CSotD: Thinking Allowed
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AI says it’s time to wake up, Golding notes, and that if we don’t, we may not. The people who understand this stuff seem to agree that it’s in real danger of getting out of hand, and in a perfect world, they’d all get together and agree to slow down and figure things out.
And in a perfect world, we’d have wiped out measles. What world are you living in?
I suppose maybe it’s like drivers on a freeway realizing that everyone is driving way too fast, but also realizing that anyone who touches their brakes is going to become a hockey puck getting banged around the asphalt, which is why they are voicing their concern to the government.
We’re facing this danger the same way we’ve faced the measles outbreak: With denial.
As Dear Leader explained on his Truth
The claim that “AI is going to take over the World” is a Hoax, just like Global “Warming,” where everyone was going to be dead by now, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, or Impeachment Hoax #1, or Impeachment Hoax #2.
I’m not sure what the president thinks “hoax” means, because those are all things that were true, which would make the threat of AI going out of control something we should worry about.
However, he clarifies things in another Truth:
The people that say AI is going to destroy the World, and that Data Centers are bad for your neighborhood, are the same people that said, just a short time ago, that the World would be extinguished by “Climate Change.” That HOAX never worked out for them, and now they’re on to the next one. These people are Revolutionaries, but Revolutionaries for a Bad and Evil Cause. Soon you’ll find out they’re working for people that do not have the best interests of the United States in mind!
The Trumps cannot be easily fooled, and Junior has refuted the hoax that his wedding was paid for by a Russian oligarch who is a close associate of Putin. As the new Mrs. Junior explained, that simply isn’t true. He didn’t pay for the wedding. He just paid for the two-day party that followed. And, anyway, he’s just a friend.
Besides, the idea that Putin is one of those “people that do not have the best interests of the United States in mind” is another hoax, because why would Dear Leader try to get Russia back into the G20 if they weren’t our friends? The idea that Russia is not our ally is another hoax, probably started by all those communists the GOP has been warning us against.
Not to worry. As Dear Leader has explained,
The only control or “guardrails” that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!
Well, to rework an old expression, “You go to war with the president you have, not the president you might want or wish to have at a later time,” and Dear Leader’s denial of the potential threat is troubling precisely because we need a smart and high IQ president.
German goes farther and points out that Dear Leader has already demonstrated his competence by handling inflation, the war in Iran, the national debt and corruption in the executive branch.
And McKee appears to also agree with Trump that what he need is a high IQ president.
Someone who really understands science and how to deal with it responsibly.
And Duginski mocks the president’s assurances that we’ve already got all the guardrails we need, and that, if China has no intention of slowing things down, we can’t afford to, either. Which, logically, does seem like an argument against guardrails rather than an endorsement of our current guidelines.
But, as with Russia, only communists oppose our friendly competition with China.
Though we don’t think other countries should trade with Beijing, of course. That wouldn’t be friendly.
Molina notes one of the dangers of living in a democracy, which is that sometimes the stupidity bubbles up from below, and if you have a gullible voter base, it’s not likely that you’ll have a wise and thoughtful government.
Slyngstad doubles down on the issue, pointing out that the core MAGA group doesn’t seem to learn from experience, and can be readily led by the nose with the same empty promises they’re fallen for several times in the past.
We’re testing that gullibility with the promise of a $5,000 check if somehow both houses of Congress go to the Republicans in November, which at the moment seems as likely as flipping a coin 50 times and having it come up heads each time.
But then again, each flip of a coin is a 50:50 chance, no matter how it came up before, and placing your bets on any other odds is foolish.
No matter what the polls suggest, showing up to vote is the only way you can influence the outcome.
And there is a real danger in being so enamored of the things that AI can do for us that we downplay the things that AI can do to us.
But we don’t tend to move very fast. After all, this is a country that watched for more than three years as Hitler raged through Europe and Japan took giant bites out of Asia and we didn’t do anything about it until there was a massive surprise attack on our own territory in the Pacific.
Accordingly, we’ve elected a president who, when touring Pearl Harbor, had to ask what had happened there and now says
We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies! … We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!
If that sounds familiar, it’s because it should.
Thank you for your inattention to this matter!
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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