Internet Scams

I've received faked invoices by email. Never click on the link in the email message.

I've received received fake notices that if I don't pay now my service will be disconnected.

The most recent scam is when I connected to Google Hangouts.
I immediately received a message from what looked like a young woman.
Further conversations led to her showing an unbelievable interest in me. Now I'm not that stupid to fall for that. So I played along waiting for the hit.
What came next was obvious, video sex online for money.
The skill with which the perpetrator attempted to manipulate me was very good.
I've seen other scams like this which have been too crude and blunt to be taken seriously, especially one that stole the ID of somebody and pretended to be that person.
What was apparent in the sex for money scam was how each confrontation by myself was followed by a long pause, versus normal conversation. I suspect the scammer was getting instructions on how to respond from a third party.

So here is Luise Garnier. This is the name she used. She is very charming and very believable. But ultimately her motive was to get money from me in exchange for online sex.

Let this be a warning to everybody.

Is Human Behaviour an Algorithm?

I've often wondered about patterns of behavior.
I observe my cats for example, different generations behave remarkably similarly. In fact, it's an amusing pastime for cat owners to reflect on how common certain cat behaviour can be. Is cat behaviour merely an inherited algorithm?

And then consider AI and the possibility that at some point in the future, androids will be programmed with an algorithm that lets them mimic human behaviour.
Hiroshi Ishiguro builds androids and explores the possibilities of human attachment to androids.  https://www.wired.com/2017/10/hiroshi-ishiguro-when-robots-act-just-like-humans/

I put this idea on it's head and think, what if humans are programmed to behave in a certain way, in fact, by an algorithm?
If an algorithm can predict human behaviour, doesn't that suggest that humans are just a result of a very complex algorithm?
https://medium.com/intuitionmachine/deep-learning-to-predict-human-behavior-a2cd2ce14132

Time Travel 2

Having speculated on Time Travel in my previous post, I now delve further into the subject.

If you assume you can travel back in time, you assume that all points of time co-exist simultaneously. So that all events become points on a timeline, and all points are infinite in number as well as co-existing all the time. How else would it be possible to choose a point in time, say in the past and travel to that point? Think of all time as a continous line and events at a particular time as points on that timeline.
Imagine me sitting in my chair, typing away on my PC keyboard this minute. At some time in the future I would want to come back to this moment. This moment must be suspended on the timeline infinitely even though I move along this timeline.
If we could freeze time as well as travelling in time, we would exist in that moment of time we choose to visit and observe it in minute detail, walk around it and try to manipulate it.

Time is relative but time doesn't stand still or  suspend all events that occur along the timeline event horizon, waiting for a time traveller to come and visit any particular moment.

Time travel to me is a leap of the imagination but physically impossible.

Time Travel

I've been thinking about time travel for a long long time. Can we travel into the future? Can we travel into the past?
Many authors have imagined the ability to go back to the past and possibly alter the course of history.
Stephen Kings book titled 11/22/63 entertains the possibility of a time traveller stopping the assassination of JFK.
There are many scientific dissertations on whether such time travel is possible when the mathematics and physics laws allow.
To me, the answer to this question is simple and doesn't involve any science at all.

Consider the notion that time is relative, that all events already exist in space-time and our human perception of time is a very limited perception within the scope of the big picture...that is, what is possible in our universe.

So if the past, present and future exist simultaneously within space-time, wouldn't someone from the future have already come back in time and altered events/history? Consider how many events in human history would be candidates for modification. WW2 and WW1 come to mind. Humanity could well do without these events.
So, the fact that our history is as bloody and tragic as it is, I doubt that time travel from any point in the future is possible and if time travel is possible, it has no effect on altering events in the past.

The time travel paradox is another way of saying, time travel is not possible.


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Is It News?

I like to read the news, first thing in the morning.

What riles me is the amount of comment that is reported as news.

I know, news media need stories to attract readers and there are many days when there just isn't any news...

So, the he said/she said phenomenon takes over.

On an average day, 80% of so called news is just people expressing opinions, especially (God help us) actors expressing opinions.

And then there's the journalists opinion columns, which we need to pay a subcription to read.
I know, these guys need to make a living too.
But, I have opinions as does everybody else and they are free to anyone who wants to read them...

Is this article news to anyone?