AI is not just another tech revolution. It’s the perfect storm of surveillance, manipulation, and digital obedience — and the far right already has a head start…
This is a summary of my greatest fear at the moment. I knew when musk was stealing the nation’s data in each federal agency it had absolutely nothing to do with waste or fraud. The magas are now in an extremely powerful position to tighten the reins on our society… and it will only tighten more as their days, months, years advance.
Scary shit, but as always the people who need to know this,and what is really going on, either aren't tuned in, or are tuned in to right wing hate media.
This tariff war and empty shelves will not affect me, not at all, but it will affect the likes of truck drivers,whom voted for Trump by at least 90%, the teamsters backed Trump. Now thanks to the tariff war, the ports of America are empty. The port of Seattle is empty, and truckers can't make any money, same shit for farmers,who voted for Trump, and by the way neither farmers or truckers voted for Trump because of the price of eggs, it was because of woke and DEI, the media is still hard at work perpetuating a lie, because the media is corporate and it is the corporations, that wanted Trump because of tax breaks and deregulation.
Finally, this 747 gift from Qatar is a Trojan Horse (literally) Qatar is friendly with, if not an ally of Iran,and Iran is an ally of Putin.
The presidential suite of planes, all have highly classified, very sophisticated comms and navigation equipment.
So I ask what back doors, even a kill switch (controlled by Iran) have been installed in the plane.
If the NSA, DOD,DOJ, NHS were not under control of Trump and his cronies, the plane would be swept thoroughly from nose to tail, and all electronics stripped and reinstalled under supervision.
But we know it won't. All conversations and transmissions will be bugged, Russia has some very sophisticated spy technology, better than ors in fact.
I can see the interior of the craft, gaudy, gold in everything.
Many Commies and Nazis characterized themselves as "technocrats."
I may sound paranoid but we're already bugged. Woody Allen had a schtick where all electronic devices had anthrotropic characteristics and he would argue with his toaster. In 2025, that's not far from the truth.
AI was in force in the minds of science fiction writers. Dick Tracy, the comic strip contained premonitions of devices like cell phones that existed only in science fiction. An early example is Jack Williamson's 1948 novel The Humanoids, in which a race of humanoid robots, in the name of their Prime Directive – "to serve and obey and guard men from harm" – essentially assume control of every aspect of human life. No humans may engage in any behavior that might endanger them, and every human action is scrutinized carefully. Humans who resist the Prime Directive are taken away and lobotomized, so they may be happy under the new mechanoids' rule. Though still under human authority, Isaac Asimov's Zeroth Law of the Three Laws of Robotics similarly implied a benevolent guidance by robots. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence_in_fiction
Right wing think tanks from the '50s were completely obsessed with what brought Hitler to power -- the inflation duiring the Weimar Republic in Deutchland. A barrel load of Deutchmarks could not buy a loaf of bread. The concept of crypto comes from that mentality.
Electronics monitor us through various means, including tracking location, browsing buying habits, and purchases. This is done using GPS, Wi-Fi, mobile data, and the data generated when using online services. These technologies allow companies to collect and analyze personal information, which can be used for targeted advertising, personalized experiences, and in some cases, to monitor our behavior. When the Chinese military hacked my security clearance in 2014, they got my financial records, my medical records, my DNA, my fingerprints....
AI can probably digest this info.... Many companies do "data mining."
Scary shit Daniel. Years ago I read that fiber optics was a two way channel, your TV could spy on you. Well when it involves only a DVR (which is a computer) and an older TV, pretty hard to do, but with Smart TV's, they can only spy on you while in your house and the TV off.
I have Dish (satellite) and supposedly the communication is only one way, however I have had problems where the Tech at Dish asked permission and I gave it to take control of the TV.
Now they have smart washers, dryers, refrigerators, alarm clocks, and then there is Alexis and other devices we talk to and which talk back.
There was word that the Furby (remember them) were also secret Chinese listening devices, problem is that they would need to communicate with a receiver within line of sight, and a short distance away. Line of sight limits the range of a receiver, as the radio waves travel in a straight line, and because of the curvature of the earth, they can't be received unless the antenna is thousands of feet high, and eventually higher, miles high.
We used a manpack portable radio, that transmitted on FM, called a PRC 25 in Nam, and later a PRC 77. The PRC 77 was upgraded with a pigtail antenna that could transmit to satellites..
Their were two antenna's on the PRC 25/77 one was a flexible blade entenna, max transmission range was. 2.5 miles,if needed further range there was a whip antenna, that was joined together in sections, with a rubber band like string running through them, and quickly broken down into one small bundle.
The PRC 25 with blade antenna could communicate with aircraft that reached altitude departing hundreds of miles away, but not on the ground with another radio about 2.5 miles.
All this to say the limit of transmssion range is limited by line of sight, unless the transmitter is HF or LF, and both require massive antennas, and massive power.
During the 1965 India Pakistan war, the U.S. had teams assigned to both sides, and at night they would communicate with each other over HF radios, until the Indians and Pakistanis found out.
The only way to listen in, is to access the WiFi, and then they must know the WEP code
and still range is limited, because broadcast signals (radio, TV, wifi) range is limited by the law of inverse squares, the further from the source the weaker the signal. For instance the gravitational pull on the ISS and it's occupants is a little over .94 that of earth, and the gravitational pull on the face of Earth is measured at 32 ft per second per second.
So it is with radios and wifi, to extend the signal strength, one must extend the power of the transmitter. Alternatively increase the sensitivity of the receiver, as is the case with the Dish Network receiver (which is actually a computer)
Now my Dish computer is actually a transceiver,it can receive and transmit via Satellite, and it is hooked up to a Smart TV, that can see what is going on.
Not all smart TVs have built-in cameras, but some do. Many high-end models, especially brands like Samsung and LG, may have cameras for features like video calling, gesture control, or data collection. To determine if your smart TV has a camera, check the user manual, look for small camera lenses around the bezel or base, or see if the TV offers features like video calling or facial recognition
If your device has Zoom, you can be monitored, If you communicate via cell phone, you are being monitored,and the Data collection center of the NSA at Bluffdale, UT is collecting and monitoring and archiving your communications.
I grew up reading those same stories and remember that they rarely ended well for the human race. But carry this even further, gentlemen. If every smart device in your house is potentially an "Artificial Informant" than saying a flagged word like "assassination" or "bomb" could mean that the automatic recording and analysis starts. Soon enough the system becomes so big that nobody knows all of it or can control, much less stop, it. This is the ultimate Orwellian nightmare and short of living like Ted Kaczynski there is no place where you can know that you're alone.
