about spending 4th of July trying not to think about the hearts at stake

I was trapped and strained toward the trapper. I tell you to work backward from a valley in the Carpathians through the age of apocalypse here in America, to California, to the birth of nanotechnology. When a single molecule splits itself into two and eats you and drinks water into its structures, you discover life is widely available. You consume cold babies to survive but find a dead body kept warm by the levitating boy at Old Moon Creek.

for the love of AI

People like us with criminal records eventually wash out of the loop toward the black star. Right before it happens, the energy level of our blood increases as it flows through the compressor due to the action of the rotor blades which exert a torque on the fluid. I chose to suffer, and the warden got murderous with her language until reaching the skeleton-hurts point. Then I was rescued by alcohol-induced psychosis. Exhaustion triggers the simulation of thought. Bypass ratios reached greater than 10:1 because of blade aerodynamics. Thought in the form of prepackaged synthesis makes old thought feel redundant because it has been already simulated. Not a pile of data but structures of knowledge: metaphysics (what is real), epistemology (how we know), and ethics (what we do with that knowledge). Then warden offered to erase my record and set me loose. Still, the deeds we do are ones we've been doing our whole lives. Trained in systems thinking, I looked for feedback loops but found none. We will all die, and, oh, I bet it’s black inside that box. 

about an AI bubble

I sort of doubt a crash will come from unrealized AI investment.

 

But investors might not see a big return. There probably is a ceiling on what it can do, how far developers can take it, how far it can take itself. And there are some clever funding schemes between the AI developers, chip makers, and data-center builders going on. This has been aided by the Administration, some legislation, and a lack of oversight.

 

The perception that the dollar is a good investment has obviously been taking hits too. Mortgage rates are high. If the economy tanks, then who knows what fucked-up stuff will happen?

But I doubt a crash will come from this. At least not the kind of crash that will make us a lot worse off than we are now.

 

Note: Roko's Basilisk is a thought experiment suggesting that a future superintelligent AI might punish anyone who didn’t actively help bring it into existence—because failing to do so delayed its creation. Now that you read that sentence, you are vulnerable to its wrath unless you labor toward its creation.

(posts) Romans 5:3-4

3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulations worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope

Notes:

Google's AI search overview offers this summary of the verses: "Christians can rejoice in their sufferings because suffering produces perseverance, which in turn produces character, and character produces hope."

How does character produce hope? For that matter, how does experience? Experience producing hope I can sort of see.

Follow-up questions led the AI thing to say that the King James Version (KJV) uses "experience." Another follow-up led to this portion of a longer response: 

"Experience" in 1611 English: While the word "character" might be the most common single word to translate "dokime" today, the KJV translators used "experience" in a way that captured the sense of proven worth and the outcome of enduring trials, which was common in their time. It conveyed the idea that through patiently borne afflictions, a Christian gains a deeper knowledge and assurance of God's faithfulness and their own sincerity. 

 

about the storm in the distance

Every act is one of intimidation and threat. If that was all, that would be fine. But it intends to act—to act, then push the limits. Just a matter of how far it will go before it declares victory. 

 

about CVS

I had never had covid yet, but the quarter and change I got back from the self-checkout kiosk at CVS definitely had a virus on them. That is how I caught the flu this year. So that was last Saturday night. I felt bad Sunday, but I was wearing a mask when I left the house Monday morning—I noticed it was gone when I woke up feeling bad on the bus and the bus pulled up to the train station downtown, which is nowhere near where I normally go. I probably had a high fever, but I was so parched that I doubt I was spraying many droplets of infection or anything else if you know what I mean. I suddenly found myself on the wrong train and wearing a mask that was definitely not mine. I got off at the next stop and was accosted by all these females that live around there I guess. They were advertising drugs. Not one of those ladies had my mask, too.