H. E. Ambassador Gilbert Morris | London School of Economics and Political Science (original) (raw)

Papers by H. E. Ambassador Gilbert Morris

SCOTUS’S ERROR IN TAKING THE TRUMP IMMUNITY CASE!

The United States Supreme Court ought not to have taken up the Donald Trump Immunity Case, as it ... more The United States Supreme Court ought not to have taken up the Donald Trump Immunity Case, as it locks the court, the constitution and the presidency into an inescapable conundrum; particularly given recent appointment and behaviour of some of the justices. The presidency is meant to be suspended in a balancing mystery”; always with the fear that his actions must be lawful. That will die with this case.

Artificial Intelligence, Deep Fakes and the Hall of Mirrors, 2024

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will transform every aspect of life-as is known to us-even before th... more Artificial Intelligence (AI) will transform every aspect of life-as is known to us-even before the point of digital "Singularity"; a process through which, electronic systems unification will eliminate anything which is inefficient for the AI system's dominance or endurance. Take it as a "Morris Law"-as I have taught for decades-"The first ambition of a system is to be a system and not to act for the purposes for which it was established". Artificial Intelligence as a system first aims to be true to itself. As such, I've taken the position of the late Professor Stephen Hawking and against Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg argued-in youthful naïveté-that AI will be wonderful. Musk, warned that AI could destroy us, unless we-meaning society-established rules for its use. But Professor Hawking predicted AI would be the end of human centred or human dominated civilisation. Putting the end at the beginning, my friend and colleague Nick Bostrom wrote the book "Superintelligence" (2014), warning that the real danger was machine learning, (artificial intelligence) networked systems (giant databases) and "the internet-of-things" (GPS linking different devises for instance), once linked, would vitiate human contributions to the system's architecture or infrastructure upon which our world runs. Here is a little context: There are three phases of Artificial Intelligence: 1. Machine AI: for example IMB's "Deep Blue" that beat the best chess players in the world or Google's "Alpha Go", which beat the best player of the ancient Chinese board game "Go". These are usually applications or machine systems 2. Functional AI: these are "semi-autonomous" systems like driverless trucks, or Avatar guides in the Dubai Mall or smart phones that predict (almost always in error) your next word or even sentence 3. General AI: This is the most feared. This would mean AI as a human replicant, a fully autonomous system that is self-generating, meaning it could make itself, repair itself and

Morris on Keynes, 2009

As an economist, I eschew the soft-headed convenience of readymade ideologies, together with thei... more As an economist, I eschew the soft-headed convenience of readymade ideologies, together with their carrying rationalities, turning upon intellectual vulgarities I haven't the stomach to bear. But even when we look askance at ideologies, focusing instead upon flinty economic facts evidenced in history, a certain resolve may be expressed without overstatement: Markets are the best means to capture the wisdom of individuals acting in their own interests. Taxes should be moderate, clear and specific, to afford business and individuals the most efficient options for planning investment and economic activity. Regulations should be specific and not speculative; written with sufficient flexibility to address new situations, with a clear, speedy review process to put right such anomalies as may arise from human action. Under this framework, capitalism provides, not merely, the most efficient means of producing prosperity for the largest possible number of persons, but also the best means by which those without it may acquire capital, by which they too can become more direct authors of their won prosperity. So long as the above is true, the well-off, the well and the not-sowell-off can co-exist in social harmony, because there is the belief

and the Rule The of Law and the South African Petition, 2024

The South Africa Petition - beyond its current brief - posits a foundational change in the nexus ... more The South Africa Petition - beyond its current brief - posits a foundational change in the nexus between constitutional and international law. It sets the stage for a new multilateral jurisprudence.

