Jackson Allen's Blog, page 10

Star Wars Needs a ‘Ford. v Ferrari’

A brief discussion on BlueSky made me realize that Star Wars Needs a ‘Ford v Ferrari’ moment. In other words, the franchise needs to reckon with itself, and get out of its own way. More on that in a moment, but first – what can the Ford GT40 tell us about Star Wars?

Don’t take the ‘Ford v Ferrari’ movie as gospel. Hollywood loves to shoehorn history into histrionics, and Ford v Ferrari’s no exception. Caroll Shelby did NOT design the GT40, but never mind that now. One of the subtext story arcs of Ford v. Ferrari is the entire Ford company – led by Henry Ford II – putting their reputation and institutional history on the line to be true innovators. You can see a bit of that playing out in this scene:

“I had no idea,” Ford says “I had no idea I wish my daddy – he were alive to see this, to feel this.” Ford was absolutely right. By the 1960s, Ford was so big that it had culturally lost the spirit of innovation and discovery that brought us the Model T and assembly lines. Good, bad, or indifferent – the movie shows Ford rediscovering himself. That’s what Star Wars needs to do if it wants to survive.

Why am I right? Simple – look at the landscape. Star Wars already knows that it needs to do this – remember The Last Jedi, where Rey and Leia sit together and realize that they have ‘everything they need.’ Hope, an idea, sacrifice. Sadly, the fans and the franchise couldn’t get out of their own way and TLJ suffered for it. This doesn’t have to be the beginning of the end for Star Wars – it can be the end of the beginning.

Perhaps one day Star Wars will have it’s ‘Ford. v Ferrari’ moment. If that happens, I’ll be celebrating along with you. Until Star Wars reaches that moment, my policy is still ‘you can love Star Wars, but Star Wars doesn’t love you.’ Our job is to get out there and imagine new universes to discover. Back to work.

Write on!

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Keep Your World Small – Work On You

When it comes to current events – the message is easy: Keep Your World Small – Work On You. I’m not going to say anything about the 2024 election. What would I say that hasn’t already been said?You want to know what happened? Why it happened? Sorry – I can’t tell you. Are you upset? Happy? Sad? Apprehensive? Sit with that for a while. Some like say: ‘here’s how you can take advantage of this change in events!’ – that’s not me. I’m not here to tell you it’s going to be okay or what’s going to happen next. No boring ‘chaos is a ladder’ cliches. I’m going to sit with my feelings for a while – and that might be the best thing for you, too.What I will say is that, if you feel overwhelmed, that’s a clue that you should keep your world small and work on you. Hungry, angry, lonely, tired? Take it from an old recovering, walking pile of coping mechanisms: keep your world small and work on you. That’s all you can do right now. When the world seems like something that cannot be changed, keep your world small and work on you. This advice came from a Navy SEAL named Andy Stumpf:

“Stumpf said the main reason why Navy Seal candidates, men who have dedicated their whole life to becoming a seal, quit is because they became overwhelmed by the process. They kept their world large and could not handle the enormity of the training. His advice to candidates going through BUD/S is to keep your world small by focusing on each drill one at a time.

“Don’t look at hell week as a five-day pipeline. Just make it to your next meal,” Stumpf said. “They have to feed you every six hours. So if I can stack six hours on six hours on six hours and just focus on getting to the next meal, it doesn’t matter how much I’m in pain; doesn’t matter how cold I am. If I can just get to the next meal, I’ll get a reprieve and a mental reset, and I can continue on.”

This mindset can and should be applied to everything you do in life.”

Yes, when your life / world is overwhelming, one of the strongest things you can do is keep going. Keeping your world small and will help you continue making progress under hopeless circumstances. Keep your world small.

