01
Jan
2020

2020

I can’t believe this year is finally here.  I remember thinking about this year ages ago in High School.  It seemed so far off.

A couple bullet point thoughts I have

  • This year I will have a teenager that can drive. That’s going to be awesome. 
  • I’m so grateful for life.  I lost some friends last year, and their passing reminds me to cherish each and every moment of life I am fortunate to live.
  • While I may be getting older, I’m still young, and my family is young too.  We have so many good years ahead, I look forward to a decade of happiness.

I’m going to try to post a daily picture of myself here, on this blog, for posterity sake.  Call this my New Years resolution.  You can see how long that lasts.

Posted by Paul in Personal
25
Mar
2017

SNL Trump on Obamacare

[evp_embed_video url=”https://s3.amazonaws.com/content.ximz.com/video/snl-trump-obamacare.mp4″]
Alec Baldwin may have been a little prophetic in his portrayal of pre-inauguration Trump when it came to Obamacare.

Posted by Paul in Politics, Trump, US Politics
21
Mar
2017

Going to School

Every school day I drive Starla to School. Sometime early in the school year I began to sing a song that I call “Going to School.” There are no set words to this song, with the possible exception of the phrase Going to School. I usually customize it to the particular day, perhaps sing about something I see, or something I know that Starla has been thinking about or working on.

I usually sing it very loudly, not with any particular poise or grace. I love singing it to Starla.

Starla 

Starla may tell me, or appear to not be thrilled, but I know that secretly she loves the song.

 

Posted by Paul in Starla
07
Mar
2017

Hail to Daylight Savings

I hate going home when it is cold, and dark. For this reason I look forward with great anticipation to the coming switch from standard time to daylight savings time. If I could have my way we would be DST every day of the year.

Utah seems like the most ideal place for this switch, given our location in relation to the rest the time zones in the United states. The Pacific Time Zone is around 100 miles east of the Wasatch Front, so when DST comes and we have the long summer months, daylight lasts for a long time, as the sun is just beginning its journey out of Mountain Time zone.

I’ve had this thought on my mind for a while, but until I started writing
this I never thought about proving it out. A quick google search proves this to be true.

Here are sun rise and sunset times as of today.

Denver may get light earlier, but who cares, it gets dark earlier.

In good old Provo, Utah the sun sets later, giving Paul Jones Dayton the late light that he loves.

Daylight Savings Time: I salute you.

Posted by Paul
06
Mar
2017

Homo Deus

I finished Homo Deus. It was incredibly entertaining. The book made me think, and it was also very frightening.

Homo Deus offers insights into what the potential future of Homo Sapiens might be.

Harari argues convincingly that the seemingly eternal problems of war, famine, and plague that have haunted humanity forever are now problems that humans can solve. Where we humans used to believe these problems were acts of gods and an unavoidable part of life, we now have the power to overcome these problems. Political divisions are the largest barrier to solving these issues universally, but to the ancients our power over these evils would seem divine.

Now that we have solved these issues what do we do next? It isn’t entirely clear, but we do have a choice.

The raw computing power available now enables complex algorithms to solve problems that were once only possible in the conscious human mind. We are at a tipping point where intelligence is decoupling from consciousness. Computers are intelligent without the human construct of consciousness.

In a world where intelligence no longer requires human minds, humans will become economically irrelevant. Virtually no field of employment is safe. Think a Medical Doctor would be safe? No way, replace her with an IBM watson that has immediate access to health statistics, pre-defined algorithms that can precisely diagnose illnesses. These algorithms would continually improve, enabling Dr. Watson to be incomparably more effective than its human counterpart. This machine could be available 24/7, anywhere in the world, and would enable much cheaper access to health care.

Lawyers, who spend their time reading cases looking for loopholes and legal exceptions would not be immune from the power of an intelligent computer that could solve such problems in an instant.

If humans want to “stay in the game” they will need to evolve to super humans, or upgraded humans.

We could upgrade humans, using medicine, augmenting humans with technology to make humans that are no longer Homo Sapiens, instead they are Homo Deus, or essentially Human gods.

The elite and wealthy would be the most likely to be upgraded, and this could create two classes of humans who fundamentally different.

Where in the past we had the rich and the poor, they were the same, just in a different financial situation. Upgraded humans would be something entirely different, and would actually be more capable than natural humans.

These concepts are a lot to take in. My brief summary only scratches the surface of issues that Yuval Noah Harari discusses in this incredible book.

Posted by Paul in Futurist
25
Feb
2017
Bills and Bagels – Legislative update for Southern Utah County

Bills and Bagels – Legislative update for Southern Utah County

 This morning I attended  the Bills & Bagels event at the Nebo School District office. The following legislators were in attendance:

  • Norm Thurston
  • Francis Gibson
  • Marc Roberts
  • Dedrie Henderson

The meeting felt almost routine in that it was more of a legislative update than anything that was too interactive. They discussed some of their bills, stated their positions on questions that were offered from the audience (via pink notecards), and briefly answered questions afterwards.

My question was the first addressed. I asked if the legislators would finally do something about teacher salaries, instead of punting to next year. Francis Gibson addressed my question and noted that they were working on a 3 percent increase, he noted how much that meant, which was tens of millions, and then he noted that the legislature also funded college education. It was an answer that said: “Yes we will increase funding.” But it didn’t really address if such funding was adequate.

There was a young individual in the audience who participated in drafting a bill that would install cameras on school buses and then ticket the individuals. Gibson again noted that while it is nice that people are getting involved, he wouldn’t support that bill, a cop would be better equipped to issue tickets.

There was some discussion from Marc Roberts on a bill he was working on to address issues with minors being labeled as sex offenders.

Norm Thurston noted some stats saying that 40 percent of Utahans had their health care paid for in part by the state, and he even made some comment that implied that some think teachers should be responsible for all of their health care costs.. which came across as weird given that we live in a country where employers foot the cost of health care.

Dedrie Henderson trumpeted her food truck bill, as well as a proposal to include the total cost of a bond at the top of all local bond proposals. She casted her bond proposal as a sort of government ethics reform, I thought of it as something more akin to posting calories at fast food restaurants. If you want that hamburger do you really care that it has 800 calories? If you want that bond does the cost scare you to voting no – for me probably not.

I was glad I attended, and will continue to do so.  While not as exciting at the Chaffetz smack down earlier this month, it was a worthwhile event.

Posted by Paul in Politics, Utah Politics

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