Mr. Weil, a Faraday cage will protect one from the listening of Big Brother. All intelligence agencies use them. It is a Faraday cage which protects your retinas, lenses and corneas from being cooked by your friendly, kitchen microwave oven. It is not really necessary to live in isolation as Ted Kaczinski did. Any modern Freshman course in Physics will explain how electromagnetic radiation works [To the extent that we do "know" how it works. I have always been of the opinion that Newton thrust us back, intellectually, to the age of mysticism with his notion of gravity and it's "laws," and we can say the same about the concept of electromagnetic radiation and its "laws" as well; which were first discussed by John Proteus Steinmetz, Michel Faraday, and Nicola Tesla.] and one can figure out how to protect oneself from Big Brother thanks to that limited knowledge.
My own belief is that way too much fear and hand wringing are being displayed over the actual or possible misuse of this new technology. An informed public shall figure out how to protect against its abuse. The ability to code information [Not to say knowledge] is expanding impressively, no question about it. But I think the public is perhaps a bit too much overly impressed by it. And draws unwarranted, even incorrect implications from this rapidly expanding field of engineering. A modern fighter plane, eg. the F35, has 8 million lines of code in its computerized control system. Compare this with the control system of the best fighter plane of only 85 years ago, like eg. the P38 Lightening , which had zero lines of code. This is impressive. But let us not panic and draw unwarranted conclusions from it.
Over the broad sweep of time, human kind has always expanded its production of energy and information per capita. Never has this expansion reversed itself. NEVER. This is a rarely recognized "law" of history.
We have always survived and adjusted to the next phase of this expansion of energy and information and we shall continue to do so. This great, important "law" of history was first pointed out by the true father of Cultural Anthropology Leslie White and his student Beth Dillingham at the University of Michigan back in the 1950s. Because he was the only thinker to derive a "law" of nature about our social existence [so far]; I believe White shall be recognized, eventually, as the Isaac Newton of the Social sciences. Do not take my word for it. You can easily find Leslie White and Beth Dillingham, and Steinmetz, Tesla and Faraday in the literature.
The greatest, most impressive expansion of energy production is, of course Nuclear. It is possible, even conceivable, that these nuclear devices could eliminate all life larger than a cockroach on Earth. But we still do have it in our power to minimize the likelihood of this cosmic catastrophe.
Thank you Gerald, I just looked up White and will have to read what he and Dillingham wrote. But there certainly are times when access to energy or information declined for a people, consider civilization collapses from the Bronze Age through Rome and to modern times. Then folks just had less.
Regarding Faraday cages, I know them well, since I'm living in one! When we moved to a big apartment house my ham radio wire antenna never got a signal out so I had to get a portable station. (Actually I obtained every FCC license from Morse to satellite, but that was just for fun.) Regarding EM radiation, the point is that if these "Internet of things" transmitters can piggyback on a house's normal online connection then you don't need to get a signal beyond the immediate indoor locale. I frankly don't know if something like 5G could handle that, but it doesn't seem technically impossible either.
Regarding the public, unfortunately I think the majority of people have a pretty darn poor understanding of science and technology. Certainly fantasy movies and TV shows aren't critiqued for playing fast and loose with the laws of nature and while that is entertainment I doubt if the average person even realizes that their cellphone (and there's your listening transmitter again) is actually a radio. Thus to my mind most people will have no idea they are being bugged nor how to protect themselves in any meaningful way. Obviously some people get how the universe works, and there is interest in astronomy and such, but dig down a bit and even something like climate change isn't well understood (or believed) by enough to make a difference.
Mr. Weil, it just occurred to me that I neglected to respond to your comments about how there have been times historically when succeeding generations of a particular nation or even a culture seem to collapse and reappear later with less energy and information per capita than their previous existence produced. This is undeniably true. You used the Bronze Age as an example, and Rome and Moscow. Good ones. But the reversal is temporary. And the increase in energy and information continues to increase; either in those nations and cultures, or in neighboring ones. There are some other fairly modern examples, eg. Japan and Germany immediately after WWll. Those are the only contemporary examples I can think of. And there have been none since those happened 80 years ago.
Mr. Weil, after the word "difference" in your reply; the rest of your response seems to be missing in this blog. I wonder what happened to your missing words. I got your full response in my email, though. I do not understand how these things work.
I must say I am impressed with your accomplishments in ham radio. You probably know a lot more about this topic than I do.
As for astronomy; it has been a hobby of mine since I was young. I took Celestial Mechanics at the Univ. of Mich. as an undergrad. It fit in well with the Math and Physics courses I was taking at the time. I thought Celestial Mechanics was great. But I was thrown for a loop by the topic of celestial perturbations. Way too friggin complicated for me to care much about it. But of course, those NASA engineers must pay attention to it. Better them than me!
Osama Bin Laden realized how dangerous a cell phone could be. So he never carried one; in order to remain hidden. It worked until it didn't.
To save you some time in searching I can point you to a small book by White and Dillingham titled THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE. Burgess Publishing company, Minneapolis, 1973.
I think this little volume was part of a series called Basic Concepts In Anthropology. The last chapter: How Culture Evolved ; is, I believe, where you will find the topic about energy per capita... I think. I took courses from these people as an undergrad. They blew my mind.
I think as a young man I probably fell in love with Dillingham. However, it took me a long time during which my thinking matured and I became husband to a woman who was one of Dillingham's best students, and a professor myself; before I began to realize just how earth shaking her thinking was. You can probably guess that that young woman who I married changed my life and career directions. Ironically; her name is Leslie. We married 58 years ago and never looked back in regret.
Not just the Government, Daniel, but billionaires, maybe the reason that want more and more money is to build and stock these enormous, luxury survival bunkers. There have been some articles on Medium.Com about these billionaire bunkers, alas they are behind a pay wall. I can name search medium using the word bunker, but to no avail, you have to be paid subscribe to read them
The problem with such bunkers is that built underground they require ventilation shafts and filters, also they have equipment to generate electricity, and they require fuel, unless they are solar or wind, but then you would need solar and wind farms that cover hundreds of acres, and even those require maintenance and cleaning.
The big problem is maintenance and staffing, the more staff you have to maintain the equipment, the more land, air, food and water you need.
And since mechanical equipment breaks down,you need spare parts, and in such a scenario you don't have a source of spare parts.