Work On YouThe next thing – work on you. I want to give some brief thoughts on the subject of being enough and insecurity. Everyone must overcome that struggle – some of us try to carry the mountains instead of climb them. I’m still working on that, myself – please don’t feel like I’m judging you.This morning, I was reflecting on who I was at eighteen, at twenty, at thirty and so on. The one constant feature of that experience was that I was pushing back on some insecurity to get my life together and fulfill the magical algebraic equation that would gain success and support love that I was looking for at that time. Bitter experience taught me that as you chase each of those pieces- toxic influencers (the media or other people in your life) will drum into your head that you’re missing X, Y and Z and that’s why you’re not successful with you just focus on gating x y and z, if you’re disciplined, if you’re a good person, if you have grit, if you’re worthy, you can earn a level of acceptance of love and support that you don’t have currently. Between the time where you realize that your life is ‘missing something’ and the time  you realize that you’re never going to have X, Y and Z – a lot of damage can be done.You Can’t Hate Your Way to LoveIt’s important to remember that the old aphorisms are true: you can’t hate your way into being someone that you love. I’m noticing so many different messages coming from influencers that patriotate that negative stereotype- if you hate yourself enough you’ll be disciplined, if you’re disciplined enough you’ll get there. The ‘missing stair’ from their argument is that how do you continue motivating yourself after you stop hating yourself? That’s a huge ‘missing stair’ – how do you motivate yourself by having compassion for yourself?Yes, hate or anger can be fiery motivators – but  it only works until the fire goes out. Then what? The motivation to improve goes away and then you slide back into those old bad habits. You end up in a negative cycle of fiery motivators > temporary change > new normal that doesn’t last > long slide back to your former self > growing frustration > fiery motivators. It doesn’t work – it will never work – your motivation has to be about reaching toward something you love instead of pushing away from something you hate.How do you get there? That’s the real question influencers should be answering and I’ve yet to really see that. We’re bombarded with messaging about fitness systems (looking at you, South Beach diet, Keto or CICO). None of them address improving yourself by having compassion for yourself. Not forcing yourself into a new model of disciplined behavior, but welcoming yourself. Influencers dance around it by saying ‘hey you need to have love and body positivity’ but they’re still not really getting to the core of the matter.You are Worthy of LoveAs you consider or pursue anything related to self-improvement or self-actualization – remember: anger will only take you so far. You can’t hate your way into something that you love. You’re not going to achieve it by being that kid wrestling for his parent or families love. Why don’t you and I do that? Change by having compassion for yourself. Change by welcoming yourself into a new model of better living because it’s a good thing for you and you are worthy of good things. You have to understand that you’re already enough as you are – that old Mr. Rogers ‘I love you just the way you are’ logic. You have to approach it with love because love is the only way it’s going to get there. You are worthy of love.

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Notes from Eugene – 11/05/2024 – RIP Frog

Sad news from Eugene – our Frog is no longer with us. Old fart’s been around for years selling cheap joke books for a buck at different festivals and events. Most people don’t know he actually had a case argued in front of the State Supreme Court. Always wondered if that was gonna be me – peddling books one at a time for a buck at local fairs. So far that hasn’t happened yet.

Fall is here – finally. Cool weather sends morons scurrying south. My neighbors wake me, screeching about property crime and petty vandalism. At first, I ignored the noise, and the knocks at my door. Final insult was a poorly-written note into my mailbox that would have been better reserved for a Nextdoor post. It’s happened before, it’ll happen again – local cops call it a ‘shrug and a police report.’ Everyone involved needed a whack between the eyes with a ping-pong paddle.

The cats are content to stay indoors and frankly, so am I. Today’s a fraught day in American history and I’ll be glad when it’s over. Horror all around us – the ‘targeted attack’ or ‘attempted mass shooting’ at the Vancouver Mall to my north, for example. One dead and two wounded. Most people never heard about it. My anxiety disorder is supposed to be an abnormal reaction to danger and childhood trauma – sometimes it feels like my own personal security system and I’m glad to have it.

Rapscallions from the University have shortcutted their way through my neighborhood and it’s getting to be an annoyance. Discussions about not throwing trash or enjoying your music through headphones get teenage sociopolitical blather. It’s like the screeching neighbors – no point in trying to explain, it just ends in complaints.

I saw Rose Marie later that morning. “You get a note about that vandalism?”

“Of course. Idiots think I have nothing better to do than join their Neigh-boor-hood Watch.” She sipped tea in a cup I found in a flea market rummage bin, cursing them under her breath.

