It was a nice to see he was there to learn about the topics I frequently write and speak about.
However, when I wrote my blog post in 2020 about a more fair and accurate history of the Luddites, I didn’t really expect him to basically take it and publish it in January 2022 as his own work… without attribution.
In truth, the Luddites’ cause wasn’t the destruction of technology – no more than the Boston Tea Party’s cause was the elimination of tea, or Al Qaeda’s cause was the end of civilian aviation. Smashing looms and stocking frames was the Luddites’ tactic, not their goal.
In truth, their goal was something closely related to science fiction: to challenge not the technology itself, but rather the social relations that governed its use…
In truth, Luddism and science fiction concern themselves with the same questions: not merely what the technology does, but who it does it for and who it does it to.
Years ago, in my talks about future AI risks, I explained how satellites and fax machines by 1960s had become essential technology in the success of U.S. Army special force operations in Africa.
Rescue teams gathered an accurate record of building footprints in order to prepare raids and make quick work of kidnappers.
An accurate record of building footprints is important for a range of applications, from population estimation and urban planning to humanitarian response and environmental science. After a disaster, such as a flood or an earthquake, authorities need to estimate how many households have been affected. Ideally there would be up-to-date census information for this, but in practice such records may be out of date or unavailable. Instead, data on the locations and density of buildings can be a valuable alternative source of information.
Source: “In the Shadows: The extraordinary men and women of the Intelligence Corps”, By Michael Aschroft page 205
Another time I mentioned briefly how quickly deflating cost of spatial intelligence feeds into asymmetric conflict.
One of the more interesting aspects of this new Google post is something I highlighted as far back as my 2016 talks, which is that AI engineers do not think about African geography when they develop “recognition” systems (I easily broke a Cambridge “driverless” system claiming 90% accuracy by running it on scenery from Botswana, where it immediately failed).
…taking into account confounding characteristics of different areas across the African continent. In rural areas, for example, it was necessary to identify different types of dwelling places and to disambiguate them from natural features, while in urban areas we needed to develop labelling policies for dense and contiguous structures.
It begs the question whether someone associated with military intelligence or special operations poked Google for help on a “humanitarian” mission by providing accurate footprints… in Africa. Or maybe even Google hired a spy to their dubiously funded massively expanding engineering teams.
It’s always been a huge figurative problem for Elon Musk that he screws his workers. It goes all the way back to his start in tech, when PayPal was successful because they fired him.
Peter Thiel and Elon Musk after moving to America and nearly dying in a $1m car that Musk quickly crashed and destroyed by being dumb.
He got rich anyway, simply holding stocks for a company that threw him out. That was his big break, which probably never should have happened. Since then he’s been at war with everyone; if you don’t let him screw you, he just throws you away to find someone who will.
For some reason his tactics aren’t yet illegal in America (hint: tragic history of rapid wealth based on slavery and genocide).
For over a decade we see Tesla become a robotic killing machine, Neuralink torture and kill animals, Twitter now being setup to foment hate crimes. All of it unnecessary and yet somehow the message is… “but Musk has taken so much money from others, his false profiteering matters more than people dying.”
Compare that message with Stanford’s FTX. It lost others’ money and America within months is claiming a serious crime must be prosecuted ASAP.
It may seem like we’re taking about young men exploiting a new domain of technology in need of regulation, yet it’s not new at all.
It’s more like a repeat of the worst chapter in history, which has Union Generals rolling in their graves. The U.S. says it carefully monitors and protects assets (ready to dispatch the slavecatchers to recover lost assets), yet totally disregards the value of humans let alone the planet (ignores the loss of life inherent to slavery).
We are watching growth of an intentional racist tyranny in Twitter, total rejection of freedom. It’s a “let them lean in and eat cake” moment for anyone left under Musk’s detached and cruel control.
It reminds me very much of the German factories saying they expected Hitler’s lack of morals would make them rich quick, yet complained as bombs rained down to end the toxic fraud.
I warned how Musk himself was messaging obvious hate to workers recently when I explained the nuance behind his “future vision” was actually nothing but apartheid South Africa:
Indian men are tasked to deliver their white master a black woman “robot” who will “bend over” for his needs. Musk not only said this to everyone publicly, he emphasized by design she would be unable to escape from his control.
Musk pitched his “ideal” worker as a small black woman who can’t escape. Do you see where they placed her on stage even when an event is supposedly focused on her?
Such unjust and immoral thinking gets worse and worse as he touches more lives, becoming literal now.
Beds are installed in the Twitter offices. It’s obvious why.
Anyone with compassion towards others, wider sense of responsibility (family, community) or a life outside, is fired. A weekend? A home? They don’t exist in Musk’s bid to create modern labor camps.
Absolute weakness in his workers is required because independence and strength only makes him angry and jealous.
It’s not an exaggeration either that he’s moved staff to being literally screwed.
That’s a horrible enough step (again reminiscent of racist whites in Africa) yet her role also was laced overtly with racism, like an old South African apartheid plan of “boss men” using women at work to increase the white birthrate.
Don’t miss all these warning signs from history.
Working for Elon Musk means getting screwed by him in the worst ways possible. If his staff don’t all flee (as reported widely), it may soon be a question of intervention to save them from his tyranny.
Team New Zealand have recorded the fastest wind powered land speed yet.
‘Horonuku’ named by Ngati Whatua Orakei meaning ‘gliding swiftly across the land’ did exactly that and was clocked at 222.4km/h in 22 knots of windspeed on Lake Gairdner in South Australia.
The design looks like an airplane sideways, much like a sailboat, hinting at the future.
Skipper Glenn Ashby sounds much like Maverick in Top Gun, navigating dangerous “shifts and puffs” like an F18 avoiding canyon walls… with zero visibility.
Amazing to watch
Cockpit ready. Source: Team NZ
His cockpit recording could be the basis for the next action movie in the series: “Glenn, you have three months to put together a team….”
Even more remarkable is they started their attempt just this past summer.
The difference of course is that “save the world” fiction of Top Gun cares not at all about harm to planet (1950s power projection), while this real life story is the exact opposite demonstrating missions centered on actually saving the world.
If all the money wasted on the con game of “driverless” transit were spent on solar/wind energy instead, it would make a world of positive difference. Top Gun’s anti-drone narrative is about caring (nod to Blade Runner), but this one is humans caring for each other AND their environment.
In related sustainable high efficiency news, MIT announced an ultralight print than can be made into solar fibers/cloth or shell. Another speed record could soon become a blend of sun and wind.
