20191002

Scrambled eggs for breakfast today.

Class later today.

More 'Don and the Giant Impeach' today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9HC8N5B2BI

There should be big news coming from the UK today.
Somehow I am not sure they will be that big. Boris Johnson "take it or leave it" offer will be met with a frosty reception at the EU and a flat rejection from Ireland.

Let's see what happens in today's episode of the Brexit saga.

Doing some work now with Radiohead in the background.

This afternoon we brought my dad to an Alzheimer workshop organised by AGADEA.
AGADEA (Asociación Galega para Axuda dos Enfermos con Demencia Tipo Alzheimer) just started this workshop in Boiro today and we were hoping that it somehow will help my dad.
Within an hour they called us (my mum) asking us to come and pick him up. He was in no condition to finish the class. Restless and just wanted to leave. So he was just too disruptive to the rest of people attending.
:(

I am now home, feeling a bit annoyed and sad ... so I am just going to read a bit of the British proposals for the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-proposals-for-a-new-protocol-on-irelandnorthern-ireland

Well, never had the chance to read it all ... my father dropped by to complain about the workshop. In the end I somehow managed to convince him to go back to the class under the condition that I would be there with him. So I went to the end of the workshop.
That left me no time for anything else.
After the workshop, rushed back home and grabbed my things to go to class.

And here I am now after arriving from Noia.

The class was highly enjoyable.

We started by discussing a couple of questions:

- Can a computer speak?
- Can a computer think?
- Can an animal speak?
- Can an animal think?

Of course, this questions were designed to provoke debate since they do not have black and white answers. All depends on definitions and we spent a very good few minutes having a lively discussion in our group.
Of course we discussed a little bit the Turing test, and it turned out that Manuel had an early demonstration of a program that some claimed had passed the test, ELIZA, created back in 1966.

After a general discussion and realising that the questions were philosophical and had no correct definite answer, we moved on.

We then watched a couple of videos and had to answer a few questions about them. This time the questions were definite and specific.

The first video was about the problem of computers translating languages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4BmV2t83SM

The video goes through the complexities of language translation and how computers take on those problems, without managing to 100% solve the problem. In the end it concludes that "for now learning a language the old fashion way will still give you better results that any currently available computer program".
But, who knows what will happen in the future.

The second video was about constructed languages, or conlangs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5mZ0R3h8m0

The video expands on the definition of conlangs and what makes them real languages. When is a conglang a language?
Famous examples include Klingon, Na'vi and Dothraki (I had never even heard of that one).
And of course the daddy of them all, Elvish, created by Tolkien.

It was all very enjoyable and interesting.

The class went by very quickly. I am not sure how will we manage to go through the Cambridge C1 book at this rate!

Next class, on Monday, we'll be starting with the 'Getting Started' section of Unit 1 in the book. Full of the joys of philosophy too! Looking forward to it!