I am watching Paradise on episode 3, and it is so full of logic gaps, that the only reason I watch it is to see when and how the murder and scheming of Sinatra catches up with her.
Bottom line, no matter how wealthy, you can run but you can't hide from mother nature.
When people hear the words “Artificial Intelligence” they think it means Artificial Sentience. There is no such technology. AI cannot tell truth from lies, subjectivity from objectivity. It’s very little different from traditional programming, only the logic models are more complex. It only does what it’s told, and if there’s prejudice in the algorithm, the AI, be it machine learning or other AI technique, is prejudiced.
In binary math, true/false may be the only options.
On cross examination, the only options may be yes or no.
Check out the K scale on the MMPI. The Crime Classification Manual was published in 1992, and introduced the term "criminal investigative analysis." In 1999, the percentage of accurate criminal profilers was only estimated to be at 21%, whereas in 2020 the accuracy was estimated to be at 86%. By 2025, I bet it's close to 100%.
Mr. Solomon, I took a BA in Psychology years ago. We used the MMPI. I was never overly impressed by the MMPI. No one really knew what it all meant. If it even meant anything. Similarly, I am not much impressed by "criminal profiling". It is a beautiful example of junk science parading as something real. Its great weakness is psychological reductionism. Something which is greatly encouraged in our overwhelmingly unregulated capitalist economic system with its top-down hierarchy.
Well said Paul. Please see my comments elsewhere on today's blog. We humans are spontaneous, symbol-creating creatures. The only such creatures in existence on this planet.
Thom is going to talk about Republicans cutting our benefits for a tax cut for the billionaires. Do not conflate the two. Billionaires do not pay taxes. They do not get a salary. They borrow against their stocks' value, as collateral. Maga Repubs think they are saving us by returning to the "old ways" of living but they will find out soon enough that they have become superfluous.
Certainly true for people like Bezos and Musk. But they represent maybe at most 1% of the population. Thiel, a billionaire investor and PayPal co-founder with Musk, leveraged a Roth IRA to accumulate over $5 billion, completely tax-free. This strategy involved investing in early-stage company shares (like those in PayPal and Facebook) which he then contributed to his Roth IRA, allowing them to grow tax-free. He could then withdraw the gains tax-free at age 59.5
You'd think Musk, Bezos or Thiel could give a shit about tax cuts as they don't have to pay their fair share.
Ms. Duncan, good point. I have always paid taxes which were automatically deducted from my paycheck. I never saw that money. I had no choice in the matter. 97% of working Americans are in that position with me. The billionaires take that tax money that they never paid and they lend it to the government so the government can pay for programs, mostly the military. Then our government pays that loan back to those billionaires plus INTEREST made up from OUR TAX PAYMENTS.
When in China, 2019, for work, my face was scanned as soon as I got off the plane, then recognized EVERYWHERE - every business, street food market and The Great Wall. It is a major tool of that authoritarian regime/government, along with tightly controlled State media. A most important topic for today. Thank you for bringing it to light and suggesting immediate action. The USA is fast becoming what we have always labeled an evil empire.
At least for now, Facial Recognition is not yet the authoritarian tool here as it was in China. Surely there are those in this administration that wish it so, but I would guess they lack the knowhow or perseverance to enforce it completely. It's my impression these guys are pretty dim - even Musk. But Musk clearly knows how to hire those with the intelligence needed to make such an intrusion on our privacy and rights. It's what he has been up to all along.
Thom, Trump's takeover of our government is really a war against women. This war is a war he cannot win if the good women of this country unite and organize a "Call in Sick, Stay at Home" protest. There is no executive order, Congressional legislation, or Supreme Court decision that can force women to do what is expected them.
The trump administration would crumble and fail if the good women of this country called in sick, and stayed home because they are sick and tired of trump's suppression of women's rights. They would declare to their significant others, "I'm sorry Honey, but I have a headache today and I am too sick to do anything that is expected of me." The country would come to a screeching halt! In a manner of days, schools and airports would close, mail would not be delivered, and as other groups of essential workers join the protest, trump would be blamed for shutting down the government, our economy, and our country.
This may seem like a desperate plan to save our democracy and it will take great courage and sacrifice by our country's women to save our country. But this is exactly what women have done throughout our country's history. They stepped up and forward, supported, took on the responsibilities to cared for the family, the wounded, manufactured airplanes and ships, and did whatever was necessary to protect our country. They did this because the welfare of their children's and grandchildren's future is their top priority. That's who women are.
Today's men of power have failed to protect our women and children. There is nothing left of the Constitution to stop trump from becoming a dictator and changing our country into one like Russia, North Korea, or Hungary. Once Trump has taken control of our government, it will take the American Civil War II or World War III to get rid of his administration.
We only have two choices. We either accept and live with Trump's plan, or the women fight to stop him. It will be amazing how fast the good men of our country join the women's call in sick, stay at home protest.
It's really power of the women that rules this country, but only if they use it.
To quote the loveable, if a tad disheveled, TV detective, Lt. Columbo:
"Just one more thing. . ."
As in Gaza, AI will not be running (executing (pun intended)) just on mainframes.
It will be frighteningly mobile, also.
Killer : Insects, Flying/Hovering Drones, Humanoids, Dogs, and more.
Maybe, even, a dozen roses for you to take a whiff of on your day. Then, detecting its target, it sprays you with a liberal dose of a Novachuk-type ultra-lethal mist.
Perhaps you step out of your home or car's door, then a lurking drone drops to eye-level and blasts you in the face.
I hate to say it, but these things could be racially targetable, too.
Our Brave New World will take a fair amount of bravery.
Dear Leader has his human connected drones plugged into what he wants. But, it is obvious to the other psychopaths involved that MAGA is not ENOUGH.
We have a lot of work ahead of us. This AI revolution is HUGE. I am hoping Anonymous is going to be of some help in this area.
Garbage in/garbage out still applies, but it seems very quaint for today's threats. Since SCOTUS ruled money is speech and corporations are people, we can imagine that AI will have their blessing too. I hope they get a taste of what it can do, then maybe they won't try to gaslight us on this too.
Alis, I like your use of the phrase "Garbage in/garbage out." We grad. students repeated it frequently when we were using the university's, then, huge computer to help us with our math calculations associated with the surveys we were conducting at Iowa State University years ago. The phrase is an implicit recognition that computers do not spontaneously "think" as we humans do. They are machines which carry out our instructions. We "think" they perform.
