Monthly Archives: March 2025

(CNN) Trump threatens new sanctions on Russia after weeks of conciliatory statements toward Moscow

(CNN Trump threatens new sanctions on Russia after weeks of conciliatory statements toward Moscow.

True to pattern, the Kremlin has interpreted Trump’s conciliation as a sign of weakness. Notably, they have already discounted Trump’s blustery, threatening exterior as a put-on.

Additional sanctions would have no effect on Russian thinking.

President Trump should note that negotiations in the framework of diplomacy are fundamentally different from negotiations in business. In business, in case of breach, one has recourse to the courts. In diplomacy, there is no such recourse. This is why Henry Kissinger said that diplomacy must be backed by force, or it becomes an empty exercise.

***Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile***

AI for Dummies, in Bite-Size Pieces, Part 2 ; Something for your Dreams

This is something different. It’s impossible for my small blog to compete with the heightened anxiety of politics. So what follows are nibbles for you to devour in catnaps or bedtime.  Recall that Western thought was originally encapsulated in a subject called philosophy.  It was pushed aside by modern science, with these derisive observations:

  • For the most part philosophical theories are in divergent disagreement.
  • Of the philosophies that have survived  displacement by science, none of them can be proved or disproved.
  • In 2000 years, the philosophers couldn’t make a car.

The major antagonist of philosophy has been the king of sciences, physics.  Physics has hit  multiple stone walls lately, with a lack of new testable theories to extend the frontiers. In consequence, some branches of physics have taken on a philosophical  character, with theories that are, at  least for the present, untestable, allowing philosophy to regain respectability.

Physicists  have stubbornly hoped that some subjective qualities, such as consciousness, would ultimately be explained as physics. The rise of AI has left that hope in the dust. Instead, the rise of AI has resulted in a serious revival of philosophy,  as it attempts to grapple with questions that rigorous mathematics cannot. The nibbles for your dreams:

Can a computer or program be truly  intelligent, or merely an excellent mimic?

If a computer can be intelligent, what are the crucial features?

If it can’t, why not?

If it can or can’t, does it make any practical difference to human users?

Is there anything special about our brains and AI?

Does “true” AI rely on mechanisms that exist in another world?

Is consciousness merely associated with intelligence, or is it an essential part?

Can a computer be conscious? If so, what makes it conscious?

If it can be conscious, does it possess a soul? Does it have free will?

Is existence of a mind the same as consciousness?

Is the arrow of time — “time marches on” — a fiction of our minds?

Is it possible that consciousness creates the Universe, rather than the other way around?

The greatest minds of today are in broad disagreement. This gives us ignoramuses the opportunity to be as foolish as we choose. You may wish to first look at

while you could skip  DeepSeek and the AI Bubble; Napkin Calculation.

To be continued shortly. Sweet dreams!