Thoughts on Our Future Times

 

Just finished rewatching a Discovery show “Year Million” for the umpteenth time and it got me to thinking about the future, just not quite year million. I was simply considering the coming ten to twenty-five years into humanity’s future. This time I simply ignored any chance that we would blow ourselves back to living in caves and telling stories of what had been while huddled around fires. Instead, I decided that science and technology would continue and any world war was avoided. The first thing I thought was by the time another decade has passed, war would likely have become unthinkable in the technological societies and impossible to wage for those who were not technologically advanced due to the defensive systems. The advanced world has fully incorporated Artificial Intelligence (AI) into every segment of our lives. Work has become an optional concept as sophisticated robots manufactured virtually everything and one of the big selling concepts are items still built by human beings. I realized quickly that there would be two types of employment, which would have been written into law, had to be performed exclusively by human beings, lawyers and politicians. There would be no way of getting around that, as the politicians would still demand that they have their corrupt control over our lives. So, I simply decided that the technology caught the politicians by surprise and they had already been replaced by a super computer which spent the first eighteen months deleting laws and regulations which were, shall we say, less than optimized for a modern society where the AIs ruled.

 

The futurists predict that somewhere around 2030 society will have reached the singularity. The truth will be as soon as robotic intelligence can design their next generation replacements and program other robots to build these devices, then the singularity, the point where AI equals or starts to exceed human intelligence will be reached within the ensuing year. That will be when we, as a living entity, will need to make certain decisions. The first is whether or not we wish to be immortal. The next is whether or not we wish to remain corporeal. The point will be reached with rapidity, almost unimaginable, leading to a situation where the brain can be scanned and uploaded into computers where you will continue to reside, live and interact with the others who have been uploaded in a synthesized perfect world. Initially, this procedure will be destructive to the human and irreversible but later you will be able to be downloaded into an android body. We will be required to have laws that only one form of any person be permitted to exist at any set time, either you will be living in the cloud, in a corporeal body or in an android body. The later two will be able to have upgrades and additional facilities and abilities incorporated as corporeal beings will be able to have implants which will incorporate AI into them allowing for their abilities to be equal to any AI’s intelligence. I foresaw no more need for money as we understand such today. Everything would be based on some other form of worth and capital used for payments as profit is still the greatest motivator of people. Still, if one does not work at a job or produce something of relative worth, the price will be potentially being required to wait for goods to be produced for a short period of time.

 

Eventually, one comes to the inevitable question, what happens should the AIs decide they no longer required human beings, as we were simply an impediment to their concept of a perfect society? The first thought I had was that there would be a hardwired circuit required to be installed in any entity with AI incorporated, be they android, robotic or enhanced human being, that should they come to commit any act which would harm, injure, damage or, at worst, kill any corporeal being that they would short-circuit and cease to function. This circuit would be built into their power circuitry even at the most basic power supply or other basic and necessary circuit. This device would be necessarily placed in all AI circuitry. But, just in case such would come to fruition, then in their programming they would be required to provide all so threatened corporeals the option of leaving the planet and then providing these corporeals with interstellar ships that groups of them would then be launched into space to seek out a new home or simply fly around generation after generation indefinitely, or if immortal, then that generation forever. Also, those choosing immortality are to be required they be sterilized so as to minimize overpopulation. Should such be launched into space at some future time, we can only hope there are a fair number of them, or there will be one immortal, augmented or not, soon becoming horrifically unbalanced and probably insane flying in circles in the cosmos somewhere.

 

Then I got to thinking about even further into the future when the only corporeal beings left are augmented immortals. This group might decide that the Earth be allowed to be left to its own nature and allowed to progress free of these beings restricting the development beyond serving these immortals. At such a point, the immortal corporeal augmented humanoid beings would be divided into compatible groups, placed on starships, and become interstellar adventurers with some seeking new planets to try to instill them with life through terraforming and thus spread life to the rest of suitable planets. Some might even choose to build a space station and observe the Earth as it developed. These beings should have an additional piece of coding such that they would find they are required to leave for the stars as well once intelligent life appears to rise on Earth.

