> That processes like cultural diffusion and change are too rarely seen in terms of programming is largely the fault of cybernetics, the formal study of control that has unfortunately concentrated almost exclusively on behavior, The example cyberneticists cite most frequently, for example, is the behavior of a simple thermostat, one that can turn a furnace on and off and thereby control temperature by means of feedback from the environment heated. The major shortcoming of such examples is that they draw attention to the control behavior itself especially to feedback-—and therefore away from the more fundamental aspect of control, namely programming. As Ernst Mayr put it:

> It is not the thermostat that determines the temperature of a house, but the person who sets the thermostat .. . Negative feedbacks improve the precision of goal seeking, but they do not determine it. Feedback devices are only executive mechanisms that operate during the translation of a program. Therefore, it places the emphasis on the wrong point to define teleonomic processes in terms of the presence of feedback devices. They are mediators of the program, hut as far as the basic principle of goal achievement is concerned, they are of minor consequence. (1976, p. 391)

> Overemphasis on control behavior and feedback may be even more misleading than Mayr suggests. By concentrating on behavior per se, cyberneticists tend to overlook two other aspects of control perhaps most obvious in genetic programming but which must prevail in any control system. At a more fundamental level than behavior itself is maintenance of the mechanism on which control depends: at a higher Existence or being, the problem of maintaining organization—even in the absence of external change—counter to entropy

> Experience or behaving, the problem of adapting goal-directed processes to variation and cbange in external conditions

> Evolution or becoming, the problem of reprogramming less successful goals and procedures while at the same time preserving more successful ones...

#ErnstMayr in #JamesBeniger's #ControlRevolution
#ThermostatCybernetics to be thought of with #JohnMcCarthy on his #ThermostatBeliefs as described by #NeilPostman in #Technopoly book

> A few years ago, one of the great figures of contemporary biology, Ernst Mayr, published some reflections on the likelihood of success in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.^1 He considered the prospects very low. His reasoning had to do with the adaptive value of what we call “higher intelligence,” meaning the particular human form of intellectual organization. Mayr estimated the number of species since the origin of life at about fifty billion, only one of which “achieved the kind of intelligence needed to establish a civilization.” It did so very recently, perhaps 100,000 years ago. It is generally assumed that only one small breeding group survived, of which we are all descendants.
> Mayr speculated that the human form of intellectual organization may not be favored by selection. The history of life on Earth, he wrote, refutes the claim that “it is better to be smart than to be stupid,” at least judging by biological success: beetles and bacteria, for example, are vastly more successful than humans in terms of survival. He also made the rather somber observation that “the average life expectancy of a species is about 100,000 years.”
> We are entering a period of human history that may provide an answer to the question of whether it is better to be smart than stupid. The most hopeful prospect is that the question will not be answered: if it receives a definite answer, that answer can only be that humans were a kind of “biological error,” using their allotted 100,000 years to destroy themselves and, in the process, much else.
> The species has surely developed the capacity to do just that, and a hypothetical extraterrestrial observer might well conclude that humans have demonstrated that capacity throughout their history, dramatically in the past few hundred years, with an assault on the environment that sustains life, on the diversity of more complex organisms, and with cold and calculated savagery, on each other as well.

> TWO SUPERPOWERS
> The year 2003 opened with many indications that concerns about human survival are all too realistic. To mention just a few examples..

^1

Mayr, Bioastronomy News 7, no. 3 (1995).

#NoamChomsky quotes #ErnstMayr in #HegemonyOrSurvival #EvolutionAndIntelligence .... probably need more humility in the mix...

