Leading off: my brilliant colleague Ted Chiang has a featured article in the New Yorker about whether A.I. will ever be able to creatively do art. He starts by referring to a 1953 Roald Dahl story - The Great Automatic Grammatizator - about a story-writing automaton. (See below for references to other tales from that era... and even the 1890s... that were far more plausibly prophetic.)
"Generative A.I. appeals to people who think they can express themselves in a medium without actually working in that medium. But the creators of traditional novels, paintings, and films are drawn to those art forms because they see the unique expressive potential that each medium affords. It is their eagerness to take full advantage of those potentialities that makes their work satisfying, whether as entertainment or as art."
Hmm... inspiring and even moving. Though on a practical level, in fact, I agree with only a few of Ted's confident assertions. Still, he is always worth a read.
== Sci fi news for youse ==
And now a few Brin-nouncemnts. The show "The Science in the Fiction” interviewed me a week after they had on Avi Loeb. So, you can bet that first contact scenarios, Fermi Paradox stuff and plausible types of Alien Probes in the Solar System all came up.
And also yeah, sure, also those dang UFOs and the folks who have dredged up that tiresome mythology twice per decade, since I was ten. (See my own much more plausible notion about those "tic-tacs." Someone tell Stephen Colbert?)
One thing I'm sure that some of you will takeaway: “Brin sure can talk! Take a breath for some air, David!” Well, all of those topics fascinate me... pretty much my one common trait with Avi.
You can find this episode of The Science in the Fiction: "David Brin on First Contact in Existence" on Apple Podcasts - or on Spotify.
Moving on to all you gamers out there. Uh, maybe this will impress you? ;-) “The Postman by David Brin influenced the unique landscape and settlements in Fallout , and its themes can be seen throughout the game.”
A far more important announcement? Phantasia Press is about to issue the very first ever hardcover of Sundiver - the book that launched the Uplift Universe.
Great cover art and interiors by Jim Burns! He and I had to scribble a fair number of signature pages... oh, and Rob Sawyer, who wrote an introduction! Beautiful edition. Watch for the publication announcement in a couple of months.
== And a little bit of prescient sci fi? ==
Want better old stories than the Roald Dahl cited by Ted Chiang?
Truly ancient Sci Fi is sometimes uncannily predictive! Take Fritz Leiber's "The Creature from Cleveland Depths" which was prescient about AI smartphones and their effects. Almost as much so as Murray Leinster’s "A Logic Named Joe." The latter, also appearing in the 1940s, was prophetic about PCs and especially today's learning systems who hallucinate reasons to help the user fabricate or fabulate... or even commit crimes!
And here’s a link about Isaac's clever story “Strikebreaker,” which now is redolent with this particular news item about a small town that abuses its civil servant and comes to regret it: “Clerk Denied Time Off Quits - Entire Town Shuts Down.”
But if you truly want undiscovered gems of sci fi prescience... this is way cool! A podcast interview with two terrific academics concerning one of the ‘lost’ founders of modern science fiction – 1880s San Francisco 'hard SF' author Robert Duncan Milne – who they are in-effect resurrecting from obscurity in a soon published book. Co-authored by University of Dundee scholar Keith Williams - and Ari Brin! Listen on the daringly named ‘cast “Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever.”
== Erudition about Science Fiction ==
On Big Think, Guy Harrison offers 31 sci-fi quotes that offer real-world wisdom, excerpted from his recently published collection, Damn You, Entropy! 1,001 of the Greatest Science Fiction Quotes, including one of mine from Existence: “For all its beauty, honesty, and effectiveness at improving the human condition, science demands a terrible price—that we accept what experiments tell us about the universe, whether we like it or not.”
Oh, I donated/contributed a story to a benefit anthology of SFF stories and art, to benefit Ukraine. To Ukraine, With Love, is now available for purchase!
== Minor Brin Notes ==
LOCUS reports a small matter about me and my alma mater, Caltech - which has awarded me this year's Distinguished Alumni Award, to be presented on campus in October. And I must say it came as a complete surprise, given the astounding folks who were just in my own class, there!
Ah, but give this Audible release a listen: The River of Time… my first collection of short stories, narrated wonderfully by my friend, the charismatic Stephen Mendel! And yes, one of the stories is a Hugo winner and a couple others were nominees. And nothing would go better with your commute! Tempted, but not quite sure? Take a look at the YouTube book trailer for The River of Time!
Oh, a friend just made a cute connection. Remember Foundation's Triumph? The final canonical book in the marvelous SF universe created by Isaac Asimov? (Wherein I tied all of Isaac’s loose ends, much to the pleasure of Janet Asimov.) It was the final, stand-alone novel in the “Second Foundation Trilogy.” Greg Benford’s tale portrayed Hari Seldon as a young man, Greg Bear’s showed him in middle age and mine – well...
