.
-dbm
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Pray to the children, not for them
They are the gods that can will our wishes into reality. They will fulfill our promises, and/or pay for our sins. When we are gone, we will live on in their memories, which is as close to an afterlife as we can resonably expect.
We may become their myths and legends, but that is fantasy. In reality, they are the ones with the power, the wisdom, the knowledge and the glory; we are just ghosts and archetypes, wispy figments of the past, holding on to our fading memories of past triumphs and failures.
Pray to them, that they will do better than us.
We may become their myths and legends, but that is fantasy. In reality, they are the ones with the power, the wisdom, the knowledge and the glory; we are just ghosts and archetypes, wispy figments of the past, holding on to our fading memories of past triumphs and failures.
Pray to them, that they will do better than us.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Taking the Leap
(riposte to Sam Harris' "The End Of Faith")
I think I have it all figured out. Secular, liberal philosophy fails, because it attempts to derive ethical behavior from first principles. This is impossible: there is no rational basis for kindness. Sure, the Eggheads can blather on about the sociobiological basis for altruism... but in the end, some people will fuck you if they can, no matter how much you trusted them and gave them your heart. There is no rational reason to go on trusting people after a few cases of heartbreak; game theory demands that you play tit-for-tat, dog eat dog all the way. But somehow, goodness occasionally prevails. And from that little bit of goodness, every blue moon, you believe there's something to live for. That's faith, my friend; you can't buy it, sell it, fake it, or get it for free. You have to take the leap.
I think I have it all figured out. Secular, liberal philosophy fails, because it attempts to derive ethical behavior from first principles. This is impossible: there is no rational basis for kindness. Sure, the Eggheads can blather on about the sociobiological basis for altruism... but in the end, some people will fuck you if they can, no matter how much you trusted them and gave them your heart. There is no rational reason to go on trusting people after a few cases of heartbreak; game theory demands that you play tit-for-tat, dog eat dog all the way. But somehow, goodness occasionally prevails. And from that little bit of goodness, every blue moon, you believe there's something to live for. That's faith, my friend; you can't buy it, sell it, fake it, or get it for free. You have to take the leap.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Everybody is a hypocrite
It's the human condition.
I love this blog because no one reads it as far as I'm aware. It's like sitting naked in an empty room. But maybe there's a peephole somewhere...
I love this blog because no one reads it as far as I'm aware. It's like sitting naked in an empty room. But maybe there's a peephole somewhere...
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Jaded Jihad
here's a really articulate exposition of the problem with Dawkins, Harris etc. "Let's get our own Atheist Jihad going to counter all the religious fundamentalism" meme:
link
link
Monday, January 01, 2007
faces of death
Youtube video of Saddam swinging from the rope; his snarling face strobed by digital cameras, while the crowd chants "Muktadr!"; a rave fueled by hate and bloodlust rather than music and Ecstasy.
I've been an unapologetic proponent of the death penalty for years, and certainly this guy was high on the list of those who deserve a nasty punishment. But what does this accomplish? A martyr for one sect, devil for another. Revenge, pure and simple; but does dignifying this maniac with an undignified death add anything to the world?
I've been an unapologetic proponent of the death penalty for years, and certainly this guy was high on the list of those who deserve a nasty punishment. But what does this accomplish? A martyr for one sect, devil for another. Revenge, pure and simple; but does dignifying this maniac with an undignified death add anything to the world?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)