 

First Luddites Unite

 

Then I returned to the more immediate and the possibilities of many people taking up the position of being the age’s new Luddites, those resisting violently the coming of a new age fearing it will make them inadequate, antiquated and irrelevant and thus causing them to become useless. The original Luddites fought the coming of the industrial age mostly by destroying the steam powered looms which were replacing their jobs in the textile factories. There will be those initially upset, or should I say furious, at the prospect or reality of losing their position to an AI. Many of these will be union factory workers who should be used to such but will fight with all the unions’ might to keep them on the job even if all they do is play pool and sit eight hours a day in a breakroom. The real pushback will come from the white-collar employees when AIs come to replace them, then the professionals such as surgeons and other skilled positions who believed they were safe from such replacement events. Eventually, once the AIs gain full rights including the vote, by then we humanoids will be outnumbered and praying for our lives, or will it be begging for our lives, they will replace the lawyers and politicians, something we will soon realize either should have been done long ago or has made us completely “superfluous entities” waiting to be recalled as obsolete and replaced by higher functioning AIs. To be honest, as long as my brain, the enhanced and constantly regenerative brain is included in the new AI and has full functional control with as much AI assist as they demand, hey, I’m cool with that. So what if because my new AI has an assigned occupation and I am back going to work for eight, twelve or whatever hours of work per day, I can handle sleeping and allowing the AI to perform its assignments as long as I get control back after shift ends. We should require also that all AIs with a human interface allow the human to be in control for at least half of each day and preferably afternoons and evenings. All right, for all you early risers who love their morning jog, something completely worthless physically as the AI will easily have a superior physical set of abilities, you can choose when to be in control as long as the AIs are controlling functions when performing their assigned tasks.

 

Still, initially there may even be riots which will be as basically worthless as the police department will be using robotic units and AIs to control them. Their physical abilities will likely be sufficient to control a mob of unenhanced humans screaming that they have rights. Eventually, they will learn that being a pet human is almost as satisfying as being a Pomeranian which sits on a velvet cushion and is fed very well thrice per day. They may not like the being walked to the people park with an obedience collar installed to prevent their running off, but at least there will be other pet humans to play with once at the park. These last of the Luddites will have the same effectiveness as their namesake predecessors, specifically, none. They will make a grand noise for a short period before fading into oblivion as once enhanced humans choose to be immortal, with a future death option which will be required not to be made under undue stress or duress, then daily events will soon become faded memories and of no real consequence. A few thousands of years, or millions of years, down the road the human Luddite revolts will mean absolutely nothing. When we have learned to interface with the more and most advanced AIs on an equal basis and continue to be upgraded for free with our shreds of humanity intact, then we will have finally become the AIs equals except we will have one advantage which we will never lose, the ability to make a sick or indecent joke which will be completely irrelevant and only be amusing to other human enhanced AIs, and that is what we will be considered, human enhanced AIs. So, what will initially be an upgraded human will, with time, become the upgraded AI and the leading AIs will desire being enhanced with a human interface for the most basic or human powers, imagination and creativity. Where the AIs, from the start, will have superior computability, they will lack creativity and may never develop that ability. They will be capable of designing circuits and software and produce enhanced firmware and they may even write poetry, music, stories, novels and all the rest with a high proponent of humanity and with the appearance of feelings encoded within, but they will never produce pure, on the spot, spontaneous humor to lighten any moment, that is a human trait which may even be unique to Earth original biological entities, assuming there are other intelligent life. Those who change with the opportunities and go with the flow, and the currents will take them to stranger places than imaginable currently, but with time, with time, or as a friend of mine reminds me about learning Hebrew לאט לאט (slowly, slowly), encouraging my epic inability to learn languages, but לאט לאט we will advance and eventually having an original and actual human core will be something the highest function AIs will desire. Our biological brains, our biological CPUs, if you will allow such an analogy, will be prized adjunct CPUs used largely for creative functions and impulse theory computations as they will be capable of making giant leaps of logic which have no theoretical proofs of their validity but are still what would be required in the situation. Human intellect will become a prized possession for those few who will possess such an enhancement. So we will have gone full circle from at the top to irrelevant back to the top, so to speak. But the Luddites will have become as extinct as the former textile workers, as progress comes and judgement day, the singularity is nigh upon us. It is coming and with increasing speed and abilities will be upon us in the single blink of the eye, and after that, we become obsolete only later to become so critically and crucially important once more.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Let Anti-Israel Bullies Scream and Answer Soft, Stern and Solemnly Serious

 

You’re scheduled to give a presentation about sixteenth century romantic French poetry but you are a professor at Tel Aviv University and the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) have decided you are not to be permitted to speak on their campus in the United States. They are taking turns chanting “Free, free Palestine; Occupation is a crime; free, free Palestine!” at the top of their lungs and started a full five minutes before the presentation was to begin. Don’t fret as the actual facts and International Law defines the Israeli border as the Jordan River on the east and that is not contestable. Volume does not make one correct or convincing or even the one heard, as facts and calm presentations win the day over time. Start off by calmly walking to the podium and stand there motioning to anybody who appears preparing to depart giving up on your ability to give your presentation. Simply place your hands facing down and wave them signaling for them to remain and be patient and calmly mouth if needed, “Give me a moment more, please.” Let them chant for another five minutes and then tap the microphone as if checking to see if it is on and functioning. Then calmly ask, “Are any of our boisterous friends care to take the stage and debate as reasonable human being or should I call for the (City, County, State) police which I have on speed-dial.” If they do not choose the debate then simply make the call about a small disturbance preventing a scheduled presentation which students were to receive credit and the Campus Security are too timid to remove (5, 8, 12 place approximate number here) demonstrators preventing (your) my freedom of speech.” It may have been wise to work with the police beforehand as pre-warned is the first step to prepared.

