Psalms 34:18 NIV — from bible.com
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
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Psalms 34:8 NIV — from bible.com
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
On 03/19/2023,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion,
by Daniel Christian
On 03/14/2023,
in Daniel S. Christian, faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships,
by Daniel Christian
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.
From DSC:
I’m very grateful for the LORD’s grace, forgiveness, love/friendship, faithfulness, mercy, wisdom, guidance, and patience. Thank you LORD! And thank you for being *active* in my life. As you know, I need that.
It’s taken me years…no…decades to better understand and connect my mind and my heart with some of these things. For example, I used to see the LORD as a toe-tapping heavenly Being…looking down scornfully at me from above and saying, “Get your *(&^ together Daniel!” For years, I didn’t see Him as being on my team.
As my spiritual journey continued — and after many years, trials, and failures had passed — I came to see that He actually WAS on my team. I had had an incorrect view of Him.
Over time, his toe stopped tapping in my mind. I discovered that He did want what was best for me. At times, my trust levels weren’t what I thought they were. By demonstrating His faithfulness, my trust levels have risen. Thanks again LORD.
I realize that I still have a long ways to go yet.
On 03/11/2023,
in business, faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion, society,
by Daniel Christian
Deuteronomy 7:9 — from biblegateway.com
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
Leviticus 19:35-36 NIV — from bible.com
Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity. Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt.
On 03/06/2023,
in Daniel S. Christian, expectations, faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion,
by Daniel Christian
Joshua 1:9 — from biblegateway.com
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
From DSC:
For me, “being with you” isn’t enough — at least in the sense of how I’ve historically thought about that phrase. As the years went by, I needed the LORD to be ACTIVELY with me. Taking action, not just watching. Participating, not just observing.
The older I’ve gotten, the more I realize that the LORD is very active in my/our lives. In fact, I think that if we knew the extent of His activities, our minds would likely be blown.
That doesn’t address all of the “but why?” questions I and others have. But I appreciate the LORD being active. I need Him to be active. And I think that He expects me to be active in return — to make use of the talents/gifts that He gave to me. These days, I’m trying to figure out what that next chapter looks like for my family and me.
On 03/06/2023,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, bots, change, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, hearts -- matters of the heart, innovation, intelligent systems, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, more voice more choice more control, relationships, research, robotics, society, sociology, surviving, the downsides of technology, tools, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
How ChatGPT is going to change the future of work and our approach to education — from livemint.com
From DSC:
I thought that the article made a good point when it asserted:
The pace of technological advancement is booming aggressively and conversations around ChatGPT snatching away jobs are becoming more and more frequent. The future of work is definitely going to change and that makes it clear that the approach toward education is also demanding a big shift.
…
A report from Dell suggests that 85% of jobs that will be around in 2030 do not exist yet. The fact becomes important as it showcases that the jobs are not going to vanish, they will just change and most of the jobs by 2030 will be new.
The Future of Human Agency — from pewresearch.org by Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie
Excerpt:
Thus the question: What is the future of human agency? Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center asked experts to share their insights on this; 540 technology innovators, developers, business and policy leaders, researchers, academics and activists responded. Specifically, they were asked:
By 2035, will smart machines, bots and systems powered by artificial intelligence be designed to allow humans to easily be in control of most tech-aided decision-making that is relevant to their lives?
The results of this nonscientific canvassing:
-
- 56% of these experts agreed with the statement that by 2035 smart machines, bots and systems will not be designed to allow humans to easily be in control of most tech-aided decision-making.
- 44% said they agreed with the statement that by 2035 smart machines, bots and systems will be designed to allow humans to easily be in control of most tech-aided decision-making.
What are the things humans really want agency over? When will they be comfortable turning to AI to help them make decisions? And under what circumstances will they be willing to outsource decisions altogether to digital systems?
The next big threat to AI might already be lurking on the web — from zdnet.com by Danny Palmer; via Sam DeBrule
Artificial intelligence experts warn attacks against datasets used to train machine-learning tools are worryingly cheap and could have major consequences.
