tag > Comment
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Nature's Marketing Agency Sucks
I find it peculiar how the topic of "nature" is poorly communicated in contemporary culture: The most stunningly beautiful natural places are commonly promoted (and perceived) as just "a place to do sports", "a place for old people", "a place to stop at for 30min during a car trip", "a place to take selfies for social media" or "a place to kill animals, grill & eat them". And the communication style is poor across the board: Think of climate activists describing nature mainly in terms of crisis & doom - or corporate "green-washing/laundering".
The "value of unspoiled natural beauty, wildlife, solitude and spiritual renewal" is hardly ever emphasized. Nature as a powerful source of experience, meaning, health and community. One thing is clear: Nature's Marketing Agency Sucks. And this has profound implication for how people perceive topics such as bio-diversity or well-being, and how people act.
Examples of great "marketing for nature" do exist: In Japan natural experiences are more frequently communicated with an appropriate sense of grace, dignity, care, maturity and playfulness - making nature relatable, desirable and relevant for ordinary people at scale. How can we learn from such successes and what new stories about nature do we tell?
#Nature #Ideas #Japan #Media #Narrative #Comment #Ideas #Regenerative
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Voice AI is scary good now. Video game actors hate it
A new ‘Witcher 3’ mod uses tech that’s ethically questionable and what one actor calls “utterly soulless.” But can anything be done about it?
#Comment: My talk "Automating Creativity Why?" (2018) and accompanying text seems more relevant than ever.
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"She Blinded Me With Science" is a fitting motto for our times (and a fun tune by Thomas Dolby)
Prediction: After all is set and done with the current global "ordo ad chao" terror campaign, science - the leading institutions of post-"enlightenment" humanity - will widely be perceived as a morally bankrupt, failed enterprise. Calls for the separation of state and science and something akin to Nuremberg trials 2.0 will get much louder - accelerating the implosion of the established scientific system. Just to be clear, I am not referring to the idealized fantasy version of science that people tirelessly praise (the scientific method, skeptical inquiry, etc.), but science as it is practiced in actuality today (Global domination by a few western colonial elite universities and corporations. An epic reproducibility crisis. A cult of gate-keepers and closed-sourced "sacred knowledge". Massive corruption and privatization on all levels. Money buys any scientific "truth", "credibility" and personnel. Militarization of most scientific domains. Dreadful moral/ethical track-record. Out of touch with the needs of people. Et cetera.)
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Thoughts on the fundamentals of inquiry and shortcomings of western science
When i have the opportunity of deep-diving into a research rabbit hole in the context of western science (e.g for work), i frequently return to the realization that while such ideas are very complex and fascinating, they ignore and utterly confuse the all important fundamentals of inquiry - where things like Qigong, Yoga, Meditation, etc. effortlessly excel. It's peculiar.
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Reflections on witnessing the latest PR events from sillycon valley players
The sillycon valley players (Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, etc.) seem to be stuck in a collective hallucination that makes them believe in a heavily sanitized version of "reality", that is 99% surface gloss and 1% essentials. Their focus is on delivering nice-to-have "consumer experience conveniences" coupled with ever increasing surveillance and control - instead of meeting the urgent needs of real people. Most poignantly, sillycon valley innovations are almost excursively catering to a ultra niche "WEIRD" audience ("Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich & Democratic") that makes up only 12% of global population. As a result of all this, the next four billion people coming online are predominantly adopting technology solutions from incumbent non-weird players. It's time for sillycon valley to really "think different", or perish.
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The mainstreaming of eugenics is in full swing
The media outlet "Der Spiegel" (very close to the German government. Essentially a propaganda outlet) has finally made the jump and is now openly prompting mRNA based gene-therapy for everything from Cancer, Allergies, Heart Attacks to Dementia (but still calling it a "vaccine"). Conceptually they (the merger of state and corporations - AKA Fascism, as Mussolini defined it) are now very close to where the Nazis left of 75 years ago: Openly prompting eugenics and totalitarian population control/design "health" policies. What ever you think about "the virus", this should raise all kinds of red flags. But unfortunately even in the age of "magic" mRNA based gene-therapy (a deeply flawed, unproven and opaque bio-technology platform), there is still no cure for greed, stupidity and ignorance in sight.
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U.S. govt. Shuts down Al-Alam, Al Masirah and Press TV websites.
"U.S. government says the blocked websites were engaged in "smuggling technology, nuclear, chemical, biologic and radiologic weapons, or engaged in building, importing, selling, or distributing illegal drugs."
#Comment: And then you wonder why countries on US’s "hit list" (more than half the world?) see the internet as a weapon of empire. At this pace, the "western" internet will be superseded by a different system shortly, and the US internet giants will rapidly loose power.
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Computer scientists are questioning whether Alphabet’s DeepMind will ever make A.I. more human-like (CNBC) - I contributed a few comments to this piece, highlighted here. Received a few messages from peers asking "isn't this a bit too harsh?". Short Answer: No Sir, it isn't too harsh. Please don't take everything so serious - especially me, giant corporations, yourself, AI and God.