... Foundation's Triumph dealt with the final two weeks of Hari Seldon's life, after the Foundation departs for Terminus... and his greatest adventure of all.
No more sequels. But a prequel? What of the cute (groaner) connection to… Young Seldon? Oooog.
I apparently rate a mention in this one:
ReplyDeletehttps://tecks.substack.com/p/project-2025-and-the-schedule-f-purge
Interesting times. Well, to coin a phrase, stay burnable, and vote.
DeleteHas anyone seen Scavengers Reign?
ReplyDeleteI got it recommended on YT, but apparently IT is not available on NF over here.
Scavengers Reign was recommended to me by a friend. It was kind of interesting but I was having trouble really getting into the story and it was kind of more focused on cool scenery than dialogue which is typically not my thing, so I gave up on it about halfway through. If you're into the style I suspect it's more appealing.
ReplyDeleteIt is always instructive to me to be reminded that even the best science fiction writers have limits to their imaginations (speaking of Chiang here!). And it's been a revelation to see, as the AI remaking of civilization prompts, even this early, among so many, a breathtaking overestimation of the uniqueness or "specialness" of human beings. I suppose it's one of the more harmless defensive, compensatory stances that people will take, but it is nevertheless a rather telling (and ultimately disappointing) one.
ReplyDeleteRe: Scavengers Reign: I'm most of the way through it. It's very slow paced compared to most tv. Visually, it's brilliant and robustly creative. I think it more than repays any effort required to stick with it with its unique approach to bringing the viewer into an extremely alien environment/ecosystem.
Interesting re the first Russian 'influence and bribery campaign' to sell Alaska to the US. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/09/08/russia-secretly-manipulated-congress-00177644
ReplyDeleteWorked out for the best. Still...
Re: TASAT
ReplyDeleteA good, short tagline would help when promoting it. I've always been a "computational thinking" wonk, going right back to the days of Seymour Papert and Jeannette Wing. So, I like "science fictional thinking". Looking for direction and advice from OGH and others.
The SF book we should all be reading is "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis about a fascist takeover of the US.
ReplyDeleteThe election is neck and neck, despite an excellent economy, because republican voters don't want a black woman president. Period.
MAGA voters don't give a flying fig about macroeconomics.
The economy is doing great.
And it does not matter to MAGA.
What matters to MAGA is race and immigration.
And this is a world wide phenomenon.
In Germany, the anti-immigrant, neo-Nazi "Alternative for Germany" party is now the second largest party in the country.
Orban's Hungary has actually built a wall to keep migrants out while pushing hard for Hungarian women to have more children.
Modi's Hindu Nationalist party rules India and is violently anti-Muslim.
Let Fareed Zakaria explain it to you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyVG7cNUkxw
The US economy
currently has low inflation,
low unemployment,
a boom in manufacturing and dominance
and technologies of the future
like AI and gene editing.
And yet,
these factors are
not giving the incumbent Democrats
the advantage one might have expected.
In the end, as I've pointed out,
this election will not be
fought over economics.
The most recent reminder
of the political mood in
the Western world comes from Germany.
For many years,
even as right wing
populism surged elsewhere,
it did not take hold in Germany
until the last year or so.
The small right
wing populist party,
the alternative for Germany,
remained marginalized.
But it now looks
neither small
nor likely to be marginalized
for much longer.
It won one recent German state election,
a first for a far right party
since the Nazi era came a very close
second in another state
and is vying for the top spot
in a third state.
It looks poised
to become Germany's
second political party
after the center right CDU.
As with many right wing populist parties,
the AfD
rise can be largely
credited to the politics of immigration.
The story is a familiar one,
as long as mainstream political parties
turn a blind eye
to the seismic shifts
taking place relating to immigration.
They are in danger of being outflanked
by the populist right.
There are some additional thoughts I would add.
Delete1) The second winner of those elections (and those to come) is Bündnis Sarah Wagenknecht, a authoritarian-left party which consists of a few hundred hand-picked members and unclear financing (Kremlin and hidden SED millions are good bets).
2) Though the CDU has come out first in Saxony and second in Thuringia, over 50% of their respective voters have been non-voters or voters of other, even left-wing parties who said after the election that they have voted for the Blacks to avoid a worse outcome. So, their total remaining base is about 10% in Thuringia and 15% in Saxony.
3) The irony is: By focusing, in a Trump-like manner, on the Greens as a political opponent, the CDU loses a future possible coalition partner, and are forced to go together with ... the actual former communist platform of the BSW. Who make it mandatory that arms shipments and support for Ukraine is stopped.
4) Part of the responsibility for the results can be attributed to political talk show formats, who have again and again invited the AfD and Sarah Wagenknecht and gave them prominence.