“I’m stealing that,” I wrote her ‘neigh-boor-hood watch’ down on a Post-it. “But it sounds a little cold-hearted.”

“Landladies can’t afford to care too much.”

RIP Frog – we love you – we’ll miss you.

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Scifi Book Nooks – A Science Fiction Celebration

Scifi book nooks deserve a shoutout now that we’re into fall – the ‘crafty season.’ As a tiny library shelf-sized art piece, book nooks have been around less than 10 years. Like many other ‘minature worlds’ craft projects, book nooks capture my imagination when I run across them.

Where do book nooks come from? Per OnTheBookShelf, book nooks seem ‘to have originated in 2018 from a Japanese artist called Monde. They created a “back alley bookshelf” made to fit alongside paperback books.’ Etsy and Reddit support the burgeoning book nook community and there are new ideas coming out all the time.

Oddly enough – when I see crafters and artists make book nooks, they’re focused on the ‘How To’ but not the ‘Why To’ of book nooks. Why do book nooks suck you in so quickly?

There’s no solid data although you might hear something about creativity, imagination, and nostalgia. My theory is more simple – book nooks and other minature world projects take advantage of different human needs: Safety and security, imagination, creativity. These snug little worlds make us feel unconciously safe. Nothing bad is going to happen here.

Once your need for safety (Hello, Maslow’s heirarchy of needs!) is fulfilled, you start thinking about the little book nook details. The exercise becomes evocative, people connect emotionally and start picturing themselves inside the scene. Just like kids with doll houses, Sim City or Lego cities – intrinsic fascination and projection. You see the scene, and your brain immediately starts to tell stories about what it would be like to stand there inside. Good times!

Beyond that – book nooks are a form of personal expression. On their own, library shelves are kinda boring unless you designed your own. Book nooks fill that gap – Your scifi book nook can be incredibly intricate and detailed, or it be simple (yet shocking). It’s all up to you.

So as you’re considering your next craft project, may I humbly suggest a scifi book nook? There are thousands of ideas out there to choose from – I’d love to see where your imagination takes you.

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Predatory Creatives – SFWA and Scifi Scumbags

Well that’s a yikes – a prominent member of the SFWA has been removed as ‘director at large’ for being a predatory creative and other scumbag behavior. Writers of all shapes and sizes take note – Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki’s behavior isn’t unique. Just because you’re on their side as a scifi writer doesn’t make them on your side.

Why talk about it? It’s important! If we’re professional creatives, we need to be aware of the perils and pitfalls as well as the promise. Some people make a profession out of the prhase ‘there’s a sucker born every minute.’ I would be remiss in my duty as an elder nerd if I didn’t discuss the need for professional ‘street smarts’ before you step out the door.

So what did Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (ODE) do to deserve his excommunication from SFWA? The 78-page breakdown is here, but let’s do the Cliff Notes version:

ODE stole work from author and editor Erin Cairns, publishing her story under his own nameODE manipulated Cairns into editing stories for his own anthology and publishing her work, uncreditedODE manipulated Ciarns into providing other free work and, when his manipulation became too obvious to hide, ODE ghosted CairnsCairns suffered significant financial, repuational, and personal loss as a result of ODE’s behavior and treatment

These events are disappointing, but not surprising. Many in the entertainment industry cite examples of predatory creatives that leech off of other naive but well-intentioned professionals to steal free work, ideas, and material. Even if you aren’t being directly exploited, scumbag scifi can take other forms, too. Writerbeware.blog had an interesting writeup on a fake literary operation that experienced some unexpected accountability.

‘The employee claimed that the company lured authors into paying for packaging and preparation services for their books, promising to submit the works for publishing.

‘Once the payment was made, the scammers allegedly cut off communication or blocked the victims entirely.’

So there’s that, too.

Like any industry with billions on the table for anyone with an idea or a dream, the writing industry has a seedy underbelly of rapacious rapscallions. A small but significant minority of people who learned that it’s much easier to steal an idea than dream one up on your own. You’re no ‘diamond in the rough,’ you’re a ‘Table for One.’

