thomasjkenney
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You stand in line at a jazz club. The doorperson asks to scan your pass. You’re allowed into the club.
You’ve just volunteered your Personal Health Information to the doorman, who, by allowing you in, has just communicated that bit of Personal Health Information to all the other folks in line, the other staff in the venue, the musicians, any passers-by. I assume that, even though they might not see the PHI facet of this, they surely know they are deliberately communicating that one status point (with MANY connections) to hundreds of third-party participants in the exchange.
That violation of HIPAA is a felony with a possible 10 year prison sentence.
You can’t get to the folks at the top of this. It’s the attacker/defender paradigm. How can you defend against new threats? How can you detect new threats in a pool of 8bn people? Think globally, act locally. Break the tools. Misused tools often break. Oops. Shoudn’t’a used that screwdriver to pry my 302 block into position. The Gates, Fauci, Schwab et al are tools. They are not invulnerable, and can be broken. They are obviously not the critical parts, as they seem to have fallen under a passing vehicle at some point. But there appears to be a need to have something like them to get things done.
So…excommunication. I have a hard time with the lamp-posts concept (was raised a peacenik), but I can certainly see us letting them all flee to NZ or Patag, and just barricading them. They can’t do s#!+ without oil, so let them run, then starve them out.
Woke up with a bad ‘unintended consequences’ thought this AM:
If beef production is eliminated, how long will it be until the large- and medium-sized mammals remaining on this continent are wiped out? I’m sure Uncle Ted just won’t get the same rush bow-hunting meal worms.
Music for Madamski:
Wynton Marsalis – Jazz in Marciac 2009
The Aristocrats – Pressure Relief
Paul Gilbert – Argument About PieI had a bad thought, and wrote the following. Since madamski has taken a powder, I’ll be the resident weirdo for the day.
1) Who/what collects input data to train the model?
2) What criteria to pre-filter input data?
3) How collated? Is model code vulnerable to things like lsd/ordering problem?
4) Does the machine have ‘Asimov Switch’?
5) Allowed/capable of self repair/replication?
6) Allowed/capable of morality?
7) Allowed/capable of emotion?
8) Opacity of operation? Can we still understand what it’s thinking, or has it escaped?
9) Air gap? Please…for the love of Dog…PLEASE TELL ME IT’S AT LEAST AIR GAPPED!!
10) Automobile? Is it in a robot?This is not an exhaustive list of questions. Also, be mindful that a machine doesn’t have to be smarter than humans, it just has to be massively better at it’s specialty.
No machine can be ‘taught’ inspiration, serendipity, curiosity. Some randomness can be built into the system, and various weights given to ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ decisions (that is, don’t tell the machine to kill all bacteria before the machine has been taught that some varieties might actually be useful to have around). It is up to some human or other to ‘teach’ the machine what is helpful/harmful to humans. That’s already a problem for relying upon a human, with human biases and a superior but unchecked random number generator.
I’m starting to become a bit concerned. I’ve discussed with my wife recently about my view (too nebulous for theory yet) that entities like corporations and state governments are and have always been AI. Thinking along this plane, it becomes possible that maybe all organizations of intelligent species are AI.
Family, clan, tribe, town, state. All do something to protect the organization as an entity. We group together and make rules to ensure fair decisions, safe operations, whatever. All these rules imbue the organization with benefits for it’s participants. The participants are encouraged to keep the organization going. They’ve become the immune system of the org, the brain cells of the org, the blood cells of the org, but the artifice that established the org, the set of rules, is now calling the shots.
Take this to a corporation, which, in it’s modern inception, requires dividend payout ad infinitum. The org has written and unwritten rules about pulling weight or thrown overboard. Now you’ve got a filter for greed. The AI of the corp is ‘steering’ itself toward emulating a long-problematic slice of humanity. The further out on this tangent it goes, the profits go up. Positive feedback loop, gobble gobble gobble, but it’s not any particular human that did this, it’s the set of rules governing the corp, and the prevailing behavior standards.
Now to government, where there has ever been the problem of selection for sociopaths/psychopaths. There is less coherence in a government, it’s bigger and has more independent units due to the broader scope of operation. If government, too, is AI, it is a lurching, insane, gadfly-beset beast.
So, in my view, since organization of this sort has always been a sort of AI, it’s operation may already be too opaque. We may indeed have passed the singularity, and like the techies have always said, we wouldn’t notice. It wouldn’t be like Lawnmower Man’s “The sound of my birth pangs will be every telephone in the world ringing in unison!” If we have been coopted by the machines already, would we notice? Are we already slaves to something?
I’m certainly being paranoid, but we are really close now.
Aliens…Pshhhaw! There are scarier sharks in this universe. We’ll go ask the old man in the cave. He’ll know what to do.
RE: T2 Diabetes relief…
Yes, quite possible and not all that difficult. My wife did it, and eats less protein than when she started, was diag’d pre-T2 about 16 yrs ago. It’s mostly taking conscious control of your diet and exercise. She’s Asian, and comes from a rice/noodles culture, family well enough to have a chauffeur (middle-class thing in Jakarta). She switched first to brown rice, then to quinoa. Lots of veggies, real whole-grain breads (if at all), NO SODA OR JUICE! We’ve both switched to sparkly water, and don’t miss the sugar.
