chet8757

FBI FALLIBILITY

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Enemies: A History of the FBI

By Tim Weiner

Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki

Tim Weiner (American Author)

One does not come away from Tim Weiner’s book knowing where the line is drawn between value and scorn for government intrusion in the lives of Americans. This seems particularly relevant today when veracity, political bias, and honesty of the FBI is being seriously questioned

J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972. 1st Director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972).

“Enemies…” is about the rise of the F.B.I. and J. Edgar Hoover’s role in the growth of American domestic intelligence.

Weiner reports on questionable FBI tactics employed by Hoover. Hoover sets the table for violation of human rights with a power that defies the intent of the American Constitution.

Even though overt American legislation denies the right of the government to arbitrarily investigate private citizens, Hoover throws “habeas corpus”
into the trash.

(Habeas corpus is a writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person’s release unless lawful grounds are shown for his/her detention.)

Weiner shows Hoover to lie about wire-tapping and gathering information on private citizens without warrant or judicial review. This is the head of the FBI orchestrating the violation of American law. Hoover creates files that give the F.B.I. secret information about the personal sex lives of elected and government appointed bureaucrats and uses that information to influence elected officials and the American public.

Wiener suggests Hoover’s perception is that communism infiltrates all anarchist’ and most American government-opposition’ movements. Hoover crosses the line between free society and tyranny. He gathers information on individual citizens, union movements, civil rights, and accused domestic terrorists with an unshakable belief in his own perception of reality.

The historical facts of Weiner’s presentation gives context to the American communist beliefs of the 40s, 50’s, and 60’s. Hoover feeds the hysteria of his time.

A reader/listener is intellectually and emotionally torn by recounted beliefs held by some American and British citizens of Marxian communism. Some were willing to foment a social revolution by any means necessary.

Others were simply expressing a personal opinion among friends of the same opinion; not to foment revolution, but to explain what they believe denies equal protection, and/or equal rights in America.

Wiener shows that some actions by the FBI warranted investigation. He notes Klaus Fuchs who gave the Soviet Union secrets of the atomic and hydrogen bombs in the 50s, and the British agent, Kim Philby, who betrays American and British agents of the F.B.I., C.I.A. and British MI-5. (Agents were murdered because of Philby’s betrayal.)

The unfortunate consequence of Hoover’s domination of the F.B.I. is that it evolves into a vehicle of suppression, subject to the whims of one human being’s prejudices. This is particularly apparent in the rise and fall of McCarthyism.

America is a government of checks and balances and when any American agency abandons those criteria of governance, it compromises public freedom.

Every human being is flawed; every human being is subject to the good and bad qualities of human nature. When the F.B.I. or any government agency is dominated by one person, it fails the test of good government. That seems a justifiable critique of Hoover’s career in the FBI.

The American Constitution’s checks and balances are being used to address the FBI’s role in America.

One comes away from Weiner’s book to believe it is unfair to conflate the era of Hoover with the current administration of the FBI.

Serious questions are raised about the veracity, political bias and honesty of today’s FBI. There is the Clinton email investigation, the Trump collusion investigation, the firing of James Comey, and the Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok dismissals.

“Enemies: A History of the FBI” is a relevant subject for the 21^st century because of technology’s potential for exponentially invading personal privacy. Checks and balances through rule of law are a free society’s only protection against human nature’s fallibility.

Michael Horowitz (American Attorney, DOJ Inspector General who is tasked with reporting FBI political bias.)

Though Horowitz’s investigative report is not to everyone’s satisfaction, there is little evidence of FBI’ political bias. There is ample evidence of human nature’s fallibility, but it only reminds us of ourselves. Individual FBI careers have been tarnished but there is no institutional political bias.

FAUSTIAN BARGAIN

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe

By George Dyson

Narrated by Arthur Morey

George Dyson (American author, historian of technology.)

The beginning of one of many Faustian bargains between government and science is revealed in George Dyson’s book, “Turing’s Cathedral”. Dyson reveals the genius of Alan Turing and other contributors to the computer age.

Alan Turing (Mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist.)

John von Neumann (1903-1957) A Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, and polymath, joins the American military/industrial complex before it became known as the “complex”.

Calculations for ordinance trajectory and explosive impact became increasingly important during WWII.

George Dyson’s book recounts the confluence of military might and computer invention. The military wants more accurate estimates of ordinance trajectory and damage to improve murder rate. Manual calculation was too slow and prone to error.

