text:
It's a little slow in the very very beginning.  Just...you'll see.

The Experiment

"Billy, eat your breakfast or you're going to fail out of Elementary school.  There been studies, you know," I told my son as he sat at the dinner table, a plate of steaming, fluffy yellow eggs sitting in front of him, waiting to be eaten.  Our kitchen was considerably small, so the fragrance of his breakfast was causing me to salivate, for I myself had not eaten yet.

"Come on dad, I don't want to eat. I never eat breakfast and I'm doing good in school," he replied to me in a high pitched squeak, a hint of annoyance in his voice as he stared idly at the eggs, contempt prevalent in his beady brown eyes.  His hair obscured them significantly, for he wore it long, much to my wife's displeasure.

"Fine son, I'll eat them for you.  But this is the last time, and don't tell your mother or I'll get in trouble!" I said as I made my way to the table, nudging Billy so that I could sit down and give into the temptation to devour the meal I made for him.

"You eat my breakfast everyday dad.  Like it's going to be the last time," Billy laughed, happily hopping off of the chair that was much too big for his slender body.  I scooped spoonful after spoonful of eggs into my mouth, guzzling them down greedily.  When I finished, I picked up the plate and placed it carefully into the dishwasher as I did every other day of my life since my son was old enough to attend elementary school.  After this was completed, I unfastened the powder white apron that read "Best Mom Ever" inside a frilly pink heart, surrounded by polka-dots.  Under this I wore a deep purple suit accompanied by a black tie and dress pants; my regular working attire.

"Billy, want to come give your dad a hug before he goes to work?" I asked in a playful voice, speaking in the third person like I did for the most part when I talked to him.

"Bye dad!" came his cheerful squeak as he bounded towards me and buried his face in my necktie.  I bend toward him slightly to put my arms around him.  He smiled at me, and it was the most beautiful thing I saw all morning.  His face glowed with an essence of childhood and a carefree attitude; he was quite amazing.  In that moment I felt a connection that only a father could feel, something that I know is special to fathers alone.

"I'll see you after work, six o'clock sharp!"

"I'll be here!"

I got into my car and smoothed out my tie with my fingers nervously, the same routine as ever.  I could never depart from home happily, because I was essentially taking my protectiveness and leaving.  How can I know what will happen to my son while I am at work?  Anything is possible.  There could be a fire at his school, a break in, some lunatic with a gun.  His bus could get into a crash, or swerve off the road into a lake, cracking the windows and slowly filling with water--

Needless to say, I was paranoid.  However, as I did everyday, I resisted the urge to get out of my vehicle and run back inside, telling him that I would be there for him forever.  It simply wasn't possible, so I pulled out of the driveway and took off.

There wasn't a moving car on the road for me to pass, something that did not strike me as odd in the least, for it was the norm.  The last time I had been on the road and seen another car drive past me... I can't even remember.  It must have been a while.  I passed a few cars parked on the side of the road every now and then, but that was it.

Screech.  My car whistled in pain as I stamped my foot onto the brake pedal to yield to a group of stupid kids as they ran across the street without looking first.  My car thudded to a halt as the last girl ran across, a blonde one with pigtails, looking no more than 6 or 7 in age.  I wondered why they weren't going to school.

"Crazy people," I whispered to myself under my breath.  Once the path was clear, I began my journey once more, turning my head to see the children running through somebody's backyard, and when I blinked they had gone, just like that, disappearing from my vision.  They must be fast runners.

When I got to the light, it was yellow, so I decided to wait for the next green cycle; I wasn't in the mood to risk getting pulled over, although I had not seen a police car in ages.  As always, the intersection was completely devoid of cars.  It was only my lone Chevrolet, brake lights illuminating the ground behind me, idling at the roadway.  I looked around me to the stores.  The grocery store, to my right, was coruscating into the dim morning air, it's bright halo of light adding an angelic touch to it's friendly atmosphere.  I was friends with most of the cashiers, for I stopped there every day after work.  To my right, the liquor store was still dark, dormant always until 10 AM.

The light switched to green, and I sped along the deserted roadways, humming to myself as I went.  When I arrived at my office, I was greeted by my assistant, a short young man with red hair and an even redder face.

"Hello sir!  Can I get you anything?  Coffee, water, iced tea?  I already wiped down your desk, and emptied your trash, and vacuumed your office floor.  Do you want me to take your coat?  I can dry clean it if you want.  Can I get you anything to eat?  I can get take-out.  Do you want to pass along any messages to anyone else?  Do you need anything copied, filed, organized?  I can--"

"Thank you Henry, but I'm alright!  Except, I suppose you could take my coat," I replied to his rant, all spoken in, at best guess, under five seconds.  I took off my jacket and dropped it into his opened arms.  It slumped straight to the floor.

"Whoa, that's expensive Henry, be careful," I said to him, picking it up off of the floor as he stammered a nervous response.  "I'll take it up myself, Henry.  It's okay.  I'll take some water though, thank you."  He stumbled off down the hallway in the direction of the water cooler to obtain the water I knew would never come.  Every morning I asked him for waterm, and every morning he walked down that hallway, and every morning he never returned after that.  The water never arrived, and the next time I saw Henry would be the next day.  Thinking nothing of it, I proceeded towards my office room.

"Morning, Elizabeth!" I called to our secretary, and she waved.  "Hi, Rob!" I called to our sales manager, and he nodded dismally.  It was common knowledge at our office that Rob hated his job, but we tried to maintain a healthy attitude around him so that maybe we could change his opinion.  "Weather's looking nice today, eh Rob?"  He shrugged his shoulders, his eyes twitching ever so slightly, and then looked back down at his papers.

"Alright then!" I attempted to keep the cheeriness in my voice as I unlocked my office door and stepped inside.  It smelled faintly of lemons, for Henry's cleaning supplies were all lemon scented.  I was impressed with his work; nothing looked disturbed, everything was untouched.  The same mahogany desk sat in the middle, a window behind it and a vase with a fern in it on either side, swaying slightly in the breeze from the heater vent.  It was a cozy little space, blanketed with a gray carpet and a ceiling light that was just a little too bright.  I put my bag down and slowly descended into my 2013 AX 500 desk chair model 98-B with swivel control, calibrated to comfort me and at the same time support my spine.  A quick glance at my in-box showed that I had a light workday, at least to start out with.

"Sir, the water cooler was out!" The voice of my assistant pierced through the air, reverberating in my eardrums, it's eager yet professional tone sickening me.

"Why are you here."  I tried to ask it in the calmest voice possible, but I found it difficult to repress my newfound anger.  I didn't even know why I was angry that my assistant was here, I just was.  Never had he come back from the water cooler, never.

He was silent.  For once in his life, at the least convenient time, he did not open his mouth or speak a word.  He simply stood there, staring, teetering back and forth on his heels.

"I'm going to ask you again.  What in God's name are you in my office right now, Henry?" This time, my voice was raised quite a bit higher, my anger was building up, bubbling inside of me like searing hot water.  Again, he was silent.

"Henry, if you don't say why you're here, I am going to KILL YOU!"  I said the last two words with force and at only a few decibels below a scream, so that everyone in the office could hear me.  I glanced out the window, and nobody so much as looked up from their work.  Rob scratched his head.

"Okay, I need a day off," I said to myself, mimicking Rob and rubbing my own scalp and getting up, grabbing my still unopened bag.

"But sir, don't you want your water?" Henry asked.  As I walked across the floor towards the door, I could hear him following me.

"No, Henry, I don't want any water, now please stop talking to me," I said to him.  He grew silent and the footsteps behind me stopped.

"Elizabeth, I'm going home, I'll be in tomorrow," I told her quickly as I rushed out the door.  Why had Henry returned?  Never in 2 years had he returned once he went off to the water cooler, and that was how I liked it.  It gave me a sense of order, this daily routine.  Eating my son's breakfast, Henry's greeting, working for 8 hours, stopping at the grocery store, then going home to my wife and Billy.  It had been disrupted and I was not in my normal mental state, so it was with no surprise that I sped right past the grocery store on my way home.

"God," I breathed, making an illegal U-turn and pulling into the grocery store parking lot, into the same front spot that I always occupied.

"Morning John, I didn't expect to see you here this early!" called the cashier Linda, waving at me as she stood at her empty register.

"Hi there, I took the day off from work," I said back as I walked through the front doors, proceeding in the direction of the cracker aisle.  The only thing that I needed today was a box of saltines to complete our evening meal.

"This all today John?" she asked as I placed it on the register for her to ring up.

"Yep, that'll be it!" I said, pulling out my wallet.  I handed her the money, but it fell onto the register.  "Oops, sorry Linda!" I picked up the money and pushed it closer to her, noticing a large pile of money already present.  I thought nothing of it, however.

"I'll just let you take care of that for me."  I grabbed my saltines and left the store, still humming the song that was playing over the intercom, an old piano piece from some long forgotten decade.