Message from Eric Clapton (I’m assuming that the old farts on here remember him!)
Of course I do! He’s George Harrison’s best friend!
And so it rolls…
This (below) is the opener from a message I received from a local (Studio City) jazz club, The Baked Potato. Keep in mind, this is a <i>jazz</i> club…you know, the music of intellectual freedom? This place regularly hosts some apostles of Zappa (Mike Kenneally, Joe Travers, others), and contemporary superstars like Marcus Miller.
They have been struggling the past year, selling VOD of prior performances, and doing rare ‘kinda live’ crowdless streaming shows. This is really a head-scratcher for me. These people are among the few I sorta expect to be geniuses. “If I had my way, I would tear this old building down!” Turn it into a ‘terrace’ with the only structure being a kitchen and a loo. But what did Carlin say about the indescribability of God?
I have been thinking more about what kinds of non-passive entertainment can be ‘shown’ to people who have been pretty well hooked on passive jibs like TV, movies, FriendFace. They can’t (yet) force you to show papers to read a book, play hopscotch in your kitchen, play a guitar, knit socks.
A weekly ‘farmers’ market’ sprung up in the nearby mall parking lot. My wife and I will go to see if it’s actually that, or just an attempt to make the mall seem relevant again. As long as I don’t have to show papers to use a bicycle, I’m within a couple hours’ ride of Camarillo/Oxnard, with copious fields of everything from avocados to strawberries. I haven’t been out there in a couple years, so I don’t know the current situation. The whole region has always been dotted with roadside produce stands, mostly temporary but some more durable, like The Somis Nut House.
Well, I ramble a wee bit, don’t I?
Asimov discussed various ‘Selden Crises’ in his works. I feel like we’re approaching a ‘Kunstler Crisis’ here.
For the Schulz fans here – I was given these books by my father almost 50 years ago. I rarely open them, and have never translated the German one (bogged down in computer languages).
@madamski & Mr House re: Ellison’s view
Midas World – Frederik Pohl. ‘The Midas Plague’ (1954) describes a society with compulsory consumption: automobiles to washing machines. The machines build, man must consume…or be considered antisocial. You’re given a stipend (UBI?) that ‘expires’ via the consumption quotas.
@madamski & @Michael Reid re: indica/sativa differences…
Subtle, but very important: indica will suppress dreams, sativa will stimulate them. My brother suffers from night terrors, and uses indica to keep a lid on things. This is a medium-duration effect, lasting a day or two after a single use. This may be tied to an increase in depression suffered by people who only/primarily use indica.
Still reading stuff, but had an appropriately strong knee-jerk reaction to this:
“An individual’s data is kept secure and confidential at all times.”
• Nation’s First ‘Vaccine Passport’ Coming To New York (NYP)
Uh…yeah…except the part you just broadcasted to anyone in sight range that you have been given the shot. You don’t get in unless you’ve had the shot, so everyone who sees you enter knows that fragment of your medical history. Serious PHI leak, stupid as phuq.
RE return of stolen stuffs, this is a really nice docu:
@my parents said know re: computer frizzies
Are you using a touchpad? If so, clean it thoroughly. If that doesn’t help, it may have aged out. They wear out and the thickness (or lack of) makes them more and more sensitive.
Also, check for the presence of cat hairs on the device! 🙂
@Dr P re: non-alterations
It doesn’t directly alter any DNA…as far as we’ve been told by the totally trustworthy manufacturers.
Here’s an analogy that’s kinda hyperbolic, but maybe not?
A carjacker points a gun at you, tells you to scooch over, takes the wheel and goes on a crime spree. He hasn’t modified your car, but he’s sure done a s#!+-ton of damage, eh? And then he leaves…no more carjacker, but things are still mighty f#(<ed up.
@madamski re: phantom PMSGiggle! As my wife always says, “Prepare to Meet Shaitan!”
Can I lighten the mood a bit?
Portland, OR, isn’t a lost cause: Paul Gilbert – Argument About Pie
I tried to find a comment I posted last night at MoA on this topic, that we need continuous low-level exposure to everything. Seems to have been deleted. I’ve never had b delete any of my posts.
Anyway, yeah, I logic’d this one out last year, too.
I don’t know if this has been posted here yet: The Manifesto of Great Awakening. Against Great Reset. This article speaks to the other thing I logic’d out last year…atomization of the populace.
The vaccines are a cipher. We don’t know what’s in them because it’s a trade secret. So…trust an unknown virus that seems to behave just like all previous viruses have for all of human history, or trust an untested ‘miracle drug’ that we aren’t even allowed to investigate.
Science is a mighty river, info deposited in the glacier, melting, flowing out into the ocean. You cannot plant a flag on a sandbar in that river and declare it “The Science” and be done. The sandbar will be gone before you can say “C. Everett Coop!”
Some quiet time for Sunday:
…and I must add, having read Dr. D’s take in this thread:
The end of mining isn’t the end. Every transaction must run through calculations to verify. And the end of mining Bitcoin means the next Xcoin is up to bat.