What Thom describes was already the norm in Soviet East Germany until the collapse of the USSR and the teardown of the Berlin Wall. I did some consulting work for the Saxon government after "The Wall" came down. You could not even make a phone call in Dresden unless one of Putin's stooges was available to listen in - like the old US party-line telephones of yore. All phone lines were redirected through Putin's Dresden KGB office. It took years to unwire the mess. To say the least, KGB Vlad was not a hero of the Saxon people. Back then, Russia had a file on everybody. All this AI crap is likely to do is to automate what Putin did so Americans will not even realize that they are under the constant vigilant eye of Big Brother until ICE Barbie's thugs come banging on your door.
I’ve said this before- every advancement by the human race that was intended for good has been perverted by bad players seeking their own gain. AI has the potential to do incredible good but we are who we are.
Here is an excerpt from the Bulwarks daily news letter'
Food for thought
"One way to think about the start of World War II is that it broke out at a very specific moment—a moment when, following the end of World War I, Great Britain was no longer capable of leading the world order but the United States was not yet willing to lead it.
As Eric and Eliot pointed out, our current moment half-rhymes with that:
The United States is no longer willing to lead the world order, but China is not yet capable of leading it.
Once you understand this dynamic, a bunch of things about the future become clear..."
Mr. Farrar, those people at the Bulwark must be reading the British historian A.J.P. Taylor's book THE ORIGINS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR. Taylor was one of England's greatest historians. But he got himself into lots of hot water with his controversial book.
On the other hand; perhaps we should shift our attention to the still live and active economist jeffery Sachs and ask: Why do we need a world leader?
You are the only other person. I've "met" that has read A J P Taylor.
Whether we need a world leader or not is a futile question, there never will be one, and were there one he would be a mega big brother.
The only form of leadership that would work, and not suppress, humanity would be moral leadership, and the species will never produce one such. Attempts have been made, but they have all been perverted by men with their own designs, their own fears and needs
Machiavelli, was right, the only leadership that works is force, and force is achieved by fear.
I am reminded of Thomas Jefferson, he was an elitist, in that his democratic Republic, was a Republic in which only the elite (the propertied male) had a say, he disdained the notion of participation by "everyman".
He was disabused of commoner democracy, by his attendance at a business meeting of a baptist church in Pittsylvania Co, VA, squabbling, factions, breaking up into physical confrontation.. Truth seems to be that he was disabused of participation in governing by the common man,perhaps they didn't have the "stuff" the capability, the higher order thinking for self rule, and broke off into self serving factions.
This has sure proven to be the case,hasn't it. Look at,for instance, the Republican Party, a coalition so billionaires, capitalists, tech bros, white nationalists, Christian theocrats,patriarchs. racists welded together into one fascist fist.
Then compare to the Democrats. a tentative and fragile coalition, of many factions, each demanding recognition and priority.
Extrapolate the situation to the world. All politics are local, each nation has the same problem, local interests with their own agenda and needs, have to be welded or pounded into unity and held there by force, actual or implied.
The Rwanda problem of Hutu resentment of the Tutsi has not been solved, only repressed and again the Tutsi hold the reigns of power in Rwanda, and the Hutu resent it. The same situation as "The Lost Cause" mentality.
The UN could be the seat of a world leader, but he would have to be ruthless and repressive and abandon all notions of human and civil rights
Man has tried, but Siddhartha Gautama and Jesus failed. Muhammad came close,but he used the sword, while the later used man's better angels.
Thank you. I have been following your writing for quite some time and you have been warning us all about AI and its use by dictators. We are it deep trouble unless something is done to regulate AI. Thank you again. Watch your six.
Have you ever tried to get rid of blackberry bushes? Even when you think you have dug down and cut out its roots, it will sprout up and spread quickly. One must be vigilant every day, every month, every year after year to keep it at least under some control. AI is the same.
ve gotten rid of blackberry bushes, I spray them with Image, blackberry and bush killer. Yeh I know, that upsets a lot of folk, but it is my property and they are a nuisance.
My wife and I watched The Conclave last night. It included a homily that made me stop it and copy down the words. You don't have to be a Catholic or religious to find wisdom in these words. My guess is that they sprang from a myth thousands of years earlier.
Certainty is the great enemy of unity.
Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance.
Even Christ was not certain at the end.
My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
He cried out in his agony at the ninth hour on the cross.
Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt.
If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery.
And therefore, no need for faith.
Let us pray that God will grant us a pope who doubts.
And let him grant us a pope who sins and asks for forgiveness and who carries on.
The first step was to establish and endlessly repeat the concept of "fake news". MSM grinned along with a wink. This greased the always prevailing doubt of certainty about "facts" presented, a prescient and powerful base for later AI weaponry. This also reveals how far ahead of the game Trump and related fascists were. Democrats concurrently either pumped up a whiff of dramatic, condescending personal affront, or later proved their hipness by using that phrase themselves. Always pompous brass, and clueless. Or, should any further evidence of curious non- action be needed, knowing compliance. A mutual welcome to your new America.
Thanks Thom, I think I am pretty immune from propaganda with my consumption of media, both old and new. But I was gobsmacked by the Chinese-sourced anti-MAGA AI video clips I saw on IG with the trade war. They were very effective and I could see how they would be demoralizing to the Trump base if allowed to continue. They included the obese Americans in rusted factories that we all saw but included Trump as an inconsolable toddler, Karoline Leavitt admitting to WH lies with fabricated speech and my favorite, Trump applying eyeliner to a freakish JD Vance.
I honestly think these Chinese AI videos were perceived to bring harm to Trump's popularity if allowed to continue unabated. I also think they played a role in the White House de-escalating the trade war (beyond the fears of a self-induced recession and the lack of Chinese goods on shelves of Walmart). I will be curious to see if they go away with the current trade deal. I agree that these types of media will bring immense harm to the body politic because these AI videos will be emotionally resonate with voters, especially the less informed but really all of us.
This is a summary of my greatest fear at the moment. I knew when musk was stealing the nation’s data in each federal agency it had absolutely nothing to do with waste or fraud. The magas are now in an extremely powerful position to tighten the reins on our society… and it will only tighten more as their days, months, years advance.
Consider Musk and his Muskovites gaining access to all government info.
The Musk/Trump trip to Ft. Knox.
Musk converting dollars to crypto.
Yes… and the story continues… ending up in techno feudalism imho. AI will track every individual’s every move, spoken thought, and desire.
Scary shit, but as always the people who need to know this,and what is really going on, either aren't tuned in, or are tuned in to right wing hate media.
