Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 135, Number 1, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 7 January 2016 — Page 4

► Advance News • Thursday, January 7, 2016

Page A4

Driverless cars: a moral conundrum?

The first thing that I'd like to say in 2016 is, oddly, that I enjoy Matthew Broderick. He's a fine actor, he seems lik. a fairly decent guy and he also stars in one of my

favorite 1980 s films: War Games. In short it's about a young computer nerd who accidentally hacks into a NORAD supercomputer, called WOPR, that is designed to handle wartime strategy for the government. Broderick's character accidentally sends the computer into a war simulation that the computer dunks is real, and chaos ensues as the cast has to stop the computer from launching nuclear weapons and starting an actual war. Spoiler alert: the computer eventually learns, in a very fictitious way, that the only option for avoiding a lose-lose outcome is not to play the game at all. And men I thought about driverless cars. Yes, you read mat right. One thing led to another as WarGames' credits rolled, and I began contemplating technology and where it is talcing us. Within minutes maybe hours I was thinking about the decisions that computercontrolled driverless cars, like the prototypes currently being tested by Google, will eventually have to make. If you think about it all of die decisions a current driver has to make will eventually be placed in the hands of a machine; there will be no input from the "operator" at all, other than setting the destination and maybe controlling the climate. The driving computer will have to take charge of all of the other functions that, until now, have been made by sentient beings human drivers. As far as making turns, maintaining speed, starting and stopping, driverless cars probably won't nave many issues. The basics of satellite-guided navigation have been around for a long time, and precision control by GPS isn't farfetched anymore. We've been putting missiles through bedroom windows for some time now, so moving a car through a crowded city street is really no huge task. But there is a problem, and it's a major one: moral decisions versus selfpreservation. At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, replete with tinfoil hat and copy of 'The Anarchist Cookbook', I have questions for the driverless car. Namely, how will a driverless vehicle react in the event of an unavoidable accident? Does the car, which is an emotionless machine guided by zeros and ones, simply determine which course of action will result in the lowest amount of human loss? Does it opt to preserve itself over all alternatives? Well, the truth of the matter is that we don't know. In the Broderick film, the computer learns from playing many, many games of tic-tac-toe that it cannot win that, sometimes, there is no optimum solution. But would driverless tar be able to do that? No, probably not. While driverless jars will be very intuitive, I doubt they will have the ability to form artificial intelligence in the moments that they need it. In all reality, it is more likely than not that the automated car will analyze the risk/reward of each action and determine which option has the most acceptable outcome in terms of human loss. In a nutshell, if you are riding along in a driverless car sometime in, say, 2025, and the car is on an immediate collision course with five pedestrians, the car will decide that killing you by running off a cliff is more acceptable than hitting the five pedestrians. It's a classic moral dilemma, and machines have never been shown to handle those very well. Sometimes, there is more to making a snap decision than crunching the numbers in a zero-sum game. I don't doubt that Google, and everyone else out there who might be conjuring up driverless cars, are hard at work to solve this problem. But until the theory, whatever it may be, has been put to practice in the real world, I can't say that I'd trust my life, my well-being, to a consdousnessless machine. One day we will live in a world of entirely automated transportation, and hopefully the kinks will have been worked out by then. But with the technology still in beta-testing, I think I will take a page from the WOPR's playbook and realize that the best way to win this game is to simply not play it at all. I, for one, will stay behind the wheel while I still have one.

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A The Rear *l, View Mirror By David Palmer

Community

Neither rain nor snow nor my faulty memory

My father-in-law turned 94 this past month. He's a great guy and lives out in Oregon. Dad lied about his age to get into the Navy during the war (although he couldn't swim a stroke) and survived when the Lexington sank during the Battle of the Coral Sea. After the war he worked as an oiler on a crane. In some ways we didn't have a lot in common, but we both liked sitting out on the porch after the sun set and listening to the ball game on the radio. The rhythms of baseball left plenty of room for conversation, but also allowed for silence, something we were both comfortable with. So anyway, two days before his birthday my wife Jennie says, "Oh my goodness, I forgot to send a card out for Dad's birthday!" We both knew the date was coming up so I was just as much at fault. Sending a birthday card the normal way, with a single first-class stamp, was not going to cut it. Fortunately, my friends at the post office have a Big Dummy Rate. At least that's what I call it. Trust me, it's worth every penny. I've always had a love affair going with the post office since I was a child. The arrival of the mail was a Big Deal,

Happy New Year! Here is to working at getting back to eating for your health and eating more vegetables and fruits. During the holidays we all have had many wonderful food experiences. Many family traditions go along with special foods that are only prepared once a year, and I enjoy them all but now, back to eating for your health.