When it comes to scifi scumbags and predatory creatives – I don’t have an easy answer. Sorry, but that’s the truth. We’re out there and so are they – no cops, no sheepdogs, no superheroes. It’s just us being smart and careful – it’s up to each of us to stay alert, stay safe, and help others do the same.

 

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Mike Sierra Echo: Space Elevator Tech – Difficult but Worth It

This article from Space.com reminds us that space elevator tech will be difficult to engineer, but worth it. Space Week was Oct 4-10, but here at Inkican Space Week is every week! Let’s nerd out about the amazing future of space elevators. They’re an amazing idea for a reason, and the next logical step in our manifest destiny to explore the stars.

First up, a little backstory thanks to Space.com. The basic design of a space elevator sounds simple. “A thick cable extends from a location within 10 degrees of the Earth’s equator up into space. The forces acting on the cable would be fierce, with Earth’s gravity trying to pull it down, and the centrifugal force on a mass at the end of the cable in Earth orbit pulling it the other way, keeping it taut.”

Okay, so that’s the concept. Why haven’t we built one, yet? Easy – we haven’t invented the technology that makes this possible … yet. “The stresses and tension of this cable would be so great that it would need to be made from a material 50 times stronger than steel, however. The only material strong enough are carbon nanotubes, which are “grown” from a process of chemical vapor deposition. The problem is, as the name suggests, carbon nanotubes are small, and the longest grown have been about 14 centimeters (5.5 inches) — that’s a big difference to the 100,000-kilometer (62,000-mile) length of a space elevator”

So there’s the rub – we don’t have a material that would work for the space elevator cable yet. More to the point, whatever cable we *do* invent would have to serve multiple functions. Some people solve this by putting the space elevator on the Moon or Mars, where lower gravity negates the need for stronger materials. Nonsense! Let’s dream big – let’s dream a future where we figure these problems out!

Dreaming of a time where we’ve figured this out isn’t so far-fetched. I’ll explain why at the end of this article. Meantime, we can and should focus on the part where space elevator tech will be difficult to invent – but it’s worth it. I discuss this in Mike.Sierra.Echo – here’s a sneak peek:

“Let me explain how we reached NeoDiamond cable,” Dad said. Waited nearly two centuries to arrive. Stronger than any known material – natural or man-made.”

“You can’t make something stronger than diamond. That’s … impossible.”

“That’s science!” Dad’s eyes twinkled.

“What did you do?”

“Someone developed a new material. Strong, flexible, and self-healing. NeoDiamond cable has multiple skins. One of them is a metal organic framework that passively collects water from the air and stores it. Not a bad system, when you think about it.”

“But, like, why water?”

“Easy,” Dad continued. Ships use water to ballast themselves. They store water inside the hull, increases stability in rough seas. We do the same thing with water on Terminus Prime, the space station attached to Evie the Asteroid.”

“Whoa, you have a space station, too?”

“We need a presence on that rock,” Dad pointed to Evie the Asteroid’s hologram. She was a large gray walnut-shaped rock – tiny rice-grain-sized habitats attached to her surface. “Nothing special at first, just enough to support elevator operations and future projects.”

“Let me see.” Dad let me zoom the holo into Evie the Asteroid’s lumpy surface. I studied her two hemispheres, feeling an odd kinship with the alien object. The NeoDiamond cable anchored to Evie’s bottom edge, driven deep into the rock for maximum strength.

Then the hologram turned into a movie. There, floating in the dust motes of the autodriver Terminus Prime built itself. Circles of habitats extended from the cable anchor.  Soon, new habitats arrived. The station grew ‘upward’ until Evie resembled a space dandelion.

More elevators and structures arrived in the future. Evie had new neighbors, new structures floated nearby. I wanted to be there so bad I could taste it.

I’m not lying when I say ‘space elevator tech is difficult, but it’s worth it.’ Nothing worth anything is easy. Our universal quest for knowledge and insight has led us to some amazing places – it’s even doing that now for climate change. Check out this article from a couple of days ago:

New discovery reveals how diatoms capture CO2 so effectively – ‘A research team at the University of Basel has now discovered a protein shell in these algae that is necessary for efficient CO2 fixation. This groundbreaking discovery can provide ideas for bioengineering approaches to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere.’

