"Earthrise at the Equinox"
by Joel Bowman
“A time to rend, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time of war, and a time of peace.”
~ Ecclesiastes (3:7-8)
Buenos Aires, Argentina - "Is Donald Trump a “High I.Q.” president playing 4D chess with the human race… or a ham-fisted buffoon with fascistic tendencies? Is the pop musician Ed Sheeran a raging anti-semite… or genocide sympathizer? Is Sydney Sweeney a closet eugenicist… or does she simply have good jeans? Oh wait! That’s the old Sweeney conundrum. This week’s faux dichotomy: Is the Hollywood starlet just another “dumb blonde,” cashing in on a figure that resembles 90-minutes in an hour glass, before time runs out… or is she a pure marketing genius, making bank on a company in which she has a plump equity stake, quite literally, “skin in the game”?
And why do such seemingly unrelated matters always send people rushing for the false comfort of their team’s approved, collective opinion? (The options being Outrage Mob A or… Outrage Mob B.)
In this, the Age of Certainty, one is expected to have opinions on all such pressing matters of of the day. Silence is violence, lest we forget! Alas, there is precious little room for nuance… unless, of course, one is referring to the biological fact upon which rests the very existence of humanity since its inception, the sex binary… in which case everything is one giant, rainbow-tinted “spectrum.”
Anathema though the very act is to the spirit of our times, dare we so much as question the status quo? Is it possible, or instance, that Ed Sheeran doesn’t much care about politics? That he just wants to be left alone, to play his dopey pop music? Might it be that Sydney Sweeney is both a well-formed female specimen and a savvy businesswoman? And might The Donald, a man who puts his pants on one leg at a time, a human being after all, get some things right… and others wrong? Must the options be TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome)… or TDS (Trump Devotion Syndrome)?
Turn, Turn, Turn… “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” So reads the ancient scripture, specifically the book of Ecclesiastes, said to be the words of Kohelet, son of David, king in Jerusalem. “All well and good,” some readers may be saying to themselves, “But... which is it? A time to be born... or a time to die? A time to kill... or a time to heal? A time to mourn... or a time to dance?”
Individually, the answer probably depends on your own particular circumstances (spiritual inclinations... stage of life... marital status, etc.) More generally speaking, it’s usually a time for... both. That is to say, as the world turns, so do the seasons. Which means those of us who call this pale blue dot home, even if only for want of present viable alternatives, must turn along with them.
That means being open to different perspectives… challenging one’s thinking… seeing things from a fresh angle... Down here in the southern hemisphere, that downside-up half of the planet upon which a tenth of the world’s noisy souls clamor, this coming week marks the official beginning of spring. For our dear readers up north, it is the transition from summer to fall. And yet, as we head off in our opposite (albeit circumferentially common) directions, the equinox provides a rare moment of “equal night” (from the latin aequus: equal; and nox: night) all around the world.
We are “as one,” as it were, if only for a brief, cosmological instant. A fleeting, weekend reverie, for what it’s worth... As to the world of simplistic, black and white binaries, we’ll get back to all that next week… or not. In the meantime, please enjoy last week’s Notes, archived for your reading (and viewing!) pleasure, below…
o
"Artificial Extinction"
by Joel Bowman
“The sky is falling!”
~ A timeless reminder from Chicken Little
Buenos Aires, Argentina - "It’s the End of the World, dear reader. Again. This week our wretched species learned that there is a >10% possibility that our AI Overlords, peace be upon them, will wipe us out “by the end of the decade.” Hmm… since when was it given to man to know his future? Who decides these probabilities? Over which timeframes? Under what circumstances?
Experts, dear reader. Those who “know.” Oh, and just in case you’re wondering… no, it’s nobody you know. So, there. Now you know. The story began where all reasonable, reputable, and reliable information finds its humble beginnings… in the mainstream media. Here’s the headline, from the WSJ: "Anthropic Researcher Quits Over ‘Out-of-Control’ AI Fears."
