‘Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp), the world’s foremost authority on artificial intelligence, is conducting highly controversial experiments to create a sentient machine. When extremists try to kill the doctor, they inadvertently become the catalyst for him to succeed. Will’s wife, Evelyn (Rebecca Hall), and best friend, Max (Paul Bettany), can only watch as his thirst for knowledge evolves to an omnipresent quest for power, and his loved ones soon realize that it may be impossible to stop him.’
When I first watched this movie, I was intrigued. I knew a lot of the science existed. I rewatched it a week or so ago and it made me a little uneasy. How far away are we really from something like this happening? I’m not against scientific improvements for the betterment of humanity.
Neuralink has received permission from the FDA to start human trials. “Switzerland has developed a “digital bridge” – a brain-computer interface (BCI) technology – that transforms thoughts into actions.” There is so much human suffering in this world, these advances are appealing. Being able to walk, see, hear again. Or for the first time. In the movie there is a group that opposes this science. Claiming that the scientists are trying to create god.
Where does humanity draw a line? Should we? Is the technology evil or the person dispersing it? If you have a disability; there is a piece of you that says, ‘I would love to try that.’ I know this from my own prospective it is attractive.
If you network it, is it hackable? There are so many things to take into consideration as we travel down this road. Should people who have chips have special abilities that normal humans shouldn’t have? What’s normal?
Maybe the government needs to lay out a framework for what it means to be human? 🤔
“With the exception of the jacket, it has been homemade. Our story teller starts writing in it on the day of her wedding, it must have been a wedding present.” Holmes began to read the next page. “Oct. eighth, Father bought an estate I’ve affectionately dubbed ‘purgatory’; though I would never say that to his face. It would break his heart. It is near Caernarfon – Wales. I would have been happier in a room such as I had at university. If I would have had a true opinion in the matter, I would have loved to build near grandmothers home. I have such pleasant memories there. Hmm, do you remember the summer we first met? I have a sketch of that day drawn by your cousin. I remember him always wanting to pull my curls. I laugh at the memory of you hurling that pebble at him. Your father was so distraught. Though, honored at your shivery.” Holmes stopped reading and became lost deep in thought.
“Holmes,” I called. The look upon his face made my skin crawl. I thought for the faintest moment he would cry.
He continued reading, “I digress. Father thought buying a home would be best. A wedding present though it feels more like a joke. Shire is faring as well as I. He cares not for the place either. Nov. sixteenth, ill. Have no means of saying what is wrong with me. I am very tired and have no energy at all. Dec. third, ill again. Symptoms same as the last time, only much worse than before. Was asleep for three days. Or so I was informed.’ The writing on this date is very poor.” Holmes noted; “Though I have no doubt that it is the same person. ‘Jan. sixteenth, ill. Vision blurred. Sweating. Clothing soaked. Must have staggered to barn. Woke with Shire standing over me.” Holmes handed me the book as he lay back down on the floor. He was right. The hand writing on Jan. sixteenth was indeed poor. “Ring for breakfast Watson, you must be starving.” Holmes spoke.
“Only if you will join me.” He moaned as he shook his head no. “Very well,” I opened the book once more. “Feb. third. ill for days now. Woke with Shire at my back in a two room cabin at the back of the property. I have no idea how we got here. I perceive that Shire could have drug me; though my shoes nor legs show signs of being dragged. My hair is falling out.”
Holmes moaned, “no, no, no.” His eyes tightly clasped together.
“Holmes,” I asked. “Is our writer an American?”
“Hmmm,” He moaned. “Good Watson.”
“March fifth-teenth, father has been here many times to visit me during my times of illness. I think I should have gone mad if he had not. I needed someone to tell me that I dreamt this not. That it was really happening to me. Not one of the learn-ed English doctors can figure out my torment. Perhaps one day you shall befriend a doctor who shall be a true healer? A healer with a kind heart. Everyone that has seen me has been a total buffoon. I was starting to regain some of my strength from my last round when THE MAN informed me that Shire died during the night. I am devastated. For I have lost my greatest worldly possession and at this point in my life, my one friend. Tonight, the world is mine.” ‘The style of writing changes here,” I reported, then continued reading. ‘Through darkness falls and moonlight tears,
Fear, the force that steers
Weeping webs of pain and sorrow
Shall not bare the morrow.”