Escape the confines of the planet and that energy becomes nearly free…but I have a feeling they’ll strive hard to eat that cake, too.
Now <i>I</i> get to do a Dr. D:
• Bitcoin Energy Use ‘Bigger Than Most Countries’ (BBC)
Didn’t I say…?
Haven’t I said…?
REPEATEDLY?!?!?It’s a fucking black hole. Stupidist thing imaginable to do on a closed-system planet. Worse than a tire fire!
@Dr. D re: clay floors and real books…
Feels more and more like A Canticle For Leibowitz, eh?
@Arttua, re: Adams
V Arnols,”That’s quite a photograph; I don’t feel qualified to critique it, but the depth of field must have been huge…” He shot with large format cameras. and had a f64 club. smaller format cameras couldn’t come close to f64
He carried that camera on his back in the Sierra Nevada following Brower and Norman Clyde. That’s 30kg of kit that is only useful for the art, on top of his bedroll, etc. He worked in a period in which he could perfect long-exposure shots, which are now impossible due to jet contrails. This nighttime shot in New Mexico is certainly now impossible.
I am in awe of the masters of film, both still and motion. It’s such a surfer’s realm.
Raul… Thank you very much for posting the daily Calvin. My dad and I were ‘partners in C&H fandom’ and I miss him terribly these days. Each shot of Calvin is a little boost to what optimism I might retain.
Cheers, all!
“Geez, Raul…you used to be so cool! What happened?!?!?”
Seen a shit-ton of these posts at every blog. Same MO: light praise leading to “…gone off the deep end!” hyperbole.
That sock needs darning.
@madamski & Geppetto…thanks! Added to my list.
Impressionism and illusion… Each of us with our lenses being melted, distorted, fogged, cracked. I pass people on my rides in the woods, and some are still in my universe, while others seem to have moved off.
Impressionism and illusion:
Háry János in long form and suite
I have a CD with 3 different performances, first is Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition, second is Háry János, third is Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé. The suite is on the CD, but there’s a movie.
I am likely to be derided for this, but I somewhat prefer the Emerson, Lake and Palmer rendition of Pictures.
I’ll be watching the long Janos and the long Kijé this week…work load permitting.
RE: WES and parasites
You can change yourself into an unappetizing morsel.
Also, re: You will have to devise your own method of tempoary escape.
Get a sturdy bike that likes gravel roads and trails. Good pair of boots also works.
Thanks, madamski and sumac.carol for highlighting mechanical means of energy storage.
It reminded me of the Helms Pumped Storage Plant in the Sierra Nevada, at Courtwright and Wishon Reservoirs. It’s only of limited/temporal utility in terms of power generation, being but a tiny side-store in the scope of the whole Grid. This, however, is where something like wind/solar could shine. Just leave the panels and turbines on all the time, and they just keep pumping water into an upper reservoir.
When I was a kid, family took a trip to AZ primarily to see Grand Canyon. The sub-plot of the trip was to visit various hydro and ‘civil engineering’ sites. Among the famous dams (Boulder, Roosevelt, some others) and natural/historic sites, we also visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West and Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti. The former, Wright, struck me as a beautiful low-footprint retreat, but in the end just a house. The latter, Soleri, impressed me very much as an attempt at a resilient community.
It was soon after this trip that I started to read stuff about ‘passive houses’ with thermal jacket construction, proper orientation based on local season, natural materials (yes, beds of rocks under your house as part of the thermal jacket, etc). Bucky Ball houses started to crop up on the outskirts of town.
Anyway, no real direction with this, just a random pile of what-ifs to put on the shelf next to my copy of The High Frontier.
@John Day re: meme
There is a broad meme that only people raised farming can handle the rigors.
I once had an acquaintance (1/4 Hoopa, from near Hayfork) tell me he wouldn’t date a girl unless said girl was the kind that wouldn’t shy away from going elbow-deep in deer guts. He also said he drank regularly from the bottom of his pasture, to keep the gut biome up to date.
“Sweet Melinda, the peasants call her the Goddess of Gloom”
Wow! It’s worth quoting the whole verse (granted I’ve only got old Grateful Dead renditions to draw from):
Sweet Melinda, the peasants call her the Goddess of Gloom.
She speaks such good English when she invites you up into her room.
Of course, you, you’re so kind and careful an conscientious not go to to her too soon.
Still she steals your voice and leaves you howlin’ at the moon!And the timeless wisdom of “But the cops don’t need you, and, man, they expect the same.“
Anyone have a spare conspiracy theory? All mine seem to be coming true.
How about this one: The mRNA vaccines are a primer.
“Are our politicians and “experts” complicit or are they simply incompetent?”
A (very) large component is blackmail. Non-compliance with ‘the program’ means certain, public, vivid destruction. And if blackmail doesn’t stick, there’s the ‘Paul Wellstone Solution’.
The ‘old coot’ programmer in me wants to make this VAX better. It’s really the only VAX I’m craving at present.
@WES: cousin dying, not mom. Mom had the C germ Oct last year, recovered, go-go-gopher ever since. Thanks.