With government backing, von Neumann is midwife to the birth of the computer generation. Presuming von Neumann knew of Alan Turing’s 1936 paper on mathematical logic, he wrote a paper about a universal computing machine. Hired by the government to improve the accuracy of military ordinance, von Neumann works with Oswald Veblen at the Moore School of Engineering in Philadelphia. Von Neumann, and Veblen expand a math and engineering department that changes the world.

To the right is the Moore School of Engineering in Philadelphia–The fruit of the new department’s labor is a vacuum-tube, wire bound, contraption called ENIAC.

Before Eniac, human calculations could not efficiently or effectively determine the course of a flying howitzer shell, or the measured impact of a flying-fortress’ bomb. What the military needed was a better calculating tool than the single human brain.

John Mauchly (left) J. Presper Eckert (right)–Mauchly and Eckert were the inventors of the first universal computing machine at the Moore School of Engineering.

(There is a controversy over who created the architecture for this machine because von Neumann came to the Moore School of Engineering after Mauchly and Eckert had already begun work on ENIAC.)

Though this is an historical account of the invention and consequence of computer manufacture, listening to “Turing’s Cathedral” seduces one into seeing war and the military as a primary source of technological advance. Science is shown to advance from growth of the military/industrial complex and the destruction of war.

Rocket science grows from Hitler’s pummeling of London during WWII. Nuclear science grows from Truman’s bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Space exploration grows from a moon shot heavily subsidized by the Kennedy administration. In the foreseeable future, government’ satellite and cyber research grows from late twentieth century advances in software development.

What strikes one’s imagination is how critical government expenditure, particularly the military, is to R and D (research and development) in science.

Interestingly, the requested budget for R and D in 2019 is reduced to $131 billion.

(President Trump is intent on building a wall between Mexico and the U.S.; i.e. not unlike Hadrian’s wall, a first century method of defense. Not what one would call a technological advance.)

One wonders if the computer would ever have been invented without the advance of a horrendously destructive war. At the very least, war accelerated the invention of the computer generation.

The innate brilliance of Philadelphia’s Moore School mathematicians creates more efficient and effective methods of mass murder. One might argue that the Moore School opened a Pandora’s box. Turing’s, von Neumann’s, Mauchly’s, and Eckert’s theories and inventions open a door to artificial intelligence; i.e. an intelligence beyond human understanding that may improve or destroy humanity.

The first hydrogen bomb explodes in 1952. According to Dyson, one person is killed while monitoring the explosion. He is the first victim of the hydrogen bomb that is 50 times more destructive than the bombs that fell on Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

One wonders, without government, without the military, and sadly, without war, would humankind have reached into the universe in the 1960s?

This is an important book, somewhat difficult to track because of its non-linear presentation, but a valuable insight to a giant step in the history of science.

A monumental gap in George Dyson’s presentation of “Touring’s Cathedral” is the effect of the internet and its ability to disseminate information throughout the world with a click.

Instant communication changes the dynamics of society. The computer age and internet offer a platform to rally the best and worst of society.

One cannot help but be troubled by the source of mankind’s twentieth century leaps in scientific discovery. So many scientific advances seem closely tied to perfection and invention of potential weapons of mass destruction. Dyson inadvertently makes a case for war and the military’s efficacy as an engine of science.

“Turing’s Cathedral” opens a door to artificial intelligence, a two edged sword that can defend or destroy humanity. With the internet, the sword is sharpened.

Secret Service

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough
(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Operation Mincemeat
By Ben Macintyre
Narrated by John Lee

Ben Macintyre (British historian, author, and columist for The Times newspaper)

“Operation Mincemeat” is an historical account of “The Man Who Never Was”. It is about the early days of the British Secret Service. It covers a specific operation to mislead the German Axis powers on the planned invasion of Italy in WWII.

Though this history is enlightening, Macintyre’s account makes the early British Secret Service look like an upper-class boy’s club. The master minds of early British Secret Service espionage, MI5, are pictured as aspiring novelists from privileged, wealthy English families playing a game of war.

The mission is to drop a dead body in the Mediterranean off the Spanish coast. The body is to carry false documents to mislead the Axis powers.

Ian Fleming (1908-1964, English author, former naval intelligence officer, creator of the James Bond series.

