Our pursuit of a machine that can think for itself -- gather experience, learn and apply that learning to new situations -- is long standing. The earliest computing machines, designed to calculate numbers, gave rise to fantasies of artificial intelligence through their faultless operation. As... Continue

Welcome to the I Am Larry Barnett Show. I'm your host Larry Barnett, and like you, I'm making it up as I go along. Hey, this is The Improv, right? I know, you're going to tell me you're busy starring in your own show, and coming... Continue

I'm not a dog owner. As I frequently quip when asked if I have a dog, "I don't have a dog, I have grandchildren." On my daily walk around town I do encounter many dog owners; in some cases, the dogs are so large and... Continue

Sense of "self" is just one among a constellation of mental states, and the experience of "I" varies considerably. "I" is described by some neurologists as a stable form of hallucination, which is to say, a subjective experience of being "in here" that seems to... Continue

Despite the cultural arc of history of the past 500 years -- the efforts toward emancipation and the relentless rise of science and technology -- humanity appears terribly, one might even say, hopelessly, stuck. The habits and predispositions of our past -- religious conflict, otherworldly... Continue

Whenever there is wealth and property, (and for the past 5,000 years when has there not been?), theft and corruption accompany it. Greek mythology prominently features Hermes' theft of Apollo's cattle, and virtually all major religions include prohibitions against theft. The Ten Commandments includes it... Continue

Generally, we divide the history of human culture between the Paleolithic and Neolithic, "Paleolithic" meaning "Old Stone Age" and "Neolithic" meaning "New Stone Age." The Old Stone Age included the use of tools, particularly wood, stone, flint and obsidian to fashion tools and weapons using... Continue

Given what's going on in the world, to simply classify people trying to cross our border as "migrants" or "illegal immigrants" is inaccurate. The reality is that many people, often entire families, are more properly refugees, desperately seeking to escape depredations of crime -- victimization,... Continue

Witnessing the construction of Sonoma is easy, just take a stroll down West Spain Street and the homes rising on previously vacant parcels give ample testimony to the process of ongoing development, a process that's been taking place more or less continuously since the building... Continue