[FRIAM] the arc of ai (was Re: Whew!)

[Joe Spinden]

The talk of who went to what school seems beside the point.

The benefits of Pre-K seem indisputable to me.. As do the benefits of 
reduced sugar consumption.

I did not focus on the benefits of Pre-K vis-a-vis the proposed tax 
because I was never convinced the administration could competently 
determine how to administer the receipts.  But, since Martinez is trying 
to gut education in NM, anything would be better than nothing.

Nor do I consider it elitist to advocate for improved health.  If some 
reduced their sugar consumption because it cost more, that would not be 
a bad thing.

Separately, the idea that Michael Bloomberg spending $1MM of his own 
money -- with no financial benefit to himself -- to support the tax here 
is somehow equivalent to the soda distributors' spending large sums to 
protect their own profits is ludicrous.  Bloomberg is a genuine 
billionaire who should be commended for his willingness to spend his own 
money to advocate for causes he considers beneficial to all.

Joe


On 5/6/17 9:44 AM, Frank Wimberly wrote:
> Let's summarize.  I said I wish people would focus on the benefits of 
> pre-K education rather than the economic impacts of the tax and the 
> effects on diet.  I mentioned that my wife, who went to graduate 
> school at the Harvard Ed School, is a big proponent of pre-K.  Merle 
> said that I missed the point and that Jeff Skilling and Jared 
> Kushner's father also went to Harvard.  I said that Ted K went to 
> Berkeley to make the case that having alumni in prison is irrelevant.  
> Merle says it's not.
>
> My wife hates being mentioned in this context. Let me tell you a 
> little more.  When she was at Harvard she worked with Jonathan Kozol 
> to improve educational opportunities for Puerto Rican toddlers in 
> South Boston.  In Pittsburgh she worked in a therapeutic Headstart 
> program as head teacher to offer pre-K education to high risk kids 
> whose mothers were schizophrenic. They were 3-4 years old and at least 
> one of them witnessed the murder of her mother. They were mostly 
> African American and arrived at school very hungry.  They ate at 
> school.  This was done under the auspices of the University of 
> Pittsburgh Psychiatry Department.  There's more but...
>
> Frank
>
> Frank Wimberly
> Phone (505) 670-9918
>
> On May 6, 2017 9:15 AM, "Marcus Daniels" <marcus at snoutfarm.com 
> <mailto:marcus at snoutfarm.com>> wrote:
>
>     Frank writes:
>
>
>     "Which notorious person went to which university?  Why?"
>
>
>     It’s a question of fairness and consistency relative to values,
>     not a question of correct vs. incorrect.
>
>     Here are two more personal experiences which I doubt I really need
>     to give but I will for completeness.
>
>     1. A disruptive technology is reported in a peer-reviewed journal
>     which I argue is worth considering.   I provide background (cited
>     papers), and my colleague skims over the affiliations over the
>     authors of those papers rather than reading the abstracts.
>
>     2. Our team arranges a meeting with a possible funding source and
>     have a pitch prepared with preliminary results and working
>     prototype code. First thing the person does is flip to the section
>     with the staff bios to see which universities they attended.
>
>     I could give many more examples of this kind of authority-based
>     selection that I see every day. I'm not arguing that there is
>     nothing to this approach, or that it is complete ineffectual.   It
>     depends on what the deciders are optimizing for. One thing they
>     could be optimizing is to ensure their collaborators are
>     presentable and demonstrate a baseline of intelligence, and
>     certain breadth and depth of knowledge.
>
>     However, when such a person that otherwise would passes muster,
>     puts out a document that starts from fairly common premises to
>     surprising conclusions, that chain of reasoning might be subject
>     to consideration.  Sure, if there is more context, like knowing in
>     retrospect that the person was guilty of murder, then that may or
>     may not cause them to discard consideration of the argument.   
>     For me, it makes me more interested in understanding the motives
>     and reasoning and to make sure I convince myself I have an idea of
>     where they lost it.
>
>     Marcus
>
>     **
>
>
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-- 
Joe

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