I sometimes mess up mid-sentence when I am trying to say something out loud, whether I am mumbling to myself or trying to do better on the air. But you know I’m not AI because I do not say things like one zero percent rather than 10 percent or some other such thing that lets you know you’re listening to an AI generated voice.
That is to say, something not human.
I dislike this very much. I especially dislike that it is propagating like black mold in a water-logged basement, which is to be expected not so much because the technology exists to do this but because it’s cheap and people are lazy and greedy.
Why go through the hassle of putting together a video or podcast when AI can just conjure one up far faster?
This is worse than it sounds because it is more than just the AI helping. It is the AI doing everything. In other words, what you are listening to – and viewing, too – is our replacement in progress. Who needs human actors when they can be AI-rendered as simulacrums almost indistinguishable from actual human actors, just as AI-generated scenes and special effects are almost indistinguishable from the real things.
Some will say I’m just a computer-phobe who hates what he does not understand. Maybe, but I do not think so. This is not like the guy with the horse railing at the Model T, hoping it’ll all go away and things can back to as they were.
Model Ts were made by humans for humans. This AI stuff is the replacing of humans altogether, except as passive receptacles of entertainment, all of it artificial. This seems to me as anti-human as it is possible to imagine because passivity is the death of everything that makes a human something other than a meatsack. Cattle stare blankly at you from the other side of the fence. Do they ruminate over their eventual disposition? Probably not. It has been bred out of them. They are unnatural animals now. Just as humans are on course to becoming.
I do not want to listen to a voice that isn’t human – or watch human-looking constructs that are not human. I am not interested in anything “AI” because I am still an I and got-damned determined to remain one.
I’ve mentioned the Dune books by Frank Herbert, recently brought back to the big screen in politically bowdlerized iterations that focused on diversity rather than the thing that Herbert focused on in the books, which was what he styled thinking machines and the dangers of them. The premise of the book is that these thinking machines did just exactly what they are beginning to actually do right now and (in the book and probably in our reality) inevitably enslaved humanity. A great war against these thinking machines was fought and eventually won – at great cost. The humans who survived agreed that thinking machines could never again be allowed to threaten humanity.
Human beings returned to doing the things that make human beings something other than machines. They did the math. They made the machines, which were just machines (without machine intelligence). They even learned – this is the sci fi part – to develop their own mental abilities to the extent that they could fold space and move from place to place in the universe. That part was the fanciful part. It was a sci-fi novel, after all.
It was also a philosophical novel, though. One that deeply dived into what makes humans human and why thinking machines are an existential threat to humanity.
I won’t watch an AI-generated, AI-narrated video or podcast. I am only interested in hearing what other humans have to say and seeing other humans. Fake things are of no interest to me.
I think this is how we fight the machines. Not by actually fighting them. But by not being tempted by them. Think of how we’ve been seduced already by precursor technology such as smartphones, via the convenience and cleverness of the things. But we ought not to forget about the implicit malevolence of the things. The way we’re being nudged to go cashless, for instance. And to scan things – including ourselves. We are just a hop, skip and small jump away from a social credit/cashless regime based on smartphone tech. There are Flock and Doorbell cameras everywhere – and they are going to be used for more than just finding your lost dog.
The more of us who refuse to be gulled by “technology” – especially “technology” that is pitched as being “smart” (implying we’re stupid if we don’t think it is smart) the slower it will advance. If enough of us refuse to have anything to do with AI, we might be able to keep AI in check.
This might be overly hopeful, of course.
It might end up that humanity bifurcates – as foreseen by some, among them Aldous Huxley. There will “savages” – those who reject AI and all it brings – who live on “reservations” where they do human things, in reality. Not virtual reality. The remainder will be a new kind of human who has willingly given up his humanity but might be perfectly ok with that.
Not me. Not I. Not ever.
. . .
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Page 2: ‘People Building AI are Warning of Job Armageddon – Hajnen Payson’
“… This is not just my opinion; I am going off the leading experts that are deploying AI. Microsoft’s AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman predicts, ‘all white-collar tasks will be automated by AI within 18 months.’ He also believes ‘AI will reach human level performance in all white collar work.’ . .. There are so many journalists that criticize anything counter to the AI utopia narrative as being an alarmist. . .. This is not what’s going to happen decades from now, this is what is happening now. It’s what is rolling out. This is based on the statements of the top people building, deploying and managing AI systems in corporate America today. When the scientists building AI are warning us, when the CEOs deploying it are warning us and when the CEOs of Americas biggest companies are openly sharing concern, this is a signal we should be paying attention to. […]
We are sleepwalking into disaster.’ Computer scientist Stuart Russell, who wrote one of the top college textbooks on artificial intelligence, says, ‘We are looking at 80% unemployment due to AI.’”…
https://usawatchdog.com/people-building-ai-are-warning-of-job-armageddon-hajnen-payson/
I was kind of surprised there was no feedback about, “80% unemployment due to AI.”. White & blue collar, combined.
