B ig Silence

[lucr...@florence.it]

I assume you are all out clearing snow or indoors plonked out after
clearing it :)

[HRM Resident]

<lucr...@florence.it> wrote:
> I assume you are all out clearing snow or indoors plonked out after
> clearing it :)
>

There literally is nothing to talk about. We have all
expressed our views on everything 50 times!

Was it better when James was me argued for weeks
over philosophical topics ( and he was always wrong:-) )?

If something interesting happens, likely it will get
discussed. I don’t want to talk about foreign wars, which
old guy is going to win the US presidency, or even if
PeePee is a shoe in as next PM. I don’t care what any of
them say or do. It is beyond our control.

I guess we are lucky this latest storm appears as if it will
miss us.

--
HRM Resident

[axemen99]

On 2/17/2024 10:19 AM, lucr...@florence.it wrote:
> I assume you are all out clearing snow or indoors plonked out after
> clearing it :)

My latest genealogy question - How would someone born in Aspy Bay,
northern most NS, and moved to my neck of the wood and married?

****
When Isaac Hinckley was born on 7 August 1847, in Cape Breton, Nova
Scotia, Canada, his father, Samuel Hinckley, was 29 and his mother, Ann
Gwinn, was 21. He married Celia Ann Clark on 17 April 1869, in
Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, United States. They were the parents
of at least 3 sons and 5 daughters. He lived in Massachusetts, United
States in 1870 and Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, United States for
about 20 years. He died on 5 August 1928, in Staten Island, New York
City, New York, United States, at the age of 80

[HRM Resident]

axemen99 <axem...@gmail.com> writes:
>
> My latest genealogy question - How would someone born in Aspy Bay,
> northern most NS, and moved to my neck of the wood and married?

Many, many Nova Scotians moved to New England for work. Some stayed
and never returned, while others came back here. There wasn't a lot of
work besides fishing in much of NS, while New England was booming with
factories, etc.

I had a great uncle who lived in the US (worked at the brickyards in
Portland, ME) and came back to NS in 1902. Two of my aunts moved to the
Boston area around 1920 looking for work, married US guys, and never
came back.

I think the short answer to your question is "It was the economy."

--
HRM Resident

[lucr...@florence.it]

On Sat, 17 Feb 2024 12:36:13 -0500, axemen99 <axem...@gmail.com>
wrote:

I had a cleaning lady years ago who came from Gullivers Cove. It
seems back then many NSians aimed to move to the US, particularly
Boston, for work. Her family did and she said they would come back
every summer for a couple of weeks but it gave them the feeling they
didn't really belong here or there.

[Mike Spencer]

HRM Resident <hrm...@gmail.com> writes:

> <lucr...@florence.it> wrote:
>
>> I assume you are all out clearing snow or indoors plonked out after
>> clearing it :)

Finished today.

> There literally is nothing to talk about. We have all
> expressed our views on everything 50 times!

"I tend to think that most fears about A.I. are best understood as
fears about capitalism," Chiang told me. "And I think that this is
actually true of most fears of technology, too. Most of our fears
or anxieties about technology are best understood as fears or
anxiety about how capitalism will use technology against us. And
technology and capitalism have been so closely intertwined that
it's hard to distinguish the two." - NYT

> Was it better when James was me argued for weeks
> over philosophical topics ( and he was always wrong:-) )?

Say whut?


--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

[HRM Resident]

Mike Spencer <m...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> writes:
> Most of our fears or anxieties about technology are
> best understood as fears or anxiety about how capitalism
> will use technology against us.

That is correct, although it is not my biggest fear. I fear
it is, or soon will be, weaponized. Every technology humans
invented was used to kill other humans more efficiently.

From fire, the wheel, forging metal, nuclear energy, the
Internet, etc. There is no doubt in my mind that right now
politicians and military leaders worldwide are huddled
together trying to figure out how they can use AI to kill
more people than they currently are killing.

Maybe war and terrorism are just extensions of greed
(capitalism) but either way, technology is always used
against us as much as it is used for us.

--
HRM Resident

[Mike Spencer]

HRM Resident <hrm...@gmail.com> writes:

> I fear it is, or soon will be, weaponized. Every technology humans
> invented was used to kill other humans more efficiently.

I do not expect something actually smart to attack us with
marching robot armies with glowing red eyes where there could be a
fun movie about us fighting them. I expect an actually smarter and
uncaring entity will figure out strategies and technologies that
can kill us quickly and reliably, and then kill us.

-- Eliezer Yudkowsky


https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/nsrJLe8Q9FBwtmB9H/a-transcription-of-the-ted-talk-by-eliezer-yudkowsky

> Maybe war and terrorism are just extensions of greed
> (capitalism) but either way, technology is always used
> against us as much as it is used for us.

We've been working on that technology for 300 years -- say, from the
hey-day of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) in mid 17th c. to the
Powell memo, 1970s. Progress has been slower that that of AI (say, 40
years vs 300) but we finally have corporatist finaancial capitalism
tuned to own us all.

[HRM Resident]

Mike Spencer <m...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere wrote:
> Progress has been slower that that of AI (say, 40

> years vs 300) but we finally have corporatist financial

> capitalism tuned to own us all.
>

Maybe greed is like entropy. While there are temporary
reversals, it always increases. Greed may be a necessary
part of evolution.

--
HRM Resident

[James Warren]

There's not much difference between Capitalism and Feudalism. In both
regimes we have the masses working to enrich the few.

[James Warren]

It would enhance chances of survival for a few, the "fittest"?

I think cooperation was really the key to humans flourishing and
dominating the planet. Perhaps greed is a part pf that in getting many
to work for the few.

[Mike Spencer]

James Warren <jwwar...@gmail.com> writes:

> There's not much difference between Capitalism and Feudalism. In both
> regimes we have the masses working to enrich the few.

Yes, with this difference: Feudal lords, under the "divine right of
kings" rubric, and their top 20% simply enslaved or killed elements of
the masses who failed to submit.

Since the Enlightenment, we (the collective "we") have been striving
to get those elements/individuals to submit willingly. I saw an
estimate that that the VOC had something like 40% losses in crews on
voyages to the East Indies but they were all people who volunteered
for seafaring employment, seeing it as better than whatever landlubber
occupations might be available. Slavery (there were
Irish/English/white slaves too) and indenture (e.g. as used by British
justice for transportation to the NAmer colonies or Australia) were
gradually abandoned.

Today, roughly since the Reagan/Gungpure [1] era, indenture in the form of
mortgages and student loans (among other similar) has become the norm
for the kind of middle class life and status that emerged in the
post-FDR, post-war 50s & 60s as the then-new reasonable aspiration for
those masses.

This newly institutionalized indenture, along with concentration of
capital and power in an increasingly monopolistic corporatist economy
is the outcome of the 300 years of effort to which I alluded.

With any luck (luck for the corporatists or, arguably for the AI
entities themselves), AI (either sovereign or instrumental) will
manage the next phase of indenture of the masses in 60 years (counting
arbitrarily from the re-emergence of neural net tech in the mid-80s.)



[1] You *did* know that Onebarff Gungpure is the ROT13 of Baroness
Thatcher didn't you? :-)

[James Warren]

Yes, Capitalism is "enlightened" Feudalism. We have freedom but are
endentured to the banksters.