Lots of Discordian/Robert Anton Wilson fans on Bluesky.
One of my favourite live performances, and in particular this song “The Swamps” by Widowspeak.
Check out the guitar break around three minutes in!
As far as I know, the full concert is no longer available anywhere else online (free to view), so I uploaded it here to share.
I got a seeded multigrain bloomer loaf from Tesco bakery, which smells and tastes amazing.
Toasted and topped with half an avocado and fried eggs for breakfast this morning.
Not sure why this wasn’t prosecuted under anti-terrorism laws?
White supremacist jailed for asylum seeker attack at hotel bbc.com
Threat level: high.
More than two years after I suggested this should be a priority, my sons' school will have a school street during the school run times.
The new President of Israel.
Israel has changed since Donald Trump's last term – has he? bbc.com
AI, ETHICS AND DEMOCRACY
I keep reading that AI is dumb, dangerous and demented. And I’ve no doubt it’s all true. Ethan Mollick, author of Co-Intelligence, describes ChatGPT as “a very elaborate auto complete like you have on your phone”
AI slop is contaminating our lives with worthless junk, and while I’ve played with and been briefly amazed and entertained by Google NotebookLM’s auto-generated podcast creations, they can get repetitive, boring and stupid very quickly.
We can rail against AI all we want, but it’s not going away. I expect AI to get smarter and to have fewer hallucinations even if the danger level remains high.
What is Al good for?
Micro.blog uses Al to generate Alt-Text descriptions of images and that seems to work well enough for its intended purpose. What it can’t do, of course, is generate descriptions that are personal to the uploader or post context, e.g., if I have a picture of my son the description will be a generic “boy with curly hair” or such like.
I’ve used Google’s Gemini on blog posts I’ve written and it’s given me some very positive feedback about my writing, enough to make me feel good about myself (certainly much more so than any human reader). Although it also got into the habit of creating its own alternative versions, which often were funnier and more interesting (to me) than my own writing. (It will also roast you if that’s your thing.)
Similarly, Google NotebookLM has fed back on my entire year of posts in 2024, and was very nice about it, too. It is quite therapeutic to hear that, as long as you take it for what it is - an elaborate auto-complete that ultimately will rot your brain, take your job and ruin your life.
I’ve also used both for work in some limited ways - drafting a job description, drafting cases for support for funding applications, and summarising or analysing documents. Both require some degree of human intervention, but the process and product was useful in helping me get started, and complete the tasks.
One area where I found Al to be most interesting was in commenting on and forming an ethical response to a local democracy issue where I live. I found the response to be in line with what community campaigners (including me) had been asking for, and in total contrast to the response from our elected representatives, authorities and business leaders. That must be the auto-complete.
While I don’t think I would yet call for all politicians to be replaced by AI, I do wonder if there is a potential use case here for analysing policy implications, or at least highlighting ethical considerations?
I ran these thoughts past Claude.ai and this is a summary of what it had to say:
- democratic processes need human judgment, accountability, and the ability to balance competing interests the ways that AI currently cannot
- core ethical principles that should guide public service:
- transparency about conflicts of interest
- accountability to the people
- clear acknowledgment of problems rather than minimisation
- practical solutions for reporting complaints and response
- the fundamental duty of public officials to serve their constituents
Human decision-makers can, of course, choose to prioritise other interests over ethical imperatives
I suggested to it that the AI response to the Southall Gasworks issue demonstrated more “empathy” than the human political response:
- The AI’s response prioritised human wellbeing and acknowledged suffering, in contrast to the actual political response, which was bureaucratic and dismissive, treating hundreds of complaints as isolated incidents and prioritising procedural responses over human impact
- A truly empathetic human response to such serious health impacts should have been immediate and decisive action to protect public health
Of course, the AI response wasn’t actually empathetic. It applied logical ethical principles that prioritise human wellbeing. What looks like empathy is actually systematic ethical reasoning unclouded by personal interests, political considerations, or institutional self-protection.
I suggested that it might not be uncommon for political leaders to lack empathy, and that it’s therefore so much easier for them to allow personal, and powerful political and institutional interests to take precedence over what most ordinary people would see quite clearly as the interests of human wellbeing:
This connects to research on the prevalence of psychopathic traits in leadership positions. In the Southall Gasworks case, a leader with normal empathetic capacity might find it psychologically difficult to:
- dismiss hundreds of health complaints from suffering residents
- accept substantial gifts while community members develop serious illnesses
- continue business as usual while learning of deaths potentially linked to their decision
Of course, even someone with empathy might not be able to resist powerful institutional or financial pressures.
Bye bye Biden. A genocidal war criminal with the blood of tens of thousands of women and children on his hands. Paved the way for fascism.
This Lino government is fucking awful.
Patients dying in corridors at overwhelmed hospitals, say nurses bbc.com
Some prick just overtook me as I was indicating and turning right.
ARSENAL MATCH REPORT
For some reason this match report is in four acts:
- First half.
Maguire nutmegged himself…
- Second Half.
Sterling looked on with impressive sideburns.
Another fantastic penalty save from Bayindir and Zirkzee sensibly chose to shoot to win the game with the final kick.
Extra time proved to be a waste of time. Now it’s a penalty shootout.
1-1 at full-time*.
The two managers presumably threw cups and plates around in their half-time team talks and both teams came out into the second half looking determined to make a game of it.
Bruno scored a fantastic goal on the counter-attack to put United ahead and everything was going to plan. It was the United of old.
For some reason Dalot then decided to try to break his opponents legs and duly received a second yellow card and took an early bath.
For some reason United’s reserve goalkeeper Bayindir decided to play as erratically as United’s first choice goalkeeper and weakly punched a cross he might have caught into the path of an opponent in his own penalty area and Arsenal equalised with a deflection off the hapless de Ligt.
Then the fun really started.
Maguire put his arm out to stop his opponent who was in the process of dancing past him. Fair enough he went down like he’d been hit by a left hook - even my wife laughed at how pathetic it was. The ref rightly awarded a penalty and Maguire led a group rendition of “Handbags at Dawn”. A couple of players went down as if they’d been headbutted, but they soon got up again when they heard everyone laughing at them.
There was another dramatic turn as Arsenal were about to take the lead when Bayindir produced a miraculous save from the penalty.
Raheem Sterling looked on with some seriously impressive sideburns.
There was lots of end to end stuff after that but I missed most of it making big kid’s tea.
*Extra time will now be played.
0-0 at The Emirates at halftime in the FA Cup.
For some reason Arsenal are dressed as Leeds in the 1970s. United are dressed as United in the 1968 European Cup Final. They’re playing with a golden ball in memory of David Beckham.
United’s Harry Maguire produced the most memorable moment of the first half as he nutmegged himself while delicately backheeling an assist for Martinelli to score for Arsenal.
For some reason the goal was disallowed for offside.
Kobbie Mainoo hasn’t scored for United since he scored in United’s win in the final last year, and he hasn’t scored today either.
Little kid’s pizza slightly overheated.
My pizza waiting to go in the oven. Kids' and wife’s pizzas are in there at the moment.
Been drinking this stuff the last two nights.
It’s very light, tastes nice enough, but unsure about it’s claims for calming and focus.
It’s supposed to make you feel more sociable, like you’ve had a couple of pints.
All it made me feel was like I needed to pee every half an hour.
At least it upped my step count and gave my kidneys a work out.
Last night I had “ideal sleep” according to my sleep app. This is the first time I’ve managed this feat, and that’s another one ticked off my bucket list for 2025.
Southall Recreation Ground.
This morning’s trees.
What a beautiful morning for a walk!
☕ Foetus?