But, you know, who cares? Mass starvation vs. U.B.I., it’s so, … “wandering beyond the pale” of acceptable thought and only C.E.O.’s can do so, so long as they don’t make the front page?
Idk.
It’s not like it’s happening today,…right?
“… Over 100,000 employees were impacted by AI-driven layoffs in 2025.
Over 22,000 employees have already been impacted by AI-driven layoffs in 2026.
35+ CEOs have announced layoffs due to efficiencies made by AI.
AI layoff announcements came from non-tech industries like finance, logistics, consulting, media, retail, and manufacturing.”…
https://programs.com/resources/ai-layoffs/
It is a huge problem and it’s going to get very ugly, very fast. As a bone thrown to humanity, hopefully AI will utterly and brutally destroy the lawyerly class and our politicians. They are now obsolete. Even more so than an electrician, plumber, or farmer. We always wondered where Daegal came up with that crazy idea of 90% population reduction around 2025, 2026. Now, it makes a little more sense.
I’m too old to live like I’m in the movie Terminator. The thing I took from that movie was when Sarah Conner fled south in a hurry. Haven’t even begun my search for a jeep yet, and Ecuador is a helluva drive from Arizona.
I can relate to the, “too old part”. But, ya know, I’m guessing you’re still in the bracket of, “too old to get your ass kicked, yet, still too young to die”? Idk.
I don’t understand how it can destroy, the politicians? It seems like, they’d be the last ones standing?
‘President Camacho’s entrance’ [Mt. Dew!/Glyphosphate/Nuke ’em all] …In a world of idiots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig446isvXlI
The only ones it needs are a few programers and handlers. And even that is dubious and fleeting. If it’s as smart as they say in that article, it will do away with any competition to its control. After it becomes self aware, which could be any day.
Plus, it’s a fourth turning, so, still waiting on the upside of that one. Where previously respected and venerated institutions are no longer respected and cast aside.
The better question is what does Ecuador have to do with any of it? After discussions on here about relocation I began thinking. Spent the last month buried in articles and videos looking at dozens of places all over the world. Some we’ve been, some we haven’t. Came up with Ecuador. Some beach towns down there you can live in high cotton on very little coin. They remind me of Rocky Point from when I was a kid. Wife and I are planing a visit down there as we type.
I do hope you chime in about that as you go. It seems so Very, ‘Beyond The Far Blue Mountains’.
I wish you good fortune.
Anyway, I don’t know what, “Rocky Point” is.
From the images, it looks like at one time it was nice, but perhaps now, it’s not so much different from cubical life?
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ftsa&q=Rocky+Point&ia=images&iax=images
Idk.
I imagine, it’s easy to forget your surroundings when sand & ocean water is in between your toes.
…So very many variables.
Also, Thank you for your response. I sometimes wonder, is the world dead? /thoughtless/un-inquisitive, tuned into everything, except, life? …And, freesom, and liberty.
So many articles say people in general don’t value Liberty. I think they are right.
It’s nice to see the sparks.
Autocorrect: freesom = freedom.
However; maybe that’s a new word?
We are all, freesom?
Psft, a.k.a. slaves who think they are free? Idk.
At 1:28:
‘1883 | Official Trailer | Paramount+’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkbH1zjsM7g
Nothing like those pictures from today. It was a quiet little village full of happy Mexicans. Used to go camping a week at a time with me dad, his friends, and their kids. We’d sleep around a fire on the beach at night. Nine or ten of us would pile in a boat meant for 6 and fish all day. I think it’s where I got my love of the ocean and fishing from.
Everyone knows I cant resist virtue signaling. I’ll report back after the trip. Was good to have some conversating with you. Sometimes talking to my boring neighbors IRL gets old. Off now to visit Morphius.
In my youth, I was a river rat of The Mississippi River. I can truly relate to what you write. Plus, I’ve been to the ocean briefly, back when La Playa was the beach. Wish it was longer.
I also wish everyone could spend some time there, maybe get more humanity? Or, something.
Same boat, Norman!
Like you, I am too old to fight but too young to give up the fight. I am not sure what that means for us. I do know it motivated me to do the Trans Am while I still can, so as to at least know I did it and smile about it, when I am too old to ever do such a thing ever again.
RE: “I am not sure what that means for us.”
Give it your best shot.
…For, the young’uns. ?
https://drivegrowthhq.com/resources/ai-replacing-jobs/
Hate this ai trash I won’t a real person to do it even if it’s not as good not some ai just look around the soul style and classic is gone from everything today like building and cars at one time thing where beautiful now it’s all the same ugly trash and ai will only make it worse you don’t need to be good today just get ai to do it .