Not everyone is convinced, however. Samim Winiger, an AI researcher in Berlin, told CNBC that DeepMind’s “reward is enough” view is a “somewhat fringe philosophical position, misleadingly presented as hard science.”
He said the path to general AI is complex and that the scientific community is aware that there are countless challenges and known unknowns that “rightfully instill a sense of humility” in most researchers in the field and prevent them from making “grandiose, totalitarian statements” such as “RL is the final answer, all you need is reward.”
“In somewhat typical DeepMind fashion, they chose to make bold statements that grabs attention at all costs, over a more nuanced approach,” said Winiger. “This is more akin to politics than science.”
Winiger argues that we’re no closer to AGI today than we were several decades ago. “The only thing that has fundamentally changed since the 1950/60s, is that science-fiction is now a valid tool for giant corporations to confuse and mislead the public, journalists and shareholders,” he said.
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"El Salvador Seeks World Bank Help For Bitcoin Implementation" (reuters)
#Comment: If you ever had any questions who exactly is "Satoshi Nakamoto" and who drives/controls bitcoin & other cryptos - this headline leaves little doubt: The same greedy, lying, unimaginative, destructive old-boys networks - just in a fancy new dress. Boring.
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"Great resignation" wave coming for companies (Axios)
"Surveys show 25% to upwards of 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs."
#Comment: A core of capitalism - the corporation - is collapsing from within. This industrial age model of organization is being rapidly superseded by new forms of human-to-human relationships, that are less militaristic and far more dynamic. Good riddance! A somewhat related trend is the ongoing collapse of the nation-state and its institutions.
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Had to leave a comment on (yet another) stealth ad video about self driving cars..
"While you US guys keep making sleek payed advertising clips for (self-driving) cars, the rest of the world had enough of cars, full stop. Self driving cars are still cars - dangerous, polluting, city destroying, loud metal boxes mostly filled with air - Highly inefficient legacy methods of transportation. A future worth aspiring to are cities free of all cars: Cities for people, not machines. The Europeans and even more so the Chinese have gotten the message, tripling down on high speed trains instead, which have a far superior space utilization profile than any car will ever have. Think bicycles, remote-working and walkable cities - not even more cars with just with some AI magic on-top which takes away the last few driver jobs (Uber & co) from people who are already struggling to make a living."
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G7: Rich nations back deal to tax multinationals - Interesting Analysis by Gabriel Zucman
#Comment: Way too little way too late. The G7 is well beyond the point of no return - a transnational mafia state that is rapidly heading for total collapse. Reminder: WEIRD ("Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich & Democratic") make up only 12% of global population. As their economic and technological dominance fades (yet not the attached ego), incumbent non-weird players are more quickly meeting the needs of the next 4 billion coming online.
Related: China's bid for digital-yuan sphere raises red flags at G-7
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Bill Gates-Backed Company Releasing Over 100,000 Genetically Modified Mosquitoes
"The British company Oxitec is deploying a total of 144,000 genetically modified mosquitoes to study how to control their reproduction and thus stop the spread of dengue, Zika, and other types of ailments in humans and animals."
#Comment: The mainstreaming of Gene drives is in full effect. Welcome to Eugenics 2.0
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The crisis of science arrives just in time.
Down with the cult of strong truths! Long live imagination, magic, love & relaxation! -
The draft EU AI Regulation was leaked today - was asked to comment on this for a CNBC piece
#Comment: In the global race for A.I talent and capabilities, the EU is today clearly far behind China and the US. I find it rather difficult to understand how the introduction of highly complex, highbrow AI regulations in a niche market, will have any real impact on the development of "AI" globally. Further, i wonder how the EU's plans can be practically enforced, given that they constantly and catastrophically fail to regulate far "simpler" things, such as finance or tech-giants. Finally, i wonder why they choose to regulate an abstract concept such as "AI" instead of an applied technology like "machine learning" or it's specific applications? As the famous mathematician Paul Dirac once said "There are two main problems in A.I: What is A and what is I". Or as Edsger Dijkstra, one of Europe's greatest computer scientists, once said: "Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes".
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RIP Nürnberger Kodex *1947 †2021: ECHR rules obligatory vaccination may be necessary
Nazi Slogan: "Everything that is sick is a burden" The ruling is the first time the European Court of Human Rights has weighed in on the issue of compulsory vaccinations. The ruling could play a role in efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic.
#Comment: This might be the critical blow for "democracy" in Europe, which is heading for totalitarianism, chaos & slaughter.
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List of people executed for witchcraft - Last execution in 1782
#Comment: Europeans (and their American brothers) keep claiming moral high ground up to this day ("Democracy! Ethics! Science!" etc.) - after systematically killing "witches" and Indigenous people across the globe for thousands of years, up to very recently. A horrible bad joke that nobody wants to hear.
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Making space for love - in software
Today i wrote an angry rant about some people who i don't like for some reason. Because this is a blog which requires me to consciously say "publish" after writing something (in stark contrast to twitter & co), i had space/time to reflect on the rant - and decided to post this image instead.
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Mainstream media is a comedy show, what is there not to love? (more info here)