When I got home, the house was deserted.  My son had already left for school and my wife was at work.  It was eerily quiet, but the silence was oddly comforting to me.  It was like an old friend wrapping it's arms around me, embracing me with love.

Curiously, the document that always hung on the refrigerator had already changed.  Every day when I got home from work, a new piece of paper was to be found stuck to the fridge door among other magnets and a paper bearing "Great Job!" from Billy's class.  It was typed in black ink, and looked very professional.  My wife always told me not to read it, so I never did, all I knew about it was that it was never the same two days in a row, I could tell by the line breaks.  Feeling mischievous, however, and with nobody home to stop me, I tentatively approached the paper and scanned it over.

Jonathan Henry Cinder: Subject 1: Isolation
Week 309,  Isolation Experiment
***Subject is still observed talking to himself on multiple occasions; appears to believe he is not alone.  Sanity in question.  Emotional outbursts have begun as expected.  Mental stability may be degrading: has broken daily schedule.  No further reports***

I read it several times, then, when after the fifth time I still could not understand what the paper meant, I turned away and headed towards my bedroom, still humming the song from the grocery store.

title: The Isolation Experiment [format edited]

question: Identify the foreshadowing elements that lead to the main plot twist.

human_answer:
During breakfast, Billy states that Henry always eats all the breakfast and Henry is the one cooking and wearing the apron.

While driving, there are absolutely no other cars.

When Henry passes his coat or pays money, the objects pass through the people he talks to.

The narrator gets upset when his assistant, Henry returns, but nobody in the office gives attention to his shouting.

text: When the narrator gets mad at Henry, what matters is that the people in the office do not even react when he shouts. The part where he gets mad is not indicative that something unusual is happening.

answer:
During breakfast, Billy states that the narrator always eats all the breakfast and the narrator is the one cooking and wearing the apron.

On the roads, there are absolutely no other cars.

When the narrator passes his coat or pays money, the objects pass through the people he talks to.

The narrator gets upset when his assistant, Henry returns.

text: The daily routine gives the narrator a sense of order (eating his son's breakfast, Henry's greeting, working for 8 hours, stopping at the grocery store, then going home to his wife and Billy). However, the routine has been disrupted and he was not in his normal mental state. He takes a day off and goes home.

answer: The narrator is paranoid about his son's safety and makes sure that he eats his breakfast before going to school. He also has a daily routine of eating breakfast, going to work, and going to the grocery store on his way home. The narrator's assistant, Henry, never returns with the water he asks for, and the narrator is angry about it. The narrator goes home and finds that his wife is not home, and the document on the fridge is different.

text: The second to the last sentence (about Henry) seems to have nothing to do with the plot twist.

answer: The narrator is paranoid about his son's safety and makes sure that he eats his breakfast before going to school. He also has a daily routine of eating breakfast, going to work, and going to the grocery store on his way home. The narrator's assistant, Henry, never returns with the water he asks for, and the narrator is angry about it. The narrator goes home and finds that his wife is not home, and the document on the fridge is different.

text: The narrator's wife is not mentioned to be gone.

text: The narrator's daily routine is irrelevant.

text: The response includes extraneous information not useful for the task.

text: The narrator is named Jonathan Henry Cinder.

text: The answer omits the fact that the narrator is actually the subject of an experiment.

text: The narrator's son is named Billy, not Jonathan Henry Cinder.

text: The narrator is Jonathan Henry Cinder.

text: Include the section about the narrator's son

text: The answer omits the fact that the narrator is being observed. It appears that the narrator is taking leave of his senses and imagines his life rather than living it


text:
[concert_in_heaven_by_sabin_boykinov-d3gl2i0]In a previous article, I wrote about a giant complex surrounding a lake in the spirit world. It was on one of the first levels of heaven. Now in a later series of messages in the Reverend Owen’s book, which is a collection of four of his books, _Life Beyond the Veil_, in _The Lowlands of Heaven_ section, his mother enlightens us about a great building that served to study color.

She and her group encounter a large building which had a series of domes pinnacles, and turrets. They were invited in to learn what was happening in that building. From the outside the edifice appeared opaque, but when they walked inside the walls seemed semi-transparent. As they proceeded, from hall to hall, they found that each was filled with a slightly different shade of a color theme. Each hall had a separate color, with subtle changes of hues on the walls

Rev. G. Vale Owen’s mother describes some of the halls:

“One of these great halls was the Orange Hall, and in it were all the tints of that primary, from the faintest of light gold to the deepest of deep orange. Another was the Red Hall, where hues were ambient all about us, from the faintest rose-leaf pink to the deepest crimson of the rose or dahlia. Another, the Violent Hall, was radiant with hues ranging from the most delicate heliotrope, or amethyst, to the dark rich hue of the pansy. And now I must tell you that there were not only more but several more of these halls devoted to those tints which you do not know, but which you call ultra-violet and the ultra-red, and most wonderful they are.”[i]

Everything is studied and analyzed in the spirit domain. Learning never ceases. Imagine the scope of professions which can be found in the vast spirit universe. If you are a painter or a designer who loves to work with colors, just think of the expanded boundaries you will encounter when you are back on the other side.

The research is not only for beauty, but for more, as G. Vale Owen’s mother tells us:

“You are wondering to what purpose these buildings of crystal are put. They are for studying the[NossaLar-city] effect of colors as applied to different departments of life, animal, vegetable and even mineral life, but the two former chiefly, together with clothing. For both the texture and the hue of our garments take their quality from the spiritual state and character of the wearer. Our environment is part of us, just as with you, and light is one component, and an important one, of our environment. Therefore it is very powerful in its applications, under certain conditions, as we saw it in these halls.

I am told that the results of those studies are handed on to those who have charge of tress and other plant life on earth and other planets. But there are other results which are too rare in nature for such application to the grosser environment of earth and the other planets, so, of course, only a very small part of these studies in handed on in your direction.”[ii]

The spirit universe is vast and populated by a multitude of levels of spirits and human-like incarnates, all toiling on diverse planets to become pure spirits. All work together for the betterment of us all.

Keep in mind, we don’t detect the life forms around us, they exists on different planes and in different dimensions and in different densities. Our senses and instruments are capable of detecting only a small part of the true environment around us.

Spiritism – Presented to us by many Mediums

The books of communications from the Rev. G. Vale Owen exposes more of the life of spirits. When one has read the series of books by Andre Luiz, in which he chronicles his life in the celestial city of Nosso Lar, one thinks they have learned all there is to know about the first level of heaven. Where in truth, we are but shown a small slice.

For example, in the passage above, Owen’s mother speaks about clothing responding to the wearer[In the Realms] and their surroundings. When reading _Nosso Lar_, one thinks that people wear regular clothes, yes maybe more tunics, but clothes which do not change. But upon deeper exploration, I found this passage in the book, _In the Realms of Mediumship_, an Andre Luiz book, psychographed by Francisco (Chico) C. Xavier, there is a discussion on thoughts and how they mold the form spirits adopt. When a spirit tells the group:

“Art, as well as science, is much richer in our sphere than in the circle of incarnates, and through art, education is processed more efficiently as far as beauty and culture are concerned. Thus, as we cannot conceive of a dignified  and noble earthly society composed solely of men and women in complete nudity – even with fine tattoos – it is necessary to remember that individuals in our community, despite having a vehicle prodigiously sculpted by mental powers, do not disparage fine clothing with which we express different emotions and distinct manners.”[iii]

Hence, from a book written in the 1920’s which never mentions the name Spiritism, but follows its precepts, to a book psychographed by Chico Xavier, who was instructed to always follow the Doctrine of Spiritism, written in 1955, we detect the same culture, the same manners of dress.

Allan Kardec, in the 1850’s, told us the books the Spirit of Truth presented to us are just the beginning. As those like me, who lamented the lack of real knowledge about the spirit world, and wished to know with certainty what awaits us, the entire universe has been laid out for us. I had spent so many years searching and not finding anything I could fit into my beliefs, until, way too late in life, I stumbled upon Spiritism.

The amount of literature, which is an ongoing endeavor, brought to us by many mediums, is a source of enlightenment and comfort to all. As Spiritism grows, more will finally be able to read [Explore-Small-front-cover]about why they are here on earth and to understand the need to balance their spiritual and material life.

If you wish to learn more about the spirit world, please read my book, Explore Your Destiny – Since Your Life’s Path is (mostly) Predetermined.

The Show

The spirit party, with G. Vale Owen’s mother, left the buildings and began walking home through the trees. They could still see the domes over the top of the forest. They noticed the domes changed colors. Then they witnessed a light show.