> In some ways, computer standardization is akin to the selective breeding of agricultural products, such as potatoes.... The breeding of a single genetic strain of potato in Ireland in the 19th Century led to the potato famine of 1845. Because every potato in Ireland had exactly the same genetic material, every potato was susceptible to the same bacterial infection.... Computers are just as susceptible to infection as plants are.... In biology, successful species evolution preserves diversity and variation.... So, in computer systems, variation must be preserved.... The need for variation and diversity exists in computer systems just as it exists in nature. —

> Benjamin Zorn, "In Computers, as in Nature, Variety Is Desirable," New York Times, Nov. 27, 1988.

thefreelibrary.com/THE+COMPUTE…

#RaymondGozzi #ComputerPotato #ComputerMetaphor #PlantComputers #BenjaminZorn

Why was this "worm" so quickly and painlessly identified as a "virus?" What we are dealing with here is a choice of metaphors. An analysis of these metaphors (using the "interaction" perspective of I. A. Richards) suggests a number of compelling reasons for the preference of "virus" over "worm."...

Each metaphor, Richards tells us, results from the interaction between two parts: its "vehicle," which is the word selected, and its "tenor," the underlying situation. A powerful metaphor identifies two separate domains in such a way that we are able to explore one domain by tracing the implications of the other domain. (2)

thefreelibrary.com/THE+COMPUTE…

#RaymondGozzi with #IARichards #VirusMetaphor #WormMetaphor #VehicleTenor

/HT #NeilPostman's #Technopoly

In one podcast interview, Mandel described his approach to AI investing as identifying the “picks and shovels” for data center projects. “We know that running all these data centers… requires a huge amount of energy,” he explained. “So we’ve basically invested in everything from energy itself to producers of energy to all the way up to… the hyperscalers and basically the whole value chain.”
The Lever’s review of Lone Pine’s SEC disclosures shows that companies supplying the data center build-out make up roughly a third of Lone Pine’s overall stock portfolio. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, a dominant chipmaker, was Lone Pine Capital’s single largest investment in 2025. Now the firm’s biggest investment is in the energy company Vistra, whose stock became a hot commodity after it signed power purchasing agreements with tech giants Meta and Amazon to supply their data centers’ massive energy demands.
The fund’s earnings from the AI sector have only added to Mandel’s soaring net worth, now an estimated $5 billion. The billionaire in turn pumps the money into political causes, as he’s done for decades.

...

The Bronin campaign’s issues page on AI, titled “Getting the Balance Right with Artificial Intelligence,” takes a moderate path on data centers, acknowledging concerns while emphasizing that “it’s important that the United States continue leading the world in AI development.”
Such language is common across the ecosystem bankrolled by Mandel.

...

Searchlight Institute, a policy think tank known to be funded by Mandel, released a white paper proposing to green-light and regulate data centers, rather than the moratoriums supported by the Democratic Party’s populist left. This policy proposal soon appeared on the campaign platforms of several high-profile Senate candidates supported by Mandel....

#AIInvestors #HedgeFundAI #StephenMandel #AISalami
/HT
@Pete Tucker

What we need is a global mass mobilization to save the climate to move governments to take more decisive action...
Data centers consume so much water and energy that would otherwise be used for the needs of communities. They contribute tremendous amounts of carbon emissions that worsen the climate crisis. Trump is going all the way for AI, partly because it will need the massive energy that can only be provided by the fossil-fuel industry that is one of his main backers. In targeting data centers we would be hitting two birds with one stone, or two existential threats to the planet and humanity: climate change and AI.
There are 12,250 to 12,660 data centers globally. 1,136 to 1,189 are hyperscale—indeed, city-size--facilities to serve the massive cloud and AI computing needs of Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and other Silicon Valley giants. More are on the way. They are being constructed not only in the Global North but also in the Global South.
... it was global mass action that stopped globalization in its tracks, that showed that it was leading not to prosperity but to great inequality, greater poverty, and global economic crisis. If no one any longer talks about the so-called benefits of globalization, which was the mantra we kept hearing in the late 1990’s and the 2010’s, that was because of global mass mobilization.