I read it again still more confused than before. “It continues not. Where is the rest of the thing? Nothing.” I shook the book to see if anything would knock loose. Nothing! “What the devil is this?”
“The end my friend,” Holmes said dryly.
“No, no. I will not accept that this is the end.” I was amazed and dumbfounded. What ending is this? “What do you make of it?
Holmes was silent for a while. “We have worked on less, if you will be so obliged to assist me?”
“Of course,” said I. “I am always at your service.”
“We must I fear, do this by the book. Nothing must be left to chance.” He sat up.
“Shall I ring for breakfast?” I asked.
Holmes wiggled a finger which I took as a yes; for I was starving.
I freaked out a little. I’m a year older. My body isn’t in great shape; inside or out. I’m single, no children. Who’s going to take care of me as I age? Or help me for that matter? So yeah, I freaked out a little and gave Satan a foothold. It doesn’t take much for Satan to grab hold. But it takes even less for God to kick his butt.
Growing up any conversation about money was, ‘you either have it or you didn’t.’ We didn’t. I had no concept about saving for my future self.
I’ll share with you a money conversation. When my dad passed, we got a little money. I wanted to pay it on the funeral. But I was overruled with, “the living gotta live.”
Terms like; 401k, IRA’s, money market accounts, C.D.’s (The kind that play in my stereo? No.), or emergency funds, were foreign concepts that made my head hurt. When it comes to managing and planning for my financial future, I’m lost. I also thought things like meeting with financial advisors were only for the super wealthy.
Today (at current rates) I learned that if I retire at 67, I will need $2,334 a month to live. I don’t make that much now. 😳 A lot can happen during that span of time.
Warren Buffett and other financial experts say you need six months of your income in an emergency fund. Whoo! Where is that money coming from?
God has his hands in every aspect of my life. The good things. And the bad things. Living today or planning for my future. My spiritual health as well as my financial. My spiritual future as well as my financial. I wouldn’t have either if not for the glory of God.
I will never be Warren Buffett. I don’t ever see me having $2,334 a month at any point in my life. It may seem stupid to be pushing 50 and just now getting a toe (pinky toe) in the door of my future self realm. But with God at the helm in my life, I will be okay. He will see to all my needs. I just gotta let him. And try to freak out less.
Today: while I’m still not in league with Warren Buffett, I have been making baby steps toward a more stable future. A future where I MIGHT be able to retire.
Kol rolled over but didn’t feel Kessa beside him. As he turned up the light, he saw that she wasn’t in the room. She was not in their chambers. He called for Max.
“My king.” He bowed his head.
“Where is Kessa?”
“Luke is following her. She went toward the river.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“You are my primary concern, my king.”
Kol grabbed his heaviest cape as he made his way to the river. He found her sitting near the spot where she had waited with the children. She jumped as he wrapped the cape around her shoulders.
“Did I wake you, my husband?”
Kol caressed her face, “no.” He sat beside her on a fallen log. In a low voice, he whispered, “Kes?”
“My hip was hurting. It was impossible to get comfortable. You have court tomorrow. I thought I’d walk it off. Looks like I disturbed you anyway.”
“Is that what has been wrong with you lately? Your hip has been hurting?” She said nothing. He knelt in front of her, “please talk to me.”
She shook her head, “I can’t.” In an attempt to hide, she wrapped the cape around her face. “It smells like you.” Tears streamed down her cheeks.
“I’m right here.”
She fell off the log into his waiting arms, sobbing. He hugged her as tightly as he could. Not since he found her in the memorial garden had she cried this hard.
She sniffed, “Satan uses my weaknesses against me. My feelings of loneliness, emptiness, incompleteness. My failures and my flaws. It’s difficult to tell you these things. They are not things you can fix. You once called yourself a ‘broken king’. I’m just as broken a person as anyone. All of my life, I have been the strong Kessa. The amazing Kessa.” She would not let him go as she spoke, “I dismounted my horse, my hip gave out and I fell to the ground. I could only fight with Max an hour. We used to fight all day. Where did I go?” She cried.
