With a striking cover, the eBook version has been launched

The eBook format of my second book (which is about Sustainability for humans and Earth) is now on Amazon.  Here's the link---

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CVZZW9GC/ref=monarch_sidesheet  [Scroll down to see the striking cover.]  If you don't have a Kindle gizmo, it can be read with Amazon's free App.  Please at least read the book's Description at the link (previously posted on this blog).  If not interested in the major topics, perhaps you might know of someone who would be.  Thanks. 

In about three days or so, the eBook should be on about ten or so other book venues, such as Apple Books, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Baker & Taylor, bibliotheca, and tolino.

Top-notch research scientists explain our predicament and what's required to transition to and thrive in a sustainable environment.  [So far, the Establishment's efforts in that arena are inadequate.  Too many linear, short-term thinkers.]  I'm just the messenger.

We have crucial choices to make, and they must be made ASAP.  The Future is Now.  Be informed, and please choose objectively and wisely.  Someday our children and grandchildren will thank you.

Everyone Be Well

Here's why A.I. must be decentralized ASAP

Send this list (or the entire essay) to your political representatives.

In no particular order---

1.  Without "Open Source" (decentralized) A.I., there's no safety valve or protection against only a few people determining the content and use of the technology.  In such a situation, there's a tremendous potential for abuse, for molding the public mind.

2.  Augmented Reality (AR), which eventually most likely will be some sort of glasses (rather than a full headset or "helmet") will become affordable for most people in developed countries in the not-too-distant future.  It will enable people to be in physical/actual reality, but change/augment parts (or all) of what they see.  Some experts say it will be as addictive as heroin or crack cocaine, and over time easily could cause the user to become detached from actual reality.  With further use, varying degrees of mental illness may loom large.

3.  Relatively soon and not including AR, A.I. will be in everything made by humans.  Initially, its purpose will be to suck up data about every one of us.  [That's already in progress with the internet, SMART appliances owned by most people, social media, and a few other things...but not yet everything.]  That data will be way beyond name, address, phone number, etc.  It will include what you wear, what you read, your habits, what your total behavior is like, your politics, your spiritual beliefs, your economic beliefs, your health, and more.  Basically, a model of you will be assembled.  Why?  The models will be sold for profit.  The data will be orders of magnitude larger and more detailed than what's sold now.

4.  The data obtained will be used to create other A.I.s (assistants, tutors, companions, mentors, and the like) which will be able to influence us in a certain direction (as consumers, or voters, or employees, or citizens, or volunteers, or other functions).  Millions of people will be influenced simultaneously in real time.  The current battle is over who gets to insert their values into these A.I.s because that will determine the direction of the influencing.

5.  It will be difficult to opt out of having an A.I. assistant, tutor, mentor, etc. because those who do opt out will find it increasingly difficult to make a living, keep a job, advance in your job, get an education, change careers, and the like.  All industries will be immersed in A.I., and employers will use the technology to either "improve" you, or replace you.

6.  High Tech A.I. companies essentially are strip mining our data from us, using it to make a profit, but not compensating us.  Plus, we have zero say in how our data is used.  Data ownership is a key issue not being addressed by politicians.

7.  As the availability of natural and social resources continues to diminish, augmented reality A.I. and mentoring/tutoring type A.I. will be relied upon more and more for both mental escape and learning or decision-making.  If only a few people are controlling the content of those A.I.s, then the likelihood of authoritarian scenarios increases.  So, too, does the likelihood of some sort of neofeudalism.

Go to the link on the post below (from last month) for many more details provided by John Robb:   https://individualsovereignty.blogspot.com/2024/02/this-peril-goes-way-way-beyond-trump.html

As Robb points out, totalitarian communism was defeated largely because its system was overly centralized.  The system of democratic countries, for the most part, is decentralized, which over time makes it more innovative and resilient.  Unfortunately, though, with financialization and corporate globalization, democratic countries essentially have created a highly centralized system.  Only a relatively small number of people control the direction of finance, economics, trade, and politics.  If A.I. remains a "black box" (so to speak) with only a small number of corporations determining its content and direction, then our centralization problem will increase exponentially.  There's a high degree of probability that a somewhat subtle form of Authoritarianism will follow.  It's highly likely that a majority of people will be convinced to demand it.

Practically speaking, only politicians can prevent that "Brave New World".  If society is to thrive with any degree of vibrancy, then A.I. must be opened up, decentralized.  Inform your political representatives now.

............................

Not only my opinion.  Good Luck to us All

Gaza, Israel, USA, Biden, and Netanyahu

Someone I care about wrote me and suggested I have compassion for Biden.  My response is below.

RE your "compassion for Biden" comment---

My compassion is for the children and other civilians in Gaza.  Biden is now a war criminal (according to several philosophers, UN humanitarian workers, university professors, & others), complicit in ethnic cleansing, genocide, and the outright starvation & murder of innocent children.  His hypocritical statements, e.g., "I'm doing everything I can to stop this [the "over-the-top" war]" are sickening.  He's not doing even half of what he could.

I wonder how compassionate toward Genocide Joe you'd be if your grandson had been killed in Gaza by U.S. supplied weapons.  Biden has materially helped to kill over 12,300 children.  Nothing can excuse that.  I don't care what his reasoning is.  He's complicit in war crimes, period.  Trump would be even worse, but that doesn't make Biden less of a war criminal.  What he's doing is a stain on him and everyone in this country.  It's totally unforgivable.  You don't back a thug (Netanyahu) who purposely attacks hospitals, UN shelters, ambulances, residences, etc., with innocent children in them...even if you believe your perceived enemy also is there.  It's criminal, immoral, unethical, and barbaric.  And yet, Biden keeps sending weapons to do the deed.

Outrageous.

Don't bother trying to change my mind on this... because no one can.  No one.

---------------------------------

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

No Technology is more useful than this one

 I just recently came off a 10+ hour power outage, plus the landline phone (the only phone I have) & internet were also out (& the fiber-optic cable for them is underground).  This all in the middle of the heaviest snowfall in my 11 years here.  It drove home two points...again.

1.  There is no technology more useful than a steady supply of electricity.  Not SMART phones, nor so-called A.I., nor any other High Tech gizmo.  More importantly,

2.  According to the geologist & mining engineer, Simon Michaux, plus two physicists, and a couple of other scientists I can't recall at the moment, within about FIVE years, we'll be at the beginning of a protracted period of critical mineral supply shortages (there are plenty left in the Earth, but getting them, refining them, & distributing them will be problematic).  Manufacture of the one billion SMART phones per year (currently) will have to be cut way back.  Why?  Because each one has from 30-70 different critical minerals, & they will be needed for the massive number of needed renewable energy gizmos.  Never mind the batteries.  

So, the experts I mentioned above say it's highly likely that a "cell phone winter" is coming...unless we transition to a much simpler phone, one without all the bells & whistles (& many of the minerals) of the much touted SMART phone.  Those who say they "can't function without my phone" perhaps should imagine functioning without electricity.  

....................

Not only my opinion.  Take Care