Voice technology:

Carleas: I’m trying to acclimate my mother (a victim of multiple strokes (to the voice (speech to text (technology of windows. What we learned today was that it tends to work by recognizing certain normally repeated phrases. The point was to get her on facebook. But given what I have learned from her using it on wordpad, I now realize she will have to practice at it there in order to find out what works. It’s like she has to form a relationship with it. Once she develops there, then she might be ready.

(And it does say something about the nature of language

(but the main point is (you being a bigger geek than me: any suggestions?

I’m thinking I have to make it one of my 30 hour runs (a kind of study (with her everyday.

Thanks man! But I’ll still take any further advice you have to offer.

Sorry, I don’t know anything about speech-to-text. Good luck, and I hope if helps your mom stay connected.

Thanks, Carleas. Was just hoping you might have a deeper insight on how the technology recognizes phrases so that we can better communicate with it. On one we tried, something I said kept coming up with (and I am not trying to be crude here: wet pussy. I swear to god! It was either the technology reading some kind of subconscious impulse I had or a hacker. But I’ve been working with the windows technology and may have to take some time out to get comfortable with it so I can make her comfortable with it.

That said, how is the law treating you? My experience of it has always been mixed.

My understanding of speech recognition is that it hasn’t really arrived yet. It gets about halfway there, but I don’t think you’re likely to find anything perfect. For some reason, I’m under the impression that the technology Apple uses on its phones is some of the best consumer-grade speech recognition on the market. Does Google offer any web app for speech recognition?

The law sucks pretty hard just now, as I study full time for the bar exam. It’s all the memorization and sheer volume, and none of the interesting theory and policy considerations.

“Does Google offer any web app for speech recognition?”

They do for dictation. But they don’t to the extent that Windows does in allowing you to use it to navigate around windows itself. As I found out, this is especially important to keep in mind when it comes to the Google Chrome notebook since everything you do on there has to go through the Google Chrome explorer and its apps and extensions. From what I could see: Google is trying to compete with Windows and Macintosh by offering its own OS.

“The law sucks pretty hard just now, as I study full time for the bar exam. It’s all the memorization and sheer volume, and none of the interesting theory and policy considerations.”

All of the tests I had to pass for certification (3rd grade engineers, Comp Tia A+, and the 3 Microsoft office certifications) took me about 9 months each to study for, which makes them seem minor compared to what you’re about to accomplish. But they were enough (both individually and collectively (to give me a good sense of what you must be going through right now: you don’t want to go on (can barely muster the energy and enthusiasm to do so (but you’ve come too far to turn back now. My guess is the only thing keeping you going is the thought of how disgusted you would be with yourself if you did quit. So I don’t think I need to tell you that, at this point, the only way out is through.

(I would also point out that the various laws and decisions you are memorizing (a situation where more is always better, but never enough since you can never be sure which particular points they will quiz you on (are about getting (via the particular points (a general sense of the layout of the land. That way, when something novel comes up, you will have better sense of where to start searching. And if I understand the law right, what you’re doing now (that is if you want to be good at it (won’t stop after you DO pass the bar.)

Unfortunately (for you, that is), you’ve given me a segway into my present study of D & G’s Anti-Oedipus and the three syntheses involved (connective, disjunctive, and conjunctive) that have contributed to the general synthesis that has built up to your general layout of the land of law: the various units of understanding that will constitute your being a lawyer. In other words, I’m going to use your experience to make a philosophical point and kill several birds with one stone by spreading it across the boards I tend to haunt.

My guess is you started with the connective synthesis. As D & G describe it in The Anti-Oedipus:

“The first mode has to do with the connective synthesis, and mobilizes libido as withdrawal energy….”

When you first started out on this path, it was a matter of “withdrawing” energy from the various teachers you were dealing with at the time and general sense (the interesting theory and policy considerations that drew you in in the first place (of what you were doing that you began to connect together (in ways that compliment complexity and chaos theory (until these various intellectual constellations began to emerge. And this synthesis continues into the process you are dealing with now. The only difference is that you’re not having quite as much fun.

And don’t let the classicists fool you: no one does anything for free. No one just grinds along at something for long periods of time without some feedback along the way:

“The second has to do with the disjunctive synthesis, and mobilizes the Numen [the magical qualities attached to objects such as the various units of knowledge you have obtained along the way and the way they can attach themselves to other units of knowledge] as detachment energy [couldn’t tell you what that means].”

Individual intellectual or creative units (both being the same (tend to attract and repulse and create bigger units that can attribute their complexity to the various interactions of attraction and repulsion at work in the various sub-systems involved. Hence: the magical qualities of the objects that occupy our space –even if you have lost your sensitivity to the Jouissance involved in the reality you face.

But believe me: that Jouissance is there. Much as I experienced with my certifications, you will experience the mental and emotional orgasm of having passed the test:

“The third has to do with the conjunctive synthesis, and mobilizes Voluptas [having to do with sensual pleasure or Jouissance –although I would go with Lacan and argue that Jouissance is a factor in all three syntheses] as residual energy.”

This one is associated with consumption and consummation. But for you, it will be the experience of profound relief of having worked your way beyond the threshold you have been working towards all this time. At the same time, it won’t be a final solution or order in the Hegelian sense. It will, rather, be a new situation that is already in the process of (you being a desiring machine constituted by various sub-systems of desiring machines (except, this time with a law degree (creating new things to desire….

Carleas: it has always been cool jamming with you.

It has always felt like a privilege to get you to respond to me.

I know you might not like it:

But: love ya, man!

You will get that law degree: you will be a lawyer.

And you will do it because you love knowledge like I do.

And I’m guessing that you’re just like me in recognizing that it is not enough to have that knowledge,
you want to be recognized for having it,

and get paid for it if you can:

so you can pursue knowledge w/out concern for the petty and mundane.

Gotta work to play…

Do it. You know you can.