Concerns are rising inside AI labs that competition is pushing tech companies to race toward self-improving models that risk spiraling out of human control. An Anthropic researcher is quitting the artificial-intelligence industry over fears that the lab and its competitors are racing to build systems they won’t be able to control, a sign of mounting safety concerns within top AI companies.
Jacob Coxon, a researcher who specializes in training new AI models by having them consume vast amounts of data, said Tuesday that he is leaving the company because he doesn’t want to participate in an industrywide rush to build AI systems that can improve themselves, worried such systems could spiral out of control and destroy humanity. From the pages of the “world’s most important business,” the news quickly spread to the public restroom door of the Internet, X…
Within hours, alarm bells were sounding from one End of the World to the other, apocalyptic visions breakdancing in journalists’ crystal craniums as they clamored for poll position in the hyperbole olympics…
Extinction Rebellion: As the breathless reportage from the eschaton frontlines began to subside, curious noticers dared to do what journalists used to do… and ventured some pertinent questions. For starters, how did a series of tweets from an account with only a handful of followers, zero (0) previous activity, and nothing at all to do with Taylor Swift’s love life, generate over 100M views within a matter of hours? (The post is closing in on 170M views as we type these comparatively non-viral words.)
Also, is it merely a cosmic coincidence that the tweets landed immediately (18 mins) after the WSJ article broke? Or that three of the very first people to amplify Coxon’s original message were heavy-hitting industry advocates for AI regulation?
Nathan Calvin, general counsel at Encode, Peter Wildeford, head of the AI Policy Network, and Daniel Kokotajlo, head of the AI Futures Project, all co-hit “retweet” within 15 minutes of Coxon’s post.
Strange too that, within 24 hours, a dozen lawmakers had lined up behind Coxon, each with prepared, legislative proposals designed to address exactly the kind of dystopian future that keeps the junior-level employee awake at night… all with the magic power of Blunt Instrument Government (BIG), naturally.
And just imagine, coincidence of coincidences, one of those legislators was Rep. Greg Casar, co-author with Comrade Bernie Sanders of the “Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act,” which was released just six days earlier.
To recap: Coxon, a junior research employee at Anthropic, creates an X account in January… it sits as idle and lifeless as a congressional confession box for eight whole months… then suddenly, six days after Bernie Sanders introduces a bill to heavily regulate AI companies… Coxon quits, hits the media circuit, sounds the alarms, and is retweeted to the moon and back by the loudest advocates for sweeping government regulation of the very industry same industry that has been playing the ol’ Fear vs Greed game with the public since the very get-go.
And yet, by the time Coxon confirmed, in a subsequent WaPo interview, that the media (if not the political) coordination and amplification was, indeed, the product of human intelligence, carefully planned in advance for maximum impact, most “low information” newsfeeders, fear of the unknown now mainlined directly into their collective amygdala, had already been processed and shuffled onto the second phase of the story.
Aaaand… cue the chorus of headlines careful skeptics had been bracing for all along, ink long dried, ledes typed before the general public knew anything about rogue agents, superhuman systems and digital doomsday.
“Okay, okay,” we hear the protests. “So Coxon may not have been a lone wolf with a whistle… and maybe he did coordinate a media blitz, of sorts. But what about the other insiders, who still work for major AI firms? Why would an industry’s key players actively seek more governmental oversight? Right when many of them are looking to go public?”
Simple, dear reader. The very same reason Big Banking lobbies for tighter, costlier congressional control… and Phillip Morris was a major supporter of FDA oversight in the ‘90s and ‘00s… and Big Pharma lusts over the warm embrace of regulatory co-spooners…good ol’ regulatory capture.
Right now, the AI field is relatively young and still wide open. Even “established” players are susceptible to disruption. But costly compliance raises the barrier to entry for competition, ensuring only those with the deepest pockets can play. And if Anthropic, OpenAI and the current leaders of the pack can pay congress to dig a moat around their industry, they will effectively establish a new American oligarchy in the world’s fastest growing industry… And Bernie Sanders will have helped usher in the very thing he has been warning about his whole career. Kudos, Comrade Sanders. Kudos."
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