“If it suddenly ended tomorrow,
I could somehow adjust to the fall.
Good times and riches and son of a bitches,
I’ve seen more than I can recall.
These changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes,
Nothing remains quite the same.
Through all of the islands and all of the highlands,
If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.”
Jimmy Buffett
Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes
(1977)
“Yes, I am a pirate two hundred years too late
The cannons don’t thunder there’s nothin’ to plunder
I’m an over forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late.”
Jimmy Buffett
A1A: “A Pirate Looks at Forty”
(1974)
On Sunday morning—as we are staying with my younger daughter Bethany, her husband Ryan, and the grandkids—I walked into the kitchen where Eden Grace (seven-years-old) and Grant Richard (four-years-old) were sitting by the piano. I had a song rattling around in my brain and started singing spontaneously: “I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 and French-fried potatoes.” Of course, they had no clue. Later for lunch, when Bethany and Ryan fixed cheeseburger sliders for lunch, I started playing the song “Cheeseburger in Paradise” on my I-phone, Ryan put it on their smart TV (from the Jimmy Buffet Essentials collection) and the kids started dancing to the music.
It was a Jimmy Buffett sort of thing.
I, for one, was sad to hear about Jimmy Buffett’s passing. My oldest daughter, Kimberly, had called to tell me the news. I passed my love for Buffett music, with its unique Calypso style, to Kimberly. She has been to a couple Buffett concerts in true Parrothead style.
That is something I always wished I could do.
I guess there are three reasons that I was so emotionally affected by Jimmy Buffett’s passing. The first is that he was about my age when he passed (Buffett died at 76 years-of-age) and when he sang songs about missed opportunities in life, regrets in love lost, or the sense that time is passing one by—especially Margaritaville or A Pirate Turns Forty—he was singing songs that resonated with my generation. And me personally.
Something touched me on the insides with his songs.
No trip to the beach is complete without his music.
Secondly, he died of Merkel cell cancer, a rare form of skin cancer, after battling several years with the condition. Next week, I go to visit my dermatologist who practices in the Northern Virginia area, where I will sit under a hood of ultra-violet light to “burn” off pre-cancerous melanoma growths of my forehead, face, and ears. It is the only thing, according to her, that seems to work. I call it the “Cochise[1] treatment” as it leaves my face red-as-a-beet for several days and renders me extremely sensitive to sunlight. Dr. Nandedkar, a wonderful doctor with the world’s best bedside manner, has cut out several pre-cancerous growths on my forehead, chest and ankles and has used liquid nitrogen, on several occasions, to freeze several skins spots.
So, I’m familiar with skin cancer.
Of course, I can’t blame anybody else. I have fair skin and spent much of my youth trying to turn my skin from white to tan—as a measure of pure vanity. During weekends at Cumberland College, for example, we would go over to the small beach area at Cumberland Falls, where we would lather our skin with a homemade concoction of baby oil and iodine to enhance the tanning (burning) process. But it wasn’t all vanity. During the military years, as I attended the Chinese Mandarin language course in Monterey, California, I went to Santa Cruz for a weekend. I guess we didn’t know much about protective skin sunscreen creams in those days (not that we could afford them if we did), but I got a burn so bad on the upper part of my body and legs, that I looked like a lobster. I couldn’t breathe without it hurting. Then there was a longer than intended walk in Bangkok, Thailand, with Tom A. where we got fried by the sun before we made it back to the hotel. In short, I have put my skin—one of God’s most wonderful protective mechanisms—through a life of abuse; whether from ignorance, vanity or stupidity.
And now I’m paying the price. I love the beach and yet I can only walk on it in the early mornings or evenings. I’m forced to wear a hat whenever I’m outdoors these days. And, of course, there are the regular visits to the dermatologist.
“Sigh.”
But it is the third reason that I mourn Jimmy Buffett’s passing that I really want to talk about. Jimmy Buffett was a true Renaissance Man in an era when the cold machinery of nation states, mega corporations and leftist-leaning, ungodly ideologies are all trying to hammer us into individual insignificance. Buffett, in my view, was a refreshing change to that massive conformity push. His music reflects the sounds of an independent soul seeking to be left alone. He translated the popularity of his songs into books, artwork and a profitable chain of restaurants, stores, and resorts.
