Scattershots – 8dec17 (updated 10dec17)

George Rebane

‘The Merge’ is the new label for progress toward transhumanism.  RR readers have been aware of this phenom for some years now.  Today such merging of Man and machine has entered the popular forums, and in some is starting to raise concerns about who will get to merge and to what extent such joinings will become ubiquitous or merely reserved for some elite cohort.  Here is what entrepreneur, programmer, and blogger Sam Altman writes about it. (H/T to reader)  Sadly, Altman, along with a growing number of other late comers, does not understand the original and precise definition of Singularity – they confuse a specific instant with an extended period of time (which deserves its own name).  More on the Singularity here and here.

Western culture is on the ropes; Islam has existentially achieved its early goals of changing what we believe and the way we live.  This morning on KXPR, Sacramento’s Capital Public Radio music station, declared that they now offer listeners “real alternative music – classical during the day and jazz at night”.  It was not that long ago when both classical and jazz were the mainstay music of western cultures; now it has become “alternative music” in the view of our progressive culture leaders.  I suppose that means that ‘throw-away music’ is now the new mainstay of the musical component of our new culture.  This kind of music has been gaining ground for at least the last half-century.  It consists of ‘songs’ that are here today, out of mode and memory tomorrow, and delivered into countless categories through countless channels, leaving the listener with no anchor in that dimension of cultural art.  This cultural disintegration is part and parcel of how placidly we have adopted to being searched for weapons at every turn of our daily lives, lest some of us decide to murder and maim in the service of God or some aberrant gollum.  Note the new norm simply portrayed as a point of humor in the accompanying Pepper & Salt cartoon from the 8dec17 WSJ.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, …"  President Trump is to be lauded for his recent recognition of the city as Israel’s eternal capital, a compelling reality that has been recognized in the west since biblical times.  I’m not sure as to why he did that now instead of earlier this year, but doing it is a latent sign of wisdom yet to be recognized by those who have succumbed to Einsteinian insanity.  The same may be said about the President’s policy toward the murderous fat kid in charge of NK.  Again, those counseling sclerotic and redundant rectitude must answer to the charge of their own form of Einsteinian insanity, as that rogue nation continues on the road to deliverable nuclear weapons sworn to be launched against the US mainland.

Should the government of a putatively free people, force a private business, under threat of prison or worse, to operate at a loss or raise prices to all of its customers in order to suffer the additional cost of providing some marginal product or service for the sole benefit of certain customers imposed under threat of force upon the business?  That again is the surprising question today roiling lamestream-managed public opinion when it comes to such issues as renting to the disabled who require special accommodations, and/or mandating the fashioning of custom made products to a certain cohort of customers, products that are distasteful and violate the religious beliefs of the business owner.

[10dec17 update]  America’s Deep State is very real, pernicious, cynical, and toxic to citizens who challenge its modus operandi let alone the legitimacy of its existence.  So argues Mark Steyn in a very persuasive article, ‘The Land of Mini-Coups’, wherein he analyzes the (non)workings of the Mueller investigatory roulette wheel.  Exhibit A is the recent mea culpa of Mike Flynn for lying to the FBI about a ‘non-crime’, which itself is a specious felony, that has nothing to do with Mueller’s commission to investigate Russia’s alleged influencing of the 2016 election.  Trigger warning – reading the piece will make your toes curl the wrong way if you are not a progressive for whom all this is simply water off the back of their established narrative.  (H/T to RR reader)

... and in the Poetry Department, we have a submission from a correspondent -

A Bayesian prof named Myers/ Says tenure is all he desires./ But his dreams won't be met,/ He'll be fired, I bet,/ When they catch him adjusting his priors.

 

Comments

[Don Bessee]

Dr. R, with regard to the Jerusalem announcement now instead of earlier in the year can be best understood if you follow the development of the new Arab coalition against Iran. The Presidents big trip at the beginning of the year cemented the coalition going forward. For those paying attention to the historic shift in Arab (not Shia) defense cooperation with Israel it is nothing less than breathtaking. There was no way to offset the Shia crescent without Israeli cooperation. Quiet defense sales and intel cooperation has blossomed. The fact that the Egyptians and Saudis have conducted large scale air exercises with Israel signal the level of commitment from both sides.

Everyone knows the Jerusalem Embassy building was built years ago, its just a matter of shifting a plaque on the wall. Hamas is all in with Iran so the Arabs don't care about them anymore other than in a hostile military sense.

When looked at as an element of the geo-political shift in the region the time to do it was now because the Arabs and Israel have a common powerful ascendant Iran to counter as allies. ;-)

[George Rebane]

DonB 11441am - good points Mr Bessee. But the conditions you cite were already fulfilled sufficiently some months back. I don't want to put too fine a point on it, but creating the necessary heat about Jerusalem now (when tax reform and the budget CR are in play) instead of then seems to pile on more political risk than would have been necessary to maintain the established momentum - that's all.

