Automated Reasoning

Scientists seem to find it more interesting to collect data about criminal potential than to use their brains for promoting a goodness gene. I imagine, of course, that a goodness gene has been discovered somewhere in this digital mass of probability.

Criminologists are using software to help them find hotspots of aberrant behavior which allows them to zoom in on particular areas. Tom Cruise and "Minority Report" are becoming less fictional as computing capacity increases and more sophisticated formulas are used for automated reasoning. The definitive catch phrase is "automated reasoning."

There is nothing wrong with reasoning I have always been pro reasoning. I don't mind the word "automated" either. Automation has freed mankind of many tedious tasks. But when has reasoning become so tedious that it needs to be automated? I always thought that there is a certain danger in automation because it deals with repetition. Well, I am sure scientists know this too, and have incorporated detective capacities in their algorithms. But what about reinforcing trends? It is all the rage nowadays to reinforce trends. On Twitter, by forcing a thought into its broadest accommodation within the narrowest letter capacity. At the online book or grocery store, by telling the customer what he or she wants to buy next. In television programming, by providing entertainment based on the lowest common denominator.

The digital age changes our culture - medicine, entertainment, shopping, communication, travel, education, every aspect of our lives is affected. Automated reasoning dictates that we must keep up or we will be left behind.

Will we have enough unique self left to step aside occasionally? To open that unfamiliar parcel in the corner of the mind? To search out an unaccounted for tidbit of information that got lost between zeroes and ones? Will I, already handicapped by my age, have enough energy - between computer pass codes and self-parking cars and shrinking income - to perform random acts of kindness?

This brings me to my New Year's resolution. I have to admit that I am addicted to a large daily dose of Internet. And so, one day a month, on the last Sunday of each month, I will do my best to devote my energy to "undo" my own automation of the mind. No iPad. No desktop. No tweeted or posted or emailed data. I hope this will leave me with a new sense of exploration.

And here, for those who want to know what I have knitted lately, here are the finished pieces of the last week.

Bear Number 293 - Silvester, begun December 31 and finished in the early morning hours of January 1, 2014.



Camisole, panties, and boots for Marley, the doll not yet begun.