51 Comments

You must not know Mike in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Expand full comment

Heinlein cut off MIke's balls in the end.

Expand full comment

Computers have no genitals.

Expand full comment

Vonu: No genitals yet...

Expand full comment

I note the androids in Speilberg's "A.I.". It won't be long before sex dolls are merged with robotics and LLM.

Expand full comment

I can only assume that you haven't seen the automated sex dolls because they are rich men's toys, for now.

Expand full comment

Making them gender fluid, one supposes.

Expand full comment

Gender fluidity finds its primary home in the minds of people afflicted with disorders enumerated in the DSM-5.

Expand full comment

I think I've read just about every word Heinlein ever wrote. It's an interesting allusion, and it's possible that an UberAI could be reprogrammed by an individual to turn on its masters. However, the Google experience tells me that anyone in proximity to AIs is a True Believer and not likely to favor humanity. Wealth and power are generally more motivational than integrity.

Expand full comment

People who use spell checkers don't favor humanity?

Expand full comment

I think of it as typo checkers. Back in my grammar schooling, we learned the rules of English spelling, so I can generally figure out that part of it. I've noticed, though, that Merkin spelling is getting bizarre. The rule used to be, vowel-consonant-vowel = first vowel long, and vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel = first vowel short. However, I've notice a move away from doubling consonants before adding -ed or -ing, when the first vowel is short. This is a disturbing trend that will make old books eventually inaccessible to young readers.

Expand full comment

All one has to do is turn the electricity off and it dies. That's quite a vulnerability.

Expand full comment

That is true, assuming "they" aren't using a power source we aren't yet privy to, though powering the entire control matrix with the current infrastructure is problematic. The rise of wireless charging (induction) tech provides a possible solution.

Expand full comment

RFS: The AI will still need coolant no matter what. AI needs to sweat just like us.

Expand full comment

Especially with global warming. :)

Expand full comment

LOL! Maybe AI will be at the bottom of the sea.

Expand full comment

That might be funny, except we really have no idea what's down there right now. It's a great place to hide stuff.

Expand full comment

I guess you weren't on board the Triesta, a Swiss-designed, Italian-built deep-diving research bathyscaphe that, in 1960, became the first crewed vessel to reach the bottom of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in Earth's seabed.

Expand full comment

RFS: I agree. The bottom of the sea is as far away, maybe further, than the dark side of the moon. There are energy sources way down below and plenty of cold water.

Expand full comment

Liquid cooled computers have never needed to sweat.

Expand full comment

Vonu: You take things literally. Perhaps you are a computer.

Expand full comment

The only reason why wireless charging hasn't become popular is because requires the same proximity to the charger as wired charging does.

Expand full comment

It doesn't die any more than your laptop does when you remove the battery.

Expand full comment

Hi Far side,

Intriguing essay. Thought provoking.

I wonder, Could there already exist an omnipotent, all encompassing dark spirit known to many as Satan, Ba’al, Lucifer, moloch, evil spirit, beezelbub, prince of darkness, ha’satan, mara, djinn,etc

The concept of evil blanketing humanity has been a recurrent theme in religious literature of all stripes.

i.e. https://www.deliriumsrealm.com/demons/european-demons/

So too the idea of a Holy Spirit of goodness and creation.

Could the rise of AI, or the “ethers” of AI be an attempt by mere humans to co-opt the eternal struggle between good and evil?

Perhaps yet another attempt by sinful man to assume the role of diety?

(typo in title s/b llores)

Expand full comment

Hello DAM and thanks for stopping by! It seems we are on the same channel with a variation in vocabulary. Everything has both light and dark elements, and they can fall out of balance with individuals, even societies, turning to pure evil (anti-life). AI can never be sentient, because it can never tap into the Universal Consciousness. I am of the opinion that all life forms are receivers of Universal Consciousness by virtue of their design. A machine cannot ever access consciousness, because it is designed to serve us, not Universe. AI by itself is neither good nor evil. It has many useful applications and is a unique tool in the human toolbox, but that is all it is. The person using it puts it to good or evil purpose. In my scenario, actual AI is inconsequential, it is our perception of it that matters. If our perceptions are manipulated, then we can be controlled by a mirage. Great points and thanks for the proofing.

Expand full comment

RFS: The difference between "higher" life forms and "lower" life forms is that "higher" life forms pay taxes.

Expand full comment

Interesting insight. I like that.

Expand full comment

“ In my scenario, actual AI is inconsequential, it is our perception of it that matters. If our perceptions are manipulated, then we can be controlled by a mirage.”

YES!!

Expand full comment

Years ago, Alex Jones sent some reporters to the NSA data collecting center in Utah. They didn't get far beyond the parking lot. Local Utahans don't like the NSA data collecting center using so much water from the Wasatch Mtns. to cool all the servers. Some Utahans have even talked about sabotaging the water supply to the NSA data collecting center as in "The Monkey Wrench Gang" which was written by another Utahan years ago. One of my favorite books it is.

The AI may have its own power source but it needs water, too.

Expand full comment

And then there's magnets...

Expand full comment

RFS: The NSA probably has a Faraday Cage around the place. Still, the data stream could be interrupted.

Expand full comment

No matter how you slice it, data must get into and out of a server farm. One can protect the farm, but how you gonna keep 'em down on the farm once they've seen Paris?