Excerpts:
Data poisoning occurs when attackers tamper with the training data used to create deep-learning models. This action means it’s possible to affect the decisions that the AI makes in a way that is hard to track.
By secretly altering the source information used to train machine-learning algorithms, data-poisoning attacks have the potential to be extremely powerful because the AI will be learning from incorrect data and could make ‘wrong’ decisions that have significant consequences.
Why AI Won’t Cause Unemployment — from pmarca.substack.com by Marc Andreessen
Excerpt:
Normally I would make the standard arguments against technologically-driven unemployment — see good summaries by Henry Hazlitt (chapter 7) and Frédéric Bastiat (his metaphor directly relevant to AI). And I will come back and make those arguments soon. But I don’t even think the standand arguments are needed, since another problem will block the progress of AI across most of the economy first.
Which is: AI is already illegal for most of the economy, and will be for virtually all of the economy.
How do I know that? Because technology is already illegal in most of the economy, and that is becoming steadily more true over time.
How do I know that? Because:
From DSC:
And for me, it boils down to an inconvenient truth: What’s the state of our hearts and minds?
AI, ChatGPT, Large Language Models (LLMs), and the like are tools. How we use such tools varies upon what’s going on in our hearts and minds. A fork can be used to eat food. It can also be used as a weapon. I don’t mean to be so blunt, but I can’t think of another way to say it right now.
- Do we care about one another…really?
- Has capitalism gone astray?
- Have our hearts, our thinking, and/or our mindsets gone astray?
- Do the products we create help or hurt others? It seems like too many times our perspective is, “We will sell whatever they will buy, regardless of its impact on others — as long as it makes us money and gives us the standard of living that we want.” Perhaps we could poll some former executives from Philip Morris on this topic.
- Or we will develop this new technology because we can develop this new technology. Who gives a rat’s tail about the ramifications of it?
On 02/25/2023,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion,
by Daniel Christian
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm,
and all of them are righteous.
10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.
11 By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 But who can discern their own errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
13 Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then I will be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.
14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
On 02/12/2023,
in faith, global / globalization, relationships, religion, science, society,
by Daniel Christian
Psalm 19:1-4
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
***
A detail image of the larger composite. DECaPS2/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Image processing: M. Zamani & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
***
An excerpt from Nicky Gumbel’s Classic Bible Study
Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes for Health in the USA, a leader in the scientific response to COVID-19 and recipient of the 2020 Templeton Prize, led, in his former role as director of the Human Genome Project, a team of over 2000 scientists who collaborated to determine the three billion letters in the human genome – our own DNA instruction book. He said, ‘I cannot see how nature could have created itself. Only a supernatural force that is outside of space and time could have done that.’
On 02/03/2023,
in 21st century, ethics, faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, morals/values, political science, psychology, relationships, society, sociology,
by Daniel Christian
On 02/02/2023,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion,
by Daniel Christian
On 01/28/2023,
in Daniel S. Christian, faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships,
by Daniel Christian
Psalms 16:1-2 — from bible.com
Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”
On 01/24/2023,
in Daniel S. Christian, Emotion, faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion,
by Daniel Christian
- Psalms 10:1 — from bible.com
Why, LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
From DSC:
I get this piece of scripture…big time.
In the early fall of my senior year in college, I wanted to be sure that the LORD wasn’t a hoax. I didn’t want to commit the rest of my life to Him if He wasn’t real. From that point on, until a Maundy Thursday service at the Alice Millar Chapel on NU’s campus the next spring, I felt that the LORD was 10,000 miles away from me. I couldn’t hear Him or sense Him. I won’t go into details, but it turned out that the LORD was definitely at work. He was changing my identity (though it felt more like a ripping away of my identity) from an athlete to one of His adopted children. I’m glad He was at work, but I wouldn’t want to relive that year ever again.
On 01/20/2023,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion,
by Daniel Christian
1 Peter 3:8 NIV — from my.bible.com
Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.
On 01/11/2023,
in faith, geography / geology, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion,
by Daniel Christian
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
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