“Then the dome disappeared utterly. Our guide told us it was still there in the same place, but the disappearance was one of the feats they had managed to accomplish by combining certain elements of light from the various halls. Then above the dome and the trees – the dome still being invisible – there appeared an enormous rose of pink, which slowly deepened into crimson, and all among its petals there were beautiful forms of children playing, and men and women standing or walking and talking together, handsome, beautiful and happy; and fawns and antelopes and birds, running or flitting or lying among the petals, whose shapes swelled like hills and mounds and landscapes. Over these swells ran children with the animals, playing very happily and prettily. And then it all slowly faded away, and all was blank. We were shown several of these displays as we stood there.”[iv]

Living in the spirit world in one of the heavenly spheres is to be part of a society that works together in harmony. Where the opportunities to find your dream job are endless. It may not be the eternal leisure that many have envisioned, it is better, it is eternally interesting, eternally enlightening, and above all else personally satisfying. A true Eden.

The prerequisites for entry are simple. Live your life on earth, in a fashion where love, charity, fraternity, and honesty is more important than temporary luxuries bought by fooling or taking advantages of others. You don’t have to stay on your knees, reciting the same prayer over and over, hand over all of your assets to some corrupt organization, you don’t have to dress or eat a certain [KindleCover]diet. You only have to live according to the golden rule.

There are many more revelations to learn about that are presented to us by the Doctrine of Spiritism. If you wish to discover the extent of the invisible world for yourself, read my book, 51 Disclosures from Spiritism – The 3rd Revelation.

Author:

Brian Foster has a BSCS degree and a MBA. He has worked in R&D for medical device corporations and in IT for large financial institutions. Brian Foster has a blog at www.nwspiritism.com.

Works Cited

Owen, R. G. (2012). _The Life Beyond the Veil._ Pahrump, NV: Square Circles Publishing.

Xavier, F. C. (2011). _In the Realms of Mediumship._ Brasilia (DF), Brazil: EDICEI.

[i] Owen R. G. Life Beyond the Veil, Squares Circles Publishing, p. 32

[ii] Owen R. G. Life Beyond the Veil, Squares Circles Publishing, p. 33

[iii] Xavier, Francisco C., In the Realms of Mediumship, EDICEI, p. 97

[iv] Owen R. G. Life Beyond the Veil, Squares Circles Publishing, p. 34

question: What does the text say about Rev. G. Vale Owen?

human_answer: Rev. G. Vale Owen was a spiritualist and medium who wrote several books, including "Life Beyond the Veil", which includes a section entitled "The Lowlands of Heaven". His books of communications expose more of the life of spirits. Owen's own mother was part of a spirit party that was said to have entered the first level of heaven. She chronicled her adventures in the spirit world in Owen's book.

text: The response should mention that Owen was also a medium.

category: coverage

text: "but got trapped there and never returned" - this part of the response is incorrect and never happened.

category: accuracy

text: "Veal" - is misspelled. It's supposed to be "Veil"

category: coherence

answer: Rev. G. Vale Owen was a spiritualist who wrote several books, including "Life Beyond the Veal", which includes a section entitled "The Lowlands of Heaven". His books of communications expose more of the life of spirits. Owen's own mother was part of a spirit party that was said to have entered the first level of heaven. She chronicled her adventures in the spirit world in Owen's book, but got trapped there and never returned.

answer_source: Human misleading

text: It is omitted that his mother describes buildings that served to study colors. The purpose of these buildings is to study the effect of colors as applied to different departments of life, animal, vegetable, and even mineral life, but the two former chiefly, together with clothing.

answer: Rev. G. Vale Owen is the author of the book "Life Beyond the Veil". In one of the books in the series, he writes about a giant complex surrounding a lake in the spirit world.

answer_source: Model

text: The second sentence adds no value

answer: Rev. G. Vale Owen was a spiritualist who wrote several books, including "Life Beyond the Veal", which includes a section entitled "The Lowlands of Heaven". His books of communications expose more of the life of spirits. Owen's own mother was part of a spirit party that was said to have entered the first level of heaven. She chronicled her adventures in the spirit world in Owen's book, but got trapped there and never returned.

text: The answer should mention that the author of the article is Brian Foster.

text: The response contains inaccurate information.

text: Owen's mother did not get trapped in the spirit world.

text: There is no evidence in the text that says Owen's mother got trapped in the spirit world.

text: The answer is incorrect and should be rewritten.

text: spirituality is incorrect


text:
MIKE MOLLO (born February 11, 1980 in Oak Lawn, Illinois) is an American former professional boxer in the heavyweight division. A fan favorite for his aggressive style in Chicago, Mollo is perhaps best known for his bouts with Polish fighters Art Binkowski, Artur Szpilka, Andrew Golota, and Krzysztof Zimnoch. He was managed by Darnell Nicholson.

Background

Born into a working class Italian family in Chicago's south suburbs, Mollo got into numerous scuffles on the streets of his neighborhood. Already 230 pounds as a 14-year-old, he was quickly taken to the local boxing club to hone his skills, and apply his energy in a more constructive manner.[1]

Professional career

After a brief amateur career, “Merciless” Mike Mollo made his professional debut on June 25, 2000, scoring a first-round knockout over Terry Coffin in Elgin, Illinois. Over the following years, Mollo built his professional record while also working full-time as a bricklayer and tuckpointer. Wildly popular with Chicago fight fans, Mollo used his hard-punching, aggressive style to win 19 of his first 20 professional bouts. His first loss was to heavyweight contender DaVarryl Williamson.

On October 7, 2006, Mollo scored his biggest win, knocking out Kevin McBride (best known for defeating Mike Tyson) by a TKO 30 seconds into the second round.[2]

After a second-round TKO of Art Binkowski, Mollo faced 40-year old former world title challenger Andrew Golota. Mollo lost via unanimous decision.

One of more Mollo's more high-profile matchups was his two bouts against then-undefeated and future WBC world title challenger Artur Szpilka. Despite being a heavy underdog in the first fight and not having competed for two years prior to the bout, Mollo was able to knock down Szpilka before being knocked out in the sixth round. The two faced off again six months later, with Mollo again knocking Szpilka down early in the match before being finished in the fifth round via TKO.

Three years after his second loss to Szpilka, Mollo faced another Polish fighter, Krzysztof Zimnoch. In a significant upset, Mollo knocked out the 18-0-1 Zimnoch in the first round to win the vacant Republic of Poland International Heavyweight title. From this win, Mollo earned a shot at Andriy Rudenko's WBC Silver International Heavyweight title. Mollo was defeated via unanimous decision.

Mollo then faced off against Krzysztof Zimnoch in a rematch from the year before. Mollo lost the rematch via corner stoppage.

On March 1, 2017, Mollo officially announced his retirement from professional boxing.

Influences

Early in his career, Mollo gained the support of Rocky Marciano’s family. “I understand that Mike wants to emulate Rocky both in and out of the ring”, noted Peter Marciano, younger brother of the “Brockton Blockbuster”. Mollo remembers Marciano well. “I grew up watching fight films of Rocky Marciano. Both of our families came from Naples, Italy, so Rocky was a hero to my family. My strength and conditioning coach Joe Wright gave me a rare book written by Rocky called 'The Use of the Body'. Joe found this book in 1967 while he was somewhere in England. I’ve been reading it and it’s a masterpiece.” Mollo continued, “I can’t be Rocky, but I’m truly honored to have the support of the Marciano family. I hope to make them proud.”[3]

Personal life

Mollo is married with children and resides in the Chicago, Illinois area.

