Related random long winded thought:

I was watching this interview with Margaret Atwood, after watching an interview by Hasan Minhaj of Pete Buttigieg. And in Hasan’s interview he quotes Margaret Thatcher: “who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families”

And all that reminded me of the meme “how did the pandemic radicalize you?”

And for me it was the realization of how much my literal existence, my life and death, is tied to there being a functioning society. That “rugged individualism” is a fantasy. And in many respects an absolute nightmare.

I came out of the pandemic as a pretty chill introvert who struggled with crowds and loud noises, but who had realized how much I need everyone else to survive myself.

I always believed in democracy, but now I believe in a state, a functioning caring collective in a way I hadn’t fully realized before.

Fascism is the antithesis of that, it is a state that views the population as enemies and tools for hoarding power and resources for the few.
https://youtu.be/Ta3FaoKgHtA?si=VxD05e2P2Wj1vSNd
https://social.vivaldi.net/@Patricia/113410829858445758

Donald Trump’s bible racket tells you everything you need to know about Trump:

They cost Trump $3 each; he sells them for $60.

These “God Bless the USA” bibles are made in China.

They contain the Constitution, BUT, without the amendments that abolish slavery, provide equal protection under the law, establish the right to vote regardless of race, establish women’s right to vote and presidential term limits.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-god-bless-usa-bible-china-32a80611605d4052d8238064bbcace4c

When you look at Altman or Musk their "genius" is not in inventing technology, but leveraging it through piles of cash gained through inheritance, political connections or sly snake oils sales pitches. There is skill involved, genius no, but mind you ultimately the capital is doing all the work.

"... breakthrough successes, they all pretty much revolve around connecting early start-ups with piles of investor cash, not any particular technical innovation."

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/10/sam-altman-mythmaking/680152/

Happy National Poetry Day to all those who celebrate.

Here’s a poem called ‘In Search of Poetry’. It’s constructed entirely from popular Google searches about poetry.

Today I'm thinking again about the "Children of the Magenta" lecture. In the late 90s, airlines realized that after going all-in on automation and flight assists in the 80s, they had trained a generation of automation-dependent pilots who were no longer capable of dealing with novel situations in which the automation couldn't help, or failed. Children of the magenta flight path line on the computer.

I'm thinking about it because someone this morning bragged about letting LLMs write the code.