One of these days, we’re going to crack the ‘climate change’ problem and when we do – life is going to get so much less scary. We’re going to get our solarpunk future – I talk about that a little in Mike.Sierra.Echo, too.

That’s the news for now – getting back to work on ‘finding a lit agent.’ Hope you’re doing something meaningful, too.

Write on!

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Sci-Friday #214 – Gates McFadden Spills the Star Trek Tea

Ooh ooh – Gates McFadden spills the Star Trek Tea on this Sci-Friday. A recent appearance on the Inside of You podcast gave us some next-level insight on Beverly Crusher’s character in the first season of Star Trek: TNG. Who knew being Wesley’s mom could be so spicy?? I got a kick out of this and you will, too – take a look:



Interestingly, her work ethic and approach paid off in the long run. Series creator Gene Roddenberry admitted that the Dr. Pulaski character did not develop a chemistry with the other characters, so McFadden was approached to return as Dr. Crusher for the third season. She was hesitant, but after a phone call from co-star Patrick Stewart, and numerous fan letters, McFadden was persuaded to return to the role, which she then played through the remainder of the series.

Fun fact: Gates McFadden plays Alec Baldwin’s wife in The Hunt for Red October. She also tells us about how she ended up *not* returning for that role. Might be a blink-and-you-miss-it role, but she disappears so seamlessly into the ‘British housewife’ role that it reminds you ‘there are no small parts, only small actors.’

So that was wild – Gates McFadden shows that Star Trek is a tv show like every other television show. Politics, personalities, and catty behavior are just part of the landscape. I hope you enjoyed this scifi catfight. Please feel welcomed to dive down the rabbit hole of every other Sci-Friday I’ve published in the past couple years. Have a great weekend!

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Simple Ways to Fix AI – AI Permanent Fund

Today, some simple ways to fix AI. I want to share a modest proposal to resolve complaints / concerns about AI using your data – I call it the ‘AI Permanent Fund.’ This is going to take a minute, but it’s some seriously cool / fun futurology research. Settle in and learn about a simple way for us to keep our future fun and exploitation-free. Ready? Here goes:

One of the things a proper scifi author is going to do is think about future tech and impacts on people in general. For example, cyberpunk was born out of 1970s/1980s themes of social isolation and class divides. Similarly, we’re going down a path of AI technology and products. How will our current themes of inequality, distrust of tech-broillionaires, and social disorder play into the future we’re making for ourselves?

People Are Scared of What AI is Becoming

You don’t have to be a futurologist to understand that people are terrified of AI being used as a tool to make the rich richer, poor people poorer. No joke – the average citizen of 2024 is aware that their ability to know the facts, choose their own destiny, secure their own life and liberty – are under threat from a variety of sources. You feel that fear, that awareness, in the news about AI. For example:

Tons of people freaking out about their data being used to train AIsLinkedIn is training AI on youUnless you’re in the EU, there’s no ability to opt out of AI training settings that keep Facebook or Instagram posts public.

Long story boring, people aren’t sure what AI is going to do to us and these exploitative strategies by large companies do nothing to address those fears and insecurities. It won’t be long until somebody comes up with a whackadoo conspiracy theory surrounding AI and then all bets are off. Don’t believe me? Look at the conspiracies surrounding 5G towers and FEMA. I’m not here to re-hash that, just to make the point.

How Do We Pivot?

Humanity will need a system to address concerns about exploitation and inequality when it comes to artificial intelligence. Last week, I was reminded of a historical system that I think – with some tweaks and tuning – could address most concerns for most people. Before I describe it, here’s some back story:

In 1969, Alaska created a Permanent Fund in response to the oil revenue it was making from the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. It was felt at the time that all that incoming money was being inefficiently spent and should be put into a fund outside of direct political control. The original fund idea started in 1969 but didn’t see daylight until 1976. Since 1982, the Permanent Fund Since 1982, Alaska has been giving every woman, man, and child an annual chunk of its nest egg. Now the APF ain’t perfect, but it’s been doing some good for people. Permanent residents of Alaska get $1700-1900 per year and benefits from the fund include increased short-term employment and reduced poverty rates.