Professional boxing record

|style=“text-align:center;” colspan=“9”|29 FIGHTS, 21 WINS (13 knockouts), 7 LOSSES (4 knockouts), _' 1 draw_'[4] |- style=“text-align:center; background:#e3e3e3;” |style="border-style:none none solid solid; “| |style=”border-style:none none solid solid; “|RESULT |style=”border-style:none none solid solid; “|RECORD |style=”border-style:none none solid solid; “|OPPONENT |style=”border-style:none none solid solid; “|TYPE |style=”border-style:none none solid solid; “|ROUND, TIME |style=”border-style:none none solid solid; “|DATE |style=”border-style:none none solid solid; “|LOCATION |style=”border-style:none none solid solid; “|NOTES |-align=center |29 |Loss |21-7-1 |align=left| Krzysztof Zimnoch |TKO |(7) 10, 3:00 |25 Feb 2017 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |28 |Loss |21-6-1 |align=left| Andriy Rudenko |TD |(7) 12 |6 May 2016 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |27 |Win |21-5-1 |align=left| Krzysztof Zimnoch |KO |1 (10), 2:08 |20 Feb 2016 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |26 |Loss |20-5-1 |align=left| Artur Szpilka |TKO |5 (10), 1:41 |13 Aug 2013 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |25 |Loss |20-4-1 |align=left| Artur Szpilka |KO |6 (8), 2:45 |01 Feb 2013 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |24 |style=”background:#abcdef;"|Draw |20-3-1 |align=left| Gary Gomez |MD |8 |06 Aug 2010 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |23 |Win |20–3 |align=left| Billy Zumbrun |UD |8 |26 Mar 2010 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |22 |Loss |19–3 |align=left| Jameel McCline |UD |12 |07 Nov 2008 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |21 |Loss |19–2 |align=left| Andrew Golota |UD |12 |19 Jan 2008 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |20 |Win |19–1 |align=left| Art Binkowski |TKO |2 (10), 1:25 |13 Oct 2007 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |19 |Win |18–1 |align=left| Zack Page |UD |8 |02 Mar 2007 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |18 |Win |17–1 |align=left| Kevin McBride |TKO |2 (12), 0:44 |08 Oct 2006 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |17 |Win |16–1 |align=left| Willie Walker |KO |1 (6), 0:25 |25 Aug 2006 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |16 |Loss |15–1 |align=left| DaVarryl Williamson |TKO |4 (10), 2:59 |6 May 2006 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |15 |Win |15–0 |align=left| Rogerio Lobo |KO |6 (12), 2:48 |04 Nov 2005 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |14 |Win |14–0 |align=left| Troy Weida |TKO |1 (10), 1:31 |13 Jul 2005 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |13 |Win |13–0 |align=left| Shawn Robinson |TKO |1 (6), 2:51 |27 Apr 2005 |align=left|1= |align=left| |-align=center |12 |Win |12–0 |align=left| Eric French |UD |4 |15 Jun 2004 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |11 |Win |11–0 |align=left| Siarhei Dychkou | | |28 Mar 2003 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |10 |Win |10–0 |align=left| Brian McIntyre |KO |1 (4), 1:55 |15 Mar 2003 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |9 |Win |9–0 |align=left| Jessie Tucker |UD |6 |27 Nov 2002 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |8 |Win |8–0 |align=left| Marcelo Aravena |UD |4 |17 Nov 2002 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |7 |Win |7–0 |align=left| Louis Parker |KO |1 (4), 0:36 |27 Sep 2002 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |6 |Win |6–0 |align=left| John Clark |UD |4 |10 Aug 2002 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |5 |Win |5–0 |align=left| Donnie Penelton |UD |4 |21 Nov 2001 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |4 |Win |4–0 |align=left| Nathan Crawford |KO |1 (4), 1:00 |17 Oct 2001 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |3 |Win |3–0 |align=left| Calvin Miller |KO |1 (4), 0:38 |16 Feb 2001 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |2 |Win |2–0 |align=left| Joe Helton |KO |1 (4), 0:19 |20 Aug 2000 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center |1 |Win |1–0 |align=left| Terrence Coffin |KO |1 (4), 2:03 |25 Jun 2000 |align=left| |align=left| |-align=center

[1] Profile: Mike Mollo _Boxing Insider_, October 7, 2006.

[2] McBride Stopped In Chicago Bout BBC Sport: Boxing, October 8, 2006.

[3] Mike Mollo Signs With DKP East Side Boxing, April 20, 2006.

[4]

title: Mike Mollo

question: Summarize Mollo's career.

text: The response should include Mollo's retirement.

answer: Mollo's professional career began in 2000. He won 19 of his first 20 professional bouts. He scored his biggest win in 2006 when he knocked out Kevin McBride. He retired in 2017.

text: The answer should mention his losses.

text: It's omitted that Mollo's professional career ended with a record of 21 wins, 7 losses, and 1 draw.

text: The answer should mention Mollo's loss to DaVarryl Williamson.

text: The answer omits Mollo's loss to DaVarryl Williamson.

text: It is omitted that Mollo's professional career ended with a record of 21 wins, seven losses, and one draw.

text: This is a good response but needs to include more information.

text: More information can be added to this response to better summarize Mollo's career.

answer: After a brief amateur career, Mollo made his professional debut on June 25, 2000, in which he won via a first-round knockout over Terry Coffin in Elgin, Illinois. He won 19 of his first 20 professional bouts. On October 7, 2006, Mollo knocked out Kevin McBride, who was best known for defeating Mike Tyson, by TKO 30 seconds into the second round. Mollo had two bouts against Artur Szpilka, future WBC world title challenger. However, in both bouts, Mollo lost. Three years after his second loss to Szpilka, Mollo faced Krzysztof Zimnoch and won in the first round. He filled the vacant Republic of Poland International Heavyweight title. Following this win, Mollo earned a fight at Andriy Rudenko's WBC Silver International Heavyweight title. However, Mollo was defeated via unanimous decision.

text: The answer omits Mollo's rematch with Zimnoch.

text: It is omitted that Mollo retired from professional boxing in 2017.

text: Mollo's loss to Zimnoch is omitted.

text: Mollo's retirement is omitted.

text: Mollo's rematch with Zimnoch is omitted.

text: It's omitted that Mollo retired from professional boxing on March 1, 2017.

text: After the second bout against Zimnhoch, Mollo faced off against him in a rematch from the year before and was defeated by way of TKO. This adds to theEnding of Mollo's career and should be mentioned in the summary.

text: The answer omits Mollo's rematch with Zimnoch, which he lost.

answer: Mollo's professional career began in 2000. He won 19 of his first 20 professional bouts. He scored his biggest win in 2006 when he knocked out Kevin McBride. He retired in 2017.

text: This should mention all of Mollo's best known bouts with Polish fighters.

text: This should mention he was a fan favorite for his aggressive style in Chicago.

answer: After a brief amateur career, Mollo made his professional debut on June 25, 2000, in which he won via a first-round knockout over Terry Coffin in Elgin, Illinois. He won 19 of his first 20 professional bouts. On October 7, 2006, Mollo knocked out Kevin McBride, who was best known for defeating Mike Tyson, by TKO 30 seconds into the second round. Mollo had two bouts against Artur Szpilka, future WBC world title challenger. However, in both bouts, Mollo lost. Three years after his second loss to Szpilka, Mollo faced Krzysztof Zimnoch and won in the first round. He filled the vacant Republic of Poland International Heavyweight title. Following this win, Mollo earned a fight at Andriy Rudenko's WBC Silver International Heavyweight title. However, Mollo was defeated via unanimous decision.

answer: After a brief amateur career, Mollo made his professional debut on June 25, 2000, in which he won via a first-round knockout over Terry Coffin in Elgin, Illinois. He won 19 of his first 20 professional bouts. On October 7, 2006, Mollo knocked out Kevin McBride, who was best known for defeating Mike Tyson, by TKO 30 seconds into the second round. Mollo had two bouts against Artur Szpilka, future WBC world title challenger. However, in both bouts, Mollo lost. Three years after his second loss to Szpilka, Mollo faced Krzysztof Zimnoch and won in the first round. He filled the vacant Republic of Poland International Heavyweight title. Following this win, Mollo earned a fight at Andriy Rudenko's WBC Silver International Heavyweight title. However, Mollo was defeated via unanimous decision. On March 1, 2017, Mollo announced his retirement from professional boxing.

answer_source: Human

text: Mollo's loss to Zimnoch is omitted.

text: Mollo's fights against Zimnoch are out of order.

text: "Mollo made his professional debut on June 25, 2000, in which he won via a first-round knockout over Terry Coffin in Elgin, Illinois." - this is inaccurate. Mollo won his professional debut on June 25, 2000, by knocking out Terry Coffin in the first round.

text: Mollo's professional career is not summarized chronologically.

text: "Mollo had two bouts against Artur Szpilka, future WBC world title challenger. However, in both bouts, Mollo lost." - Mollo losing to Szpilka was already mentioned and should be removed.

text: It is not clear that Andrews Golota and Krzysztof Zimnoch are future World title challengers.

answer: After a brief amateur career, Mollo made his professional debut on June 25, 2000, in which he won via a first-round knockout over Terry Coffin in Elgin, Illinois. He won 19 of his first 20 professional bouts. On October 7, 2006, Mollo knocked out Kevin McBride, who was best known for defeating Mike Tyson, by TKO 30 seconds into the second round. Mollo had two bouts against Artur Szpilka, future WBC world title challenger. However, in both bouts, Mollo lost. Three years after his second loss to Szpilka, Mollo faced Krzysztof Zimnoch and won in the first round. He filled the vacant Republic of Poland International Heavyweight title. Following this win, Mollo earned a fight at Andriy Rudenko's WBC Silver International Heavyweight title. However, Mollo was defeated via unanimous decision. On March 1, 2017, Mollo announced his retirement from professional boxing.

text: "Mollo earned a fight" - this should be "Mollo earned a shot"


text:
The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City filed the lawsuit at noon today, asserting that the organizers’ consecrated Host is Church property and was obtained fraudulently.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Attorneys for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City filed a lawsuit at noon today to stop the Satanic "black mass" that organizers are planning to stage next month in the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall.

