A.C. Flory's Blog, page 2

The death of a child in Gaza

The child is called Amir and the Green Beret whistleblower recounts how Amir came up to him and thanked him for the scraps of food they were distributing. Then the IDF shot real bullets into the crowd, and Amir, this child, this fucking innocent child was SHOT AND DIED. Netanyahu and his government are evil bastards, and so are those who support them.

I am a mother. I cannot stay silent while children are murdered in the name of politics.

Meeks

The Nerd Reich

I’ve written before about the dangers of corporatism so you won’t be surprised to learn that I’m not the only one; I’m simply the least famous. The following article discusses a theory about the Tech Bros – arguably the most powerful of the current crop of corporates – by tech journalist, Gil Duran:

‘…a growing number of Silicon Valley elites are pursuing a vision of power not rooted in the common good, but in profit, feudal hierarchy, and total control of the platforms that define daily life for hundreds of millions of people.

Duran dubs this emerging ideology the “Nerd Reich” — a slurry of right-wing ideas championed by ruthless tech overlords like Palantir founder Peter Thiel, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, and cryptocurrency titan Brian Armstrong, with some OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sprinkled in for good measure. Drawing on the reactionary writings of Curtis “Mencius Moldbug” Yarvin and the cryptolibertarianism of tech investor Balaji Srinivasan, this philosophy isn’t explicitly outlined by our billionaire overlords, but is nonetheless a useful framework that explains their increasingly undemocratic actions.’

Futurism

The Futurism article ends with this:

“We have a bunch of CEOs telling us that AI is going to get rid of millions and millions of jobs,” Duran argues. “Well, what’s going to happen to those people who can no longer work? What is their future? What is the future of their children? What does democracy look like when you don’t get to eat unless someone like Elon Musk is approving of your existence?”

I strongly recommend reading the entire Futurism article because it’s a peek into a future that would do credit to a post-apocalyptic novel.

Meeks

Copyright is dead, long live AI

If you are a creative of any sort, you need to watch the video below because in it, best selling author David Baldacci tells the Senate Judiciary Hearing that Big Tech fed all of his work into AI, and didn’t even buy a single book. Instead, they used pirated copies. Yet the same Big Tech would fight tooth and nail to protect their own copyrighted code!

And Baldacci is only the latest in a long line of creatives protesting about the theft of their work. Not so long ago, I read that graphical AI could create graphics ‘in the style of Miyazaki’.

For those who don’t watch animated movies, Miyazaki is a beloved and very famous Japanese film-maker whose signature style has been honed over decades of work.

ALL of Miyazaki’s movies have deep themes that explore what it means to be human:

For me though, the saddest part is that the work of such a wonderful artist can be mis-used to create awful things like erotica, porn, you name it. All it takes is for the person supplying the prompt to make it so.

If creatives like Baldacci and Miyazaki can have their genius stolen then there is little hope for the rest of us…so why bother creating anything at all?

Creativity is dead; long live AI

Meeks

Robotic surgery closer to reality

Back in November of 2016, when I first published Innerscape as a series of episodes, one of the fundamental scifi techs I imagined was surgery conducted by a robot – but with human oversight:

‘“That’s very irregular!” Charles said. “Stage 3 is delicate enough without adding to it.”

“That is true, Dr McGragh,” Kenneth said without inflection, “but the nodes can be removed manually without taking any resources from the AI.”

“Manually?” Charles sputtered. “That’s archaic! You’re not seriously proposing to remove the nodes yourself?”

“Why not?” Kenneth asked. “We’re all surgeons aren’t we?”

“Of course we are,” Charles growled, “but none of us can match the precision of the AI!”

“That’s true, but the removal of a few nodes is very simple in comparison to most other procedures,” Kenneth began, his tone reasonable. “Besides, all of us have to be skilled enough to step in if anything untoward happens, don’t we?”

Kenneth’s words caused a long, and rather uncomfortable silence as the seven other surgeons present secretly wondered how skilful they would be in a real emergency. 

As accredited surgeons they were all required to practise their surgical skills on a regular basis. In reality, however, those practice sessions were all just simulations. Very good, very realistic simulations, but simulations nonetheless. Few had touched a real, live body since medical school.’ Miira, Book 1 of Innerscape.

That excerpt from Innerscape was supposed to be set in 2101, yet here we are in 2025, and technology has already progressed to the point where a robot can perform a gallbladder operation, more or less on its own:

‘Researchers at Johns Hopkins University trained a robot on videos of operations, and then had it conduct a gallbladder removal on its own – with no mechanical help, just voice commands, like a theater team assisting the lead surgeon.’ New Atlas, Autonomous robot surgeon removes organs with 100% success rate.‘

But don’t get too excited. The operation[s] were not performed on humans, or even on living animals:

‘While this study details SRT-H’s complete gallbladder removal (cholecystectomy) across eight different surgeries, it’s worth noting these were performed on a realistic human-like model, but, understandably, not a human. However, the tissues used in the human-like models closely mimicked ours, and the robot breezed through the operation that required 17 tasks to be performed, each lasting minutes. It was able to identify specific ducts and arteries and grab them precisely, strategically place clips and sever parts with scissors.’ New Atlas, Autonomous robot surgeon removes organs with 100% success rate.‘

It’s odd, looking back and realising what high hopes I had for AI back then. In my mind, AI would be developed to help humanity. Instead it’s been developed to make money by stealing our creativity. I wonder what history will make of this point in time…Dark Age of the Arts?

