Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Dueling Fairy Tales (Reprise)

 [A 1913 illustration from Russian folk tale ‘At the Pike’s Behest,’ also known as ‘Emelyan the Fool.’ В. Курдюмов]

One thing about the current war that has surprised much of the world is how well the smaller and outgunned Ukrainian army has fared against the massive and well-armed Russian force since the latter invaded in February.

But two scholars who were not quite so surprised both happen to be experts on the psychology of children’s literature and how such stories influence our behavior as adults, especially in times of crisis.

Social scientists Sophia Moskalenko and Mia Bloom published an article called “How fairy tales shape fighting spirit” in an academic journal called The Conversation that compares the differences in Ukrainian and Russian folklore as reflected in their respective children’s fairy tales.

Their conclusions are provocative:

  • The master narratives that Ukrainian children grow up with – which serve as the dominant cultural script – are radically different from the ones Russian children absorb.

  • Traditional Ukrainian bedtime stories, such as “Kotygoroshko,” “Kyrylo Kozhumyaka” and “Ivasyk Telesyk,” all portray unassuming characters persevering against insurmountable odds.

  • In Ukrainian children’s bedtime stories, the main characters often start out as unlikely heroes, but their courage, cleverness and grit help them succeed against the odds.

  • In contrast, Russian children’s stories often revolve around a central character named Ivan Durak – Ivan the Stupid.

  • In Russian fairy tales such as “By the Pike’s Wish,” “Princess Frog” and “Sivka Burka,” the main character eventually prevails. He doesn’t win through his own virtues, though, but through the intervention of a magical being – a fish, a frog, a horse – that does all the hard work while the main character claims credit.

  • These Russian folk tales seem to suggest that the recipe for success is not to be too smart or work too hard, but to sit tight in hope that magic will take care of everything.

Nobody would suggest that the entire explanation for the Ukrainians’ surprising success against the Russians will boil down to which fairy tales they learned as children, of course, and the authors of this article are suitably modest in their claims.

But they may be on to something extremely significant here.

[Thanks to my friend Laurie Sigillito, founder and CEO of Local News Network, for alerting me to the fairy tales article.]

LINKS:

  • Why a unanimous jury will never convict Trump, even if he’s guilty as sin (SFC)

  • Trump’s Hush Money: A History of the WSJ’s Investigation (WSJ)

  • House GOP uses its new power in extraordinary effort to shield Trump from indictment (CNN)

  • What Trump's 'arrest' claim says about his hold on politics and the 2024 election (NPR)

  • Stop Overthinking It: An Indictment Would Be Bad For Trump (Politico Mag)

  • Mugshot, fingerprints, handcuffs? What is the process for indicting Donald Trump on criminal charges (Independent)

  • Law enforcement prepare for possible indictment of Trump (CBS)

  • Despite Trump’s call for protests in anticipation that he'll be arrested for hush money payments to adult actor Stormy Daniels, members of the media vastly outnumbered his supporters at the rally outside the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Other major U.S. cities are beefing up security to prepare for unrest.[HuffPost]

  • A federal judge rejected a request by Trump to keep key evidence out of his civil rape trial next month. The judge ruled that key witnesses will be allowed to testify and misogynistic remarks Trump made in 2005, when he apparently didn’t realize he was being recorded, can be played for a jury that will hear the case brought by former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll. [AP]

  • Credit Suisse Sets a Frightening Precedent for $250 Billion in Bonds (Barron’s)

  • World on ‘thin ice’ as UN climate report gives stark warning (AP)

  • The AI Revolution Could Be Bigger and Weirder Than We Can Imagine (Ringer)

  • Why All the ChatGPT Predictions Are Bogus (Atlantic)

  • Google’s catch-up game on AI continues with Bard launch (WP)

  • Bing’s AI chatbot can now generate unhinged images along with unhinged text (Ars Technica)

  • Bing A.I. and the Dawn of the Post-Search Internet (New Yorker)

  • Nearly Half of Firms Are Drafting Policies on ChatGPT Use (Bloomberg)

  • Four ways ChatGPT could help level the humanitarian playing field (New Humanitarian)

  • Perhaps The Most Disruptive Technology In History Is Coming And It’s Expected To Change Everything. Businesses And Marketers Need To Get Quantum Ready. (Forbes)

  • Iowa’s sharp right turn: From centrist state to ‘Florida of the North’ (WP)

  • We’ve Got What It Takes to End Poverty in America (Mother Jones)

  • Xi’s trip to Russia boosts 'dear friend' Putin as China pushes back against U.S. power (NBC)