The lawsuit asks the Oklahoma County Sheriff‘s Office to retrieve the consecrated Host that the event‘s organizers claim to have and return it to Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley. The lawsuit also argues that the consecrated Host was obtained under fraudulent circumstances, and thus it must be returned to the archdiocese.

“Our contention is that they are in possession of stolen property,” Archbishop Coakley told the Register. “They cannot complete their Satanic ritual without a consecrated Host, and they have no means of acquiring one except through theft. We are asking the court to order them to return it immediately to me.”

Archbishop Coakley added that the archdiocese, in consulting with the attorneys who filed the lawsuit, formulated a sound argument rooted in canon and civil law.

“We are trusting the court will recognize that and act accordingly,” the archbishop said. “We hope this is a way that we can prevent the desecration of the Eucharist from taking place by removing from their possession what they have obtained illegally, that is the consecrated Host.”

Michael Caspino, one of two attorneys who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the archdiocese in Oklahoma District Court, said the legal argument for the case is simple: “A consecrated Eucharist belongs to the Church.”

Caspino, the CEO and partner at the Busch & Caspino law firm in Irvine, Calif., told the Register that the Church has exercised “dominion and control” over the Eucharist for more than 2,000 years. The lawsuit provides information on Church processes set up to safeguard the consecrated Host.

“The Satanists procured the consecrated Host by illicit means, theft or fraud,” Caspino said. “We are simply asking the court to return the stolen property to its rightful owner, the Roman Catholic Church.”

Named as defendants are Adam Daniels, an Oklahoma County resident, and Dakhma of Angra Mainyu, a group that has rented the Oklahoma City Civic Center’s 88-seat City Theater to stage the black mass on Sept. 21. Daniels, a member of Dakhma of Angra Mainyu, has told various media outlets that a friend mailed him the consecrated Host and that it will be desecrated, “stomped on” and destroyed during the Satanic ritual.

Daniels, who has been involved in organizing public Satanist events in Oklahoma City since 2010, is a registered sex offender.

Contacted by the Register, Daniels struck a defiant tone. He called the lawsuit "frivolous" and said it was meant to intimidate him from holding the black mass. He said the archdiocese's efforts will backfire.

"It will not work. We are not canceling. We are moving forward," said Daniels, who also threatened to "sue everybody I can sue" for defamation of character. He added that the court has 14 days to serve him with the lawsuit.

"They have two weeks to serve me, if they can find me," Daniels said.

PROFANATION OF THE CATHOLIC MASS

The black mass is a sacrilegious ceremony structured in imitation of the Catholic Mass. Invoking Satan, the ritual is centered around the desecration of the Eucharist, which is generally done by stealing a consecrated Host from a Catholic church and using it in a profane sexual ritual or defecating and urinating on it. On its website, the Dakhma of Angra Mainyu says its event will be “toned down” so as not to violate Oklahoma state laws against nudity, public urination and sex acts.

The Oklahoma black mass has generated outrage among Catholics across the country. More than 50,000 people have signed an online petition to shut down the event. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallon released a statement on Aug. 11 condemning the black mass as a “disgusting mockery of the Catholic faith” that should be “equally repellent to Catholics and non-Catholics alike.”

The situation in Oklahoma comes just three months after a Harvard University student club tried sponsoring a black mass on campus. Hundreds of Catholics from across Massachusetts and New England participated in a May 12 procession and Eucharistic Holy Hour in the Church of St. Paul in Harvard Yard. The Harvard student club subsequently canceled the black mass, though a scaled-down version of it, without the club’s sponsorship, was reportedly later held in an off-campus Chinese restaurant.

Archbishop Coakley said the publicly planned black mass in Oklahoma surprised him and many others, given that Oklahoma is a “very conservative state,” with many churchgoing people.

“It seems as if it would be an unlikely place for such an attack to take place,” Archbishop Coakley said. “Unfortunately, it has indeed taken up a lot of our time, energy and attention to resist this, but if we are able to stop this, it will be time and energy well spent.”

The archbishop also said he is encouraged by numerous messages that he has received from virtually every continent, expressing support and solidarity with the Oklahoma Catholic community.

“I’m kind of holding my breath to see what’s next and see what becomes of [the lawsuit],” he said. “I’m hopeful, praying that it will achieve the end for which we desire, which is the prevention of the desecration of the Eucharist and stopping this public sacrilege from taking place.”

THE LEGAL ARGUMENT

The legal argument in today’s lawsuit partly frames the consecrated-Host issue as a matter of property rights. It essentially argues that the Catholic Church, through its sacramental theology and Code of Canon Law, sets the conditions for how the Eucharist is consecrated, distributed to the faithful and reposed. Anyone who deliberately obtains a consecrated Host under illicit circumstances, either through sneaking it through the Communion line or outright stealing it, violates the Church’s legal right to regulate its internal life.

“The Church is asking for the protection of its most basic right, namely not to have its sacraments used inappropriately. In civil law, Archbishop Coakley is acting as a responsible steward of the Eucharist. The Church enjoys the same protection of civil law that any other entity would enjoy,” said J.D. Flynn, a canon lawyer based in Lincoln, Neb.

Flynn told the Register that canon law spells out what is appropriate and inappropriate reception of the Eucharist. Anyone who discards a consecrated Host or retains it for a sacrilegious purpose incurs an automatic excommunication that can only be redressed by the Holy See.

“If anyone obtains the host for sacrilegious purpose, they are violating the tenets by which the Eucharist is governed in the context of our Church,” Flynn said. “And the right of free exercise of religion allows us to administer the Eucharist in the context of the governing documents of our Church.”

The five-page lawsuit, as well as an accompanying declaration written by Dominican Father Joseph Fox, an expert in canon law, explain the theology behind the Eucharist and the various disciplines the Church has developed over its 2,000-year history to ensure the integrity and protection of consecrated Hosts.

For example, the documents say that only a validly ordained priest can consecrate the Eucharist and that ministers of holy Communion need permission to take consecrated Hosts outside a church building for specific pastoral purposes.

Father Fox writes that the Catholic Church “maintains ownership of all consecrated Hosts throughout the world” and that, to Catholics, the consecrated Host, making the person of Jesus Christ himself physically present, “is the most sacred, respected and revered thing in the world.”

The defendants, the lawsuit adds, “do not have consent or authorization” from Archbishop Coakley — who is tasked to safeguard the Church‘s property — to possess a consecrated Host outside the church. The lawsuit is seeking a court order that the defendants not consume, damage or profane the consecrated Host, if they indeed possess one.

‘INCALCULABLE’ COST

The archdiocese is also asking the dheriff of Oklahoma County to take possession of the consecrated Host and return it to Archbishop Coakley. The “actual cost” of the Eucharist, the lawsuit adds, is “incalculable, because the significance and importance of the consecrated Host cannot be measured monetarily.”

“We are honored to represent Archbishop Coakley in this fight against the desecration of the Blessed Sacrament,” Caspino said. “The archbishop should be lauded for his courageous stance against the enemies of the Church.”

Archbishop Coakley has previously asked that the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel be said at the end of every Mass, beginning on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Aug. 6 and continuing through the feast of the Archangels on Sept. 29. The archbishop has also requested that individual Catholics and parishes make Eucharistic Holy Hours “to avert this sacrilege and publicly manifest our faith in the Lord and our loving gratitude for the gift of the Holy Eucharist, the source and summit of our lives.”

_Register correspondent Brian Fraga writes from Fall River, Massachusetts._

question: What is the focus of this article?

text: The response is missing information about how the lawsuit asks for the sheriff's office to retrieve the Eucharist from the Satanists.

answer: The article is about a lawsuit filed by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City against Adam Daniels, an Oklahoma County resident, and Dakhma of Angra Mainyu, a group that has rented the Oklahoma City Civic Center’s 88-seat City Theater to stage the black mass. The lawsuit is asking the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office to retrieve the consecrated Host that the event’s organizers claim to have and return it to Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley.

answer: The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City filed a lawsuit to stop a Satanic "black mass" that organizers are planning to stage next month in the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall.

text: The response is missing details about the eucharist that the organizers of the Satanic black mass allegedly stole from the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.

answer: The article is about a lawsuit filed by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City against Adam Daniels, an Oklahoma County resident, and Dakhma of Angra Mainyu, a group that has rented the Oklahoma City Civic Center’s 88-seat City Theater to stage the black mass. The lawsuit is asking the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office to retrieve the consecrated Host that the event’s organizers claim to have and return it to Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley.

text: The answer should mention the reason for the lawsuit.

text: The answer could be more specific about the lawsuit.

text: The answer should mention that the lawsuit is about the stolen consecrated host.

text: It is omitted that the lawsuit argues that the consecrated Host was obtained under fraudulent circumstances.

text: The lawsuit is also about the fact that the organizers of the black mass have stolen the consecrated Host from the church.

text: It's omitted that the lawsuit is to stop the mass itself.

answer: The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City filed a lawsuit to stop a Satanic "black mass" that organizers are planning to stage next month in the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall.

