Dark
On November 26, I wrote a piece called, ‘Meandering to the End.’ It was a stepped-back look at the failures of human kind that might (will) lead to the end of humanity. It was all very depressing. The key is the success of the 1% to deceive people into believing false things at a time when people need actual, verifiable facts to make existential decisions – as evidenced by the rise in popularity of the extreme right, for example, based on pure fraud and, well, trumpery.

I pointed out that we’re in desperate trouble, as a species, even before we introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) but pretty much left AI out of it for that moment. But AI is the final piece. You have, no doubt, seen stories either supporting or fretting over AI. Some people think it’s going to be a great tool that helps everybody do everything. Others are concerned it’s not well-enough understood, it makes dangerous decisions and often comes to faulty conclusions, it actually produces tons of carbon (because of the computers behind it). It will put people out of work.

It’s not that AI, in and of itself, is particularly bad. It’s the people behind AI that scare me. No, not the nerds. The people doing the actual work are just people doing something that fires their imaginations – and in their imaginations, AI just shines and helps and does good. (Even the people who built the first Atomic Bombs were hoping they were doing a good thing. Human capacity for self-deception, sadly, seems boundless. I mean…Jesus!) The danger from AI comes from the people financing the projects, the ‘One Percents,’ people who have convinced themselves they have what they have because some invisible cloud being decided they should have it.

In their minds, it has nothing to do with opportunism or wage theft. It’s all about their legendary genius. (It IS “legendary,” too, as in, they are generally NOT the geniuses behind the technology they maneuvered their way into controlling, and profiting from. But they reinforce the “legend” of their own greatness at every turn and, because they have lots of money, people think maybe those guys actually did something.)

Sadly, it’s a pretty short leap from, “Hey, I’ve acquired a LOT” to “Hey, I should be KING!” and they start to believe that, too. It was, after all, the One Percent who launched the current war on truth (because Charles Koch didn’t like all that fairness and equality stuff). The One percent bought up most news outlets and turned them into nearly useless “infotainment” outlets. It IS the One Percent who keep the masses fighting with each other through constant infusions of misinformation. And now, it’s the One Percent that just keeps pressing forward on AI, despite concerns raised by people with ethics.

So the question becomes, why would the people who believe they should rule be so preoccupied with developing tools designed to fool? Have you even seen a “deep fake?” You have, whether you know it or not, and that’s the point. It can be difficult to tell, and the work these days is to make it harder to know. There’s a deep fake of Obama out there that fooled millions. There’s a high school in New Jersey having a problem with deep fakes of the girls in the school. The faces of the girls are being superimposed on the nude bodies of other women and passed around for the prurient interests of the viewers. And that’s nothing compared to what is happening to starlet’s faces on porn stars bodies (and behavior). And these are only the warning signs!

Once the technology is perfected, or at least dependably deceptive, there will be no way for the average Joe to know the difference between a news story backed by video and a fake intended to deceive. I suspect that will be the final nail. Again, the problem is NOT the technology. It’s the people who control the tech. Despite their “Oh, ain’t we great?” rags-to-riches stories, these are among the least developed human beings on the planet, willing to do anything to advance themselves – and only themselves. (And hasn’t that been the way of the wealthy since the dawn of wealth?) In their quest to rule, they’ll run with AI as fast and as far as possible, disregarding all the red flags and warning signs as they approach what they believe will be ultimate power.

But I’ll tell you this: I believe the rollout of AI will be the final piece in the Drake Equation. At a time when humanity needed accurate and honest information in order to make decent decisions, we are, instead, going to be treated to inaccurate and dishonest information and as the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. In the name of our Lord and Master, Profit. Amen…

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Dumb
Speaking of pure, unadulterated fraud, the conservative Anti-War on Christmas is back! (It’s weird to have an anti-war movement with no actual war as an offset.) I saw my first post, this morning, telling me it was okay to say “Merry Christmas!” I have never once run into somebody who took issue with me saying Merry Christmas. Where ARE they? It seems to me, NOBODY has done more damage to the meaning of Christmas than the people shouting at the top of their lungs to check out THEIR own holiness, displayed in their unwavering support of Donald Trump, the very embodiment of ALL of the Seven Deadly Sins. (Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Avarice, Wrath, and Sloth. Which one is NOT Donald Trump?)

I’ll tell you this: If you’re going to continue to ignore the teachings of Christ, I’m going to continue to believe you are NOT a Christian and don’t know the first thing about Christianity. And, heads up… Your “God” knows, too…

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Drama
Okay, football season is heating up. Yeah, I know, it’s been going on for months, now, but so far it’s been preliminaries. Now we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty. The Santa Clara Forty-Niners are playing the Philadelphia Eagles, today. It’s just a game in the schedule. The outcome won’t change much for either team. But it’s also NOT just a game. This one seems personal.

See, last year, the Eagles beat the Niners in the NFC Championship game. No, that’s not really right. The full-strength Eagles beat a Niners team that had no Quarterback. For three and a half quarters, it was basically an eleven-on-ten game. It just wasn’t fair. Nobody did anything wrong. The Eagles didn’t cheat or anything. The Niners QB got hurt early on and they had no replacements left. The Eagles took their “win” and went on to lose the Stupor Bowl. (The NFL sues if you use the real name of the game without paying them.)

Ever since, the Niners have ridden on the reality that they might well have won that game, had they been full strength, and the Eagles have taken to denying their advantage had anything to do with their win. The difference in the perceptions has led to a lot of energy going into today’s games. ALL the fans in both cities are charged up. Think of how the players feel. The Niners are itching to prove that at full strength, they can beat the Eagles. The Eagles are itching to prove it wasn’t the imbalance that gave them the win.

The whole thing is kind of stupid. BOTH teams are different, now. Each has lost players, each has gained players. The Niners have a new Defensive Coordinator who isn’t really as good as his two predecessors. The Eagles have lost some impact players, a couple to the Niners! But, both teams are very, very good and the energy they’re using to get ready for this game is still valid, if a little off. 1:25pm, Pacific Time. It should be a great game, either way…