facebook.com/share/1CH8xSVXHi/

#WaldenBello #DataCenterGlobalization
#SalamiCenter

None of the corrupt and vain emperors of history exacted of the sycophant poets in their retinues anything like the discipline imposed upon the poets of Procter and Gamble and Ford Motors. The copywriter is immeasurably more restricted in his choice of subject-matter than a court poet ever was. Moreover, the merit of his poetry is not measured by the pleasure it gives a single patron ; it is measured by its influence on sales statistics. Like the court poet, the copy-writer must praise not only his patron, but also the entire socio-economic system which keeps his patron rich and powerful. Milton, attacking the system of literary patronage of his time, was eloquent in his contempt for the 'trencher fury of the riming parasite.' A contemporary prophet able to look into the twentieth century might well have said to him, 'You haven't seen anything yet. Wait until you see the institutional ads of the great corporations during World War II!'

-- S.I. Hayakawa "Poetry and Advertising"

- mediaeducationlab.com/sites/de…
- poetryfoundation.org/poetrymag…

#SIHayakawa #PoetryAndAdvertising #CorporatePropaganda #VenalPoetry

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

The overlapping, militantly moderate Majority Democrats and The Bench were conceived and backed by billionaire hedge fund manager and Democratic donor Stephen Mandel. Majority Democrats is meant to be a “party within a party” that will counter the challenges from the left (by stealing some of its rhetoric) and will bring us “the next generation of Democratic leaders-willing to challenge the establishment and break with party orthodoxy.”
It is further funded by a lineup of big tech, private equity and crypto-donors, and dispenses money through a complex of PACs and Super PACs. Overall, Majority Democrats backed 14 House candidates, mostly incumbents, six of whom ran uncontested, one of whom withdrew (Jared Golden), most of the rest of whom won their primaries. The Bench supported 14 House newcomers, 10 of whom won including Brooks and Forstag.(11)
A look at the policy sections of Bernie Dogs’ websites reveals general and vague statements or limited reforms for improving healthcare, cost of living, better things for working people, fairer taxes, etc, but no commitments to specifics such as Medicare-for-All as a single payer system, Green New Deal, and virtually nothing on Palestine or Iran — in other words, what has become mainstream Democratic semi-populist rhetoric.

againstthecurrent.org/atc245/t…

#USPol #DSA #USDemocraticParty #BernieDogs #EnemyFriends

A lot of time and effort with this book would help avoid "AI" marketing hype and text...

> A good diction takes work. It exploits the natural but does not come naturally. It demands a wary eye for the way meanings sprout, and it demands the courage to prune. It has the warmth of human concern. It is a cut about the commonplace,a cut bout the inaccuracies and circumlocutions of speech, yet within easy reach. Clarity is the first aim; economy, the second; grace, the third; dignity the fourth. Our writing should be a little strange, a little bit out of the ordinary, a little beautiful, with words and phrases not met every day but seeming as right and natural as grass. A good diction takes care and cultivation.

--- Sheridan Baker The Practical Stylist

#SheridanBaker #PracticalStylist #WritersVoice #GoodDiction #WritingStyle

- archive.org/details/practicals…

There really is only one mention of "invisible hand" in Adam Smiths Wealth of Nations and it reads like opposition to multinational "Free Trade"...

By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain; and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest, he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it.
gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3300/…

#AdamSmith #WealthofNations #国富論
#自由貿易反対 #InvisibleHand highly qualified..
#invisibleFoot

... Winner wasn't even predicting the future. He was just describing what was already happening and noting where it would obviously lead. He saw the media mergers and asked the question nobody in the industry wanted to answer: what happened to the predicted collapse of large centralized structures in the age of electronic media? Where, exactly, did the decentralization go? He saw that the cyberlibertarians were going to deliver the opposite of everything they promised, and that they were going to keep getting paid to promise it anyway.

