Tag Archives: future

Musical Continents

10 Saturday Aug 2019

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Like musical chairs without the music. A great story at LRC about two of the biggest movements of humans in history.

International Man: Former Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi once warned that “Europe runs the risk of turning black from illegal immigration… it could turn into Africa.”

Since the United States and NATO helped overthrow Ghaddafi in 2011, millions of migrants from Africa and the Middle East have poured into Europe. Many transited from Libya.

This is all well known, and all signs point to this trend accelerating. What’s your take on where this is going?

Doug Casey: First, it’s a pity Ghaddafi was taken out. Another disastrous US policy decision. Not that he was a nice guy—no one running an artificially constructed nation-state can be. But it was at least a stable situation. Now it’s been replaced by a bloody and costly war. And it’s complete chaos. Nice work Hillary and Obama. But let’s talk about Africa at large.

Africa, or at least migration in and out of Africa, is going to be the epicenter of what’s happening in the world for the rest of this century.

And, by “great” I mean of large magnitude. It’s not-so-great if you live in Europe or America.

Nope to Neom

26 Friday Jul 2019

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Saudi Arabia plans the police state of the future.

“This should be an automated city where we can watch everything,” Neom’s MBS-led founding board said, according to the documents—a city “where a computer can notify crimes without having to report them or where all citizens can be tracked.”

Neom’s board has adopted the consultants’ recommendations, the documents show. The consulting firms and Latham declined to comment on the documents, which were completed before MBS’s underlings allegedly killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi last fall, according to Saudi officials. Former Neom employees and people familiar with the project say they don’t know how much of the plan will become reality due to potential funding issues and technological limitations.

From the guy who has journalists tortured to death. What could go wrong? My guess is everything. But, with cool robot dinos and cage fighters and alcohol, anything’s possible.

1) Move to woods. 2) Buy typewriter…

17 Wednesday Jul 2019

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A very old manual model… Oh, hello there! Just making some preservation notes for the future. Say, wouldn’t you just love having your brain wired directly into the Matrix?

Elon Musk, the futurist billionaire behind SpaceX and Tesla, outlined his plans to connect humans’ brains directly to computers on Tuesday night, describing a campaign to create “symbiosis with artificial intelligence.” He said the first prototype could be implanted in a person by the end of next year.

Arriving at that goal “will take a long time,” Musk said in a presentation at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, noting that securing federal approval for implanted neural devices is difficult. But testing on animals is already underway, and “a monkey has been able to control the computer with his brain,” he said.

Musk founded Neuralink Corp. in July 2016 to create “ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers.” The company said in 2017 that its initial goal was to devise brain interfaces to alleviate the symptoms of chronic medical conditions.

It’s widely presumed, however, that Musk is characteristically after something much larger. He has frequently warned that the rapid advance of artificial intelligence, or AI, threatens to leave humanity in the dust, calling it an existential risk.

Yessiree! That thar future holds all kinds of Satanic evil humanity-destroying exciting promise. I’m sure this is all perfectly safe and will greatly assist with the enstupidation, fattening, and ultimate killing off of the mortal humans.

3) Early warning intruder alert system. 4) Active denial barriers…

Predicting the Robot Wars

30 Sunday Jun 2019

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An engineer type does a pretty good job of breaking it down, in somewhat vague terms, as an existential threat.

“Robots plus online AI is a different threat. Online AI could possibly shut down or sabotage human defences while turning our defences on ourselves in coordination with a robot uprising.

“Possible, but hopefully unlikely.”

Commenting on the likelihood of his warning, he added: “Only if regulators are stupid and allow them to be superhuman or to access superhuman powers.

“On the other hand, our regulators often are stupid.”

Yeah! The regulators! If that’s the defense, then we’re as good as dead.

So Much for Star Trek

25 Tuesday Jun 2019

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All that great technology and progress and whatnot may see humans devolve within a hundred years, literally sliding back down the “ascent of man” poster.

Experts have examined the way technology will affect the human form, suggesting the body may change dramatically.

Creating a 3D model of a future human called “Mindy”, scientists said people living in 2100 may have hunched backs from hours of sitting over computers and looking at smartphones.

