Code Talkers [Revised]
[Header Image Credit] Navajo Code Talkers - The Unwritten Record
The original version was posted on 30th September 2024.
This is a revised version in order only to make a brief note if not an obsession that human beings are on the verge of being enslaved.
I have seen number of no+e articles seemingly written with fancy keywords in mathematics and physics, which remotely remind me of the Sokal Affair.
Let me quote the following superb article again:
I have to emphasize that I am not against AI at all.
The Sokal Affair is not directly linked to AI-assisted production of nonsense.
That laypeople feel less uncomfortable with using such fancy keywords without being aware of ambiguity of the definition or conducting "semantic hijacking", which is nothing but nauseating, is taking place in faster pace than expected and in much larger portion of human beings than the time of the Sokal Affair solely owing to proliferation of AI 💫
It would be ludicrously simplistic to summarize this situation in a single word "cease of thinking". However, one author let my comment on his/her article be analyzed by AI, and just responded to me with copy & paste of the output, which is not something to laugh about; it is actually terrifying😱
In a sense, for the ruling class of authoritarian states, the spread of such mental shutdowns among more citizens would likely be desirable.
Although I may sound like a lunatically pessimistic alarmist, we have effectively crossed "the point of no return". I do not think we can prevent human beings from being enslaved, and many of us are effectively jumping to "Nothingness" as described in "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende.
Speaking of the Neverending Story, the following scene left a strong impression:
Bastian comes across a strange city of nonsense buildings... A monkey named Argax informs him that this is the City of the Old Emperors...
'What are they doing?' Bastian whispered. 'What sort of game is that?'
'It's called the jumble game,' answered Argax. He motioned to the players and cried out: 'Good work, children! Keep at it! Don't give up!'
Then, turning back to Bastian, he whispered in his ear: 'They can't talk anymore. They've lost the power of speech. So I thought up this game for them. As you see, it keeps them busy. It's very simple. If you stop to think about it, you'll have to admit that all the stories in the world consist essentially of twenty-six letters. The letters are always the same, only the arrangement varies. From letters words are formed, from words sentences, from sentences chapters, and from chapters stories. Not take a look. What do you see there?'
Bastian read:
'Yes, of course,' said Argax with a giggle, 'it usually makes no more sense than that. But if you keep at it for a long time, words turn up now and then. Not very brilliant words, but still words. ...(skipped)... And if you play for a hundred years, or a thousand or a hundred thousand, the law of chances tells us that a poem will probably come out. And if you play it forever, every possible poem and every possible story will have to come out, in fact every story about a story, and even this story about the two of us chatting here. It's only logical, don't you think?'
N.B. I am by no means criticizing fatrasie here.
Abridged from the original version
(30th September 2024)
The other day, I was asking myself how to prevent Artificial Intelligence from taking away human independence.
Old generations will recall the scene in "2001: A Space Odyssey" where HAL 9000 says "I could see your lips move". That AI acquires self-defense function which blocks intervention by human being trying to nullify AI's runaway would be a frightening scenario...
I somehow come up with an exorbitant idea to keep an extremely remote language which is not known by Artificial Intelligence, such as Burushaski, a language isolate, spoken by the Burusho people, who predominantly reside in northern Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, hidden from AI.
And it brought back memories about Navajo Code Talkers.
I first learned about "Navajo Code Talkers" when I came across a 2002 American war film "Windtalkers". It's hardly a success, which is hardly surprising.
I found it extremely mind-boggling nonetheless.
It's not my intention to review the film, but I wish to shed light on Navajo Code Talkers.
The following video by Pritzker Military Museum & Library is succinct but very informative:
Here is an excerpt from article
"Code Talkers Were America’s Secret Weapon in World War II"
https://www.neh.gov/article/code-talkers-were-americas-secret-weapon-world-war-ii
The “day of infamy” arrived on December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. News of the Japanese attack came by radio from President Roosevelt to many parts of the Navajo Nation homeland in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The attack set in motion the United States’ entry into World War II and moved young Diné men to enlist, though some were still in high school and underage, including my father, Benson Tohe, who signed up with the consent of his parents. They came from rural backgrounds and military-style boarding schools that had already prepared them to live the harsh life of soldiers. Committed to helping Nahasdzáán, Mother Earth, and the United States, they joined the Marines and were selected to become code talkers, not knowing they would be tasked with developing and using the Navajo language as a secret weapon.
On this theme of Navajo Code Talkers, Kenji Kawano, a Japanese photographer, must be mentioned.
An article on Arizona Republic on 13th August 2021 features Kenji Kawano.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2021/08/13/how-photographer-kenji-kawano-documented-lives-navajo-code-talkers/5544381001/
Kenji Kawano came to the Navajo Nation in 1974 with a plan to take some pictures of everyday life for Navajo people and then head back home to Japan.
He didn't know anything about Native Americans or the Navajo people and he couldn't speak English or Navajo, so it was hard for him to start taking photos.
But he didn't feel like he was far from home. Kawano said he was surprised at how similar Navajo and Japanese people look, especially the kids. That made him feel more at ease within the community.
Nearly 50 years later, he's still taking photos on Navajo land.
Descriptions on the theory of encryption is omitted.
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