matduggan.com/the-intolerable-…

#MattDuggan #LangdonWinner #CorporatePR #CorporateIndividualism 🤮🤢🤕

... and 3,500 US diplomatic personnel were either deployed elsewhere or given permission to flee for their lives. Other sources put diplomatic evacuees at up to 4,000. The State Department helped another 9,000 American civilians flee the region. This statistic shows an incredible exodus of American diplomats, businessmen and others from a region dominated and sometimes occupied by the US in recent decades. One State Department observer called it “unprecedented.” Even in the last days of the US presence in South Vietnam as the latter was falling, less than a thousand US diplomats were spirited out of the country.

juancole.com/2026/09/pentagon-…
#JuanCole #USIranWar #USADiplomats

Rule By Cringe: Cringacracy !?

... the New York real estate buffoon who used 9/11 to aggrandize his property’s height would become America’s president.
Trump made certain to note that his building “actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest.” Like Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Trump then took his own 9/11 victory lap. “When they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second tallest,” he observed of 40 Wall Street. “And now it’s the tallest.” Like innumerable Trump statements in the 25 years since, it was callous and cringe-worthy and, of course, untrue. Nearby 70 Pine Street was actually taller.
...
theintercept.com/2026/09/11/bi…

archive.md/0mq7H

#NickTurse #RuleByCringe #NYC911 #uspol

In the absence of a miraculous baby boom or politically unpopular mass immigration, a growing number of experts urge a gradual downsizing. Takao Komine, senior researcher at the Japan Center for Economic Research, a think tank, is among those calling for “smart shrink”, a strategy in which population decline is assumed and public services are consolidated and made more efficient.
Local governments are already retooling housing, transport and welfare for the elderly. Toyama city has built a light-rail transit system designed for older people and subsidises housing construction around its stations. It has heavily invested in a care centre that has helped tug people back to the city centre, raising property prices and taxes. The care centre is built on the site of a primary school that closed in 2004.
Toyama and Nanmoku are at the vanguard of what Matanle calls a “turning point in human history”. The number of over-60s in the world passed one billion in 2019. By 2050 it will be 2.1 billion, according to the World Health Organisation, and the populations of 85 countries, mostly in Europe and Asia, will be shrinking. “The global population will peak around 50 years from now, in about 2070 or so, and then decline continuously from there. There’s very little we can do about it now,” says Matanle. Everybody should be watching what happens in Japan. This is their future.

irishtimes.com/world/asia-paci…

#DavidMcNeil #PopulationDecline #JapanPopulation #JapanInaka

irishtimes.com/world/asia-paci…

Turn toward the holocaust, it approaches
on every side, there is no other place
to turn. Dawning in your veins
Is the light of the blast
that will print your shadow on stone
In a last antic of despair
to survive you in the dark.
Man has put his history to sleep
In the engine of doom. It flies
over his dreams in the night,
a blazing cocoon. O gaze into the fire
and be consumed with man’s despair,
and be still, and wait. And then see
the world go on with the patient work
of seasons, embroidering birdsong
upon itself as for a wedding, and feel
your heart set out in the morning
like a young traveler, arguing the world
from the kiss of a pretty girl.
It’s the time’s discipline to think
of the death of all living, and yet live.

--- A Discipline, by Wendell Berry

dandelionhouse.org/in-the-hear…

#WendellBerry #ADiscipline
See #CamusOnDespair #NoLitOfDespair

アメリカスズカケノ 福禄寿

... an old tree growing,
a great sycamore that is a wondrous healer of itself.
Fences have been tied to it, nails driven into it,
hacks and whittles cut in it, the lightning has burned it.
There is no year it has flourished in that has not harmed it.
There is a hollow in it
that is its death, though its living brims whitely
at the lip of the darkness and flows outward.
Over all its scars has come the seamless white
of the bark. It bears the gnarls of its history
healed over. It has risen to a strange perfection
in the warp and bending of its long growth.
It has gathered all accidents into its purpose.
It has become the intention and radiance of its dark fate.
It is a fact, sublime, mystical and unassailable.
In all the country there is no other like it.
I recognize in it a principle, an indwelling
the same as itself, and greater, that I would be ruled by.
I see that it stands in its place and feeds upon it,
and is fed upon, and is native, and maker.
by Wendell Berry

upaya.org/wp-content/uploads/2…

journeywithjesus.net/poemsandp…

mindfulnessassociation.net/wor…

#WendellBerry #TheSycamore #SelfHealingTree #PlatanusOccidentalis

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen to carrion — put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go.