AI Permanent Fund – One of the Simple Ways to Fix AI

So you take that idea and then you look at AI data. Fun fact – as far back as 2017, people have been calling data and metadata the ‘gold’ and ‘oil’ of the 21st century. Data is an exploitable resource, like oil. So … what if we managing AI data like we do oil and natural gas? That suggests – as an interesting but tangential sidebar – the future United States might have a Federal Data Regulatory Commission like we do the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

But before we get there, what if we looked at data like Jay Hammond looked at the oil of Alaska – ‘a means to transform metadata pumping stock market returns for a finite period into a money well that pumps money for infinity?‘ Just as the Alaskan Permanent Fund ‘gave to everybody, from the poorest to the richest, a fair share of the money that they actually own,’ the AI Permanent Fund could give everyone a fair share of the value of their personal data.

This isn’t that far-fetched – Cloudflare’s already got a solution in place to make people pay for AI data scraping. That works to a point, but we could start working on a universal solution that doesn’t require individual participation and buy-in. We could treat AI data scraping, metadata, like oil and compensate people for the value of their data. We could stop treating people as an exploitable resource and started treating them like investors who experienced value for their contribution.

That also suggests – as an interesting but tangential sidebar – that a future Federal Data Regulatory Commission would establish a royalty on data and metadata. So far as yet, the GDPR treats personal data protection as a universal human right, but nobody’s established a monetary value, yet.

Yet. It’s probably coming sooner than we know.

How the Fund Would Work

So problem one – we’re not regulating how companies use data – that’s probably coming in the near future. Problem two – we’re not establishing the value of that data, but clearly there is value if the stock prices of Google, Facebook, and OpenAI are any indication.

Once those two issues are resolved, the idea of compensating the public for their value becomes obvious. The Alaskan Permanent Fund establishes how that might work:

The fund would receive a % of the metadata royalties each yearThe AiPF (AI Permanent Fund) would invest those royalties in a diversified portfolio of assetsA Board of Trustees would oversee the AiPFThe AiPF would invest across asset classes – with the goal of achieving high returns while maintaining a well-diversified portfolioA portion of the fund earnings get distributed annually to eligible residents as an AI Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) – fund portions are based on who’s using your data, where, why

The AIPF’s aim would be to provide renewable sources of revenue for all citizens, benefitting current and future generations of Internet users. It wouldn’t be a perfect answer, but it would get us off the psychopathic path of AI companies now.

Potential Issues / Mitigation Strategies

An AiPF as ‘one of the simple ways to fix AI’ is actually pretty complicated. We know that. An AiPF would create some problems on its way to solving others. Accurate tracking of data scraping’s an issue, scope and scale of royalities, privacy concerns, and fair compensation come to mind. Plus, if you’re talking about a fund – who manages it – how do we hold them accountable and protect them from bad influence?

I don’t have all the answers, but here are some ideas:

Resolve Data attribution issues with blockchain tech and standardized metadata – creating records of data provenance and usage with a metadata standard for tracking.Opt-in / out – let people choose whether their data is available for AI training, educating people about their rights and auditing the AI companies for compliance. You’d also create flexible policies and principles that change over time while still maintaining a standard of data privacy and autonomy.AI-powered attribution – Artificial systems that identify and attribute contentFund management – Manage the AiPF with transparency, integrity, and accountability – we’ve been doing this successfully for 125 years now.International cooperation – the AiPF would have to co-exist with global systems of cooperation between nation-states on metadata use, privacy, and royalty systems

These are all big challenges – but since the alternative is a violent, hopeless dystopia, maybe it’s worth a shot.

Our Future – Our Hands – Partnership Over Prevention

I hope this makes some sense – we’re not going to get rid of AI anytime soon. It’s better for us to contemplate a future where we’ve created partnership, not prevention. Our future can and should still be in our hands. This may be a simple way to keep the balance of power in balance. I don’t want to contemplate a future where 21st-century Luddites are burning down the Open AI offices and frankly, neither do you.

