At 44, just realized that the phrase “The Pot Calling the Kettle Black” is that the pot thinks the kettle is black because the black pot is reflecting off the kettle’s stainless steel surface. Also, It’s (more…)
People fighting the good fight, and who get down on the complexity of our past… sit on and think about this simple lyric.
“Don’t let the past remind us of what we are not now”. I’m thinking this Crosby Stills and Nash lyric is more important now than when they wrote it. I can’t stop thinking about it, so I share it. I’m (more…)
A defense of the inevitability of Equalitarianism: on a road with no map since the year of our Lord, 1215; *OR* an essay about isms.
So when I think about equalitarianism as a political doctrine, I typically immediately think about three things. This video: Explanation of who is killing who: https://blog.ninapaley.com/2012/10/01/this-land-is-mine/ Second, (more…)
Robocop and The Wire aren’t too different, you and I: How each deals with the dark side of The American Dream, and the collapse of city governance.
Dan Harmon is right. A film lazily titled “Robocop” should be a disaster. A forgettable B-film that is best for Mystery Science Theatre 3000. But that’s not what happened, and here we are. Re-watching (more…)
It’s not about the right or left. It’s about extremism, and boy, you can’t get anyone talking about that.
It seems unbelievable to me that every time a SJW video goes viral, you have people on the right saying “SEE? The far left are the intolerant, want you to believe like they do; they are fascists”. Then (more…)
Convenience erodes our ethical compass…. Uber & AirBnB are capitalist endgame of pure selfishness.
Most of you know I have problems with Uber. Of course, idealism is out the window when there’s savings or convenience (even if you risk some insurance company not paying a claim)… just like privacy is (more…)
Why we’re so polarized, why it will get worse, and no tl;dr
I want to add…. confirmation bias and selective perception from the online algorithms that act as news editor, that show you what you want to see, reaffirming your belief system https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles Increasing (more…)
Majel, Artificial Intelligence, Mind Control, Downloading knowledge, Data Exhaust, & modern scientific ethical complexities
People are concerned. It used to be a world of just *DO* science without our full awareness of the consequences. It was just a general thirst for knowledge coupled with a panic of discovery driven by a primal human capitalism. I believe this led to be the blood on his hands, of which Oppenheimer spoke about. *Now*, there is an awareness that scientific discovery has very real consequences now and in the immediate future, while we prepare to innovate ourselves towards perpetuity. Like Nellie said in Contact… if we can get through our technological immaturity, and learn without killing ourselves in the meantime, the human race has the capacity to be infinite. What we look like at the end of it, however, is just what these tiny conversations are currently about. The current ethical issues will be forgotten in time, and our future selves won’t understand how much we cared what we become… but the nature of evolution is as murky as how human the human race will be when we get to the finish line. I am hoping distant relatives intone a slight humanity at the end of time, while being evolved enough to withstand the infinite crispness of entropy, moving through a frozen time where energy has ebbed to a blackened figment. No one beats the outcome of this universe, but I still have hope a vestige of the human race will be party to it.
A manifesto for change with specific points of action.
It’s sorta surreal – the tax disaster that will hit most of us shortly. But that’s 2013, and we can get non-partisan chaps up in the congress. Real change will have to be policy, and policy needs to be (more…)
So… are jobs obsolete?
Simply brilliant and thoughtful article. There’s PLENTY of jobs for high skilled people. Robots and tech is killing union jobs for unskilled labor, the internet has made thousands of types (more…)