Mark Carroll's Journal

This morning there were police and drumming. Wondering if we were already having some celebration of Glasgow's 850th anniversary, I wandered out into the neighbourhood and found myself witnessing another Orange Order march. They are very pro-Protestant pro-UK and I remain surprised by just how many people around here of all ages feel strongly enough to march with uniforms and bands and suchlike. We appear to have a few lodges around here, I think they report up to a grand Glasgow-wide lodge that reports up to an even grander Scottish one.

I think it silly of His Majesty's Government to have switched from issuing physical visas to virtual "eVisas" that one checks by typing an alphanumeric code into a government website. It assumes far too much of mobile data connectivity when one is in some random place where one's documents are being checked. Further, what actually happens is absurd: people get you to show them your visa details in the web browser on your own mobile telephone, something easily faked.

Presumably thrilled with this success, apparently the Government is now moving on to introducing digital driving licences. For the moment, these are to be an optional add-on beyond the physical photocard, presumably most welcomed by those non-immigrants who would also like an easy way to fake their details. I suppose that I can imagine a version that shows a QR code bearing cryptographically signed data that can be verified by some reader, even printed out as insurance against device failure, but, given the eVisa implementation, I am not holding my breath for such.

At work, I am on a project that uses large language models (LLMs), an instance of the modern AI fad that brought us ChatGPT and, relatedly, image generators and suchlike. Personally, I am not into gaming and I don't own computers that have reasonable GPUs, and I have little use for systems that can deliver me results that are rather more plausible than they are trustworthy. My preference remains for the more traditional kind of AI centered on knowledge-based reasoning, though I concede that deep learning boasts some impressive successes.

Now that I am digging into modern AI a little for my day job, it becomes more obvious to me what everybody else probably realized years ago. First, I find myself tempted to use it for inane questions like recommendations from restaurant menus for kinds of people. That would be a lot of pointless computation: with each of us using LLMs for whatever comes to mind, just as we might ask our friends what they think, it sounds about as bad as proof of work for accelerating climate catastrophe.

Secondly, in reviewing various available models it became apparent that uncensored models are readily available, there can be guards and such applied subsequently. Many models are probably trained on all manner of material from the Internet, some of it from the sewer. Perhaps one can buy oneself decent graphics hardware, download uncensored models, then privately indulge whatever interactive fantasies come to mind. This goes back to previous questions on the effect of people being able to play violent video games or watch extreme pornography. Are we approaching a world in which anybody can immerse themselves in the particular virtual depravity of their choosing and, if so, what does that mean for society? I suppose that we will find out.

The election results provide plenty to talk about, especially ( given our lack of proportional representation. )

I wonder how the Conservatives will respond to their loss. ( I don't see how they recover easily. )

Here in Glasgow, Labour took all the seats from the SNP. I didn't expect the SNP to do quite so badly, ( and I don't know what they should do about it. )

( Northern Ireland is even more of a mystery to me. )

A few years ago here, I summarized some of my political preferences. In the UK, we have an election this Thursday so it's about time for me to notice more of what is going on, what the candidates and parties stand for.

My local constituency used to be Glasgow Central which was eliminated recently, we are now in Glasgow South West. The profile's around the same, Labour and the SNP are the plausible winners. At the moment, I might naturally tend toward the Liberal Democrats.

In the case of the US, since Trump's ascendancy I find the Republicans so repugnant that I am obliged to vote for whoever can keep them out of office. Still, it would have been agreeable if Biden hadn't seemed to lose some marbles since the State of the Union. Years ago, in Ohio I even felt safe to risk a Green vote, not now though. Of course, these days my votes count in Eastern Tennessee, where most contests are not close.

Here, in our constituency, I have to decide if either Labour or the SNP are unacceptable, or if I can vote for somebody less likely as an investment for the future. Naturally, the SNP have resumed their tedious tendency to consider every vote for them as being a vote for Scottish independence, rather than that maybe we are simply happy they handled the COVID crisis reasonably or somesuch.

As usual, it requires some work to figure out how the parties are interestingly different. The first level is typically an insultingly unhelpful these are the shiny things with rather less and this is how they will be caused and funded. Admittedly, in the case of some of the more right-leaning parties at the moment, their definition of shiny things already somewhat disqualifies them.

As it happens, now I have a busy few days that climax in a different kind of tedium at a consulate, so I'll circle back to the election when necessary. And, goodness, the polling cards have grown since they needed to include ID requirements.

( Work remains busy, bringing my first project nearer delivery. )

( British unemployment benefit isn't generous. )

( I filed my US taxes but am not holding my breath for the refund. )

( Tax paperwork for charity donation irritated me. )

( Me and our dog are both heavier. )

( We are looking to move just a little south. )

I am not managing to read others' journals anywhere near as completely as I once did. Perhaps if I post rather more briefly, I will get around to posting at all. It's been very many weeks. I will try to mention the occasional random things, even if the picture of things as a whole is left even more incomplete than before.

Recently, I mentioned the local library system having few copies of what I might consider important classics and rather more copies of books that personally I would think less worth borrowing. A new surprise is noticing that the book I just read, and the next I've started, both happen to be Finnish. Hannu Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief was rather good, so at least I am discovering some worthwhile novels, and the book came with a note saying that it was donated by The Finnish Institute and the Embassy of Finland. I surmise that the Moomins were a spearhead. I like the idea of national organizations making an effort to share culture like this.

This time last year, with all the activity surrounding my move from Tennessee to Scotland, I missed the Eurovision Song Contest. This year, although we have just moved to Glasgow, we were in a better position to see it, with the help of a free 26" television that we picked up in a communal hallway back when we were viewing a different flat, a short walk away from here. Watching the contest meant staying up later than I prefer but I can make a rare exception for annual events.

Quoting my previous report on the contest: as usual, my preferences correlated rather more with the voting public's than the judges' verdicts. That pattern definitely continues. For example, I found Poland's entry pleasantly catchy, and thought both Finland's and Moldova's rather entertaining. I suppose that Croatia's entry comes in for a special mention, whatever it was.

The UK's entry performed as terribly as has become usual though, like Germany's, I thought it better than it scored. Whereas, the winner, Sweden, I thought was okay, and R. noted that the singer's voice is good, but it didn't blow me away as it did the judges.

Readers unfamiliar with the contest can note that the entries are all on YouTube, searching for Eurovision <year> <country> works well for me. R. found a playlist in descending order of votes so, the more one listens, the worse it gets.

This morning, I wondered if the UK Conservative leadership are deceptive or^* ignorant; I concluded that, despite Hanlon's Razor, they probably share the current US Republicans' tendency toward the former. Having often felt somewhat to the right of many of my friends, I surprise myself in also feeling even somewhat left of Labour these days. My father opined that people move rightward as they grow older. If they do, the parties seem to be outpacing me.

Decades ago, I had the sense that, politicians may get it wrong but at least they were often at least trying to find their way to good policy. Recent decades have made it increasingly difficult to extend such benefit of the doubt. Well, I'll credit much of the US Democratic Party with that I believe they genuinely want impoverished minorities not to suffer then die, but that feels a low bar.

Maybe I just need a bit more sleep, I awoke somewhat prematurely this morning. Things may seem rosier then …

^*One may suspect and.