Thanks for letting me share this simple way to fix AI. If we’re going to build the future we want, become the people we know we can be, it has to come from inside. Science fiction is a weapon in the war against our dystopian reality.

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Cybercab: Elon Musk’s Lonely, Selfish Future

Bad news: Elon Musk’s Cybercab gives us a clear idea of the lonely, selfish future. A future where Musk is the center of your universe, my universe, forever. I want to be cautious about providing a ‘hot take’ because I know you know how I feel about those. But, take a step back. This Cybercab is a unique opportunity to understand the ‘artist’ by seeing his ‘art.’ What does Elon Musk ship, and what does that tell us about the man himself?

On the surface, the answer is ‘tackling ambitious, futuristic goals’ but let’s dig deeper. Musk purports the focus on refining and enhaning products, but he doesn’t walk the talk. In each case, the future keeps coming back to this lonely, selfish vision in which Musk is the guy who made it happen. It’s not YOUR future – it’s the future ELON MUSK gave to you.

Exhibits A – E

He keeps making quasi-altruistic statements, but where’s the agency and selflessness? In each case – the product sounds cool at the start, but then deeper problems emerge.

Cybertruck – He called it ‘virtually indestructable’ and then an engineer put a bowling ball through the window. Promises? More like premises! First accept the premise before we show you was any data to back them up. Design and production issues have resulted in recalls, delays, and angry customers who realized this $150,000 vehicle was out-performed by a Ford F-150 that cost half the price. Dunking on the Cybertruck has become a full-time job for some journalists – Musk’s inability to accept feedback and disregard for production issues have harmed Tesla’s reputation and bottom line.Neuralink – On the surface, a cybernetic neurological linkage from our brains to computers is positive. Heck, I’ve written about it – I think it’s cool as long as it’s cool. But the Neuralink is NOT cool. Allegations of animal cruelty, ethical concerns, a lack of transparency – would you trust this guy with your skull? I’m being rhetorical – we both know the answer. As this article points out: ‘He doesn’t seem to mind the fatal accidents caused by Tesla’s autopilot, because of his belief that they outweigh the benefits of one day having fully safe cars. He has a dangerous regard for human life, leaving ethical concerns in wake, and leaving us to question how far he’s willing to go.’X / Twitter – You already know what’s happened, and so do I. My premise is simple – X / Twitter’s current state is a direct result from Musk’s selfish, lonely world view. He doesn’t care if they’re hurting YOU, just as long as they make HIM rich. From the same article above: ‘Upon acquisition, hate speech on Twitter skyrocketed, with the use of the N-word surging by 500%. In part, Musxk’s dismantling of X’s formerly robust moderation team is to blame, in addition to Musk’s insistence that all types of speech should be allowed on X. X’s policy against the targeted misgendering and deadnaming of transgender individuals was also silently erased.’Starlink – Again – on paper, Starlink sounds awesome – who wouldn’t want universal Internet access for all? But then you start digging into the details and THE DETAILS ARE SCARY. Regulatory issues, privacy concerns, Starlink acting as a direct facilitator of warfare. Who knew that provising ISPs was like running guns? I didn’t – until now. Whether Musk knew this was going to happen and welcomed it, or saw it happening and shrugged – he seems to be naively indifferent to the suffering of others.The Boring Company – TBC’s first project? A flamethrower – not a tunnel builder. ‘Nuff said. Everything about this company seems to support Musk’s narcissism. They can’t be a tawdry, tacky refusal to admit that A) Geo-engineering is tough and maybe you should leave it to the pros B) The Boring Company was started as a solution in search of a problem C) the entire company exists as a way for Musk to test tunnel-building technology for free on Earth before shipping it to Mars. They’re TBC and Musk owns them so of course they’re awesome!It’s Not the JobsPhone – It’s the iPhone

Every product, every release, is ‘Elon’s’ product, Elon’s release. Even Steve Jobs knew to call it the ‘iPhone’ – not the ‘JobsPhone.’ Slapping one’s name / face / identity on everything you make or release is SO tacky. What happened to ‘men plant trees, knowing they will never sit in their shade?’ Elon doesn’t want to plant trees unless he can put his name on the fruit. That’s sad.