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

#WendellBerry #WendellBerryPoem #Poetry
/HT Theo the Catholic worker on FB
facebook.com/share/p/1J8furPQB…

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen to carrion — put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go.

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

#WendellBerry #WendellBerryPoem #Poetry
/HT Theo the Catholic worker on FB
facebook.com/share/p/1J8furPQB…

Helen Morales, author of “Pilgrimage to Dollywood,” gave us a stern directive – look at the lyrics! So we dive into Dolly’s discography, starting with the early period of what Dolly calls “sad ass songs” to find remarkably prescient words of female pain, slut-shaming, domestic violence, and women being locked away in asylums by cheating husbands. We explore how Dolly took the centuries-old tradition of the Appalachian “murder ballad”—an oral tradition of men singing songs about brutally killing women—and flipped the script, singing from the woman’s point of view. And as her career progresses, the songs expand beyond the pain to tell tales of leaving abuse behind.

wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly…

#DollyParton # SadAssedSongs
#HelenMorales #Dollywood

"Since the international arrivals inspection is an administrative function, CBP policy and federal regs do not permit the presence of lawyers during secondary examinations," CBP spokesman Stephen Sapp tells me. In other words, when I'm under an administrative rather than a criminal investigation, I have fewer rights than someone accused of a crime.
Sitting back down in the waiting room, I saw another American waiting with his foreign wife, and asked to use his phone to text my lawyer. My lawyer told me to hang tight, because as an American, they have to let me in eventually. (Unfortunately, there is no legal limit to how long "eventually" can be.) He was also busy reassuring my wife, who was sitting in baggage claims asking herself, Where can they possibly deport my husband? New Jersey?
reason.com/2026/08/20/border-c…

#ReasonCom #IceThugs #USACBP
#USAImmigration

We need, by contrast, an educational culture in which it is good simpliciter, in and of itself, for humans to read, think, converse, wonder and ask, if for no other reason than the intrinsic value of such activities—or that such activities are, in and of themselves, sources of delight and joy, ingredient in human flourishing. When a human intelligence does these things, it cannot, by definition, be superseded or replaced by A.I., even if A.I. can simulate those things better and faster than humans can generate them.
... this is not an elitist account of intellectual virtue. As intended here, “excellence” does not mean how well one does the activity relative to other intellects; rather, the virtue lies in the doing of the activity, regardless of the relative sophistication. On this model, the genius and the simpleton can both be equally virtuous intellectually; the child reading a primer and the scholar reading a tome are equally excellent.

... As “Magnifica Humanitas” asserts: “We can embrace the technological progress that alleviates suffering and unlocks new possibilities, provided that we do not abandon the very essence of our humanity” (No. 126). But such goods are not the essential goal of intellectual virtue.

americamagazine.org/faith-and-…

#AISalami #IntellectualVirtues #AlfieKohnThinking #MagnificaHumanitas ##SalamiAI

Texas has become the epicenter of the United States’ current obsession with constructing AI data centers. Companies are exploiting regulatory loopholes as they construct new facilities powered by pollutant-spewing onsite gas plants.
The rate of growth of this “shadow grid” of custom power plants, some of which are big enough to fuel entire cities, is so enormous that the only global entity installing more gigawatts of gas plants than Texas is China, according to environmental group Global Energy Monitor.

futurism.com/artificial-intell…
/HT
ani.social/post/35733042
#AIはむだ #AISalami #SalamiAI

Flaming Climate
Cars kill AND burn

These “park outside” warnings have surged in recent years, growing from rare occurrences to include millions of vehicles.
An estimated 3.2 million vehicles nationwide currently have an outstanding “park outside” recall, according to vehicle history provider Carfax, which described the surging numbers as “concerning.”
The recalls also create new headaches for drivers, who suddenly wonder where it is safe to park their vehicles.