Meeks

Dyson, robotics, and strawberries

Dyson is famous for making vacuum cleaners, but it may end up being remembered for its innovative vertical farming innovations. You can read the full article on New Atlas or just watch the video below:

I love strawberries but the bugs seem to get most of our homegrown ones, so I’d love a teensy weensy, domestic sized farm like this for our backyard.

cheers,
Meeks

A Nuclear History Lesson

The video below was produced by Matt Bevan, an Australian journalist working for the Australian Broadcast Corporation – our public broadcast service. As such, it is not biased towards either the US left or right.

I watched this video with my first cup of coffee today, and it taught me a hell of a lot about the background to the current situation between Iran, the US, and Israel. I strongly advise everyone to watch it:

Now, have a look at a video published by Kyle Kulinski [US] just a few hours ago:

Kyle Kulinski is American, and he makes no secret of the fact that he is strongly anti-Trump. But. Kyle Kulinski is also a very smart man, and his take on Iran ‘ceasing co-operation with‘ the IAEA – the International Atomic Energy Agency – makes an awful lot of sense.

Remember the IAEA from the first video? It is supposed to be the watchdog that guarantees [sic] the peaceful use of atomic energy. Iran was a member state and abided by the regulations until Trump tore up the agreement negotiated by Obama…and never managed to put anything else in its place.

So now Iran has been bombed.

Israel and the US are threatening more bombing to effect ‘regime change’.

What is Iran to do?

Build a real bomb, that’s what.

Congratulations President Trump. It’s so nice to be back in the Cold War again.

Meeks

The cost of those ‘big beautiful bombs’ in Iran

When you add up just the known cost of the bombs D.J. Trump unleashed on Iran, the mind boggles. Especially when you consider that he sabotaged the strikes by announcing them before hand. I’m sure he thoroughly…enjoyed…the spectacle, but that’s one, very expensive <> job.

Donald John Trump’s Big Beautiful Holes in Iran

Just for FUN!

Enjoy.

Meeks

UPDATE: Liz Cheney – message to Democrats

The quote below is from Robert Reich’s post in which he corrects the attribution of this message to Liz Cheney. It does NOT come from Liz Cheney:

‘Friends,

I’m told that the following message, which I received earlier today, purporting to be from Liz Cheney, is a hoax. She didn’t send it. It’s an excellent and important message nonetheless. (Several of you say it originated with Dr. Pru Lee.)’

I didn’t realise Reich’s post had been amended until I read Jill Dennison‘s comment. Thanks, Jill!

Meeks

I have admire Liz Cheney from the moment she stood up for the truth and went after Donald Trump for the January 6 insurrection.

I admire courage. And honour. And integrity.

Now, Robert Reich has posted a message Liz Cheney wrote to Democrat politicians, and my admiration for her has skyrocketed:

‘From Liz Cheney

Dear Democratic Party,

I need more from you.

You keep sending emails begging for $15,

while we’re watching fascism consolidate power in real time.

This administration is not simply “a different ideology.”

It is a coordinated, authoritarian machine — with the Supreme Court, the House, the Senate, and the executive pen all under its control.

And you?

You’re still asking for decorum and donations. WTF.’

You can read Liz Cheney’s complete call to arms on the link below:

https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/a-remarkable-message?r=1i4v12&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Given how 129 Democrats just voted NOT to impeach Donald Trump for his warmongering…this message is a million times more important than it was just yesterday.

Meeks

Liz Cheney – message to Democrats

I have admire Liz Cheney from the moment she stood up for the truth and went after Donald Trump for the January 6 insurrection.

I admire courage. And honour. And integrity.

Now, Robert Reich has posted a message Liz Cheney wrote to Democrat politicians, and my admiration for her has skyrocketed:

‘From Liz Cheney

Dear Democratic Party,

I need more from you.

You keep sending emails begging for $15,

while we’re watching fascism consolidate power in real time.

This administration is not simply “a different ideology.”

It is a coordinated, authoritarian machine — with the Supreme Court, the House, the Senate, and the executive pen all under its control.

And you?

You’re still asking for decorum and donations. WTF.’

You can read Liz Cheney’s complete call to arms on the link below:

https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/a-remarkable-message?r=1i4v12&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Given how 129 Democrats just voted NOT to impeach Donald Trump for his warmongering…this message is a million times more important than it was just yesterday.

Meeks