When I was little I thought progress was a straight line, then I grew up a little and thought it may not be linear, but it always moved forward. Now, I'm just sad and angry. Seriously, this is...
When I was little I thought progress was a straight line, then I grew up a little and thought it may not be linear, but it always moved forward. Now, I'm just sad and angry.
Seriously, this is Handmaid's Tale level here...A book that was written over three decades ago.
It makes me wonder if the human animal still has a little too much chimp for 21st century life. We're operating on 50k+ year old software, and the progress we've made technologically in the past...
It makes me wonder if the human animal still has a little too much chimp for 21st century life.
We're operating on 50k+ year old software, and the progress we've made technologically in the past century—let alone everything post-agriculture—is absurd compared to the slow, aimless march of natural evolution.
I don't disagree, and hesitantly label myself a Singularitarian Transhumanist. I mostly worry that 1) we'll fuck ourselves up before we can do it, 2) we'll fuck it up and something will go...
I don't disagree, and hesitantly label myself a Singularitarian Transhumanist.
I mostly worry that 1) we'll fuck ourselves up before we can do it, 2) we'll fuck it up and something will go horribly wrong, 3) malicious quasi-smart AI will be used in warfare, making it impossible to progress further through immense death & destruction or prohibitive global legislative & policing efforts, 4) there's a fundamental limitation we're not yet aware of that makes a technological singularity impossible, or 5) the collective intelligence of the whole human machine is not sufficiently intelligent to make it happen in the first place.
I consider myself an optimist, if only a frightened and apprehensive one.
I think that one thing that we can do as a nation/world is to keep educating children that we doesn't just include people who look and think like us. We is everybody on the planet and we all need...
I think that one thing that we can do as a nation/world is to keep educating children that we doesn't just include people who look and think like us. We is everybody on the planet and we all need to work together to solve some of the larger systemic issues out there.
That would go a long way towards helping people empathize with people who are different from them.
I don't think most people have a grasp of the bitter distinction between law and the bureaucracy of people implementing laws, at least until they get caught in the gears. One of the direst...
I don't think most people have a grasp of the bitter distinction between law and the bureaucracy of people implementing laws, at least until they get caught in the gears.
One of the direst executive maneuvers right now is the attempt to allow "religious exceptions" in all spheres of public activity - e.g. pharmacists permitted to refrain from dispensing birth control, public employees not expected to honor civil marriages, etc.
I happened to hear a public radio broadcast yesterday, with Pastor Robert Jeffress and some other Christian leaders interviewed about how "persecuted" they felt when questioned about their honest desire to enforce religious codes regarding marriage as between a man and a woman, or refrain from providing basic women's healthcare services. They went straight to scare stories, beheadings of Christians in Islamic nations, as an "it could happen here".
Obviously, there's some projection going on, given the discrimination and violence they encourage in their flocks. Politically organized Christians have been successfully carving out civil privileges for their public exercises of faith - taxpayer money diverted to religious charter schools, charities, and hospitals. Now, they're attempting to redesign the civil law and its enforcement more to their liking, and the courts are being packed with jurists at least sympathetic to de-secularization.
The issue is about wedlock - the policy by the State Department wants a "clear sign of parentage," which is wielded to exclude folks in non-het relationships who have kids. While the kids can...
The issue is about wedlock - the policy by the State Department wants a "clear sign of parentage," which is wielded to exclude folks in non-het relationships who have kids. While the kids can still get citizenship, the legal paperwork needed is far more extensive.
Definitely obfuscation and clusterfuckery as a malicious feature.
When I was little I thought progress was a straight line, then I grew up a little and thought it may not be linear, but it always moved forward. Now, I'm just sad and angry.
Seriously, this is Handmaid's Tale level here...A book that was written over three decades ago.
It makes me wonder if the human animal still has a little too much chimp for 21st century life.
We're operating on 50k+ year old software, and the progress we've made technologically in the past century—let alone everything post-agriculture—is absurd compared to the slow, aimless march of natural evolution.
A little too much chimp? We're all chimp (metaphorically), and that's not going to change until we hit the singularity.
I don't disagree, and hesitantly label myself a Singularitarian Transhumanist.
I mostly worry that 1) we'll fuck ourselves up before we can do it, 2) we'll fuck it up and something will go horribly wrong, 3) malicious quasi-smart AI will be used in warfare, making it impossible to progress further through immense death & destruction or prohibitive global legislative & policing efforts, 4) there's a fundamental limitation we're not yet aware of that makes a technological singularity impossible, or 5) the collective intelligence of the whole human machine is not sufficiently intelligent to make it happen in the first place.
I consider myself an optimist, if only a frightened and apprehensive one.
I think that one thing that we can do as a nation/world is to keep educating children that we doesn't just include people who look and think like us. We is everybody on the planet and we all need to work together to solve some of the larger systemic issues out there.
That would go a long way towards helping people empathize with people who are different from them.
I don't think most people have a grasp of the bitter distinction between law and the bureaucracy of people implementing laws, at least until they get caught in the gears.
One of the direst executive maneuvers right now is the attempt to allow "religious exceptions" in all spheres of public activity - e.g. pharmacists permitted to refrain from dispensing birth control, public employees not expected to honor civil marriages, etc.
I happened to hear a public radio broadcast yesterday, with Pastor Robert Jeffress and some other Christian leaders interviewed about how "persecuted" they felt when questioned about their honest desire to enforce religious codes regarding marriage as between a man and a woman, or refrain from providing basic women's healthcare services. They went straight to scare stories, beheadings of Christians in Islamic nations, as an "it could happen here".
Obviously, there's some projection going on, given the discrimination and violence they encourage in their flocks. Politically organized Christians have been successfully carving out civil privileges for their public exercises of faith - taxpayer money diverted to religious charter schools, charities, and hospitals. Now, they're attempting to redesign the civil law and its enforcement more to their liking, and the courts are being packed with jurists at least sympathetic to de-secularization.
Handmaid's Tale, indeed.
Ah the joy of having fewer rights than I used to. Fun
The issue is about wedlock - the policy by the State Department wants a "clear sign of parentage," which is wielded to exclude folks in non-het relationships who have kids. While the kids can still get citizenship, the legal paperwork needed is far more extensive.
Definitely obfuscation and clusterfuckery as a malicious feature.