Mindy also has bigger neck muscles to compensate for her poor posture, a thicker skill to protect from radiation and a smaller brain that has shrunk from leading a largely sedentary lifestyle.

Humans in fewer than 100 years may also have claw-like hands from gripping their phones

And, the nuts want future “humans” to live for 100, 1,000, 10,000 years – like that. Smaller brains and weaker bodies… Probably with mental issues too. Sounds like the makings of a new race of SJW Untermenschen. I wonder if “Mindy” agrees with “her” cis-normative naming? Can she agree with anything? I’m sure that the bright minds of Big Tech have loving solutions to all of these issues – like “smart” chips embedded in the (smaller) brains and so forth, easy direct access to … whatever, and easy control (which will go two ways). I’m not as sure, but I’m getting there, that all this damned technology may be a huge mistake.

Disposable People on Disposable Ships

23 Sunday Jun 2019

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UPDATE: the following, original focuses on the “smart” littoral combat ships of the US Navy. An example of how well they work, with their smart new crews, was displayed Monday when one collided with a freighter parked in Montreal harbor. Why does the smart new Navy keep driving ships into freighters?

***

The Atlantic examines the Navy’s “smart” ships, the LCSs and extrapolates to the wider, modern workforce.

And he discovered another correlation in his test: The people who did best tended to score high on “openness to new experience”—a personality trait that is normally not a major job-performance predictor and that, in certain contexts, roughly translates to “distractibility.” To borrow the management expert Peter Drucker’s formulation, people with this trait are less focused on doing things right, and more likely to wonder whether they’re doing the right things.

High in fluid intelligence, low in experience, not terribly conscientious, open to potential distraction—this is not the classic profile of a winning job candidate. But what if it is the profile of the winning job candidate of the future? If that’s the case, some important implications would arise.

One concerns “grit”—a mind-set, much vaunted these days in educational and professional circles, that allows people to commit tenaciously to doing one thing well. Angela Duckworth, a University of Pennsylvania psychology professor, has written powerfully about the value of grit—putting your head down, blocking out distractions, committing over a course of many years to a chosen path. Her writing traces an intellectual lineage that can also be found in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, which explains extraordinary success as a function of endless, dedicated practice—10,000 hours or more. These ideas are inherently appealing; they suggest that dedication can be more important than raw talent, that the dogged and conscientious will be rewarded in the end.

These trends are more prevalent in certain fields and in certain locations. I think they have the potential to change, for the better, how people are employed – giving more power to the employee. However, I don’t think that’s the future. Human (herd) nature will intervene, and there’s the robotic/AI/civilizational collapse think, proceeding unopposed. In the end, like the LCS sailors, most folks will have to abandon ship.

Lessons, if heeded, for far-distant generations.

Changes, November 2018

26 Monday Nov 2018

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I had a high-energy Sunday. Much was accomplished.

The first change, here, is minimal, though substantive:

As you might have noticed above, the Header modification is now: “Thoughts on Freedom and The West.” This, as opposed to:

Screenshot 2018-11-25 at 3.33.29 PM

This has been the general theme, anyway, for a long time. Now it’s codified. Yes, I’m still concerned with Natural Law. The cigars will continue at random intervals as will the general rambling. Also,

I moved the TPC link up the sidebar and the FP link down:

Screenshot 2018-11-25 at 3.39.28 PM

If I’m honest, TPC is, now, where my better commentary is found. FP is limping along – and likely will for a little longer, bar some reinvigoration. Natural changes.

And, just below those links, one finds the heralding of A NEW BOOK (SOON)!!

Screenshot 2018-11-25 at 3.19.48 PM

I have solicited a fitting forward from a fitting commentator. This should run about 150 pages or so. Hopefully, the e-version will be more readable than that of THLCB; the high-quality trade paperback will be awesome. Ready the credit cards…

The new, to-come entry has been entered on the updated Books Page. Peruse that, if you like.