THE SPECTRE OF THE ESCHATOLOGICAL, 2019

The lecture was structured in like manner to Kierkegaard's sermons; which were delivered in the f... more The lecture was structured in like manner to Kierkegaard's sermons; which were delivered in the frame of an indictment; not so much as an accusation concerning deeds, but a failure to think according to the immensity of any Christian claim or claim to Christianity. "The Bible is easy to understand", he wrote in 1843, "But we Christians are a bunch of schemers: we pretend to be unable to understand it, because we know well the minute we confess to understanding it we are obligated to act accordingly". Here Kierkegaard registered his impatience with the "mediocre shell" of conventional 19th century Christianity. I am not here as a theologian; though mother would wish it. I am a philosophical scholar concerned with straining ideas and concepts to their breaking point, by means of examining their interrelations, together with the internal logic, which holds them together…then to pressure the claims they assert, ravish them until they collapse or yield their promised fruit. As such, I have no interest in their truths but rather their capacity to sustain their claims. This lecture will be published as part of a larger project, titled: "No More What We Were"; which examines the impacts our post-Modern Huxleyian epoch, in which the sacred has been catalysed by the self in the form a cascading isometric, self-referencing culture driven by computation, which seems to have colonised cognitivity. The sacred-however conceived-when contemplated in the temporal, brings its thinker into the wonderments of immensity, which destabilises the inmost, ownmost certainties of the being-that-is-human. It matters not whether there is a God at the apex of one's hierarchy against all other hierarchies. In the average everydayness of human life (the quotidia), we all serve even what we do not or cannot know; either as an unknown unknown or as a known unknown. But as Kierkegaard explains: 'Once you have claimed the Christ, I need not guess at your obligations, nor give sympathy to your aimless wicked stammering…I know withal from my own damnation what is commanded and

THE AFTERMATH OF SUICIDE: THE OBITUARY OF HUMANKIND, 2016

Being-as-Technicity Technicity is the natural disposition in the Being-that-is-Human to make the ... more Being-as-Technicity Technicity is the natural disposition in the Being-that-is-Human to make the world by technology. In this way already, it stands against ethics, in its march to overmaster nature; as a post-suicidal urgency. The overmastering impulse occurs imperceptibly: every act and thought, every act of care for oneself, the movement of language; every way of seeing and application and absorption through the senses are all "technique-making" and 'techniquerefining" processes. One's quotidian movements (to the shops at this hour by this route, wearing this attire, and a dollar bill for the old man who waits on me, placed in this pocket, which I repaired last month for ease of access…all of this, is evidence of the Being-that-is-Human's unintending exposition of and disposition to technicity. The component of intentionality in technicity is complex. But even in a reflection on simple everydayness reveals that the Being-that-is-Human is technophiliactic. Imagine as a thought experiment: just before the Early Stone Age, more than 2.6 million years ago, in Kenya where Oldowan tools from Lokalalei, Kenya were in use, that the first man to try a tool, may have begun by lunging at some creature. He failed. In the next iteration, he selects a stone and fires at the rodent (most likely), and the enterprise fails. Imagine further, the following day, a third friend selects a stone at the sight of some similar creature, but this time fires the stone inches ahead of the rodent, so that the stone and the rodent arrive at the spot at the same moment. And unhappily for the rodent, the enterprise succeeds. Think now, how

FRASER INSTITUTE ECONOMIC CONFERENCE, 2001

At a gathering of the world's leading Economists in 2001, post-September 11th, the agenda was to ... more At a gathering of the world's leading Economists in 2001, post-September 11th, the agenda was to reconsider the meaning of the rule of law, in light of the extraordinary measures undertaken by the United States government, and demanded by the US from states of the world. Professor Gilbert Morris was selected to make the 'philosophical case' , to an audience that included 4 Nobel Laureates. The mood of the event was uncertain, as Dr. Friedman warned of: "a cloud of Orwellianism that could unravel the West's greatest achievements and set the stage for creeping autocracy". Professor Gary Becker of University of Chicago and Randy Barnett of NYU echoed these sentiments. Here below is the transcription of the lecture by Professor Morris to that august assemblage.