The idea came from a novel written in the 1930s. One of Mi5’s agents, Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond series) recalls the novel and suggests the idea to the “boys club” in 1939.

The details for execution of the plan are fascinating. The difficulty of acquiring a dead body, the creation of forged documents, the personal approval of Winston Churchill, and the bureaucratic arguments over minutiae before the plan could be executed beggar belief.

With all that preparation, it is surprising to hear of fundamental mistakes made on planted documents. The picture on the military ID to identify the dead body did not have the right hair line. One of the personal letters placed on the body incorrectly refers to a field commander as though he had knowledge of plans that he could not have had.

In spite of these mistakes, the plan works perfectly and saves hundreds, probably thousands of Allied personnel by convincing Germany to build their defensive forces in Greece rather than Italy where the Allied invasion actually occurs.

Ewen Montagu (1901-1985)
There are stories of patriotism and hard work by the British Secret Service but they are diminished by characterization of the early agents. An office dalliance between the prime mover of the Mincemeat operation, agent Montagu, and an office secretary seems tawdry. The book concludes with Montagu’s battle over government declassification of the operation and his fight for publishing rights to the story of the deception.

The author’s characterization of the early days of the British Secret Service is not heroic in the sense one gets from deciphering the enigma code by the Turing team. There are pictures of real heroes in this history but they are soldiers in a real war.

Much of MI5’s depiction in “Operation Mincemeat” is of upper-class rich boys playing war in blacked out offices near Piccadilly; while soldiers and civilians are losing their lives in England and the mainland.

OVERCOMING

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Count of Monte Cristo
By Alexandre Dumas

Narrated by John Lee

Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870, French Autor)

Alexandre Dumas is a French Charles Dickens and a writer of “Dostoyevsky light” stories. The narrator, John Lee. magnifies “The Count of Monte Cristo” characters with an exotic voice that markedly enhances Dumas’s story.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870, English Author and soicial critic.)

Like Charles Dickens, Dumas creates interesting characters. And, like Dostoevsky, he creates emotionally driven protagonists.

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881, Russian novelist, essayist, journalist, and philosopher.)

Dumas writes a story of revenge with twists of fate that have Dickens’ coincidences and “Dostoevsky-like” motivations.

The hero is Dante, the wrongfully accused, convicted, and secretly incarcerated prisoner. The heroine is Mercedes, the love of Dante’s life that mourns his disappearance on their wedding day.

Dante is unjustly imprisoned for being a Bonopartist based on inadvertent collusion by Danglars, Villifort, and Fernand. They all have different motives for jailing Dante.

The jealous and greedy merchant, Danglars wants to rid himself of Dante because he is a commercial rival. An ambitious, duplicitous, and sycophantic, politician, Villifort, wants to hide his family’s involvement with the Bonapartists. Fernand wants to remove Dante from his wedding to give himself an opportunity to marry Mercedes himself.

(Bonapartism is the political ideology of Napoleon Bonaparte. In government speak, it is a dictatorial executive with a weak and ineffectual legislative body, filled with sycophants.)

Luck and fate mix into Dante’s imprisonment. Dante escapes and becomes fabulously rich. Dante travels the world after his escape and searches for information about people in his life before imprisonment.

A cloak of mystery surrounds Dante as he appears in the lives of his friends and enemies. The cloak is removed at perfect moments in each episode. He endeavors to understand his friends and enemies strengths and weaknesses.

Dante rewards his friends and punishes his enemies. Plans for revenge and exposure of his enemies’ misdeeds are cleverly woven into the story. Each colluding villain is defeated by his own human weakness.

Danglars’ greed becomes his destruction. Villifort’s lies lead to madness. Fernand’s false accusation, and the loss of Mercedes’ love drive him to commit suicide.

The story is a tangled web of relationships, guilts, and crimes that are satisfyingly resolved by the end of the book. Overcoming life’s adversity and justice’s triumph are the appeal of “The Count of Monte Christo”.

Who among Dumas’s three villains in “The Count of Monte Cristo” reminds one of America’s Bonapartist President?

FREE WILL

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Brothers Karamazov
By Fyodor Dostoevsky

Narrated by Walter Covell

Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian Novelist, 1821-1881)

Twenty years before Sigmund Freud’s “…Psychopathology of Every Day Life”, Fyodor Dostoevsky penetrates man’s subconscious to reveal unnamed frames of mind that influence human behavior.