As I’ve said before, AI companies are famous for psychopathic thinking and Musk’s companies – which rely heavily on AI – are no exception. Two people are the maximum Cybercab occupancy. You’ll never need more than two seats. Unless you need more – in which case, take the Cybervan, a toaster on wheels.

The main takeaway: Elon Musk is inventing HIS future, not OUR future. When he says ‘We, Robot,’ he’s using the royal ‘we’ – the King speaking for the peasantry. His future is one where everyone thinks about, talks about, relies upon Elon Musk every day forever. Not surprising, considering his lonely and sad childhood. Only now he’s the lonely, sad kid with all the toys and all the cake and he still can’t figure out why nobody wants to come to his party.

The Man Needs Help

On some level, you can empathize with Elon Musk’s humanity – but not to the extent of making the entire world about him. It’s called ‘therapy,’ Elon – try it sometime.

You don’t have to listen to me, by the way. Elon will only save the world if he’s the one who’s allowed to do it. You can see it in every new product he releases – Elon keeps trying to shoehorn the future into his royal ‘we’ where he’s the King, we’re the peasants. If TSLA’s stock price is any indication – the peasantry ain’t having it.

This helps tell my ‘Elon Musk is Obidiah Stane’ story a little bit better. Sorry for him, he still has a chance to pivot into something less monstrous. We must understand: Elon Musk views the future as a place only he can control and the Cybercab proves it.

Someone needs to sit Elon down. “Dude,” they’ll say “get your poop together. We believed in you, we showed up FOR YOU. Now we’re here – make the juice worth the squeeze or the next thing we squeeze is YOU.”

I hope Elon Musk takes this opportunity. Re-write the future, not just for the Cybercab but for himself and all of us. Peasants have a way of balancing the books when you make all other peaceful options impossible.

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Life Imitates Mesh: Doxing Sunglasses and Dead Internet

This week’s news about Doxing Sunglasses and Dead Internet remind us that Mesh is more than a science fiction story – it’s news about the future. Dead Internet is a theory that – in short – says the Internet and everything about it are so driven by bots and AI that there’s no THERE there, anymore. There’s more texture to the theory, and this video will help you understand better. Take a look:

Our second video is equally as disturbing – Meta’s smart glasses are a privacy nightmare since you can use them to doxx people – publicly personally identifiable information about an individual without their consent – in real time. Watch and then let’s discuss:

I suspect that this slow-motion dystopic nightmare will lead to more low-tech surveillance-defeating tech (like these clothes and this makeup). OUR big takeaway is that there’s a misuse case event cycle that follows any new technology. It can be explained as follows:

New tech enables bad actors to do worse before good actors can do better

That’s right kids – as soon as we discovered nuclear technology, we were using it for bombs. As soon as we developed computers, bad guys were using them to steal things. There’s a misuse case event cycle that follows every new technology – I knew we’d be seeing it as soon as the first ads for Meta Smart Glasses arrived.

What does the  misuse case event cycle look like? You’ve heard of the Gartner Hype Cycle, right? Overlayed on that cycle is the misuse case event cycle and it looks like this:

When a new technology appears, you’re going ‘ooh’ and ‘ah!’ The bad guys are going ‘where’ and ‘how?’ ‘How can we weaponize this tech?’ ‘How can we exploit this idea?’ Smart people understand this, which is why you’re seeing AI scientists demanding controls for new machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. You can’t afford to leave your safety in the hands of companies that repeatedly demonstrate their willingness to engage in psychopathic business models.

When it comes to Doxing Sunglasses and Dead Internet, there’s a big idea here. That big idea is: we can and we should feel safe to act for our safety. Don’t let low-information opinions talk you out of your concerns. AI / bots / Smart glasses or Smart phones are exploitable platforms. People are going to exploit them. Feel free to use them – as long as you know they are using you. Honest thieves – yes, Virgina, some are honest – will tell you when they’re going to steal from you. I’d trust the big AI guns a lot more if they spoke about HOW they were going to keep us safe – in specific, measurable terms.

That’s the news for now. I’ve got a bunch of stuff to do over here. Be safe!

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