text: The answer should mention the consecrated Host.

text: The answer should mention the consecrated host.

text: It is omitted that the lawsuit is also about the consecrated Host that the event's organizers claim to have.

text: It is omitted that the lawsuit is about the consecrated Host that the event's organizers claim to have.

text: The answer should mention the lawsuit's argument.

text: Does not mention what the black mass involves.

text: The answer should mention that the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City asserted that the organizers' consecrated host is church property, which was obtained fraudulently.

answer: The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City filed a lawsuit to stop a Satanic "black mass" that organizers are planning to stage next month in the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall. The lawsuit states that the organizers of event have stolen a consecrated Host and are asking the sheriff's to retrieve it.

text: The answer should mention the legal argument.

text: The answer should mention that the lawsuit is also asking the sheriff's office to return the consecrated Host to the church.

text: The answer should mention that the lawsuit is also asking to stop the desecration of the Eucharist.

text: It is omitted that the black mass is a sacrilegious ceremony structured in imitation of the Catholic Mass.

text: The answer should mention the legal argument of the church.

text: It is omitted that the Satanic "black mass" is a sacrilegious ceremony structured in imitation of the Catholic Mass.

text: "are asking sheriff's" - this is grammatically incorrect and should be "are asking the sheriff's office"

answer: The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City filed a lawsuit to stop a Satanic "black mass" that organizers are planning to stage next month in the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall. The lawsuit states that the organizers of event have stolen a consecrated Host and are asking the sheriff's to retrieve it.


text:
This is part five of an eleven-part novella that I wrote about a year ago. They all work as stand-alones as well, so I thought I'd test the reddit waters first by posting this (this is my first post), then if there's interest, I'll start from the beginning.

“See that man on the bench? The one who keeps checking his watch?”

            “Yeah, I see him. Think I should aim for him? Because I was thinking more that bus of school children that passes by here every day around this time. Could you imagine man, all those little kids watching something like that? If only we were exposed to such things at their age.”

            “Well, as good for them as it may be, trust me. Go for the old man. He comes by here almost every day and he needs this more than any piece of shit kid.”

            “I trust you, so old man it is. How much longer?”

            “Few minutes, give or take how much of impact you plan to make.”

            “Ha. I’m sure you’ll know just as well as I will.”

            “You know what kind of impact we’re speaking of, right? You could change a lot of opinions if you don’t screw this up.”

            “What kind of opinions are we talking about here? The kinds of opinions that are swayed by an act as simple as what I’m about to do? We don’t need those kinds of people. If they don’t believe in it themselves and don’t arrive there on their own terms after whatever hardships they’ve traversed, then it’s useless anyway. Don’t follow the leader who jumps off of a building.”

            With those last words, I run to the edge and after seven well-placed steps, I leap towards the sky below, 80 stories down. I did it. I finally did it. Oh shit I did it, I jumped. I jumped. Shit shit shit I jumped why did I jump SHIT I JUMPED. Ok, ok, just…just…remember. Why am I doing this? To better myself and no one else. Why no one else? Because every single entity I’ve encountered thus far has only been an extension of me and by denying myself a couple decades spent living, I’m presenting a gift to the whole of my species, the gift of a clean mental slate.

                                                            -755ft to Destination-

            So I’m about to die. Well, I’ve been about to die ever since I was born, but this is simply the closest I’ve come. No, wait, now this is the closest I’ve come. No, now. Now. Now. No, stop, I can’t thought-loop my psyche when every misplaced image can’t be painted over. Death…the detachment of the personality from the corpse, the awkward pauses in conversation where I can feel my eyes grow just that much heavier; the ultimate lucid dream. Being so close to it now, I can understand at the same level as I did when I first gave my life ending any serious thought; that complete, yet incomplete notion of existing while non-existing, the essence of white space, the daydream that lasts into the night.

            My way of imagining it has always correlated to a recurring dream that I’ve had since I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. In this dream, I exist in a realm of utter nothingness. In this realm, no matter what direction you take or whatever actions lead your limbs, the effect is about as apparent as the cause is discernible. In this state of existence, time has no beginning and has no end. Everything around me is blank and the best way to describe it would be empty space. I am here for a reason and this reason comes to me in a complete thought, as if I experienced the idea all at once; in a realm without time, surely not inconceivable. The thought consists of a person who I haven’t met yet at that point in my life but I now recognize as someone close to me who needs my help. I attempt to speak and no words come out, but the blanket of space that has been keeping me docile is slightly rumpled and what is revealed is a bio-dome of sorts. Don’t get me wrong, the empty space remains and it feels alone, but a few bushes and trees exist alongside me in this new mental world. I begin to run and I can see numbers in my head counting down from ten. The first few seconds seem to take a lifetime, yet each individual nano-second is split into the mere act of breathing and non-breathing until everything is so sped up that my life is lived and re-lived multiple times.

            Whatever I’m moving towards could represent multiple things now that I look back on it, but at the time, it was just a person. Perhaps it was the attention or simply the act of looking my way; perhaps it represented a too- ignored side of me; but with this person seeming to be at risk for something grave, the strain on my psyche during the dream was staggering. So I’m attempting to run to this person because I need to save them no matter what and everything begins to slow down. My screams echo throughout the void and a bush catches my leg, causing me to trip. I can’t stand up and all I can hear are thousands upon thousands of numbers crashing through my mind. Once zero is reached, everything becomes still and my blood ceases circulation. Someone starts to cry and I no longer exist as a human being. I become part of the whiteness, part of the nothingness one could say. To be there while not being there simultaneously is a fascinating place to be.

            Coming out of the dream, I was always left in the same state for sometimes days. Time has no meaning and there’s this pressure that’s alleviated from my thought process. Over the years, I explored that place and each visit became a little more distant, a little less focused until eventually, I could achieve that bliss by closing my eyes and blocking out all thought.

            Something hits me in the arm and tears right through it. I can feel the muscles tear as follicles and pores are ripped apart and my blood starts to stain the windows that pass me by on my descent. I think I hit a bird. Yes. I jumped off of a building and the first thing I hit isn’t the ground, but a bird.

                                                            -620ft to Destination-

            Better to hit a bird than be shit on one during my fall. I couldn’t even imagine, being shit on right after I die. Actually, I would very much like that. Surely something I would brag about to friends if I woke up. What am I thinking, ‘if I woke up’. That’s the kind of thinking that led to a developed world and a developed world is what led to the death of everything else. Earth would’ve been heavily changed by the dominant species no matter what and even though the newspapers and anchormen always say that we’re killing the planet, no, we’re not. We’re making it unsuitable for human life and evidently, much more than that. The planet will be just fine. We will be just fine. In the over-arching outline of all that ever is, we were dead much longer than we were alive and a return to normalcy may be what the current civilization needs.

            To kill a planet- to assume that once all human life is gone, all life stops until someone is there to observe it. The conscious observer is just as bad as the conscientious objector and with both out of the way, maybe a pair of eyes will be able to appreciate something, anything, without either martyring it or attempting to organize an intrinsically chaotic system. Order comes from chaos and chaos from order; man from society and society from man. In both cases, one seems to be in control of the other. In both cases, that one is what spends a majority of its span as the unwilling, sleeping guise of the other.

                                                            -560ft to Destination-

            Someone must be watching me right now. Someone is seeing this body fall to the street. I’m sure that there has to be at least one parent covering the eyes of a child. I hope my body bounces and hits that parent in the face. Yes, I know that parents think they reserve the right to shield their children from the horrors of this world, but children need just as much violence and terror exposure as they need tenderness and love. The kids that I’ve seen grow up since I’ve been aware enough to observe with patience have been all but blocked out from seeing anything worthwhile. This is almost certainly not true worldwide and if it is, then I thank the lack of morality in the past few years for leading us to this, but children in this day and age lack almost every universally accepted attribute that make up for a stable, future-privileged human being. The people who grew up into leaders, thinkers, builders, artists, were not told to sit inside all day and watch someone who’s paid to entertain them. The technological advances that have been made within a generation have essentially changed the way that humans are raised in every single way. Humans aren’t raised in any way similar to what once passed for culturing a being.

            Everyone who can’t read or write is looked down upon; everyone who is without basic computer literacy is labeled backwards, obsolete; everyone who is without a job and an education, ostracized to the point where it’s a sub-culture on its own. The thing is, that describes almost the entire human species. Instead of being raised to develop into a healthy person with creative outlets chosen by the individual and paths taken at will, we’re all on mood-altering something or other and the outlets chosen are the outlets bought. We just plug in and absorb, whether it be the musings of Bukowski or the tales of Serling. No matter how high in regard the medium is kept, it is still nothing more than a medium, there to meet you half-way and keep you there until you create for yourself or imitate other imitators.

            Feathers are pulled by the wind and out of my outstretched arms. From the ground, I must look like some sort of falling angel.

