The World is Gray.
It feels like we are all in a drab, limp state of “learned helplessness” from being electric-shocked whichever way we turn. Waiting for an inevitable-seeming catastrophe that keeps getting pushed off one more day. This may just be about manipulating the stock market; tipped-off insiders extract more wealth from the market every time it goes either up OR down. Whether they’re partying like it’s 1999 or furnishing and hardening their deluxe bunkers, who knows.
The internet used to be a place to escape into, for better or for worse, but rather suddenly all the color has drained out of it: it’s ALL about AI. Nothing could be more gray than AI. Yes, it can sometimes make cute memes, but it’s amazing how quickly we’ve tired of them. They can’t amaze because they are “too much that comes too easily.” Shrug.
It really seems as if we’ll need catastrophe to break the Ice-9.
Did you just get Covid again? Uhg! I thought we were done with that.
Peter Thiel and AI, hmmm... I don't think that guy is even human.
AI worries me, but it is inevitable. And the more I look into it, the less worried I am. It will either help us thrive, or end up killing us all, but much like the atomic bomb, we humans have a survival instinct. I am sure we will find a way around being annihilated.
The simple fact that people all around the world are waking up gives me hope. My biggest worry right now about AI is that it will speed up the progress of mankind so much, that our brains will not be able to cope, much like the effect Social Media is having on us now. We were not built to process this much information in such a short period of time, and AI will only exacerbate that. But on the other hand, maybe those scientist that years ago said we only use 10% of our brain capacity will turn out to be right.
The world will definitely look different in a decade or so. I hope I'll be around to see it.
And regarding American hegemony, I am all for it. I truly believe that the grand American experiment, and the fact that the Constitution was written by a bunch of twenty somethings, is an astounding accomplishment. Even the fact that after 250 years we are (for the most part) still complying to it is also astounding. America should be the beacon of light it was meant to be, but even God had his terrible swift sword. As Trump says, "Peace through strength!"
We humans respond to strength. Even children develop best with an authoritarian figure. Our war machine is our sword. And if that is what it takes to bring peace on earth, so be it.
I find it so interesting that America has never been an expansionist nation, even when we have the most powerful military in the world.
People flock to America for a reason. We are a nation founded on the principal of personal freedom, and that is unique in the world. Encroachments on that principal will eventually be fought tooth and nail.
I am not saying America is perfect, but it strives to be. And I know I am sounding flippant, even though I don't mean to be, and even though I am not religious, somewhere in my soul, I believe those men that got together and hashed out the Constitution were somehow ordained and guided, and wrote out the future plan of humankind. And unlike the bible, the Constitution was written to be a living document.
It is pretty damned incredible. So with everything that is going on, I am feeling hopeful again.