This is perfect. John Cleese on stupidity
If you are very very stupid, how can you realize that you are very very stupid? You have to be relatively intelligent to realize how stupid you are.
If you are absolutely no good at something at all, then you lack exactly the skills that you need to know that you are absolutely no good at it. And this explains not just Hollywood but almost the entirety of Fox News.
The Swedish Försvarets Radioanstalt (FRA) or in English the National Defence Radio Establishment is looking for a lawyer. After a recent change in Swedish legislation (the FRA law, or FRA-lagen in Swedish) that came into effect on 1 Januarythe FRA is authorized to warrantlessly wiretap all telephone and Internet traffic that crosses Sweden’s borders. This obviously includes much of internal Swedish communication.
Anyway the FRA now are looking for a lawyer to
Funktionen svarar även för frågor om etik och integritetsskydd i signalunderrättelseverksamheten… Funktionen har även till uppgift att se till att myndigheten behandlar personuppgifter på ett lagligt och korrekt sätt.
The position is responsible for questions of ethics and integrity protection in relation to signals intelligence… The position also has the responsiblity to ensure that the agency treats personal data in a correct and legal manner [my translation].
Wow! Considering the task of the FRA is to eavesdrop on all traffic this job must be a doddle. Once you have made it legal to wiretap all internet traffic without the need for warrents – what integrity concerns can be left for the lawyer to deal with?
This week’s tech podcast from the Guardian contains some really good stuff. Igor Aleksandr and Ray Tallis discuss whether computers can be intelligent as humans?
The funny part with computer intelligence is that teaching computers really difficult stuff (for example advanced chess) is relatively easy. Trying to teach computers the stuff we take for granted as infants is really difficult. The variations (cultural, local, temporal) in making and eating breakfast (even defining breakfast is a complex affair) are infinite compared to chess
Listen, or try one the podcast feed URL.