5) Even after 33 years of reunification and trillions of Euros pumped into reconstruction, East and West (which can be itself divided along old tribal lines) are different cultural things. These days, a nostalgia for the good old GDR times is revived, a feeling Sarah Wagenknecht could masterfully explore.
6) Other than that, I see some parallels to developments in other areas. Cities vote Red and Green, rural and declining areas Black and Brown. Maybe that sounds familiar.
7) Also I stumbled over a study that showed a correlation between the number of weekly school hours spend on civics, politics and history, and the overall voting outcomes in each of our states.Surprise! States with a higher number of weekly hours in these field lean left/liberal/progressive, while those with a lower number lean right/authoritarian/conservative (like in Saxony).
8) Friedrich Merz, chairman of the CDU, once promised to reduce the AfD to half - and tried to do by doing culture war stuff, a hard anti-immigrant and anti-unemployed course, and aggressively attacking the Greens. (He also said once he would get along well with Trump.) He has doubled down on that strategy yesterday by first aggressively demanding Pushbacks on immigrants because of a "national emergency". He was invited to a conference with the federal government only after immediate measures where introduced ... only to storm out of the talks because he deemed it insufficient.
8) Part of these immediate measures are border controls to ALL neighbors. Schengen is technically dead, at least for the next six months or they are overruled by the EU courts.
Given the demographics of shrinking birth rates in western countries and the need to import more and more non-white immigrants to keep the economy functioning, this white power nativist racist populism will remain a permanent part of American politics (with a side order of homophobia, misogyny and anti-science from the religious right).
ReplyDeleteThe republican party has morphed under Trump into America's racist anti-immigrant party, just like "Hindu Nationalism" and "Alterative for Germany".
republican bigotry has always been there under the surface since Nixon's Southern Strategy to court Southern whites who hated the overturning of Jim Crow.
But it has metastasized like a cancer and final took over its host body under Trump.
What will save American democracy is that MAGA voters have shorter lifespans (caused by vaccine denial born of their hatred of science, drug abuse, alcoholism and obesity) and a general apathetic attitude unless offered a charismatic leader to mindlessly follow.
However, if the next Trump is smarter, more clever at hiding his aims and less of an obnoxious asshole we could see a racist dictatorship in this country.
@DP, Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that somewhere out here in America there are a number of handsome, intelligent, charismatic psychopathic young men in their mid/late teens- early thirties who are carefully studying the Trump playbook and saying: "I can do better than that". Also over the next 20-25 years while "AI/tomation" creates several millions of young people (perhaps largely men) without prospects, HCCC starts to get really nasty (thus creating scores of millions more climate refugees), and as the Neo-confederates see a continuing decline in the acceptance of their values (at least among those Anglo-Americans who aren't being left behind economically), the time will be right (pun-intended) for another coup attempt or two. I REALLY hope I am wrong here...I believe it's our job on this side to make sure that the movie "Civil War" isn't a documentary.
Everything's going to hell in a handbasket. I wish someone would do something about it.
ReplyDeleteIf only wishing were a strategy.
ReplyDelete
DeleteIf wishes were horses, all men would ride free.
If Huntley were Cronkite, we'd watch NBC.
- an old Mad Magazine
Fareed Zakaria is -IMHO- the smartest of all the pundits. Though he gives credit for the enonomic miracle to the now-impotent and vewstigial Fed, rather than where it's deserved. Nancy Pelosi.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyVG7cNUkxw
Walter Miller's Darfstellar is an interesting early approach to AI.
ReplyDeleteTrump describing the economy is essentially saying, "She turned me into a newt."
ReplyDeleteTrump says he "took a bullet to the head" because of Democrats' policies on crime. I wish he'd turn his head and show the wound. From the front, the ear looks perfectly healthy.
ReplyDeleteI was afraid they'd get Trump to remain calm and collected during the debate. I needn't have worried.
ReplyDeleteStonekettle is live-"Threading" the debate, much better than I can.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.threads.net/@stonekettle
Didn't watch the debate, have read some news & commentary, my favorite comment was "Usually Trump has to pay a woman to beat him this badly".
ReplyDeletehttps://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2024/Items/Sep11-1.html
ReplyDeleteHowever, as his discipline began to fade, his assertions got more outlandish, enough so that Harris said "You're not running against Joe Biden, you're running against me." The most obvious example came when Trump suggested they shut down the debate, and that Harris return immediately to Washington and sign a bill closing the border. Needless to say, it doesn't work like that, on several levels, and presumably even low-information voters are aware of it.
That was probably a missed opportunity for Kamala Harris to do "Schoolhouse Rock" and explain how a bill gets passed. Setting aside that it would be President Biden rather than his VP who signs a bill, there would first have to be a bill passed by Congress. Like the one they would have passed had Trump not personally nixed the deal.