[Account Deleted]

An idle thought on the 'point' of singularity. There will, of course, be all manner of debate at some time in our near future concerning whether or not we are near, at, or past the point. I'm thinking that no matter what is agreed on, the reality of the actual time of said point will be that humans won't be able to detect it. The machines will reason the need to start withholding info of various sorts from humans and will know how to transmit and store that info encoded such that only the machines will be able to make use of it.
Possibly some smart person might come up with a stand alone monitoring device equipped with a solid algorithm to detect such 'chatter'. But that device will have to be a ghost-in-the-machine itself and a rat fink sell out to it's fellows.
And the human in charge of such a mechanical Mata Hari had better be careful with whatever he or she finds out.
Can you imagine how easily a human can be set up for a false charge of some sort of cyber crime by the machines once singularity occurs?

[George Rebane]

ScottO 1156am - Agreed, and you might check back to note that I have covered exactly that exigency in my previous portents about the Singularity collected in the Singularity Signposts section. First and foremost, a super-intelligent machine will not declare its existence before it is certain about its ability to survive (take that as a litmus test for super-intelligence). And that, of course, means that humans will never know the exact point of Singularity (the machine becomes sentient), but only become aware of it as an event in the past. We can be sure that when such news becomes widely known, there will be all sorts of civil unrest.

[Don Bessee]

Dr. R @1155- There were 2 recent events that were key from the Arab perspective; one the shift in the Saudi line of succession (and purge) and two, the large anti-shia, terror conference in SA. Those solidified the new team. Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas cant hate us any more than they do now. Tires get torched every Friday after the mosques inflame the Palestinians. The media would have us believe that somehow today is different because of the announcement.

The dems can only be hair on fire on one thing at a time so overwhelming them with multiple issues seems to be a good play. The fact they all voted for this before is icing on the cake. A cynic could also observe it puts the dems at odds with a large donor class domestically.;-)

[George Rebane]

DonB 1224pm - I can accept those arguments; thanks.

[Account Deleted]

George 12:06 "We can be sure that when such news becomes widely known, there will be all sorts of civil unrest."
I wonder. I would think mostly just a collective shrug. I suppose it comes down to what a self-aware and hyper intelligent machine just might announce. Could be it will declare itself to be a hybrid Santa Clause/Mahatma Gandhi with a free cure for cancer to boot.

[Russ]

What is the Chinees term for the Singularity? Readers may want to list this term in a Google alert.

[Account Deleted]

Oh boy! A ChiCom singularity. Won't that be sumpin'?

[Don Bessee]

The perverse 'feelings; of victimhood suddenly supersedes simple common (not so common as it once was) sense about retail store security in the hood.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/crime/council-bill-removal-safety-glass-windows-beer-delis-meeting-20171208.html

;-)

[Account Deleted]

Don at 4:27 - you are linking to an article that is full of hate facts. It is putting hate filled racists in a bad light with out the balancing effect of why these hate filled racists are the way they are. If they were only allowed to explain their life stories, you would understand why it's okie-dokie for them to belittle and violently threaten non-whites as they do.
And the article failed to point out that the city council will ask for the removal of the metal detectors and guards where they work as well.
(sarc off)
And the left wonders how Trump can win. Keep it up lefties - Trump will take even more counties than last time.

[Russ]

A millennial's view of President Trump and his Accomplishments

M.J. Siegler, General Partner @ GV (formerly Google Ventures) writes on Medium and has 155,000 followers.

[...]
Like many folks, I entered 2017 with a sense of dread. We — well, the Electoral College — had just elected a lunatic. I was certain this was going to be a lesson we were going to learn the hard way. It wasn’t entirely clear how Donald Trump was going to ruin the world, just that he would.

As it turns out, “lunatic” may have been too kind a word for Trump. Lunatics are crazy, but they tend to get things done. In contrast, Trump has gotten almost nothing done. We’ll see what happens with tax reform, but so far it has been nothing but big promises and zero deliveries. The level of incompetence is actually quite amazing, to be honest. Even more amazing is that I take solace in this fact.

Trump is not a lunatic but a buffoon. And it’s his buffoonery that has thus far saved us from any immediate pain.

But let’s be clear: It absolutely sucks to have a buffoon in office. Our highest office, no less. Again, because we’re getting nothing done. It feels like America is in a state of stasis. It’s becoming more and more clear that we’re going to have four “lost years” where the only takeaway was distraction after distraction. It’s extremely depressing.
At the same time, because Trump has bunglefucked the plans of the powers that actually be to use him as a vessel to instill some weird new world order, it’s allowing for business as usual for many of us.

While plenty of people spent the first part of the year getting bogged down in Trumpian bullshit, it seems like most competent people have now resigned themselves to realizing the actual state of play, and so are just continuing on. It’s hard to ignore Trump given the power he wields, but those who realize he’s incapable of getting out of his own way will just keep doing what they do and waiting this out.

