Artificial Ignorance (AI)

 So much hype and hypothetical bullshit being spread as fertilizer to reap cash from the latest digital wunderkind, AI.  And handwringing as just another avenue of hype.  What am I more worried about? 

Consider two simple digital tools: 1) the clock and 2) the calendar.  Mere tools, and yet they rule, indisputably.  Consider how many billions of dollars have been wasted; megatons of CO2 poured into the atmosphere to accomodate adherence to the clock and calendar. There is a simple observation that can only be made near a major metropolitan area, but most can imagine... In the US or Australia, compare the traffic on an eight-lane freeway, say, 8:30 in the morning on a Tuesday, versus 6:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning.  Those eight lanes aren't enough on Tuesday morning.  And yet they sit, millions of tons of concrete and steel, nearly empty on a Sunday morning.  

A shift of only one hour, which in many places happens twice a year related to daylight savings time, will correspondingly shift the peak load on weekdays, but barely nudge the Sunday morning effect.  This amazing Sunday affect - social tradition; specifically tied to every seventh day on the calendar.  The lesser weekday shifts related to other social traditions; a business will open at 8 a.m., 8:30, or 9.  All employees with the exception of the boss are expected to be in their assigned locations.  Depending on the business, the boss may have worked late and been allowed compensation, or may simply have greater status, and be allowed the freedom.  

There is a notion that the COVID pandemic of 2019 might have changed this set-in-stone dynamic.  Businesses that could, allowed working from home.  Now that it's over, managers are pushing a return to pre-2019 customs, in spite of productivity evidence, because... they like to manage?  Much of the traffic has returned, and a lot of people want to "get back to normal" - even when that includes everyone getting on the freeway at a certain time; even when it has been been demonstrated to be unnecessary.  Will machines take over the human race?  Ahem.  Whom does the clock serve more; you or your boss?

Artificial ignorance - Chapter 2.

(US) States that want history to be properly sanitized, genders to stay in their lanes, and certain public discussions to remain taboo (yet ironically clamor about their free speech being taken away).  And so-called leaders who fail to see the parallel with the enforced cultures of Afghanistan, Iran, and China.

Sam Altman - Board Communications

 You read it here first:  Sam Altman accused of using ChatGPT to author his communications with the board of directors.  Yes, the whole drama was just a "hallucination".  Nothing to see here.

Baby fetish land

One of the pervasive cultural elements of Indiana that I find irritating, and I think has links to the anti-abortion issue, is the baby fetish culture.  The public sharing of ultrasounds and gender reveal parties were obvious extensions.  To be honest, on my recent visit this wasn't in my face as much as the past, since my siblings have aged out of that phase.  However, I inherited a digital photo frame from my mother, and the number of baby photos in rotation made me want to throw the thing out the window.  If my mother were considered the first generation, we're midway through the flowering of the third; generations run shorter in baby fetish land.  To be honest, around the age of forty-five I was ready to invest in a mini-me project but timing and collaborators were not in sync.

Of course everyone thinks their baby is a miracle, and children should be embraced with a positive attitude.  That part is perfectly fine, and important for creating healthy adults.  Maybe the second clause of the previous sentence is where I veer into the sacrilegious?  Healthy adults?  While Margaret Atwood explored well the aspect of women as recipients and incubators, she didn't much illuminate the specter of a culture where the only and greatest role to which any adult should aspire is be "fruitful and multiply"; to spend all free hours either working to support or directly nurturing children.  In baby fetish land, there is no adult world, other than in service of offspring. It's a great place to raise kids - if you want them to grow up thinking the only purpose in life is procreating (or worshiping a god who admonishes you to either do so or remain celibate). 

I'm not *deleting* photos, however, the frame gives the option of hiding photos, and my first task has been hiding all the relatively unidentifiable, generic newborns.  I'm sure the parents could identify these peanuts, or potatoes, depending on birth weight.  I'm sure in the moment, my mother was happy for whomever; "Oh look! It's here! It's got five fingers, two eyes, a nose, and mouth - thank heavens."  As far as whose eyes, hair, nose, etc - maybe give it a year or so?  "Barbara had...10 grandchildren; 19 great-grandchildren; ... and several nieces and nephews"  We debated whether a few limbs on the tree, which were actually from neighboring trees, should be counted in this; and this doesn't include great nieces and nephews - enough to populate a small town. 

Believe me, I understand how much having children changes your life.  There are some aspects I'll never know, but my regrets are not massive.  My concerns are more about the warping of culture; where adults become slaves and childhood is the ideal; where expensive weddings are the fairy tale ending, and the mentality doesn't seem to grow much after high school.  My parents quickly pushed us into the realm of child labor; it was bible camp and flipping burgers - not space camp.  Because baby fetish land is all about keeping the working class hard at work.