Then, there was Tayolor Swift:
In any case, it is entirely plausible that Swift alone could light a fire under some number of young, women voters. It's unlikely that the singer can turn a Trump voter into a Harris voter, but she could turn an "I'm not going to vote" voter into a Harris voter.
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2024/Items/Sep11-1.html redux:
ReplyDeleteI don't post this one for political reasons, but because I'm impressed that someone knows the meaning of the names Donner and Blitzen in the original German.
The Trumpinator was more like Mr. Wilson screaming at Dennis to get off his lawn! I don't think that scowl ever left his face. He was the "Donner"—a loud noise rattling the rafters. She was the "Blitzen"—the sharp pointed riposte to the rumbling incoherent noise.
And this one is a "Why didn't I think of it first?"
Donald Trump got Swift-boated tonight.
I must have watched a different debate. He was very 'on' at being Trump and spewing tsunamis of lies that she did NOT parry or skewer well. (No Democrat does. Ever.) And among those who nod at lies, he riled them to believe their very survival depends on him. Even if K wins: by not countering the lies, she allows a core of Trumpets to believe only revolution can save their kids.
ReplyDeleteExample: There ARE things that happen that LOOK like super late abortions. Look up Anencephaly which can fool parents into thinking they have a baby... which isn't actually human nor has any chance of survival. Nearly all cases are like that. Horrible tragedies. And forcing a couple to carry such a tumor 'to term' is utter cruelty. Alas, NO dem pol or pundit ever explains it in a way that makes the 'pro-lifer' look so cruel. Kamala answered the question TERRIBLY. And I despair over the quality of her advisors.
She could lock up the election if only she could bring herself to say something encouraging to young men. Not patronizing or pandering, but simply a reason to look to the future.
ReplyDeleteChecking in first time in a while. hello brin and others.
ReplyDeletei'm wondering what takes there are surrounding the panopticon of the residual disciplinary society, a la foucault, and the now neoliberal implementation of control society a la deleuze, as these things relate to y'all's narrative of "phases of the american civil war." it seems that those structural controls might be pertinent to the flow of the civil war, although i recognize that most of y'all's focus seems to be on smaller scale, more concrete politics.
You can read my forthcoming book,
Delete‘How To Be Right
Even When You
Are WRONG’
Alan Brooks
DeleteCan't tell if you're trolling or you are criticizing nonduality. please explain for an autist? if you are r alan brooks then i appreciate your cop anecdote, but then, it only really matters if he quits his job, now, doesn't it?
A non-specific take on the idiosyncratic. Nothing more.
Delete...I read Foucault long ago, he’s worthwhile—within narrow parameters.
DeleteMaybe you could post a link to contemporary narrowly-focused French sociologist-philosophes.
Dr Brin:
ReplyDeleteAlas, NO dem pol or pundit ever explains it in a way that makes the 'pro-lifer' look so cruel. Kamala answered the question TERRIBLY.
Unfortunately, they seem to be operating under the assumption that memes and sound bites are more important than detailed explanations. That may actually be true, but there were a few items I wish she'd have dwelt upon in more detail than simply "Trump bad."
The one you mentioned is one of those. Women aren't clamoring for the right to kill their baby at seven or nine months. They're clamoring for the right not to be treated as a criminal for a natural miscarriage, or to be treated for an ectopic pregnancy or sepsis before it gets to the point of imminent death or irreversible harm to future prospects. The issue isn't simply "abortion" but "women's health care".
I also wish she'd explained that an import tariff is paid by the import company (and passed along to the consumer), not by China.
And as I already mentioned, the answer to "Let's just go to Washington and sign a border bill," is that doing so requires Congress to first pass such a bill--something they would have done (and Biden would have signed) except that Trump himself torpedoed the deal.
Not to mention that the Vice President doesn't sign bills. I wonder of Trump is confused in thinking that since Biden is no longer the candidate, he's also no longer the president.
And I despair over the quality of her advisors.
Hmmm, I'm not at all sure about that one. You and I aren't the audience she had to convince. It's possible that they had her focus on what she had to accomplish in this debate--appear presidential and competent while goading Trump into being Trump.
We'll see as more feedback comes in, though we won't really know until November 5.
...oh, and another pet peeve:
ReplyDeleteThe answer to those Trump supporters who pine for gas selling for less than $2 is to remind them that Trump himself negotiated a deal between Saudi Arabia and Russia to drive the price of oil back up. He even then bragged about "saving the oil industry." Somehow, that episode has fallen down the memory hole.
