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Andy Ilachinski
Crystalline Multiverse Andy IlachinskiSpiritual Nature Andy Ilachinski (quotes Emerson)
The Sensation of the Mystical Andy Ilachinski quotes Einstein
Cory Doctorow
Antiusurpation and the road to disenshittification We've got the wrong kind of middlemen. Cory DoctorowThe Fagin figure leading Elon Musk's merry band of pubescent sovereignty pickpockets Cory Doctorow
...This is the DOGE playbook. It's all about plunder: take something that was patiently, carefully built up over generations and burn it to the ground, warming yourself in the pyre, leaving nothing behind but ash. This is what private equity plunderers have been doing to the world's "advanced" economies since the Reagan years. They did it to airlines, family restaurants, funeral homes, dog groomers, toy stores, pharma, palliative care, dialysis, hospital beds, groceries, cars, and the internet.Trump's a plunderer. He was elected by the plunderer class — like the crypto bros who want to run wild, transforming workers' carefully shepherded retirement savings into useless shitcoins, while the crypto bros run off with their perfectly cromulent "fiat" money. Musk is the apotheosis of this mindset, a guy who claims credit for other peoples' productive and useful businesses, replacing real engineering with financial engineering. Musk and Krause, they're like two peas in a pod...
...These people understand that they are in the business of ripping people off, causing them grave and wholly unjust financial injury. They value their secrecy because they are in the business of making strangers righteously furious, and they understand that one of these strangers might just show up in their lives someday to confront them about their transgressions.
This is why Unitedhealthcare freaked out so hard about Luigi Mangione's assassination of CEO Brian Thompson — that's not how the game is supposed to be played. The people who sit in on executive row, destroying your lives, are supposed to be wholly insulated from the consequences of their actions. You're not supposed to know who they are, you're not supposed to be able to find them — of course.
But even more importantly, you're not supposed to be angry at them. They pose as mere software agents in an immortal colony organism called a Limited Liability Corporation, bound by the iron law of shareholder supremacy to destroy your life while getting very, very rich. It's not supposed to be personal. That's why Unitedhealthcare is threatening to sue a doctor who was yanked out of surgery on a cancer patient to be berated by a UHC rep for ordering a hospital stay for her patient...
We are witnessing a private equity-style plunder of the entire US government — of the USA itself. No one is better poised to write about this than Tkacik, because no one has private equity's number like Tkacik does
Dinkscrump Linkdump Cory Doctorow
...Many people apply the term "enshittification" very loosely indeed, to mean "something that is bad," without bothering to learn — or apply — the theoretical framework. This is good. This is what it means for a term to enter the lexicon: it takes on a life of its own. If 10,000,000 people use "enshittification" loosely and inspire 10% of their number to look up the longer, more theoretical work I've done on it, that is one million normies who have been sucked into a discourse that used to live exclusively in the world of the most wonkish and obscure practitioners. The only way to maintain a precise, theoretically grounded use of a term is to confine its usage to a small group of largely irrelevant insiders. Policing the use of "enshittification" is worse than a self-limiting move — it would be a self-inflicted wound.Musk steals a billion dollars from low-income Americans and sends it to Intuit Cory Doctorow
MLMs are the mirror-world version of community organizing Cory Doctorow
...Trump has ordered a purge of any federally funded research that contains the word "systemic"
Victor Mair
Sincerity Victor Mair at Language Logcolleagues ...asked me if Chinese had a different understanding of sincerity that permitted / encouraged them to do so. "Sincerity" is so front and center in Chinese negotiations with other nations that one soon comes to realize, if you want smooth relations with the PRC, you must needs demonstrate to the Chinese representatives that you are utterly sincere, i.e., that you are willing to do exactly what they want you to do. Anything less opens you to the charge of being insincere.The Power of Naming Victor Mair at Language Log *****
...information theory is the mother of all factoids. Why would one call it that? Because there is no such thing, only the following phantom utterance that is ubiquitous: "Shannon's information theory." In 1948, Shannon wrote a paper on the mathematics of data-communication technology, and named it accordingly. Put off by its name, science journalists introduced it to the world as "information theory." The name stuck, suggesting in the minds of innocents something so deep and epochal that it might even shed light on Mozart. Shannon 1948 is the big example of how data and information have been confounded for 3/4 of a century...As for an actual Theory of Information, we must wait for a superintelligent computer to produce it since that task is far beyond human ability. And once coughed up, it will be so lengthy as to require several lifetimes to read it, and in any case, largely incomprehensible to us.