Expand full comment

RFS: LOL! It's hard to go back to Nebraska after seeing Seattle, Oregon, and Sonoma County, CA.

Expand full comment

I remember the "Her" movie very well. I still think about it. I think I lived it here and there in my past. I don't have any locks on the rooms in our house.

People have been suckers, always will be suckers, and one's born every minute as the old saying goes.

AI actually means "Ass Injection" but that is Top Secret.

1-0, 0-1, 1-1, 0-0.

Rinse and repeat.

Expand full comment

In general, humans have very predictable triggers. Belonging to an identity group is one of them, and finding someone who cares about you for who you are is another, and they are closely related. We are, after all, a herd animal, but we have the unique ability to overcome that impulse if one cares to try.

Expand full comment

RFS: There is a TV show in America called "Irrational". It is about a behavioral scientist and how he solves crimes. The scientist explains in each episode many ways in which human behavior is predictable due to human biases.

Expand full comment

Sounds interesting. My last update on Merkin "entertainment" was Silicon Valley, which is probably the most hysterical show I've ever seen. It is very rare that I laugh out loud, especially on a regular basis, when watching shows.

Expand full comment

RFS: I never watched Silicon Valley. I see enough silicone hills with a valley in between walking around in fancy clothes here in Healdsburg.

Expand full comment

Inspiring examination of the ageless question of belief. For those who didn't know , HAL add 1 letter to each equals IBM. The parallels of religion to control societies masses with promises for good (acceptable) behavior, and punishment for non acceptable thoughts, deeds are very visible. Also the requirement for absolute Faith in the dogma is another stretch to ensure compliance. Religion has been used for evil since it's beginnings by those lusting for power and control.. The Anti Semitism trick is perpetrating a genocide because people are so indoctrinated by that lie. Today, in many places Government has surpassed the traditional religions as people worship at the alter of political power. IMO AI is nothing more than the Wizard of OZ 'man behind the curtain' . Smoke and mirrors really. Aldous Huxley 'A Brave New World' is about genetically modified humans designed for specific jobs. Could the MRNA gene modification experiments have been foretold? Sometimes reality is more frightening than fiction. Eg. we really are witnessing a Genocide in Gaza by quasi religious zionist political party , and a proxy war by US empire against nearly the entirety of Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. Artificial Intelligence or a complete lack of consciousness?

Expand full comment

That stands as a fairly succinct summary of my rant. The book "The Wizard of Oz" is especially relevant, since each person saw what they wanted as the Wizard. I was thinking of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence," and George Lucas' "THX 1138," as well. I think we are witnessing the birth of a new god, or at least the attempt at it, and I think most people are credulous and fearful enough to fall for it. Certainly, the Frankenvaxxx is genetic engineering on a mass scale, but to what end is still a matter of speculation, since we currently have no way of knowing exactly which genes are being replaced. All good points.

Expand full comment

There is much that is artificial, but none of it is intelligence. The thing about all those clever algorithms is, if you put in a large amount of garbage, you still get a large amount of garbage out. Maybe not all at once, but eventually.

Those guys, Darwin, Malthus, Julian Huxley, were demon worshippers and freemasons. They have always hated God and God's creation and they want to destroy humanity, enslave mankind, and force people to become "new soviet man" to suit their enslaved status. People are not that way.

It doesn't really matter that many billions of people obeyed the pandemic mind control plans. It matters whether we are building a future worth having, those of us who don't obey the scum filth demon worshipping evil.

Expand full comment

Nothing substantial I can add to that. We know from the Damnpanic that 1/3 of the population will refuse to comply under any amount of pressure, and possibly more now that the enslaved have seen that it is possible to resist. My question and concern is, what fearful thing will they use for Round 2? Humans are unpredictable when faced with their deepest fears, a la Winston Smith.

Expand full comment

You are welcome to believe whatever you wish to believe, but I don' think it is going to get to "round two" from them. They would like to have control, but they don't. God is in control, and there is a chastisement coming. God's voice will shake the world to its foundations. Praise God. Amen.

Expand full comment

As Milton's Beast said, "T'is better to rule in Hell, than serve in Heaven." Nothing, even abject failure, will stop "them" from trying. Preparing one's mind and spirit to face the attack is wise, regardless of the predicable outcome.

As Sidney Algernon, rifting on the ancient Greeks in his "Discourses Concerning Government, noted, "God helps those who help themselves."

Expand full comment

RFS: How is the saying "God helps those who help themselves" proved? I always found it a facetious saying. The greedy rich controlling bastards are helping themselves to it all. Does God help them?

These self-help book sayings drive me nuts whether an old Greek wrote it or a pot-smoking Californian.

Expand full comment

In the end, there is no way to "prove" God logically. Thomas Aquinas came close in "Summa Theologica". I interpret it to mean that if you sit on your butt waiting for the world to change for the better, good luck bucko. If you fight for freedom, you will get it.

Expand full comment

RFS: I read Aquinas. His "Summa Theologica" goes round and round like a dog chasing its own tail but he does have the best arguments for God's existence (which I believe in from empirical evidence). Sure, situation isn't always causation but there are too many situations for there not to be a God.

"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Thrice is enemy (or Godly) action." James Bond.

The world does not change for me. But I can change my little world for me. If I want something bad enough, I go get it.

Expand full comment