This tariff war and empty shelves will not affect me, not at all, but it will affect the likes of truck drivers,whom voted for Trump by at least 90%, the teamsters backed Trump. Now thanks to the tariff war, the ports of America are empty. The port of Seattle is empty, and truckers can't make any money, same shit for farmers,who voted for Trump, and by the way neither farmers or truckers voted for Trump because of the price of eggs, it was because of woke and DEI, the media is still hard at work perpetuating a lie, because the media is corporate and it is the corporations, that wanted Trump because of tax breaks and deregulation.
Finally, this 747 gift from Qatar is a Trojan Horse (literally) Qatar is friendly with, if not an ally of Iran,and Iran is an ally of Putin.
The presidential suite of planes, all have highly classified, very sophisticated comms and navigation equipment.
So I ask what back doors, even a kill switch (controlled by Iran) have been installed in the plane.
If the NSA, DOD,DOJ, NHS were not under control of Trump and his cronies, the plane would be swept thoroughly from nose to tail, and all electronics stripped and reinstalled under supervision.
But we know it won't. All conversations and transmissions will be bugged, Russia has some very sophisticated spy technology, better than ors in fact.
I can see the interior of the craft, gaudy, gold in everything.
Many Commies and Nazis characterized themselves as "technocrats."
I may sound paranoid but we're already bugged. Woody Allen had a schtick where all electronic devices had anthrotropic characteristics and he would argue with his toaster. In 2025, that's not far from the truth.
AI was in force in the minds of science fiction writers. Dick Tracy, the comic strip contained premonitions of devices like cell phones that existed only in science fiction. An early example is Jack Williamson's 1948 novel The Humanoids, in which a race of humanoid robots, in the name of their Prime Directive – "to serve and obey and guard men from harm" – essentially assume control of every aspect of human life. No humans may engage in any behavior that might endanger them, and every human action is scrutinized carefully. Humans who resist the Prime Directive are taken away and lobotomized, so they may be happy under the new mechanoids' rule. Though still under human authority, Isaac Asimov's Zeroth Law of the Three Laws of Robotics similarly implied a benevolent guidance by robots. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence_in_fiction
Right wing think tanks from the '50s were completely obsessed with what brought Hitler to power -- the inflation duiring the Weimar Republic in Deutchland. A barrel load of Deutchmarks could not buy a loaf of bread. The concept of crypto comes from that mentality.
Electronics monitor us through various means, including tracking location, browsing buying habits, and purchases. This is done using GPS, Wi-Fi, mobile data, and the data generated when using online services. These technologies allow companies to collect and analyze personal information, which can be used for targeted advertising, personalized experiences, and in some cases, to monitor our behavior. When the Chinese military hacked my security clearance in 2014, they got my financial records, my medical records, my DNA, my fingerprints....
AI can probably digest this info.... Many companies do "data mining."
Scary shit Daniel. Years ago I read that fiber optics was a two way channel, your TV could spy on you. Well when it involves only a DVR (which is a computer) and an older TV, pretty hard to do, but with Smart TV's, they can only spy on you while in your house and the TV off.
I have Dish (satellite) and supposedly the communication is only one way, however I have had problems where the Tech at Dish asked permission and I gave it to take control of the TV.
Now they have smart washers, dryers, refrigerators, alarm clocks, and then there is Alexis and other devices we talk to and which talk back.
There was word that the Furby (remember them) were also secret Chinese listening devices, problem is that they would need to communicate with a receiver within line of sight, and a short distance away. Line of sight limits the range of a receiver, as the radio waves travel in a straight line, and because of the curvature of the earth, they can't be received unless the antenna is thousands of feet high, and eventually higher, miles high.
We used a manpack portable radio, that transmitted on FM, called a PRC 25 in Nam, and later a PRC 77. The PRC 77 was upgraded with a pigtail antenna that could transmit to satellites..
Their were two antenna's on the PRC 25/77 one was a flexible blade entenna, max transmission range was. 2.5 miles,if needed further range there was a whip antenna, that was joined together in sections, with a rubber band like string running through them, and quickly broken down into one small bundle.
The PRC 25 with blade antenna could communicate with aircraft that reached altitude departing hundreds of miles away, but not on the ground with another radio about 2.5 miles.
All this to say the limit of transmssion range is limited by line of sight, unless the transmitter is HF or LF, and both require massive antennas, and massive power.
During the 1965 India Pakistan war, the U.S. had teams assigned to both sides, and at night they would communicate with each other over HF radios, until the Indians and Pakistanis found out.
The only way to listen in, is to access the WiFi, and then they must know the WEP code
and still range is limited, because broadcast signals (radio, TV, wifi) range is limited by the law of inverse squares, the further from the source the weaker the signal. For instance the gravitational pull on the ISS and it's occupants is a little over .94 that of earth, and the gravitational pull on the face of Earth is measured at 32 ft per second per second.
So it is with radios and wifi, to extend the signal strength, one must extend the power of the transmitter. Alternatively increase the sensitivity of the receiver, as is the case with the Dish Network receiver (which is actually a computer)
Now my Dish computer is actually a transceiver,it can receive and transmit via Satellite, and it is hooked up to a Smart TV, that can see what is going on.
Not all smart TVs have built-in cameras, but some do. Many high-end models, especially brands like Samsung and LG, may have cameras for features like video calling, gesture control, or data collection. To determine if your smart TV has a camera, check the user manual, look for small camera lenses around the bezel or base, or see if the TV offers features like video calling or facial recognition
If your device has Zoom, you can be monitored, If you communicate via cell phone, you are being monitored,and the Data collection center of the NSA at Bluffdale, UT is collecting and monitoring and archiving your communications.
I grew up reading those same stories and remember that they rarely ended well for the human race. But carry this even further, gentlemen. If every smart device in your house is potentially an "Artificial Informant" than saying a flagged word like "assassination" or "bomb" could mean that the automatic recording and analysis starts. Soon enough the system becomes so big that nobody knows all of it or can control, much less stop, it. This is the ultimate Orwellian nightmare and short of living like Ted Kaczynski there is no place where you can know that you're alone.
Mr. Weil, a Faraday cage will protect one from the listening of Big Brother. All intelligence agencies use them. It is a Faraday cage which protects your retinas, lenses and corneas from being cooked by your friendly, kitchen microwave oven. It is not really necessary to live in isolation as Ted Kaczinski did. Any modern Freshman course in Physics will explain how electromagnetic radiation works [To the extent that we do "know" how it works. I have always been of the opinion that Newton thrust us back, intellectually, to the age of mysticism with his notion of gravity and it's "laws," and we can say the same about the concept of electromagnetic radiation and its "laws" as well; which were first discussed by John Proteus Steinmetz, Michel Faraday, and Nicola Tesla.] and one can figure out how to protect oneself from Big Brother thanks to that limited knowledge.