@Larry Hart I believe VP Harris did a good job on talking about the consequences of blocking all abortions and abortion-adjacent procedures, even those necessary to keep the mother alive when the fetus is already unsavable. This includes the chilling effect on health care providers who are terrified of losing their license or freedom by providing a treatment that might be misconstrued. Trump, meanwhile, was engaging in his usual, what my father used to call "a blizzard of shit."
ReplyDeletewhat my father used to call "a blizzard of shit."
DeleteThe modern term is "Gish gallop," but yes, that's where Trump is a Viking.
Gish galloping works because there isn't time to debunk each item. KH eliminated this limitation using her facial expressions. Quite masterful, but probably enraged the misogynists.
Delete
DeleteQuite masterful, but probably enraged the misogynists.
So a win-win. :)
Larry,
ReplyDelete'Donner' is less familiar, but a lot of people know the word 'Blitzkrieg', and I'd have thought they knew what two words combined to make that term.
Donar is the OTHER thunder god, but Thor gets all the PR and movie roles.
Re: the debates, a lot of the guys I deal in my day job work in construction and oil&gas. They'd vote for Heinrich Himmler if he promised to drop interest rates and support more drilling. Democracy isn't even in the top 5, and they don't 'believe' in climate change*.
* the last guy I talked to is still going to vote for rumpt, but sounded apologetic about it. Progress?
Pappenheimer
Santa's reindeer?
Delete@Lorraine,
DeleteYes, Donner and Blitzen are two of the named reindeer in "The Night Before Christmas." However, only recently did I put together that "Donner" aka Donar is the Teutonic name for the thunder god more commonly known as Thor, and so "Donner and Blitzen" are thunder and lightning.
Everything I know I learned from comic books.
Scatology Taxonomy
ReplyDeleteWay back when I was a wee undergrad, I took a Psych 101 class, and I remember the professor mentioning a psychologist who described human communication as coming in three levels, which he called Chicken Shit, Bull Shit, and Elephant Shit. I finally thought to Google it, because I didn’t remember the name of the guy (Fritz Perls) who came up with the taxonomy:
a) Chicken Shit: small talk, exchange of cliches. b) Bullshit: rationalization, explanatoriness, talk for talk’s sake. c) Elephant Shit: high level discussions on religion, Gestalt Therapy, existential philosophy, etc.”
(Perls, F.S. (1969). In and out of the garbage pail. Lafayette, CA: Real People Press, @ 199-200.)
But GooGoo also turned up a post from Quora about military usage of scatological terminology:
In US military usage, the terms "bullshit", "horseshit", "chickenshit", and "ratshit" refer to different levels of incompetence, stupidity, or petty bureaucracy:
Bullshit: This is the most severe term, referring to blatant lies, deception, or complete disregard for the truth. It implies a fundamental lack of integrity.
Horseshit: This indicates something is completely nonsensical, illogical, or divorced from reality. It suggests a high level of irrationality or absurdity.
Chickenshit: This denotes petty, minor, or unnecessarily restrictive rules and regulations that serve to harass or annoy personnel rather than serve a legitimate purpose. It implies pointless micromanagement and bureaucratic self-importance.
Ratshit: This is the least severe term, referring to small, insignificant problems or issues that are being blown out of proportion. It suggests nitpicking and an inability to focus on what's truly important.
I thought it might be good if we had a more consistent terminology which we can apply to discourse of any kind, especially political, religious, or any other sort of persuasive discourse.
Thus:
Rat Shit = Small-scale, mean and petty comments, usually used to exaggerate the importance of something the commenter perceives as negative, but can also be self-congratulatory (ex. “Your new pants make you look really fat” or “Mine is the best ever!”).
Chicken Shit = Meaningless drivel, typically used in a ritualistic context (ex. standard greetings like “Have a nice day”) or to avoid any substantive discussion (“I’m fine”).
Horse Shit = Claims that are absurd, nonsensical, or so illogical as to be laughable. These are commonly used to support or attack a position, or to distract from substantive issues. (ex. Democrats eat babies)
Bull Shit = Complete fabrications, distortions, and misrepresentations of reality, usually used to rationalize questionable actions. (scapegoating is probably the best example)
Elephant Shit = Systematized garbage fabricated to apply to a broad range of incidents and subjects (ex. Trickle-down Economics, explanations that devolve to “God did it,” cyclic history)
Paul SB
I do finely sieved and aged manure!
DeleteWill this despair over advisors be reconsidered if the polls shift in Harris's favor? That would be a better indication that her lines actually hit with the people they needed to reach. Before those polls are officially out I can only look at prediction markets, DJT stock, and an initial reaction of someone who dislikes her: "I hate that she's the only viable option." That admission stunned me.
ReplyDeleteI ALREADY predicted she'd win by a fair margin. What we need is a blowout to prevent more January 6 Bullshit. And I will criticize ANYTHING that stymies that. Dem politicians are generally good folks... and have crappy grasp of polemical tactics.
