Was reminded of this paper a minute ago, and I just read it again. Damn, Edsger Dijkstra weirdly relevant for a 40 year old paper.

"The question [of whether machines can think] is just as relevant and just as meaningful as the question whether submarines can swim."

"if computers could amplify intelligence, they could amplify stupidity as well."

"The most crazy thing of all this is that, in all the more spectacular cases, the failure has been predicted, quite convincingly and well in advance. Apparently, the lure of the dream is still so strong that people become to deaf for warnings: the computer represents Babbage’s Dream Come True, and no one wants to hear that the Dream has deteriorated into a fully transistorized nightmare."

"I refer to the wide-spread, but in general unchallenged, belief that making something “computer-aided” amounts to making it better. Computer-aided design, computer-aided management, computer-aided composition, computer-aided manufacturing, computer-assisted learning, computerized examinations, you name it. Under no circumstances the dogma of improvement should be accepted without challenge: in no time we would have computerized jurisdiction."

https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD08xx/EWD867.html

The Justice Department is looking at criminal charges against local election officials who don’t “safeguard” their systems.

And yes, it’s as bad as it sounds.

Democracy can weather a lot of damage and unlawful conduct at Trump’s hands,
but if he succeeds in taking control of the machinery of elections,
it could be a fatal blow.

That’s why a barely noticed story in The New York Times last week was so worrisome.

As reported by the Times, unidentified senior administration officials have directed DOJ lawyers
to explore the possibility of federal criminal charges against state or local election officials
deemed to have failed to adequately safeguard computer systems.

Tellingly, the initiative isn’t grounded in any new evidence, data, or legal theory.

It’s not about truth or justice.

It’s a political and ideological ploy, reportedly incubated in the Project 2025 workshop
—part of Trump’s broader effort to delegitimize democratic institutions and seize autocratic control.
https://newrepublic.com/article/197809/trump-doj-local-election-officials-scare?utm_campaign=SF_TNR&utm_source=Threads&utm_medium=social

“Today, there is an average of 37 tonnes of road per inhabitant of the planet… There is 10 times more bitumen, in mass, than there are living animals.”

An article full of shocking statistics: https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/how-much-does-your-road-weigh

Hey, please stop repeating the misinformation that corps are legally required to maximize profits or your shareholders can sue you. It's propaganda promoted by a handful of huge fund managers because they'd *like that* to be true.

Even SCOTUS agrees “Modern corporate law does not require for-profit corporations to pursue profit at the expense of everything else, and many do not.” (Burwell v. Hobby Lobby)

Not mentioned in the article is the fact that #Austin is surrounded by #Texas, a state that wants to murder you for existing.

“Austin’s Reign as a Tech Hub Might Be Coming to an End: Regional tech hubs across the U.S. are losing talent as workers return to the coasts, with Austin being one of the hardest hit”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/austins-reign-as-a-tech-hub-might-be-coming-to-an-end-02836bc3

Unpaywalled: https://archive.ph/XjY4s