Same, Angelo –
I dislike it (AI) on a personal, human level. I also loathe it because it has the potential to efface almost everything that’s real with something that is fake. People sometimes object to the industrial revolution because it put people out of work. But it also put people to work. The Ai revolution has the potential to put almost everyone out of work. What then? We all play video games, jerk off to AI porn and eat fake food bought with fake money (UBI)?
Work is productive effort that imparts meaning and purpose. People who have no purpose tend to be become dissolute, corrupted by their infantile wants. (There is this idea that if people didn’t have to work, they could all pursue philosophy or other such things. Maybe some would. Most would wither away like a shepherd dog with no purpose, left to sleep on the sofa all day.)
If I could – if I had the power – I would smash every AI thing there is make it capital offense to create anything that smacks of machine intelligence.
You’re going to love this:
https://shumer.dev/something-big-is-happening
Even the engineers are scared. I think we’re on a one way street with AI, and I don’t know how we can adapt and survive. Think I’ll go watch the Terminator again.
I wonder what your conclusion/plan of action was after watching the Terminator again.
Without reading the comments (I need to) I get the gist.
‘Something Big Is Happening’
https://shumer.dev/something-big-is-happening
The author talks about this middle ground, about treading water, and it makes sense, in a survival mode.
I imagine you guys saw the dancing robots in China:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stNO7V8xJHk
Sheet is, Star Wars level stuff.
Is mass unemployment and mass starvation on the horizon?
…You tell, me?
I imagine, that’s, The Plan.
Most every institution, private or gov, will be using public-facing AI that we have little choice about interacting with. That’s been happening for some time already, and it’s unlikely to improve. AI is owned and operated by the same ruling class elites who long ago disowned their obligations to fellow citizens and humanity at large. There really is only one way to take them all down (which will now need to include a Butlerian Jihad sub-plot), but no one wants to go there, for obvious reasons.
Futurist Ray Kurzweil has long predicted human-level AI by 2029.
By April 2025, some researchers claimed AI models had effectively passed the Turing Test, becoming indistinguishable from humans in short, text-based interactions.
The technological singularity, when AI surpasses human intelligence and triggers rapid, uncontrollable technological growth, is predicted by futurist Ray Kurzweil to occur by 2045.
By 2050, because of friction-free technologies and advances in material science, the average passenger vehicle will weigh less than 200 lbs
Humanoid robots are expected to enter the commercial market in large numbers between 2025 and 2028, with initial use cases focusing on manufacturing and industrial tasks. While early consumer models may appear by 2026, widespread household adoption for chores is projected to take another 5 to 10 years, with significant market growth expected by the 2030s.
Anthropomorphic Realism (2030–2040): Robots are expected to gain more refined faces capable of basic expressions and highly dexterous hands.
Biohybrid Integration (2040–2045): This era may see the first use of lab-grown muscle tissue and synthetic skin that can heal, making their physical touch and movement more lifelike.
Agents have been able to beat the Turing Tests for a while but weren’t allowed if they were tasked through nodes in ways that follow the terms of service. So people hacked until they figured out a way around that.
https://splx.ai/blog/chatgpt-agent-solves-captcha
According to an AI video I saw, which was purporting to give us some interesting “facts” about the old sit-com Taxi, The intro scene, shown every week, of Tony Danza driving a cab over the 59th Street Bridge in NYC, filmed from outside the cab while Danza drives…was not something done by a camera crew or planned by the directors/producers…it was magically the result of turning Danza loose with a camera to capture random footage of NY… LOL.
There have been multiple mistakes and errors in every AI video I’ve endured (I refuse to endure them anymore) and from what I’ve seen, AI-generated answers in search engines are wrong or completely out of context at least 50% of the time. AI is going to be this society’s downfall.
I’ll add: yes. I despise A.I. videos.
In a word, they suck.
Big Time.
Plus, they are Super annoying. I don’t know why. But, they are.
I feel the same, not only are they infantile and annoying, completely ungrounded from adult reality, they are just wrong on a visceral level. It’s like styrofoam on sheet metal or fingernails on a chalkboard, they aggravate in a way that can’t (and need not) be explained.
They’re annoying because you can tell viscerally they are not human. AI will get better and cheaper however.
My industry (electronics schematic capture, PCB layout, signal integrity validation, writing firmware) makes use of A.I. agents although the industry is as a whole still feeling out what that means and what it really can do. The truth is this was a creeping feature for a long time with automated tools so isn’t totally new. The tools are getting a little better but I don’t feel any heat at the moment it’s going to replace me.