My own belief is that way too much fear and hand wringing are being displayed over the actual or possible misuse of this new technology. An informed public shall figure out how to protect against its abuse. The ability to code information [Not to say knowledge] is expanding impressively, no question about it. But I think the public is perhaps a bit too much overly impressed by it. And draws unwarranted, even incorrect implications from this rapidly expanding field of engineering. A modern fighter plane, eg. the F35, has 8 million lines of code in its computerized control system. Compare this with the control system of the best fighter plane of only 85 years ago, like eg. the P38 Lightening , which had zero lines of code. This is impressive. But let us not panic and draw unwarranted conclusions from it.
Over the broad sweep of time, human kind has always expanded its production of energy and information per capita. Never has this expansion reversed itself. NEVER. This is a rarely recognized "law" of history.
We have always survived and adjusted to the next phase of this expansion of energy and information and we shall continue to do so. This great, important "law" of history was first pointed out by the true father of Cultural Anthropology Leslie White and his student Beth Dillingham at the University of Michigan back in the 1950s. Because he was the only thinker to derive a "law" of nature about our social existence [so far]; I believe White shall be recognized, eventually, as the Isaac Newton of the Social sciences. Do not take my word for it. You can easily find Leslie White and Beth Dillingham, and Steinmetz, Tesla and Faraday in the literature.
The greatest, most impressive expansion of energy production is, of course Nuclear. It is possible, even conceivable, that these nuclear devices could eliminate all life larger than a cockroach on Earth. But we still do have it in our power to minimize the likelihood of this cosmic catastrophe.
Thank you Gerald, I just looked up White and will have to read what he and Dillingham wrote. But there certainly are times when access to energy or information declined for a people, consider civilization collapses from the Bronze Age through Rome and to modern times. Then folks just had less.
Regarding Faraday cages, I know them well, since I'm living in one! When we moved to a big apartment house my ham radio wire antenna never got a signal out so I had to get a portable station. (Actually I obtained every FCC license from Morse to satellite, but that was just for fun.) Regarding EM radiation, the point is that if these "Internet of things" transmitters can piggyback on a house's normal online connection then you don't need to get a signal beyond the immediate indoor locale. I frankly don't know if something like 5G could handle that, but it doesn't seem technically impossible either.
Regarding the public, unfortunately I think the majority of people have a pretty darn poor understanding of science and technology. Certainly fantasy movies and TV shows aren't critiqued for playing fast and loose with the laws of nature and while that is entertainment I doubt if the average person even realizes that their cellphone (and there's your listening transmitter again) is actually a radio. Thus to my mind most people will have no idea they are being bugged nor how to protect themselves in any meaningful way. Obviously some people get how the universe works, and there is interest in astronomy and such, but dig down a bit and even something like climate change isn't well understood (or believed) by enough to make a difference.
Mr. Weil, it just occurred to me that I neglected to respond to your comments about how there have been times historically when succeeding generations of a particular nation or even a culture seem to collapse and reappear later with less energy and information per capita than their previous existence produced. This is undeniably true. You used the Bronze Age as an example, and Rome and Moscow. Good ones. But the reversal is temporary. And the increase in energy and information continues to increase; either in those nations and cultures, or in neighboring ones. There are some other fairly modern examples, eg. Japan and Germany immediately after WWll. Those are the only contemporary examples I can think of. And there have been none since those happened 80 years ago.
Mr. Weil, after the word "difference" in your reply; the rest of your response seems to be missing in this blog. I wonder what happened to your missing words. I got your full response in my email, though. I do not understand how these things work.
I must say I am impressed with your accomplishments in ham radio. You probably know a lot more about this topic than I do.
As for astronomy; it has been a hobby of mine since I was young. I took Celestial Mechanics at the Univ. of Mich. as an undergrad. It fit in well with the Math and Physics courses I was taking at the time. I thought Celestial Mechanics was great. But I was thrown for a loop by the topic of celestial perturbations. Way too friggin complicated for me to care much about it. But of course, those NASA engineers must pay attention to it. Better them than me!
Osama Bin Laden realized how dangerous a cell phone could be. So he never carried one; in order to remain hidden. It worked until it didn't.
To save you some time in searching I can point you to a small book by White and Dillingham titled THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE. Burgess Publishing company, Minneapolis, 1973.
I think this little volume was part of a series called Basic Concepts In Anthropology. The last chapter: How Culture Evolved ; is, I believe, where you will find the topic about energy per capita... I think. I took courses from these people as an undergrad. They blew my mind.
I think as a young man I probably fell in love with Dillingham. However, it took me a long time during which my thinking matured and I became husband to a woman who was one of Dillingham's best students, and a professor myself; before I began to realize just how earth shaking her thinking was. You can probably guess that that young woman who I married changed my life and career directions. Ironically; her name is Leslie. We married 58 years ago and never looked back in regret.
The government has several underground installations......
On TV, the seres "Paradise."
Not just the Government, Daniel, but billionaires, maybe the reason that want more and more money is to build and stock these enormous, luxury survival bunkers. There have been some articles on Medium.Com about these billionaire bunkers, alas they are behind a pay wall. I can name search medium using the word bunker, but to no avail, you have to be paid subscribe to read them
The problem with such bunkers is that built underground they require ventilation shafts and filters, also they have equipment to generate electricity, and they require fuel, unless they are solar or wind, but then you would need solar and wind farms that cover hundreds of acres, and even those require maintenance and cleaning.
The big problem is maintenance and staffing, the more staff you have to maintain the equipment, the more land, air, food and water you need.
And since mechanical equipment breaks down,you need spare parts, and in such a scenario you don't have a source of spare parts.
I am watching Paradise on episode 3, and it is so full of logic gaps, that the only reason I watch it is to see when and how the murder and scheming of Sinatra catches up with her.
Bottom line, no matter how wealthy, you can run but you can't hide from mother nature.
😱😱😥😥
😡🤬🤯🥶😵💫☠️
When people hear the words “Artificial Intelligence” they think it means Artificial Sentience. There is no such technology. AI cannot tell truth from lies, subjectivity from objectivity. It’s very little different from traditional programming, only the logic models are more complex. It only does what it’s told, and if there’s prejudice in the algorithm, the AI, be it machine learning or other AI technique, is prejudiced.