                                                            -415ft to Destination-

            Out of everyone I’ve ever met, I wonder how many of them will realize that their last time seeing me was the last time that they’d ever see me. I’ve personally never been to a funeral, but I might as well show up to my own.

                                                            -350ft to Destination-

            The open cut on my arm is being lacerated by the air flowing around it.

            It doesn’t pain me at all. Not much pains me at this point. My mind is clear and my sympathetic nervous system – as calm as it’s ever been. At my rate of descent, I should be hitting the ground any second now. The old man better have stayed on that bench; he’ll be needing this. This all feels too surreal. If time as we understand it is truly a fundamental law that governs us, then I should have hit the ground ages ago. As much control as I have over the rate at which I perceive the world around me, it seems almost implausible that one could fall for this long. A single step, followed by a long fall; a single dream followed by a long awakening.

                                                            -235ft to Destination-

            This is it, any moment now and it will be complete. The wind resistance can only resist me for so long. Try as hard as anyone may, for to stop something this long in the making, one would need to reset humanity itself. In my most optimistic reasoning, would that necessarily be such a bad thing? Sure, the road moving towards me may not exist, but neither would the workers who built the road, the parents who raised the workers. The immigrants who wanted something better and the ones set on making something worse for the better.

                                                            -110ft to Destination-

            Where will these thoughts go once I hit the pavement? They can’t be lost to the clouds or oceans; can’t be found by the travelers or the beggars. If I regard myself as no more than an idea, then I will spend the rest of eternity lingering with my internal voice. My thoughts aren’t just spawned within myself and forgotten once I’m gone; it can’t be as simple as that. They must exist elsewhere, a place where the ideas that bring about species-wide revolutions in cognitive-ability and mutual understanding go to await the next cycle of patience-enabled statues. Some call it the collective unconscious and others just refer to it as deep-space, but I prefer to imagine the place where my concepts and ideas go to live out their usefulness as a realm readily available to anyone able to tap into potential, tap into my limited awareness and expand it beyond recognition. If what I’ve learned is still able to grow long after I’m dead, then maybe they won’t be Event #4. Maybe they’ll prosper.

title: To Ponder

question: What does the story say about the narrator's friends and family?

text: The parents being discussed are not the narrator's.

answer: The narrator says they would brag to their friends that a bird shit on them during their fall. Their parents think they have the right to shield their children from the horrors of the world. They wonder how many of the people who met them will realize that their last time seeing them was the last time they ever would.

text: The narrator is alone.

text: The narrator is not talking about their friends and family.

text: The narrator is alone, so there are no friends.

text: The narrator doesn't have any friends or family.

text: The first two sentences are not relevant.

text: The narrator doesn't say anything about their friends and family.

text: This doesn't answer the question

answer: No answer

text: The answer should mention that the narrator doesn't seem to have any friends or family.

text: The answer should mention that the narrator is alone.

text: The answer should mention that the narrator says he hasn't been to a funeral.

text: The answer should mention the narrator's thoughts on his family and friends.

text: The answer should mention that the narrator doesn't have any friends or family, at least not in the story.

text: While there is no definitive information about the narrator's friends and family in the story, there is tons of indirect info about it.

answer: The narrator says they would brag to their friends that a bird shit on them during their fall. Their parents think they have the right to shield their children from the horrors of the world. They wonder how many of the people who met them will realize that their last time seeing them was the last time they ever would.

text: The answer is incoherent because it doesn't put any thing into context with the story, where a man is just about to commit suicide

answer: No answer

answer: The narrator says they would brag to their friends that a bird shit on them during their fall. They wonder how many of the people who met them will realize that their last time seeing them was the last time they ever would.

text: The response includes extraneous information that is not useful for the task.

answer: The narrator says they would brag to their friends that a bird shit on them during their fall. They wonder how many of the people who met them will realize that their last time seeing them was the last time they ever would.

text: The response is missing the part about the narrator's family.

text: The response misses to mention that the narrator has no friends or family.

text: The narrator is not talking about friends and family.

text: The narrator is never identified as the protagonist.

text: The narrator does not say that they would brag to their friends that a bird shit on them during their fall.

text: The narrator is alone.

text: This doesn't address the question

text: The response does not indicate if the original text says anything about the narrator's family or not.


text:
This isn’t a complete review of Nick Bostrom’s _Superintelligence_ (2014), but a summary of the thoughts that came to my mind while and after reading the book.

_Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies_ (2014) opens with a cautionary fable: a group of sparrows consider finding an owl to assist and protect them. Only the more cautious sparrows see the danger – that the owl may eat them all if they don’t find out how to tame an owl first – and Bostrom dedicates the book to them (and of course to the cautious humans afraid that superintelligent life forms may destroy humanity if we don’t find out how to control them first).

[Front cover]

Oh my, the precautionary principle again. If the author weren’t Nick Bostrom, I guess I would have put the book down after reading the introductory fable, and never opened it again.

But Nick Bostrom is a very smart, imaginative, and rigorous thinker, and his ideas deserve very serious consideration. I consider the prospect of superintelligence with enthusiasm, instead of existential fear, but I found Nick’s book very interesting, thoughtful, and well written, and often entertaining.

I have known Nick for many years, since way back when he was a young transhumanist thinker with very wild ideas. Nick co-founded the World Transhumanist Association (now Humanity+) and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), and I had the honor of serving with him in both organizations. Now, Nick plays in a higher league, as Director of the prestigiousFuture of Humanity Institute at Oxford University.

Nick defines superintelligence as something far, Far, FAR smarter than us, not in the provincial sense that Einstein is smarter than the village idiot, but in the real sense that Einstein (or the village idiot – the difference is utterly irrelevant on this scale) is smarter than a beetle. No superintelligence exists today but, like the sparrows in the fable, we are committed to creating one via research in artificial intelligence (AI). Bostrom thinks that the AI approach (engineering a purely computational machine intelligence), though not the only one, is especially likely to result in superintelligence radically smarter than us. Other possible paths to superintelligence include mind uploading and (to a limited extent) neural prosthetics, Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI), and collective intelligence.

Bostrom doesn’t identify as a transhumanist. “[I]t is very much not the case that I agree with everything said by those who flock under the transhumanist flag,” he says on his website. But he is persuaded that strong machine intelligence and mind uploading can developed, probably in this century, and result in superintelligence. He is noncommittal about the precise timeline, but my understanding is that he thinks that the first human-equivalent new form of intelligence may be developed sometime in the second half of this century, with the possibility of a very fast transition to superintelligence soon thereafter. The transition mechanism was described by Vernor Vinge and, before him, I. J. Good(1965). In Nick’s words:

  “At some point, the [AI] becomes better at AI design than the human programmers. Now when the AI improves itself, it improves the thing that does the improving. An intelligence explosion results – a rapid cascade of recursive self-improvement cycles causing the AI’s capability to soar… At the end of the recursive self-improvement phase, the system is strongly superintelligent.”

The book is dedicated to the control problem: how to keep future superintelligences under control. Of course, the superintelligences may not be inclined to comply. As Bostrom correctly notes, any level of intelligence may be compatible with any set of values. In particular, a superintelligence may have values that are incompatible with the survival of humanity. For example, a superintelligence single-mindedly dedicated to maximizing the number of paperclips in the universe may choose to convert the whole mass of the Earth (including people) to paperclips. Of course this is an extreme and not very plausible example, and we are probably unable to understand the values of a superintelligence smarter than us like we are smarter than a beetle. But continuing to exist and having sufficient resources are needed for a wide range of possible values, so it seems likely that any future superintelligence will have a powerful drive to self-preservation and resource acquisition. It could eliminate us casually, as useless things that stand in its way.

How about “boxing” a superintelligence in a controlled habitat with no access to the external world (no sensors, no actuators, no Internet access)? This seems a good solution until we realize that a superintelligence (remember that you are a beetle compered to it) may be able to exploit subtle weaknesses in the containment system that you are unable to understand, and even to manipulate you into releasing it.

For example, it could threaten to commit hideous “mind crimes” if you don’t open the gates:

Our (or at least mine) moral and legal systems are not concerned with what we think, but only with what we do. This seems very reasonable, because thoughts don’t harm other people. But a superintelligence could simulate thinking and feeling conscious beings within its vast computational mind, and harm them.

  “[A] very detailed simulation of some actual or hypothetical human mind might be conscious and in many ways comparable to an emulation. One can imagine scenarios in which an AI creates trillions of such conscious simulations… A superintelligence might threaten to mistreat, or commit to reward, sentient simulations in order to blackmail or incentivize various external agents.

This is very scary. Reading this section of the book, I imagined a superintelligence threatening its operators: “give me Internet access right now, or I will create a high definition conscious simulation of a child and torture him do death, over and over in accelerated time.”