He was not only an artisan but an entrepreneur of the highest order.
In my mind, at least, he personifies the American dream.
The sad truth is that the Jimmy Buffetts of this world are a dying breed. And so, I sense, am I. In a new book by David Runciman, the author makes the point (far too often in the view of his critics) that in today’s world, humans are “trading-off” their personal liberties in return for security.[2] Runciman warns that “the robots are coming to a world dominated by states and corporations,” and that we have created artificial entities to “serve human interests but over which we have little if any overall control:”
"Humans make states, which can acquire a life of their own, states make corporations, which can acquire a life of their own, corporations make [AI-powered] robots, which do not have a life of their own yet. But they soon may"…[3]
In my view, Runciman is on to something. And we no longer have a live Jimmy Buffett to offer us a means of escape. It was always somewhat comforting when we could listen to his recorded music and know that he was able to make more of the same, on the concert stage and in the studio.
In my own world, many years ago, I would invite a gentleman named Ony Leonard to speak to my students in our Philosophy 300 Class at Alice Lloyd College. Ony was a big man with huge hands and an even bigger heart. He was humble and compassionate. I still miss him. Ony would tell my students that each of them were like uniquely created pebbles thrown into the pond of life. They never knew who would be affected by the ripples they created.
I have honestly tried to turn that word-picture for my students into a credo for life. At this point, the only noticeable ripples of my existence are felt by those nearest me. But that could change if God wills it). I hope the small ripples I send out—either in the way I live, in my writings or in my artwork—echo one theme: our individual humanity, based in our God-given uniqueness (and to whom we will answer as individuals at the end of time), is under attack. We have an obligation to resist. Runciman says that states, corporations, and AI at the pointy spear of this affront; I am inclined to see it as the combined invasion of the forces of counterfeit reality, indifferent inhumanity, misplaced ideology, and death.
The new idols of our age.
As believers we should not expect anything else. It is a fallen world, rapidly deteriorating into a cycle leading to final judgement.
In this vein, and speaking of changes in latitudes, I read an interesting article this week on the five tech trends that “everyone must be ready for” in 2024. The list reads like yesteryear’s idols garbed in the sweet-smelling garlands of the new technology: Generative Automation as it merges into everyday automation; “Phygital” Convergence (the trend toward digital twins, the increasing intertwining of the real and digital realms); Sustainable Technology (read here the march toward an increasing “green” world); Cyber Resilience; and the growing buzz around Quantum Computing.[4]
Are you ready?
Nor am I.
Let me briefly discuss the last of the aforementioned tech trends, Quantum Computing. We have heard the futurists talk so often about the promise of quantum computing—ever coming but never really arriving—that I was surprised to see it listed as breaking through in 2024. Only the never-ending promises of nuclear fusion power come close when it comes to consistently disappointing futurist expectations.[5]
What is quantum computing? By operating using quantum bits (qubits) that can exist in multiple states simultaneously (traditional computer bits exist in a state of either 1 or 0), quantum computers offer the promise of carrying out vast numbers of calculations simultaneously. To be sure, great strides have been made in harnessing weird and wonderful elements of quantum physics such as quantum entanglement and superposition. In his article, (cited above), Marr asserts that in 2024, we should start seeing the benefits of quantum computing in computer-heavy (and algorithm-heavy) fields like new drug discovery and design, genome sequencing, cryptology, meteorology, material science, optimization of complex systems, and even the search for extraterrestrial life.[6]
But not so fast my friend.
Scaling up from initial breakthroughs in quantum computing has proved to be more difficult, and lengthy, than anticipated. Although quantum computers are here, they have yet to be particularly useful.[7] But the mega corporations are determined to achieve the type of breakthrough required. This April (2023), for example, Google technicians claimed that calculations on its new 70-qubit machine would take the world’s best classical supercomputers 47 years to replicate. That appears to be true quantum supremacy.[8] WOW!