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis (1856-1939)

All of Dostoevsky’s writing probes the human mind allowing listener/readers to hear unspoken thought and vicariously experience the consequence of singular deliberation.

Human aggression, compassion, love, and hate possess “The Brothers Karamazov”. The origins of these feelings are nakedly exposed in the murder of “The Brothers…” hedonistic father.

One of four brothers is suspected to be a murderer. The oldest brother is a student intellectual, a middle brother is an effusive pleasure seeker, and the youngest is a pious seminarian. A lurking illegitimate fourth son (aged somewhere between the oldest and youngest) adds to Dostoevsky’s tale of parricide.

The irony of isolated thought and deliberation is that it can lead to genius or horrendous crime. The first might be a Paul Dirac or Volodymyr Zelensky; the second a Ted Bundy or Vladimir Putin.

Theodore Robert Bundy was an American serial killer, kidnapper, rapist, burglar, and necrophiliac (1946-1989) Electrocuted–1989 in a Florida prison.

“The Brothers Karamazov” introduces Ivan Karamazov, an intellectual agnostic. Ivan’s agnosticism and misanthropy contrasts with his younger brother, Alyosha. Alyosha is a character reminiscent of an earlier Dostoevsky’ work (“The Idiot”) who exemplified man’s goodness in a life lived in contemplation and moderation.

“The Brother’s Karamazov” illustrates life’s contrasts with Alyosha, a saintly hero and Ivan, a deluded manipulator of human events. Both live lives of contemplation but one chooses to become a monk; the other an intellectual misfit.

God, free will, lust, innocence, guilt, and responsibility play out in thoughts and actions of the four brothers. If free will exists, where does it begin and end? Are we free? Are we driven by human nature or by God’s plan to become who we are; and to do what we do?

If you teach someone to hate as Ivan teaches Smerdyakov, his illegitimate brother, are you innocent of actions taken by those whom you teach? Does a teacher have any guilt; any responsibility for bad actions of the student?

As an intellectual, Ivan explains he does not believe in God. And later, he denies any responsibility for his father’s murder. His beliefs lead him to despair when he realizes Smerdyakov is the murderer.

Ivan eventually takes moral responsibility for his father’s death. At the end, Ivan seems on the verge of reassessing his belief in God; i.e. an assessment dear to Dostoevsky’s life and a subject espied in all his work.

The question of free will is challenged by the history of the Karamazov family. Every characteristic of the brothers is reminiscent of a part of their father’s strengths and weaknesses.

All of the brothers in varying degrees are molded into who they are by their paternal father and their Holy Father. The evidence of their Holy Father’s role is exhibited by the guilt ridden consciences of everyone but Smerdyakov. Finally, with Ivan’s final acceptance of responsibility for his father’s murder, Dostoevsky concludes an argument against free will.

Fyodor Dostoevsky brilliantly expands the value of literature with his insight into the relationship between thought, instinct, and action. Ivan’s broader intellect, and Smerdyrkov’s lesser intellect informs their actions. Instinct informs Mitya’s action. Religious belief informs Alyosha’s action.

The characters in Dostoevsky’s imagination are incarnations of religious belief. In “…Brothers Karamazov” each character’s life is prescriptive. Life is either designed by genetic inheritance or fulfillment of God’s plan. One suspects Dostoevsky believes the second more than the first.

Parallel Worlds

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Parallel Worlds
By Michio Kaku
Narrated by Marc Vietor

Michio Kaku (American physicist, author, professor)

Michio Kaku valiantly tilts Don Quixote’s lance at physics in writing “Parallel Worlds”. The fictional Quixote quests for knowledge as a knight errant. Michao Kaku pursues knowledge as a renowned physicist. Time will tell if Kaku is a errant physicist or a clarion of knowledge.

This is a book about Physics, the baffling science of mathematics, and those who wish to understand why Newton, Einstein, Bohr, Planck, Michael Green, and Ed Schwarz et al are important to all of us who are confused.

In spite of the abstruse subject, Kaku reveals some understandable break through discoveries in cosmology, and mankind’s pursuit of the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is a unified field theory that explains everything there is to know about matter and energy in one combinatoric theory.

Physicists continue to search for a theory that will explain how electromagnetic, gravitational, weak, and strong forces follow one fundamental rule of existence.

Einstein’s theory of special relativity, implies predictability. Quantum mechanics exclusively relies on probability. How can these two fundamentally different rules be made into one theory?