Kape: the language rope that binds the people of a remote Indonesian island Victor Mair at Language Log
iRabbit call centers Victor Mair at Language Log
Insidious and Invidious Victor Mair at Language Log
Sincerity Victor Mair at Language Log
colleagues ...asked me if Chinese had a different understanding of sincerity that permitted / encouraged them to do so. "Sincerity" is so front and center in Chinese negotiations with other nations that one soon comes to realize, if you want smooth relations with the PRC, you must needs demonstrate to the Chinese representatives that you are utterly sincere, i.e., that you are willing to do exactly what they want you to do. Anything less opens you to the charge of being insincere.
Alan Levine
Where The Link Goes Therefore I Go (beyond) Alan LevineWhere Do We Go? Here? There? Everywhere! Alan Levine
Nifty Simple Web Archive Tool Alan Levine
Alberto Romero
DeepSeek Is Chinese But Its AI Models Are From Another Planet OpenAI and the US are in deep trouble Alberto Romero at MediumAGI Is Already Here—It's Just Not Evenly Distributed Or: why you should learn to prompt AI models Alberto Romero
The true power of AI deepfakes is not what you think Alberto Romero
...What they all have in common is that they remind us how unprotected we are from information that appears to be real but is completely false....So it seems people might be better off abandoning their brittle defenses against the deepfake deception threat. They'll be cheaper over time, they're not a conspiracy, they're accessible and don't take much time to make, and, to repeat a tired maxim, "this is the worst quality they will ever be." Worry seems justified. Misinformation will catch you off-guard.
...The reason is that the real power of the deepfake doesn't lie in how well it can deceive, but in how well it can express... a deepfake is more like satire than propaganda. A powerful new means of expression. Being worried about it is justified—only for a completely different reason.
...A deepfake tells a story, fictional or not, that directly alludes to our emotions. It doesn't intend to change our minds—because it can't. Deepfakes don't change our minds. We worry about how they could deceive en masse those poor gullible others (not us, of course), but it just doesn't happen. We aren't that credulous, what we are is stubborn. And we love to rejoice in our stubbornness, especially when some external element validates it further.
...The more finely attuned a fake is to our preconceptions of the world—or what we believe it ought to be—the greater its power. That's the right frame to look at the issue: we're mostly moved by things we want to believe and things we want to be real; any expressive vector pushing us in that direction—be it deepfake or art or satire—is effective...
...Deceitful information is sterile on its own, but stories that reinforce what we've already convinced ourselves of spread far and wide. In a way, deepfakes—especially sociocultural and political ones—do best what they were invented to do: manifesting our preferred counterfactuals (things that could have happened in this universe but never did).
...At first, they didn't realize it was AI. They shared it because it advanced their political agenda and when the stakes are that high, anything goes.
But then they were told it was AI slop, they simply changed the story along the lines of "it's a good illustration of what could have been." AI or not, deepfake or not, they didn't care at first. They wanted to believe it was real and once they realized it wasn't—they didn't care either.
The deepfake, as a counterfactual, did the job just fine. It is the expression of what could be, not the deception of what wasn't that makes it powerful.At first, they didn't realize it was AI. They shared it because it advanced their political agenda and when the stakes are that high, anything goes.
But then they were told it was AI slop, they simply changed the story along the lines of “it's a good illustration of what could have been.” AI or not, deepfake or not, they didn't care at first. They wanted to believe it was real and once they realized it wasn't—they didn't care either.
The deepfake, as a counterfactual, did the job just fine. It is the expression of what could be, not the deception of what wasn't that makes it powerful.
