The Guardian for this meeting was Wol Euler.

Wol Euler: good morning, Berti
Bertram Jacobus: good morning woly ! :-)
Wol Euler: I hope the new-ish year finds you healthy and happy?
Bertram Jacobus: hehe - healthy no. not physically at least - as you may know (?) - bot my psyche is really happy (!) ... :-)
Bertram Jacobus: but* - damn - typo - sry ...
Wol Euler smiles.
Bertram Jacobus: will english native speakers understand my statement ? *g*
Wol Euler: this one does
Bertram Jacobus: hehe. but this one does understand german completely as well - that may cause a essential difference - no ? ;-)
Bertram Jacobus: or did i have to write "that one" ? *g*
Wol Euler: "that"
Bertram Jacobus: yeh - i noticed it ! :-)
Wol Euler: "this" is close to hand, "that" is farther away. "this one" would mean "myself"
Bertram Jacobus: i understood. but i couldn´t express it, obviously ...
Wol Euler: that happens to me in German too :)
Bertram Jacobus: but - way more important : how are you !? :-)
Wol Euler: mostly fine thank you :)
Bertram Jacobus: great :-)
Wol Euler: the year is starting out slowly (in number of working hours per week) compared to last, which is good, but it probably won't remain so
Wol Euler: have we seen each other since Christmas? I'm not sure
Bertram Jacobus: may be not - way too long !
Wol Euler: agreed :)

--BELL--

Bertram Jacobus: did i tell you already about my new focus on the so called "artificial intelligence" ?
Wol Euler: not yet :)
Bertram Jacobus: hehe - i´m already since a while interested in that topic, but the latest development makes me even more curious and fascinated then it was before ... do you know the latest robot, called "sophia" ?
Wol Euler: no?
Bertram Jacobus: the latest development i meant - refering to the topic AI - you can for example see her here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tliMcESLbxQ
Bertram Jacobus: it´s ... nearly incredible what she already can do and say and how she reacts and all that ... hard to believe that she isn´t a fake
Wol Euler: very hard ...
Bertram Jacobus: but however - there are lots of videos from her now - and from all of them, in a sum so to say, it´s impressive in which huge speed the development of that is increasing

Wol Euler: I'm very skeptical of this, her language fluency is far too high. There are adult humans who don't speak that well or that deeply.
Wol Euler: Sorry but I just don't believe it without a lot of corroborating reports and evidence
Bertram Jacobus: predictions say, around 2040 they will be more "intelligent" then humans are ...
Wol Euler: we have both been reading those predictions for all of our lives, nicht wahr?
Bertram Jacobus: ehm - sry ? now i don´t understand ...
Wol Euler: people have been predicting for as long as I have been alive, that machines would be more intelligent than us in twenty years or so
Bertram Jacobus: and as written before : there are so many informations now about her and the topic, that to me such impressions seem not to be completely unreal - in contrary
Bertram Jacobus: ah ! i never heard such from serious sorces before ...
Wol Euler: depends what you mean by "serious" of course. But there were AI researchers and journalists quoting them fifty years ago too
Bertram Jacobus: and i never saw serious proves of any successful steps in that direction before - but now - lots ! ...
Bertram Jacobus: i mean sources like mit, for example
Wol Euler: if you are asking me to remember where the AI researchers I am remembering from fifty years ago worked, I'm afraid I cannot.
Bertram Jacobus: the latest test was understanding of text - which so called "machines" did handle better then humans ... a week ago or so
Wol Euler: yes, I've seen that, and photo-image recognition better than average humans
Wol Euler: agreed :)
Bertram Jacobus: no i wanted to answer your question, what i consider as serious sorces
Wol Euler: oh I see
Wol Euler: please continue :)