In binary math, true/false may be the only options.
On cross examination, the only options may be yes or no.
Check out the K scale on the MMPI. The Crime Classification Manual was published in 1992, and introduced the term "criminal investigative analysis." In 1999, the percentage of accurate criminal profilers was only estimated to be at 21%, whereas in 2020 the accuracy was estimated to be at 86%. By 2025, I bet it's close to 100%.
When corrupt individuals change the criminal code to incriminate you and me, we will be auto-incarcerated.
Unfortunately Paul, we are already there.
Original sin.
Yes Mr. Solomon, one of the wonderfully painful gifts of our Judeo-Christian morality which we can do without.
Mr. Solomon, I took a BA in Psychology years ago. We used the MMPI. I was never overly impressed by the MMPI. No one really knew what it all meant. If it even meant anything. Similarly, I am not much impressed by "criminal profiling". It is a beautiful example of junk science parading as something real. Its great weakness is psychological reductionism. Something which is greatly encouraged in our overwhelmingly unregulated capitalist economic system with its top-down hierarchy.
I had about 70 or more PHD or MD experts testify in my cases over the years plus I had testimony about it.
With respect to the testing, backed up by clinical and other evidence, like MRIs.
The proof is the documented rate.
Respectfully, you don't actually know jack shit.
Well said Paul. Please see my comments elsewhere on today's blog. We humans are spontaneous, symbol-creating creatures. The only such creatures in existence on this planet.
Thom is going to talk about Republicans cutting our benefits for a tax cut for the billionaires. Do not conflate the two. Billionaires do not pay taxes. They do not get a salary. They borrow against their stocks' value, as collateral. Maga Repubs think they are saving us by returning to the "old ways" of living but they will find out soon enough that they have become superfluous.
Certainly true for people like Bezos and Musk. But they represent maybe at most 1% of the population. Thiel, a billionaire investor and PayPal co-founder with Musk, leveraged a Roth IRA to accumulate over $5 billion, completely tax-free. This strategy involved investing in early-stage company shares (like those in PayPal and Facebook) which he then contributed to his Roth IRA, allowing them to grow tax-free. He could then withdraw the gains tax-free at age 59.5
You'd think Musk, Bezos or Thiel could give a shit about tax cuts as they don't have to pay their fair share.
Ms. Duncan, good point. I have always paid taxes which were automatically deducted from my paycheck. I never saw that money. I had no choice in the matter. 97% of working Americans are in that position with me. The billionaires take that tax money that they never paid and they lend it to the government so the government can pay for programs, mostly the military. Then our government pays that loan back to those billionaires plus INTEREST made up from OUR TAX PAYMENTS.
Watta system.
When in China, 2019, for work, my face was scanned as soon as I got off the plane, then recognized EVERYWHERE - every business, street food market and The Great Wall. It is a major tool of that authoritarian regime/government, along with tightly controlled State media. A most important topic for today. Thank you for bringing it to light and suggesting immediate action. The USA is fast becoming what we have always labeled an evil empire.
Mr. Johnson, perhaps we should say the U.S. and China are already there.
At least for now, Facial Recognition is not yet the authoritarian tool here as it was in China. Surely there are those in this administration that wish it so, but I would guess they lack the knowhow or perseverance to enforce it completely. It's my impression these guys are pretty dim - even Musk. But Musk clearly knows how to hire those with the intelligence needed to make such an intrusion on our privacy and rights. It's what he has been up to all along.
Thom, Trump's takeover of our government is really a war against women. This war is a war he cannot win if the good women of this country unite and organize a "Call in Sick, Stay at Home" protest. There is no executive order, Congressional legislation, or Supreme Court decision that can force women to do what is expected them.
The trump administration would crumble and fail if the good women of this country called in sick, and stayed home because they are sick and tired of trump's suppression of women's rights. They would declare to their significant others, "I'm sorry Honey, but I have a headache today and I am too sick to do anything that is expected of me." The country would come to a screeching halt! In a manner of days, schools and airports would close, mail would not be delivered, and as other groups of essential workers join the protest, trump would be blamed for shutting down the government, our economy, and our country.
This may seem like a desperate plan to save our democracy and it will take great courage and sacrifice by our country's women to save our country. But this is exactly what women have done throughout our country's history. They stepped up and forward, supported, took on the responsibilities to cared for the family, the wounded, manufactured airplanes and ships, and did whatever was necessary to protect our country. They did this because the welfare of their children's and grandchildren's future is their top priority. That's who women are.
Today's men of power have failed to protect our women and children. There is nothing left of the Constitution to stop trump from becoming a dictator and changing our country into one like Russia, North Korea, or Hungary. Once Trump has taken control of our government, it will take the American Civil War II or World War III to get rid of his administration.
We only have two choices. We either accept and live with Trump's plan, or the women fight to stop him. It will be amazing how fast the good men of our country join the women's call in sick, stay at home protest.
It's really power of the women that rules this country, but only if they use it.
Grand overview, Mr. Hartmann. Thank you.
To quote the loveable, if a tad disheveled, TV detective, Lt. Columbo:
"Just one more thing. . ."
As in Gaza, AI will not be running (executing (pun intended)) just on mainframes.
It will be frighteningly mobile, also.
Killer : Insects, Flying/Hovering Drones, Humanoids, Dogs, and more.
Maybe, even, a dozen roses for you to take a whiff of on your day. Then, detecting its target, it sprays you with a liberal dose of a Novachuk-type ultra-lethal mist.
Perhaps you step out of your home or car's door, then a lurking drone drops to eye-level and blasts you in the face.
I hate to say it, but these things could be racially targetable, too.
Our Brave New World will take a fair amount of bravery.
Thanks, AI engineers. Note: "You're Next !!!"
Dear Leader has his human connected drones plugged into what he wants. But, it is obvious to the other psychopaths involved that MAGA is not ENOUGH.
We have a lot of work ahead of us. This AI revolution is HUGE. I am hoping Anonymous is going to be of some help in this area.
Garbage in/garbage out still applies, but it seems very quaint for today's threats. Since SCOTUS ruled money is speech and corporations are people, we can imagine that AI will have their blessing too. I hope they get a taste of what it can do, then maybe they won't try to gaslight us on this too.
Alis, I like your use of the phrase "Garbage in/garbage out." We grad. students repeated it frequently when we were using the university's, then, huge computer to help us with our math calculations associated with the surveys we were conducting at Iowa State University years ago. The phrase is an implicit recognition that computers do not spontaneously "think" as we humans do. They are machines which carry out our instructions. We "think" they perform.
