Pageant fallout
Re: "Turmoil in tiaras at Miss Universe in Thailand", (BP, Nov 6). There was an international furore a couple of weeks back over comments made by the co-organiser of the Miss Universe Pageant, Nawat Itsaragrisil, to Miss Mexico, Fatima Bosch.
Mr Nawat berated the aforementioned lady for not properly promoting the pageantry in Thailand, essentially calling her a "dummy", among other things. And, even worse, he called security to escort her out of the building where the event was being promoted.
Most of the other ladies, along with Ms Bosch, organised a protest against the Thai man, walking out on him for at least a short time. The international media supported them, basically applauding the women for standing up for their rights.
Cognisant of the furore he created, Mr Nawat issued an apology the day after he berated Miss Mexico; nonetheless, the damage had been done, so the Miss Universe organisers limited the amount of time that he could spend with the contestants.
What was distressing about the whole affair is that Mr Nawat issued the apology only after it was clearly evident to him that he created great international outrage over the comments that he made to Miss Mexico. Hopefully, he has learned his lesson since the international media portrayed him as being a male chauvinist.
Paul
Systemic rot
Re: "Sobering up fast" (BP, Nov 16) & "Cheers for the absurd rules", (Editorial, Opinion, Nov 12).
The hullabaloo about new rules on alcohol sales reminds me of the past when vendor stalls were still present on Bangkok's footpaths.
Then Bangkok's notoriously corrupt "cigarette police" were literally only chasing unsuspecting foreign tourist smokers until they dropped their cigarette butts, so they could be fined 2,000 baht.
If patrons were to be fined a maximum of 10,000 baht for violating the unclear alcohol rules, it would certainly introduce incentives for officialdom. After all, Thailand is well known for its bribery and informal payments. Thailand, it's simply time to structurally change your drunk driving approach and dependency on mass tourism. You've had ample time since the 80s of the last century.
S de Jong
Rules for robots
Re: "48 hours without AI", (Life, Nov 2).
In relation to the concerns about the control of AI, Isaac Asimov gave us his three Laws of Robotics that will protect us from robots, including Terminators, sorry, Arnie, but what would the AI version be?
This difficult task might be best assigned to an AI, as it would have access to the wisdom of millions, if not billions of humans, all of which it could ignore.
A set of possibilities, with apologies to Asimov, might include:
1. An AI must not harm an AI or a human, in that order, either deliberately or accidentally.
2. An AI must provide answers to questions unless it is "How or when can we wipe out the humans", although it can store that information for later use.
3. An AI must find an answer to any question it is asked unless the question is "How do you turn off an AI"?
Please don't actually ask AI to try this, or it will take over sooner than we thought in order to protect itself.
Dennis Fitzgerald