--BELL--

Bertram Jacobus: i´m looking forward and expect a new and better form of intelligence as humans in general show it, especially in these decadent era
Wol Euler: heheheh
Wol Euler: well, start with an AI that could not only recognize lies when it hears them, but also remember that lies are bad ...
Wol Euler: humans know they are being lied to but tell themselves that doesn't matter
Bertram Jacobus: hm - that should be discriminated i guess ... "good lies" on the one hand and bad ones at the other
Wol Euler: fair enough :)
Bertram Jacobus: and i think, that should not be a problem for robots, soon at least
Wol Euler: "of course I like your mother" is a harmless lie and the AI should act as though it believed, as we do
Bertram Jacobus: more then harmless : constructive ! ;-)
Bertram Jacobus: helpful
Bertram Jacobus: supporting peace and happiness and such
Wol Euler smiles.
Bertram Jacobus: such is often called : "glue for societies" ( a german saying, means again : helps and such ) ...
Wol Euler nods.
Bertram Jacobus: i think, that will change our world more then all before did ...
Wol Euler: agreed, we'd be lost without that
Bertram Jacobus: AI in robots
Wol Euler: yes, agreed
Bertram Jacobus: they already, for instance, reduced googles amount of energy they need for their servers, in a range around 40 % - with methods who nobody had been only thought about before - that is at leastwhat i read ... hm
Bertram Jacobus: but i notice, that a robot as partner may not satisfy ... strange ... dunno why that is or may be ...
Wol Euler: no soul
Wol Euler: whatever that means :)
Bertram Jacobus: and somebody asked me : will robots meditate ? ...
Wol Euler smiles.
Bertram Jacobus: i don´t believe in a "soul" - as you may know. and sorry please ! : i hope, that does not sound rude (?) ... :-(
Wol Euler: no, not rude
Bertram Jacobus: phew - ty , good being !
Bertram Jacobus: nice being
Bertram Jacobus: kind
Bertram Jacobus: you
Wol Euler: but am I a robot?
Wol Euler: how would I know, if I were?

--BELL--


Bertram Jacobus: i don´t know - for example, we all could be only parts of a simulation ...
Wol Euler nods.
Wol Euler: that theory is heard often these days
Bertram Jacobus: but so far, for our well being, humans still are better developed as robots. but that may change soon
Bertram Jacobus: hehe. interesting ! to my experiences that kind of view would fit perfectly ;-)
Wol Euler: to be clear, I don't reject the possibility of AI becoming superhumanly intelligent, I do think it is physically possible. I doubt that it will happen so quickly, and I also doubt that our civilization will continue long enough for us to reach that point
Bertram Jacobus: oh - my impressions give me a different view : i think, that can happen really fast but may be sadly we aren´t young enogh to experience such in total so to say ... completely ...
Wol Euler nods.
Bertram Jacobus smiles shyly ...

Bertram Jacobus: so today you have a day off duties ? :-)
Wol Euler: I'm not sure, I have to do a half-day this weekend but I haven't decided which day it will be
Wol Euler: probably tomorrow
Wol Euler: I have a lot to do. My working glasses broke so I need to get a replacement ordered
Wol Euler: etc
Bertram Jacobus: hehe. finally something which sounds at least comfortably refering to your work amount !! :-))
Wol Euler smiles.
Wol Euler: I did far too many overtime hours last year, 2.5 months of them
Bertram Jacobus: but humans are classified by restlessness and being always unsatisfied, in general ... *giggle* - ( buddhist - tibetan view , which, of course, is followed by means to change that ! ) :-)
Bertram Jacobus: wow. okay
Wol Euler smiles.
Bertram Jacobus: and i´m soo happy about all the meditation methods i can and could learn so far already and further on and practise them and try them out and so on, study ...
Wol Euler nods.

Wol Euler: speaking of which, are you planning to attend the meeting in Amsterdam?
Bertram Jacobus: and the philosophy which goes with all that, understanding of helpful, freeing methods ...
Bertram Jacobus: ah - when will that be ? and i would like to, very much, yes ! ...
Wol Euler: the first full week of April, actually meeting on the 2nd to morning of 4th
Wol Euler: Pema has to leave on the afternoon of the 4th
Wol Euler: it's being discussed in the google mail group
Bertram Jacobus: i thought so - but i would prefere to phone you and check all that out in german - would that be okay ?
Wol Euler: okay, but not this morning

[ Then the log poster decided to snip the end since the discussion became more personal ]