Contrary to Einstein’s belief that “God does not play with dice”, God lives in Las Vegas.

On a subatomic level, repeatable experiments show that it is impossible to predict the exact position of an electron. With measurement of either position or energy of an electron, its location or power is changed. Electron movement is unpredictable by any known criteria of measurement.

Experimental proof of a theory demands measurement; without measurement, there is no proof. For example, one reason “string theory” is unproven is that the dimension of strings is too minuscule. Technology has not advanced enough for experimental proof. It does not make the theory wrong. It’s simply not experimentally provable.

The God question inevitably raises its head in sciences’ pursuit of a unified field theory. However, putting philosophical discussion aside, Kaku tells the story of Einstein’s unsuccessful pursuit of a unified field theory.

Einstein refuted some of Newton’s laws. Bohr refuted some of Einstein’s speculation. Their research leads to discoveries that only a science fiction writer could conceive. Bohr introduces quantum mechanics to Einstein’s discovery of the interchangeability of energy and mass.

With science pursuing the universe’s origin and its component makeup, only telescopes like Hubble and CERN’s Hadron collider in Europe have made any progress in identifying dark matter or energy.

Smaller and smaller elements of matter and energy are discovered by scientists, but an estimated 75% of the known components of the world are unknown. Dark matter and dark energy make up that 75%. (Discovery of Higgs-bosun in 2012 is the most recent addition to component knowledge.)

Another hope of discovering a UFT in theoretical physics is Ed Schwarz’s and Michael Green’s string theory postulation.

Schwarz’s and Green’s theory provides a more inclusive categorization of the basic elements of the world. Kaku describes string theory in terms of a stringed instrument that changes the character of matter by shortening or lengthening strings.

Just as Einstein’s theory of the curvature of space-time is not proven until Stanley Eddington’s measurement of an eclipse in 1919,
Swartz and Green wait for technology to catch up. String theory waits for another Eddington.

When the strings are plucked they resonate at different frequencies. That change in vibration changes the elemental nature of the particle even though the string is fundamentally the same.

String theory, if it proves correct, opens many doors in the sub-microscopic world. It opens to the speculation of possible parallel worlds. Kaku overwhelms listeners with the potential of a scientifically verifiable unified field theory. He suggests the possibility of time travel and space exploration through black holes and white holes.

“Parallel Worlds” ends its exploration of physics with notes of caution and optimism about our world’s progress. The book is semi-understandable (possibly, horribly misleading) but worth reading.

BIG QUESTIONS

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Brief Answers to the Big Questions

By Stephen Hawking, Eddie Redmayne-foreword, Lucy Hawking-afterword

Narrated by Ben Whishaw

Stephen Hawking (English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author)

“Big Answers to Big Questions” is Stephen Hawking’s last book. It is posthumously compiled by others.

Though many books have been written by Hawking, none are as popular as “A Brief History of Time”. However, this compilation of Hawking’s thoughts deserves equal, if not greater, popularity. It is simpler to understand and addresses a wider range of subjects that puzzle human beings.

“Brief Answers…” does not definitively answer the questions that are raised. It does offer a perspective from a person that is one of the great minds of modern science.

Karl Popper’s dictum is that “He who decides one day that scientific statements do not call for any further test…retires from the game.” By that criteria, Hawking’s “Brief answers…” can only be right or wrong. Even Einstein’s theories are still being tested.

What is the origin of life?

Hawking’s answer is the “Big Bang”. The origin of life begins with the “Big Bang”, a somewhat pejorative term that describes a black hole. This black mass is formed from a consolidation of gaseous and fragmented material that compresses to a point smaller than a pea.

Is there an explanation for something being created from nothing?

Hawking’s answer is related to the theory of the “big bang”. Time did not exist before the big-bang. The arrow of time is created by the instantaneous expansion of our universe’s compressed black hole. Hawking argues before time there is nothing. The creation of this world came from the physics of compression and its consequence; i.e. inflation, the instantaneous expansion of a black hole.

From that tiny spot in the cosmos, Hawking argues a universe is born. This minute point of compression is postulated by Hawking to expand instantaneously (termed cosmic inflation).

In accordance with Einstein’s law of physics, mass and energy are equivalent and cannot be destroyed. Instantaneous inflation is a changed form of energy and mass with space being its primary constituent. That instantaneous expansion of a black hole made the universe. This universe is made of many galaxies (estimated to be between 200 billion and 2 trillion); of which we are only one, called the Milky Way.