“You are still the strong, amazing woman I married. God has shifted your roll and you haven’t been able to shift with it.”
“I don’t know how.” She sniffed. “I feel so stupid and guilty.”
“You always encourage us to pray.”
“I’ve been praying; what feels like my whole life.”
“Let’s pray together?”
She leaned up wiping desperately at her tears. “I never shared any of this with you because I,” with a gentle finger she caressed his cheek. “I never want to hurt you. This is me. Inside of me.”
Kol was almost knocked backwards. This is what God was trying to show him. He gasped, “this is what the dreams meant. God was trying to tell me you’ve always felt this way.”
After Mrs. Hudson changed the bottles, I bid her goodnight. When she left the room, I started with the last parcel. “Third parcel same as the last two; wrapped in thick brown paper, glued together.” I took the same care opening this one as well. “It is a book Holmes. A very handsome, thin book black, trimmed in gold. There are no markings at all on the front or back jacket.” I kept looking over the book. “Holmes it appears to be a journal of some kind. Very much a woman’s hand writing.”
“Do you care to read some of it?” Holmes pulled the covers tighter around his throat.
I cleared my throat and began a journey down a tangled and grotesque path. “September fifth, eighteen-seventy five.
“The deed is finished. I am married. Instead of being happy I feel like my very soul has been nailed to the floor. THE MAN,” I interjected here to point out to Holmes that THE MAN was all in large letters. “Sleeps at one end of the house and I the other. If this is how a proper English marriage should function, I am not pleased. I beg you not to be upset with me for not accepting your proposal. I know you believe me not. I should not say believe. It is too abrupt a word; cannot accept that there are great things in your future. You have a talent that God has given you like no other and you will spread your wings to fly. It will take some time; I foresee yours as a household name. I smile with pleasure upon this point. Having a wife will clip those wings like a tether to a hot air balloon. Some men are designed to be husbands and fathers. Others are not. You my dearest are not. Can you imagine how I would kill you if ever you came home with a gun shot or a stab wound? Pray the wound kill you and not I. I must say with the greatest of truth, not a day passes that I do not think of you. I have always been the dutiful daughter. Doing whatever task that pleases my father. Of this, you are well aware. As you are well aware, father would not stop until I enrolled at Elmira Female College in New York. Each summer I did return to England. You cannot imagine the times that I took up my pen to write you. However, each time I was afraid to open Pandora’s Box. I never lost track of you. You will think ill of me but one day I came to university to see if just by chance I would see you. I did see you. That day makes me smile and cry at the same time. I was unaware of how much I missed you; however, it was so good to see you. You sat alone under a large tree reading a paper. I sat there crying thinking of all the times we read the agony columns and the criminal news. We picked out articles we thought were real. How simple some were to figure out. Others how stupid. Our paths will cross again. Though, the thread eludes me. They will.” I stopped reading. “This is either a joke or an amazing mind that is writing to the future.” I continued reading, “October fifth, we have been married a month today and still have not consummated the union. I have it in my mind to consult a solicitor upon this point though, what an embarrassment. How does one broach such a point to a stranger? We still do not sleep in the same part of the house let alone the same room. This is not at all what I thought married life should be. Not even a contractual one.” Holmes moaned. “Should I continue?”
“Only if you wish?” His eyes were closed which was often the case when he was absorbing the facts. Though, this time I could not attest to the fact that he was absorbing anything.
“Oct. sixth, THE MAN has hired a governess. Much to my surprise. She is as much a foreigner or more so than I. She is from Trinidad. I shall have to do some research on the place. Her name is Arawak. Which I am to understand is to mean a hummingbird. I have discovered something very troubling from our unneeded new governess; I have an allergy to dogs. She owns a vile beast that THE MAN lets have free run of the house. The allergy is so severe that I can only be where it is moments before I go into fits of sneezing. Arawak has one child. A girl; and is pregnant with another. I dare not let my mind think the wild thoughts it wants to upon the matter.”
I was shocked to wake up. I had no memory of falling asleep. It added to my astonishment that I was on the couch. Holmes was sitting up, inspecting the strange book. “What do you make of it?” I asked.
Poetry & More 