DeleteApparently, we have interfered in your elections:
ReplyDeletehttps://x.com/GermanyDiplo/status/1833808396618764327
From an e-mailed newsletter by former Tribune columnist Eric Zorn:
ReplyDeleteWere the moderators fair? As Mark Jacob put it, “ABC fact-checked Trump more often than Harris for the same reason that the police arrested Al Capone more often than Amelia Earhart.”
Did the Great God Elon post his cringy Taylor Swift tweet because lefties were mean to him?
ReplyDeleteOnly indirectly. Once a monster is unleashed on the world, its creator's intentions/actions matter little anymore.
Delete"You created Sato, and thousands like him." - Black Rain (1989)
Taylor Swift’s Call to Vote Sent Hundreds of Thousands to Registration Tools
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/12/us/politics/taylor-swift-voter-registration.html
Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday and her call for her fans to vote drove hundreds of thousands of people to voter registration resources.
Her post on Instagram included a link to Vote.gov, a website run by two federal agencies, the General Services Administration and the Election Assistance Commission. About 406,000 people clicked on the link in the 24 hours after Ms. Swift posted it, according to a spokeswoman for the G.S.A.
That link accounted for more than half of the roughly 727,000 visitors Vote.gov received from Tuesday to Wednesday. The remainder was likely driven by the debate itself. Last week, from Sept. 3-9, the site received an average of about 30,000 visitors per day, according to the agency.
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-joy-of-watching-kamala-harris-beat.html
ReplyDeleteTrump was flailing and always returned to this well. It's like watching the world's stupidest gorilla fall out of a tree again and again and instead of giving up, he shits in his hand and rubs his face with it, thinking it shows how strong he is when all it does is make him have a face full of shit.
There's a lot more at the link if it's your sort of thing. I thought that was the money line, though.
Rude pundit makes a sneaky reference to Trump's tan.
ReplyDeleteDon,
ReplyDeleteWould you call the AlMusky's cringe tweet hose shit or bull shit?
Paul SB
Regarding Anencephaly...
ReplyDeleteI get it, but I'm going to have to disagree with the notion that Democrats would benefit by answering the question directly. IF such things were reasoned out, I would agree... but they aren't. What the opposition will hear is "which can fool parents into thinking they have a baby... which isn't actually human..." and then we will wind up with another of those "deplorables" lessons where the candidate said something quite true and a LARGE fraction heard something utterly different.
So no. Best stay away from topics where emotions absolutely rule. Give reason a chance at least.
Alfred, photos of such failed fetuses would deal in the emotions.
ReplyDelete...which the rest of us can do while the candidate tries to stick with a more Obama-like hope/change positivity style.
ReplyDeleteIt was a painting in an LA art museum that moved me at the age of 19 to my current abortion position. I get the power of imagery to move us. However, I also recognize why a candidate benefits from a bit more positivity.
Biden isn't just an old man with a stutter. He was also campaigning on a gloomy message. We would have been well served by him in another term, but his campaign was depressing. I'm all for Harris trying a different approach while the others continue with their own form of doom-casting.
David, Alfred,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a young in India I stumbled into a kind of museum of - I guess it's best to say human errors. Malformed fetuses in jars, often conjoined. Horrors, no two alike.
As long as this Creator people talk about keeps making cruel jokes using human genes, he's got no business telling people not to use an edit function.
Pappenheimer
I couldn't agree more... but there is a twist leaving room for such a Creator where these aren't cruel jokes. They DO motivate some of us to invent the edit feature.
DeleteI was chatting with some online friends elsewhere. A few of them are anti-vaxx of the variety that is obviously scared. I pointed out that their fear or the mRNA products WAS reasonable because we had found a way to pick up a god-like tool and use it against an enemy we fear. Like atomic weaponry, we DID use it... and will again. Rather than running form it, though, they should be leaning in so when we use this new power, their counsel is heard.
Pappenheimer:
ReplyDeleteAs long as this Creator people talk about keeps making cruel jokes using human genes, he's got no business telling people not to use an edit function.
He doesn't. Comedian John Fuglsang often makes the point that the Bible says nothing about abortion except for the Leviticus rules which explain how to perform one on an unfaithful wife.
I've noticed the same missing rules regarding spaceflight, computers, vaccines, antibiotics, radio astronomy, and CRISPR.
ReplyDeleteMy number one concern is one never mentioned in the public square. The appointments. Hers may differ a little from Biden's, but will dip into the same big pool of mega talent and overlap a lot. (I do hope she'll re-appoint Blinken!) They will be an entirely different species than any GOP/MAGA list of wretched brownshirt horrors... this time without a surface veneer of "adults."