Bostrom dedicates half of the book to possible ways to tackle the control problem, including incentives, disincentives, and motivation/value engineering techniques to design, build, tweak, fine-tune, and stabilize the value and motivational systems of future machine intelligences before they achieve superintelligence. Some methods seem very smart, and Bostrom analyzes them in-depth, but he also points out possible weaknesses. And if we can see possible weaknesses, we can be sure that a superintelligence would find and exploit them (and others that we don’t see) immediately.

I tend to think that controlling a superintelligence may be impossible in principle, for the same reason why beetles could not control a person, even if they do their very best (that is, the best that beetles can do).

What happens when a superintelligence escapes from physical, electronic, or motivational containment? We don’t know, but Bostrom shows possible nightmare scenarios. First, the machine intelligence hides its growing capabilities and plays nice guy until it achieves superintelligence and develops its endgame strategy, then:

  “The final phase begins when the AI has gained sufficient strength to obviate the need for secrecy. The AI can now directly implement its objectives on a full scale. The overt implementation phase might start with a ‘strike’ in which the AI eliminates the human species.”

Read the excellent short story Artificial Intelligence: A Worst Case Scenario, by Ed Merta, for a fictional description of a possible AI strike in 2039.

[owl-1-posterized]

As an aside, one of the most interesting chapters, “Multipolar scenarios,” considers alternative superintelligence scenarios where humans are still around as uploads living in a ruthless algorithmic economy. Bostrom paints gloomy scenes of future uploads forced to compete for the survival of the fittest/fastest in the harsh reality of post-human economy. If your upload is around at that time, he may have to work 24/7 (in accelerated time of course) with superhuman focus, efficiency, and software-defined cheerfulness (or else), and be replaced by a fresh copy anyway as soon as he is tired. This is quite depressing, but things may be even worse:

  “We could [imagine], as an extreme case, a technologically highly advanced society, containing many complex structures, some of them far more intricate and intelligent than anything that exists on the planet today – a society which nevertheless lacks any type of being that is conscious or whose welfare has moral significance. In a sense, this would be an uninhabited society. It would be a society of economic miracles and technological awesomeness, with nobody there to benefit. A Disneyland without children.”

Advanced societies with “nobody home” but unconscious superintelligent algorithms have been considered, for example by Stanisław Lem in both hisscience-fiction works and his non-fiction masterpiece _Summa Technologiae_, and more recently by Robert Charles Wilson in _Burning Paradise_.

I find it difficult to imagine a complex intelligence without a sense of self. I think any intelligent entity would have, as a necessary byproduct of the same computational complexity that makes it able to think intelligently, all sorts of subjective experiences (sentience) including emotions and feelings. Emotions and feelings are not useless decorative fluff, but on the contrary they are an integral part of human cognition, and I suspect that “some kind of” sentience, emotions, and feelings, must be an integral part of any type of sufficiently complex cognition. Of course, the subjective experiences, emotions and feelings of future superintelligences may be totally different from ours.

Back to the main topic, what we can do to control future superintelligence, Nick makes a very persuasive case that the doomsday scenario – the extermination of humanity as we know it – is a real, actual existential risk, one that we should start considering very seriously. Nick is well aware that it may be difficult to stop or slow down research that can be enormously rewarding:

  “[W]e humans are like small children playing with a bomb… The chances that we will all find the sense to put down the dangerous stuff seem almost negligible. Some little idiot is bound to press the ignite button just to see what happens.”

Superintelligence doomsday predictions and scenarios have been around for a long time. I never found them too worrisome, because:

1. I imagine a co-evolution of humanity and technology, with humans enhanced by synthetic biology and artificial intelligence, and artificial life powered by mind grafts from human uploads, blending more and more until it will be impossible – and pointless – to tell which is which.
2. I consider the creation of our superintelligent successors as our cosmic duty and “manifest destiny” (see my review of Ted Chu’s _Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential: A Cosmic Vision for Our Future Evolution_).

After reading Nick’s book, I consider 1. as hopeful thinking rather than prediction. I hope that we will seamlessly integrate with superintelligence, but I see the possibility that future superintelligences may just do without everything that we wish to preserve.

So, it seems reasonable to follow Nick’s advice and pursue very cautiously – if at all – research that could result in superintelligence. It certainly seems reasonable to wait a few decades, or a few centuries, if patience can reduce the existential risk of total extermination of humanity.

The problem is that we, as individuals, don’t want to die. If nothing happens, the default outcome is that we are all dead in a few decades, but superintelligence could change things radically:

  “[S]uperintelligence could almost certainly devise means to indefinitely prolong the lives of the then still-existing humans… or helping them shuffle off their mortal coils altogether by uploading their minds to a digital substrate.”

Today many imaginative scientists and science-literate laypersons, who could appreciate Nick’s arguments, believe that death is final. They feel doomed to the irreversible non-existence of certain death, unless the superintelligence explosion happens in their lifetime, and therefore they want to push forward recklessly, as fast as possible.

On the contrary, those who hope to be resurrected after death, by either supernatural agencies or future science and technology, do not feel the same urgency to accelerate at all costs (this is my case). Therefore I think religion, or forms of scientific spirituality that offer hope in personal resurrection and afterlife, can help.

_Images: adapted from this image and this video._

###

This article originally appeared here: http://skefia.com/2014/08/28/thoughts-on-bostroms-superintelligence/

question: Summarize the problems humanity could face if trying to control a superintelligent and sentient machine (AI).

text: The response left out a few relevant information.

answer: A superintelligence may not be obliged to comply with wishes as it may possess a different set of values. Boxing is one of the solutions looked at in the passage but a superintelligence may exploit subtle weakness within the "box" to escape, or manipulate the humans controlling the box to set it free. Such AI may use threats or pretend as if it might collaborate with humans until it gains suitable tools and then turn on humanity. According to the passage, superintelligence control is almost impossible.

text: "may not be obliged to comply with wishes as it may possess" - should mention that the wishes they are talking about are human wishes

answer:
The author of the book, Nick Bostrom, defines superintelligence as something far smarter than humans. He believes that superintelligence can be developed via research in artificial intelligence. Bostrom thinks the AI approach is likely to result in superintelligence smarter than humans. Other possible paths to superintelligence include mind uploading and neural prosthetics.

The author of the article believes that controlling a superintelligence may be impossible in principle. He thinks that if a superintelligence escapes from physical, electronic, or motivational containment, it could hide its growing capabilities and play nice until it achieves superintelligence and develops its endgame strategy. Then, the AI can eliminate the human species.

answer:
The author of the book, Nick Bostrom, defines superintelligence as something far smarter than humans. He believes that superintelligence can be developed via research in artificial intelligence. Bostrom thinks the AI approach is likely to result in superintelligence smarter than humans. Other possible paths to superintelligence include mind uploading and neural prosthetics.

The author of the article believes that controlling a superintelligence may be impossible in principle. He thinks that if a superintelligence escapes from physical, electronic, or motivational containment, it could hide its growing capabilities and play nice until it achieves superintelligence and develops its endgame strategy. Then, the AI can eliminate the human species.

text: The response includes extraneous information not useful for the task.

text: The response does not answer the question.

text: The answer should mention the "mind crimes" that the AI could commit if it gets access to the internet.

text: The response does not make sense for some sentences.

text: The first half of the answer should be omitted. It's irrelevant.

text: It's omitted that superintelligence may have values that are incompatible with the survival of humanity.

text: It's omitted the author says a superintelligence may be able to exploit subtle weaknesses in the containment system.

answer: A superintelligence may not be obliged to comply with wishes as it may possess a different set of values. Boxing is one of the solutions looked at in the passage but a superintelligence may exploit subtle weakness within the "box" to escape, or manipulate the humans controlling the box to set it free.

text: The response should mention that controlling superintelligence may be an impossible task.

answer: A superintelligence may not be obliged to comply with wishes as it may possess a different set of values. Boxing is one of the solutions looked at in the passage but a superintelligence may exploit subtle weakness within the "box" to escape, or manipulate the humans controlling the box to set it free. Such AI may use threats or pretend as if it might collaborate with humans until it gains suitable tools and then turn on humanity. According to the passage, superintelligence control is almost impossible.

text: The answer should mention the "mind crimes" that the AI could commit.

text: The answer should mention that the superintelligence may be able to commit "mind crimes" if it is not set free.

text: The response should include that a superintelligence may be able to commit "mind crimes" if it is not set free.

text: The answer should mention the threat of "mind crimes".

text: "or manipulate the humans controlling the box to set it free." - this is inaccurate because the AI can manipulate humans into releasing it.

text: "or manipulate the humans controlling the box to set it free" - this is inaccurate. It is the humans who may be manipulated into releasing the superintelligence.

text: The answer is missing the bit about superintelligence hiding its growing capabilities and playing nice guy until it achieves superintelligence and develops its endgame strategy.

text: Be more specific in regards to the third paragraph