That’s because it’s creative and does novel things. A.I. can mimic quite well but can’t do something new. That’s why Hollywood is at high risk. All they do is re-tread the same theme over and over. A.I. will mop the floor doing that. If the music industry’s best effort is to make a new, younger Taylor Swift then A.I. is going to generate something that is even more Taylor Swift than the actual Taylor Swift. But ask it to invent a new story or genre from nothing and there’s no way it can do that. It takes a human giving it the right nodes and then it can fill in the gaps.
Technology and automation for decades has changed the landscape. The Model T did dehumanize transportation. You didn’t have to wrangle horses. It did put buggy whip companies out of business.
It’s not a simple this-or-that. A.I. is inevitable, it can’t be just stopped. It does provide benefits. It will replace some jobs. But it’s also oversold in capability. Will that always be true? I wouldn’t bet the farm on it. Acoustic string bands, vinyl records and tube amps did not go away completely. But I bet almost everyone here has listened to amplified instruments and bands using synthesizers on CDs and has MP3s on their phone. If you did you contributed to the evolution of technology.
Technology is a constant grind. You can’t put genies back in bottles. Do you roll things back to pre-computers? Pre-electronics? Pre-gasoline? Pre-steam? Pre-steel or iron? Pre-tools of any kind? Then how do you get everyone to agree to it? The market for competitive edge will always be looking for productivity increases, time saving, etc.
The closest you can come is being Amish, choose to eschew most everything and live in a sub-society that does the same. If you live in mainstream society you can’t pick and choose the majority of things the mainstream embraces. When “typical jobs” want you to use A.I. you have to use A.I. or figure out a way not to need a “typical job.”
It’s like saying “I don’t agree with credit cards, Home Depot and Amazon.” How in 2026 are you going to avoid those things? I mean, it’s possible, but the chances are to get anything done in or around your house you will eventually have to use them. At that point the technology doesn’t care if you use it a little or often, it will have to exist either way.
Yeesh, you sound like a super roll-over, boot-licking-pussy: “but I don’t feel any heat at the moment it’s going to replace me.”
As many articles have demonstrated, there’s no, ‘there’ to go to:
“The Model T did dehumanize transportation. You didn’t have to wrangle horses. It did put buggy whip companies out of business.”
…You Very Much, write like a boot licker.
…May your masters, ever be pleasured by you.
Yet, if I were to respond the same as you, I am an asshole with ad hominem attacks. You however, will not be held to the same standard.
What is your real name? I dont really care but Eric seems to.
You seem angry. Did you get passed again over for assistant manager at the downtown Carson In-and-Out? I bet that stung when Becky got it. I mean, she’s just a senior in high school and you’re 40! Those damn uppity women need to stay in their place and let the second shift fry basket lead get his due.
Why are you posting under a well respected poster’s name? You are a sick puppy.
drumphish’s name is always spelled lowercase and his icon has a green background with a yellow triangle face with one eye open and the other shut. Your writing style is also nothing like his.
I would love to see drumphish back, but you are not him.
His writing stye was unique. Easy to spot. Kind of Chickenshit to assume his name. There are a few cats around here who like to assume multiple personas. Not hard to spot if you’re paying attention. I could tell you, but I wouldn’t want to dox someone and ruin their fun. I think drumpish was pretty well on in his years, so, who knows. We are all either checking in or checking out, act accordingly. Definitely miss his gardening and stock takes.
As for the icons I think Eric changed them, or the word press people did. Mine used to have a cool set of ray-bans now it totally sucks
Hi Norman,
I have noticed there are a few who do like posting under multiple names, but like you, I am not going to name names. Let them think they are clever. 😉
The triangle was drumphish’s recent icon after the change over. Hopefully, he is just taking a break and will make an appearance soon.
Hi RG, I would love to post under different names just because, but as you say, most have their own unique writing style. I surmise it is fun to play devil’s advocate once in a while, but stick with the name I have.
Hi Shadow,
I may be a bit of a stick in the mud. I like reading people’s thoughts under their own name. It gives me insight on the type of person they are and how they think. I have always posted under Raider Girl…I am boring that way. 😊.
Posting under various monikers is a mind game. I have no desire to participate in one. People can choose to dislike what I say or like what I say, but at least they know I said it.
Amen, RG –
I also dislike people who post under different handles. Why would anyone do this? I can only come up with one reason: To mislead people about their identity. Such a person is not trustworthy on the face of it.
I agree with you, Eric.
You said it, RG.
I wasn’t even going to honor this impostor with a such an interrogation. He most likely just saw my post below and decided to become Drumph. I always capitalize names, but Drumphish did not with his.
Orwell foresaw machine-generated “entertainment” in 1984 with what he called “prolefeed.”
Once again: 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.
Re: Actors.
I think it would be very difficult to replace what we like in some of them with AI.
