These Days: Tuesday, June 28th, 2015
War: “AI technology has reached a point where the deployment of [autonomous weapons] is – practically if not legally – feasible within years, not decades, and the stakes are high: autonomous weapons have been described as the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms.” That’s Stephen Hawking discussing wars without people. The thing is, if no soldiers lives are at stake, the decision to fight a war will be that much easier. Fine, except, the casualties will remain human. It is a reversal of the way wars used to be fought. In the past, armies would meet in the middle of nowhere and kill each other while civilians were safe, with autonomous weapons the opposite is true.
Recorded: Both the new Titus and the new Sam Smith were released today, I finished off my the most lamentable Titus Andronicus review and plan at some time or the other to write it all again in one clearly thought out review.
Live: Rise Against at SummerStage tonight? At least here is a band that plays so loud they’ll drown out everybody chitchatting through the concert. Really, it is like the musicians have become background music in a bar. Helen was complaining about it at the Decemberists gig: if you talk over em nobody can hear anything.
Sports: The Yanks? At the top of their league by a seven games. Now just don’t screw it up.