The new year brings with it many traditions. A tradition for many cultures is making sure cabbage is a part of menu planning as it is told that cabbage brings good luck. I don't often hear of cabbage being a popular menu item on many meal plans. I think cabbage as a very versatile food and there are unlimited ways that you can prepare it. Raw and cooked cabbages are prepared in many countries throughout the world. Raw cabbage can be shredded, dressed, and eaten as salad, as in American coleslaw. Yes, we have the convenience of buying it already shredded, but it doesn't take long to shred it yourself. There is a difference in the cost and I think it tastes fresher when you shred it at home. Cabbage can be steamed, sauteed, braised or baked, added to soups and stews, stuffed whole or creamed. Steamed cabbage leaves, which I do in the microwave, can be filled with a stuffing, rolled, and braised. Cabbage also makes popular pickled foods: German sauerkraut, Japanese cabbage pickles, and spicy Korean kimchee are varieties within the same theme, and Belgians and Germans make a cooked sweet sour red cabbage with raisins. Cabbage is one of the oldest vegetables cultivated by man. It grows well in almost any climate and is appreciated in almost all of the world's cuisines. The cabbage, part of the brassica family, is quite large and includes such common vegetables as cauliflower, broccoli, mustard, kale, horseradish, radishes, rutabaga, and turnip. This is an interesting group of vegetables as some grow above ground and some grow below ground. Regardless of where they grow, they are all good for us and we should eat more of all of them. The members of the brassica family that go by the name cabbage are many and varied. Most are characterized by

This fall, I noticed more people baling com stalks than I have in the past. What is often thought of as a waste can make some decent feed for your cattle. Bruce Anderson, Extension Forage Specialist for the University of Nebraska, has studied com stalk bales and has found they can vary quite a bit in quality. To use them effectively, you'll want to find out what they have to offer nutritionally. Anderson suggests testing the bales for protein and energy. He has been surprised at how variable the

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even though we kids hardly ever got a letter. Of course, when we actually saved up enough box tops and dimes to send away for some cheap, plastic treasure the wait was unbearable. Once we mailed that letter off to the cereal company every day, upon arrival home from school, we'd ask, "Did it come?" Nowadays, thanks to Amazon Prime, I don't have to wait weeks, but only about 48 hours, for parcels to arrive. When I can, I apologize directly to our mail carrier for the heavy boxes of books that arrive at our house regularly. The folks at the post office don't seem to mind. Anyway, getting back to the Big Dummy Rate. I went to the post office and told them my problem. I found out Priority Mail might get there on time, or it might arrive a day or two late. However, Express would guarantee on-time delivery. The clerk was very apologetic when

New Year’s cabbage

Bailing corn stalks

H Extension By Jeffßurbrihk

protein and energy content can be in com stalk bales. Protein content has varied from a low of 3 percent to as high as 7 percent. A dry pregnant cow need 7-8 percent protein in her diet so high protein bales will need only a little protein to adequately

Food and Nutrition By Mary Ann Uenhart Cross

is Bok Choy and Napa Cabbage. Some form relatively compact, elongated heads and others are open, leafy, flowering cabbages. Bok Choy is an elongated, non-head forming cabbage and has long white ribs with dark green leaves; it resembles Swiss Chard. Napa Cabbage, also called Chinese cabbage or celery cabbage, has elongated, tightly furled leaves with wide ribs and soft, pale green tips. The most common cabbage in America is-the large rgundheaded variety with pale green or green tightly overlapping leaves around a central core. * **“ When you are selecting cabbage chose heads that are heavy for their size, and without drying around the core. I don't care which cabbage you eat I just know we all need to eat more of it. What is important is that we all eat more vegetables in 2016. Each year at the Elkhart County 4-H Fair we have special food contests and one year the vegetable was cabbage. Here is a recipe from the contest. Enjoy! Reuben Chicken Sally Kyle, Goshen 4 to 8 chicken breasts, skinless (tenders and thighs) 1 large can sauerkraut, drained 1 lb. Swiss cheese slices 1 bottle Thousand Island dressing In a crockpot, layer some sauerkraut, chicken, and cheese, repeating layers until all is used. Pour dressing over top and cook on low 6 hours.

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she named the price, but to be honest, it was less than what Jennie and I would spend ordering Chinese food for dinner. It'd be worth making omelets at home and skipping the egg rolls to make sure Dad got a birthday card stuffed with Thanksgiving photos of his great-grandson opening his mouth like a little bird and waiting for apple pie to be stuffed in. Besides, as I pointed out, it would cost me hundreds of dollars more to get in my car and drive out there to deliver it personally. You figure four days of driving to get out there, then add in gas, food, and motels, as well as wear and tear on the car and me, and it doesn't take an Einstein to see you come out way ahead paying the Big Dummy Rate. The folks at the post office are always nice and pleasant. They make things happen. So if you were a Grinch a couple weeks ago and didn't leave a little gift for your postal carrier you should leave a New Year's remembrance instead. Remember, sooner or later it'll be your turn to be the Big Dummy. Frank Ramirez is the Senior Pastor of the Union Center Church of the Brethren.

large round heads of tightly packed leaves, although some varieties are elongated, flattened, or loosely packed. Most varieties are white to light green, although red varieties exist and the red varieties make for some wonderful cooked dishes. There is Chinese cabbage, green cabbage and red cabbage. When it comes to Chinese cabbage there

care for the cows; however bales with 3 percent protein will need quite a bit of supplement to keep cows in good condition. In Anderson's experience, many bales have pretty good TDN levels, near 60 percent is fairly common. Cows fed these bales should do very well up until calving with just com stalk bales and adequate protein supplement. However, stalks rained on before baling are often below 50 percent TDN. Cows fed these lower quality bales will need some extra energy, too.