  • Afghanistan's school year starts with calls for all girls to be allowed back (Reuters)

  • Top Afghan Taliban leader issues decree against nepotism (AP)

  • Macron’s Government Survives but Faces Wrath of France Over Pension Overhaul(NYT)

  • Biden signs legislation to declassify certain intelligence on Covid pandemic origins (CNBC)

  • Los Angeles schools shut down as staff begin 3-day strike (AP)

  • Parents Formally Announce Transfer Of Expectations To Second Child (The Onion)

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Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Ring of Truth

During my recent trip to Arizona, my sister told me a story about an incident that happened when I was in kindergarten. Apparently, she and I were sitting on our front porch when I spotted a girl I liked from my class walking toward our house on the sidewalk.

As the girl drew near, I grabbed a newspaper, held it up and pretended to read it.

“That happened today?” I called out loudly. “How interesting!”

***

Most of the time, I’m the oldest one in the room, so when it comes to memories, mine reach back the furthest. So it is a refreshing experience whenever I get to hang out with my sisters, who remember things that I don’t.

It is also nice to be just a character in the memory of others as opposed to the being the family patrician and sole custodian of the now-distant past.

I was almost 30 when my first child was born, and almost 60 when my first grandchild was born. That’s a lot of rings on the tree for me to try and recall when my descendants ask me specific questions about the past.

Besides, the way I tell a tale is not necessarily more accurate than anyone else, plus the more distant in the past an event occurred, the more our individual versions are likely to diverge, which brings me to the phenomenon of memory consensus.

Within families, communities, countries, cultures — even on a species level — we ultimately tend to reach some sort of consensus about the past, though historians, ideologues, contrarians and poets continue to debate and revise that consensus as new evidence emerges.

And as much as I enjoy telling my descendants stories from the past, I’m acutely aware from my journalism career that for a more well-rounded narrative, other sources ought to be interviewed. My version is only that — mine.

A joint family memoir would no doubt do a better job. As the saying goes, ‘there’s your version, my version and then there’s the truth and no one is lying.’

As for the story of the girl and the newspaper at the top of this essay, I had no memory of it until my sister told me about it last week.

That said, it has the ring of truth.

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Monday, March 20, 2023

To Be Or Not To Be...Obsolete

I’m not confident we’ll know when we’ve crossed the threshold to singularity, that point where machine intelligence exceeds our own; perhaps we’ve already done so. But it doesn’t really matter because does anyone think we can restrain ourselves from the technological wonders that await us?

It’s too late for that. Therefore, maybe we should celebrate our status as the last generation of humans that is biologically distinct from the hybrid species we’re hell-bent on morphing into.

As such, future beings may look upon us as somewhat quaint, curious creatures who actually believed we could solve problems better than our machine extensions. How sweet!

Every day now, without even trying, I include a half dozen or so links to fascinating reports on AI — Some believe it is a grave threat to our humanity; others think it promises nirvana. I’m pretty much an in-betweener on that question. 

Clearly there will be functional improvements in many fields thanks to LLMs and chatbots. In medicine alone, AI will be helpful in diagnostics for sure. No one human brain can possibly hold all the known diseases and their symptoms, so robots will prove to be useful assistants in this regard.

But I wonder what’s to become of human beings generally when we are no longer much needed for our labor. What will we do with ourselves? Play games all the time?

So far we have kept ourselves occupied with a range of professions almost all of which are at risk of replacement by ever-smarter robots. We’re in need of the best philosophers to help us grasp our next steps.

Because the engineers don’t know what to say.

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Sunday, March 19, 2023

Above the Law?

There is an unmistakable parallel between the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Putin and Trump’s imminent indictment in New York. Trump, of course, has often expressed his admiration for Putin, and tried to emulate his authoritarian tactics after he lost the 2020 election.

Given what happened when Trump incited his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6th, 2021, it is deeply disturbing that he is once again calling for protests if and when he is arrested. If violence occurs, we may once again face a Constitutional crisis here in the U.S.

Meanwhile, it is highly unlikely the ICC will be able to enforce its order to arrest Putin anytime in the foreseeable future, so he will remain an alleged war criminal who remains free to commit more crimes.

So what does all of this mean for the principle that no one is above the law?

We’re about to find out. If the rule of law, domestically and internationally, is to remain viable, court orders have to be enforceable and they have to be enforced.

In this context the ICC warrant is one thing — neither Russia nor the U.S. is a signatory to the agreement establishing its jurisdiction.

And in the U.S., although the legal path forward is clearer, no former President has ever been arrested, so if this happens, it will represent an event without precedent.

Stay tuned.

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