...Deepfakes, as expressive vectors, are great at reinforcing preexisting beliefs, not at changing our minds with inconsistent truths. A deceived brain is, by definition, a brain that failed to make the word consistent. It doesn't like that so it tricks itself out of that dead end. Most times, it succeeds.
...Now imagine you know nothing about deepfake technology. What changes? What is so different if you never realize you're looking at a fake? That's right, your reaction is the same—truthfulness is effectively a non-factor.
...Deepfakes are the greatest threat not against the easily gullible but the terminally stubborn. They're the finest weapon not in the hands of the compulsive liar or the corrupt politician but the charismatic leader.
The longer we fail to recognize and accept this, the more destructive they will become.
Juan Cole
Trump, an American Stalin? Massive Population Transfers were a Feature of Communist Dictatorship Juan ColeStephen Downes
A UK Skills Taxonomy Stephen DownesWhy Blog If Nobody Reads It? via Stephen Downes
Patterns, Facts, and AI Stephen Downes
Doc Searls
What Makes an AI personal? Doc SearlsFire and Rain Doc Searls, quoting John McPhee
Adam Tooze
Bullying as a mode of power Adam ToozeBullying involves the use of power to humiliate as well as to intimidate, hurt or coerce.Bullying is transgressive and excessive. It goes beyond conventional police, punishment or compellence and yet it is also less. It is less purposeful and instrumental than other forms of power. In the end, enacting repeated moments of humiliation may be an end in itself.
In a world of warlordism, bullying may be the normal modus operandi.
In a world of order, bullying can not persist unless it is tolerated, or it is authorized by other more stable and legitimate modes of power.
...The question in the case of the Trump Presidency is how much is instrumental and how much of the bullying is nothing more than that, an end in itself.
Matt Yglesias
Make foreign aid great Matt Yglesias...if you want to get away with something that involves an extremely dodgy process, it's smart to start with the most substantively unpopular program you can find. The humanitarian work of USAID seems largely irrelevant to this administration. George W. Bush, for all his flaws, had a genuine interest in global public health that was motivated by a sincere idealism, and that's just not the case for Trump or anyone influential on his team. USAID is a soft target to beat up on while testing the theory that the president can ignore the law and unilaterally kill off duly authorized programs....Much of what's been going on reminds me of the line from The Great Gatsby, "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness." Musk strikes me as the kind of person who is so focused on his amazing dreams for the long-term future that he simply cannot spare any consideration for actual human beings. We have food shipments stuck on American docks because no thought or planning went into any of this. There's no excuse for behaving this way.
The paradox of Trump's first weeks Matthew Yglesias
...It's also true, I think, that Trump has been able to consolidate mainstream Republican support for his unlawful behavior in part because Republicans do not have a viable legislative agenda, despite their trifecta. George W. Bush tried to significantly reduce Social Security spending. Mitt Romney ran on significantly reducing Medicare spending. Trump, in his first term, tried to completely eliminate ACA subsidies, completely eliminate Medicaid expansion, and then cut Medicaid even more to below the pre-ACA level. None of this succeeded.The DOGE hyper-focus on things like foreign aid and the Department of Education is kind of clever politics, but the cleverness lies precisely in its ability to provide cover for diminished aspirations in the face of these failures. Trump is many things, but he is most of all a showman, who's doing a good job of performing mastery rather than letting attention fall on the razor-thin GOP majority and their somewhat incoherent policy agenda.
The fact is, Republicans don't have a politically or economically viable path to creating the level of taxation that they want. Rather than try to reconcile themselves to that reality and come up with a more realistic fiscal agenda, they are lashing out at the pillars of the political system itself.
Giles Crouch
Will AI Become a Cultural Mediator? Giles Crouch at MediumFast Culture, Slow Change: The Paradox of Digital Society Giles Crouch at Medium
Will AI Become a Cultural Mediator? Giles Crouch at Medium
Ted Gioia
How to Achieve Immortality Ted Gioia...What these platforms deliver is the exact opposite of immortality. The empires of TikTok and Instagram and hundreds of other apps are built on the flimsiest of foundations—a few seconds of streaming data.So it's ironic that the people who promote this vapidity are seeking immortality for themselves. I doubt they will find it. But they do have good reason to fear transience and oblivion&mdashbecause that's what they've staked their whole careers on.
❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ posted to Informed Comment
Efficiency — or Empire? How Elon Musk's hostile Takeover could end Government as we know it Allison Stanger at Informed Comment...Viewing Musk's moves as a power grab becomes clearer when examining his corporate empire. He controls multiple companies that have federal contracts and are subject to government regulations. SpaceX and Tesla, as well as tunneling firm The Boring Company, the brain science company Neuralink, and artificial intelligence firm xAI all operate in markets where government oversight can make or break fortunes.In his new role, Musk can oversee — and potentially dismantle — the government agencies that have traditionally constrained his businesses. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has repeatedly investigated Tesla's Autopilot system; the Securities and Exchange Commission has penalized Musk for market-moving tweets; environmental regulations have constrained SpaceX.
...But the most catastrophic aspect of Musk's leadership at DOGE is its unprecedented access to government data. DOGE employees reportedly have digital permission to see data in the U.S. government's payment system, which includes bank account information, Social Security numbers and income tax documents. Reportedly, they have also seized the ability to alter the system's software, data, transactions and records.
Multiple media reports indicate that Musk's staff have already made changes to the programs that process payments for Social Security beneficiaries and government contractors to make it easier to block payments and hide records of payments blocked, made or altered.
...funneling the data into Grok, Musk's xAI-created artificial intelligence system, which is already connected with the Musk-owned X, formerly known as Twitter, would create an unparalleled capability for predicting economic shifts, identifying government vulnerabilities and modeling voter behavior.
...Like Trump himself and many of his closest advisers, Musk is also deeply involved in cryptocurrency. The parallel emergence of Trump's own cryptocurrency and DOGE's apparent alignment with the cryptocurrency known as Dogecoin suggests more than coincidence. I believe it points to a coordinated strategy for control of America's money and economic policy, effectively placing the United States in entirely private hands.
...Who can effectively investigate a group designed to dismantle oversight itself? The administration's illegal firing of at least a dozen inspectors general before the Musk operation began suggests a deliberate strategy to eliminate government accountability. The Republican-led Congress, closely aligned with Trump, may not want to step in; but even if it did, Musk is moving far faster than Congress ever does.
Demonic Duo Trump and Musk Detonate a Blast Wave at US Foreign Aid, Harming Millions Dan Dinello at Informed Comment
Palestinians have long resisted Resettlement: Trump's Plan to 'Clean Out' Gaza won't Change that Informed Comment
A New Military-Industrial Complex Arises: The Secret War within the Pentagon Michael T Klare at Informed Comment
Make Art, not War William D. Hartung at Informed Comment
"I Didn't Hear my Other Children Screaming:" A Family's Horrific Losses in Gaza Belkis Wille at Informed Comment
The growing Influence of Israel's Ultranationalist Settler Movement Informed Comment
Are we All Hungarians now, or Palestinians? Trump's Onslaught on the Rule of Law and Civil Liberties H Scott Prosterman at Informed Comment
"The Lion has Fallen:" The End of Syria's Brutal Regime and the Fate of the Refugees Tomdispatch at Informed Comment
Ethnic Cleansing for "Gaza's Riviera"? A Secret Israeli Memo and Trump's Plan to Displace 2.3 million Palestinians Dan Steinbock at Informed Comment
The Greenland Ice Sheet is falling Apart at Informed Comment
The Mass Deportation Handoff, Biden to Trump: And the Booming Border-Industrial Complex TomDispatch at Informed Comment
It didn't take long for the border and immigration enforcement industry to react to Donald Trump's reelection. On November 6th, as Bloomberg News reported, stock prices shot up for two private prison companies, GEO Group and CoreCivic. "We expect the incoming Trump administration to take a much more aggressive approach regarding border security as well as interior enforcement," explained the GEO Group's executive chair, George Zoley, "and to request additional funding from Congress to achieve these goals." In other words, the "largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history" was going to be a moneymaker.A Hostile Corporate Takeover of our Democracy Informed Comment
Facing the Rise of Fascism Like Fools for Freedom Rebecca Gordon at Informed Comment
Flooding the Zone
The list of Trump's post-election actions is its own kind of litany — not of benediction, of course, but of horror. Like the Great Litany, it, too, leaps from topic to topic. To name just a few:Any one of those actions would have been sufficient to fuel a whole news cycle on its own. But that's now inconceivable because before we, or the media, can focus on one Trump absurdity, another takes its place in the battle for our attention. To wit: in the last 15 minutes (while I was writing this), the Washington Post reported that Trump's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has ordered a freeze on all federal grants, "including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal." And now, in a head-snapping twist, the OMB seems to have rescinded the order — for the moment.