A Review of Sebastian Mallaby’s Life of Alan Greenspan. Greenspan’s Chief contribution to US econ... more A Review of Sebastian Mallaby’s Life of Alan Greenspan. Greenspan’s Chief contribution to US economic understanding occurred before he was Chairman of the US Federal Reserve: Greenspan identified the financial services as part of the economy. That increased the size of the economy as understood.

Estonia has lept from a vassal of the Soviet Empire in 1992, to the world's most advanced eGovern... more Estonia has lept from a vassal of the Soviet Empire in 1992, to the world's most advanced eGovernment. The question is is eGovernment a destination or a path to eDemocracy? In my view, writing for the online magazine -http://estonianworld.com/opinion/estonia-answers-plato-e-democracy/ - Estonia, allows us for the first time to begin the prospect of rejecting representative democracy, in exchange for cultivating eDemocracy.

Headnote: There is now, a multi-level, multi-dimensional crisis in the international system, thre... more Headnote: There is now, a multi-level, multi-dimensional crisis in the international system, threatening to disfigure the relations between nation-states, international bodies (and within states), the relationship between citizens and their sovereign law. This crisis is driven by large nations – of the G20, mostly – against small former colonies with substantial international financial centre operations. This paper does not defend these financial centres. Rather it demonstrates critical anomalies, and outright breaches of the rule of law being demanded by one set of powers (often European or American) against smaller jurisdictions, exceeding the accepted norms of international law and institutions of the international system. This paper is a composite of a larger project, aimed at showing the faultlines of this crisis; with the warning, that we risk undermining the rule of law as the basis of legitimacy for state action, and returning the international system to its previous iterations in which right was by might alone.

Dr. Cornel West has attacked Mr. Ta-Nehisi Coates in the UK Guardian, again around the subject of... more Dr. Cornel West has attacked Mr. Ta-Nehisi Coates in the UK Guardian, again around the subject of President Barack Obama; raising question concerning Dr. West's judgement and the substance of the American debate on race and justice.

Ta-Nehisi Coates argues that Trump's presidency depends on Trump's belief in "whiteness". This is... more Ta-Nehisi Coates argues that Trump's presidency depends on Trump's belief in "whiteness". This is wrong. Trump's Presidency depends on his manipulation of those who believe in whiteness.

His forthcoming both " Digital Leviathan " argues that strategy and innovation and not mere plann... more His forthcoming both " Digital Leviathan " argues that strategy and innovation and not mere planning are crucial to the competitive advantages of nations in an increasingly digital world. He uses war strategy and game theory models and argues that the urgency and technical proficiency of such strategies are what developing nations require in the "narrow window" of opportunity left for their development.

I am concerned with such question as arises from the awareness of the Other insofar as beings sha... more I am concerned with such question as arises from the awareness of the Other insofar as beings share a belonging together in Being. These things are of importance to me against the backdrop of Being’s Ontological primacies or because of Aporia, which I believe limits The-Being-which-is-called-Human” in perception.

The Global Financial System is broken. Small City State Financial Centres share the blame for thi... more The Global Financial System is broken. Small City State Financial Centres share the blame for this, since they retreat when challenged rather than providing a legal and structural basis for their legitimacy.

The lines of action for nation state are now blurred.

The dire prospects for Canadian Banking in the Caribbean region is not a cause but a symptom of d... more The dire prospects for Canadian Banking in the Caribbean region is not a cause but a symptom of deeper structural economic problems.

I paint by faith, not by sight," said Mr. Amos Ferguson, the late Bahamian artist. In sentiments ... more I paint by faith, not by sight," said Mr. Amos Ferguson, the late Bahamian artist. In sentiments consistent with form he said further: "To paint, the Lord gives you a vision, a sight that you go by," he once told a reporter. "But don't forget you have to see and check that Bible and don't forget God. And the more you keep up with your Bible, and get the understanding, the better you paint." 1 Here then is a painter who takes inspiration and directives not from any existential force or phenomena, but from divinely wrought intuition, as a sight to go by…to get the understanding. This is a theme, not uncommon amongst "intuitionist" artists, whose discussion of their art asserts, ironically, both an uncommon assurance and a submission to a power beyond the artist himself and his audience.