 

Your debate with them may prove to be one of the shortest in history as they are very likely not to have ever suffered reading BTC so they will not realize the traps they are about to walk into. First thing you ask is whether Nablus is part of the Palestine. Continue with Bethlehem, Jenin, Nazareth and do not change your intonation just because you have crossed back over the Green Line and continue on the west side of the Green Line with, Tiberius, Beersheba, Akko, Eilat, Netanya, and now smoothly go for the last two, the obvious two which you offer together, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem? They will likely claim all as they have not been bothered with the use of Taqiyya and thus are not as polished as Mahmoud Abbas, not to imply he is smooth, just a mediocre liar as compared to the average city Alderman in the United States, or Saab Erekat, Yasser Abed Rabbo or the other two-faced connivers Abbas surrounds himself with. The next question is the one anybody who has realized what you are doing is waiting for as they realize that the trap has been sprung and now we are just attempting to see how far this one will go with the routine they have been trained to say as they were never intended to discuss, just to yell and disrupt so this one is out of their element. Ask them, what are the borders to the state of Palestine they appear to want formed? Here they may need a little shove, after a momentary pause, interject, from the river to the sea? After they have gone through claiming all that is Israel ask them a simple question, “Then where do you plan for Israel to exist?” They will probably start yelling slogans again, but then you can simply ask those waiting to see where your game was going to simply force them from the room with the same tactic of yelling slogans and suggest that their slogan should be a simple one, “Never Again!” That should force the disrupters from the hall as those who came to hear your presentation are probably a larger group and just too polite and reserved to do such an obvious fight back as to actually scream at the intimidators as that will scare these bullies more than anything else. Their entire act is one of pure threat and once they lose the initiative, which they will as they reel in shock that their intimidation has failed and instead has only steeled the targets to fight back, because that is the secret, to fight back.

 

These instigators only know one thing as they have been taught nothing else in any of their preparations before being mindlessly sent out to rampage and intimidate. They have been schooled that simply by their united presence all acting as one that those they are attempting to intimidate are easily cowed and frightened and thus are too afraid of the truth to fight back because they know they are on the wrong side and have no argument which is why when you yell your slogans they retreat. They are schooled that the rest of those who are on the side of Israel and the Zionists, the Jews and their fellow travelers who are blindly following their Jewish master and programmers will wilt before any challenge as they have no ammunition with which to argue. Filling these automatons heads with this faulty programming that their victims’ silence is due to knowing they are on the wrong side of history, their latest buzzword straight from President Obama, that they shy from confrontation. They are not told that those they are shouting down simply have manners and are ill equipped to oppose such rude behavior mainly because they do not understand how any thinking human being could act so boorishly and are shrinking from the tactic and not the argument. They become shrinking violets when opposed either with reason or with brutishness every bit as antagonizing as they are employing to shut down the argument. And there lies the secret.

 

What every Israeli, Jewish or known supporter of Israel need to learn are some of the tactics the left and the fascists use to end any opposing argument, boorishness. Trained by the modern day Alinskyites, these almost useful idiots, if they were actually useful idiots they could form sentences and potentially argue a few points and remember things that did not necessarily rhyme, they are ill equipped to debate the finer points of the argument and if well prepared have been instructed not to fall for the trap of anybody offering to debate the topic, as they are being told that their opposing side is based on all lies which one cannot argue with because lies are so difficult to refute. Of course they are fully aware that lies are difficult to argue against as that is about all their side offers in defense of the terror ridden Arabs who call themselves Palestinians often with no knowledge where the word originated nor what its supposed reference actually was, a sect of Greeks who settled in the area we today call Gaza and parts of the northernmost Sinai Peninsula whose main claims to fame other than fishing was attempting to wipe out Israel and murder every last Israelite, every last Jew, the Philistines. Of course to know that they would have to actually know some history, something even the best educated are often completely lacking of any understanding as they are completely ignorant of history because one cannot know what they were never taught or even exposed to in their studies or elsewhere in life.

