South Africa, there is something wrong

Introduction

Recently I've been having a lot of debates regarding what's wrong with South Africa.  Why it is failing as a governmental, economical and social system, and what is needed for this to change.  So I've decided I'm going to tackle this issue here, on my blog.  I'm going to be doing a series of articles on the various facets of what is wrong with South Africa, and what we need to change to correct it.  This is my first article in this series.

Should Israel negotiate with Hamas?

Introduction

Over the past year the conflict in Israel between the Arab nationals who claim autonomy over an area known as the Gaza Strip and the Israeli government and its military has become a major international concern.  The Israeli government has been under severe scrutiny for not only its conduct, but its refusal to negotiate with the forces currently in control of the area.  This conflict stretches back many decades, and is part of the larger conflict between the Jewish people and the Arab world, a conflict which is itself nearly 4 thousand years old.

I will be looking specifically at whether the Israeli government is justified in its refusal to negotiate with Hamas.  To his end I will be making 3 arguments as follows:

1.  Hamas is a terrorist organisation

2.  Hamas demands the destruction of Israel and the kulling of the Jewish people

3.  Following from argument 2, and Hamas's actions towards this end, Israel is under real threat

With these three arguments I will demonstrate that not only is Israel justified in not negotiating with Hamas, but that Israel can not, and should not negotiate with Hamas.

The need for a secular government

Intoduction

All over the western world we have largely secular governments.  In the middle east we have theocratic governments, and in China and several other far eastern nations we have antitheistic governments.  But all over the world we have various arguments on whether we should have secular or theocratic governments.  I will be tackling this matter head on, stating my standpoint, explaining my thoughts on the matter and giving reasons for why I say what I say.

My Study Methodology

Introduction

Here in Potchefstroom it is now officially research time.  Yes, the exams are but 17 days away and it is the time that most students are hitting the textbooks, catching up on their reading and studying their butts off for the coming papers (I hope).  I thought this would be a brilliant time to waste a few minutes typing, and to explain to the one or two people who might read this in the future, how exactly it is that I study.

On human thought and the divide between human and machine cognition

Introduction

I have often come across several question that have intrigued me.
1.  Should machine intelligence be recognised as sentient?
2.  Is it even possible for a machine to be sentient?
3.  Could it be possible for a sentient machine to possess a soul?

These are very intricate, delicate and obscure philosphical questions that one can not hope to even begin to explain in a single post.  These are questions that the top minds in the fields of Machine Sentience, Machine Cognition and Artificial Intelligence have spent decades researching, investigating and debating.  I  can hardly presume to possess more knowledge then thay do, nor do I.  Following is simply my thoughts on the matter.  Take them whichever way you wish, comment and reply and let us begin a civil dialogue.

Technological Stasis In Schools

New technology has always been considered a novelty upon their conseption; computers, the car, the printing press.  It has always taken people time to realise the new ideas' or gadgets' true potential.
This fact extends to the schools as well.  Children of today are considered slaves of technology, "digital natives" even.  At home they are either in front of the "tv", behind the "PC" or on "that thing" as parents have come to call it.  And yet at school they are forced to sit on a hard, uncomfortable wooden bench, and look at a black chalckboard for hours on end.  No wonder so many of today's children are diagnosed with  ADHD!  They live hyperstimulated by technology in every aspect of their life; every aspect, that is, other than at school...

The massive sensory deprevation that they undergo every day in every class in comparison to the rest of their lives is what causes many to show symptoms of ADHD, symptoms which are in fact only severe bordom!  Don't get me wrong, a good majority are in fact ADHD cases, but this majority is certainly far less than 100.

Yes, many people may be of the opinion that computers are entertainment platforms, and they would be right.  Computers are platforms, empty, blank platforms that can be moulded into anything you want them to be.

Most teachers and schools fight every day to keep cellphones off in class, but who would honestly choose to look at a black chalkboard over chatting to you friends on a cell phone?  Do not fight your enemy's strengths, use them to your advantage.  Teachers should be using technology to teach, turn the menace that is the infamous cell phone into the bessing that is the class phone.

And let's be honest, if it took the Wright Brothers' Plane four years to have it's potential in world travel realised, isn't forty years long enough for the computer and other digital technologies' potential in education to be realised?