From the big bang, the elements of life are formed. Hawking explains chemical interactions from the explosion lead to the first carbon-based life’ forms. That combination of chemicals evolves into plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea, and bacteria.

Is the only explanation for the existence of earth an omniscient and omnipresent God?

The “big bang” is Hawking’s answer; without insisting that there is no God. Hawking’s argument is founded on science that offers a plausible alternative explanation.

What are the greatest threats to life on earth? Hawking notes four. One, nuclear war; two, global warming; three over-population, and four—an asteroid collision with earth.

Not surprising to some, Hawking suggests the first two are accelerated by the election of Donald Trump. The third and fourth are another matter.

Does life exist on other planets?

Hawking believes it is probable. However, he believes it unlikely to be humanoid. He suggests the evolution of humankind is a confluence of serendipitous circumstances that are unlikely to be repeated.

How will human beings survive on a world with diminishing resources?

Hawking believes human survival depends on habitation of other planets.
He argues that the same thing that motivated Columbus to find a new continent motivates humankind to journey into space.

Through a combination of curiosity (born partly of greed for wealth and power in my opinion) and necessity, explorers expanded their domains. Hawking suggests the same holds true today.

Will humankind visit other solar systems?

Hawking explains the limitations and problems of space travel and habitation. The distances involved in finding a planet like earth are currently too great.

Planets in other solar systems are not reachable with the energy limitations of current propulsion technology. Long distance space travel is not insurmountable, but presently it is beyond the capability of experimental science.

Hawking argues that funding for space travel research needs to be increased. Planets and moons in our solar system will require elaborate survival systems to deal with a lack of water, harsh climate, and unbreathable air. However, planets like Mars offer some refuge based on technological innovation.

Will a law of nature that explains everything about everything be discovered?

Hawking believes someone will find a theory that combines quantum theory with the special theory of relativity. The present state of science suggests “God does play dice”, contrary Albert Einstein’s belief. What remains unknown is how the theory of a causal world can be the same as a probabilistic world. Hawking believes the melding of quantum theory and Einstein’s theory will be the answer to the puzzle of existence.

Is Artificial Intelligence a danger to humankind?

Hawking argues that A.I. is potentially dangerous, but also a possible boon to humankind. He believes A.I. will exceed the capability of human reasoning. Hawking argues human beings must responsibly limit actions taken by A.I. that might be detrimental to humankind.

With the advance of genetic engineering (like Crispr), Hawking argues the human genome will be modified. That modification may involve A.I. in ways that enhance human capability. On the other hand, it may destroy human consciousness (whatever that is).

Hawking explains a dire prediction for A.I. is its potential to improve itself at the expense of humans.

Despite the four possible causes for human extinction, Hawking believes the more likely cause of human extinction will be an asteroid collision with earth. Humans, like the dinosaurs, will die in a bang, rather than a whimper.

There are other interesting thoughts from Hawking but a final question is–what discovery, in Hawking’s opinion, would be the most valuable to the world? What discovery would hold the most promise?

Hawking suggests the world’s energy and environmental problems can be addressed by one discovery. The discovery of a method for creating energy from nuclear fusion. Such a discovery would diminish degradation of our environment and improve the odds for interstellar travel.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

All the Shah’s Men:

An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror
By Stephen Kinzer

Narrated by Michael Prichard

Stephen Kinzer (American Author, journalist and academic, former NYT’ correspondent)

Stephen Kinzer is among a long line of journalists that look at America’s past and reveal some of its lies. Kinzer is a journalist that covered Middle Eastern affairs for the New York Times. He examines a piece of Iran’s history to reveal America’s clandestine involvement in the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh, a 1950’s Prime Minister of Iran.

“All The Shah’s Men” is a thrilling recount of America’s complicity in Iran’s overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953. Kinzer builds a credible story of British greed that seduces American government into removing Mossadegh from office.

(One is reminded of “The Three Kings” movie that shows an American captive being forced to drink oil; a graphic illustration of why some in the Middle East accuse the West of greed.)

Kinzer recounts British colonization, and industrial domination of Iranian oil assets. The Shah of Iran enters into long term agreements with a British-controlled oil partnership of Iran’s oil industry. The contract is long term and exclusively managed by the British with all accounting for Iranian payments determined by British managers. Mohammed Mossadegh fights for Iran’s right to its natural resources.