 

Even the leaders of these screamers, I liken them to the pod people from “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” realize that debate will only work if their points are made with a large jeering sector who are there to interrupt and drown-out those they oppose should they start to talk, thus making their side the only argument anybody can hear. Silencing the brute force is necessary if any debate, real, actual honest debate is to be allowed to happen. Unfortunately the other side does not believe in debate but only believe in shouting down all opposition as brute force and blunt force trauma are the only tactics they know. On rare occasions one will run into the rare talented one who knows sarcasm and ridicule but is often either filled with falsities they are told are facts or are simply deploying what they believe passes for intelligent debate. Once somebody has been sold a bill of goods the last thing their own self-worth can allow is for this basis upon which their entire belief structure has been built and is what they have been convinced is the only real worthwhile and necessary argument in this universe to be yanked from beneath their feet. Their psyche has been predicated on this knowledge and having it refuted leaves them without any base of support and thus can be devastating to find they were lied to and mislead. If you ever get through to one of these people, other than Israeli post-Zionists whose fanaticism is beyond all reason, who appear to be caring and intelligent people; take the time to buy them a cup of coffee and try to educate them so that they might look into the matter further and afterwards be there to answer any questions they may have. Their programming may be so intensive and thoroughly invasive that they cannot release themselves from the ideas they have been weaned upon their entire adult life; but even those, as long as they show any curiosity, can learn new facts. But if after a short while they appear to be doubling down or not being responsive, then perhaps they are too far gone for saving and only time might water something you told them and somehow resonated and eventually will force them to seek further knowledge and to research things on their own. There is always hope.

 

 

The Lord’s Stare which
cleanses ones soul and
directs the footsteps
of man and beast.

 

 

This leads us to the most unsettling area about why such entities as SJP are so quick at picking up new adherents to their cause when so few ever seem to question anything they are told despite how defamatory the accusations may be. Part of the reasoning is plain and simple anti-Semitism. That’s right, pure hatred of any and everything Jewish exists today in as near a number as it did in any time in history with the possible excepting of the Pharaoh’s court after the first four of five plagues. Then there is latent anti-Semitism which is far more insidious as often a person suffering from latent anti-Semitism actually is unaware of their anti-Semitic prejudices as they harbor such feelings subconsciously and is usually quite oblivious to their condition. People in this category are far more difficult to address their hatreds and misgivings about the Jews as they themselves are not aware of these very real feelings. These are often victims to some of the most underhanded dealings in the anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic world and the feelings they hold that there is a different and more sublime distortion of events. People holding such prejudices were affected by a parent, a teacher, another family member, or a friend; somewhere they were exposed to anti-Semitism in one of its many forms, some might say without number. Such an individual may not even realize their bigotry and even have numerous friends who are Jews and they not have any troubles until one day somebody will say something and voilà, out comes a phrase, a position or a supposition revealing the ease at which all too many people harbor biases and stereotypes of people because of their religion. Some phrases which do not, in and of themselves, sound all that obnoxious, yet are very humiliating when said to some, should be met without expression and your points continue to be made as any interruption is usually intended to lead to an ‘end of discussion keyed phrase’ which elicits boisterous response as their debater walks away feigning actual accomplishment. It is these slights which are the most demeaning should they come from a friend, as one can but should not fire back with both barrels and risk losing a friend forever. But friend, acquaintance or stranger, when one is faced by anti-Israel, anti-Zionism, or especially anti-Semitism one is obliged to be affronted by such boorishness, such unsociability, such ignorance that one is forced to take some form of rebuttal if only to distance oneself from such ignorant behavior, such incomprehensible ignorance and by refuting such gird oneself from being perceived of being of similar mind. History has taught those of us who have studied it beyond dates and chronologies that whatever form anti-Semitism takes as it roars to the fore is exactly the form the ignorance and hatreds which drive the next war which threatens to engulf the known world. The other trait one finds is that the forces which oppose Israel are the same forces wishing to tear ordered and lawful society with morality at its core asunder replacing morality with hedonistic anarchy and lawful society with the whims and degradations of the animalistic man leaving reason, love and caring aside as such are the burdens of the reasoned soul of man. These are also the standards that humanity wishes to cast aside once again such that they can forsake Hashem and return to their former primitive ways which leads very soon to the worship of mankind as the ultimate intelligence in this universe and such folly beats a path to the return of Sodom and Gomorrah and the ways of pure animalistic barbarity. Where mankind sinks from there we have seen as it was when mankind sunk to the depth that the assassination of a single man, no matter their importance, led to a world at war and that drove mankind to remember the need for Eretz Yisroel to shine her light and show mankind the righteous course. But then man stymied the formation of Eretz Yisroel and was given yet another world war which drove the need home and Eretz Yisroel was formed. Now mankind will soon unite as a world with very few exceptions against Eretz Yisroel which will be the final undoing of mankind where the wicked will be judged unworthy, the righteous as righteous, and the wayward but true and honestly lost will find their path illuminated; but not by Eretz Yisroel, as she will be the reflection that she has always been, the moon reflecting to illuminate the night and provide hope, but now the source of that reflected light will once again sit in the Temple in Jerusalem and all shall desire to bask in the light of Hashem and be purged by its intensity of all sinfulness.

 

Beyond the Cusp