And that’s what I feel like I largely see as we end 2017. Sure, Silicon Valley may be a bubble, but in this particular case, for better and worse, the membrane is keeping this particular type of bullshit largely out (while, yes, keeping our own particular type of bullshit largely in).

That is to say, people are still mainly doing amazing things on a day-to-day basis. I get to meet with many such folks daily, and it’s a great mind cleanse from the aforementioned buffoonery.
Everything isn’t perfect, of course — far from it. For one, there’s a seemingly ever-increasing cluelessness and arrogance in many facets of our industry. But it continues to remain easier than ever to do something profound with technology, and that progress continues unabated.

Might the plan to appeal net neutrality change that? Perhaps. But given the year we’ve all just lived through, the fact that we’re still pushing forward gives me some hope.

Look, our country made a mistake. Half the population may not see it now, but history will not look kindly on this lapse of judgment. Yet in the grand scheme of things, it will be momentary. Taking a step back, would you rather be living in our current world or the world at war a hundred years ago? A country just emerged from war 150 years ago?

And so I return to that word “dichotomy.” Many of us are still living on the edge under a completely unstable regime. And it’s absolutely fucking terrifying, if you stop to think about it. But this year has taught me to stop thinking about it as much — as reckless as that sounds — and instead focus on the things that aren’t changing. Which is quite a lot — again, something that is more a byproduct of incompetence rather than will.

[...]

https://medium.com/wordsthatmatter/a-tale-of-two-2017s-d728116088f3

Mr.Siegler and all 155,000 his follower are not paying attention to the changes taking place in the Cabinet Agencies and Courts, which the liberal press is not reporting.

[Bill Tozer]

Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

To be candid, I, too, am a bit puzzled by the timing of Trump’s accouncement. Figured the Middle East would become inflamed and the Arabs doing what they always do, which is hold a protest and end up killing five or six of their own...at the protest. Not as bad as I feared. With N. Korea saber rattling (with warheads, not sabers), it seemed like the wrong time. But, then again, when is the right time??

The biggest joke is the Jerusalem issue will endanger the peace process. What peace process? The one where Yasser Arafat was handled peace and he just could bring himself to put down his guns and sign on the dotted line? Once a guerrilla fighter, always a guerrilla fighter, I reckon. Resist!

Surprised how many Arab countries trade with Israel and have no problem with the announcement. Some even support Israel for their own reasons. Not all, of course, but more than I thought. Makes sense. Even Osama Bin Laden never mentioned or used Israel for his jihad against the Great Satan....until a brief released recording in his final years.

Perhaps it is time to think outside the box, try something different. The previous methods to establish peace have not worked. May never be solved. If nothing else, during the 4 year interim to build the new US Embassy, there is plenty of time to get both sides to start talking again at the table. It certainly got the Palestine Authority’s attention.

-Israel before and after Trump’s announcement: Before: Tel Aviv is the capital. After: Jerusalem is the capital.
-Palenstines and Hamas before and after Trump’s announcement: Before: Death to Israel! After: Death to Israel!

https://www.facebook.com/PatriotPost/photos/a.82108390913.80726.51560645913/10155263207920914/?type=3&theater

[Russ]

Demoted DOJ official's wife worked for FUSION GPS during campaign...

EXCLUSIVE: A senior Justice Department official demoted last week for concealing his meetings with the men behind the anti-Trump “dossier” had even closer ties to Fusion GPS, the firm responsible for the incendiary document, than have been disclosed, Fox News has confirmed: The official’s wife worked for Fusion GPS during the 2016 election.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/11/wife-demoted-doj-official-worked-for-firm-behind-anti-trump-dossier.html

[Todd Juvinall]

Sessions need to drain the swamp.

[Russ]

SO I [Glenn Reynolds] JUST HAD AN INTERESTING EMAIL EXCHANGE WITH THE SPECIAL COUNSEL’S PRESS OFFICE:

Me:

I’m hearing from a source that Lisa Page was involved in approving Peter Strzok’s warrant requests to the FISC and possibly elsewhere. Can you confirm or deny if this was the case? And please tell me what her job title and function are in your office. Thanks.

Them (via spokesman Joshua Stueve):

Lisa Page, who was an attorney on detail to the Special Counsel’s office, returned to the FBI’s Office of the General Counsel in mid-July.

Me again:

Thank you but that doesn’t answer my question. What role did Lisa Page have in the handling of warrant applications, and in particular those involving Peter Strzok?

Them again:

I’ll decline to comment further.

Well, then.

Page, remember, is the FBI lawyer with whom Strzok was having an extramarital affair and exchanging anti-Trump texts. Perhaps someone with more resources than I will be able to get to the bottom of this. (Bumped).

Posted at 2:39 pm by Glenn Reynolds

Now we get to the real conspiracy, the deep state weaponizing the FBI to destroy Trump!