Kestrell

Kes: As someone who is interested in
infiltration techniques
https://kestrell.dreamwidth.org/418473.html
I posted when Deviant Ollam first taught a blind person to pick locks
https://kestrell.dreamwidth.org/420756.html
so I was excited when I read the following post in the Forbes Wiretap newsletter:

Winner Of The Week
Anyone who's been around the hacking world knows that lock-picking is very much part of the scene. Not long ago, white hat hacker Deviant Ollam taught the art to a class of blind students. A film crew caught it and it's a
remarkable watch,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJVrL8QjG5s&ab_channel=TheModernRogue
especially if you've ever tried picking a lock yourself and know how tricky it is. Hat-tip to Zack Whittaker and
his information security newsletter
https://this.weekinsecurity.com/?
for this one.

Kes: Note that some of Deviant Ollam's lockpicking books are available as Kindle ebooks on Amazon. While the following book does not contain any how tos, it is a fascinating history of similar methods for getting into places where your presence is neither expected nor officially sanctioned
A Burglar's Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh (2016) (available on NLS BARD)
and here is a nifty talk with the author
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSlgtqxfWkk&ab_channel=TheBerkmanKleinCenterforInternet%26Society

Kes: I wonder if this has a similar link to how people with depression feel a similar lack of engagement?

As people age, they often lose their motivation to learn new things or engage in everyday activities. In a study of mice, MIT neuroscientists have now identified a brain circuit that is critical for maintaining this kind of motivation.
researchers showed that they could boost older mice’s motivation to engage in this type of learning by reactivating this circuit, and they could also decrease motivation by suppressing the circuit.
"This get-up-and-go, or engagement, is important for our social well-being and for learning — it’s tough to learn if you aren’t attending and engaged."
quote from Ann Graybiel, an Institute Professor at MIT and member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research
https://news.mit.edu/2020/why-learn-motivate-age-decline-1027#:~:text=In%20a%20study%20of%20mice,maintaining%20this%20kind%20of%20motivation.&text=suppressing%20the%20circuit.-,%E2%80%9CAs%20we%20age%2C%20it's%20harder%20to%20have%20a%20get%2D,McGovern%20Institute%20for%20Brain%20Research.

LJ user tasha18 and I were exchanging some comments regarding
"The Lifecycle of Software Objects" by Ted Chiang
http://www.subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2010/fiction-the-lifecycle-of-software-objects-by-ted-chiang/
and she mentioned that she found it strange that the AI in the story could obviously learn, but their use of a kind of pidgin English never progressed to the kidn of language they exchanged with the people with whom they had relationships.

I myself found the statement that the AI never learned to read because no one ever read bedtime stories to them when they were "children" immensely odd, as I never had anyone read to me as a child and yet I turned out to be something of a bookworm, and I'm certain I am not the only example of this.

It seems as if, in the case of language, Chiang is implying that AI can't learn because they can't change how they are programmed to speak, yet, in regard to reading, Chiang seems to switch to implying that reading is culturally learned.

Can anyone comment on Chiang's reasoning for his depictions of learning in this story? Is it connected to real theories regarding learning and/or AI?