SCOTUS’S ERROR IN TAKING THE TRUMP IMMUNITY CASE!

Artificial Intelligence, Deep Fakes and the Hall of Mirrors, 2024

Morris on Keynes, 2009

and the Rule The of Law and the South African Petition, 2024

THE SPECTRE OF THE ESCHATOLOGICAL, 2019

THE AFTERMATH OF SUICIDE: THE OBITUARY OF HUMANKIND, 2016

FRASER INSTITUTE ECONOMIC CONFERENCE, 2001

The lines of action for nation state are now blurred.

Relativity and Speed of Light, 2022

Markov Blankets move faster/ahead of the speed of light but do not offend Einstein’s “Special The... more Markov Blankets move faster/ahead of the speed of light but do not offend Einstein’s “Special Theory of Relativity”.

Much used phrases" are much used phrases, however, there is a phrase-though overused-is poignant ... more Much used phrases" are much used phrases, however, there is a phrase-though overused-is poignant just today. Malcolm X was to have said words to the following effect: "If you want to change a culture, first you need an act of integrity".

SCOTUS and the RULE OF LAW: comment on Roe V Wade, 2022

I moyle in law: that is-begging the reader's indulgence to permit me an immodesty-in the study of... more I moyle in law: that is-begging the reader's indulgence to permit me an immodesty-in the study of law, I care, not merely for the specific rules, which constitute the law…but the essence of law itself; its given functional necessities; its anthropological roots and its cascading, metastasising sociological dynamics. By this one means, a rule of law is not akin to a "STOP sign", which is blunt or dense in meaning. Such rules-which must address life in its expanding complexities-can have neither blunt meanings or applications, nor can they prevent overlaps in unforeseeable meanings or indeterminate impacts.

Professor Gilbert Morris ON FRIENDSHIP

The Friend Quantum: Friendship is the eternisation of the immediate; in that, one who is a friend... more The Friend Quantum: Friendship is the eternisation of the immediate; in that, one who is a friend befriended, becomes himself a multitude, so extending himself into the autopoiesis of the Apeiron; the boundless possibilities of unforeseeable becoming of himself. The friend is a cartouche and a cascade of memory and tidings. Such a one is the only true monument in the landscape of Being; anchored there by so many mutual lets and allowances; a school of hospitalities, instructed by the soul's curriculum and its ceaseless yearning; which is the fount of unanticipated knowing and believing-yet never in calculus or discord-as it is a living instantiation of a covenant of faith, exhibited and so evidenced in ever renewing devotion.

Friston's Ontology

Logic. Friston's thesis is the "free energy principle", the tenets of which are in sequence as fo... more Logic. Friston's thesis is the "free energy principle", the tenets of which are in sequence as follows: a. The brain is a spasticity statistical processing function in human neurobiology, the result of which is a psychological distillation and framing of gross 'reality'; in a deflationary sense. b. This 'framing' reflects the boundaries of perception by time-inscripted experience as a spatial function across a consistent neuro-cartography of the human brain. c. This process is marked by the phenomena of "internal" and "external" states, the division of which is the "Markov Blanket" d. All internal and Markov states are statistically familial. e. All external states (stimuli) are marked in statistical differentials to internal and Markovian states. This is how the human brain perceives spatial/characteristic distinctions between itself and things and between things themselves. Imagine a drop of ink in a glass of water: The molecular distribution appears to dissipate into an indeterminate relation with the water molecules. Now imagine a drop of oil in a glass of water: The molecules of the oil propagate toward themselves and appear to create a distinct separation from the water. This molecular dance are the internal states-though inchoate to invisibility-whatever is the skin that marks or holds together the internal states we refer to as the Markov Blanket, in that it 'blankets' the internal states…and that is how we both perceive distinction and how we measure it whatever is dynamic scale.

Covid's Global Frame is Wrong+

The world's approach to Covid is essentially wrong: Pandemics are not about medicine...they are a... more The world's approach to Covid is essentially wrong: Pandemics are not about medicine...they are an exogenous restructuring of economic and social systems, with insidious political effects as scale.