British Petroleum was the controlling and managing partner of an Anglo/Persian oil conglomerate called APOC. The British treasury purchased 51% of the conglomerate in 1914.

Mossadegh, formally educated in France with credentials as a lawyer and Finance Minister, exposes unfair practices of the British-controlled oil company. The British government supports the oil company’s refusal to renegotiate their contract with the Iranian government. Iran refuses to kowtow to the British government. In response, Mossadegh nationalizes the oil conglomerate’s assets.

Winston Churchill appeals to President Truman for American assistance in overthrowing Mossadegh’s administration; Truman refuses. Churchill recognizes Truman is soon to be replaced by Eisenhower and decides to wait until Eisenhower is in office.

The Churchill administration suggests Mossadegh is creating instability in Iran. Churchill argues that Iran will turn to communism if America does not aid Great Britain in the removal of Iran’s Prime Minister.

The irony of Churchill’s instability argument is that much of the instability is caused by Britain’s strict embargo of all assistance to Iran while Iran’s primary source of income, the oil industry, is shut down by Britain’s refusal to negotiate a new oil contract.

Kermit Roosevelt Jr. (1916-2000, CIA officer, a grandson of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.)

Eisenhower initially rejects Churchill’s overture but the CIA becomes involved through the clandestine placement of Kermit Roosevelt as a CIA operative in Iran. His job is to foment a rebellion. Direct involvement of Eisenhower is not revealed by Kinzer’s research but Roosevelt and CIA participation in the removal and replacement of Mossadegh is clearly documented by Kinzer.

Kinzer’s story is fascinating. However, as credible as his story is, to suggest a direct link between Mossadegh’s overthrow and the bombing of the New York towers is hyperbolic.

Great Britain, the United States, the Shah of Iran, and private industry are villains in this story, but greed is a universal human failing that permeates all human endeavors. A direct line between one event and international relations is a trick by historians and journalists to simplify history. One nation’s exercise of power and influence over another is resisted by all sovereign nations. It is the accumulation of sovereign encroachments that cause long term enmity between nations.

U.S. Embassy Hostages Taken in Iran in 1979.

Qasem Soleimani

No singular event explains one nation’s antipathy toward another but each opens wounds from the past.

ROBERT FROST

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Fall of Frost

By Brian Hall
Narrated by Dick Hill

BRIAN HILL (AMERICAN AUTHOR)

If you are not presently an Audio book fan, this is a book that might expand your literary horizon. Without any intent to diminish Brian Hall’s skill as a novelist, “Fall of Frost” is a better book to listen to than read.

ROBERT FROST (AMERICAN POET 1874-1963)
“Fall of Frost” is a fictional portrayal of “four time” Pulitzer Prize winning American poet, Robert Frost. Dick Hill’s narration smoothly transitions from prose to poetry in his beautiful presentation of Brian Hall’s fascinating rendition of Robert Frost’s life.

This is not a biography. It is a work of fiction grounded in historic events of a poet’s life. It is an author’s projection of what Robert Frost thought when he wrote a poem; when he met world movers and shakers, or when he gave speeches at famous gatherings.

Hall escapes tedious fact reporting by capturing moments of Frost’s life. When Frost meets with Khrushchev in 1962, he is nearing the end of his life.

The story makes a listener feel Frost’s age by describing a long flight and revealing ruse’s of old age; i.e. like saying “what did you say” when what you really want is more time to think of a response.

Hall speculates on what might be going through Frost’s mind. When Frost offered a poetry reading at Kennedy’s inauguration, he missed a line of his own poem; Hall writes like he knows Frost’s thoughts showing Frost’s frustration over his mistake.

“Fall of Frost” entertains and informs by revealing events in Frost’s life that influenced his poetry. By shedding the category of non-fiction, Hall manages to create believable circumstances of a life that created famous poems like “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”.

No, this is not a biography but it gives a context to events in Robert Frost’s life that can be found in history books.

The prose of Hall and poetry of Frost are wonderful to hear, regardless of the precise facts of Frost’s life.

Amanda Gorman seems a youthful replacement for Robert Frost–her poetic presentation at the Biden/Harris Inauguration is beautifully rendered on a page of the WSJ in 2021.

After listening to Fall of Frost, an audiophile or bibliophile will have a better appreciation of who Robert Frost was and what he represented in America and the world.