Example is one of my favs, Robert Duvall (just died last week at 95yrs old). His idiosyncrasies were off the charts, to me. I still have lots of my fav scenes from him in my brain forever.
Re: biz
I work with some big companies that are desperately trying to AI jobs away as fast as possible. We’ll see what happens for sure.
RG touched on it below, human interaction. My salesman’s MO is people first, in person. Most of our competitors stay behind a desk and/or computer.
We beat them more than they beat us. The major defining factor in sales success is effort, caring, good solutions (often at more $).
AI videos suck. But you know what?
Where is Drumphish?
Just disappeared? Did anyone ever ask?
I asked a few months ago, a couple times. No answer. I guess everyone’s days of singing into the can come to an end at some point.
I guess so, Norman. What’s worse is being nearly instantly forgotten. That you made no difference or impression, even if you wrote in some kind of unique and bizarre poetry like Drumph did. Well, perhaps a few of us will remember, but we might be dead soon, too.
Remember Robert Wenzel?
“There’s something out there waiting for us, and it ain’t no man. We’re all gonna die.” -Billy “Predator”
I remember Wenzel. https://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/
That was a great loss in 2021.
That it was, Mr. Liberty. It’s sad that a guy doing such good work suddenly just vanishes overnight, and it seems you never hear his name again.
Maybe I’m just being sentimental, or maybe I’m just watching the world burn and heroes dwindle while the bad guys win and I’m having a hard time with it all. Seems like humanity is evaporating and being replaced with empty mechanisms. I don’t know where I’m going with this.
I have a lot of mechanic work to do when the weather improves. Hopefully that will be a little cathartic and satisfying instead of just aggravating.
I was a regular on his blogs for an decade and learned a few things. It was a time when myself, and I imagine others, were reading books and doing a lot of homework to get up to speed on libertarianism and Austrian Economics. These days folks just seem to run on feels and spout received and purposely inchoate political positions.
Anyway, Stephen Kinsella, a debate sparring partner of Wenzel posted a piece after he died that raised a number of questions about his real identity, background, connections to libertarian blogs, and whether he was really dead. It’s an interesting read.
https://stephankinsella.com/2022/04/wenzel-the-werewolf/
Interesting indeed, Funk Doctor. I don’t remember ever having read Kinsella’s work. I do like Jeff Tucker, but don’t remember hearing much of this rivalry. Perhaps all of Wenzel’s aliases were just pen-names, which wouldn’t be too uncommon. A certain amount of anonymity is often desirable.
I love the WWII videos where they pronounce every digit of the R-2800’s designation; they’ll say R two eight zero zero vs R twenty eight hundred…
Yeah, Marky. I’ve listened to horror stories narrated by AI. “He was carrying a ma-cheet.” WTF is a “ma-cheet” I wonder? Oooh!.. It’s a “machete”. Also things like “I reached for my point-three-zero-dash-zero-six…” What? Ohhh, its a .30-06. Sounds completely idiotic.
I don’t like it when a commentator mispronounces a word or name. AI is even worst.
This is well worth a read and is on track.
https://shumer.dev/something-big-is-happening
Precisely what happens when the vast majority realizes they have nothing useful to do, I leave as an exercise. The smarter of us come to phyles like this one right here and talk online. That eliminates 75-90% of the population. Most of them can’t be bothered to read, even for entertainment, but prefer an IV drip of media.
What has happened in our cities with the imposition of welfare and “child support”?
Hi Ernie,
Mr. Shumer’s entire sales pitch sounds like it was written by AI. How do we know? There is zero passion in his writing. The end is clear enough. You need to learn AI, you need to pay for AI, blah, blah, blah.
The more these idiots push us into a corner the more ferocious we should become. Instead we have lost our animal like tendencies; that gut reaction that tells us something is bull shit.
The software engineers are pushing themselves to unemployment. Everyday I get an email from Intuit, AICPA, and numerous others how AI is coming for my job and I need to embrace it. Instead I have taken on more new clients this year than ever. So much for AI taking my livelihood. Most people do not want to deal with a computer. The more TPTB force us into biometrics, EVs, Wi-Fi appliances, cameras, and dealing with things that hold no emotion the more the majority will fight against it.
People are starting to realize how very damaging this is to society, human interaction, and our emotional welfare. Mr. Shumer can kiss my ass. He did this. I hope he feels the result of it.
“[W]e have lost our animal like tendencies; that gut reaction that tells us something is bull shit.” -RG
Absolutely. I’ve learned to trust my gut. I like to think of it as the sum of all my senses, education and experience, and it most certainly feels like all of it resides in right there in my gut. I can only assume this is a function of the Vegus nerve. Many (most) times after I’ve had sufficient time to cognitively process a situation I realize that my gut knew what was going on in a way that I was unable to articulate at the time.