The rise in park-outside recalls is being driven by the growing number of electronics and batteries packed into modern vehicles, involving ordinary wiring, seat motors, starter relays, high-voltage batteries and more, according to experts.
They’re known as “key-off fires,” said Frank Borris, a former NHTSA investigator who now works as a safety consultant.
“The engine is off, but the circuits are still hot, and they stay hot all the time,” Borris said.
“There is a lot more electronics in vehicles today,” he added, “and that means more stuff can go wrong.”
Kane said vehicles today also run hotter and have more components packed tightly under the hood, providing more opportunities for fires to start.
“If something goes wrong, even if you park the car, the temperatures stay higher for longer than they used to,” he said.
This summer has been with flooded with park-outside recalls compared with previous years. Eight campaigns were announced in June and July alone, such as when NHTSA issued a notice, “Urgent Park Outside Warning Issued for 1 Million Jeeps,” blaming an electrical connection issue tied to power-steering pumps.
In the first seven months of 2026, there were 17 park-outside campaigns covering about 1.7 million vehicles, making this year among the busiest since NHTSA first created the park-outside designation more than a decade ago.

archive.md/B3Xh8

washingtonpost.com/business/20…

#ParkOutsideRecalls #CarsBurn #CarsKillAndBurn #FlamingClimate #FlamingClimateCars

“When you have to pay a little bit more, you’re at $4, it’s OK, I mean, it’s not. I’ll never apologize. I did the right thing,” he added.

The seriousness of Trump’s remark, and whether it signaled a new policy ​position for his administration, was not immediately clear.

Tehran has remained steadfast in its demands, saying as recently as last Saturday that it will not reopen the strait of Hormuz unless the US “corrects its behavior”, “completely compensate[s]” Iran for war damage, lifts sanctions and “unconditionally” releases frozen assets."

theguardian.com/us-news/2026/a…
#TrumpIran #StraitOfHormuz #StraitTrump

Scientists warn ⁠such events could become more common due to factors including global warming, the arrival of invasive species, habitat loss of predators and over-fishing.
EDF is also grappling with heat-limited nuclear reactors across the country, as a fifth heatwave is ⁠expected ​to grow throughout the week and curtail French nuclear output.
One reactor ​in the north has been offline for most of the summer due to low river levels, while another reactor has had ​limited restarts and remained largely offline for most of July.

reuters.com/business/energy/je…

#DelicateNukes #JelliedNukes #JellyFishInFrance

Wendell Berry advice

“Understand that no amount of education can overcome the innate limits of human intelligence and responsibility. We are not smart enough or conscious enough or alert enough to work responsibly on a gigantic scale. In making things always bigger and more centralized, we make them both more vulnerable in themselves and more dangerous to everything else.
Learn, therefore, to prefer small-scale elegance and generosity to large-scale greed, crudity, and glamour.
Make a home.
Help to make a community.
Be loyal to what you have made.
Put the interest of the community first.
Love your neighbors - not the neighbors you pick out, but the ones you have.
Love this miraculous world that we did not make, that is a gift to us.
As far as you are able make your lives dependent upon your local place, neighborhood, and household > - which thrive by care and generosity
- and independent of the industrial economy, which thrives by damage.
Find work, if you can, that does no damage.
Enjoy your work. Work well.”