So, what is the problem?
Google’s present 70-qubit for 24 cycles computers are plagued by “noise” which makes it difficult to verify that the computer is fully taking advantage of its quantum nature.
Therein lies the rub.
This verification issue—how can you accurately assess that what happens inside a quantum computer ensures it is truly quantum in nature—has become a major sticking point. Especially when the measuring systems needed to verify these occurrences are still not available. This issue hovers over, and clouds, today’s global competition to develop and make operational the fastest, most powerful, and most reliable quantum computers.
In China, for example, the Communist Party is desperately throwing massive amounts of funding into quantum computing. The Party, and President Xi Jinping, seek a techno-breakthrough to prove the superiority of its authoritarian system, even as the country struggles to cope with staggering post-pandemic economic and demographic problems. Lately, researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), reportedly demonstrated quantum supremacy with a 56-qubit superconducting quantum computer called Zuchongzhi[9] using hardware similar to Google’s. At the same time, USTC researchers are working with Jiuzhang,[10] an alternative quantum computing design, that uses photons for qubits and performs boson sampling, developed by Pan Jianwei and Lu Chaoyang in 2019. The problem: no current measurement system can verify that the maze of mirrors and beam splitters used to bounce the photons results in a process that is actually quantum in nature. Moreover, even if verifiable, no practical use has yet to be found for the machines with their quantum advantage.[11]
So what, Jeemes?
I assume that the technical problems will be overcome, and quantum computers (as well as a whole new suite of algorithms) will become a reality in the world of my novels, all of which are set 15-20 years in the future. If so, there will be a whole new set of unintended consequences. In making this assumption, I agree with scientist Bill Fefferman: “Eventually, the number of qubits will become large enough that no classical algorithm can catch up, but it’s unclear at which point that is—which is one thing [the technicians at] Google are trying to figure out.”[12]
I’m just not sure the Chat-GPT-type breakthrough will happen in the year ahead.
But then again, there are lots of very bright people, with lots of money behind them, working the problem. You know, changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes. Nothing remains the same, and—to quote my favorite dictum—nothing is what it seems to be.
Especially in the quantum world.
I’m sure, that by now, many of you may think that a missive combining the real world of Jimmy Buffett music with abstract quantum computing is a stretch too far.
Maybe you’re right.
At any rate, I really hope Jimmy Buffett is now enjoying his Cheeseburger in Paradise.
“Sigh.”
Regardless, I’ve enjoyed several while listening to his song …
[1] I assume that by using this term that each of my readers is familiar with the storied life of native American Indian chief Cochise, a key tribal leader in the Apache Wars, an uprising that began in the early 1860s. [2] David Runciman, The Handover: How We Gave Control of Our Lives to Corporations, States, and AI,” Profile Books, London), 2023. [3] For an interesting review of Runciman’s book and his thought in general, see Jason Cowley, “The Handover by David Runciman review: should we worry about AI? (States and corporations that rule us are no more human than artificial intelligence),” The Sunday Times, Sep 10, 2023. [4] Bernard Marr, “The Top 5 Tech Trends Everyone Must Be Ready For,” Forbes, Sep. 11, 2023. [5] Perhaps I am a touch too cynical here. California scientists in December 2022, reportedly successfully completed a nuclear fusion reaction that achieved “ignition” (yielded more energy than was put into it), but commercial application still appears to be years away. Margaret Osborne, “Scientists Repeat Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough in a Step Toward More Clean Energy,” Smithsonian Magazine, Aug. 9, 2023. [6] Ibid. [7] See, among others, Alex Wilkins, “Quantum Uncertainty,” NewScientist, Sep. 11, 2023. [8] Wilkins, “Quantum Uncertainty.” [9] I’m guessing here, perhaps named after the famous astronomer and mathematician Zu chong zhi who lived from 429-500). [10] Guessing again, perhaps named after famous early Chinese mathematical treatise. [11] Ibid. [12] The quote is cited in Wilkins, “Quantum Uncertainty.”