On Fri, Oct 16, 2020 at 08:05:42AM -0400, grarpamp wrote:
there is an old biblical adage that those who live by the sword, die by the sword.
If you're working to defeat tyranny, to bring freedom, through coding for users, speaking with others or in public, writing books, campaigning, running cryptocurrency nodes, however the ways... you're already living by the sword, and risking death by doing so. People only have so many years, and at the end of the day, AP is just another sword roaming around, humanity will survive at some level either way. Who could argue that it's not already among the set of potential futures.
Yes of course. But which future time tracks would you prefer to surf? I'm not yet ready to surf that track. It may be inevitable, though I hope and pray it's not, as it appears quite possibly a very dark track. I hold intentions for futures of peace, not anxiety, joy and not ubiquitous fear of the mob.
Or that there's not already a lot of dying going on.
Of course. Existent reality is not in dispute. The adage suggests a correspondence. Living "by AP" in this instance, to "dying by AP". And in the meta you're asking "what's the diff?" And truth be told, there might not be much. Per se. As the next few years disclose themselves to us, it may turn out that we owe it to ourselves to return to the various considerations, pro and con, which have at least begun to be laid out. That's not a $NOW thing for this ole Soul..
Or that one could really retain control, or control anyone's use, of any particular sword. People, Govts, and Corps already hire mercenaries and hitmen in the real world.
As the CIA, and more abundantly, Mossad, have abundantly demonstrated for decades, centuries even...
Seems that by natural progression eventually someone somewhere will make the decision to up the game.
The "seems like" is possible, yes, but it's a time track. We - you, me, other individuals - we each have some level of individual agency (which may not be as great as we generally presume, but is hard to dispute that it exists to some degree at least), and how we collectively, and sometimes more importantly -individually- exercise our agency, has significant bearing on these futures we speak about. Not everything must be spoken (/typed). In 1918 the Spanish Flu was far more deadly (notwithstanding le Wakky's wakkiness) than 2019's Wuhan Flu, and one "end times" which appear to fit to some degree into the Revelations template, may not necessarily fit that template as harshly as another time track, or another "end times" in history. (Just think, the wars in the 20th Century were major, and relentless, and in this 2016/2020 crux it appears we may have avoided the fate of white USA in a major war against white Russia, and the almost certain global nuclear war which would have followed - Hitlery "Queen of War" Clinton has not had her preferred time track...) To the extent we may choose (or contribute to the choice of) one or another time track, let's choose those with greater possibility for joy, for freedom of expression, for greater individuality i.e. potential for dissidence "from the mainstream dogma".
Those who aren't in the game, not high profile making waves, just living their workaday life, won't have anything to worry about, certainly not more than the odds of dying from any other cause.
Until that day the final straw is placed on their shoulders, that final indignity, injustice or other matter of principle which causes him to become a dissident "with a cause", at which point FaceTwattGoogleAI might identify his "emergent dissidence" with 74% certainty. That almost-dissident's life does not continue for very long as his Tesla "strangely" rips through a barrier at the top of a 40meter high bridge and dies, publicized as a "tragic loss", his dissidence never known to the world for the laughter, joy, and liberating power he intended to bring forth. You and I are high profile, well known to Mossad and the CIA (and therefore the SValley AI behemoths), as are others on this list.
Nor will anyone be foolish enough to press their luck that far.
Me thinketh you doth project too much. Once it is evident that The Fine, Fine Powers That Be have gamed the AP markets to within a picometer of their very existence, at least those with sufficient IQ will know not to push the envelope of their dissidence "luck" that far - we've all seen it, the "pre-crime" computers are being deployed - and most will simply not risk their lives to take control of those computers in an AP-ubiquitous world.
These types of things are always rogue, and outside our control once the ideas become known. So why bother worrying? Just live.
Caution your rapid typing ability my friend: "These.. things are always rogue, and outside our control.." are (perhaps unrealised in your moment of typing) powerful words - they project certainty of one or another path (time track). You may be totally correct, or (as well) alternative words may speak to other time tracks of possibility which may draw the attention, and intention, of those who might otherwise be swayed by your powerful words. We -do- have influence upon one another, upon all, even by our very existence (let alone of course our words). Let us not let the evil of others be any justification for our own [ apathy, negligence, resignation, antagonism, evil, etc ]. Every phrase, every word, every sentence, every nuance of intention (!), which we speak and or project, has an effect in this world. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we are surfing time tracks or entrenching an existing time track. Wisdom behooves us to choose our words, phrases, sentences, and especially to choose our very nuances of intention and the subsequent blunt thoughts, wisely! Nothing is inevitable except we accept it as such. Consciously, or tacitly, we are each agents of intention in this world. Let's be conscious agents, and wish ourselves good luck and wisdom as we co-create our shared future.