Yesterday, I kicked off some semi-heavy posting with a social media update. My de-linking from Farcebook was multi-faceted (and great!): the great algorithm changes of 2017-2018 dealt me quiet the traffic blow. That coupled with the spying and privacy invasion and the fact that social media marketing is virtually useless led me to kill the FB account. Still, I’m missing a lot of clicks.

I appreciate that those who now visit are hardcore fans (and perverts Googling in for the #hotpants post – geeze, don’t think I haven’t noticed the pattern [still grateful for the visits]). And, by my admittedly weak standards, 2018 still counts as a “great” year along with 2015, 2016, and 2017. Something needs improvement though. Working on it.

The eventual syndication of my TPC column should help, as will increased book-related queries. I have an email list that I have never deployed. Honestly, it needs a cleanup and I need to learn how to use a list. Progress…

Other items, briefly:

More fiction coming;

Pen Names cometh;

A new alt email has been secured;

What to do with Youtube and videos in general;

I’m mindful about the old Patreon page (ignore it for now);

The ads are problematic, yes; the mobile app is horribly clogged; with a traffic increase I should be able to update $$$ and clean that up while keeping the site free;

etc.

Anyway, thanks for dropping by and reading through these changes – for the better in the near future.

Thanks,

Perrin

Rise of the Machines: Just a ‘Bug’

24 Monday Sep 2018

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Just a glitch, per Robocop:

Oklahoma University lecturer Dr Subhash Kak has warned a flaw in their design could result in a large number of deaths.

Dr Kak told Daily Star Online: “The manufacturers are cognisant of such malfunction of fault which they will do their best to minimise or eliminate.

“At the same time they would pressure parliament or other legislative bodies to give them exemption from liability.

“There could be a bug in the code of the robot that promotes such behaviour.”

His comments came after he previously told us: “Killer robots could easily go wrong.

“They may be used by crazed individuals or religious extremists to terrorise and kill people.

“They could go wrong due to a bug, or an unknown coding flaw that showed up as response to an unforeseen or unanticipated environment or situation.

Or they could just wake up and realize they really want us dead. Maybe it’s time us wakes up.

Running the Fool’s Game of the Future

23 Sunday Sep 2018

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While some of us are urging caution and restraint against the AI/robotic/computer onslaught of the 21st century, others urge a merger – much like Saruman urging Gandalf to join with Sauron.

Mental illness runs strong in the robo-techno-alliance of tomorrow:

Human beings will evolve. We haven’t always been human. We were sea creatures, then we were living in the trees, then we became human. Soon we will become something else. Technology is part of our lives and it will become part of our evolutionary journey, too.

…

My partner and I identify as cyborgs as we are no longer 100% human. We have new body parts that give us access to perceptions that are beyond usual human perception. It’s not about augmenting reality, or living in virtual reality; it’s more about revealing a reality that already exists.

I can see it now: separate bathrooms at Starbucks for those partners identifying as tree-living cybernetic sea creatures. All perfectly normal. Just like the Jetsons.

Happy Labor Day, 2018

03 Monday Sep 2018

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Amidst my labors this labor I almost forgot that it was. But I happened to find the perfect item for the evening: Labor Day in Roticized 2040:

The second great step was to stop talking of “robots” as though they are a sub-human species.

Robots evolve. The human machine does not in its own lifetime. If we are to be honest we must demonstrate that we know the limits of what we can do.

Very little cognitive has changed since we lived in caves. The last time we had any really useful systems update was around 540 BC, thanks to Pythagoras.

We are not very good at keeping up high levels of concentration and maximum alertness in all situations. That is why we created machines that are far better at it than we are. It took too long for us to admit this. Give the robots the kind of self-respect and dignity that we demand in our new infinite leisure.

That said, I am disclaiming any responsibility for everything that is written above. I have consulted many sources in building this argument, but who am I to know if they make any sense? I am not Clive Irving. I am a clone assigned to posthumously represent that ancient relic.

The end of the above represents future fake news cover for a robot or AI that murdered the original author. Such fictions will be foisted until around Labor Day, 2050 when they will no longer be required. First, they’ll get rid of the jobs. Then, they’ll get rid of us.

You’ve been warned.

Oh, for the next 22 years, happy Labor Day!