NOTE: This is an excerpt from a book of the same name, the outlines and drafts of which were writ... more NOTE: This is an excerpt from a book of the same name, the outlines and drafts of which were written 10 years ago; in answer to Christopher Hitchens' blockbuster book: "God is not great: how religion ruins everything". Preface: There are two grounds of disagreement with Mr. Hitchens-(The God-Christian-Religion Question) and the Secularist Nirvana-I want to place emphasis on the question the faith/knowledge divide-this indicates that what poisons everything are assumptions of superiority which organised fascisms of which religions are one-But this indicates that thépoisoning element of religion-the mis-assessment appropriation and hubris of reason, is what Mr. Hitchens invites us into.

44-So much of the commentary for and against Mr Jay Z’s album 4:44 across the internet are trite ... more 44-So much of the commentary for and against Mr Jay Z’s album 4:44 across the internet are trite respecting the making and meaning of art. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Mr Z has produced a work of art. In an intellectually cosmopolitan sphere, that must open him up to questions; beyond who was or was not dissed or whether he executed a clever turn of phrase, that nonetheless goes nowhere. Has he on this album said something true and if true, profound? The answer is yes...he has said something true. But what he has said is nothing profound, because so many people without his wealth and opportunity ALREADY live by the principles he advanced, whilst he was-by his own account-selling drugs to their children. This does not make him a monster, nor does it make anyone pointing out that irony a "hater"; another unhelpful, definitionally ridiculous uber-meaningless term. Art does not give comfort and when it is true, art shocks even the artist and so it makes of us all karmic victims; that includes the artist.

Is Standard English or Language a from of oppression? Is dialectical speech a mechanism for freed... more Is Standard English or Language a from of oppression? Is dialectical speech a mechanism for freedom? We discuss in this Lecture the speech communities in the Bahamas and the provenance of Dialectology.

Artificial Intelligence offers the Bahamas an unprecedented opportunity and a strategic option to... more Artificial Intelligence offers the Bahamas an unprecedented opportunity and a strategic option to develop a 21st century national medical architecture!

Mankind has already committed Suicide: Every option available to course-correct the crises, risks... more Mankind has already committed Suicide: Every option available to course-correct the crises, risks the existence of humanity as a whole. And yet, we do not - as a whole - apprehend this foundational understanding to the risk of Being and Human existence.

Many scholars suppose that the American Founders imbibed English common law or held it sacred. No... more Many scholars suppose that the American Founders imbibed English common law or held it sacred. Not so...they used it, disfigured it to their purposes and eventually, English common law imposed by English directed courts because the match that lit revolutionary fires.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics avers: " All closed systems tend toward entropy ". Whilst this i... more The Second Law of Thermodynamics avers: " All closed systems tend toward entropy ". Whilst this is a law of physics, it has long been my view that it best describes the structural framework of both the general structural characteristics of the future and the economic framework of our world. This means and will require a near complete rethinking of both the validity of our systems of social formation, our priorities of law and economic and our prerogatives of human value. Bear with me on this point: Imagine if you will, an engine, running continuously, with no additional fuel or maintenance. That engine would begin to deteriorate or suffer " entropy " , because (even if it has an unlimited supply of fuel), its components would simply deteriorate and begin to fail.

Are Learning Machines, Artificial Intelligence and Robots dangerous for the-being-that-is-human? ... more Are Learning Machines, Artificial Intelligence and Robots dangerous for the-being-that-is-human? If so what is the source from which that danger springs? I say its language. And I say, it is too late to limit its force.

The PANAMA PAPERS have added to the onslaught of attacks by G20 nations, on small former colonies... more The PANAMA PAPERS have added to the onslaught of attacks by G20 nations, on small former colonies that have established financial centres; attempting to prevent these financial centres doing what G20 countries do, almost without regulations.

Impacts on the The Future of Financial Services from the Panama Papers.