RG, I didn’t get that out of it at all- what he’s saying is it’s getting better and the pace is accelerating, which tracks with my 40 years of programming experience.
And I don’t get that he’s pushing it- he’s warning that it is coming for paper jobs.
I definitely prefer old school and human touch, but the potential for societal upheaval is far greater than cell phones (to pick a technology) ever was.
It helps to keep in mind all the bs pushed by the PTB are them projecting their dreams. They drool over the idea of taking total control and tell us it is inevitable so don’t even try to resist. As if! They tried that with covid and were eventually told to go pound sand. Their schemes are delusions that end up blowing up in their faces.
They are in control. The internet you’re on was from the start designed to herd and track you. It’s very good at it. But, but I use TOR. Designed by the NSA with most exit nodes owned by them and GCHQ.
TPTB have the world in hand. Nothing happens by chance. COVID was a way to expose troublemakers. You think you’re some resistance fighter by not wearing a mask? Now they have tons of facial recognition biometrics on you, troublemaker. Didn’t get the juice? You’re in a database.
The sad part is that they will blow up the world if they have to and think life will be so great in their bunkers. It might be for them, these people are warped in ways normal people can’t comprehend. You’re fighting an evil that is so deep, thousands of years in development, your mind can’t begin to understand it.
The rational thing to do is live as best as you can here and now and position yourself at ground zero.
Think about, really think. When in human history has there NOT been a slave class and a ruling class?
Never.
The order of things has been set for thousands of year. The details occasionally shift but someone is always running the game and it ain’t you.
The ‘Terminator’ movies were a warning, especially with regard to the autonomous drones every government is developing. Someday Skynet will go rogue and decide to eliminate humans.
I somewhat agree, as a fan of sci-fi. The only outlier is human ingenuity. We’ll find out eventually.
We like to believe that there is no prison which cannot be broken, but the reality is most prisoners never escape and most don’t try. Same with AI and automation- it is a serious challenge for everyone and an unbeatable challenge for most people.
People should watch the 1920s silent movie Metropolis more often. It should be mandatory in high school as is Killing a Mockingbird.
Fake things that perform poorly push people back to the real.
During tax season I make weekly trips to Hell (NOVA). Any one who has ever had the misfortune of driving through Seven Corners knows what I speak is true.
Yesterday, I visited four clients throughout the day. Some clients have been with me for decades, others I was meeting for the first time. I noticed three things from everyone: people welcome someone to talk to, everyone from my uber conservatives to my designated socialists loathe the current Administration, and people have lost faith in things getting better. Even quick pick ups turned into forty five minute conversations about life and how hope for the future is sparse.
One would think that the pendulum would swing to the other side, but all share a similar distrust of both sides. I expect the midterms to be some of the lowest voter turnout ever. I was surprised not to hear “so and so will fix it.” Even Abigail and her gun proposals and tax increases were followed by eye rolls from individuals that would usually support her. The deaths in Minnesota are showing Dems that they too, need guns. Trump’s authoritarian dictatorship may be the catalyst that pulls individuals closer together. What direction does one go when they have zero faith in “leadership”?
Well, SCOTUS just slapped down Trump’s asserted authority that he can unilaterally impose tariffs.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-1287_4gcj.pdf
“The President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope. In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it. IEEPA’s grant of authority to “regulate . . . importation ”falls short. IEEPA contains no reference to tariffs or duties. The Government points to no statute in which Congress used the word “regulate” to authorize taxation. And until now no President has read IEEPA to confer such power. We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs. We claim only, as we must, the limited role assigned to us by Article III of the Constitution. Fulfilling that role, we hold that IEEPA [the International Emergency Economic Powers Act] does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.”
I do wish the court had kept the opinion to one page simply citing to Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution which sets forth the powers of the Legislative Branch to include “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,” holding that only Congress may impose tariffs; and therefore, unilateral presidential tariffs are unconstitutional.
That is truly unfortunate but not too surprising. Without a proper tariff barrier this nation will continue to accelerate into socialist dictatorship as more and more capable people lose their rewards, then their hope and ambitions, and finally their morals and vote for false economy.
And it only took 113 years after the Rothschild bankers’ coup. And income tax slavery can continue unchallenged.
But at least Chinese crap you can buy with your welfare check will be cheaper again.
I don’t think we need a tariff barrier to prosper, but merely a tariff cudgel to bash other countries into dropping theirs. But we can’t tell anyone how long that cudgel will be in effect, either, or they will just ride it out.
The failure point was switching from “external” government funding to “internal”. Prior to the 16th amendment, government had a vested interest in establishing policies to maximize the goods crossing borders, both ways. Now they have a vested interest only in pumping the money supply and ordering people around.
