I received another email from Supershadow the other day.

Unlike previous mails where I have been firmly told off for my opinions, this one starts with a bit of a rap on the knuckles but then we get quite philosophical about the nature of existence.  I’ll deal with the rap on the knuckles first though.

Well its great to see you relishing in the disaster of trump being elected.

The Jedi council with myself as leader campaigned tirelessly against trump and his misogyny

Well, I have to disagree with you there on a point of semantics.  I don’t think I ever stated that I was glad that Trump won.  What I did relish in was the fact that Clinton didn’t.  Both candidates were equally disastrous, and I find it somewhat amazing that they were the best that America could put forward.  Surely out of 300 million people they could have found someone better than those two monstrosities? 

For 5 nights know we have had to organize crying therapy sessions to cope with the horror of what has happened. There is no other way of coping.

Indeed, I believe a lot of people are still crying, but the solution is to accept the fact and carry on with life.

Of course this all began last summer. In fact grandad 2 things happened. One was the release of the Independence day sequel in which the world came together as one to beat a common enemy. Then there was brexit when the world  didnt come together.

I haven’t seen the Independence Day sequel.  Is it any good?  Generally sequels are pretty shite as they just repeat a formula.  Star Wars is a great example?  [I’m sorry, but I couldn’t resist that!].

And Brexit had nothing to do with the world coming together or otherwise.  It was purely a UK thing, where the rest of the world just looked on in amusement.

In truth Grandad im not that pushed anymore. As you know every thursday the council meets to discuss world issues such as climate change and the nature of our reality. One of the team put forward a vision of what we could really be. This member was influenced by a recent television show based on a film.

Has anything productive ever come out of those meetings?  I would hate to think you were wasting your time, or do you just discuss television programmes and films?

It was always my belief that Artificial Intelligence ie the internet of things, would wipe out or enslave humanity – but there might be another possibility:

. In 1973 a film called westworld starring yul brynner was release depicting a theme park with AI type   cowboy robots. recently a tv show based on the movie was released in which we get to see the world from the AI robots point of view.
  The point Im making  Grandad is this: Maybe we dont have to worry about Artificial Intelligence perhaps simply because WE are the AI’s? . Maybe this planet is just a giant theme park and some off world aliens pay 1000 dollars a day just to ‘be’ a regular human. such beings would have human body avaters and would be indistinguishable from us. I think we are all nothing more than computer programs grandad. perhaps the only difference between me and you is a couple of million IF-THEN-ELSE statements. perhaps that postman you meet everyday is nothing more than an alien in an avater paying big money simply to be a human postman. How do you know you are conscious? after all its a subjective experience. It not as simply as ‘ I think therefore I am’.

Yes, I saw that film.  Not that bad but I wouldn’t watch it again.  I confess I am tempted to watch the new series, but only because Anthony Hopkins is in it.

I do agree that we all are essentially programmed like computers.  First there is the base code of DNA which we inherit and then there are the modifications to the code that we apply to ourselves, from our experiences and learning.  So the problem lies with the word “artificial”.  Now the definition of the word is made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, especially as a copy of something natural.  I suppose you could argue that humans are made by other humans [a mother and father?] and as such our intelligence is indeed  artificial, or you could decide that our intelligence occurs naturally in which case it isn’t artificial.

As for whether we are all figments of each other’s imagination, does it make any difference?  Though I confess my imagination wouldn’t stretch to dreaming up Trump or Clinton [more nightmare than dream] so the chances are that they are indeed real.

Anyway you may consider me a star wars fanatic but if you met some of my colleagues you  would know what star wars passion is about. You may find it surprising that Im actually way down the list in this department. I know star wars fans Who will only watch the movie when the screen if facing modesto los angelus (the birth place of george lucas).Its even considered a blasphemy not to watch star wars in HD with 5.1 surround sound.

The question is such passion a good or a bad thing. I guess we would differ on that but I believe if your going to run a mile you should run 10. Better to have a brave heart than a half heart.

So it is better to run ten miles than one?  The logical extrapolation from that is that it’s better to run a hundred miles than ten? Nah!  I’ll stick with one mile, and driving is faster and easier than running.

Anyway, given we have an isolationist president now over here we can always dream to the future of president like Bill pulman in Independence day.This is the kind of president who can unite the world. Hilary clinton was the female version. This speech has always brought a tear to my eye grandad. And as you can see theres not a smoker in sight.

youtube.com/watch?v=QoLywiaM6PA

I hate to keep pointing out the obvious, SS, but Independence Day is a film and real life is rarely like films [which is why there isn’t a smoker in site – kind of proves my point?]

Take Care,

Supershadow

And you take care too.  I always look forward to our little chats.

Grandad.

P.S. Give the Gang Council my regards on Thursday.

G