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As I wander through the dystopian wasteland that passes for a society, one aspect that stands out is the infantile fascination with flashy technology and electronic gadgetry.
About ten years ago, after a long absence, I spent some time in New York City. One fine day, the weather was perfect; I took a leisurely stroll down Central Park West from 96th Street, where I was lodging. Seeing those grand pre-war apartment buildings filled my spirit with admiration and satisfaction. Eventually, I found myself in front of the Museum of Natural History, at the corner of 81st Street and Central Park West, waiting for the light to change. I glanced around, and witnessed a profoundly disturbing scene: a mass of humanity, at least two dozen individuals, all staring into their little screens. They were oblivious to each other, to the scenery around them, in short, to the rest of the world. Naturally, I had previously seen groups of people communing with their electronic babysitters, but never this quantity of people, and with a backdrop of such magnificent architecture. The future had arrived, and it didn’t look pretty. This obsession is called, in our current Orwellian linguistic haze: smart. Welcome to our new smart world. Everything is smart, down to the last fingernail. Translated into reality: smart = a device which can perform every electronic pirouette, and serves every purpose except its original intended use. Infinite bells and whistles, but core functionality has been pushed so far into the background, it is often hardly visible. I have never owned a smart phone, but on the odd occasion when I try to use one provided by a friend, I find that one of the most cumbersome tasks to execute on this wondrous telephone is to make a phone call. Or consider a smart coffee maker. You can tear your hair out just trying to make a simple pot of coffee, without having to fiddle with the settings. Come to think of it, one is always compelled to configure; it is becoming impossible to use tools in an uncomplicated and straightforward manner. In other words, we are awash in counterproductive and unnecessary complexity. Then there is the modern automobile. Wasn’t the purpose of this machine to transport people, and light cargo, from point A to point B? Now, it is a computer with wheels attached. The constant ringing and beeping and buzzing can drive a person bonkers. Not to mention the harebrained and often dangerous “safety” features, such as the car suddenly taking over your braking or steering. My car is from the model year 2017. This may have been the last opportunity to opt out of these rolling video games, by insisting on the base model, with no options. Not anymore. Buying a new car? You can’t escape. What’s more, the endless gizmofication pushes the cost up. Instead of a simple means of transportation, with a reasonable level of comfort, priced at say, $10K, we are presented with these ludicrous smart monsters at nosebleed prices. (I realize that there are many factors contributing to the rising cost, but this is one of the main culprits.) If you want a device that performs its intended function simply and efficiently, you either have to buy it used, or pay more. I recently shopped for a blender, and was compelled to spend a fair amount of money to acquire one with actual dials (remember those?), three speeds, no screen, no settings, no Wi-Fi, no unrelated functionality; just a blender that blends, thank you very much. And I haven’t even touched on the issue of social control, where the government (or its proxies) can monitor, turn off, or modify one of your smart devices without your knowledge or approval. I am not opposed to technological innovation, it’s just that the innovation is not always beneficial. I would trade all the smart phones in the country for, say, a Japanese-quality subway system in all of our major cities. As the population gets dumber, the devices get smarter. I wonder if there’s a connection…
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Alongside the much-deserved praise and optimism voiced during the first days of the Trump Administration, it is imperative to sound the alarm over the new “Stargate” project. One cannot possibly overstate the threat posed by this enormous AI initiative, which has an insidious “medical” component.
At his press conference of January 21st, the President stood beside the three principals of Stargate: Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle; Sam Altman, of OpenAI; and Masayoshi Son, of Softbank. We are informed that this consortium will cough up $500 billion to finish construction of ten enormous (half-million square foot) AI data centers in Texas. In my post of 1/15/2025, I outlined the reasons why AI is a boondoggle that will accelerate the deterioration of our society. This is bad enough, and I am dismayed to see our President lending his prestige to this effort. In the case of Stargate, however, the danger far exceeds the adverse impact of AI alone. The press conference opens with a tedious round of mutual adoration; pie-in-the-sky declarations of this great boon to humanity; how wonderful it is that America is taking the lead; the hundreds of thousands of jobs to be created; and other nauseating blather. The fun begins at the 4:25 mark, when Larry Ellison takes the floor. This ghoulish creep tells us that Stargate will bring us untold benefits in the medical arena. (My antennae spring up when hearing that word.) Apparently, it will exponentially swell the reservoir of “electronic health records.” Did you perhaps think that we’re already drowning in electronic health records? Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Stargate will create databases that will log and analyze every health event of the entire population—all to “help doctors understand their patients” and to conjure up “better healthcare plans.” What, even better than Obamacare? Not to be outdone by the repulsive Ellison or the clownish Masayoshi Son, Sam Altman steps up to the podium. You could not invent a more cartoonish representation of the arrogant, uncultured, nouveau-riche tech billionaire. Dripping with fake sincerity, speaking in that faggy, uptalking, verbal fry, he boasts that Stargate will cure disease, ushering in a new era for humanity (there’s that word again). Cancer, particularly, will soon be a thing of the past. Altman steps away from the podium, and Ellison (at 10:05) asks for permission to expand on this topic. Now he lets the cat out of the bag. Cancer, so says Ellison, will finally be licked by means of a vaccine. “This is one of the most exciting things we’re working on,” he says, with palpable enthusiasm in his voice. Here’s how it works: “Little fragments of cancer tumors float around in your blood. So you can do early cancer detection. If you can do it using AI, you can do early cancer detection with a blood test and using AI to look at the blood test. Once we gene sequence that cancer tumor, you can then vaccinate the person—design a vaccine for every individual person that vaccinates them against that cancer. That mRNA vaccine, you can make that robotically, again using AI, in about 48 hours.” Gosh, why didn’t I think of that? A personalized mRNA death jab, forsooth. And a nice little robot makes it for you within 48 hours. Hmm…I wonder who might be tasked with manufacturing that potion…Could the name of the company possibly start with the letter P? And naturally they’ll have immunity from liability, because, you know, vaccines. Add a few more AI data centers, and maybe soon we’ll have instant dispensing of these poison concoctions. It could be a booth at Walgreen’s, completely automated of course, where you get your blood test, walk around the store for a few minutes, get called back to the booth, and receive your diagnosis and the corresponding mRNA-based genetic manipulation drug. “Would you like a pill or a gummy?” Winning! Is there a limit to the bloodlust of these psychopathic, globalist, post-human control freaks? The scamdemic wasn’t enough, it seems, to satisfy their craving for power and chaos. Seeing these lunatics alongside Trump, I couldn’t help remembering the scenes with Fauci & Co. in that other brazen attack on our society. Oh Lord, not again! This madness must be stopped immediately. RFK Jr., you’re wanted on the white courtesy phone. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all the rage. Despite the widespread enthusiasm, I believe that it is part of our current overblown hi-tech hysteria, and in the end will prove to be counterproductive.
First, a clarification: I am not referring to the cutting-edge research aimed at mimicking and exceeding actual human intelligence, a venture which is a horror story unto itself. Rather, the subject of this post is the current manifestation of AI, along with expected near-future applications based on an expansion of the same processes. The AI that we are now experiencing is essentially a wider and deeper exploitation of data, which enables increased automation. There is no “intelligence” involved, only pushing the boundaries of existing computer technology. Considering our society’s fascination with digital technology, the situation could hardly be otherwise. Few people seem to care that the world around us is decaying by the minute; infrastructure is crumbling while new buildings and products are increasingly ugly and flimsy. But our screens are sharper than ever, and we have apps that enable us to graphically represent any fantasy. Oh, and the stock market is booming, thanks to this great whiz-bang tech stuff. So it’s all good. AI will accelerate the ongoing degeneration of intellect. Instead of an internet search that brings you to a well-composed essay, or even a mediocre article in Encyclopedia Britannica, you are fed a hodgepodge of data. By aggregating diverse sources into a virtual trash compactor, with no real intelligence to guide the process, the result is drastic reduction of quality, as well as disaggregation of mind. One could make the case that everything AI touches, turns to dreck. The term artificial intelligence doesn’t quite cover it; I would instead call this transformation natural stupidity. Most brain work can be automated, if quality is thrown out the window. If there is no need for refinement, subtlety, or beauty, what purpose does human intervention serve? A world in which AI has seeped into every nook and cranny will make Cuban communism look like a luxury brand. Here is a flow chart showing the march of progress: Highly intelligent people (fantastic goods and services, as late as 1965) >> Reasonably intelligent people (acceptable goods and services, 1970s and 80s) >> Mediocrities and midwits (mixed bag of quality, 1990-2010) >> Morons (you are here) >> AI If you want a brutal illustration, consider the medical industry. Even without AI, the “provider” stares into his computer screen, rarely interacting physically with the patient. Might as well go full AI and dispense with the intermediary, there’s not much difference at this point. In fact, automated medical treatment has already begun. When doctors are finally eliminated, the medical public relations machine will be bragging about the cost savings. A curious repercussion of AI is the anticipated use of electricity. How are the sagging U.S. and European power grids supposed to handle the load of these enormous data centers? This new energy hog will aggravate the effects of those other dubious exploits, Bitcoin mining and electric vehicles. All this while the grid is being degraded by the Climate-Industrial Complex. I have heard that the data centers require huge amounts of water to cool off the massive arrays of computers. And we haven’t even discussed the expected rise in unemployment, and the potential for reinforcement of new psy-ops by the Deep State. If you want a picture of the future, imagine being on the phone, trapped in an automated, never-ending customer service loop—forever. But don’t worry everyone, just go back to your phones, all is well. Disregard everything I said. Copy and paste the title of this post into your search engine, and AI will tell you what to think. |
Dystopian literatureWelcome to the blog! While you're here, check out the six dystopian novels by Gary Wolf. His latest is The Cubist Supremacy. 
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