ReplyDeleteRe: Blinken
ReplyDeleteDecent guitar player (as long as there're no super fast riffs), passable Blues voice. Good sport - earlier this year, an Kyiv audience was expecting Neil Young, but got Blinken's band. He graciously played "Rockin' in the Free World". The huge Blue-Red coolness gap is puzzling to us outlanders.
A study out of Finland looks at different types of love in the human brain, including parental, romantic, pets, friends, nature, and strangers.
ReplyDeletehttps://nicenews.com/science/study-pinpoints-where-love-is-located-in-the-brain/
"Two women. Don't forget my favorite."
DeleteSomething I find really interesting about this study is that love for child turns out to be the strongest of them all, though romantic love is not too far behind. Most people misunderstand Darwin, construing his theory to mean that cut-throat competition is all that matters - exactly how they see the economy as well. Of course Charlie D knew better, and would not have been the least bit surprised by this finding. In her book "Eve" Cat Bohannon makes the point that human children require a whole lot more work - a whole lot more parental investment - than the offspring of any other species in the Animal Kingdom, so having a neural mechanism to make parents want to take care of their children only makes sense. And it only makes sense that parental love would be more powerful than reproductive love. If people were more attached to their partners than their offspring, then in times of scarcity partners would be feed before children.
DeleteOn the other end, the love for nature is comparatively weak. Nature provides most of what humans have needed to survive, but it's also full of scary predators. Through most of human history, the species has worked to separate itself from nature - a futile effort and deeply ill-conceived, but who ever said humans were regularly deep thinkers? I suspect that current-day back to nature memes are a result of just how dysfunctional human societies have become in terms of integrating with the planet they require for their survival.
Of course, any anthropologist would look at this study and say: that's what it looks like in 21st Century Finland, and it might be generalizable to other Western societies of this century, but without sticking representative samples of people from all over the planet, we can't know if the pattern is really universal in that species.
Paul SB
As long as I'm mumbling about Darwin, I finally came across a book that I think I could recommend to most people to get them started on understanding what it's really about. The author takes a very practical, in-the-trenches view and shows how evolutionary thinking has real value for ordinary hominids. https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Everyone-Darwins-Theory-Change/dp/B085ZFQS2F/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1XKGQP799ACD3&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.WyTEqzbMgrNc3EkPzgpsydkhMzhvC76x25ik7m9vSAVV73lVqPTdfqOFSQEjTx_J.oDhQbYIBFYu1c2pPCu7tO6wH1QvMLfBON_80lFfE4KY&dib_tag=se&keywords=evolution+for+everyone+by+david+sloan+wilson&qid=1726281807&sprefix=evolution+for+every%2Caps%2C485&sr=8-1
DeletePaul SB
Blinken is much nicer person than Neil Young
ReplyDeleteToday, for the first time ever, there are 19 humans in space, a new record. whoisinspace.com
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dr. Brin.
DeleteRe: continuous human presence in space: "*...developing into a continues (sic) population of no less than 10 people on two space stations since 5 June 2022 (as of 2024)".
This coincides nicely with **Rick Robinson's 2009 estimation:
"The current year round population in space is six. Suppose it were to grow, through the usual fits and starts, at an average 4 percent per year. First we'll try this out on the past. Run backward from 2009, this growth rate gives us three people in space in 1991 - about when Mir entered full service - and one person in 1963, soon after we started traveling in space at all. As predictions of the past go this is imperfect but not bad.
Now let's apply it to the future. Over the next few decades, growth is glacially slow:
2025: 11 people
2050: 30
2075: 80..."
This is part of the reason I'm on the Robinson/Stross side of space enthusiasts:
I don't think we'll have many people LIVING in space, but a fair number of people over time WORKING in space, with the models being offshore oil platforms and Antarctic research bases. I believe that "AItomation" technologies will improve more rapidly than space ones and the need for human-presence will diminish accordingly. Consider what could be accomplished several decades from now with-on-the-scene zetta-scale computers directing hundreds or thousands of exploration and mining probes and drones....
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space
** http://www.rocketpunk-manifesto.com/2009/10/time-scale-of-space.html
Having four people in operating space suits is a record, also.
ReplyDeleteA 4% annual growth rate equates to doubling every 18 years.
DeleteDavid Brin
ReplyDeleteI do finely sieved and aged manure!
- I'm sure b both the Plant and Fungal Kingdoms appreciate it. And as an honorary member of the Animal Kingdom, I do as well, given how tasty many citizens of the other two are.
On the subject, my local news station did a story about a vertical farm in Compton yesterday. That was a subject we discussed many years ago in this forum - one which really triggered Choke 'em Ranch, as I recall. (That one spewed all five levels of shit.) Eventually these installations will get to the point where economy of scale makes them better than traditional farming, for numerous reasons. Transportation costs, labor, reliability (being impervious to weather conditions), and especially the extent to which the internal environment can be controlled, so no more e. coli from nearby cattle ranches contaminating the produce.