~ Wendell Berry, from an essay published in 1989, “The #FutilityOfGlobalThinking”

Photograph: #WendellBerry, 1972
/HT FB meme..
#WendellBerryAdvice

Goofball must have some sort of self-serving mechanical definition for "smart" and is probably only speaking for himself. Business "logic", money games and heading bureacracies may only require a very limited set of special abilities among the many many abilities people are capable of developing...

Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla and SpaceX and xAI
Status
Closed
Prediction made
2020
Predicted arrival
2025
Interval
5 yrs
“We are headed toward a situation where AI is vastly smarter than humans. I think that time frame is less than five years from now.”
Context
One of several near-term AGI framings Musk has offered over the years.
Why it is considered incorrect
By 2025 frontier systems exceeded humans on many narrow benchmarks but did not meet common definitions of general intelligence surpassing any single human across arbitrary tasks.
Source
Elon Musk: The Maureen Dowd Interview — The New York Times

boyswhocriedai.lovable.app/ent…

#AiPredictions #TechPR #AISalami #SalamiPredictions #ElonMusk #MuskSmart

In the 70s (or 80s) an MIT AI guy thought his graduate students could solve Computer Vision over the weekend or a school vacation.. Chomsky meniond David Marr working on models to start to understand vision^2... With "behavoirism"and probability doesn't seem like people can even start moving in the right direction. It's convenient for mega-machine bureaucracies, corporations and States, if everyone believes they are machines too, i guess...

Oliver Sacks in _Silent Voices_ and the book's source hint at how hard hearing is... Just plugging new parts into people doesn't work. The functions, the inputs and the brain must have to develop together.. Deaf communities think jamming Cochlear Implants into children is a human rights abuse...

Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook, Meta (formerly Facebook)
Status
Closed
Prediction made
2016
Predicted arrival
2026
Interval
10 yrs
“One of our goals for the next five to ten years is to basically get better than human level at all of the primary human senses: vision, hearing, language, general cognition.”
Context
Framed as a corporate research goal for Facebook AI Research.
Why it is considered incorrect
A decade on, systems match or exceed humans on narrow benchmarks but not across vision, hearing, language, and general cognition as a whole; general cognition in particular remains open.
Source
Building Jarvis (annual letter and follow-up Q&A) — facebook.com/zuck^1

^0 boyswhocriedai.lovable.app/arc…
^1 boyswhocriedai.lovable.app/ent…
^2 theatlantic.com/technology/arc…

#MarkZuckerberg #NoamChomsky #DavidMarr #ComputerVision #HumanVision #HumanHearing #OliverSacks #SilentVoice #CochlearImplants

From the Goose Guy... He Goose Meme goof got me thinking private equity is like selling futures while slowly garroting some gooses while promising more golden eggs will result from such tender care.. If not for the business world hysteria or penchant for choking each other's chickens no one would take any of them seriously.. How can these morons be in charge of so much money and policy!?!??

Masayoshi Son, CEO, SoftBank Group... major AI investor
Prediction made
2017
Predicted arrival
2018
Interval
1 yrs
“In the next 30 years, the singularity will happen… Within one year, computers will surpass human beings on the IQ test.”
Context
Son gave both a long-run and a near-term claim.
Why it is considered incorrect
No general-purpose system surpassed humans on standard IQ tests within a year of the keynote. ^1

Shoe Big Brother, The "Inivisible Foot" of Economics in every shoe!

“One of the chips in our shoes in the next 30 years will be smart than our brain. We will be less than our shoes! And we are stepping on them!” he joked. “It’s an interesting society that comes.
“All of the cities, social ecosystem infrastructure will be connected,” he added. “All those things will be connected. All connected securely and managed from the cloud.”^2

^0 boyswhocriedai.lovable.app/arc…
^1
https://boyswhocriedai.lovable.app/entry/son-2017

^2 techcrunch.com/2017/02/27/supe…

#TechPR #AISalami #MasayoshiSon #BrightSidingPrivaeEquity #FuturologyBubble
#AIPredictions

/HT @Bruce Sterling @bruces