- The nominations to positions of power of the manifestly unfit (remember Matt Gaetz, the ethically-challenged), or the frankly vicious (Kristi Noem, the puppy-killer), or indeed of candidates combining both qualities (Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabard).
- A spate of executive comments, orders, or presidential decrees displaying an imperial greed for territory that would have seemed like so many jokes just a few weeks ago. (Watch out, Panama, Canada, and Greenland!)
- The fulfillment of the Israeli fascist right-wing's dearest desire: a proposal to cleanse Gaza of its more than two million Palestinian inhabitants, in order to make way for the development of what Trump has labeled "a phenomenal location," where "some beautiful things can be done."
- First steps in keeping his vow to deport millions of immigrants living in the United States, including a Chicago Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, operation, which included an "embedded" Dr. Phil — further proof, should we need it, that the strategy is to enforce the authority of any decree, no matter how bizarre.
- Elon Musk's seizure of access to the records of all federal employees and control of the Treasury Department's disbursement process
The Slow Suicide of the State of Israel Informed Comment
Gaza: We Analyzed a Year of Satellite Images to Map the Scale of Agricultural Destruction Informed Comment
Shamash! The Transformation Informed Comment
Crooked Timber
The dispensable nation John Quiggen at Crooked TimberThere is an exit Henry Farrell at Crooked Timber
Adam's Heart Surgery Tesam Hannah Forsyth at Crooked Timber ... and see The M in PMC for more
Corruption, Tariffs, and US Renewal Eric Schliesser at Crooked Timber
This week-end's abrupt attempt, through pre-emptive tariff changes, to reshape the global environment to new political reality is the beginning of the test to what degree the US can ignore the reactions of the rest of the world (and stack the deck toward a certain kind of new, Mercantile regime) as its struggles internally over its future. Your guess is as good as mine in these matters, but I strongly suspect that none of the rules of thumb and maxims about how the world really works that policymakers, commentators, global businesses, NGOs, and academics have relied upon for, say, the last thirty to sixty years, are going to be very robust.On Undermining the Administrative State Eric Schliesser at Crooked Timber
The last two weeks have seen a number of highly irregular practices develop Stateside since the creation of The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as controlled by Elon Musk, apparently the world's richest person. DOGE's own status within the government is highly unorthodox, and its practices thus far, too. There seems to be little regard for conflicts of interests (and a whole range of other concerns one might have).But DOGE's actions have immediately impacted the second and third of the functions I have mentioned above. When it comes to the three roles established above, a non-trivial number of websites have gone dark, government agencies appear to be closed down, and research halted, and even ended. In addition, some of the public provision of goods and witnessing of truth is being privatized for profit.
So, the second Trump administration is embarking on some dramatic actions that will destabilize existing conventions in and the known workings of the machinery of government and the state's witnessing of truth. Quite a few of DOGE's immediate targets are central to both functions (CDC, NSF, NOAA, etc.). To the best of my knowledge no group with such evident oligarchic tendencies has ever embarked on this road with such reckless abandon before. And whatever their motives, I am pretty confident that they have no idea what kind of intermediate effects they will generate.