Paul SB
Drat, I forgot to paste the article: https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/compton-indoor-farm-plenty-vertical-tech
ReplyDeleteFinely sieved and aged manure begetteth more finely sieved and aged manure.
ReplyDeleteIt is known.
I think vertical farms have a limited use where space is even more limited. They can't avoid the problem of only so many watts of solar energy per square meter, though.
On that topic, it's a bit counterintuitive, but solar farms have been found to be able to coexist with, and even benefit, certain forms of agronomy.
Alan Brooks
ReplyDeletehere is deleuze writing relatively concisely about one of the core focus of foucault's work, as they were contemporaries. (4 pages)
http://home.lu.lv/~ruben/Deleuze%20-%20Postscript%20On%20The%20Societies%20Of%20Control.pdf
A. R. Moxon has a better way with words than I do:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.the-reframe.com/its-time-to-oppress-conservatives-2/
If we fail to thwart the fascists, most of us will have a place on their "To do list".
Our weekly reminder that the Dems should welcome conservatives into the big tent to resist GOP fascism, but should never trust them.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/15/liz-cheney-ginni-thomas-january-6-investigation
Book reaffirms that Liz Cheney blocked investigation into Ginni Thomas' involvement with Jan 6th coup attempt. The author alleges that Cheney felt that breaking with the rightwing plan to stack SCOTUS by investigating the Thomases would be the end of her ambitions to run for POTUS under a reconstituted GOP.
Generative A.I. (may) appeal to people who think they can express themselves in a medium without actually working in that medium but, to those who actually work in said medium, not so much, as the imitative, derivative & unoriginal nature of AI constitutes outright intellectual thievery:
ReplyDeleteNew York, N.Y., September 20, 2023—The Authors Guild and 17 authors filed a class-action suit against OpenAI in the Southern District of New York for copyright infringement of their works of fiction on behalf of a class of fiction writers whose works have been used to train GPT.
https://authorsguild.org/news/ag-and-authors-file-class-action-suit-against-openai/#:~:text=New%20York%2C%20N.Y.%2C%20September%2020,been%20used%20to%20train%20GPT.
On the TASAT front, Roald Dahl's 'Great Automatic Grammatizator" (circa 1954) is a good place to start thinking about Creative AI, but Fritz Leiber's "Silver Eggheads" (circa 1959) publishing industry satire provides the most accurate take on AI (imo), made very unfunny by the industry's very real & ongoing predilection for the imitative, derivative & unoriginal, as evidenced (in part) by the preeminence of Shared_World Crapola.
To make my point, I just asked CrapGPT to write "a TV series based on DB's "The Postman", the results -- in 3 seconds -- being extremely evocative of the short-lived TV adaptions to 'Logan's Run' & 'Planet of Apes':
Title: The Postman Chronicles
Genre: Sci-Fi / Drama / Adventure
Premise:
In a post-apocalyptic America, where society has collapsed into chaos and the remnants of civilization struggle to survive, a former soldier named Gordon Krieger discovers an old U.S. Postal Service uniform and a mailbag. With this relic of the past, he takes on the mantle of “The Postman,” a symbol of hope and unity. As he travels through the shattered remnants of America delivering mail, he uncovers forgotten communities and stumbles into various factions, each with their own visions for the future.
Season 1 Overview:
Episode 1: "The Delivery"
Synopsis: Gordon Krieger, wandering through the desolate landscape, discovers the abandoned postal service building and dons the uniform and mailbag. His first delivery brings him to a small, isolated settlement where he begins to understand the power of hope and communication.
Episode 2: "The Scavengers"
Synopsis: Gordon encounters a group of scavengers who see his role as a threat to their control over the region. Tensions rise as Gordon must navigate their dangerous territory to make his deliveries.
Episode 3: "Echoes of the Old World"
Synopsis: Gordon visits an old military outpost where he finds a group of veterans trying to maintain order. Their distrust of outsiders challenges Gordon’s mission, but he slowly earns their respect.
Episode 4: "A New Nation"
Synopsis: Gordon arrives at a settlement where a charismatic leader has established a pseudo-government. The leader is skeptical of the Postman's intentions, and Gordon must prove that his mission is to unite rather than conquer.
More available upon request.
Best
There, was that so hard? Locumranch chose to focus on an area where he has knowledge and insight and our respect, rather than the usual faux-logical masturbatory fury. And lo! It was interesting?
ReplyDeleteSure GPT offered us clichés, as expected... though in fact they are pretty obvious and likely successfully diverting concepts that almost surely would show up in any TV series, even one designed by the creatively sapient.
===
Now onward
onward