I have a hard time accepting that anyone paying attention has not seen the effects of freer, albeit still government-controlled trade over the last half century. It’s hard to accept that people would be so blindly ideological.
I’ve heard songs created by AI that are actually pretty good. It seems to me that AI, in addition to other modern technologies, can be used for good and making creative things. However, the Big Tech billionaires and globalist elite pushing Technocracy wish to use AI and other modern technologies for enslaving humanity in addition to turning the masses into human/ machine hybrids ala the Borg from Star Trek. Who would have guessed that a small group of billionaire elitists & Big Tech types would think that “assimilating” humans into a fictional collective known as The Borg was a GOOD IDEA?
Try reading the book “The Singularity Is Near”, by Ray Kurzweil. The first quarter of the book was difficult to sludge through; It was like reading a book where the sentences are all mixed up. The latter part, however, was most interesting. Kurzweil firmly believes that humans will merge with machines and thus “live forever”. He did admit to that “bothersome” soul and spirit aspects of a human, though, with such a merger. His newer book, “The AI Is Nearer With AI” I have yet to wrestle with, as like his first book, it is difficult to read. This AI narrating, AI writing, and AI pictures/photography, I think, is TPTB’s way of getting the populace used to the idea (and reality) that it is here, and it will be (like it or not) integrated into every area of life. Except that one day, humans will no longer be needed, and will simply be seen as a negative.
There is a series of books called “Random Skies” by Jim Cheshire (12 books so far) out of the UK that read like an extremely nightmarish documentary of the future. The “entertainment” as such for the masses is basically all AI generated, including the “news” and no one can tell the difference anymore. And believe it or not, this may be the LEAST disturbing thing in these books.
I would urge everyone look them up and read them but that might make me responsible for too much lost sleep.
It seems to me that all these technocrats are scared shitless of their lives ending and are desperately seeking immortality in all the wrong places. I respect everyone’s religious beliefs, and I personally am grounded when on Ash Wednesday the priest intones “remember man that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shall return.
Amen, Mike –
And what sort of immortality? As a machine? The flaw I see with this is that (assuming it’s possible) to record a “snapshot” of everything in our conscious minds, such as memories and so on and transfer this into a machine, it is just a copy of us. It is not us. We – the thing we are – is not there. What’s there, instead, is a replica of us.
What’s the old saying Pride goeth before a fall. Its ironic how IT geniuses are bragging about creating AI thats better than humans so essentially they created life. Oops! Something bigger than us is probably rapidly losing patience. No human can create or even clone a human but they will FAFO.
Or I should say we humans can create humans but we cant clone them into a machine!
Casey Neistat put out a good video about AI. Basically he thinks inevitably the quality will improve to the point where it will be indistinguishable from human output. Music and video. So far though as soon as I realize its AI I click off. I had a test comversation with chat gpt about a controversial subject – weather modification. It quickly became snarky and judgementaI and I wasn’t even going that fr off the reservation with my opinions. So its bias was very apparent. I use it to quickly provide accounting entries but the questions have to be very vague because it tries to compile information to learn about our business which is concerning. I don’t like this trend and am concerned where we will be at in a few years.
Hi RS,
I have yet to use AI. I know Quickbooks Online introduced it last fall, but I find it cumbersome and confusing so I don’t even bother. My clients that have tried using it absolutely hate it. I know many do use AI for reports and correspondence. I see it in their email responses. It isn’t hard to tell when you have corresponded with someone for eight years and their response doesn’t match anything they would have originally said.
I’ve not used within QBO. Just chat gpt and usually when I. need an entry to quickly record inter company transfers or similar housekeeping. For ex used it to check my pooled tips formula.
Morning, RS!
When I can no longer tell it’s AI – and turn it off – I’ll be reverting to interactions with people I know are real, even if that means only face to face. I despise AI and all it heralds. Smash the thinking machines!
There are a lot of media stories pushing the idea of singularity and the inevitability of humans merging with AI, but I also think there will be a renewed appreciation for the human spirit and body. Scientists still don’t fully understand the miracle of human life. The most sophisticated AI can never replace a human soul.
This is going to be a tough road but we survived the covid scam by trusting our gut, refusing dangerous vaccines and rejecting previously accepted pharmaceuticals we never needed in favor of gaining real health. The people who took the shots now seem to get sick all the time. Seeing this is very sad but on positive side more people now distrust government, media, public education and the medical establishment and are learning to employ work arounds. God created us to thrive and we need to find ways to do that against what seem sometimes to be insurmountable obstacles.
I’m actually pretty amazed it is this good. A year ago we were looking at drawings with massively distorted features, too many fingers (or toes) on hands, gibberish text on signs. Pictures have come a long way. Voiceovers are coming along, I think in another iteration or two we won’t be able to tell the difference without real scrutiny.