RATIONALIZATION

Book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad
By Peter L. Bergen

Peter Bergen (British-American Journalist, Author, CNN Nation Security Analyst)

Written by Peter Bergen, Manhunt is a page turning thriller that tells America’s story of the search for and killing of Osama bin Laden, an acknowledged mass murderer.

The story of the search and killing of Osama bin Laden perversely satisfies human nature’s desire for revenge.

Osama bin Laden (1957-2011, Saudi Arabian founder of the militant orgranization al-Qaeda.)

Osama bin Laden takes responsibility for 9/11/01 killing of nearly 3,000 innocents–one presumes bin Laden goes to his grave believing in his rationalization for terror and murder.

Osama Bin Laden and his followers believe America manipulates and subverts Middle Eastern culture and religious belief. Bin Laden called Americans infidels who deserved death because they did not believe in the “truth” of Allah. To most Muslims this is a distortion of the true meaning of Islamic faith and a false interpretation of the Koran.

Bin Laden’s son is alleged to have the same sentiment as his father. Hamza bin Laden is rumored to be the new leader of al-Qaeda with the same terrorist ambitions. America offers a $1,000,000 bounty for the capture of Hamza bin Laden. (Killed in 2019–alleged to have been a result of America’s counter intelligence operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan.)

Many, if not most, Muslims argue that Osama bin Laden misrepresented the Koran and its teaching about life and the hereafter. To many, the nature of the living is to be free to choose what one believes and to live in peace with your neighbors.

Al Qaida’s rationalization for terrorism comes from an interpretation of the Koran that condones indiscriminate murder of others; including believers in the faith. This is appalling because it involves murder of innocents. How can a babe in arms be guilty?

Biblical literature of all major faiths, at different times, have notoriously rationalized murder of innocents. The God of Abraham is a vengeful God in the Old Testament. The Old Testament speaks of killing every man, woman, and child in ancient communities because of failure to follow the word of God. How can a child in the womb be guilty of not following the word of God?

American rationalization for drone use also murders innocents. There is a calculated number given as an acceptable number of innocents to be killed in a drone attack on suspected terrorists.

Osama bin Laden manages to evade capture for over ten years after 9/11. Bergen infers this long period of evasion is a result of distracted American military focus, poor American intelligence, and political ambivalence of Middle Eastern allies.

The key to tracking Osama bin Laden is Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed, aka Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (the Kuwaiti). Bergen explains that Ahmed is a trusted courier for Osama bin Laden. Ahmed is summoned to a compound in Abbottabad, after having been away from al Qaida for nearly a year. This summoning and extensive surveillance of the Abbottabad compound suggest a high ranking al Qaida leader is hiding in this northeastern Pakistani’ city of nearly 1.5 million people.

Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed (al-Qaeda member and courier that lead Navy Seals to Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.)

Osama bin Laden Pakistan compound in plain sight of the Pakistani military.

Bergen explains how American government leaders and military analysts monitor and eventually infiltrate the Abbottabad’ compound for actionable intelligence. The focus of the team is to determine who the high ranking person is in the Pakistani compound. Speculation grows to a 50% chance that the person is Osama bin Laden.

Location of the bin Laden compound in relation to the Pakistan Miltary Academy.

The highest government and military leaders of America wrestle with life and death decisions; often based on too few facts for guaranteed mission success.

Bergen’s build up to the decision to send a team of Navy Seals into the compound rivals the best drama one can write about a secret military mission.

Bergen illustrates the difference between being a manager and a leader. The former keeps an organization running; the latter gives organization purpose.

Just as one President chooses not to cross the border of Iraq in operation Desert Storm, a second chooses to invade Iraq, and a third chooses to illegally cross Pakistan’s border. Some argue America is right twice and wrong once. (The misleading representation of WMD in the invasion of Iraq was a mistake for which America and the world continues to pay.)

Right or wrong, American Presidents show themselves to be leaders. Even Trump leads in his own way. The concern is in where facts begin and rationalization ends.

Woodward exposes Trump’s intentional decision to mislead the public. The corona virus nears 200,000 American deaths with projections of up to 400,000.

By the end of Bergen’s story, a listener understands the complexity of the decisions made by American Presidents. On reflection, one realizes bin Laden, Mao, Stalin, and Hitler were also leaders. In that recognition, one realizes how important it is for nations’ political systems to choose their leaders carefully.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: