Ruminations – 8jun23

George Rebane

The long-anticipated destruction of the dollar is upon us.  Our Federal Reserve is preparing to follow the footsteps of the European Central Bank in their program to expand the use of digital euros.  The strong possibility is that government controlled/monitored digital dollars will replace coins and banknotes, currently still the only way to guarantee the privacy of transactions.  (more here)

The metaverse will arrive on the shoulders of the new large language model chatbots.  Instead of replacing the metaverse as ‘the next big thing’ in technology, the metaverse will be enabled (powered?) by intelligent artificial characters ready to service and interact with humans in various specialty areas. (more here)

Newsom to introduce a 28^th Amendment to “enshrine in the Constitution commonsense gun safety measures” and further restrict gun ownership across the land.  This move is in answer to the recent victories enjoyed by 2A advocates through the nation’s courts and legislatures.  The initiative has zero chance of being adopted, but it does keep our lame-brained governor in the attention span of his progressive constituency as he contemplates replacing Biden on the 2024 Democratic ticket. (more here)

Comments

[Humphrey Ploughjogger]

Looking forward to dealing with more "intelligent" customer service reps.

[Gregory]

The camel's nose under and into the big tent:

"Additionally, the 28th Amendment will affirm Congress, states, and local governments can enact additional common-sense gun safety regulations that save lives."
https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/06/08/28th-amendment/

So, even little Nevada City could enact its own "common sense" regulations.

[Gregory]

Tom Jerken at The Union on AI, today:

"So, while we may worry about a “Terminator” dystopian future wiping out human beings, let’s consider the possibility that a socially conscious, sentient AI might do something radical like take over the financial system and redistribute the wealth.

What if teachers got paid what they’re worth, the idle rich had to go to work and corporate robber barons were stripped of their obscene larceny? What if everybody woke up tomorrow with a million dollars in their bank accounts?"

If teachers were paid what they were worth, the ones with classrooms that couldn't read or do grade level math would be getting nothing.

[scenes]

re: Gregory@2:17PM

My guess is that if Skynet simply did what it thought best, Ol' Tom would be converted into paperclips.

At the current level of AIs, which is pretty cool but not amazing, I wonder if half-assed artists will be replaced before their half-assed writer cousins. Given the number of bots already on the net, we are likely most of the way there already (see: Theory, Dead Internet), but so much of human 'creative' output is trope that it all strikes me as long hanging fruit.

Side thought. Thinking about teachers. It always seemed to me that lectures for most classes could have been recorded years ago and replace most live versions. This assumes good quality video and (most important) audio. OTOH, I think that is probably not true to some extent, even though there really isn't that much interaction with the speaker. Question..do humans do better when they make eye contact? exchange body language? is there a subconscious band at work that helps the process along? It's a thing that could be done with a synthetic actor, but less easy than simply feeding a script through a digital puppet.

[scenes]

"So, even little Nevada City could enact its own "common sense" regulations"

Maybe even an HOA.

RULE 1007. CENTERFIRE LEVER ACTION RIFLES ARE RESTRICTED TO THOSE CARRYING 5 ROUNDS OR LESS AND MUST BE KEPT IN A STYLISH LEATHER CASE IN A 6X10 SHED NEAR THE AUTHORIZED WASTE CANS.

[Gregory]

scenes 248p

Paperclips or Soylent Green (coming soon, Soylent for Dogs and Cats). Here, kitty kitty kitty!

More side thoughts... if a kid has learned to read. Reallllly read... they can plow through texts all by their lonesomes at their own speed. No need for Youtube or other recordings.

[Scott O]

Well - so much to comment on, here. I read the release from the guv'ner. I'm glad to see that "common sense" is the operative term. Hard to argue with common sense. It's common sense that a man can be pregnant and there unlimited types of sexual genders. And that 2 year olds can decide what sex they want to be for life.
And of course all the rules will be "reasonable". Yessir.
The funniest objective is:
"Mandating universal background checks to prevent truly dangerous people from purchasing a gun that could be used in a crime"
"Truly" dangerous people. And what happens when the percentage of a certain group of folk that is found to be truly dangerous is much greater than the percentage of other certain groups?
It's all nonsense, anyway. This is grandstanding by Newsom and nothing else. Since it has no hope of ever coming to be, they can put any sort of silly thing into the press release they want to.

[Scott O]

Gregory 2:17 - Tom Jerken - is he the guy who looks like a Wavy Gravy wannabe?
Pay-walled for me, I'm afraid. Unfortunately he represents a sizable chunk of our voters. The usual blather of someone who has no clue of how humanity and a functional monetary system works. Make the "idle rich" go to work. How about making the idle poor go to work? There's lots more of them and they cause ever so much more trouble and violence being idle.
Best one was:
"What if everybody woke up tomorrow with a million dollars in their bank accounts?"
Pretty soon that can be arranged. Then we'll have millions of the "idle rich".

[Gregory]

The original 2A:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

What the 28A would do to it:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed except where Congress, states and local governments want infringements."

[scenes]

re: Gregory@5:05AM

They might as well go all-in and write a 29A that redefines the 1A, and a 30A that redefines the 4A.

It's a fait accompli in any case.

[Scott O]

Gregory and scenes - It's a stunt by Newsom. It will never happen. It fits his style to a T. Run his mouth about something and then it never happens. He was going to solve the homeless issue - he was going to welcome everyone from the world to CA - he was going to provide millions in reparations - etc, etc - an empty suit who's all yap and nothing ever gets done except your wallet gets lighter.
He is the perfect Dem candidate for the next election!

[Gregory]

scotto, Of course the proposed 28A ain't gonna happen; there's no bloody way the flyover states would go for such a thing, and it already taints Newsom with even more of a gun grabber stench than he has had to date.

It's just a ruse to excite the terminally confused like Crabby, Cheryl Cook and Punchy.

[Gregory]

I wonder if Newsom's hail Mary 28A is a bet that Judge Benitez will strike down the Assault Weapons Ban in Kali, perhaps even today?