What Thom describes was already the norm in Soviet East Germany until the collapse of the USSR and the teardown of the Berlin Wall. I did some consulting work for the Saxon government after "The Wall" came down. You could not even make a phone call in Dresden unless one of Putin's stooges was available to listen in - like the old US party-line telephones of yore. All phone lines were redirected through Putin's Dresden KGB office. It took years to unwire the mess. To say the least, KGB Vlad was not a hero of the Saxon people. Back then, Russia had a file on everybody. All this AI crap is likely to do is to automate what Putin did so Americans will not even realize that they are under the constant vigilant eye of Big Brother until ICE Barbie's thugs come banging on your door.
In my paranoia, the norm here.
I’ve said this before- every advancement by the human race that was intended for good has been perverted by bad players seeking their own gain. AI has the potential to do incredible good but we are who we are.
Here is an excerpt from the Bulwarks daily news letter'
Food for thought
"One way to think about the start of World War II is that it broke out at a very specific moment—a moment when, following the end of World War I, Great Britain was no longer capable of leading the world order but the United States was not yet willing to lead it.
As Eric and Eliot pointed out, our current moment half-rhymes with that:
The United States is no longer willing to lead the world order, but China is not yet capable of leading it.
Once you understand this dynamic, a bunch of things about the future become clear..."
Mr. Farrar, those people at the Bulwark must be reading the British historian A.J.P. Taylor's book THE ORIGINS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR. Taylor was one of England's greatest historians. But he got himself into lots of hot water with his controversial book.
On the other hand; perhaps we should shift our attention to the still live and active economist jeffery Sachs and ask: Why do we need a world leader?
You are the only other person. I've "met" that has read A J P Taylor.
Whether we need a world leader or not is a futile question, there never will be one, and were there one he would be a mega big brother.
The only form of leadership that would work, and not suppress, humanity would be moral leadership, and the species will never produce one such. Attempts have been made, but they have all been perverted by men with their own designs, their own fears and needs
Machiavelli, was right, the only leadership that works is force, and force is achieved by fear.
I am reminded of Thomas Jefferson, he was an elitist, in that his democratic Republic, was a Republic in which only the elite (the propertied male) had a say, he disdained the notion of participation by "everyman".
He was disabused of commoner democracy, by his attendance at a business meeting of a baptist church in Pittsylvania Co, VA, squabbling, factions, breaking up into physical confrontation.. Truth seems to be that he was disabused of participation in governing by the common man,perhaps they didn't have the "stuff" the capability, the higher order thinking for self rule, and broke off into self serving factions.
This has sure proven to be the case,hasn't it. Look at,for instance, the Republican Party, a coalition so billionaires, capitalists, tech bros, white nationalists, Christian theocrats,patriarchs. racists welded together into one fascist fist.
Then compare to the Democrats. a tentative and fragile coalition, of many factions, each demanding recognition and priority.
Extrapolate the situation to the world. All politics are local, each nation has the same problem, local interests with their own agenda and needs, have to be welded or pounded into unity and held there by force, actual or implied.
The Rwanda problem of Hutu resentment of the Tutsi has not been solved, only repressed and again the Tutsi hold the reigns of power in Rwanda, and the Hutu resent it. The same situation as "The Lost Cause" mentality.
The UN could be the seat of a world leader, but he would have to be ruthless and repressive and abandon all notions of human and civil rights
Man has tried, but Siddhartha Gautama and Jesus failed. Muhammad came close,but he used the sword, while the later used man's better angels.
Thom,
Thank you. I have been following your writing for quite some time and you have been warning us all about AI and its use by dictators. We are it deep trouble unless something is done to regulate AI. Thank you again. Watch your six.
Steve Dundas
Have you ever tried to get rid of blackberry bushes? Even when you think you have dug down and cut out its roots, it will sprout up and spread quickly. One must be vigilant every day, every month, every year after year to keep it at least under some control. AI is the same.
I
ve gotten rid of blackberry bushes, I spray them with Image, blackberry and bush killer. Yeh I know, that upsets a lot of folk, but it is my property and they are a nuisance.
Blackberry bushes was a metaphor
My wife and I watched The Conclave last night. It included a homily that made me stop it and copy down the words. You don't have to be a Catholic or religious to find wisdom in these words. My guess is that they sprang from a myth thousands of years earlier.
Certainty is the great enemy of unity.
Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance.
Even Christ was not certain at the end.
My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
He cried out in his agony at the ninth hour on the cross.
Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt.
If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery.
And therefore, no need for faith.
Let us pray that God will grant us a pope who doubts.
And let him grant us a pope who sins and asks for forgiveness and who carries on.
The Conclave
Mr. Richardson, in my life we have had only 3 presidents who walked in the fields of doubt:
FDR was probably our greatest. Which is why there were serious attempts on his life.
JFK was potentially our second greatest. It's what got him assassinated as in the story of Christ.
Jimmy Carter was probably the most openly honest and sincere.
Resolution: hermorphadite pope.
The first step was to establish and endlessly repeat the concept of "fake news". MSM grinned along with a wink. This greased the always prevailing doubt of certainty about "facts" presented, a prescient and powerful base for later AI weaponry. This also reveals how far ahead of the game Trump and related fascists were. Democrats concurrently either pumped up a whiff of dramatic, condescending personal affront, or later proved their hipness by using that phrase themselves. Always pompous brass, and clueless. Or, should any further evidence of curious non- action be needed, knowing compliance. A mutual welcome to your new America.
Thanks Thom, I think I am pretty immune from propaganda with my consumption of media, both old and new. But I was gobsmacked by the Chinese-sourced anti-MAGA AI video clips I saw on IG with the trade war. They were very effective and I could see how they would be demoralizing to the Trump base if allowed to continue. They included the obese Americans in rusted factories that we all saw but included Trump as an inconsolable toddler, Karoline Leavitt admitting to WH lies with fabricated speech and my favorite, Trump applying eyeliner to a freakish JD Vance.
I honestly think these Chinese AI videos were perceived to bring harm to Trump's popularity if allowed to continue unabated. I also think they played a role in the White House de-escalating the trade war (beyond the fears of a self-induced recession and the lack of Chinese goods on shelves of Walmart). I will be curious to see if they go away with the current trade deal. I agree that these types of media will bring immense harm to the body politic because these AI videos will be emotionally resonate with voters, especially the less informed but really all of us.