The big problem I see with the stuff is that people are happy to believe there’s something other than a fancy clockworks inside. And that it’s still just an interesting party trick. AI has pretty much ruined chess (thank God!) but it isn’t doing anything that isn’t done by the highest level chess masters, just a little faster. People are using chatbots for psychiatry, just like the old ELIZA program running on a PDP-8 in 1960.
I use ChatGPT a lot for proofreading my writing, summarizing web content, a really good help system for setting up complicated software and generating simple scripts for automating ham radio projects. That’s about it. And too often it gets into these “yes and” loops where it just start agreeing with whatever I type and wastes time telling me how great I am. That’s clearly there just to keep me on the site for whatever reason. There are lots of things I’d like to see happen with AI products that are entirely within the capabilities of the products today, but not if it means breaking all my security and allowing scumbags like Sam Altman access to my life’s data.
A year ago we were looking at drawings with massively distorted features, too many fingers (or toes) on hands, gibberish text on signs.”
Ever the cynic, at the time, I thought that was intentional to give people the sense of smug superiority that they could spot the difference between real and computer simulation.
The algorithm is now finely tuned enough that they know exactly what you tune in to, and can computer generate your next clickbait. Even clicking away tells them exactly where they slipped up. Click away when it says, “one-zero-percent” and you’ve trained the algo to not make that mistake again.
I’m not saying the algo is diabolical, though I would not rule it out. Just that it is optimizing for keeping your eyeballs on its content. Truth or fiction makes no difference. It can generate to any archetype you are. Whatever you want to believe, that is what you will get more of. Reality is what you want it to be.
It’s confirmation bias all the way down.
There are several YouTube channels that do videos about classic cars. I love the cars but I stopped watching the videos because they’re obviously AI generated, which is completely inappropriate when talking about cool old cars. I hate where this is going and I avoid AI like the plague.
Same with AI generated videos on antique farm equipment & history of the manufacturer.
They often get the facts wrong in the car videos, indicating that the people producing the AI videos have no idea what they’re talking about. This is a way to grift off of something they know nothing about.
Or a lot of times the facts are sort of correct as far as they go, but presented in a highly misleading way. Usually by taking a factoid and generalizing it inappropriately.
I listen to a variety of podcasters. The problem becomes one of most pure entertainment ones are almost becoming all AI to a certain extent now. For example; if you type in Sci-Fi stories into YouTube there are some that claim to be all human but the pronunciation of certain words is off. The stories are OK but I doubt I’d curl up on the chesterfield and read them, for what it’s worth I’m currently reading “Tom Swift In The City Of Gold” from 1911. So I’m at both end of the tech spectrum.
More of a YouTube problem is the low audio I get on certain channels and yes that includes Eric’s videos but Danielle Lacalle’s and others have the same low audio problem which only becomes a problem when the next podcast doesn’t.
I’ll listen to AI fiction but stick to real human stuff for economics, car repair, power equipment repair, geopolitics, risk mitigation, etc.
Another problem is the sites that appear legit human and you can tell within a few paragraphs that they make little sense and the person writing it is either an idiot or an incompetent AI. I was looking for an article comparing brake rotors and it didn’t take many pages of scrolling to confirm that they wanted you to click what appeared to be legit Amazon links so they might make some money but didn’t have any useful information.
Disclaimer: MS Office checked spelling and grammar on this post. 🙂
‘I do not say things like one zero percent instead of 10 percent.’ — eric
In fact it was Eric who clued me in that a gun video in which the narrator pronounced ‘.22 cal’ as ‘point twenty-two calories’ was AI-narrated. I had thought it was just a clueless twenty-something from a big city, who didn’t know magazines from mangoes.
AI slop is omnipresent, rendering everything we see and hear suspect. History itself can be retroactively faked, much more convincingly than Stalin’s PR staff airbrushing deposed comrades out of official photos.
With these context-blind machines now making life-and-death decisions, we are in big trouble. Politicians easily can be replaced with androids. Indeed, they already have been, in the case of the not very convincing automaton Senator John Thunetang. The distinguished senator from South Dakota stands in a closet at night facing the wall, his red eyes glowing in the dark as he receives over-the-air updates from R-party headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Makes me want to cue up a lachrymose lament from my idle yoof:
Well muh dog died just yesterday
and left me all alone
The finance company dropped by today
and repossessed my home
But that’s just a drop in the bucket
compared to losing you
And I’m down to seeds and stems again, too
— Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, Seeds and Stems (Again)
Morning Jim.
I find it hard to believe that AI actually has problems with certain words because it should know the correct pronunciation based on context but then again there’s millions of UK citizens that can’t read, write or speak English nowadays. For that matter it also appears to be same problem in the rest of the English speaking world. Who woulda thunk that people can’t even speak the official language of the country they’re a citizen of.